There was a time in the golf industry when most driver shafts were made of steel. After all, steel is very strong and very stable, consistent, tough, and cost-effective.
Even so, you probably don’t need us to tell you that steel driver shafts are an exceeding rarity in the modern sport. This begs the question of what happened to them?
Well, the short answer is carbon fiber came along and outdid the performance of steel in many ways. Here’s what you should know about the rise and fall of steel.
Why Steel Driver Shafts Are a Rarity Nowadays
To understand what happened to steel driver shafts, we actually have to rewind a little bit further back to find out why and when steel became the primary driver shaft material in the first place.
It didn’t start with steel. Back in the day, most golf driver shafts were actually made of hickory. Hickory is a strong and dense, yet flexible wood from which old golf shafts used to be made, and the craftsmanship of which was tied to traditional methods.
Hickory golf shafts were handmade, which produced and upheld a high level of quality. They were also relatively flexible compared to the steel that ultimately replaced them, which gave skilled golfers a lot of control over shot shape.
However, despite the considerable relative advantages of hickory driver shafts, they were not without their limitations. Since hickory is a natural material, it’s impossible to create a manufactured standard for quality. Variations in wood stock meant that craftsmen weren’t always working with the best available materials.
Also, being wood, hickory driver shafts were also prone to warping under adverse conditions, especially bad, wet weather. On top of that, even though hickory is strong, hickory shafts could still crack or break when mishandled.
That’s where steel came into the picture. It has a lot of advantages over hickory wood shafts. For one, since steel is a manufactured material, it could be made much more consistent than hickory, according to the grade and alloy used. Natural variation between pieces of hickory was one of the major problems steel solved.
Also, steel is denser and stronger than hickory. It is also considerably stiffer, which, to some golfers, only offered another relative advantage.
The greater consistency of steel also resulted in a more predictable flex, which gave skilled golfers improved repeatability and predictability from shaft to shaft. And, on top of that, steel was more economical to manufacture; steel shafts were and remain incredibly cost-effective compared to other materials (including modern composite shafts).
It wasn’t long before steel was officially adopted; by 1924, the USGA legalized the use of steel shafts and it wasn’t long before the market for steel driver shafts exploded. By the 1930s, steel driver shafts were the standard.
For decades steel dominated the market for golf shafts, and while there are still many putter shafts and iron shafts that are made from steel (True Temper steel shafts come to mind) the market for driver shafts has shifted.
Steel is a rarity, and the majority of driver shafts today are made from composite materials such as graphite. But if steel offered so many advantages over its predecessor, what is it about composites that have made them eclipse steel? Let’s take a closer look.
The Advantages of Composite Driver Shafts
The first graphite golf shaft was actually invented in 1968 by a man named Frank Thomas, the Chief Design Engineer for a company called Shakespeare Sporting Goods Company; that’s the same one that makes fishing rods, which are also made primarily from composite materials (and which, interestingly, were previously made from flexible woods like bamboo, as well as from fiberglass).
By the 1970s, composite shafts were introduced more widely to the market and it wasn’t long before their wide range of virtues started to eclipse steel golf shafts.
Like steel, composite materials like graphite are manufactured goods, which means they can be subjected to procedural controls that result in a very precise, consistent finished good. In other words, composite shafts, like steel, are very, very consistent.
But where the difference comes in is in how versatile graphite shafts can be. While steel is universally very stiff, composite shafts can be manufactured to deliver a much wider range of flex profiles, along with other attributes.
There are composite driver shafts that are very stiff, even rivaling steel, which produce low launch and low spin profiles, with minimal torque, but there are also very flexible composite shafts that produce higher launch angles, more spin, and greater sensitivity and feedback. This range gives composite shafts a better ability to meet the needs of a larger cohort of golfers than steel ever could.
On top of that, composite shafts can be made very light, which can benefit golfers who have slower swing speeds, or who otherwise prefer a low swing weight. At the same time, mass can be added to composite shafts to make them heavier, more stable, and more consistent, just like steel.
Graphite shafts can also be made to provide vibration dampening, to minimize the discomfort that comes from fat shots and other errors.
All in all, graphite driver shafts can deliver pretty much everything steel can and more. The two drawbacks are that they are more expensive and more fragile. Steel is tougher no matter how you look at it.
But that is a small price to pay for the considerable advances composite shafts offer in terms of their range. Regardless of your skillset as a golfer, there are composite shafts out there that will compliment your abilities. You just need to find them.
Contact Us to Learn More
While there are still some associations that play with hickory-shafted golf clubs, and some players who still prefer steel driver shafts, far and away, composites have taken over the market for the reasons covered in this post.
Explore our collections of advanced composite driver shafts and if you have any questions about club pairings or shaft fitting, get in touch with us and we will be more than happy to help.
