Japanese Golf Clubs @ Inpakuto.com - All about Golf, JPOP and Japan

There are a plethora of high end golf shafts to choose from in Japan as the top shaft makers here are always introducing new models and OEM's don't hesitate to offer them as upgrades from the factory. Japanese performance shafts are NOT cheap, but the fact is there is demand and a market for them as the Japanese love to tinker and toy with their clubs and the market here really is blown out of whack sometimes when it comes to the cost and amount of money players are willing to spend. Golf Digest Japan recently took a sampling of golfers and asked them why they decided to reshaft their drivers and the results are in the chart below:

So not surprisingly, 65% of those surveyed said they reshafted their driver because they wanted more distance.  15% wanted more control and 10% wanted to change their trajecory. These are all good reasons to reshaft (unlike reshafting just because your favorite pro uses that shaft), but as I always say finding the right shaft that will give you the results you want is not an easy task. It can turn out to be an expensive experiment. Knowing your swing and getting fit is essential in finding the right shaft as the wrong shaft can worsen the performance of your clubs.  There are just so many things to look at with all the different types of shafts out there today. It's no longer just about a shaft that increases ball speeds, but how will that shaft affect overall trajectory, spin, feel and direction (control is always referred to as direction in Japan).

Which brands and shafts are doing the job for golfers today?　A good way of measuring is to look at the trends of shaft sales in Japan. If a shaft is selling well especially at both big chain stores and small independent stores, it is usally a good sign of a performing shaft. I say this because, the Japanese are picky golfers, they spend big bucks on gear and it had better perform for them.  Gakken's Par Golf did a survey including two of the big golf chains in Japan, Golf5 and Niki Golf as well as several other top independent shops, many with 20+ years of club building experience, on what their top selling shafts were for 2008. While this doesn't say what the best shaft is for a certain player, it does give a rough idea of what may work considering that 65% of players want distance and these are the best selling shafts that many of those 65% most likely bought.

What do we have in store for 2009? New models have already been released by the big names including Graphite Design's Tour AD EV Series, Fujikura's Rombax F Series, and Diamana's new Kai'li Series. All three shafts have received great reviews and are the shafts to look for in 2009 where the trend has gone from high launch more torque and feel to these three shafts which pretty much are classified as control performance shafts with lower torque and a focus on minimal twisting and maximum stability. The reason for this is hitting the fairway at a high percentage is equivalent to getting the best distance. Right? Distance means nothing if you are not accurate.