What is shaft tipping?
Changes in the Modern Game
Shaft tipping is the process of cutting length off of the raw golf shaft from the tip section, rather than the handle section. This not only shortens the overall length of the raw shaft, which needs to be taken into consideration when building, but will traditionally make the tip and overall profile of the shaft play stiffer. However, there are two different sides to shaft tipping. One that’s suggested by manufacturers to get the shafts to play properly in a stock fashion, and another that is done for performance purposes. Let’s dive into each with some help from our sponsor Mitsubishi Golf.
Performance Based Shaft Tipping
Performance based shaft tipping is probably what most golfers think of when they are talking about shaft tipping. This is taking a shaft that does not have a suggested amount of tipping required, and tipping it to the liking of an individual player. Let’s use the new Tensei 1k Pro Blue to help demonstrate.
As we learned in our shaft flex breakdown, there is no industry standard for flex, meaning that one stiff flex shaft may be stiffer or softer than another stiff flex shaft. That variance sometimes leads to golfers falling in-between flexes for certain products. Maybe a golfer is testing the Tensei 1k Pro Blue in their new driver and loves the feeling of the Regular Flex part but is launching that product ever so slightly too high. However, moving up to the 6.0 Stiff Flex part doesn’t allow them to fully load the shaft resulting in a loss of center-face-contact. What that player could do, with a professional fitter and builder, would be to tip a stiff flex shaft. This tipping would effectively tighten up the tip of the shaft slightly helping to bring down launch.
The Effect to the Handle
Something that is often left out of the conversation of shaft tipping is what effect that has on the handle of the golf shaft as well. Because you are cutting material off of the tip of the shaft, you’re leaving more material on the handle section than you would of had you not tipped it. This causes the handle section to get slightly softer, in a similar fashion to the tip getting slightly stiffer. Depending on the profile of the shaft that you are working on, these differences can be bigger. You’ll notice more of a change in the handle for something like the Tensei 1K Pro Blue than you will with something like the 6th Gen Diamana WB. We’re never going to tell you not to tinker with your equipment, but, we should say that it’s best to make sure that you are supervised by your custom builder or your club fitter when making any of these changes since there is no “un-tipping” a golf shaft once you have tipped it.
It’s important to note here that today’s shaft market is wildly changed compared to even 6-7 years ago. There’s so much research and engineering that goes into a new shaft product, and usually those engineers are smart enough when to change the flex designation on a certain product, and if you are feeling like you need to tip your shaft, the truth is you should probably just go up to the next flex to get the complete benefits of the profile without any modification. The amount of data available to today’s engineers has surpassed even the wildest dreams of many manufacturers, which only makes the product better and simplified to purchase.
Suggested or Club-Based Tipping
Suggested or club-based shaft tipping is something that is recommended by the shaft manufacturers and is already done by the time you purchase a club in a retail setting. Most woods shafts are built for drivers and fairway woods, not as separate parts, so to compensate for the shorter, usually heavier heads of fairway woods the manufacturers will suggest varying levels of tipping to keep the balance or kick-point of the shaft consistent. Keeping this consistent means that the shaft will play how it's intended to play, resulting in better performance for the golfer. Typically this tipping is in increases of .5” starting from the driver to the 3 wood. From there you’ll increase the tipping amount another .5” to the 5 wood, which would be an inch tipped from standard, and so forth. This is something you should allow a professional club builder to assist with and always refer to the manufacturer’s suggested tipping if available.
Thanks to our sponsor Mitsubishi Golf for supplying us with the product used to demonstrate our new Wood Shafts category. For more information on all Mitsubishi products and to find the right one for your game make sure to check out their website at mitsubishigolf.com