CARLSBAD, Calif. – I asked what I thought was the obvious question: Will Phil Mickelson use one of these drivers with interchangeable heads and shafts?
Jeff Colton, a rising star at Callaway Golf, didn’t blink an eye. “Phil is a strong candidate for this,” he said. “He plays around with different head configurations all the time. The biggest reaction, though, came from Mr. (Arnold) Palmer. He loved it. He’s a club hound, so that didn’t surprise me.”
Colton is senior vice president of research and development, but he might as well be the Pied Piper when it comes to Callaway’s exploration into interchangeable driver heads and shafts.
“We all know the guy (amateur) who will be interested in this,” Colton said. “He’s the cool hunter, always looking for what’s cool, always searching for that magic bullet. In this case, he can change shafts depending on the weather or the course conditions. Or he can change depending on how he feels. No one’s swing is the same every day.”
I admire what Callaway is doing – aggressively introducing two driver models and dozens of interchangeable shafts to go with them.
This should be fun. The driver is everybody’s ultimate love-hate club. We love it, we hate it. We love it, we abandon it. We love it, we reinstate it.
If change is good for the golfer’s soul, we can switch the driver shaft when it behaves like a bad boy and recall it after it repents. Or something like that.
Still, red flags are waving all over the place.
• Will amateur golfers understand the properties and tendencies of the different shafts that are available?
• Will anybody spend $748 for one driver head and one shaft (Callaway’s maximum street price, figuring the most expensive shaft available) or $999 for one driver head and three shafts (TaylorMade CGB Max Limited)?
• Will the clubs be durable enough for everyday use, considering the shafts and heads are linked with a mechanical joint and no epoxy?
• Will the public buy interchangeable clubheads and shafts if most players on the PGA Tour decline to use them?
TaylorMade executive vice president Sean Toulon was overflowing with optimism: “We definitely will have Tour players using this club (CGB Max Limited), and it will be sooner rather than later.”
The real beauty of the interchangeable concept, however, is for amateur golfers. Now they can buy the precise combination of head and shaft that they test – the exact same club. Throughout the era of graphite shafts, duplicating test clubs has been particularly difficult. In this case, the test club is the purchase club. (Unless the retailer has no more matching components in stock.)
Interchangeable heads and shafts are part of the arena of adjustability. Lead tape and other adjustable weight have been allowed for decades. Besides weight, however, other adjustability was allowed only in putters prior to 2008. Starting this year, the U.S. Golf Association and R&A expanded the concept of adjustability.
Because there may be more questions than answers, several manufacturers are sitting on the sidelines for this one. They will be watching closely what happens with Callaway’s venture, or adventure, as the case may be.
Callaway’s adjustability lineup includes two driver heads, the FT-i and FT-5, and more than six dozen shafts from manufacturers Aldila, Fujikura, Graffaloy, Graphite Design, Mitsubishi Rayon and UST.
Heads and shafts will be sold as components. Driver heads will sell for $349 to $399, shafts from $149 to $349.
Choices must be made. Consumers must pick a loft, face angle and shaft flex for their drivers.
Callaway is not alone in the adjustability marketplace. Nickent will unveil the 4DX Evolver interchangeable driver. Initially, the company will offer two UST shafts – the V2 and V2 High Launch. The retail cost will be about $399 for the head and one shaft or $479 for the head and two shafts.
Later in the year Nickent will launch fairway woods and hybrids with interchangeable shafts. The only other company to announce adjustable fairways and hybrids for 2008 is Nakashima Golf.
Nakashima was a pioneer in adjustable drivers. The Stockton, Calif., company introduced its Htec driver with interchangeable shafts in 2007 – before the new USGA ruling went into effect.
“This driver is sweet,” said Patrick Francisco, owner of Precise Golf Club Repair and Fitting in Melbourne, Fla. “It’s a real quality piece of craftsmanship. Depending on the shaft, most of the ones I sell are in the $350 to $650 range.”
For the new year, Nakashima will introduce the Htec 460 driver, which is 20cc larger than the original Htec.
TaylorMade is limiting its interchangeable selection to the $999 CGB Max Limited driver, available only in a package that includes three interchangeable shafts. The three shafts are a 55-gram Matrix, 65-gram Mitsubishi Rayon and 75-gram Fujikura.
Pete Sanchez, Fujikura president and COO, confirmed his company will embark on a comprehensive education campaign for consumers. “We want them to know the differences in all our shafts,” Sanchez said.
Swingweight, which will increase with heavier shafts, remains something of a question mark for adjustable drivers.
There is some control over it. In Nakashima’s Htec 460, both a connecting screw and a weight screw are available in different gram weights.
Meanwhile, TaylorMade says the swingweight in its CGB Max Limited driver will vary no more than two points when switching from a 55-gram shaft to a 75-gram shaft.
Sometimes I wonder if shaft interchangeability will give golfers one more thing to worry about and one more excuse for not playing well. (“I picked the wrong shaft today.”)
At such moments, I am drawn to a simpler brand of golf. So pardon me while I find a time machine and travel back to 1953. There’s a guy named Hogan I need to see.
He’ll be using the same old Dynamic steel shaft.
Posted: 1/16/2008
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