golfrewind.com

I'm still contemplating golf shafts for my X460 and while doing research I realized that since the clubhead is bore-thru, it would have an effect on the shaft playability. I know, both from posts here and from personal experience, that shafts in bore-thru clubs play a lot stiffer (up to a flex as reported), but was wondering if it had any other affects.

I read part of Dynacrafts "Modern Guide to Club Fitting" and it stated that shafts with lower torque would play (feel) stiffer than those with higher torque at the same frequency (go ahead and correct me here if I'm misunderstanding things so far). So I go looking at shafts and trying to determine which I should get based upon RSSR's and torque.

When talking about this with a friend, the question of if the shaft's torque is affected by the bore-thru construction or if it's the same no matter which type of clubhead it's installed. Also, how this would affect my choice in shafts (flex, flexpoint, and torque).

What do the experts (and anyone else for that matter) here think?

Thanks.

PS... I know the best way is to install the shaft and find out, but really... who has the scratch to do that over and over?

the thru bores do play slightly stiffer flex wise, but not really that much, on the shaft trimming charts, there is no tip trimming for thru bores but usually a minimum of one inch trimming for a standard bore which stiffens the shaft, i do believe that the thru bores, as you said and read, reduce torque somewhat and will make the shaft feel stiffer.
here is a link to a shaft trimming chart from Golfworks to look over. http://www.golfworks.com/article.asp_Q_ai_E_139

It's not going to affect the torque very much. You have to remember that the shaft is 42-43 inches long, and the whole shaft is subject to twisting, not just the tip. I doubt you could measure the difference if you clamped the shaft an inch high up on the tip and measured the torque. I doubt a shaft rated at 3.0 would measure much lower than 2.95, maybe not even that much.

It really depends on the design of the golf shaft. The closer the tip of the shaft is installed to the ground (BBGM - Bottom Bore to Ground Measurement) the stiffer it will play. Obviously, on bore-thrus, this measurement is zero. This is the general rule of thumb as far as its effect on relative stiffness. As the previous poster suggested several, but not all, shafts are designed to be installed in bore-thru heads. Consequently, they suggest tip trimming the shaft when installed in std. or blind bore heads. The amount of tip trimming equals the length of the BBGM. Typically these shafts have parallel tip sections of 4" or more. Other shafts have only 2" of parallel section and are not designed to be tipped at all. This is where you need to be concerned about bore-thru heads. If a shaft of this type is fully inserted in a bore-thru, the shaft will cease to perform as designed and typically will feel like a piece of rebar. It is still possible to install shafts of this type into bore-thrus, but they are not to be fully inserted.

Because of the design of the golf shaft, they will not all respond the same way to tip trimming as well. It follows, then, that not all shafts will increase in stiffness at the same rate when installed at a lower BBGM. Butt stiff shafts vs. Butt soft shafts are a good example of this.