When did you know it was time to go to graphite iron shafts?

bigshank

Just wondering for you guys when you said when? I’ve been at steel regular flex for last 10 years or so. Got a screwed up back in my mid 50s but not bad enough to gamble on fusion surgery. I still work full time planning on retiring in 8 years. My late mother had callaway rogues in graphite regular flex shafts. Maybe nostalgia but feel alright to me. Easier on the spine for sure. My other usual gamers are original Pxg 0211s steel r flex. Which feel great half the time depending on the back. Want to know what made you switch and how you knew it was time. I feel Father Time caught me this year.

Bravopilot

bigshank When I joined Golfbuzz (59) and read about many reasons. Still not sure I have the right ones but with PapaD's helps I now have a few variants to try. Plan to try clubmaking this year since semi-retired and can ops check some more brands.

Taki27

bigshank I have probably used all graphite for over 15 years due to elbow pain. I’m 53 now. Play a lot of ice hockey and take a lot of slap shots. I don’t play much golf but I try to get out to the range which is just a mat on cement. No more elbow pain since graphite. First went with various weight SK Fibers and switched to Xcaliber Pros (like the Steelfibers)

rynobucket

I switched over to graphite about 5 years ago after I could no longer play 2 days in a row without my elbow becoming really irritated and requiring at least week of not playing to recover. Switching to graphite has resolved the issue.

colej

rynobucket

@DC300

Same thing for me. I couldn’t take the pain of the tendonitis anymore.

Prosoft inserts didn’t help, softer grips didn’t help, the band that goes on your arm didn’t help.

DC300

I switched when the tennis elbow forced me to. I tried a couple rounds w steel this year and started hurting again, so it’s a permanent change here.

johnnydoom

My fingers were hurting for a couple of days after every round of golf. Sometimes my wrists and elbows would protest too, but it was primarily my fingers. Bought a set of used graphite irons on the forum to try out and it seemed to ease up on the joints. Whether real or placebo I cannot say, but I'm a believer.

Sneakylong

Been playing graphite since I got back into golf 24 years ago at age 45. Never looked back.

braveheart

Switched over a few years ago due to hand/finger pain. Steelfiber i95 with midsize grips and have had no issues.

CallMeAl

Switched for good after shoulder surgery. But they also help with my Carpel Tunnel.

I went with Recoils (which I still favor) but also like the Tensei Silver.

DonM

What I remember was that I tended to swing too hard with steel. So I switched for performance reasons. In recent attempts with steel, there has been elbow pain. So no more steel for me.

sdandrea1

Pain management made me switch as opposed to distance loss, speed. I started playing 3 to 4 days a week in retirement and steel just plain HURT. (Shoulder replacement surgery, carpal tunnel surgery, too).

fatshot

My wife switched first, mainly b/c I got her a really good deal on a set which was an upgrade from what she had. All of a sudden she began noticing that her hands and wrists didn't hurt after golf anymore. That made me realize that there was something in it for me too. We were both in our 50's at the time.....

sdandrea1

Bravopilot Plan to try clubmaking this year since semi-retired

We're a few months away from me shippimg you all my spare club making gear. Get the workbench ready!

Sparky

I switched some 10 years ago, pounding on range mats gave me the elbow aches. Going graphite made that go away.

Last year I picked up some Wilson irons with DG105 shafts with the VSS vibration resistors. I regripped them, and added ProSoft inserts to double up on the VSS. Seems to have worked, 10 months playing those and no elbow aches.

bigshank

Ok seems like most of you guys had different reasoning for switching. I regripped the rogues with graphites and put them in the bag. I’ll get my first round with them on Wednesday. For me the seemingly more frequent back tightness has caused me to make a swing change to help play at all. It’s summer so I definitely don’t want any time off the game which would probably be smart. I’m not going the smart route lol. A compromise of easy swing and graphite shafts is what I’m doing.

scotts33

I still haven't at 75 for the most part. I re-lead taped the Honma XP-1 irons 5-11 to get the heft match up to MoI 2700 kg-cm ^ 2 thru the set that made a huge difference and made all of the irons dead solid center impact. I use one other set that is graphite 65g and they are also MoI heft matched and yields decant performance very forgoing FC-One Plus. Shaft weight with heft match is the killer for graphite for many. Majority don't realize it as they have never played MoI heft matched clubs.

The rest of my irons are all steel shafted. I have very light grip pressure a swinger not a hitter and don't have arthritis or other health issues probably because partially the way I play.

backinit

I haven't switched to regular steel yet, still using Ping CFS and Nippon 1050 GH in stiff. I am thinking about buying a set of DG lites in regular which I might install inserts in. No serious aches or pains at 60, but the shit could hit the fan anytime. If I did go to graphite I would look for something heavy and not too tip soft.

braveheart

backinit
Steelfiber i95 or 110 might be ones to try.

DC300

backinit performance wise, you won’t see a difference if you get what fits you. Your joints will thank you though. I played 5 or 6 rounds with my usual irons, graphite shafted, early this year, no issues. 18 holes and a range range session with a set of iron shafts and my elbow hurts again.. not horrible, but enough to let you know you screwed up.

Tcafla

When my elbow started SCREAMING at me …

mulegolf

I've broken both elbows, one of them twice, and I developed arthritis in both. Along with the arthritis came tendonitis
when I played golf. About 25-30 years ago I was reading that graphite shafts could possibly help me avoid all or most
of the tendonitis pain. As I was in the custom club business then I decided to get a set of graphite shafts, change out
my irons to graphite and give them a try. The graphite shafts really helped me. I rarely had any tendonitis after that
and when I built my next set of clubs I did so with much better graphite shafts as I had just used inexpensive graphite
shafts for the experiment. I've used graphite shafts almost exclusively since then. It did try light weight steel in a set of
clubs that I got a deal on after I retired but soon was feeling hints of tendonitis again. I was lucky that Diamond Tour Golf
had the shafts available that would have come with my new irons if I'd ordered graphite. I quickly ordered those shafts
and had them installed by the next weeks league match. I don't think I'll ever try steel again.

rynobucket

braveheart
I ended up going with SteelFibers since they were as close performance-wise to steel I could find without the elbow pain. Pre-pandemic I was able to get a set of Mizunos with SteelFibers off Global Golf for a song, swapped shafts between my gamers and Mizunos, then resold the steel shafted Mizunos to ProClubs for more than I had paid for them. Worked out great.