THE GRAPHITE SHAFT STORY
Introduction
Until Frank Thomas conducted the research in 1967 golf equipment inventors spent little time researching and identify controllable features of the golf shaft. This fact seems somewhat strange when you consider the fact the player’s energy is transmitted through the golf shaft to the club head. If the player searched for equipment to control the golf ball flight, to hit the ball further, and to strike the golf ball more consistently on the sweet spot why did the golf manufacturers not consider the golf shaft as a key element? One would expect the manufacturers in the 1930’s would have focused on the golf shaft when the transition from hickory to steel occurred in the early 1930’s. Instead, the manufacturers focused their attention on creating a golf ball that would travel further. The golf ball patterns changed from bramble to meshed to dimples. Ball makers altered the size and weight to gain the additional yardage. The R&A and the USGA considered specific numbers to help control the distance a ball could travel. Clubmakers introduced grooves and slots to the clubfaces to control the flight. Concave wedges and giant niblicks appeared for golfers to manipulate their balls easier from the sand.
Early golf shafts
Around 1820 clubmakers introduced hickory for making golf shafts. This wood proved to be more durable than the ash, apple, and beech wood that were being used. The process to make a golf shaft began by fastening a one inch square piece of hickory about four feet long in a lathe. Soon the spinning rectangular piece became a round spindle about ¾ inch in diameter. Finally, the clubmaker tapered one end to fit into the clubhead hosel.
Square hickory shafts & round finished shafts.
Next the clubmaker or club professional shaped the shaft to meet the requirements of a particular player. Using a spoke shave, rasp, plane, and file the clubmaker trimmed the shaft into a particular weight and flex for the customer. In fact one could say these early clubmakers/professionals were the original club fitters.
Butchart Bamboo golf shaft
In the late 1920’s Spalding introduced the Alan Lard version of a steel shaft to replace the hickory. Known also as “The Whistler”, the Lard golf club hardly resembled any comparison to the standard wooden round golf shaft. Also in the mid twenties Cuthbert Butchart developed a bamboo shaft for golf clubs. He fastened six pieces of bamboo and greenheart over a hickory core. In the early 1920’s dwindling stocks of good hickory forced the early club manufacturers to seek alternatives. The USGA allowed steel shafted golf clubs to be used in 1924. The R&A followed in 1930. Companies like Heddon, Apollo, Britstol, and True Temper began producing steel shafts to satisfy the golf club manufacturers dilemma.
Campbell steel iron , Real Hickory Shaft, Spalding steel iron
Golfers did not immediately adopt the new steel shafts. Most players discovered the ball travelled further with the steel shafted woodenheaded clubs. But the players declined to switch their irons from the old hickory to the new steel believing the old hickory shafted irons provided greater feel and accuracy. To camouflage the steel shafts manufacturers coated the steel shafts with a pyratone substance. Spalding actually grained the pyratone surface to appear hickory like. (Note: Today people often believe they own a matched set of hickory golf clubs when in fact their clubs are really steel shafted clubs coated with the ceramic grain surface.
During the 1940’s companies like Wilson experimented with irregular steel golf shafts. The SPIRAL shaft and the HEX shaft soon appeared.
Fibreglass golf shafts from Golfcraft
In 1954 Golfcraft announced a break through in the development of the golf shaft. “A milestone in sports equipment history has been marked in the new and modern plant of Golfcraft in Escondido. After eight years of research the club manufacturing concern has come up with a fibreglass shaft that may ‘date’ steel shafts like steel shafts dated wood shafts. The innovation probably will boom the Golfcraft factory already a thriving concern and the hackers and the pros alike will be the beneficiaries.”
The fibreglass principle first invaded the sports field in pole-vaulting poles – used by San Diego’s vaulter Bobby Smith – and then fishing gear. Pro Lloyd Mangrum and others have tried and approved these new shafts.” After joining the Golfcraft team in June 1954 Lloyd Mangrum became the face of the new product with the glass shafts. Advertisements featured Mangrum golf clubs available only in Pro Shops. After 1965 Golfcraft provided the glass shafts to other featured models of clubs particularly for the hardware/sporting goods outlets.
Golfcraft claimed the new shafts prevented the problem of excessive vibration and distortion found in steel shafted clubs. “Researchers have known for years that steel shafts ‘shiver’ and ‘flutter’ at impact – that shaft distortion and resulting club head wobble reduce both distance and accuracy.” In addition the company proclaimed, “The glasshaft is shock proof, rust proof, shatterproof, fire proof, resists acids and salt air, and is unconditionally guaranteed.”
Wondershafts
In the1962 Shakespeare Golf Company introduced their version of the fibreglass shafts. One problem soon arose with the cream coloured fibreglass “Wonder shafts”. The hosel connecting the wooden head to the shaft cracked. The irons with wonder shafts also cracked exposing the interior steel shaft. The second generation of black wonder shafts for irons and woods called the Black Knight” model after the famous PGA star Gary Player appeared to have no manufacturing problems. The average golfer soon rejected the new Shakespeare shafts because the clubs appeared heavier than normal to the average public golf course player.
Aluminum golf shafts by two companies “Steps or No steps”
True Temper stepped aluminum for Campbell of Canada
To make the golf shaft lighter two manufacturers (True Temper and LeFell Sport Product) introduced the aluminium golf shaft in 1965. The True Temper and the LeFiell shafts differed in the fact the True tempered had steps and the competitor did not. Arnold Palmer’s success at the 1967 Los Angeles Open created a positive stir in the market place. The Arnold Palmer Company began manufacturing clubs with LeFiel shafts. Club professionals immediately determined a problem existed when trying to match the lighter weight golf club to the swing weight of the average player. By experimenting with lead tape on the sole of the woods and on the back of the irons the golf professional attempted to make the clubs playable for the average golfer. This procedure was only moderately successful.
Frank Thomas revolutionizes golf shaft technology:
In 1964 a young, adventuresome South African fellow Frank Thomas arrived in America on his sailboat. After studying at Kalamazoo College where he earned a BSC. In 1967 Frank joined Shakespeare “the manufacturer of the Wonder shaft”. The company gave Thomas the challenge: “Using the latest space age materials find a material that will produce the best golf shaft.” The young engineer immediately discovered little scientific data existed for golf shafts. He and his team immediately began investigating what properties of a golf shaft determine the success of a golfer.
The Results.
By combining graphite and epoxy into a compound, Thomas invented the first graphite shaft. At the January 1970 PGA Merchandise Show in Florida Frank introduced his new graphite shaft that would eventually revolutionize golf clubs. For some reason Shakespeare never received a patent for their new invention. Within four year a dozen companies supplied graphite golf shafts to the expanding golf market. (Companies manufacturing graphite shafts include: Alida, Babcock & Wilcox, Carbonite, Dura-Fiber, Exxon, Fansteel, Mageo, Sky-Line, US Fibrewood.) Shakespeare installed their first Alpha graphite shafts into the Sigma woods and irons.
Immediately two problems arose with regard to graphite-shafted clubs. Like the aluminium shafts the great reduction in the weight of the shaft from the regular steel shaft upset the swing weight measurements for the average golfer. If a golfer used a D2 swing weight Driver it was difficult to determine what swing weight he should use with a graphite shaft. Second the high cost of graphite increased the cost for a set of golf clubs to the $1000 – $1200 price range. Golfers opted to purchase only Drivers hoping the new graphite would increase their driving distance by 20 – 30 yards.
In 1974 Wilson Golf Company became the first well-known company to introduce graphite-shafted clubs into their product line. Various playing professionals began to experiment with the new graphite drivers. Guy Brewer became the highest profile player to adopt the new shafts.
During the early 1970’s the practice driving range business began expanding probably due to the greater television exposure. New players began their careers at the local driving facility. Until this time driving ranges supplied the new comers woods with persimmon headed drivers. The operators immediately discovered these persimmon woods could not withstand the wear and tear of being hit constantly by beginners.
In Canada Campbell of Canada, Canada’s largest golf club manufacturer in the 1970’s began producing clubs specifically for the driving range market. Because of Campbell’s relationship with Shakespeare in 1962 – 1964 with the Gary Player Black Knight golf clubs Campbell purchased the graphite shafts from Shakespeare. Further research is required to determine what company supplied the metal and graphite heads for the driving range clubs.
Mainly due to high cost of the graphite the early graphite shafted golf clubs ceased around 1978. Manufacturers transferred their operations to the production of tennis, badminton, and squash rackets utilizing the graphite technology.