Hey everyone. The reader emails are pouring in and SirPutts has been busy. Tonight he talks with a reader looking to reshaft a Callaway FT-3 driver.
I am a 65 y/o male who plays weekly. I currently own a Callaway FT-3 driver (HT neutral with a stock Aldila 55-A shaft). The shaft seems to be too flexible for my swing… (True Temper shaft lab puts me right between reg. and senior flex) All my drives seem to go left. Some of this might be due to my loss of flexibility after back surgery, however other clubs (drivers with reg flex) that I own don't do this.
I have read that if the shaft is too flexible, it will cause shots to go left. Is there someway to stiffen the shaft so that it plays more like an R flex? If not, what kind of a shaft swap do you suggest? I do have a Grafalloy Prolaunch Blue shaft 55-R that I can use. My main concern with that is that the high launch shaft combined with the HT head might be over kill and cause pop ups rather than just high launch drives. Any suggestions on this matter will be of great help.
You are correct that a more flexible shaft will generally cause the ball to go left or hook (for a right handed golfer). Obviously there could be other causes as you have pointed out but if none of your other clubs are doing this it could definitely be because of the shaft.
The FT-3 head could also be a factor depending if you have a draw bias head. The HT already sits a little bit closed so this could do it too.
Now unfortunately, the FT-3 driver is not easy to reshaft because of the design of the head. There might be a few clubmakers around who are able to work with these heads but I would definitely recommend sending it back to Callaway if you plan to get it reshafted. If you do that you are going to have to use one of their shafts, they won't use one that you already own.
If you do decide to send your driver back to Callaway to get reshafted, I think the Grafalloy ProLaunch is a really good option. It is designed to hit the ball high but it won't hit it nearly as high as the stock Aldila shaft that you already have in your driver. The lower torque in this shaft should also give you a tighter shot dispersion.