Why Is “Frequency Matching” Of Golf Clubs So Important?

“Frequency matching” is a scientific method of providing the correct flex for each club in a golfer’s bag.  Major brand manufacturers rely on “flex” which is usually marked as S, R, L (stiff, regular, lady] on the shaft … which unfortunately has absolutely no meaning whatsoever as there is no consistency in the markings.  For example, some manufacturers put “S” on a shaft just to appease egos, when in reality it should be marked “L”.

True professional clubfitters and master club builders understand the importance of “frequency matching”. To find any shaft’s true frequency, the shaft is placed in a clamp with the clubhead dry fit on the end of the shaft. Then the club maker pulls the shaft to make it oscillate. This oscillation is measured in cycles per minute (cpm’s). The faster the shaft oscillates the stiffer the shaft is said to be.

Generally, a matched set of irons will have a difference of 4 cpm’s for every half inch difference in the length of the shaft. For example, if a 6 iron is at 300 cpm’s the 7 iron should be at 304 cpm’s. Also it should be noted that there are 12 cpm’s between flexes, meaning that a shaft measuring 300 cpm’s is one full flex softer than a shaft measuring 312 cpm’s.

bradblog This, however, does not mean that two different types of shafts which measure at the same frequency will play the same. Shafts have different bend profiles – which means they are stiffer or softer in different areas of the shaft. For example, an Aerotech Steelfiber i110 at 300 cpm’s will play a lot stiffer than a Matrix Deus at 300 cpm’s. Frequency matching shafts only measures the butt flex of the shaft and allows the club maker to perfectly match a set of golf clubs. It is up to the club fitter to match a shaft to the golfers swing needs.

Golf shaft manufacturing processes, while having improved by leaps and bounds, are still imperfect. This means that if you go to the local golf retail store and buy a set of “off the rack” clubs and later get the shafts measured for frequency, you will find that the vast majority of those sets will not match. It is not uncommon to see three different flexes in a, supposedly, matched set of golf clubs, regardless of whether they have been fit to the golfer or not. This creates more inconsistency in a golfer’s game and they usually find that they have golf clubs in their bag that they have trouble hitting.

The build of your set of clubs is just as important as the fit. Just ask any Tour player. At KZG we only use parallel tipped shafts which are designed so that a club builder can perfectly match your set of golf clubs to a tolerance of +/-1cpm. By trimming a little more or less off the tip end of the shaft they can achieve the perfect flex on each golf club. Taper tipped shafts, which are used by all of the big manufacturers, are designed to be mass produced and dropped into a particular club’s head and the cut to length i.e. a 9 iron shaft for a 9 iron head. These are difficult if not impossible to match perfectly.

When you buy a set of golf clubs from any KZG dealer, anywhere in the world, you can rest assured that not only have you been fit correctly but your golf clubs have also been built to the very tightest tolerances in the industry.  Each club in your bag will then “feel” and perform the same … no need to contort your swing to suit your clubs!

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