Last month, Dustin Johnson joined the board of directors of LA Golf, makers of high-tech, customized, golf shafts. DJ also put one of the firm’s shafts in his driver. Can the new weapon translate into a victory in the British Open? We are about to see.
Johnson’s new driver shaft is similar to the one used by Bryson DeChambeau, who is also on the board of LA Golf. However, LA Golf is all about custom tailoring and so DJ’s is made for his specific launch and spin conditions, which are lower launch and lower spin.
“I have been really impressed with how much more consistent my ball striking has been and really like the ball flight I’m seeing,” Johnson said in a statement provided by the company. “I don’t swing hard often, but with the LA Golf shaft, I can really go after it and know I am going to hit the ball more consistently in the middle of the club face.”
Several years ago, at the WGC Cadillac, Johnson explained that he works on hitting his drives straighter rather than longer. However, for him, hitting the ball solidly is the key to more distance and accuracy.
If the new AXS Blue shaft helps him be more accurate off the tee, he could be more dangerous than he has been to date. His stats for hitting fairways off the tee have floated between 55 and 60 percent for the last average for the last 10 seasons.
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At the outset, Johnson has been using just the driver shaft and the putter shaft. However, they are working to create the right feel for his other clubs. Those other shafts may have slightly different characteristics.
The ability to customize to such a degree is possible because of the way graphite composite shafts are made. If you think of shaft material being like a giant, thin, cookie dough, the base material is spread out and different kinds of carbon and other fibers are added to it along the length of the shaft to give it certain performance properties. It would be like you adding a sprinkle of chocolate chips at one end of the cookie dough and a sprinkle of butterscotch farther up and then maybe a sprinkle of nuts after that. The different characteristics of the fibers that are added make the shaft stiffer or more flexible in places, per your recipe, just like your cookie would have different flavor characteristics in different parts of the dough. The difference, though, is that cookies are baked flat. Shafts are rolled.
In addition to the improvement in ball flight with the driver shaft, Johnson also said his misses are less exaggerated. As golfers know, the ability to remove the big miss from a golf game is key to making lower scores.
“We work directly with our player partners to create custom design structures that achieve the performance and feel they are looking for,” CEO and founder Reed Dickens said about working with Johnson and DeChambeau.
According to Reed, Johnson said he would only use the LA Golf shafts if they performed better than the ones he had been using previously.
What Johnson used in his driver before making the switch to LA Golf was the Fujikura Speeder 661 X prototype.
Johnson is also using an LA Golf shaft in his putter. According to the company, the putter shaft is very stiff, made to eliminate any change or wiggle in angle of the clubface at impact.
LA Golf shafts can be purchased at many clubs, golf stores and at club-fitting businesses.
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