Interchangeable Shaft Drivers
In Feb 2007, the USGA formally proposed allowing more club adjustability. Specifically, this nearly guaranteed that drivers with interchangeable shafts would soon be ruled conforming.
“PGA Tour players have long had the opportunity to have their clubs adjusted or modified quickly and often. This has allowed them to fit their clubs to their swings as they feel the need to do so. By relaxing the rules to permit club adjustability, average golfers can enjoy similar fitting benefits.”
Alpha Golf was in close contact with the USGA throughout 2007 for the interchangeable driver that we filed a patent for. When Dr. Yeh heard the news that our design was approved in Aug 2007, we immediately ramped up production and got it in the hands of Champion Tour players by October. By January ‘08 (technically 1/1/08), the C830.4 was legally conforming and in play on the Tour.
It’s worth noting that our interchangeable shaft driver is completely different from the Taylormade SelectFit or the Callaway OptiFit systems. Both are great innovations and toolsets that remove some of the mystery of pairing shafts with heads. They’ve allowed many mainstream retail outlets to become bona fide fitting centers. But both systems are designed to replicate the actual golf club to be produced. And not designed to be the golf club used in play.
The new USGA ruling doesn’t affect the OptiFit and SelectFit clubs. But the ruling does open up opportunities for adjustable golf clubs like ours that explicitly got conforming clearance by the USGA, effective Jan 1st 2008. But we owe a debt of gratitude to Callaway and Taylormade for educating the mainstream golfer on the benefits of custom fitting.
Hopefully more golfers will take advantage of fitting with the interchangeable shaft technology…
March 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Although I don’t think the pros will have this option open to them any time soon (I think it will come in time), I see no reason why interchangeable shafts shouldn’t be available for the average golfer now. Having the ability of changing shafts to meet the demands of weather or the course(s) a person plays on is just a logical extension of the advance of technology which allows us to change the weight distribution of our driver heads or having the option of using hybrids (and other specialty) clubs now to help us deal with conditions we couldn’t normally handle because of our own physical limitations or skill limitations. Interchangeable shaft technology makes it possible of the average golfer find the right “fit” for his/her game in actual circumstances on the course instead of taking shots indoors into a net.