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Wind the clock back 30 years or so and there would have been little point in wondering about whether the top pros use graphite or steel shafts in their clubs as steel was the only show in town.
In modern golf however the question is much more relevant as shaft technology has exploded and PGA Tour pros have investigated ways to generate ever more clubhead speed to hit the ball ever increasing distances by using different shafts.
So in an effort to definitively answer the question of whether pros use graphite or steel shafts we took a detailed look at the shafts the top 100 players on the PGA Tour are playing with.
In total 100% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros use graphite shafts in their drivers, fairway woods and hybrid clubs. 14 out of the top 100 use graphite shafts in their utility irons while 21 pros use steel. All the top 100 use steel shafts in their irons except for Abraham Ancer, Matt Kuchar, and the injured Bryson DeChambeau.
As we can immediately see therefore the question of whether pros use graphite or steel shafts is clearly club dependent and the answer is different depending on which type of club you are talking about.
When it comes to graphite vs steel shafts however the topic does not end there as in reality some of the modern golf shafts the pros use include both and other materials in order to try and deliver even better results!
Do Pros Use Graphite or Steel Shafts In Their Drivers?
When former USPGA champion Jimmy Walker decided to use a steel True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft in his Titleist TS3 driver and 3-wood at the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge he caused a bit of a stir.
Now you wouldn’t think such a decision would result in any sort of reaction but the reason it got a fair bit of attention was for the simple reason that when it comes to the choice of shafts in their driver the pros are in total agreement.
Our analysis of the top 100 players on the PGA Tour showed that all of them choose to use graphite shafts in their drivers and indeed according to Golf.com every PGA Tour player has used a graphite shaft in his driver during competition since 2014.
So when it comes to whether the pros use graphite or steel shafts in their drivers the answer is very clear cut and the reasons for this are as follows.
Steel is a very uniform material and as a result is not very easy to manipulate, particularly at the heavier weights of shafts preferred by the top pros.
By comparison however graphite is much more flexible and can be combined with multiple materials.
Graphite shafts can therefore not only be made much stiffer at lighter weights but also the flex of graphite shafts can be uniquely altered to meet individual pros’ performance and feel requirements.
Add to this graphite’s shock-absorbing properties that help reduce the vibrations transferring to a golfer’s hands and you have a shaft material which offers performance and customisation benefits that PGA Tour pros simply cannot achieve with steel shafts.
So when it comes to graphite vs steel shafts for the pros in their drivers the ship has clearly sailed.
And in case you were wondering what Jimmy Walker ended up doing he switched back to Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X graphite shafts in his driver and woods very soon after trying steel again in 2020!
[Note – If you are interested in seeing what exact shafts the top 100 PGA Tour players are using in their drivers and other clubs check out our article here.]
Do Pros Use Graphite or Steel Shafts In Their Fairway Woods and Hybrids?
In the modern game distance is a key factor in success and when it comes to the pros a few extra yards on their longest clubs, including fairway woods and hybrids, can mean the difference between hundreds of thousands of dollars of prize money.
Increased swing speed is vital when it comes to distance and graphite shafts play a key role in enabling the world’s top players to maximise the distance they hit the ball.
As a result the reasons why pros prefer graphite shafts in their drivers – namely its flexibility and its ability to be made much stiffer at lighter weights – apply equally to the fairway woods and hybrids they use.
It was therefore no surprise that we again found that 100% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros use graphite shafts in their fairway woods and hybrid clubs.
Across the complete PGA Tour field there are a few outliers – 2012 US Open Champion Webb Simpson uses a steel True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft in his 23.5º Titleist 915Hd hybrid for example – but these are very much exceptions to the general rule that PGA Tour pros almost to a man choose graphite over steel shafts for the longest clubs in the bag.
[Note – to find out more about the fairway woods being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros check out our in-depth analysis of the models they are playing here.]
Do Any PGA Tour Pros Use Steel Shafts In Their Utility Irons?
When it comes to the shaft choices the PGA Tour pros make when it comes to drivers, fairway woods and hybrids graphite shafts have been the overwhelming preference of the best players in the world for a number of years now.
However the picture starts to get a bit more mixed when you take a look at the utility iron shafts they use and that’s not just in terms of how many individuals are playing graphite shafts and how many are choosing steel shafts.
Aerotech SteelFiber shafts for example, which can lay claim to more professional tour wins than any other graphite iron shaft, are actually a graphite core shaft with steel fibre wrapped around it.
To be clear this ‘steel’ fibre is thinner than a human hair but it highlights well how golf shaft manufacturers are increasingly aiming to exploit graphite’s core flexibility as a material and combine it where they can with the inherent strengths that steel provides.
Mitsubishi’s Metal Mesh Technology (MMT) shafts are also being designed with the key thought in mind of blending the strength of steel with the flexibility of graphite by adding a small section of metal mesh into the tip section of these shafts (i.e. the few inches attached to the club head) to increase both the weight and stability of the shaft.
2022 Master Champion Scottie Scheffler meanwhile is using a Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X ‘Graphite on Steel’ shaft in his Srixon Z U85 utility 3-iron and this is another shaft that aims to integrate the benefits of graphite and steel together.
Now these shafts are still clearly categorised as graphite, because that is the material they are principally made of, but it shows when it comes to utility irons the choice between steel and graphite is much less clear cut than it is with the pros drivers, fairway woods and hybrids.
And this is backed up in our detailed analysis of the shafts being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros in their utility irons which highlights that 14 players chose a graphite shaft with another 21 pros preferring a steel shaft model.
So as we can see when it comes to the graphite versus steel shaft decision in the utility irons of PGA Tour pros there is much less consensus than there is with their other longer clubs.
[Note – to find out more about the utility irons being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros check out our detailed analysis of the models they are playing here.]
Do Any Pros Use Graphite Shaft Irons?
When it comes to graphite iron shafts golfers often immediately think of senior players simply because they are often assumed to be only for golfers with slower swing speeds who need something light and more whippy.
But when Rich Beem became the first player to win a major – the USPGA in 2002 – with a set of graphite shafts in his irons and wedges it was questioned whether modern shaft technology had delivered on graphite iron shafts to the extent that the top pros would move away from steel.
Roll the clock forward a couple of decades however, and despite yet more graphite iron shaft technology advances, steel shafts remain the clear preference among the bags of the top 100 PGA Tour pros we analysed.
99% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros use steel shafts in their irons. Abraham Ancer is the exception using Mitsubishi’s MMT 105 TX graphite shafts in his Miura TC-201 irons. Matt Kucher has also used graphite irons in the past as does Brandt Snedeker. The injured Bryson DeChambeau also uses graphite iron shafts.
Bryson DeChambeau and Abraham Ancer are the current biggest supporters of graphite iron shafts but it was Matt Kuchar who was probably the biggest name to give them an early thumbs-up as he became an early adopter of Aerotech’s SteelFiber graphite shafts in his irons.
Indeed it was Matt Kuchar who turned Brandt Snedeker onto graphite iron shafts when he borrowed Kuchar’s backup set for an event when Snedeker’s clubs didn’t arrive and played great with them.
Since then Snedeker has stuck with his graphite SteelFiber i95 iron shafts while Kuchar has returned to steel KBS Tour V 110S shafts in everything but his gap wedge where he continues to use a SteelFiber graphite shaft.
But when it comes to the pros and their iron shafts there is clearly still an overwhelming preference for steel despite all the advances in graphite iron shaft technology which has taken place over the last number of years.
And what about the shafts the great Tiger Woods uses in his clubs?
Well he continues to stick with the classic True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 steel shaft in his irons which has been the gold standard of iron shafts for close to 30 years now!
The table below lists all the shafts used by Tiger Woods.
| TIGER WOODS CLUB | SHAFT TYPE | SHAFT | |
| TaylorMade Stealth Plus Driver | Graphite | Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade SIM Titanium 3-wood | Graphite | Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade M3 5-wood | Graphite | Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade P7TW Irons (3-PW) | Steel | True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade MG2 TW Grind Wedges (56º,60º) | Steel | True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 | Check eBay View on Amazon |
Do Pros Use Graphite or Steel Shafts In Their Wedges?
As you would expect when it comes to looking at the shafts pros use in their wedges the preferences among the top 100 PGA Tour players very much reflect the choices made with their iron shafts.
And again the best players on the PGA Tour clearly prefer steel shafts compared to graphite shafts when it comes to the shortest clubs in the bag with almost 100% of the top 100 PGA Tour players using steel shafts in their wedges.
Abraham Ancer is again an outlier with choosing a Mitsubishi MMT 105 TX graphite shaft for his pitching wedge but when it comes to his gap, sand and lob wedges even he reverts back to traditional steel shafts choosing True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Black S400 model.
Matt Kucher uses an Aerotech Steelfiber i110X graphite shaft for his 51º gap wedge but again returns to steel KBS Tour 110S shafts for his other wedges while Brandt Snedeker opts for AeroTech SteelFiber I95 shaft in his pitching wedge prior to switching to True Temper steel shafts for his other wedges.
When he returns from injury it looks therefore it will be Bryson DeChambeau continuing to fly a pretty much lone flag for the use of graphite shafts in irons and wedges in addition to the longest clubs in the bag.
Final Thought
With the evolution of graphite golf shafts compared to steel shafts, which for all the technology in golf remain pretty much a simple steel tube, there still clearly remains a huge reluctance among the best players in the world to make the same switch they almost all have in their drivers, woods and hybrids.
Our analysis of the shafts used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros has clearly shown graphite shafts to be the overwhelming preference of the players for the longest clubs in the bag while for irons and wedges they remain steadfast in their choice of steel shafts over graphite.
Given cost isn’t the factor it is for pros compared to amateurs when it comes to picking their shafts it is perhaps slightly surprising more of them have not yet tried to see if graphite iron shafts can offer them an advantage
For amateurs though, providing the costs are not prohibitive graphite iron shafts probably require more of a look than they get at present especially given it is clear today’s graphite iron shafts are most certainly capable of helping good players with high swing speeds and not just seniors as has often been assumed in the past.
And anyone looking to reduce tendon pain without wanting to move away from the weight and flex that is offered by classic steel shafts should definitely consider them as the graphite helps to absorb that extra bit of vibration.
Products mentioned in this article:
| PRODUCT | |
| Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X shaft | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X ‘Graphite on Steel’ shaft | Check eBay |
| Mitsubishi MMT 105 TX shaft | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Aerotech SteelFiber i95 shaft | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| KBS Tour V 110S shaft | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Titleist TS3 | Check eBay |
| TaylorMade Stealth Plus Driver | View on Amazon Check eBay View at PGA Tour Superstore |
| TaylorMade SIM Titanium fairway wood | Check eBay View at PGA Tour Superstore |
| TaylorMade M3 fairway wood | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| Srixon Z U85 utility 3-iron | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade P7TW Irons | Check eBay |
| TaylorMade MG2 TW Grind Wedge | View on Amazon Check eBay View at PGA Tour Superstore |
Other great articles related to this topic:
- What Shafts Do Pros Use? Top 100 PGA Tour Player Breakdown
- What Driver is Most Used On the PGA Tour? Top 100 Player Analysis
- The Fairway Woods Used by the Top 100 PGA Tour Pros
- What Hybrid Golf Clubs Do the Top 100 PGA Tour Pros Use?
- What Irons Do the Pros Use? Top 100 PGA Tour Player Guide
- What Clubs do LPGA players use? Top 50 Player Breakdown
- What Percentage of Putts Do Pros Make? TV Does Not Tell the Story
- How Do Pros Hit the Ball So Far? It’s Not About the Equipment!
- The PGA Tour’s Rising Driver Ball Speeds Mean One Thing – $$
- Should I Play Blades or Cavity Back Irons? Use Your Head
- How Much of a Difference Do Better Golf Clubs Make? Fit First!