Spotlight On The Most Popular Shaft On the PGA Tour
When watching pros on TV back in the day the golf shafts they used all looked the same.
In today’s professional golf however the story is very different.
Not only do players use a wide variety of shafts from different manufacturers, but you’ll also see pros using various shafts for different types of clubs and even coming in an assortment of colours.
So to see what’s the most popular shaft on the PGA Tour we did yet another deep dive into the shafts most pros use focusing on the ones played by the top 100 pros on the PGA Tour.
And Golfing Focus’ detailed analysis shows most PGA Tour players use Fujikura driver, fairway wood and hybrid shafts with around 1/3 of the top 100 using their shaft models in these club types.
True Temper shafts however reign supreme when it comes to iron and wedge shafts accounting for approximately 75% of the shafts used by this select group.
But there is much more to the story than just these high-level numbers.
Our research also highlighted key differences in the preferred shafts of the pros within different club types with different shaft manufacturers being more popular in different club types.
So let’s get cracking and explore how the shaft preferences of PGA Tour players shift depending on the club in question.
The Most Popular Golf Shaft on the PGA Tour Depends on Club Type
Take a quick glance at the golf shafts the top 100 PGA Tour pros use across all of their clubs and the detail they go into when it comes to shaft choice becomes immediately obvious.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Many players will have at least 3 or even 4 shaft manufacturers represented in their golf bag.
And while there are those that stick to one or two shaft brands you can be assured that the flex and weight of different shafts they use varies across different clubs.
The question of what shafts pros use on the PGA Tour is therefore a much more complicated one than it initially seems, as all the best pros will carry a variety within their golf bag.
Golfing Focus was happy to take on the challenge for a third time and once again analysed in detail the golf shafts used in every club played by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.
And here is a breakdown of the % of shafts from different manufacturers played with by the best PGA Tour golfers across the different club types.
| GOLF SHAFT MANUFACTURER | DRIVER | WOODS | HYBRIDS | DRIVING IRONS | IRONS | WEDGES |
| Accra | 2% | 1% | – | – | – | – |
| Aldila | 2% | 2% | 2% | – | – | – |
| Fujikura | 38% | 35% | 31% | 23% | – | – |
| Graphite Design | 9% | 10% | 19% | 10% | – | – |
| KBS | – | – | 2% | 16% | 18% | 15% |
| LA Golf | 1% | – | – | – | – | – |
| Matrix | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Mitsubishi | 25% | 28% | 24% | 10% | – | – |
| Miyazaki | – | 1% | – | – | – | – |
| Nippon | – | – | – | 10% | 8% | 5% |
| Oban | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| PING | – | – | 5% | – | 1% | 1% |
| TPT | 1% | – | – | – | – | – |
| True Temper | 18% | 17% | 12% | 32% | 73% | 79% |
| UST Mamiya | 4% | 5% | 5% | – | – | – |
| No Data | – | 1% | – | – | – | – |
From these numbers we can clearly see what the best pros on Tour consider the best golf shafts varies by club type.
Fujikura driver shafts are the most used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros with 38% playing them including Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
The Ventus Black 6X is the most popular driver shaft with 7 pros choosing it.
Ventus shafts are also the most common driver shaft model used by 34% followed by Mitsubishi’s Diamana and True Temper’s Project X HZRDUS shafts each chosen by 14% of the top 100.
Despite the huge variety of golf shafts that are available in the modern game however, when it comes to irons and wedges this select group of Tour players clearly have a much clearer preference for True Temper shafts than the other brands.
When it comes to drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and driving/utility irons by comparison though there is a lot more variance in the makes and models of golf shafts being used.
Equipment ‘free agent’ (and therefore with the flexibility to use any club or shaft he wants) Aaron Rai for example is one of a select minority using an Aldila shaft in their driver.
Taylor Pendrith meanwhile joins the niche Accra driver shaft user group selecting their TZ6 ST 60 M5 model.
Other niche shaft selections from manufacturers such as Miyazaki, TPT, UST Mamiya and LA Golf shafts were also found to be more prominent amongst the driver, fairway wood and hybrid shafts used by the top 100.
KBS and Nippon shafts meanwhile found favour only when it came to the irons and wedges used by the leading PGA Tour pros.
And now that we have the overview of the golf shafts used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros let’s take a look in more detail at the individual shafts used in the different club types.
Most Used Driver Shaft on The PGA Tour. Fujikura Grows Its Share Again!
The driver is the club that golfers most associate with power and distance.
It’s no surprise then that many pros seek a shaft that can handle the high swing speeds they generate while maintaining control.
Golfing Focus found 70 different individual driver shafts being used by the top 100 PGA Tour players made by nine different manufacturers.
And as we have already noted Fujikura driver shafts are the most common on Tour with 38% of the top 100 using them including Scottie Scheffler with the Ventus Black 6X model, the choice of Rory McIlroy and Ludvig Åberg, remaining the most popular individual driver shaft.
Even with Fujikura driver shafts being out in front – and increasing their share of the driver shafts used by the top 100 from 28% a couple of years back to 35% last year and now 38% – the spread of driver shafts across the different manufacturers is much more evident than in any other club type.
Here is a breakdown of the most popular driver shafts produced by the different manufacturers among the top 100 PGA Tour pros.
| BRAND OF DRIVER SHAFT | % OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PROS USING BRAND (Equipment free agents in italics) | BRAND’S MOST USED SHAFT |
| Fujikura | 38% (including Ludvig Åberg, Keegan Bradley, Jordan Speith, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler, Brendon Todd, Si Woo Kim, Harris English, Mark Hubbard, Akshay Bhatia, Adam Schenk, Denny McCarthy, Billy Horschel, Patrick Rodgers, Max Homa, Will Zalatoris, Sam Burns, Viktor Hovland, Ben Kohles) | Ventus Black 6X Check eBay |
| Mitsubishi | 25% (inc. Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa, Adam Scott, Justin Thomas, Luke List, Matt Fitzpatrick, Patrick Cantlay, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Davis Thompson, J.T.Potson, Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin) | Diamana D+ Limited Edition TX Check eBay Diamana DF TX |
| True Temper | 18% (inc. Wyndham Clark, Stephan Jaeger, Sahith Theegala, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Eric Cole, Camilo Villegas, Emiliano Grillo) | Project X HZRDUS Gen 4 Black 60 TX Check eBay |
| Graphite Design | 9% (inc. Brian Harman, Hideki Matsuyama, Robert MacIntyre, Sungjae Im, Michael Kim) | Tour AD DI X Check eBay |
| UST Mamiya | 4% (inc. Corey Conners, Ben Griffin) | LIN-Q M40X White 6F5 |
| Accra | 2% (inc. Taylor Pendrith) | TZ6 ST 60 M5 Check eBay |
| Aldila | 2% (inc. Aaron Rai) | Rogue White 130 M.S.I. 60 TX Check eBay |
| TPT | 1% (Jason Day) | Nitro 15 Lo |
| LA Golf | 1% (Greyson Sigg) | Ozik MFS White Tie 60M X |
[Note – Just so you know, and we are upfront as an affiliate program participant, Golfing Focus, at no cost to you, earns from qualifying purchases made through links on this page.]
Any talk of driver shafts also can’t come without a discussion on what flex they are.
And when it comes to that topic the preferences of the best players on the PGA Tour are very obvious.
While different manufacturers categorize the flex of their shafts differently (and indeed the game’s rule-makers (the USGA and R&A) also don’t regulate what can be called a ‘regular’ shaft for example) we did not find any of the best PGA Tour players using anything other than a stiff flex shaft or stronger in their driver.
Almost all the top 100 PGA Tour pros play an extra stiff or Tour extra stiff driver shaft.
47% choose an extra stiff driver shaft including Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler while 50% use a Tour extra stiff shaft.
Former major champions Brian Harman and Jason Day are two of only three players that use a stiff shaft and none of this group uses a regular flex driver shaft.
And the most obvious reason for this is clubhead or swing speed.
The huge distances the best players on Tour are hitting the ball is due significantly to the swing speeds they are generating. And with average driver swing speeds of 115mph on the PGA Tour this often requires stiffer flex shafts to stabilize the club head and deliver the best results.
[Editor’s note – to find out what flex of shafts the top PGA Tour pros use across all club types you can check out our great post on that topic here while for a similarly detailed analysis on the drivers used by the top 100 pros you can find that here.]
True Temper Are by Far The Most Popular Iron Shafts On the PGA Tour
When we shift our attention to iron shafts, one brand dominates like no other: True Temper.
A huge 73% of the top 100 PGA Tour players use True Temper shafts – a market share that has remained consistent over the years Golfing Focus has carried out these deep-dive studies.
The Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 is the most popular individual iron shaft with 26% of the top 100 using it including 2024 USPGA and British Open champion Xander Schauffele.
True Temper’s Project X 6.5 shaft is also the next most common shaft used by 16% of this group in their irons.
But while True Temper’s dominance is obvious in relation to iron shaft choices on the PGA Tour a few other brands make notable appearances among the 33 different iron shafts Golfing Focus uncovered being used:
- KBS iron shafts are another popular option for PGA Tour players with 18% of the top 100 picking them, including Max Homa and Shane Lowry.
- Nippon, known for its N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour range meanwhile includes Tony Finau among the 8% of this group that use their iron shafts.
And the top pros’ precision approach to which shafts to put in their irons is also made evident by the 15 different True Temper shaft models we discovered being played among the top 100.
Indeed we found some players using two different models of shafts within their iron sets.
Collin Morikawa for example chooses True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 shaft in his TaylorMade 4 to 6-irons but goes with the Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 from 7-iron to pitching wedge.
What was more intriguing however in the 13 pros we found using two different models of iron shafts was those who mixed graphite and steel options in their choices.
Sahith Theegala, Hideki Matsuyama and Will Zalatoris all opt for a graphite hybrid or iron shaft in their 3-irons before switching to steel models in the remainder of their iron set.
Tony Finau is another one who also opts for a graphite Tour AD DI Hybrid 105 X shaft in his Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron before switching to Nippon’s steel N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 TX shafts for his 4-iron to pitching wedge Blueprint S irons.
While it is arguable whether the Vapor Fly Pro is a ‘driving/utility’ rather than a ‘normal’ iron it was interesting to note:
- These players choices of graphite in preference to steel shafts in their long irons, and
- True Temper’s reduced dominance when it came to the driving/utility iron shaft choices of PGA Tour pros.
Admittedly True Temper shafts were once again the most used shaft in the utility irons used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros.
But they only make up 32% of the shafts in that club type with Nippon and KBS shafts accounting for 23% and 16% of driving iron shafts respectively.
As we saw with the longer clubs though once again we did not find any of the top 100 PGA Tour players using regular flex shafts in their irons with the overwhelming majority – 89% – using either stiff plus, extra stiff or Tour extra stiff iron shafts.
Major champions Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman are however two of the select minority we discovered to be using only stiff flex iron shafts with their choice of Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 and Dynamic Gold S300 iron shafts
| BRAND OF IRON SHAFT | % OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PROS USING BRAND (Equipment free agents in italics) | BRAND’S MOST USED SHAFT |
| KBS | 18% (including Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Ludvig Åberg, Shane Lowry) | KBS Tour 130 X View on Amazon KBS Tour-V 120 X Check eBay |
| Nippon | 8% (inc. Tony Finau, Mark Hubbard, Charley Hoffman) | N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 X Check eBay |
| PING | 1% | Z-Z65 |
| True Temper | 73% (inc. Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa, Brendan Todd, Will Zalatoris, Billy Horschel, Patrick Rodgers, Scottie Scheffler, Aaron Rai, Keegan Bradley, Sam Burns, Matt Fitzpatrick, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Schenk, Russell Henley, Brian Harman, Denny McCarthy, Corey Conners, Stephan Jaeger, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Robert MacIntyre | Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 View on Amazon |
What Wedge Shafts Do the Pros Use? The S400 Leads the Way
Wedges are the clubs where control, feel, and spin matter most.
And looking at the shafts used in the wedges of the best 100 PGA Tour pros there were many points of note.
Once again, True Temper shafts shine in this category and their Dynamic Golf Tour Issue S400 is by far the most popular wedge shaft among the top 100 PGA Tour pros with 38% of all the wedges used by this group being fitted with it.
The Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 is the next most used shaft and True Temper shafts account for 79% of the wedge shafts these PGA Tour pros use.
Interestingly, while many pros match their wedge shafts to their iron set, they often opt for softer, more flexible shafts in their gap, sand, and lob wedges to improve feel around the greens.
And as a result, there was again a big variety of wedge shaft models being used with us uncovering 42 different ones overall.
Despite True Temper’s repeated dominance Nippon and KBS shafts especially were well represented with users including Tony Finau, Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, Ludvig Aberg and Justin Rose.
Their most used individual wedge shaft models are the N.S. Pro Modus3 Wedge 125 S and the KBS Tour-V 125 Tour Spec S+ respectively.
What was also of note was that while the shaft the top PGA Tour pros chose for their pitching wedge matched their iron shafts the vast majority of the time this trend was less well followed by the pros who chose a specialist pitching wedge in place of a pitching wedge that matched their iron set.
When it came to their gap, sand and lob wedges those pros frequently started to change the shaft they had used in their irons in preference for less stiff flex models.
Golfing Focus still however did not find one of the top 100 PGA Tour players using a regular flex wedge shaft.
We did though find little quirks among some of the pros when it came to their wedge shafts with CT Pan for example opting to have his True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 wedge shafts produced in custom purple to match the colours of his alma mater, the University of Washington!
You can also check out our analysis of the wedges being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros here but to complete the wedge shaft picture here is a breakdown of the wedge golf shafts being used by this elite group.
| BRAND OF WEDGE SHAFT | % OF TOP 100 PGA TOUR PRO WEDGES BY SHAFT BRAND | MOST USED WEDGE SHAFT |
| KBS | 15% | KBS Tour-V 125 Tour Spec S+ Check eBay |
| Nippon Shaft | 5% | N.S. Pro Modus3 Wedge 125 S View on Amazon |
| PING | 1% | Z-Z65 |
| True Temper | 79% | Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 Check eBay |
Fairway Wood & Hybrid Shafts Used by Top 100 PGA Tour Pros
When it comes to fairway woods however it is back to Fujikura shafts edging out the competition.
Their shafts are used by 35% of the top 100 PGA Tour pros including Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, with the Ventus TR Blue 8 X being the most popular fairway wood shaft, especially in the 3-wood and 5-wood categories.
True Temper remains competitive making up 17% of fairway wood shafts among the top 100 PGA Tour pros but in this category, they find themselves as only the third most popular option with Mitsubishi shafts being fitted in 28% of woods.
Of the 165 fairway woods our detailed research uncovered being used however by this group we counted 56 different models, a number which increases to 95 if you then take into account all the different flex and weight options.
That’s almost a different shaft for every 1 out of 2 Tour players and when it came to hybrids we discovered even more diversity in shaft selection.
Of the 42 hybrids being used by the top 100, there are 33 different shaft models when you take note of flex and weight differences although once again Fujikura hybrid shafts appeared to be more popular than the rest.
Their shafts made up 31% of the shafts Golfing Focus discovered being fitted in the hybrids clubs used by the top 100 PGA Tour players with their Ventus Blue 9X shaft the most common individual shaft.
Mitsubishi shafts, the choice of Xander Schauffele, were not far behind however making up 24% of the hybrid shafts used by this group with Graphite Design shafts, and particularly their Tour AD DI Hybrid range, pushing True Temper into 4th place in this category.
Many PGA Tour pros use a hybrid of course in preference to higher numbered fairway woods or utility irons and you can see what hybrids the top 100 on Tour are using here.
For those interested in what fairway woods this select group are fitting these shafts into however you can also check out our in-depth look at this topic in this post.
Before you go …
Knowing what flex of shafts the top pros on the PGA Tour are choosing for their clubs is always interesting and fun to look into.
But with average driver swingspeeds over 20mph faster than the average amateur male golfer (115mph vs. 93.4mph) there is potentially more to learn from the driver shafts used by the best senior and female pros.
So read our next article to find out what driver shafts the best Champions Tour (106mph) and LPGA Tour (96mph) pros choose to put into their drivers with their average swingspeeds …
What Drives The Senior Tour Pros? Most Popular Driver On Champions Tour
Most Popular Drivers and Driver Shafts on the LPGA Tour
Other top posts related to this topic:
- Do Pros Use Regular or Stiff Shafts?
- Do Pros Use Graphite or Steel Shafts?
- Gear Up: Uncovering The Most Used Clubs On The PGA Tour
- Exploring The Fairway Woods The Best PGA Tour Pros Use
- Hybrid Power: The Most Used Hybrids on the PGA Tour
- Do Pros Carry a Driving Iron?
- A Deep Dive Into the Most Used Irons on the PGA Tour
- Wedge Wizardry: The Most Used Wedges on the PGA Tour
- The Putters PGA Pros Use To Master The Greens
- Getting a Grip On the Most Popular Grips on the PGA Tour
- On The Ball: The Most Used Ball on the PGA Tour
- In The Bag: Unpacking The Clubs Champions Tour Players Use
- The Complete Guide To The Most Popular Clubs On LPGA Tour
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