What Shafts Do Pros Use? Top 100 PGA Tour Player Breakdown (2021 update)


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When you watched pro golfers on TV in days gone the golf shafts they used all looked the same.

In the modern game however the story is very different and not only will you see different players using different shafts from all kinds of different manufacturers but also different shafts in different club types and even coming in all sorts of colours.

So to see what golf shafts the best players in the world are using we analysed in-depth the ones being played by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.

True Temper golf shafts are the most used among the top 100 players on the PGA Tour making up close to 50% of the shafts played with. Mitsubishi shafts are the next most popular in this elite group with 9.9% having those shafts with Fujikura and Nippon Shafts the next most used with an 8.6% share.

Those statistics only tell part of the story however and our detailed analysis also highlighted key differences in the preferred shafts of the pros within different club types.

We found for example different shaft manufacturers being more popular in different types of clubs such as drivers, fairway woods and hybrids with True Temper’s dominance only starting to show when it came to looking at what iron shafts the top pros use.

Therefore we discovered virtually all the top 100 players using different manufacturers shafts in different club types thereby clearly illustrating how precise the world’s best players are when it comes to choosing which golf shaft they use for different clubs.

Breakdown of Golf Shafts Used by Top 100 PGA Tour Players

Take just a quick glance at the golf shafts used by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour across all of their clubs and the detail with which they go when it comes to shaft choice choosing which shaft becomes immediately obvious.

Many players will have at least 3 or even 4 different 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.

To answer the question of what shafts the pros use is therefore a more complicated one than it first seems as all the best pros will carry a variety within their golf bag.

We happily took on the challenge and 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 % number of shafts from different manufacturers played with by the top 100 PGA Tour golfers across all the different club types.

GOLF SHAFT MANUFACTURERDRIVERWOODS + HYBRIDSIRONSWEDGES
Accra2%1%
Aerotech1%0.5%
Aldila10%10.6%
Fujikura28%21.8%
Graphite Design11%11.2%
KBS1%1.1%10%8.4%
LA Golf1%1.7%1%1%
Matrix0.6%
Mitsubishi27%25.7%1%0.3%
Miyazaki1.1%
Nippon16%12.3%
Oban1.1%
PING0.6%2%1%
TPT2%
True Temper13%14%67%72.4%
UST Mamiya3%5%

From these numbers we can clearly see that despite all the huge variety of golf shafts that are available in the modern game when it comes to irons and wedges the top PGA Tour pros have a clear preference for True Temper shafts.

When it comes to drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and utility irons however there is a lot more variance in the makes and models of golf shafts being used by the pros.

Players such as Jason Kokrak, Brian Harman for example are one of a select minority using Accra shafts in their driver with Stewart Cink also joining that Accra shaft user group when selecting the FX 2.0 360 M5 shaft in his 7-wood.

Other niche shaft selections from manufacturers such as Miyazaki, Oban, PING, TPT and UST Mamiya were also found to be more prominent amongst the driver, fairway wood and hybrid shafts used with Bryson DeChambeau being the only player to use LA Golf Shafts across all of his clubs.

Now that we have the overview of the golf shafts used by the top 100 PGA Tour players let’s take a look in more detail at the individual shafts used in the different club types.

Driver Shafts Used by Top 100 PGA Tour Players

When looking at the driver shafts used by the best players on the PGA Tour the attention to detail that they clearly pay when putting together their clubs is clearly in evidence.

We found over 70 different models of driver shafts used by the top 100 PGA Tour players made by ten different manufacturers.

Fujikura driver shafts are the most used by the top 100 PGA Tour players with 28 players using them including Justin Thomas, Jordan Speith, Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Louis Oosthuizen. The Ventus Blue 6X and Ventus Black 6X shafts are the most popular individual driver shafts.

Even with Fujikura driver shafts being out in front however 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.

DRIVER SHAFTNO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
Accra TZ5 85 M5 1
(Jason Kokrak)
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Aldila Rogue Black 130 MSI 60 TX2
(Max Homa, Kevin Kisner)
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Aldila Tour Green 75 TX1
(Jon Rahm)
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Fujikura Ventus Blue 6X7
(inc. Jordan Speith, Emiliano Grillo, Matt Wallace)
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Fujikura Ventus Black 6X5
(inc. Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Daniel Berger)
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Fujikura Ventus Black 7X3
(Sergio Garcia, Marc Leishman, Brendan Steele)
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Fujikura Ventus Blue 7X2
(Matt Jones, Lucas Glover)
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Graphite Design Tour AD DI 6 X2
(Joaquin Niemann, KH Lee)
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Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 6 X2
(inc. Cameron Tringale)
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Graphite Design Tour AD BB 7 X1
(Xander Schauffele)
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LA Golf Shafts Tour AXS Blue 60 X1
(Bryson DeChambeau)
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Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Blue 65 TX2
(inc. Webb Simpson)
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Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Blue 60 TX2
(inc. Abraham Ancer)
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Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw Orange 65 TX2
(inc. Carlos Ortiz)
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Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 70 TX2
(inc. Brooks Koepka)
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TPT 14 LO1
(Jason Day)
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True Temper Project X HZRDUS Black 65 6.52
(Viktor Hovland, Lanto Giffin)
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True Temper Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 70 6.52
(Martin Laird, Peter Malnati)
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True Temper Project X EvenFlow Riptide 60 6.5 TX1
(Billy Horschel)
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UST Mamiya Elements Gold 6F51
(Corey Conners)
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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 clear.

While different manufacturers categorise the flex of their shafts differently we did not find any of the top 100 PGA Tour players using anything other than a stiff flex shaft or stronger in their driver.

Over 80% of the top 100 PGA Tour Players play an extra stiff or Tour extra stiff golf shaft in their driver. Only a select few players, including Brian Harman, Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Day use only a stiff shaft. None of this elite group uses a regular flex driver shaft.

And the simple reason for this is swing speed.

The massive distances the best players on Tour are hitting the ball is due largely to the swing speeds they are generating and with swing speeds of 100+ mph being recorded by the majority of the top players this requires a very stiff driver flex to deliver the best results.

[Editor’s note – we also did some detailed analysis on the drivers used by the top PGA Tour pros which you can check out here.]

Fairway Wood & Hybrid Shafts Used by Top 100 PGA Tour Players

The detail that PGA Tour players go into when it comes to choosing the golf shafts for their clubs is again evidenced in the fairway wood and hybrid shafts they use.

Among the top 100 PGA Tour players over 90 different fairway wood models are used with Mitsubishi and Fujikura shafts being the most popular. Graphite Design’s Tour AD DI 8 X is the most used fairway wood shaft with Fujikura’s Ventus Blue 7X, Ventus Black 7X and Ventus Black 8X being the next most played.

Not every PGA Tour player uses a hybrid of course with different players preferring higher numbers fairway woods or utility irons in their place.

For the pros that do however once again, we found a large variety of golf shafts being used.

We found 28 different hybrid shaft models being used by the top 100 PGA Tour players with Graphite Design being the most popular hybrid shaft manufacturer and 7 players using them.

The most used individual hybrid golf shaft among this group was the Graphite Design Tour AD DI Hybrid 105 X and Tour AD DI Hybrid 95 X with 3 players each choosing them.

[Editor’s note – if you are interested in what fairway woods and hybrids the best 100 players on the PGA Tour are using you can check out the articles we wrote on this through these links – fairway woods + hybrids.]

What Iron Shafts Do the Pros Use?

Compared to the variety of shafts the best pros choose in their drivers, fairway woods and hybrids when it comes to the shafts the top 100 PGA golfers use in their irons there seems to be much more of a consensus among the players.

67 out of the top 100 PGA Tour players use True Temper shafts in their irons. The Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 iron shaft is the most popular with 23% choosing it and True Temper supplies the 3 most popular iron shafts among this elite group. Nippon iron shafts are the next most common with 16 players using them.

Although there appears to be much more consistency when it comes to the brand of iron shaft the best pros on the PGA Tour are choosing there is still clear evidence of the detail with which they approach the decision of which shafts to put in their irons.

We counted 50 different models of iron golf shaft across 8 different manufacturers and indeed despite the large numbers of pros choosing to play True Temper iron shafts there are still 18 different True Temper iron shaft models being played with by the top 100 PGA players.

Indeed we found players using two different models of shafts within their individual iron sets.

Russel Henley for example chooses True Temper’s Dynamic Gold AMT shaft for his 4 to 6-irons but goes with the Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft for his 7 to 9-irons.

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 vast majority, over 75% using either extra stiff, stiff plus or Tour extra stiff iron shafts.

Here is a complete breakdown of the iron golf shafts used currently by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.

IRON SHAFTNO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
Aerotech SteelFiber i95 S1Check eBay

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KBS Tour 130 X3Check eBay

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KBS TourV 125 S+2Check eBay
KBS TourV 110 S1Check eBay

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KBS TourV 120 X1Check eBay

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KBS Tour 120 X1Check eBay

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KBS S-Taper 130 X1Check eBay
KBS C-Taper 125 S+1Check eBay

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LA Golf Shafts B.A.D Prototype Rebar shafts1
Mitsubishi MMT 105 TX1Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 TX4Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour130 X3Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 X3Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour105 X2Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour125 X2Check eBay

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Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Prototype1
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour130 TX1Check eBay

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PING JZ1
PING CFS X1Check eBay
True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X10023Check eBay

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True Temper Project X 6.510Check eBay

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True Temper Project X LZ 6.56Check eBay

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True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S4004Check eBay

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True Temper Dynamic Gold X1004View at PGA Tour Superstore

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True Temper Project X 6.04Check eBay

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True Temper Project X Rifle 6.53View at PGA Tour Superstore

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True Temper Dynamic Gold 120 Tour Issue X1002Check eBay

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True Temper AMT Tour White X1002Check eBay

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True Temper Dynamic Gold S3002View at PGA Tour Superstore

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True Temper Project X Rifle 7.01View at PGA Tour Superstore

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True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT S4001
True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT (4-6-iron)
True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (7-9-iron)
1Check eBay

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True Temper Project X PXi 6.51Check eBay
True Temper Project X 6.5 LS1View on Amazon
True Temper Project X 7.01Check eBay

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True Temper Dynamic Gold X71Check eBay

[Editor’s note – check out the in-depth analysis we did on the irons being used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros here]

What Wedge Shafts Do the Pros Use?

Looking at the shafts used in the wedges of the best 100 PGA Tour pros it was interesting to note that again while many of the pros kept the same shaft as they used for their irons, especially when it came to the pitching wedge, there was again a big variety of wedge shaft models being used.

True Temper’s Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 is by far the most popular wedge shaft with 37% of the top 100 PGA Tour players using it. The Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 is the next most popular and True Temper shafts account for over 70% of the wedge shafts used by this elite group.

Although far behind Nippon Shafts are the next most common wedge shafts with just over 10% of the wedges used by the top 100 PGA Tour players having them.

Their most used wedge shaft is the N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 X.

What was interesting to note also was that the shaft the top PGA Tour pros chose for their pitching wedge matched their iron shafts the vast majority of the time although 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 however the pros frequently started to change the shaft they had used in their irons in preference for less stiff flex models. We still however did not find one of the top 100 PGA Tour players using a regular flex wedge shaft.

Here is a complete breakdown of the wedge golf shafts used currently by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.

[Check out the latest prices on Amazon via the table links]

WEDGE SHAFTPITCHING WEDGE
NO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
GAP WEDGE
NO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
SAND WEDGE
NO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
LOB WEDGE
NO. OF TOP 100 PGA PLAYERS
Aerotech SteelFiber i95 S1
Aerotech Steelfiber i110 X1
KBS Tour 130 X31
KBS TourV 125 S+
[eBay link]
2111
KBS TourV 110 S1
KBS TourV 120 X1
KBS TourV 130 X111
KBS Tour 120 S111
KBS Tour 120 X1
KBS S-Taper 130 X
[eBay link]
112
KBS C-Taper 125 S+11
KBS Hi-Rev 2.0221
KBS Wedge X111
KBS Tour S+1
LA Golf Shafts B.A.D Prototype Rebar shafts111
Mitsubishi MMT 105 TX1
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 TX3
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour120 X3233
Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Wedge 125223
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour130 X2331
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour105 X211
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour130 TX11
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour125 X1322
Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Prototype1
PING JZ1111
PING CFS X
[eBay link]
1
True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X1002310943
True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S40016414043
True Temper Project X 6.57443
True Temper Project X LZ 6.53211
True Temper Project X Rifle 6.53222
True Temper Project X 6.02222
True Temper Dynamic Gold S400334
True Temper Dynamic Gold S3002322
True Temper Dynamic Gold X1002222
True Temper Dynamic Gold S2001111
True Temper AMT Tour White X1001
True Temper Project X Rifle 7.01
True Temper Dynamic Gold 120 Tour Issue X1001
True Temper Project X PXi 6.5
[eBay link]
1
True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT S4001
True Temper Dynamic Gold X7
[eBay link]
1
True Temper Project X 6.5 LS1
True Temper Project X 5.5
[eBay link]
1
True Temper Dynamic Gold Spinner
[eBay link]
111
True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Onyx X100111

[Editor’s note – We also researched the wedges being used by the top 100 PGA Tour players which you can check out here.]

Graeme Hay

Graeme Hay is the owner of GolfingFocus.com. Graeme started playing golf when he was only 4 years old and has loved the game ever since. A single figure golfer all of his adult life he lives in London and still enjoys playing whenever he can with friends and family.

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