Here's why this manufacturer WANTS you to tip your golf shaft

Tipping the shaft – or trimming the shaft at the end of the clubhead before inserting it – is a bit of an internet idea.

Oftentimes, discussions focus on online forum users tipping their shafts because they feel they have to, which is usually not the case. And it's the standard on the PGA Tour, with guys like Gary Woodland and Neal Shipley tipping two inches to their drivers. If they tip on the trip, then we should tip at home, right?

Answer: type. The taper itself is a hot topic because there is a lot of confusion about what it actually does to the performance of the golf shaft. But that is not what we are talking about today; we will explore the functionality in detail soon. Today, I'm talking about those times all of them The golfer should grip his golf shaft – and it is actually recommended by the manufacturer. It all boils down to the weight of the head.

The way the golf ball weighs and how it behaves at the switch are all calculated using the average weight of the driver's head. When building a golf club, the weight of the head will affect the profile of the golf shaft. If you add more head weight, the club will produce more droop and the shaft will bend more because of that extra weight. This changes the perceived feel and the measured frequency (a method of measuring flex) of the golf shaft. To combat that change in flex and feel, the manufacturer suggests tipping the shaft.

If you search for the golf club you are building on the website of the manufacturer, in this case, Mitsubishi Diamana RB, you can find the right instructions to give the advice they recommend to properly build the golf club. In this case, if we are building a 5 wood for example, you may want to taper the shaft .75″ per Mitsubishi recommendations.

What does it actually fix?

There are a few things at play here.

The first is the overall weighted flexibility when the club is built, which affects the feel the most. If you take your driver and add 20 grams of weight to the club head, you will notice a huge difference in feel. The shaft will be playing very soft, and will likely lose its ability to go smoothly with your swing. That's the equivalent of throwing in 5 wood heads. But by tapping the shaft, you take a little weight off the tip section, which is usually too heavy to begin with, and move the balance point and the kick point of the shaft back “to where it was” in the driver structure.

Moving the balance point and kick point of the shaft where it “should be” based on the profile design is really the key. By tipping the shaft, you make the shaft play much closer to the original frequency (flex) the shaft would have had it been included in the driver build. And you keep most of the handle playing with the construction of the fairway woods, which is a big part of making the shaft “feel” the same in the hands.

What if you are a gamer giving driver tips?

Always start with YOUR usual tips. If you are tipping your driver 1.00″ I would suggest tipping the shaft 1.00″ and working your way up from there. So in this case, the 5 wood will be touched by a 1.75″ amount rather than just .75″. I want that to come with a caveat, because sometimes if you tip the shaft too much, you're going to affect the profile the same way you can by not tipping it out enough, so make sure you have an authorized dealer or fitter, like my friends at True Spec, help you and make sure it's properly designed for your performance needs.

Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana RB Wood Shaft

Diamana™ RB (Red Board) – the third profile in the most recent generation – is designed with all the traditional brand that makes Diamana so popular – including a return to the original designation of the weight category 53/63/73/83 – with all the engineering ingenuity and innovation that made the product stand out on the tour. Offering a slightly higher launch angle than the BB, the Diamana™ RB is designed to promote easier launches while maintaining ground control. Diamana RB is a classic “Red Board” profile – not available since the 2nd Generation of Diamana – with an active tip section while still maintaining the same technical package of materials and low torch control features as its lower launch counterparts.

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