Equipment

The story behind the mysterious “Monstar Full Titanium” driver shaft spotted on the PGA Tour

Published

2 weeks ago

Jun 28, 2023

Update 6/28 2 p.m.: GolfWRX spoke with Tony Krampel, the North American distributor for Monstar shafts, which are manufactured in South Korea. According to Krampel, there are around 40 players on the LPGA of Korea Tour using the shafts currently, and Natthakritta Vongtaveelap nearly won using it recently. He also said Tom Gillis and numerous top juniors have tested and played the shafts.

According to Krampel, the 67 (S-flex), 68 (X-flex), and 69 (XX-Flex) gram versions have been adjusted for American markets after testing with various players and fitters. They’re now built to have thicker handles and stiffer tip sections than the Korean versions. Monstar also has a range of options including 50-gram and ladies shafts.

The shafts indeed have titanium rods that run from the butt-end to the tip section in order to reduce weight while increasing stability. They’re designed to produce a high-launch, low-spin ball flight.

Krampel said he expects the company’s new website to go live within the next week, where American customers will be able to purchase shafts.

On Tuesday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, GolfWRX.com spotted a “Monstar Full Titanium” shaft in Brandon Matthews’ new Srixon ZX7 Mk II driver.

I quickly checked out the photos of the shaft, but I was equally stumped.

“Monstar? Is that like the Monstars from Space Jam?”

Whenever I don’t know something about a golf product – whatever it is – my first text is always to GolfWRX.com equipment expert, and Club Junkie podcast host, Brian Knudson. Not much gets past him in the world of golf equipment, especially when it comes to shafts.

“Never heard of them,” he replied.

Hm. That’s weird.

The alarm bells were officially ringing in my head, so I started asking around to some of the tour reps who were on site at Detroit Golf Club for the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Every single person I asked, though, had no idea what the shaft was.

Time to get Googling.

My Google search for “Monstar full titanium golf shaft” returned an oddly scarce amount of results.

“Alright, what the heck is going on with this Monstar shaft? What IS IT?!”

I then tracked down Matthews, who helped shed some light on how the shaft ended up in his bag, but not much by way of design or technology.

Here’s what Matthews had to say:

“I got it a couple years ago from a guy I know. I guess it’s from overseas in Asia. I think it’s similar to – I guess not similar to – but in the category of the AutoFlex. It’s not as whippy, though. My buddy had one and he was like, ‘Hey, can you try this out?’ Actually, this was the shaft I won with last year at the [2022 Astra Golf Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour]. I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but it works. It’s really sweet.”

At this point, my intrigue was off the charts.

A bit more digging helped me find a GolfWRX forum thread about the Monstar shafts, which then led me to a Korean blog called “Love Golf.”

Unfortunately, the website is in a foreign language, and the formatting of the blog wasn’t allowing me to Google translate. I found a work-around with the help of Artificial Intelligence, though, and I was able to decode what was written about the Monstar shafts.

Here’s the A.I. translation of the Love Golf blog, which provides seemingly reliable design details:

“Hello. This is Love Golf. Today, we’re going to talk about the full titanium Monstar shaft, which is made with an inserted titanium wire. What’s good about having titanium inserted – its resilience is overwhelmingly good. Of course, good resilience would greatly help with direction and distance.

“This Monstar shaft is available in our store. It is Made in Japan. From the Japanese Arute Corp., a company with a 30-year tradition and boasting an overwhelming production share in carbon-pole shafts. With their unique carbon manufacturing technology and the expertise accumulated over the years, they have finally launched a new product, the 2018 Full Titanium Reinforced Monstar shaft.

“The inner diameter of the Full Reinforced Shaft uses a mix of 60T carbon, which has a strength more than twice that of steel, and an elasticity rate more than five times. During a swing, it supports the force, maintains Low Torque at impact, significantly suppresses twisting, and is significantly smoother than a shaft with the same stiffness CPM. Even though it is lightweight, it outperforms a shaft of the same weight in terms of resilience.

“The Monstar Full Titanium shaft is also the first in the industry to reinforce from the tip start point to the butt end with Titanium Wire, delivering power from the start of the swing impact to the end of the follow through at the butt end, delivering energy so that the ball can fly to the end with impact.

“The Monstar shaft, with the insertion of Full Titanium Wire, has the advantage of being more than 10g lighter, allowing for easier head speed increase when swinging. As a result, it is the ultimate carbon shaft that allows all players to significantly increase their distance and tolerance by solely relying on the shaft.

“In the past, Honma came out with a full titanium shaft. I remember being surprised when sparks flew while cutting the shaft for fitting, even though it was carbon…That Monstar shaft will probably also have sparks flying.”

Some additional research also led me to a YouTube video from Tour Experience Golf (TXG), where the expert fitters tested out the shaft. In the video, they compare the Monstar shaft to the popular pink AutoFlex shaft, which is known for its uniquely whippy construction. As described in the video, however, the AutoFlex X-Flex measures about 210 CPM (cycles per minute), while the Monstar X-Flex measures a more standard 280 CPM.

Matthews himself plays a Monstar Full Titanium XX-Flex shaft, which measures 69 grams, based on the shaft label.

It’s extremely important to keep in mind here that Matthews is currently ranked No. 2 in Driving Distance on the PGA Tour in 2022-2023, averaging 321.8 yards per drive.

To me, that means two things:

Brandon Matthews is a different kind of beast (a mon-ster, if you will), and,
The Monstar Full Titanium shaft, with its “titanium wire,” is clearly stable enough to withstand Matthews’ other-worldly speed. Surely it can also withstand the speeds of other fellow pros and amateurs, too.

I reached out to the company for further information, but I’ve yet to hear back at the time of publishing. I’ll be sure to update this story should more details become available, and hopefully I’ll be able to test out the shaft for myself in the future and report back. From the sounds of it, this shaft won’t be easy to get my hands on. Hopefully, Matthews’ buddy has another one on deck…

Until then, check out the photos of Matthews’ Monstar shaft here

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Andrew Tursky

He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

5 Comments

Guy Sykes

Jun 28, 2023 at 12:25 pm

Interesting read and surprised to see titanium coming back to shafts. In the late 80’s/early 90’s there were all titanium shafts available made by Sandvik Titanium in Richland, Wa. Called TI Shafts they were very lightweight in different flexes (not auto flex) and at the time pretty expensive. I ran a golf club repair business and had a set in both woods and irons and they played extremely well. Very lightweight through the set. Sandvik is still in business but no longer makes shafts.

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- F
  
  Jul 2, 2023 at 12:54 pm
  
  I had one in one of my Taylormade Burner metal drivers in 1991. It was really good
  
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J14

Jun 28, 2023 at 11:20 am

I had Titanium iron shafts 20 + or so years ago. Stiff and much lighter than steel.

Very accurate — Very expensive.

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Www

Jun 28, 2023 at 11:08 am

http://miraigolf-mk.com/newsr/gew-2-2/

You’re welcome

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Jimbo88

Jun 28, 2023 at 9:16 am

Tursky: Did you speak with James Chang (the Korean writer/golfer who contributes to GolfWRX: https://www.golfwrx.com/author/james-chang/), to see whether he can share insights w.r.t. Monstar shafts? (given its likely Korean origin… and given that James has been exploring these lightweight shafts e.g. AutoFlex and FreeFlex? https://www.golfwrx.com/704393/

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Equipment

Voting is live: 2023 GolfWRX Members Choice presented by 2nd Swing!

Published

1 hour ago

Jul 10, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

We’re proud to partner with 2nd Swing Golf to bring you GolfWRX Members Choice 2023! 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.

The bedrock of GolfWRX.com is the community of passionate and knowledgable golfers in our forums, and we put endless trust in the opinions of our GolfWRX members — the most knowledgeable community of golfers on the internet. No other group of golfers in the world tests golf clubs as frequently or as extensively, or is armed with such in-depth information about the latest technology and gear.

On that note, we just launched our 2023 GolfWRX Members Choice awards, and the polls are now open.

We want to hear from you, not just with a vote but with your comments too!

Please vote in the Members Choice categories below!

And don’t forget to comment with the reasoning for your choice!

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Equipment

GolfWRXers put the Full Swing KIT’s accuracy to the test

Published

4 hours ago

Jul 10, 2023

GolfWRX Staff

Last month, four GolfWRX forum members traveled to The Grand Golf Club at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, California, to test the Full Swing KIT launch monitor and to see how it stacks up against other launch monitors. If you’re not familiar with the Full Swing KIT, development began when Tiger Woods requested a launch monitor he could trust on the range as much as he trusted his Full Swing simulator in his own home. Later, the KIT earned Tiger’s seal of approval and has been seen with him at every tournament he’s played in since its release.

Check out the video below to see if the KIT can earn the seal of approval from our four WRXers — @zap311, @double or triple?, @hatrick11, and @SwingBlues — just like it did from Tiger Woods himself.

GolfWRX members on the KIT’s accuracy

zap311: “The Full Swing team seems obsessed with accuracy when it comes to the KIT – The team talked about how this product officially shipped about 18 months ago and they are already on firmware release #20. They said they are regularly releasing updates (overnight via WiFi) to continuously improve accuracy and performance. That is pretty awesome and it’s nice to hear that they are not a company that “ships it” and moves to the next thing. I think they are on the right track since I saw virtually no differences in the data when testing vs. GCQuad and Trackman today.”

double or triple?: “In some cases the difference was less than half a degree on launch and less than 50 rpms on spin.”

hatrick11: “The differences were statistically nonexistent. I think it’s hard to believe for a lot of people when you think about the huge price disparity, but I can’t state enough how close the Full Swing was to trackman every single time, for each of us.”

“Outside, the data is just really really accurate. I know my numbers and know this particular range very well and the KIT was spot on all day. I also had some very variable quality golf balls in the bucket I hit and there was really only one spin rate in the whole session that had me raising my eyebrows at all.”

SwingBlues: “The GolfWRX Full Swing/WRX Experience showed Full Swing KIT produce numbers the same as the GC Quad (GC4) and the Trackman4. Dollar wise, both LMs are easily north of KIT, so this is HUGE to stand up there with the bigger boys on the Podium. For me, it seems more “apples to apples” to compare KIT to GC3. My own testing validates what we saw at the Experience. It shows critical data points like spin, carry, ball speeds are dead on or almost dead on for 40 yards and up on both GC3 and KIT.”

More on the Full Swing KIT

zap311: “The versatility of viewing data is impressive – Depending on usage, everyone has different preferences for viewing data. You have on-device, phone, tablet, monitor, smartwatch, or audio/headphones. I’m pleased to say that Full Swing covers all of these. You can use the app on iOS devices (they said Android is planned for the future). This includes viewing your last shot on the Apple Watch with a few options and turning on audio playback of your preferred metrics following each shot. I’ll post screenshots of this later. You can also choose between 4 data points or 1 data point on the device itself. It was easy to use the app to customize the top 4. For example, I was able to quickly change from launch angle on irons to swing path on driver.

“The KIT was very easy to use – Once you spend a few minutes learning the app and settings, it is very simple to select a club, line up the target line, and fire away. You don’t have to use a level or a laser to line up. KIT uses the built-in camera to tell you where to line up within the app or on-device screen. I was also able to boot up the KIT in less than a minute and drop it down on the tee box for our on-course trial today. Because of this simplicity, I can see it being more practical to bring to the course…

“The Full Swing team really thought through usability for the KIT. You can see up to four data points on the device’s OLED screen. You can see all 16 data points on your iPhone/iPad along with a video replay of the shot, you can view one primary metric from your Apple Watch, and you can enable audio playback for any of the 16 data points. For me, this was a dream as a full iOS user. One other feature I like is that you can star a particular shot to save it. You can also send shot data + the video recording to your coach if you want.”

double or triple?: “I was able to meet the teaching pro at the range I’m using for testing – PGA teacher/member Ryan Kolk. He and his team have 4 units amongst themselves and use them both personally and with their students during lessons. Ryan spent time dialing in his knowledge of the range balls vs proV1x (gamer) to better understand the FSK and he believes the consistency is there with the FSK and within trackman and GC/Foresight models. His preference is to use FSK while testing shafts and new product before using them in his personal playing bag which as a GolfWRX member is 100% appreciated. For his better students, he believes the information like Face to Path and Club Path that FullSwing Kit offers is great to help them understand what their swing is doing and use that information to better themselves.”

hatrick11: “It’s nice to know I can get super useful practice sessions in at my house, and can do in in ~20 min stints; with two little kids at home I can’t just go out for frequent or lengthy range sessions, so this is super valuable and I think will help me keep my game from degrading and allow me to spend my limited free time enjoying the occasional round with friends. In particular with the KIT, as opposed to the cheaper monitors or the other “mid tiers” like GC3, seeing path and face-to-path data is the key item that makes my practice sessions useful…when I am grooving it my path is almost always between 0-2* out to in, with face control being the main thing I need to work on. When my game goes sideways I start coming more in to out, and combined with face consistency being an ongoing issue, that brings the bad left miss into play. Previously I have struggled getting real use out of net practice, because the feels don’t always match reality. This data and video evidence really helps keep me honest, so it was great to see that I was eventually able to get that piece dialed in with KIT.”

SwingBlues: “One feature I am really starting to like is how easy to see the video of each shot. My buddy was not hitting it well, we went to the video and we could see the takeway was too far to the outside.”

“Using the app, it will display all 16 data points. Below is an example of one of my iron shots. Pretty impressive data captured by KIT. On KIT itself, the launch monitor display can be configured to show a single data point, or it can show a grid of 4 data points where the golfer choose which ones to display!”

Head over to the thread for more comments, reviews, and future updates as our members continue to test the Full Swing KIT. Don’t forget to become a member today for future opportunities like this, plus product member testing and giveaways!

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