After several rounds with these shafts, I think it is time to post my initial review. First, let me say a huge thank you to FST Shafts for the opportunity to test and review this great product.  I have never been fortunate enough to win a giveaway of this magnitude, and it was truly a treat to be a part of this. I am a bona fide iron junkie, and the chance to try out a set of yet to be released shafts was awesome.  



THE PLAYER:


Like most of you, I am a golf and golf equipment geek, but I have a soft spot in my heart for irons.  When I first took up the game, I struggled with them mightily, but have turned iron play into the major strength of my game.  I have traditionally played blades, and picked up a set of Scratch SB-1s a couple of years back that were, and are, some of my favorite clubs to date.  At the time of purchase, they were shafted with KBS Tour x-stiff shafts, and they were some of the best looking, feeling, and performing clubs I have ever owned.  

The shafts were perfect and i immediately gained distance and consistency unlike ever before. Unfortunately, since buying the irons, age and some significant health issues robbed me of some strength and speed, and i lost the magic in that set. I initially tried different shafts in the SB-1 heads, including s400 tour issues, Project X 6.5 and 6.0, and more recently s300s, but none brought the irons “back to life.” None were as long and straight as the KBS Tour x-stiffs, and I could no longer play the irons with those shafts as I had lost too much launch and spin due to my loss of swing speed.  I strayed to other iron sets, and even into the game improvement realm looking for a bit of magic, and started to find some success in my play.  As of now, I am playing in the high sixties and low seventies.  



THE PROCESS:


If I am being truthful, I entered this giveaway in the hopes of winning a set of light weight shafts to try in my SB-1 heads.  At the time of the drawing, i was playing a set of Ping G25s with stock CFS stiff, and was curious what a similarly weighted shaft would play like in the blades.  I even mentioned as much in my entry.  I was shocked when Hip Check informed me i had been chosen.  My goal was to bring the Sb-1s back from the dead.  They are “mine” in that they were custom stamped with my name, and I will never get rid of them.  I always feel like it is a shame not to play them.  I had effectively resigned myself, however, to the fact that I was not strong enough anymore to play them to their full effectiveness.  

I thought these shafts might offer a glimmer of hope – a lightweight shaft with some player-ish characteristics might be just what the doctor ordered.  

A couple of days later, I received an email from Conrad Miller at FST Shafts letting me know they would be sending a set of C-Taper Light stiff shafts my way.  I was good and truly pumped.  I was even more pumped to hear that a member of the KBS advisory board owned a local golf repair shop and fitting studio, and that Conrad was sending the shafts directly to his shop to be installed in my irons.  



Enter Bob Van Sweden, owner of the Golf Repair Center in St. Pete, Florida. Some of you may remember Bob as the fitter chosen to work with some WRX members during a previous giveaway by another OEM at the Doral Resort.  Bob has been recognized by several major OEMs as one of the premier fitters in the industry, and has twice been named a national fitter of the year by one of the largest OEMs in the game.  Bob graciously offered a complete fitting and build for the test, and was very excited about the opportunity to work with the new offering from KBS.  Numbers were exchanged and plans were made for the fitting. 

Now, the fun begins. 

I showed up at Bob’s shop on a Saturday morning ready to get to work.  Bob’s shop is a veritable candyland for golf geeks like me, complete with rare putters collected by Bob over the years, wedges that Bob has personally ground for some of the biggest names in golf, such as Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.  The work shop was full of rare and hard to get equipment such as a putter bending machine given to Bob by Scotty Cameron, and a proprietary club measuring device built for Bob courtesy of Taylor Made.  

The shop is full of fitting carts and high end shafts of almost every make.  I cannot imagine a tour van being outfitted better.

Bob’s fitting area is the type of place board members would like to hang, complete with leather couches, a flat screen tv (The Golf Channel, of course) and a proper launch monitor set up for fittings.  I started with a few practice swings to get loose, and then began the process of trying various heads and flexes.  Bob meticulously gathered data relating to my swing, and went to work on a plan of action.  The plan, ultimately, was to put me into a set of x-stiff C-Taper Lites KBS Shafts instead of the stiffs I requested.  Conrad was pleased to accommodate the request, and Bob worked his magic with the build.  

The resulting product speaks for itself in the pictures below. I can’t thank Bob enough for his help and the wonderful build quality.  He was a pleasure to work with, and is excited about the game and its equipment as we are.  I’d highly recommend looking him up if you are in the Tampa Bay area.  



THE PICTURES:


No product thread is complete without pictures.  Unfortunately, the weather here in Tampa has not been cooperating due to the amount of rain we have received over the last few days.  As a result, these are not my best pictures.  Even still, I don’t think my best pictures could do justice to these shafts.  They are a beautiful satin finish with a bit of an industrial texture to them.  They look like the original C Tapers, and the original satin Project X with a slightly different shaft label.  The shaft labels are very attractive, and match my custom ferrules and paint fill to a tee.









THE PERFORMANCE:

This is ultimately where the rubber meets the road, and I am pleased to report that, if reviving my old set of SB-1s was the goal, my mission was accomplished.  I am not a big numbers guy.  Launch data, spin rate, and the like are great tools, but I am looking for what works on the course.  My review, therefore, will not be the most scientific except to say that these shafts are long, straight, and consistent.  And, completely different than I was expecting.  

Of course, I expected a quality product from FST.  However, having played the CFS proprietary shaft in the Ping G25s, I was really expecting something very similar in terms of feel and performance.  IMO, the CFS is the “every man’s” shaft.  

While I believe that these C-Taper Lites will fit a broader variety of player than their heavier predecessors, I am of the belief that they are still very much aimed as a high performance shaft.  

Feel is the first thing I take note of in a shaft.  In terms of weight, these feel lighter than a typical tour weight shaft, but, in terms of stiffness, they still feel quite substantial. In fact, they feel stiffer than their weight would initially dictate.  I was naively expecting something along the lines of the old uniflex shafts in terms of ease of use.  Despite their weight, these are still “big boy” shafts.  

Those who play tour weight shafts should not simply presume the need to go up in flex just because these are lighter.  I have not played the original C-Taper previously, but I have played the original Project X satin, and these have the same sensation through the swing and at impact – it is almost a “snap” through the ball, instead of the pronounced “kick” I felt with the KBS Tours.  It is a shaft you can really go after without worry.

In terms of ball flight, I would state that these shafts produce a higher trajectory in the mid and long irons than the KBS Tours I previously used in these same heads, though that is just to my eye and not based on any launch data.  

The short irons launch similarly to my eye when comparing the two sets.  Spin also seems a very slight bit more than with the KBS Tours, though not by much in terms of practical results.  These shafts provided me with one hop stops throughout the bag, and none of the wild zippers that I have gotten with other lighter weight shafts I have used in the past.  

Dispersion is excellent.  I get very tight shot shapes with these, if any at all.  Mainly they want to go high, straight, and far, but when they move, the movement is not dramatic.  This was particularly apparent in comparison to a couple of other shafts I have hit recently.  



In terms of distance, these shafts really shine.  These are every bit as long in the SB-1s as the KBS Tours that preceded them, and I didn’t think I would ever be able to reproduce those results.   I found that smooth/stock swings gave me expected performance, and that I got extra distance when I stood on them a bit.  In fact, while other lighter shaft offerings tended to fly the same, or even shorter distances, the harder I swung due to spin, these seem to want to be hit harder and harder.  During my round yesterday, I even stretched a 6 iron out to a 196 yard flag – something I have not done with any iron since my SB-1s lost their magic. These are not your typical light weight shafts. Having said that, I found that, with these, I could take a little off, and the ball would still check. I was never able to control lesser shots with the KBS Tours the way that I have with these so far.  



THE PRAISE:


These are not just great light weight shafts.  These are not just great player’s shafts.  These are GREAT shafts . . . PERIOD.  These shafts (along with a major assist from Conrad Miller at FST and Bob Van Sweden from the Golf Repair Center) have brought my beloved Scratch SB-1s back to life and put them back in the gamer bag.  I can say that over the past several rounds, I have hit the ball straighter and farther than with any set I have played in the past couple of years.  The best description I could come up with in reviewing this shaft is that they are light and tight.  

They are lighter than your typical player’s shaft, but they perform tighter than most any other shaft I have used.  They feel tight during the swing, They provide a tight dispersion patter and ball flight.  The ball remains tight to the landing spot when it hits (hopefully tight to the pin), And, they look TIGHT.  Ha Ha!  Bottom line is that players who prefer a shaft that is lighter then tour weight will get tour performance from this one.  I am loving them.


Thanks again to FST and Bob Van Sweden for lending their time and expertise in making this a truly awesome experience for me, and helping me put an awesome set of clubs back in the bag.