Shaft switches for Lefty

Phil Mickelson isn’t afraid to change his equipment in the pursuit of improved performance. 

Indeed, who can forget the 41-year-old changing from Titleist to Callaway the week before the 2004 Ryder Cup.

“I’m always looking to change something to get an advantage. If you make even a subtle change, it can salvage you a stroke here or there and make the difference,” said the left-hander.

The World No 10 has recently made two shaft changes.

In his woods, he swapped out the Fujikura Speeder with which he won the AT&T Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. 

He changed to 70-gramme, double extra-stiff versions of the Mitsubishi Diamana ‘ahina. The ‘ahina is designed to be incredibly stable and offer a low launch with low spin. Mickelson is known for having one of the highest natural flights on Tour so it’s not hard to see why he made this switch.
"I’m always looking to change something to get an advantage. If you make even a subtle change, it can salvage you a stroke here or there and make the difference." – Phil Mickelson Mickelson has also changed iron shafts. The American consulted friend and famous designer Kim Braly – owner of KBS – and worked to find a model that fit his swing.

Unlike many other pros, Mickelson tests shafts in his irons individually to see how the different lofts behave in terms of spin and flight. 

He found the original KBS Tour was good in the long irons, but produced a flight that was too high and spinny further down the bag.

Braly created a shaft just for Mickelson – the KBS Tour V2 – which has the same weight (130g) as the original but with a stiffer tip and higher kickpoint. This keeps the trajectory down and spins less.

Mickelson put them straight in the bag from 5-iron to pitching wedge. He has kept the Project X 7.0 shafts in his wedges and the original KBS Tour in his 4-iron.