Shaft Fatigue/Failure - I do believe!

There is no argument that shafts fatigue; be it graphite or steel. The main point is how soon. The expert opinion is that under usual loads the shafts shouldn't fatigue in our lifetime.

But I am of the other group, which thinks that it does so sooner not from just proper use but from other factors. I guess a lot of these test are just stress tests in one plane and don't take into consideration the human errors in the swing. We don't hit the ball on the sweet spot of the driver everytime and off centre hits causes a lot of rotational stress on the club head especially near the hosel. If you hit the ball near the heel or even on the hosel, it will definitely fatigue the club. For the driver that's where it's commonly broken. Happened to me. Mine was due to a combination of increased swing speed, swing change with the coach (slight erractic swing because I am grooving the new swing), the wrong flex and the Ultralite shaft. The Ultralite shafts are thinner/less dense and because of that I think more susceptible to failure. It is estimated that about 125000 clubs are returned a year in the USA(not including folks like me who just writes it off).My mom also broke her Big Bertha Hawk Eye Driver Shaft years ago within months of purchase.

Weather conditions aren't taken into consideration either. No long term tests of exposure to the elements. Continental cars never do well in Singapore as the humidity and heat all year round kills the car. Humidity is never good for steel shafts and if you put them away in a musty cupboard or don't use them often, it will start to rust and tarnish.Steel shafts are more resilient to the heat. The UV light and heat does nasty things to the graphite shaft. Let it cook in the sun, IR and UV, the epoxy and resin that holds the fiber together will weaken the 'glue'. The shafts are painted to protect is from UV. But over here the UV and IR are nasty.

The clinking and clunking of the shafts in golf bag also affects the shaft and chips the graphite paint. My friend uses a golf club rack for his clubs in the bag. But that mainly protects the club heads and the shafts are still rocked about. Further we are supposed to be hitting divots. And swinging the club into the hard ground especially playing of a bare hard lie or onto a worn out range mat mustn't be good for the shaft either. Think of Bobby Hull making a slapshot.

The quality of the shafts also should be taken in consideration. The manufacturing process is not 100% perfect and they still have faults, be it for steel or graphite. This would be more likely in OEM shafts rather then the high end original shafts where productions numbers are lower and less profit driven; "$400+ for a new shaft? I can buy a new driver and a wood at that price." Such is the case, that you hear people complain of shaft breaking after a few rounds on the golf course.

Also don't forget the times you drop the club on the ground after a lousy drive, banging the ground in frustration or the club dropping down after you leaned them against your golf bag.

But the grooves of the irons are more likely to wear out first and the driver head is more likely to crack or fatigue before the shaft fails.

So that's my take. So its more like manufacturing fault and golfers fault that the shaft gets affected. So you can get one bad shaft in a whole set of irons with the rest of the irons still working fine.