Fujikura Ventus Blue Shaft

“As far as the pros go, everybody hits the ball longer as they generate way more speed. On the instruction front the measurement technology (launch monitors, 3D motion capture, force plate systems, etc) are rapidly coming to the forefront and the technology is so much more accurate and it has allowed golf instruction to uncover so many things and dispel a lot of myths as well as just make the motions simpler to do. In-home simulators are becoming very popular as the technology has improved tremendously and a lot of those similators are more affordable. You can build a simulator in your garage and take up only 1 half of the garage with it being store-able so you can put your car back in there) for easily less than $5K. And not only can you play golf on the simulator, but now there are far better practice modes with the simulators and you can double up the simulator as a movie screen or a screen to watch the big game. Most of the driver technology revolves around speed and MOI (forgiveness). Iron innovation is mostly with what's called 'players distance irons' (i.e. TaylorMade P790). Looks like a blade iron, but there's a cavity inside the iron where they took out the steel and insert stuff like plastic injection molding. This creates a 'hotter' face, but still has a great feel to it and you can easily hit these irons 2 clubs longer than you used to. They also banned U-grooves, but it's not really made a big difference. There are other ways companies found a way around the U-Groove ban. The big thing in putters is 'zero torque' putters' (i.e. LAB Golf). These putters are usually mallet shaped and they are center shafted, but they don't have any toe hang nor are they face balanced. They stay square to the arc and despite having a heavy static weight, they feel very light when you putt. I have one (LAB DF3) and absolutely love it. Golf shafts have changed a bit. There are more shaft profiles then in the past. The big trending driver and wood shafts are the Fujikura Ventus shafts. They are very soft in the mid-section and then they have different stiffness in the handle section and tip secion between the models (Red, Blue, Black and White). Steel shafts still rule the iron shafts market. But it's not just True Temper anymore as Nippon and KBS steel iron shafts are quite popular as well. The same with Project X. Mini-drivers are also becoming a thing. They aren't really meant to be your actual driver. Instead of 460cc heads (typical driver head size), these are usually around 300-340 cc head sizes. They usually have a low 3-wood loft and the shaft length is usually around 43-3/4" long or so (drivers are usually around 45-1/2" long). They are designed more for when the golfer needs to lay-up off the tee as golfers have long struggled hitting your standard 3-wood off the tee. Some of these mini-drivers you can hit off the deck with a pretty decent lie. Also adjustable drivers are basically the standard these days. Instead o”