You already know how much I love my Aerotech SteeFiber Private Reserve shafts. It seems like whenever I'm fit for irons these are one of let's say three different shafts that always seem to work best for me.
And this guest review of the SteelFiber Private Reserve by Curt sounds like he's also found iron shafts that work best for his game as well. Curt won a full set of SteelFiber Private Reserve in my PGAPappas 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway and says he's "finding the center of the face more often," and his overall iron game has gone from "pretty inconsistent" to "showing tons of promise."
In his own words, here's what Curt (@cbackhaus3 on X) thinks about his new Aerotech SteelFiber Private Reserve shafts.
Hey Pete, I’d like to thank you and Aerotech again for the full set of SteelFiber Private Reserve Shafts I won in your 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. Oh, and I have to thank Santa too, since these were from a Letters from Santa giveaway. I had them installed a while back into my Tour Edge Exotics C722 irons, have a few rounds in with them now, so thought I’d share my thoughts on them with you.
First a little about me. I’m 66 years old and started golfing in my mid-30s. The first 15 years was very off and on with long layoffs. The last 15 years have been pretty steady though. My current handicap is around 16.5 and it usually varies from there to around 18. My driver swing speed has been going down with age, probably somewhere around 85 - 90 mph now and my normal driver ball flight is a mid/mid-low fade with an average total distance around 220 - 225 yds. Irons haven’t gone south near as much as the long clubs and my normal ball flight is mid-low either straight or a slight draw. I still hit the 7-iron around 155 yards total.
Now about the build I did with these shafts. I’ve been a big fan of Tour Edge Exotics for a long time. I’ve been playing their drivers, fairways, and hybrids for many years but had never tried their irons. Well last year they contacted me through email and offered me a deal on their 2022 irons that I just couldn’t pass up. So I picked up a set of the C722 irons, 4 through PW, but had to go with a shaft that was less than ideal for me.
The graphite shaft options were either really light weight (which through previous experience I know wouldn’t work well for me), or some 80 gram class shafts (the heaviest available) but in a low-launch profile. So I went with the latter and I don’t hate them, but they are not a very good fit and the feel was terrible. I’d been fit into SteelFiber i95 shafts for my previous irons and loved them so I was thrilled to win these and couldn’t wait to get them into the C722s. I finished them off with some blue Lamkin UTX Midsize grips and WOW, what a difference!
Not only do the SteelFiber look great but the feel I was missing is back and my iron game is starting to come around again. The shafts I pulled had a very stiff midsection and a pretty stiff tip (which is not good for my slower swing speed and moderate tempo) so feel and consistency suffered. The Private Reserves are definitely softer throughout and I can feel the clubhead again throughout the swing. I’m finding the center of the face more often. And my shot dispersion is coming back.
No shaft is going to cure bad swings and my misses are still there when I put a bad swing on the ball (usually a pull/draw) but the good swings are getting much better results. These SteelFiber shafts are really making the C722s shine, going from a set of clubs that I really liked but was pretty inconsistent with to a set that are showing tons of promise!
I don’t think I’ll be swapping out these irons for my old set anymore. I’ll still play those Mizuno JPX 919 Forged with their SteelFiber shafts from time to time but I think the more forgiving C722s with the Private Reserve shafts will a home in my bag more often than not.
One more thing, I received a full set of eleven shafts. I’ve used seven of them in these irons so I have four left that I’m not sure what I’ll do with. I was thinking maybe hybrids but I’m doing well with lighter shafts in my hybrids. I play graphite shafts in my wedges and I think those last four shafts would be great for wedges. But these are .370 parallel tips and all of the wedges I’ve played are .355 tapers. I guess I could have the shaft tips turned down to .355?
Thanks again Pete!
Curt “OldeDude” Backhaus
Great stuff Curt. Pumped you've brought your irons back to life with the SteelFiber shafts! And they're working out pretty well for Nelly Korda as well (4 wins in a row and going for a record tying 5 in a row this weekend at The Chevron Championship).
Regarding the .370 into .355 yes you can do that, usually sanding down the .370 tips to fit into the .355 wedges. I don't know exactly how to do that however so I'd recommend going somewhere like Club Champion to get it done. And I can tell you from experience the results you're getting with your new Aerotech SteeFiber Private Reserve shafts in the irons will translate every bit as well to the wedges.
As always anytime any of you want to write a guest review shoot me a DM or email and we'll get it done. Loving absolutely everything about these. All our different personalities, all our different opinions. And of course all of us having a lot more fun on the course as well.
Cheers all!
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