Shaft Review – UST Elements Series

By: Matt Saternus

If you walked around UST’s booth at the 2013 PGA Show, you absolutely could not miss their new Recoil iron shaft (review here).  It was the subject of giant graphics and displays on all sides of the booth.

What you could have easily missed was the launch of the Elements.  Thankfully, I didn’t because UST was very excited to tell me about the research that had led to the birth of the Elements.

UST’s proprietary research has uncovered new data that says that the oft-overlooked mid-section of the shaft is the most important for spin and launch.  Armed with this knowledge, they set about designing a series of shafts, Elements Earth, Fire, and Wind, that offer different feels of launch characteristics while all utilizing a stable mid-section.

Specs, Price, and Manufacturer Notes

UST offers the Elements shaft in three models

:: Earth is designed with an extremely stable and reinforced mid-section with firm tip for players looking for low launch and spin with incredible control and maximum distance.

:: Fire is designed with an extremely stable and reinforced mid-section for a mid-launch and spin for a penetrating ball flight.

:: Wind is designed with a mid-stiffness area which creates a truly dynamic kick for higher launch and great spin control for maximum carry and roll.

Each Element shaft is available in flexes F3 (regular) through F5 (X).  Weights range from 57 grams to 97 grams.

The Elements shafts carry an MSRP of $311 and are available exclusively through UST Tour SPX dealers.

Looks, Feel, and Miscellaneous

The Elements shafts have some of the busiest graphics I’ve seen in a while.  There’s some carbon fiber in the middle, a ring of sparkly silver, some grey-black-yellow UST branding, and that’s before we get to the very cool palindromic “Elements” logo.  Some will like the graphics and some won’t, but it’s definitely not boring.

The graphics on the shaft have taught me something: the only thing that really matters at address is the foot closest to the head.  The Elements has about 15” of solid yellow nearest the head which makes the shaft not distracting at all in play.  Honestly, if you’re seeing the graphics at address, you’ve either got a massive field of vision or massive attention deficit issues.

In terms of feel, these three shafts are so different that it’s hard to believe they’re from the same brand, let alone the same series.  The Earth has a rock-solid, no-kick feel to it; swing as hard as you want, it’s not going anywhere.  The Wind has loads of kick and a healthy bit of torque.  The Fire is somewhere in between: a slightly softer tip than the Earth but not quite as much torque-feel as the Wind.  When I had other players hit their way through the Elements, they all quickly found a favorite model by feel.

Performance

For the Performance testing, I hit each of the shafts in a Callaway RAZR Fit Extreme 10.5 head on a FlightScope X2 launch monitor.  I hit 20 “good” shots with each shaft, changing frequently so that fatigue was not an issue, nor did I get grooved with one shaft to the detriment of fairness.  All shafts were gripped with PURE Grips.

Testing was done at Golf Nation in Palatine, IL, one of the best indoor golf facilities in the country.

*NOTE: Testing has moved inside for the winter, and our FlightScope seems to be producing somewhat different numbers indoors compared to outdoors.  To greater or lesser extents, ball speed, club head speed, and spin are all coming in lower than they did outdoors, hence the carry number is smaller.  That said, it’s still an apples-to-apples comparison, so no attempt has been made to “normalize” the numbers: we’re publishing the numbers straight off the FlightScope, as always.

DATA

ANALYSIS

In spite of the vast differences in feel, you can see on the FlightScope dispersion graphic that the shot patterns weren’t terribly different for me.  The Wind edged out the other two models in Dispersion, despite having the largest offline number (Earth likely would have won both if not for one ugly pull).

With regard to distance, Earth kept my backspin numbers the lowest which resulted in the best total distance number.  Impressively, it did so without giving up much in terms of launch angle.  Combined with the best offline number and a very respectable dispersion, the Earth would be my choice for a gamer.

Conclusion

Though it wasn’t the most-hyped shaft coming out of this year’s show, the Elements has the compelling story – a solid mid-section being the foundation of a great shaft – and solid performance that could make it a sleeper hit this year.  If you want to see if these shafts can make your driver a SHINING STAR, then head to your nearest UST Tour SPX deal and tell them you’ve GOT TO GET THIS INTO YOUR LIFE.

You didn’t really think I could get through this whole thing without some Earth, Wind, and Fire references, did you?

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