Review: Carter Penley ET2 Shaft

When Boring is Good
Have you ever had someone you’re golfing with call your drives boring?  I had that happen with the Penley ET2 shaft.  Normally we think if boring as not very good and not very interesting, but if your drives are boring, that often means they repeat themselves on every hole.
This is what I find to be the case with the Penley ET2.  It seemed that every drive was a carbon copy of the last one.  I even tried to lay-off it and step it down, and even then the drives just went straight down the middle.  Even the trajectory was basically the same each time.


The shaft itself it very muted, by today’s standards, “boring” in its color scheme.  The slightly metallic grey/silver finish with blue lettering.  It just gave the basic information about the shaft. It is nice to see that this shaft is designed and manufactured in the USA too.  Coming in at 70 grams in the S-flex and 75 in the X flex make for a prefect weight for control and distance.  I put mine in an I-mix tip for testing in my FT-9. My friend who did X-flex testing also installed his in an I-mix tip.  I did a little less tipping on this one based on recommendations from Carter Penley.  It turned out just right after cutting off ½” to accommodate the I-mix adaptor.


The feel of this shaft was again boring; it was very smooth with a consistent kick through the hitting zone.  It didn’t have a distinct feel that made you stand up and notice, it just was easy to load and released easily into the ball.

The ET2 felt like a stiff tip, softer butt shaft.  This combination made for great boring trajectory with plenty of carry and low spin.  I was hitting my normal distances with this shaft with a decent amount of roll.

My friend installed one in his driver albeit an x-flex.  He too had similar results.  He thought this was very similar to the whiteboard he had tried in the same driver.  He found the Penley ET2 more accurate and a touch smoother.  He puts a lot of load on the shaft, and still had great results

This was one of those shafts that kind of surprised me by how consistently it launched the ball on the same trajectory and same line drive after drive.   While it didn’t wow me with its high launch, super low spin, or crazy smooth feeling, it was kind of boring.  I really think that boring is good in this case.  Do I really need the excitement of looking for my ball in the trees or seeing it splash in the lake?  Or do I really want to wonder if the ball is going to cut or draw?  I enjoy watching it go straight down the middle drive after drive.  So if you need to take a little excitement out of your driver, drop in a Penley ET2 so your buddies can call your drives boring all day long.  

For more information: www.penleysports.com