REVIEW: Fujikura Fuel Shaft

Put the right "Fuel" in your driver.

Many have talked about the shaft as being the engine of the golf club. Fujikura is using similar terminology with the new “Fuel” shaft. Here is their quote, “FUEL can be defined as material with stored energy that can later be used to generate power.” This really seems to be the driving force behind this shaft; generating kick through impact. The Fujikura Fuel shaft is said to have lots of engine related technology and terms used to describe how it works, words like combustion chamber, fuel rods, and load injector tip. If you like cars, these terms are familiar. If you are just a golf hack, then it sounds like a lot of mumbo-jumbo.

So let’s translate some of this into golfing terms. You can really feel it load on the backswing and feels like it explodes through the impact. The bottom line is that this shaft kicks. It has one of the strongest kicks I think of any shaft I have played. It feels like it lags and then just snaps through the ball without any sense of whippiness. This shaft is smooth feeling with getting loose. The first thing that you will notice and will remember is a strong kick.

That amazing kick generates excellent ball speeds. I was getting some of the best clubhead and ballspead numbers with this shaft in my driver. Like anything if you can generate more clubhead speed and more ballspead, then you can achieve greater distances. I put a 70g Fuel shaft in my Callaway Razor Fit driver. I just did a straight install and left the head at neutral for testing. The Fuel shaft is definitely a mid-launch shaft. It seemed to give a pretty true to loft launch characteristics. It rises gradually and falls gradually which creates a nice looking shot, hole after hole.

The paint scheme slick too. The lower section is all matte black while up by the grip is some glossy black and orange striping with the name and specs. In the picture below you can see the transition between the glossy and matte sections.

Accuracy was another real benefit of this shaft. It kicks straight down the fairway. I have found such great success with Other Fujikura shafts like the F1 & F3. They really tend to be the most accurate shafts I’ve played. The Fuel was no different. Like any shaft, a good swing gets good results, but even some bundled up late fall swings still found the fairway. I’m not one to work the ball, but this shaft seemed to cut side spin to a minimum so even the misses weren’t as wide.

The spin rates were low to mid low. I was averaging right around 2900rpms on the indoor LM. According to charts, if I could drop that about 500rpms I could have maximized my distance even a little more. It’s possible tipping it or getting the tour spec version might do the trick. While those indoor numbers showed great results that could still be improved upon, the on course testing was really pleasing with many long straight drives. I didn’t feel like I was giving up any distance or accuracy with the number of fairways hit and the control I had off the tee.

Maybe your driver isn’t getting the right “Fuel”. If you are looking for a mid-launch, low spin shaft that has amazing kick and is very straight, Fujikura has a “Fuel” shaft for you.

For more information: www.fujikuragolf.com

Quick Hits
+Strong kick
+Great smooth feel
+Accurate

–Low spin, but I could use even lower