KBS are renowned for their precision steel shafts that are designed by shaft expert Kim Braly.
Steel enables KBS to precisely create golf shafts with different profile as we have discovered in the past with their iron and wedge shafts.
However as more players drop long irons for hybrids, KBS has created their first graphite shaft that aims to have the feel of their premium KBS Tour steel shaft.
Using the bend profile of the KBS Tour, the KBS Tour Graphite shaft offers a mid to high trajectory in four weights of 65g, 75g, 85g, 95g in regular and stiff profiles, plus an X flex for the heaviest weight. There is apparently demand from Tour players for a 105g version and it also comes with a .370 parallel tip diameter for those who are interested in that type of stuff.
The 95g and 85g are the same stiffness, but the lighter 75g is half a flex softer and the 65g a full flex softer in stiff in order to provide some assistance to players who have more normal than tour level swing speeds. The aim is for there to be a matching shaft in graphite for each of the C-Taper steel shafts and the blending across the different types of shafts is very good.
The all black look is in contrast to the silver finish that KBS steel shafts are renowned for, but the red shaft label keeps the branding consistent.
In testing against the stock shaft in my hybrid, the feel and stability that I usually see in the KBS steel shafts was evident in the Tour Graphite.
KBS want this to play like an iron shaft and I would have to agree that this is the case because the stability was excellent. It suited my swing and as a result I got more centre strikes that increased the smash factor I saw on Trackman and gained me an extra 5 yards carry with a lower launch and less spin.
However those were my results so the best thing would be to go to a KBS fitter and see if the Tour Graphite shaft is more beneficial for you than the stock shaft in your hybrid.
Available in early 2017, the variety of weights means that there should be a shaft to suit every player and I could see the KBS Tour Graphite doing well with higher swing speed players as the heavier weight options and iron like stability giving them more confidence to switch out of long irons into hybrids and maintain the accuracy with the higher flight.