kbs tour driven category 4

Should you play the KBS TD driver shaft?

Last updated: 12 October 2023

If you love KBS iron shafts, should be playing the new KBS TD driver shaft? We took a TG reader to Precision Golf to find out.

Hopefully, KBS is a name you already know, the brand started out in 2008 and it was founded by Kim Braly (the designer of the original Rifle shaft). Ever since then, they’ve heaped focus on designing some of the best iron shafts in the game, but what about the best driver shafts? Over the years the brand have built a great reputation amongst some of the world’s best players, and the likes of DJ, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry and Gary Woodland have all not only played their shafts, but won with them too.

And now having carved out a brilliant reputation for irons shafts KBS want to give golfers the opportunity to play KBS throughout their bag. So they’ve launched their first ever wood shaft, the KBS TD . 

What you need to know about the KBS TD wood shaft

KBS have successfully focused their attention on steel iron shafts for years, but Kim Braly has now applied his same philosophy to graphite wood shafts. KBS dipped their toes into the graphite market a few years ago with the KBS Tour hybrid shaft , which has been very successful in the hands of decent players. The reason behind its popularity is how naturally it didn’t spin up or go left, which counteracts some of the drawbacks that decent players experience when hitting hybrids.

The TD is mid-launch and spin, so it suits lots of golfers needs, there’s been rumours of a lower launch model in the pipeline, but for now the TD has enough options (there’s 15 different shafts) say KBS to accurately fit golfers from 17 – 70 years of age.

Unlike most wood shafts the TD isn’t badged up with a flex, instead KBS opt for five categories. Weights range from 40g – 80g and the idea is that whatever weight you choose for the driver, your 3-wood and 5-wood will be 10g and 20g heavier respectively. The idea means golfers get a similar feel throughout their wood set-up.

As a comparison to other shafts KBS say Category 5 shafts generally equate to a Tour X Flex, Category 4 are X Flex, Category 3 are Stiff, Category 2 are Regular and Category 1 is an A Flex. 

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KBS say feel is a very personal thing but KBS are renowned for making very stable shafts that have a lovely firm feel. It’s that feel that’s convinced lots of players to switch to KBS iron shafts, and you’ll get that same feel and feedback from the TD. So if you’ve been playing KBS iron shafts, and like the impact sensation and feedback it’s highly likely you’ll enjoy the TD wood shafts too.   

Unlike most other shafts the TD shafts all come decked out in the same red/black or red/silver colourway so there’s no different colours to depict lower launch or spin models from their mid and high counterparts. It’s an idea we really like as a colour doesn’t immediately give away how a golfer might be a fast or slow speed player.  

WATCH: KBS TD driver shaft fitting video

Andrew Brown plays off a 3-handicap at Ingestre Park in Staffordshire, he’s played the game since being a junior and is an avid golfer. His strengths include chipping and putting, his weakness has been driving the ball of the tee as there’s a tendency to pull shots left since buying a new driver off the rack in 2021.

Currently Andrew plays a P ing G425 Max (10.5deg loft) driver with a Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange shaft. He bought the driver from his local club pro, and after playing during the summer doesn’t feel the driver/shaft are a great fit for him. 

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Simon Cooper is a Director and Club Fitter at Precision Golf in West Byfleet, Surrey. As an amateur he was off +1, and played in the Brabazon Trophy and English Amateur Championship. After turning professional he played on the EuroPro and Challenge tours, and made it to final qualifying for the Open twice.    

Simon’s approach to fitting is based around being sympathetic to the golfer, believing that equipment should both compliment a golfers swing and their approach to the game. He reckons a good fitting involves far more than just looking at club head speed and handicap and prescribing a regular or stiff flex shaft.

The fitting – Simon Cooper

I started off looking at Andrew’s own driver, and experience told me the Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange shaft has a mid to high balance point with a stable tip. It’s a low spin shaft with a degree of counter balancing, and with a swingweight of D4 it’s relatively a head heavy set-up. It means Andrew’s left miss is perfectly understandable, considering his in-to-out swing and the linkage of how he and the club interact to create shot shape.   

Andrew’s tendency is to drive with his hips, so the club drops in behind him and his hands have to play catch up and fetch the club head over, which causes the looping left miss. His delivery lines (from a swing point of view) are very good, but the club head is out of control.

From knowing the club set up, the data it creates and how they interact there’s parameters like shaft weight, tip stiffness and bend point which we can use in theory to help improve the data. That’s the thing with fitting, we know how changing certain characteristics should effect performance but it’s important to remember we all react differently to them.   

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The KBS TD and Tensei AV Orange are really quite different set-ups. The KBS is a very firm feeling, stable shaft (that’s not that different between the two shafts), but the balance point of the Tensei AV Orange is in the upper-mid portion of the shaft where the KBS is lower-mid. And how that interacts with the swing is quite different. The main issue with the Tensei AV Orange for Andrew was the high balance point with a heavy head, so it’s like swinging a lead ball on a piece of string, the pair are almost detached.

After hitting his own driver Andrew started off with the KBS TD Category 3, 60g shaft which made the driver feel less head heavy. The swing line numbers remained the same, but shots went even more left as the club still got stuck behind Andrew, and the lighter head balance meant he could really flip it over, which of course is destructive.

The next step, as the club was still getting stuck behind Andrew, was getting the club out in front and working with the body rotation to get face control. As clubs getting stuck behind will always end with a hand salvage operation, which leads to major consistency issues. We moved to the lighter KBS TD 50g (Category 3) and straight away, while there were still some left misses, the bulk of shots were much more down the target line.

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Immediately the 50g set-up gave a squarer club face and more control, but because the face was now delivered squarer rather than being rolled over, all of a sudden we had a higher launch and extra spin, and we really wanted to dial that down. With a little bit of swing work and thanks to the lighter club head feel, Andrew was able to get control of where the club was going, so he could dictate the shot pattern.

By dropping the loft down (from 10.5° – 9°) we eliminated the pop-up ball flight, so Andrew’s stronger hits got out there. The last shot of the session was a great example of how much change we saw in just 30-minutes of fitting. With a dead square face, Andrew hit a straight shot to 265 yards with a really good balance of launch and spin.  

By differentiating each parameter during the fit we’ve got to an optimum position and the KBS TD was an absolutely perfect fit. If we look at Andrew’s best shots the KBS TD Category 50g shaft increased ball speed by 4.3mph and carry distance by 11 yards with a smash factor increase from 1.41 to 1.46.

Even if we weren’t looking at KBS shafts in this session this model would have been the one model we would have ended up with. The mixture of its lightweight properties with a stable and mid to low spin profile, along with the lower head loft Andrew picked up a good chunk of yards and more reliably hit the fairway, which is a win-win for everyone.

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Verdict: KBS Tour TD driver shaft – Andrew Brown

Straight away the fitter understood my game, he picked up my weakness and realised very quickly how the counter balanced Tensei AV Orange wasn’t a great fit for me. Having that sort of knowledge and experience is really impressive, and then being able to go ahead and make the changes one at a time so I could see the differences in shot shape and data is really clever. By understanding your game a really good fitter can fix things and make your clubs right for you.

It’s a big ask for any club golfer to truly feel the difference between a lot of shafts but I really like the feel of the KBS TD and the numbers it’s created are very impressive. I like the idea of keeping all the shafts looking the same and there’s plenty of driver and fairway wood options so every golfer can find a solution for their own game. The fitting has not only benefitted me hugely, its also given me a better idea of how I launch drives too, I can’t recommend the process highly enough.

I’ve never been for a proper fitting like this before, it’s been a wonderful experience, my club pro did the best he could, but he doesn’t have the technology or fitting options like they have at Precision Golf. The whole process has really opened my eyes, the KBS TD shafts have been fantastic and because I’ve enjoyed the KBS feel so much I’d love to try their irons shafts next.

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KBS TD driver shaft specs  

Visit the KBS website here

Visit the Precision Golf website here

READ NEXT: Best 2021 Driver Test

TD DRIVER/WOOD SHAFT LIMITED EDITION

$ 250.00.

LIGHTER. STIFFER. PROVEN.

“The KBS TD is the culmination of my years of shaft design being put into the most exciting club in your bag. The KBS TD will change the way you look at Driver/Wood shafts.” – Kim Braly

The KBS TD Driver/Wood Shaft is a lighter and stiffer Driver/Wood shaft that has the characteristics of the original KBS feel, efficiency, and optimization of spin and launch that the KBS product line is known for. It is a Mid Launch/Low Spin Performance Graphite golf shaft that optimizes the maximum performance and efficiency of spin and launch angles at various swing speeds.

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

KBS TD Driver Shaft Review – Specs, Flex, Weight

KBS is known for their amazing iron shafts.

But with the KBS TD shaft, they are making a bid for wood shafts.

The KBS TD shaft marks the company’s first foray into the driver shaft market and as a KBS fan, I was really excited to see what they could do with graphite wood shafts.

The KBS TD is available in a variety of weights and flexes. It seems that KBS wanted to reach as many different players as possible with their first driver shaft.

But I tested the KBS TD in stiff flex at 70 grams. Read on to see how the KBS TD shaft fared.

KBS TD Driver Shaft Overview

The KBS TD driver shaft is available in three different finishes; but the black/white gloss finish is exclusive to the 40g weight class and the matte black finish is exclusive to the extra stiff and tour extra stiff versions.

For my stiff flex, 70g shaft, I got the black gloss finish. It looked nice but I wish I was able to get the matte black finish. Something about a glossy KBS shaft just doesn’t seem right.

In any case, the KBS TD has a high kick point just below the grip. But the entire shaft flexes well. You can feel the shaft conform to your downswing but it never gets ahead of you.

With the high kick point, I was able to get a mid/low launch out of the KBS TD driver shaft. The transition was smooth even though I would say the entire shaft has an active feel.

This isn’t a stout, stubborn donkey of a shaft. It will work with you and let you know it’s doing its part to increase your club head speed.

70 grams is pretty close to my gamer shaft so the weight felt familiar. As a result, I was able to get comfortable with the KBS TD shaft pretty quickly.

I was reminded of the feel of KBS’s steel iron shafts: all the action was controlled and the transition was remarkably smooth. But there is definitely more activity in this shaft than in most of their steel iron shafts.

The KBS TD driver shaft strikes a really nice balance between speed/fluidity and control/precision.

Why is the KBS TD So Popular?

This is the first driver shaft made by the ultra-popular KBS brand so yeah, it’s going to turn some heads.

Subjectively though, I can see the KBS TD becoming a popular choice for players who want a lightweight driver shaft that offers the control and stability of a heavier shaft.

How Does the KBS TD Driver Shaft Perform?

With the kick point being just under the grip, I was actually expecting lower launch angles.

Alas, my launch angles stayed between 13 and 15 degrees. That’s really the only gripe I have about the performance of this shaft.

My club head speed (just a bit over 101 MPH), ball speed (152 MPH on average) and carry distance (256 yards on average) were all on point.

I got very comfortable with this shaft in very short order. The divergence was tight as well – it never exceeded 11 yards.

I think what impressed me the most was that the KBS TD shaft produced relatively low spin rates.

For a 70g shaft, 2100 RPM spin is pretty impressive. Is the KBS TD shaft the lowest-spinning shaft? No. Is it the longest driver shaft? No.

But the KBS TD is very consistent. And if you choose a KBS TD shaft that is similar in weight to your current driver shaft, the shift will be really easy.

The KBS TD is an easy shaft to pick up. Not bad for KBS’s first driver shaft.

KBS TD Driver Shaft Specs

What flexes are available what swing speeds do they suit.

Amateur and regular flex would be good for 60-70 MPH swingers.

Stiff and extra stiff may suit 71-80 MPH swingers. Tour extra stiff would be good for 81-95 MPH swingers.

What Weights Are Available? What Swing Speeds Do They Suit?

The 40g and 50g versions would be fitting for 60-70 MPH swingers.

The 60g version may work for 71-80 MPH swingers.

The 70g and 80g versions would likely benefit faster swingers in the 81-95 MPH swing speed range.

Why is it So Good?

The KBS TD is a good shaft because it provides a good balance of precision and distance.

The dispersion is tight and the distance is at least reasonable.

KBS TD Driver Shaft First Impressions

I wasn’t a fan of the glossy finish and the branding on the shaft at first – there is lettering on both hemispheres of the shaft so you can’t escape it.

But the feel was immediately comfortable and strangely familiar.

Key Features & Performance

The KBS TD driver shaft has a fairly soft tip section which is probably what contributes to the mid launch angles.

It sort of cancels out the effects of the high kick point.

KBS TD Driver Review

With my driver, the KBS TD shaft stayed fast but was never out of control.

The relatively low spin rates also kept rollout strong.

KBS TD Fairway Wood Review

With my 3-wood, the KBS TD was able to produce a really nice, familiar high draw that could be worked to a straight shot with a little effort.

KBS TD Pros & Cons

• Smooth transition
• Relatively low spin rates
• Active feel
• Good club head speed
• I expected lower launch angles

Overall Score: 96/100

Check out more reviews here:.

Who Should Buy it?

  Did the KBS TD driver shaft absolutely wow me?

No. But there is still something to be said about consistency.

In true KBS fashion, the TD driver shaft is one of the most consistent graphite shafts I’ve tested in a long time.

You know and you can feel exactly what you’re going to get out of it on every swing.

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