October-November 2000 by golfpro-online.com
For over 10 years Penley shafts have been the choice for qualifiers and participants of the World Long Drive Championships. That statement speaks volumes about Penley Sports’ ability to consistently design, produce and deliver the best shafts in the industry. Every week, on professional Tours (world wide), Penley shafts are tested and played under the most demanding conditions proving again the quality of Penley products.
Through player feedback and gathering empirical data, Carter Penley has designed and developed a shaft that exhibits the consolidation of all qualities expected by these players, and given us a radically different shaft called “STEALTH”.
STEALTH Stiff Tip Extended Axis Low Torque High-Modulus During the development of this new golf shaft, Penley’s design team determined that they must define critical parameters to establish the broadest performance range of the Stealth shaft series.
ST (stiff tip) Stiff tips provide the best Launch Angle (flight) Control. Penley’s design allows the player to obtain the best carry distance and roll combination.
EA (extended axis) This term refers to the length of the tip parallel. The Stealth has a longer tip parallel, which is better for squaring and faster club head recovery at impact. It also gives the player accurate and controlled feedback as the club head loads the shaft at the top of the swing and then unloads just prior to ball impact, allowing the player to know where the club head is through impact.
LT (low torque) Penley developed and tested the proper torque value in order to allow the ball to stay in contact with the club head just long enough to give the player time to work the ball. This time is important to both average player and the better player. A well-known PGA Tour player once said “I want a shaft that gives me the best performance on miss-hits!” Proper torque control does just that when your strike is off center.. more forgiving.
H (high modulus) Penley has developed a scientific, computer aided, program that calculates the right combination of materials to compliment performance characteristics. Penley has developed a proprietary program known as LTA (laminate theory analysis). This computer program runs a full analysis of the shaft every one hundredth of an inch resulting in approximately 900,000 calculations per shaft. The design team then uses this information to select the correct fiber patterns, tensile strength and modulus materials. Penley also analyzes the micro mechanics of the fiber and the resin mix – another very important factor, not only to the performance but also the longevity (fatigue factors) of the shaft. The LTA is currently being expanded to include FEA (Finite Element Analysis) which will make this already powerful analytical tool the most comprehensive program within the entire golf shaft industry.
The result of all this technology is the STEALTH golf shaft, honed and proven on the PGA and Senior PGA Tour. It is now available to the public for the first time.
