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The fact is, no shaft is perfectly round, straight or stiff throughout its length. Despite modern manufacturing techniques every golf shaft, whether steel or composite, remains as unique as a fingerprint and cannot be fully analyzed until after the shaft has been manufactured.

What is SST PUREing®

SST PUREing® is a patented process of shaft alignment that analyzes a golf shaft to find its most stable orientation. Using proprietary patent-pending computer software and sensitive data-acquisition sensors, the SST PUREd® Shaft Alignment System quickly locates the “neutral” plane in each shaft. By assembling the club with the shaft in this SST PUREd® position, off-line twisting and bending during the golf swing and at impact are greatly minimized. The SST PUREd® system also generates a printout for each shaft, showing its structural and performance analysis.

Why do shafts need to be PUREd®?

Like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two golf shafts are exactly the same. Every shaft contains irregularities in straightness, roundness and stiffness that are inherent to the manufacturing process. These structural inconsistencies can negatively or positively affect a shaft’s performance depending on how the shaft is aligned in the clubhead. SST PUREing® locates the most stable orientation in any shaft.

The SST PUREd® process works on any shaft, regardless of its material; steel, graphite, even boron or thermoplastic shafts benefit from the SST PUREd® process.

What are the performance benefits of the SST PUREd® process?

The result of the SST PUREd® process is that players of all skill levels hit the ball longer, straighter and more uniformly consistent than ever before. Independent testing on players of all skill level has established that SST PUREd® improves impact repeatability on the center of the clubface by up to 51 percent. Clubs that have been SST PUREd® have a softer feel than randomly installed shafts, which is the current standard for club assembly..

What is the correct way to install them?

When you insert the shaft into the clubhead, the arrow should be pointing straight up. If you think of the hitting direction as 9 o’clock, this means you want the arrow at the 12 o’clock position.

For a left-handed golfer, however, you want the arrow in the 6 o’clock position.

It is important to align the arrow at directly 12 o’clock in the hosel. Do not align it with the leading edge of the clubface.

What is the difference between spining and SST PUREing®?

Spining is a nebulous terms that a lot of different people use to describe a lot of different processes. To some people spining means putting the shaft in a clamp and deflecting it back and forth. To others is means using a tube-like device to determine the straightness of a shaft.

The SST PUREing® process, on the other hand, is an engineeringly sound procedure that performs a structural and performance analysis on every shaft to locate its most stable orientation. This is done by computer analysis, so any errors which might be made from human judgment are negated. SST PUREing® locates the Plane of Uniform Repeatability in every shaft, that is, the dominant plane in the shaft on which the shaft flexes. This guarantees a softer feel and more consistent performance from club to club.

If any clubmaker tells you, "I can do the same thing as PUREing," don't listen to them unless you receive an official SST PUREing® printout. Your game is to important to be trusted to an individual's judgment.

Do steel shafts need to be PUREd?

Absolutely. Steel shafts are made by heating a flat piece of steel and wrapping it around a template called a mandrel. The ends of the steel are welded together to form what is called a weld seam. The location of this weld seam greatly affects the way the shaft performs. Straightness and roundness are also an issue in mass-produced steel golf shafts, and the SST PUREing® process takes all of these factors into account when PUREing a steel shaft.

Do PGA TOUR golfers use the SST PUREd® process?

The SST PUREd® Shaft Alignment Lab is present at many PGA TOUR events and has PUREd shafts for more than 200 TOUR players during the past five years. Some TOUR players will not hit a club unless it has been SST PUREd® aligned. Many players from the LPGA, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour have also had shafts PUREd.

What does the printout mean?

The printout can be broken down into two sections: The top shows the results from a structural analysis of your shaft, and the bottom shows the results of a performance analysis before and after the shaft was PUREd.

The graph at the top of the page shows the results from the Load Symmetry Index Test. This test analyzes the structure of your shaft. The result is a number from 1 to 100. If a shaft were perfectly round, perfectly straight and equally stiff all the way around, its score would be 100 and the line on the graph would be straight across the top. Such a golf shaft does not exist.

The graphs at the bottom of the page indicate the movement of the shaft tip at impact. The red graph on the left demonstrates how the shaft performed in the Logo Up position, which is the typical method of shaft installation. The green graph on the right shows how the shaft performs in the SST PUREd® position.

Finally, the conclusion on the bottom of the page lets you know how much the shaft was rotated and how much more stable it is now that it has been SST PUREd® aligned.

The PPOP, or principal planar oscillation plane, is the plane of assembly in which the shaft is the most stable when striking the ball.

The SST PURE® process involves identifying the inherent asymmetries within each shaft. Using patent-pending state-of-the-art computer analysis, SST PUREd® pinpoints and correctly aligns the PPOP in the clubhead to optimize shaft stability and performance -- ensuring the uniform matching of clubs within a set and allowing each club to perform to the best of its manufactured capability.

The SST PUREing® equipment generates a printout that accompanies each shaft that provides visible proof that the shaft has been "PUREd" by SST or its licensees. The printout shows the shaft's performance characteristics before and after the PURE process.