Robin Arthur, formerly Engineering Supervisor/Engineering Specialist for composite development at General Dynamics, and for eight years Director of Research and Development at Grafalloy, is back in the spotlight. Known in most golf circles as the Father of Lightweight shafts, his designs were the first to be put into play on a regular basis on the PGA Tour. For the past 10 years he has designed graphite shafts and golf products for a number of companies worldwide. Now, with 282 Tour wins credited to his shaft designs, he has launched Arthur’s Xtreme Engineering (AXE) and a new line of shafts — The XCalibers.

AXE’s mission is to simply tell the golfing community the truth about golf shaft design as it relates to performance and cost. Further, to provide golfers of all abilities innovative golf shaft products of the highest quality that provide optimal performance and are PGA Tour validated at fair and reasonable prices.

Golf shaft manufacturing companies throughout the world have historically based their primary marketing strategies on shaft performance. Engineering advancements in shaft materials (steel, then graphite) and mechanical properties (light weight shafts) did advance shaft performance features and were then able to command higher prices. Today, however, golf shaft’s are being marketed whose benefits and attributes are based on what only can be deemed as suspect engineering and material claims. Simply put, the buying public has been duped into associating cost with performance. The truth is that there has not been a single shaft product released in the last 10 years that has delivered on any of the marketed claims. Shafts exist today that sell for over $1000 but DO NOT have any advanced performance attributes over well-designed, fully tested and much lower priced shafts, period!

The XCalibers were first introduced in 2009 and were an immediate hit with club makers and golfers alike. With The Golfworks as the primary XCaliber Distributor coordinating distribution within a developing Dealer network, within a single year they were the 4th highest selling shafts of any individual model for all of The Golfworks 11 shaft vendors. In 2010 sales doubled and they are now in 3rd place. Already 2011is looking like sales will be doubled again especially with the release of the XCaliber Tour SuperLites — sub-50 gram shafts with butt stiffness equal to shafts at much higher weights; and the XCaliber Spin Wedges - uniquely shaped shaft that increases spin 1000-2000 rpm over steel shafts designed for that purpose.

This is all VERY noteworthy given that very little conventional marketing money (ads, internet search optimization, etc.) has been used to promote the XCalibers. It is the quality of the products and strength of the message of truth in design, performance and pricing that has earned this position.

All shafts are designed using a computer model that not only predicts all shaft specifications, but also how ALL those specifications (stiffness, torque, weight, etc.) are DISTRIBUTED along the entire length of a golf shaft. This approach gives the true dynamic possibilities of a shaft and goes well beyond saying a shaft has a “stiff tip”. That data is feed into a biometric model that can simulate a golfer using that shaft with a specific length and club head, which then predicts accurate ball flight data. But that’s only a small part of his design process. Coupled with his adamant approach to design using countless hours of real player testing (i.e. no robots), the result is... the Number One designer in the history of golf.

Engineering this innovative could only come from the industry’s most-winning shaft designer.

The King is Back......and he wielding The XCaliber!!!!