Torque--what does it mean?

[Henry]

Can anyone explain torque and its relationship to the shaft. Higher number of torque or lower number of torque suggests what?

[sly_sam]

Mostly feel; shafts with high torque have a softer feel. The low tourque comes with a harder, stiffer feel at impact. It used to mean more than that when graphite was in the early stages. When shafts weren't as good, low torque was better because shafts were so inconsistant that the higher toque would cause unperdictable misses. After reading "The Truth About Shafts" in golf digest, I've come to understand this: shaft torque is all about feel (like PGA Tour players like Stuart Aplleby and Justin Rose using the 4.5* torque Fuji SIX shaft while others like Davis Love III use the 2.2* torque Proforce V2 shaft from UST). So it's more feel oriented then anything, at least when picking between high or low torque. Whatever feels more comfortable to you an your swing is what you go with.

[acrazygolfer]

Torque refers to the twisting of the shaft about its center line. Low torque shafts twist less under load.

[kimjk]

Torque.... I agree that it is a feel, and to elaborate on the feeling about the torque, this is what I can say.

You can have a high torque stiff flex shaft and you feel like the club is a regular flex shaft. It feels like it is bending more, but in actuality, it is twisting during your swing. As for the low torque shaft with same stiffness feels like the shaft feels stiffer. Therefore, if your swing speed is fast like Tiger, I wouldn't use high torque shaft since the shot will hook.

I was trying to describe the feeling that I had when I was using the high torque shaft compared with low torque shaft. I hope this clears up things a little bid.