Father of frequency matching : Profile: Dr. Joe Braly - Brief Article

When Joe Braly, a veterinarian and former Air Force pilot, was testing clubs in the early 1970s with his son, Kim, they noticed that two identical clubs hit the ball different distances. Investigating this phenomenon led Joe to the development of the frequency-matching method for determining shaft flex.

"We found that an R-flex in one model might be more like an S-flex from a different company," says Braly, whose research led to the FM Precision shaft company, now known as Royal Precision, makers of the Rifle shaft. "The only way to know the stiffness of a shaft is to measure its frequency."

A frequency analyzer (above) counts the number of times the shaft vibrates up and down. Frequency is measured in cycles per minute; the higher the number of cycles, the less flexible a shaft is. The FM precision scale, used by Fenwick Golf as well, starts at the very flexible 2.5 (for players who hit their 5-irons about 100 yards) and runs in one-tenth increments all the way to 8.0 (for players who hit their 5-irons 200 or more yards).

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