KBS MAX HL Shaft Review

KBS MAX HL Shaft

KBS Golf Shafts has introcued the latest members of their MAX family of shafts, the MAX HL wood shafts. Designed to make it easier for players with lower swing speeds to get higher launch and spin with plenty of stability, the MAX HL shafts follow the same E.I. curve as the KBS MAX graphite iron shafts. Additionally, the KBS MAX HL shafts can be fit using swing speed rather than targeting a specific flex.

Since the KBS MAX HL shaft is designed for a wider range of players looking for MAXimum (I stole that formatting from KBS…) performance and control in a lighter weight package, I turned to one of my faithful test subjects who has helped us with similar reviews on the DRH site in the past. This player has a swing speed in the high 80s to low 90s so we set him up with the 45 gram KBS MAX HL. According to KBS’s chart, that swing speed is a little high for this profile, but this was the closest we could get for this test. These are the results from his experience.

The Looks

There are three different finishes available for the KBS MAX HL shafts. For traditionalists, the MAX HL is offered in all black with red and white branding, and of course, the signature KBS logo. If you’re feeling a little more bold, the other two options are pretty bright and fun. First, there’s a white and black combination where the bottom half is a glossy white and the mid section up to the grip is black. But the real gem, in my opinion, is the red finish. The lower half is bright KBS red and the upper half is white. If I were a purchasing customer of this shaft, I’d definitely be going for the red one!

How Does it Feel?

I think it took all of two swings of the KBS MAX HL for our tester to realize his favorite part of this shaft. He said almost immediately that he found the MAX HL to feel easier to swing than his gamer, and much more stable. I should point out that his gamer was designed with very similar intentions a few years ago. There’s nothing wrong with that shaft, but materials used in these lightweight shafts have evolved quite a bit over the past few years. According to my tester, the MAX HL felt very natural and with a smooth bend profile that loaded and released well. It also felt a little “tighter” so he could be aggressive without feeling out of control.

For what it’s worth, I took a few “easy swings” with the MAX HL in his driver. While I’m certainly not who this shaft is designed for, I found the combination of “active energy” and a stable platform to be pretty impressive. Often times, shafts like these feel like they’re on the breaking point, even on half swings, and I can’t do much with them. With the MAX HL, I’m not claiming I was optimized by any means, but it felt controlled, easy to hit, and was going to hold up just fine.

On-Course Performance

Club Speed	Ball Speed	Launch Angle	Spin	Carry (Yds)	Total (Yds)
91.8	137.7	15.7º	3222	217	235.1

My tester had two primary big performance takeaways from his experience with the KBS MAX HL shaft. The Feel section mentioned the first major impression. My tester just kept commenting “I feel so much more in control with this club”. I asked him to clarify what he meant by that and his response felt like a very relatable struggle among many golfers. He said, “I always feel like I’m fighting the club to keep the ball on my target. I don’t usually feel like I can just make my natural swing and trust the ball to go where I want it. With this shaft, I feel much closer to being able to achieve that.” Throughout his testing, his dispersion was noticeably tighter and he was within much more acceptable ranges of his targets.

The other big takeaway was an increase in distance. A major contributor to the distance increase was the easy launch and spin. Players with slower swing speeds tend to benefit from higher launch because it gets the ball up in the air and carrying. And a higher spin rate will hold it there longer. Those two things should result in more carry distance as opposed to shots falling out of the sky. That’s what we saw throughout our testing session. Shots were carrying longer and reaching an apex as opposed to a line drive tumbling out of the air. These shots were by no means ballooning so he was still getting some decent rollout on his better shots.

Final Thoughts – KBS MAX HL Shaft

KBS delivered a golf shaft with a lightweight and stable profile that can really help players with lower swing speeds. The MAX HL feels really solid and flat out made the game easier for our tester. So much so that he’s spending more time with it and is considering making it his gamer. It’s also worth noting that the KBS MAX HL wood shaft is available for $99.95. I personally feel that is a really solid value for what I saw this shaft deliver.

The MAX HL lineup also makes it easier for players to have a better chance at self fitting based off of their swing speeds. Refer to KBS’s suggested weights in relation to swing speed below. Please keep in mind that these are suggested guidelines and actual testing/fitting will always deliver best results. All of our swings are unique and will respond to equipment differently.

MAX HL 40 Series Swing Speed Fitting: