VA Shafts Nemesys
Premium exotic materials resulting in high-end performance and feel are the foundations of VA Shafts. Their founder, Victor Afable, has an extensive history in designing some of the greatest exotic shafts played by some of the best Tour players…and me. I have personally sworn by VA shafts for the past three years now, often wondering what Victor would come up with next. What he came up with this time is the VA Shafts Nemesys – a shaft with a high balance point, good stability, and plenty of distance.
The Looks
The Nemesys is a continuation of VA’s use of art inspired by the “comic book revolution of the 70’s and the Pop Art movement of the 80’s”. We first saw VA do this with last season’s highly-regarded VYLYN shaft. The Nemesys faces come to life as they grin at you through the shaft graphics. The faces are reminiscent of The Joker from the Batman comics of the 1970s. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear them menacingly laughing just like The Joker. But maybe that’s just my mind playing tricks on me. Or is it?
This shaft is plenty cool on its own, but when I installed it in my Cobra Speedzone driver, that’s when I saw it really pop. A black grip and the primarily black mid-section graphics giving way to the matte copper finish just looked fantastic in the Cobra. I suppose the Nemesys would really pop with the orange and black of a Callaway Mavrik as well. Is that any reason to buy a shaft? Probably not, but it’s certainly satisfying when it works out that the whole setup looks so killer.
How Does it Feel?
As mentioned earlier, the VA Shafts Nemesys is designed to have a high balance point. I’ve hit counterbalanced shafts plenty in the past so I assumed this would feel somewhat familiar to me. While I admit feel is subjective, I found that high balance point of the Nemesys to be very noticeable and unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. VA added tungsten powder to the composite material used in the handle section. This allowed them to increase the weight in this portion of the shaft to create that higher balance point without building a thicker wall. Avoiding a thicker shaft wall prevents the shaft from feeling boardy and less responsive.
With more weight in the butt end, you need a material that will allow the tip section to stay light, yet stable. This was achieved by using a composite material called T1100 which is just about the best composite in the shaft game. As a result, the tip section is lightweight, but holds up to the swing and has plenty of feedback.
I won’t lie, it took me quite a few swings to get used to the balance point of the Nemesys. Like I said, it’s unlike anything I’ve felt before. Once I adjusted to it, the swing felt effortless. Nice and easy swings resulted in fast swing speeds on the launch monitor. I was able to feel the club through the swing and had the right feedback in my hands. The energy release is distinct, yet smooth.
On-Course Performance
| Club Speed | Ball Speed | Launch Angle | Spin | Carry (Yds) | Total (Yds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 116 | 174.1 | 12.9º | 2691 | 290.8 | 312.4 |
One of the principles in the design of the VA Shafts Nemesys is that the counterbalancing allows you to add more weight in the head while maintaining your ideal swingweight. So what could that mean for performance? In theory, the swingweight/balance will allow you to swing the club at the same speed but with more weight in the head. For you physics fans, that’s speed plus more mass which should lead to more distance. I did a little research from past reviews and practice data and this is the highest average ball speed I’ve seen this season.
The key takeaway here, however, is how effortless it was to achieve these speeds. I believe this to be a testament to the higher balance point. On the launch monitor, I felt like I was taking fairly easy swings that would normally fall into a 112-115 mph club speed. Listen, we do this kind of stuff enough, we typically have a general idea of how we’re swinging based on feel and flight. So when I saw speeds up to 119(!) and keeping steady between 115 and 117 without even trying to step on it, I knew I found something. I will certainly be exploring the Nemesys further based on this alone.
The Nemesys is designed to be low spin with mid to high launch. I found it to be a comfortable medium launch with easy up and down trajectory control. Spin was more medium for me. That said, I’m confident I could definitely take that down a bit with a few minor adjustments. And if I can’t, it wasn’t costing me.
Final Thoughts – VA Shafts Nemesys
I’m not quite sure the VA Shafts Nemesys is about to kick the VA Raijin Black out of my bag yet. Further on-course testing is still required, but man, the ease at which I could generate ball speed certainly grabbed my attention. The shaft was very easy to control with a smooth and balanced feel which makes the Nemesys very user friendly to a wide range of players. And let’s not forget its looks. VA continues its reputation of some of the coolest and most unique looking shafts on the market. In my opinion, the Nemesys is a true testament to Victor Afable’s reputation as a leader in the exotic shaft industry.
Mr. Bush,
Good review of the Nemesus shaft. Would the lightest of this shaft be suitable for a 77 year old mid handicap player at 46″ or more. My swing speed is mid 80’s. Thanks.
From a high-level perspective, absolutely and the high counterbalance would only help. That said, it’s a tricky shaft that you have to fit just right because of how high that balance point is. You’ll likely need to adjust the swingweight and may fit better into a different weight and flex than you expect.
I love mine, it’s my gamer, but I did have to rebuild it once to get it dialed in to where I needed it.
what are the specs that you are using on your driver with the nemesys? lenght, swingweight, tip trimming and shaft weight
Thanks
Juan,
To better answer your question, why do you ask? What context are you looking for here? My first reaction is that these specs for me wouldn’t particularly apply to someone else without any testing/fitting.
Bill
I play 45,5 inches driver , and my swing speed is the same as yours aprox with agressive tempo. And i wanted to know, if you play 45.5 inches, what weight you installed on your driver, because this shaft is the most counterbalance of the market, and how much you tip it, Just to know it as a refference.
Thanks
I think I have it at 45.25″ and you can see the 65 for weight in the pictures.
I can’t stress enough, you can’t base your decision completely on my setup. We could have totally different swing paths, angles of attacks, etc, and even if we both have aggressive tempos, they still might be different aggressive tempos, you know what I mean?
Bill, I have a Nemesys reglar flex Nymesys shaft, and I am not satisfied with it. I would like to trade it for a Motore F3 55 gram shaft regular flex. Do you have interest in doing that? If not, do you have suggestions about how to do that?
Thanks, Andy K
Are you asking if I have interest in trading shafts with you?
Still have it?
Yes
Thanks for the review. How do you think this compares to the Project X HZRDUS Smoke Yellow? I currently play the smoke yellow in a Titleist TS3 8.0 degree head. My ss is about 102-104. Am considering this shaft and the LA Golf TRONO (knowing this shaft is not counterbalanced). Do you have any thoughts?
You honestly can’t even compare them. The Nemesys is so unique with its counterbalance and overall delivery. I love it but can’t compare it to anything.
Wow. It’s more counterbalanced than the Smoke Yellow? Did you end up putting the nemesys shaft in yout every day driver? Your colleague really raved about the LA Golf TRONO and has me intrigued. All my best,
Andy
It’s the most counterbalanced shaft on the market.
You can check my WITB here.
Best speed from adding 1/2 inch to shaft length from my norm or adding a heavier round weight in front of EF SubZero?
Hard to say. That’s something that will really come down to your swing and your ability to hit the center of the face in either setup.
Nice review Bill. Just out of curiosity, did you tip yours at all?
Nope
How do you compare this to the Drago for driver? I have the slay for my FW/Hybrid, which launches great. The Drago I have a bit of trouble squaring up the head, so its always a left-to-right shape, which means my miss can be way to the right. I’ve had pretty good luck with the Tensei CK Orange when just messing around, so am interested in the Nemesys. Thanks for your take!
I’ve given this some thought and I haven’t come up with a better answer so here goes. Honestly, I can’t compare them. There is nothing on the market like the Nemesys in my opinion. It’s in a total league of its own. From what I’ve seen across the golf community, people seem to either really love it, or they just don’t mix. Hard to say “if you hit X, you’ll like the Nemesys” given those thoughts.
The Drago and Slay are also very different. The Drago is more stout and designed to be low/low. The Slay is almost the opposite. Without knowing anything about your swing details/data, I would guess the Drago is too much shaft if you’re dialed in with a Slay.
Thanks Bill, appreciate your thought on this. The Slay has been magic for me with my FW/Hy because of the downward angle of attack and how easy it is to launch. I went and demo’d the Nemesys and it felt so smooth. Tigheter than the Vylyn, easier to load than the Drago, and tighter with better feel than the Tensei Orange.
So its ordered, planning on putting it in a SIM2 driver, and then SW to where I need. I’m sure it’ll drop the SW from the D5 of the “stock” SIM2 quite a bit so I’ll have to hotmelt or something. Either way, very excited to try it out for real.
Hi Bill – thanks for the review. Got the Nemysys 55 Three shaft from a club fitting at Club Champion last year with Titleist T1 driver head – bought new set of Ping 425’s this season and was wondering if this shaft can be put in my G425 driver which I really like.
69 yrs old – 9.4 GHIN Index – low 80’s club head speed – is it even worth the trouble? It’s just that the shaft cost me $390 and I feel like I may have wasted my money by not using it. Thanks
No reason you can’t. I’d just encourage having a good club builder make the switch for you. Given the extreme counterbalance of the Nemesys, it’s important to get the build and swingweight right.
Bill ,
What swing weight to you find the Nemesys come alive ?
There won’t be a magic swingweight number for the equipment. Swingweight will fully depend on the combination of your swing, feel, and equipment combination. Chances are you swing a driver best at a certain swingweight, and in theory, you’d want to build this shaft to that swingweight.