50 Words or Less
The Xcaliber Avalon golf shaft is a solid choice for players looking for a stout, consistent shaft at an affordable price.
Introduction
Xcaliber Shafts may be a name that’s new to many of you, but the owner and founder, Robin Arthur, is anything but a rookie. He has over 25 years in the shaft industry, including designing the Graffaloy Prolite, one of the winningest shafts in the history of the PGA Tour. With Xcaliber, his goal is bringing high performance shafts to golfers at an affordable price.
Check out our review of the Xcaliber Pro Series shafts HERE
Looks
The majority of the Xcaliber Avalon has a purple base color that’s both unusual and very attractive. The finish is glossy and rich. Toward the tip, the shaft transitions to silver.
While I like the color, the graphics are a miss for me. I like the Xcaliber branding in the middle with the sword surrounded by silver designs, but the proportions are off. Also, “Xclusiv” is a bit too cute. While these things wouldn’t keep me from gaming this shaft, I wish they were better.
Feel
The Avalon is billed as the successor to the Prolite, a Tour-style “anti-left” shaft. That gave me a pretty clear set of expectations around the feel, and this shaft lived up to them. From butt to tip, the feel is firm. It’s not boardy but it’s far from active. Interestingly, if any part of the shaft feels a bit softer, it is the tip. This is not a tip soft shaft by any means, but the tip does feel softer than the butt or mid.
One other note on the feel: the Avalon 7 is lighter than I expected. Most shaft makers label a shaft “7” or “70” but put the raw weight in the mid or high 70s. The Avalon 7 is 69 grams uncut. This isn’t necessarily good or bad, and it’s not a huge difference, but it’s worth knowing.
Performance
Let me start by preempting the comments that want to compare these numbers to those in previous reviews. As we always say, you cannot compare numbers from different reviews as apples to apples. My season has ended, my speed is obviously down, and I haven’t been driving the ball particularly well. Take the numbers in the context of what’s written here.
If you browse through the Xcaliber website, you’ll notice something interesting about the Avalon series. Each model – 5, 6, and 7 – is designed slightly differently. The 5 is meant to be a Tour-ready ultra light shaft. The Avalon 6 is low launch, low spin, anti-left. Finally, the Avalon 7 is actually meant to be higher launch and spin than the 6, potentially to optimize it for fairway woods. For this review, I tested the Avalon 7.
Of late, I have been hitting a lot of pulls. While the root cause is, of course, my swing, I would happily take a short term equipment-based fix. The Avalon did a very respectable job reining in my dispersion. Most shots were starting a touch left of center with a modest draw. I did hit a couple big pulls, but I never saw the ball hook.
In terms of launch and spin, the Avalon produced mid/low numbers for me on both counts. My launch was a bit lower than normal and certainly sub optimal, but some of that can be blamed on my pulls.
Overall, I think the XCaliber Avalon is a consistent, high quality shaft. Players looking for a shaft with very stable feel, should consider this a fine option.
The Xcaliber Avalon series is available at 50, 60, and 70 grams. Regular, Stiff, and Tour Stiff are offered at 50 and 60 grams. The 70 gram Avalon is available in Stiff and Tour Stiff.
Conclusion
With many premium graphite shafts retailing for $300 and up, the Xcaliber Avalon is a solid value at $180. It provides performance similar to many of the big name shafts you see on Tour but at a more affordable price. If that sounds appealing, check out their free online consultation on the Xcaliber website.
Visit Xcaliber Golf HERE
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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I’ve been using xcaliber shafts for years, and they are definitely the best value out there for top line shafts. The Avalon shafts look amazing, even if you don’t like the labeling, these shafts have incredible color and pop. I also have the Avalon shafts in all my irons and they are incredible iron shafts – I previously played UST Recoil and I find the Avalon’s to be a big step up from those – especially if you have a faster swing and are trying to replace steel iron shafts.
Thank you for the review- I have been interested in the Xcaliber shafts for quite some time now but I can’t seem to find much actual info on them.
Will there be more reviews of Xcaliber shafts coming by any chance?
Andrew,
We’ll have at least one more coming, likely in late December or early January.
Best,
Matt
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