Yes, even with a reduced, half swing from a rotator cuff surgery recovery, a 62-year-old golfer named Julian McCormack gained real, measurable distance after switching from a well-regarded premium shaft he'd played for years to a custom-built Jupiter One. He went in skeptical, specifically because everyone he'd heard good things from had a full, healthy swing not a half one. Here's his story, in his own words, and what it actually tells you if you're in a similar spot.
The question nobody was answering for him
Julian had a very specific, very fair doubt before he ever ordered. Shaft reviews are almost always written by golfers swinging at full speed and full range of motion. He isn't right now he's recovering from partial rotator cuff surgery, which means a deliberately shortened, half swing. So before trying it, he wanted to know: does this actually work if your swing isn't "normal"? In his words:
"I am 62 with a half swing due to partial Rotator cuff surgery I was surprised and shocked I heard it was a good shaft but all people I talked to had full swings with a half swing I was like lets see hhahaha"
That's a genuinely useful question that doesn't get asked enough in golf gear content, and it's worth answering directly: a shaft doesn't need a full, healthy swing to make a difference. What it needs is to actually match the swing you have right now full, half, or anything in between. That's the whole premise behind getting fit instead of buying off the rack, and Julian's results are a real test of exactly that idea.
What he actually did and the honest caveats he included himself
Julian didn't just say "it felt better." He tracked it. Using a Garmin handheld with a built-in launch monitor, he logged his numbers with the new shaft starting in August, then followed up with an actual on-course round to confirm what he was seeing. And notably, he flagged the limits of his own data before anyone could ask:
"with (Ai Smoke) shaft since Aug 26 just finished getting all the data together using Garmin g82 approach i know these are just estimated numbers and with range balls (if you zoom in picture 1 you can see it) i have played 1 round the numbers slightly better the Steadfast shaft perform so well"
That's exactly the right way to read any self-tracked golf data, and we want to be just as straight with you about it: range balls generally fly shorter and less consistently than real golf balls, and a handheld launch monitor is an estimate, not a tour-grade radar system. Julian knew that and said so. What makes his result credible isn't that the numbers are lab-perfect — it's that the pattern held up on the course too, in a real round, not just on the range.
The real difference: a shaft built to his actual swing, not a stock one
Here's the part that matters most for anyone in Julian's situation. His old shaft wasn't a budget shaft he'd outgrown it was a Project X Denali, a genuinely well-regarded premium shaft that's actually a popular, well-known pairing for the Callaway Ai Smoke driver he plays. He'd had it for years and had no obvious reason to doubt it.
The shaft he switched to wasn't an off-the-shelf pick either. He ordered the Jupiter One Driver Shaft — Custom Build, which lets you choose your flex and specs to match your actual swing instead of guessing from a generic chart on a shelf. That distinction matters a lot for someone recovering from surgery: his swing speed right now isn't what it was before the injury, and it isn't what a stock retail shaft on a shelf was built around either. A quality shaft built for a different swing than the one you actually have will still underperform — not because it's a bad shaft, but because it's the wrong match. Building to his real, current swing is very likely what closed that gap.
Why he's already ordering a second one
Julian liked the result enough that he's not stopping at one shaft. He also plays a Callaway Quantum driver, and rather than swap shaft heads back and forth between it and his Ai Smoke driver, he's ordering a second Jupiter One built specifically for that setup:
"i am going to buy Another steadfast for my Quantum Driver just so i dont have to switch the driver heads out hhahahahahahaha"
That's a practical, very real use case: Jupiter One ships with the correct adapter pre-installed for your driver brand, which is exactly what makes owning one per driver head realistic instead of a hassle. If you play more than one driver and have been manually swapping a single shaft between them, that's worth knowing it's not the only way to do it.
If you're coming back from an injury or a reduced swing, this is for you
If you've had surgery, you're managing a shoulder, a back, or anything else that's changed what your swing currently looks like, it's easy to assume gear reviews don't apply to you because every testimonial sounds like it came from someone swinging at full health. Julian's result says otherwise. The question was never "do you swing like everyone else" it's whether your equipment is actually built around the swing you have today, not the one you used to have or the one a stock shaft assumes you have.
A few honest questions worth asking yourself if that's where you are right now:
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Has your swing speed or range of motion genuinely changed recently from injury, recovery, age, or anything else?
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Is your current shaft one you bought years ago, before that change happened?
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Have you actually confirmed your current flex still matches where your swing is today, or are you assuming it still does?
If any of that sounds familiar, a custom build — built around your actual, current swing rather than a generic chart is worth exploring, the same way it was for Julian.
The bottom line
A shaft that fits your swing doesn't require a full, healthy swing to work it requires honesty about the swing you actually have right now, injury and all. Julian tracked his own data, said plainly where that data was imperfect, and still saw a real, repeatable gain over a premium shaft he already trusted. If a change in your body has you wondering whether gear advice even applies to you anymore, his answer is: it does, as long as the gear is actually built around you.
Thanks for the honest review and the photos, Julian and for putting the word out at Swingers in Hampton. Wishing you a smooth recovery and plenty of fairways ahead.