This may be an obvious question, but the degrees of torque as specified by the manufacturer is a rather meaningless number to me. The only answer I can come up with is that the higher the number, the more the shaft will twist during the swing. If that is true, then would a shaft with a torque of 6 degrees feel whippier than a shaft by the same manufacturer with a torque of 3 degrees?
Torque is not measured the same by all manufactures, but the difference in methods does not yield vastly different results. They are all pretty close. As far as the affect torque has, generally speaking, a shaft with more torque like your 6 degree example will feel more flexible than one with 3 degrees of torque. The actual affect on ball flight is negligible, if not noticeable at all, by most players. Of course if you have a 120mph player swinging a 14 degree torque vs a 2 degree torque you might see some control issues, but the difference in ball flight or performance between a 3 and a 6 degree torque shaft is again negligible and mostly not even measurable. We have done blind testing over the years and the only consistent thing we get is that the higher torque shaft feels softer. Not 100% of the time, but a high percentage of the time when the difference is 3 degrees or more. Players with a more refined sense of feel might be able to feel or notice 2 degrees difference, but less than that is doubtful. In short, torque can have a major effect on feel, but only a minor effect on ball flight or performance (and only when the torque is way too high for a high swing speed payer).
Britt Lindsey