Project X U Golf Shaft Review

Project X U Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Builder
The Highlands Performance Golf Center, Carrollton Texas 
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Club Fitter

The Project X Utility (U) is a 0.370 tip, 40.5 inch long utility iron or hybrid shaft. It is designed to compliment the Project X iron shafts. After seeing it I wish more iron shaft companies would design similar compliments to their popular iron shafts.

I use steel shafts in strong player hybrids. This usually means using a tapered 2 iron shaft with a shim. The shim is necessary to put a 0.355 shaft into todays typical 0.370 hybrid hosel. The advantage of using steel in a hybrid is a combination of cost and consistency. Steel is 3 to 4 times the cost of a premium carbon fiber shaft. And, it matches the feel and rigidity of the strong players irons making it a perfect extension of the iron set.

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Russ

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro Red Golf Shaft Review

Mitsubishi Tensei Pro Red Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
Highlands Performance Golf Center, Carrollton Texas

The last profile added to the Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei Pro family of driver shafts is the Tensei Pro Red. Like the other Tensei Pro driver shafts it has a carbon Fiber Kevlar woven material place just below the hands. As you can see in the chart, this material substantially  increases hoop strength in this area of the shaft. Hoop deformation in carbon fiber golf shafts is a function of wall thickness. The wall thickness in the butt end of a golf shaft is thin. Therefore the shaft deforms more. This has classical be called ovaling. Ovaling is thought to create dispersion. I have seen various materials use in this area to stabilize driver shafts. I have never seen as dramatic an effect on hoop deformation as I see in the Tensei Pros. Take note, the OEM shafts have only 4″ of this material which is little more than cosmetics. The Tensei Pro models have 11+” and the hoop deformation profiles are dramatically lower in this area.

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Russ

Aldila XTorsion Golf Shaft Review

Aldila XTorsion Copper & XTorsion Green  Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Highlands Performance Golf Center, Carrollton Texas 
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Club Fitter

The Aldila Xtorsion driver shaft have a clearly visible woven material in the lower half of the shafts. Aldila calls the material, MAMBA, Multi-Axial Material Bias Angle technology. It is woven at a 45 degree angle which provides torsional stability to the lower half of the shaft where it is most important. This can be seen in the GJ or torsional profile of the shafts. The GJ profile tips downward from the mid section to the tip. I also see high and stable hoop strength resulting from the woven material. This is similar to the woven section of the Mitsubishi Tensei Pro shafts that is located just below the grip. When I look at the Xtorsion Copper EI profile I am reminded of the very popular EI profile of the Nippon Modus 120’s.

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Russ

KBS $-Taper Lite Golf Shaft Review

KBS $-Taper Lite Iron Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Highlands Performance Golf Center, Carrollton Texas 
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Club Fitter

Following the success of the KBS C-Taper Lite, KBS now offers a Lite version of the $-Taper. It comes in three weights, 95, 100 and 105. The profiles are nearly identical to the $-Taper. The three weights offered are less than the $-Taper 110 gram R. The $-Taper Lite weights, in my experience, are a perfect fit for the recreational golfer.

If you do not follow my YouTube Channel, Devoted Golfer, you may have missed this video. We shot the 2019 KBS presentation to golf club fitters at the PGA Merchandise show. It covers the entire product line. After the slide show, Kim Braly comes to the podium and talks about tour acceptance of 2018 KBS shafts and the new 2019 shafts.

As you can see in this table, the weighs of the $-Taper Lite extend the weight range of the $-Taper.   This is different than the C-Taper Lite and the C-Taper where there is an overlap with the C-Taper R and R+.

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Russ

True Temper Elevate Pro Golf Shaft Review

True Temper Elevate Pro Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas 
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Clubfitters

The True Temper Elevate was designed to launch the ball higher than it counterpart, the Dynamic Gold 120. Bill Lange explains the Elevate in this video shot at the PGA Merchandise show the year the Elevate was launched.

The Elevate is a traditional “Dynamic” design. The length from the shaft tip to the first step changes with flex. R Flex has a long tip section, S shorter and X shortest. There is also small increase in weight as stiffness increases. This image illustrates how that tip length changes the EI bend profile of the shafts. Lets take a close look at how this dual change in profile and weight influence stiffness and set makup.

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Russ

Project X Catalyst Golf Shaft Review

Project X Catalyst Golf Shaft Review

By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
The Golf Center at the Highlands, Carrollton Texas
Golf Digest Certified America’s 100 Best Clubfitters

The Project X Catalyst, released in late 2018, is available in parallel and constant weight taper models. The lighter weights are parallel, the 80 and 100 models are taper. But, there is overlap, there is an 80 parallel. You can identify the tapers by the small CW on the shaft label to the right of the weight designation as shown here. The parallel profile is quite different from the Constant Weight Tapers. In this review we will look at both the Parallel Catalyst and the Constant Weight Taper Catalyst.

Bill Lange, Senior Director of Product Management at True Temper discusses the design of the Project X Catalyst in this video from the 2019 PGA Merchandise Show. The player will start where we begin the discussion of the Catalyst.

We will begin with the Parallel Catalyst. You are likely to see this offered as a stock shaft in some 2019 irons.

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Russ