UST Mamiya V2 ProForce Driver Shaft Review

UST V2 ProForce & ProForce HL Driver 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

I have limited access to UST shafts as they do not provide review samples. This review is of the shafts available as a custom shaft selection from TaylorMade. The Proforce shaft has an interesting history. A lunch meeting of UST management after a tour win in the 90’s reflected on how little attention the bland color of the shaft received. The engineer at the table picked up a jar of mustard and declared he would fix the problem, he would paint them mustard color. The tour rep was horrified with the idea. Over his objection, he was handed mustard colored shafts. Soon after, Jose Maria Olazabal won the 1999 Masters with the Proforce Gold golf shaft. As a result UST could not make them fast enough for the tour rep to hand out on tour. I have verified this story from three of the four that were at that lunch. It is a colorful (pun intended) story about the history of golf shaft marketing. It is now 24 years later and the ProForce shaft is still with us. It has gone through updates to deal with driver head design and shape. It remains a viable design imitated by many shaft companies.

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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

Project X HZRDUS Smoke Review

Project X HZRDUS Smoke Driver Golf Shaft Review

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

The Project X HZRDUS Smoke is the fifth profile released under the HZRDUS brand. It is unique from the other four designs. The HZRDUS Smoke will be a stock shaft in at least one of the 2019 big brand drivers. Lets take a close look at its profile. 

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Russ