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The 2019 Small Batch Experience with Project X

Nippon Shafts
MWard said:
nonsense friend, your write ups are solid as can be. I guess if I were going to word it another way, know if you’re a high spin low spin, high launch low launch kind of guy. Comment on what the prototype shaft did or didn’t do for you, and then what you would like to see out of your custom shaft. Say you would like a lower spin then the test shaft, but not you want 700 RPM less spin. Does that make a little bit more sense?
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Hopefully you didn't take my response as accusatory, wasn't the goal. I totally agree with that line of explanation, knowing your flight and spin characteristics in generalities are pretty key towards anything you are going to do in all this. For me, I've just been trained over the years to be super number based in discerning all that, ya know? When it works, it works, and this one so far works which wrecks mah noggin. Haha

Alez367 said:
Not sure if you meant to quote my post but I think your recent post about the test shaft making you think and trip over words is exactly what this process is meant to bring out. One baseline shaft amongst you 5 and seeing the differences is a perfect example of why “go get fit” is truly the ultimate and only answer to “what works best for me”. The process makes you think and be honest with yourself about what you want out of a shaft and what you’re really willing to concede to make it happen. Keep on detailing your experience so the rest of us can geek out when the retail offering is released
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I did. Wanted to see if I could get a reply. ;)
 
pmm21 said:
had it out to the range for 200 balls this morning. I have 2 more pages of notes. I will go into details later, but as of now, I can tell you 100% this shaft will NOT be in my bag for my tournament on Monday. More to come.
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I am excited to see your notes and the reasons why this shaft is not your cup of tea.
 
Jman said:
Hopefully you didn't take my response as accusatory, wasn't the goal. I totally agree with that line of explanation, knowing your flight and spin characteristics in generalities are pretty key towards anything you are going to do in all this. For me, I've just been trained over the years to be super number based in discerning all that, ya know? When it works, it works, and this one so far works which wrecks mah noggin. Haha



I did. Wanted to see if I could get a reply. ;)
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Nah didn’t take it that way at all friend. You’re a writer, you love the numbers. Review the heck out of the proto shaft for us haha. When it comes to making yours though, all feel. Easier to say than do, mind you, but it lets the creativity and process work.
 
Jman said:
I know its one of those things where some out there will roll their eyes at the immediate positive thoughts by some of us, but you having gone through it know that every year there are some that the tester works for, and some it doesn't. Crazy awesome part to it all.

I'm pretty surprised by how much I'm enjoying what I am seeing in a lighter shaft, I've played lighter before, but always shy away in the end for various reasons.

I also sort of hope its like R flex or something and my mind is broken forever. Hahaha!
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That is too funny, I was thinking the same thing last night when I was reading the updates. No one mentioned flex & I was hoping one of them turned out to b R flex. Thanks for posting that thought it made me laugh


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MH said:
That is too funny, I was thinking the same thing last night when I was reading the updates. No one mentioned flex & I was hoping one of them turned out to b R flex. Thanks for posting that thought it made me laugh


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There’s typically no markings on them. Mine from last year just has the THP logo murdered out on there and it says prototype.
 
MWard said:
There’s typically no markings on them. Mine from last year just has the THP logo murdered out on there and it says prototype.
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This year it’s just a plain black finish. Reminiscent of the black finish on the HZRDUS yellow and black
 
Does anybody know if the test shaft has usually been from the Hzrdus line or if it could be from the EvenFlow family?
 
Tenputt said:
Does anybody know if the test shaft has usually been from the Hzrdus line or if it could be from the EvenFlow family?
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It’s been from both. I recall the even flow blue, and the Hzrdus smoke off the top of my head. It could be something brand new, could be something already out, you won’t know till you get there.
 
I GET TO PLAY TOO!! Just got home from a quick 9 and see a notice to pick up a parcel! Going to drive into town and get it right now! ?
 
MWard said:
There’s typically no markings on them. Mine from last year just has the THP logo murdered out on there and it says prototype.
Click to expand...

The prototype graphics are actually some of my favorites. It was really we done.
 
Project X Small Batch

2019.09.20
Picked up the shaft today from the post office and got it unboxed... or un-tubed... my first thoughts were:
  • This feels light
  • It’s a RH adaptor (make mental note for installing head later)
  • It somehow feels thinner in my hands.

Got it installed into my M3 and it definitely feels light and thinner. The all black look is kind of cool actually.

Took some practice swings in the back yard and they felt really nice. I could tell where the head was compared to my hands and it seemed as though I had a lot of control.

I compared it to my current gamer and by eye it’s maybe 1/8” longer, which I’m actually okay with - It’s something that I’ve been considering again. I also compared it to a Project X Black that I have. These two shafts seem to have different shapes (or maybe taper?) and that’s interesting because I did not get along with the Black; it felt like swinging a piece of rebar wrapped in fibreglass.

If all goes well, I will head to the golf course tomorrow morning for some range time and get some real swing feedback.

Other notes:
I’ve never been fit for clubs and never been on a launch monitor so I have no idea what “my numbers” are. Lately my shots have been decently straight, but a little high and ‘spinny’. I haven’t been getting much roll out either. Averaging 260 yards total based on SwingU stats.

Game on!
 
Jman said:
It really doesn't, and thats what is getting me a bit. Feel wise for me its Black and Smoke Black had a baby, but, the weight is in that Helium range....without the spin I get from that.

It has me tripping over my words and that is NOT something I am used to. Haha
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So you're saying Don and the team brought something very similar to my custom shaft out to everyone? Hmm...
 
MWard said:
It’s been from both. I recall the even flow blue, and the Hzrdus smoke off the top of my head. It could be something brand new, could be something already out, you won’t know till you get there.
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We were told in a group message that it is a new shaft.
 
I’m not looking at my notes as I write this as they are more thoughts that I need to compile and condense in order to build the right shaft for my game, but here are my takeaways after my latest range session.

Upon arriving at the driving range I was quite optimistic. I couldn’t wait to get this shaft in a controlled environment where I could try to dial it in a bit. I took a couple of warm up swings, and proceeded to take some chip type shots just to get my shoulders turning a bit. The chips were all low hooks.

I moved into half swings and the ball was still low and left, just a bit longer. After about 20-30 shots like this I decided to go at it with everything I have. This resulted in some of the worst golf shots I have ever hit. I can honestly say, if I consistently hit the ball like this, I would not enjoy this game at all - to the point that I don’t think I would play.

The entire shaft feels like i’m swinging a solid steel rod without as much flex as I would expect from a steel rod. It feels thin in my hands (as one of my highlighted notes was to significantly build up the grip just to get back to what I would consider a normal feel,) and I feel no sort of kick/release (whatever you want to call it) anywhere through the swing.

The only way I could create any sort of straight ball flight at this point was to try to generate a lot of lag (way more than I am comfortable doing in my swing.) Presumably this is the only way I can stop closing the face at or before impact. But when I generate the lag (as it’s completely unnatural to me) I can’t find the center of the club face, and it doesn’t make things any better.

As I worked through this frustrating experience, and got myself a little tired in the sun, I decided to ease up off of it a bit. This helped, but as you might expect, the performance wasn’t there. The ball had straightened out a bit, and the ball flight was a little better, but I couldn’t seem to get the ball to carry more than 200 yards.

The thing about my current shaft, is if I don’t hit it well, and only carry the ball 200 yards, I can rely on another 20-40 yards of roll out. This is most certainly not the case with the tester shaft. The straighter shots seem to just stop upon landing making me think the spin rate is through the roof. I’m not seeing any ballooning, but I don’t know what else would cause that.

After that disappointment, I decided to see what would happen if I adjusted my driver settings a bit (something I’m not going to do in the long term to accommodate a shaft.) After adjustments I was able to get higher, straighter flights, but now the misses were borderline slicing. Again, the good balls were coming up drastically shorter than I would want.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am not a power player. I do not have a high swing speed like the rest of the guys in this group. I need all the distance I can get, and if I’m carrying the ball 200 yards, and not getting any roll, I’m definitely looking for something else.

After resetting my driver, I decided to try a really forced in to out swing path. A swing that if attempted with my shaft would result in a push slice. Lo and behold this was the magic number. The ball was straight and high with very little curve in any direction. Distance was still not there, but at least it was rolling out a bit.

At the end of that exhausting, and rather frustrating morning, I ran into the head pro at my club. I explained to him what I was doing and gave him some of my thoughts on the shaft. He mentioned that he had a Callaway fitting cart in his office and he would let me try out the HZRDUS and the Even Flow just to see if I can find a difference. I’m excited about that prospect, and will try to give that a go on Tuesday.

I get a sense of relief that we don’t have to use this tester shaft as a baseline for our custom builds, because I don’t think I can possibly make enough changes to fit me into it.

In a nutshell:
I am very happy that some of you guys are loving everything about this shaft. I remain optimistic that the guys at PX will be able to get me into something incredible. Can’t say I’m not a little nervous.
 
pmm21 said:
I’m not looking at my notes as I write this as they are more thoughts that I need to compile and condense in order to build the right shaft for my game, but here are my takeaways after my latest range session.

Upon arriving at the driving range I was quite optimistic. I couldn’t wait to get this shaft in a controlled environment where I could try to dial it in a bit. I took a couple of warm up swings, and proceeded to take some chip type shots just to get my shoulders turning a bit. The chips were all low hooks.

I moved into half swings and the ball was still low and left, just a bit longer. After about 20-30 shots like this I decided to go at it with everything I have. This resulted in some of the worst golf shots I have ever hit. I can honestly say, if I consistently hit the ball like this, I would not enjoy this game at all - to the point that I don’t think I would play.

The entire shaft feels like i’m swinging a solid steel rod without as much flex as I would expect from a steel rod. It feels thin in my hands (as one of my highlighted notes was to significantly build up the grip just to get back to what I would consider a normal feel,) and I feel no sort of kick/release (whatever you want to call it) anywhere through the swing.

The only way I could create any sort of straight ball flight at this point was to try to generate a lot of lag (way more than I am comfortable doing in my swing.) Presumably this is the only way I can stop closing the face at or before impact. But when I generate the lag (as it’s completely unnatural to me) I can’t find the center of the club face, and it doesn’t make things any better.

As I worked through this frustrating experience, and got myself a little tired in the sun, I decided to ease up off of it a bit. This helped, but as you might expect, the performance wasn’t there. The ball had straightened out a bit, and the ball flight was a little better, but I couldn’t seem to get the ball to carry more than 200 yards.

The thing about my current shaft, is if I don’t hit it well, and only carry the ball 200 yards, I can rely on another 20-40 yards of roll out. This is most certainly not the case with the tester shaft. The straighter shots seem to just stop upon landing making me think the spin rate is through the roof. I’m not seeing any ballooning, but I don’t know what else would cause that.

After that disappointment, I decided to see what would happen if I adjusted my driver settings a bit (something I’m not going to do in the long term to accommodate a shaft.) After adjustments I was able to get higher, straighter flights, but now the misses were borderline slicing. Again, the good balls were coming up drastically shorter than I would want.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am not a power player. I do not have a high swing speed like the rest of the guys in this group. I need all the distance I can get, and if I’m carrying the ball 200 yards, and not getting any roll, I’m definitely looking for something else.

After resetting my driver, I decided to try a really forced in to out swing path. A swing that if attempted with my shaft would result in a push slice. Lo and behold this was the magic number. The ball was straight and high with very little curve in any direction. Distance was still not there, but at least it was rolling out a bit.

At the end of that exhausting, and rather frustrating morning, I ran into the head pro at my club. I explained to him what I was doing and gave him some of my thoughts on the shaft. He mentioned that he had a Callaway fitting cart in his office and he would let me try out the HZRDUS and the Even Flow just to see if I can find a difference. I’m excited about that prospect, and will try to give that a go on Tuesday.

I get a sense of relief that we don’t have to use this tester shaft as a baseline for our custom builds, because I don’t think I can possibly make enough changes to fit me into it.

In a nutshell:
I am very happy that some of you guys are loving everything about this shaft. I remain optimistic that the guys at PX will be able to get me into something incredible. Can’t say I’m not a little nervous.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The shaft seems to be love it or hate it with this group. I am confident that everyone will walk away with a shaft that works for them, provided everybody can articulate what their needs are and identify a shaft that works well.

One of the interesting things to me is that some feel the shaft plays very rigid and others feel like it has much more kick than other Hzrdus offerings. For me, this shaft is definitely easier to release through the strike zone than Hzrdus Black or Yellow.
 
Tenputt said:
One of the interesting things to me is that some feel the shaft plays very rigid and others feel like it has much more kick than other Hzrdus offerings.
Click to expand...

After my range session today, I completely agree with this. I’ll put some more thoughts together and make another post...
 
2019.09.21
Took it to the range today for some swings.
My thoughts:
  • It definitely feels a little lighter/head feels slightly heavier, which I actually enjoyed.
  • Ball flight is higher than I’d like. Similar to current gamer, however I’m noticing what I feel is more ballooning.
  • I was hitting significantly more heel strikes.
  • No major fade problems, but some serious snap hooks. I’m attributing this to the heel strikes.
  • I like how the shaft feels when it releases however I’m wondering if it’s maybe a little soft higher up near my hands. I’ll have to pay attention to this in future testing.
  • Carry yardages seem similar with very good strikes.

I tried some adjustments to my grip and swing, and was able to sneak in a few decent flights but it felt very unnatural and the carry was not there because I had to take off a lot of speed.

The other thing that really stands out to me is how thin it feels. At the least, I would definitely put on a thicker grip.

It was a lot of fun today making some swings, taking notes and evaluating whatever I was seeing/feeling. I’m excited to get back out there tomorrow, if I can find a few minutes!
 
Tenputt said:
Does anybody know if the test shaft has usually been from the Hzrdus line or if it could be from the EvenFlow family?
Click to expand...
I dont remember what the first year tester was as I wasn't on the forums then. 2nd year was hzrdus T800, third year was evenflow blue, and last year was hzrdus smoke.

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kevin81002 said:
I dont remember what the first year tester was as I wasn't on the forums then. 2nd year was hzrdus T800, third year was evenflow blue, and last year was hzrdus smoke.

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Click to expand...

I want to say hzrdus red


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The mystery behind this Tester shaft deepens with each post.

Like everything else in golf. One man's poison is another man's paradise.

Maximum distance versus Maximum stability.

Perfect kick Versus Rebar

Too little, too light.

Too strong, too much Slice

Finally, Perfect as you head to Aviara for your final testing and approval.

Sent from my SM-G977U using Tapatalk
 
Johan185 said:
The mystery behind this Tester shaft deepens with each post.

Like everything else in golf. One man's poison is another man's paradise.

Maximum distance versus Maximum stability.

Perfect kick Versus Rebar

Too little, too light.

Too strong, too much Slice

Finally, Perfect as you head to Aviara for your final testing and approval.

Sent from my SM-G977U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

THP Events bring the amazing :love:
 
JB said:
THP Events bring the amazing :love:
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When I opened the parcel and saw my tester shaft it really started to feel more “real” that this is happening. I cannot help but feel incredibly lucky to be involved in this experience.

This opportunity is 100% amazing!!
 
Some GREAT feedback in here this weekend gents!

I think it’s pretty awesome that some of us are clicking with it so well and others aren’t, it means there are going to be some pretty awesomely different custom shafts made here soon.

I want to bring back up for those guys struggling what was mentioned by previous event goers, don’t be afraid to go hit more PX offerings or just have examples of shafts that have worked really well for you in the past as DB really is a mad scientist and will help you create something that does work, even if the tester doesn’t!



One thing I hadn’t noticed that’s been mentioned in here is the shaft feeling more skinny in diameter. Now I have to go get it out of the Tahoe and over analyze that since it’s in my head now, thanks a lot guys! Hahahaha
 
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