Project X HandCrafted Experience Recap & Review - Time Lapse Shaft Creation

its Friday so hoping to see you guys get some swings in this weekend with your new shafts. I'm very curious to see how different the shafts might play now that you've gone back to your regular routines and not two or three days straight of golf. Very much hoping the more time/reps you guys get with your club, the better the results are. *especially you Chump Fries. Time to put DB TT's masterpiece to work!

ddec said:

reading some of these recaps makes me want 2 things. A PX shaft and Sculpin.

Click to expand...

Amen to that.

alez367 said:

its Friday so hoping to see you guys get some swings in this weekend with your new shafts. I'm very curious to see how different the shafts might play now that you've gone back to your regular routines and not two or three days straight of golf. Very much hoping the more time/reps you guys get with your club, the better the results are. *especially you Chump Fries. Time to put DB TT's masterpiece to work!

Click to expand...

I hope to hit the range 2-3 times this weekend and will have a review ready soon. In the meantime I took the grip off to install my preferred grip and saw this.



This was near the tip



And this one gives you a good look at the different materials and layers used to roll the shaft.

Cant wait to see the rest of these being made how they turn out. Tim's looked great. I need to work on my Recap stuff this weekend also.

Galen Marek said:

I hope to hit the range 2-3 times this weekend and will have a review ready soon. In the meantime I took the grip off to install my preferred grip and saw this.

This was near the tip

And this one gives you a good look at the different materials and layers used to roll the shaft.

Click to expand...

Allow me to translate those numbers for you:


Paul is a bad A$$ mamma jamma who hits the out of the ball. Also a cool dude to have a with.



DB

Wow, the PX code is pretty crazy to translate. But that makes sense.

ddec said:

reading some of these recaps makes me want 2 things. A PX shaft and Sculpin.

Click to expand...

I had dinner with my son tonight in the city. I think the thing that made him most jealous about my trip was talking bout Ballast Point and all the great beer. He flipped out reading the beers on the beer menu that I took a picture of.

Ok, he kind of thought the custom shaft was cool too.

alez367 said:

its Friday so hoping to see you guys get some swings in this weekend with your new shafts. I'm very curious to see how different the shafts might play now that you've gone back to your regular routines and not two or three days straight of golf. Very much hoping the more time/reps you guys get with your club, the better the results are. *especially you Chump Fries. Time to put DB TT's masterpiece to work!

Click to expand...

I played 18 this morning (also playing tomorrow and Sunday). Hit the custom shaft Driver on 11 holes. Found the fairway on 8 of these. 2 of the misses were just push fades to the right from trying to swing too hard. The other miss was a low hook, again swinging too hard. When my tempo was good today the shaft was just awesome. I think the more rounds under my belt, the more my confidence will increase.

cpljohnst said:

I played 18 this morning (also playing tomorrow and Sunday). Hit the custom shaft Driver on 11 holes. Found the fairway on 8 of these. 2 of the misses were just push fades to the right from trying to swing too hard. The other miss was a low hook, again swinging too hard. When my tempo was good today the shaft was just awesome. I think the more rounds under my belt, the more my confidence will increase.

Click to expand...

Nicely done. Glad you're getting reps with the shaft. Should be dialed in nicely for some action in December


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Hit driver today on 8 holes today. Snap hook one OB left. One in the right rough, about 2 yds off the fairway.
All the others were in the short grass, one was about 60 yds from the middle of the green, hole played 370 downhill INTO THE WIND. It felt so different than all my other drives, almost like I missed it. Beautiful mid-high flight, slight draw - the two guys I played with were pretty impressed with the shot. As was I.
I am psyched about the shaft and head combo - really looking forward to the finished product!!

Project X HandCrafted Experience Recap & Review - Time Lapse Shaft Creation

Project X HandCrafted Experience Recap & Review - Time Lapse Shaft Creation

I love how the iPhone takes the forum emoji codes and turns them into smileys:



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Chump Fries said:

I love how the iPhone takes the forum emoji codes and turns them into smileys:

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Click to expand...

Hahahahaha yup that's the same mumbo jumbo I see

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Heading out for 18 this afternoon at my home course. First time swinging a club since the event. Will let you guys know how it goes.

Day 2 Recap (Day 1 Recap HERE)

Luckily none of us missed our alarms, and we all met down in the Embassy restaurant area to grab some buffet breakfast, and then piled into Barry's, Dave's, and Paul's rides to head back over to True Temper to continue the magic. After making sure Paul didn't walk in the wrong door, we stepped back into the conference room for a quick pow wow before stepping out into the lab to start hand rolling our shafts (with Periscope coverage of course, no pressure!). As I stepped into the lab with everyone, I saw a bunch of flags laid out on the heated table, all labeled "Ryan"...oh crap, I have to go first! And not only that, Don proceeds to tell the shaft rolling maestro Larry that I used to work in a prepreg plant, and Larry wonders aloud if his job is in danger...I can assure you, not at all! That being said, I did do a reasonably good job for the first guy up, though I can thank Larry's watchful eye for making sure that I did everything properly. Every time I swing this shaft, I'm going to think of that amazing experience with Larry and that my Handcrafted creation was truly the definition of Handcrafted! After I finished rolling it, Larry took it to the rolling machine to make sure it was rolled smoothly, and then set it aside to move onto Barry's shaft while myself and Tim stepped away with O'Neil and Arturo to look at some paint colors and concepts.

StanTheCaddy rolling his shaft


We took a step over to the paint booth for Arturo to show us some base paint concepts. O'Neil pulled out a couple jars of what is called "pearling", which is a paint that creates a certain metallic "shimmer" in the light, and immediately Tim and I (and pretty much everyone else) decided that we needed some of that on our graphics. Tim settled on a white pearled base paint for his shaft, and O'Neil and Arturo mocked up my base concept, which is a black gloss base paint with a spray fade to a maroon pearling at the tip end. It looks AWESOME. We took a look out in the sunlight as well, and it looked even better yet.



Stepping back into the lab, we watched the other guys roll their shafts under Larry's watchful eye. To ddec's great dismay, nobody screwed up, and he lost the bet to JB - though I'm not sure what the stakes of that bet were! After the rolling was complete, Larry put the shafts in the oven for us to cure and we went to back to the conference room to get our test shafts back so we could plug them back into our heads and play some golf at Balboa. At this point, Don walks in with two huge silver cases and proceeds to hit us with another surprise - since PX makes everything in pairs for redundancy's sake, there was another kit of flags cut for each of our shafts, and Don had the guys (and gals) roll them and cure them overnight so that we could play with them at Balboa Park. HOLY CRAP! We were going to be teeing it up with our own creations THAT DAY. Amazing! Needless to say, after that we all wanted to hit the range immediately and get those bad boys dialed in. We said our goodbyes to the good folks at True Temper - this would be the last time we'd see Lauren, and she was wonderful, thanks so much! - and headed to the GolfMart range nearby.

The feelings we all got from our custom shafts at the range were pretty much all some variation of "OMG this damn thing is amazing!". Heard a lot of exclamations of "dayummmm" "holy crap" "that was BOMBED" etc etc. Yeah..this was going to be a fun afternoon! Although it was tough to leave the range with some of the scenery there!

We hit Balboa at about 12:35, and arrived to find JB, Don, and ddec stocking us all up on water and hotdogs prior to the round, and refusing to let any of us pay for them. Again, amazing touches by both THP and TT and I really couldn't appreciate it enough. We all teed off at around 1pm in front of JB and ddec, and I'm proud to say that nobody hit a total top or lateral - all solid drives with the new shaft, although there was a little left action, but there was a fairway there so all good! Tim and I both absolutely obliterated our first tee balls almost right next to each other - Dean actually said after I hit mine, "speaking of murdering it...", was glad to hit a good tee ball there. Was in the cart with Mike, and we played the front 9 with Dave and Tim. These guys were a blast to play with, and Tim was absolutely on fire shooting a 38 on the front. I was doing pretty well for the first 7, driving it well and parred the very tough, tight par 4 4th, but fell off at the end of the 9. I also managed to almost hit Don with a golf ball on the tee of #6...yeah, I'm never going to live that one down!

On the back we switched it up and played with Barry and Paul. I had a rough start and a few rough holes, but had fun and was driving it pretty well with the new shaft. Paul absolutely punishes that golf ball with his fluid Angel Cabrera looking swing, LONG, and Barry is the fairway machine. We all had a good time I think, and Paul jarred a sand shot for bird on the first par 5 so that was awesome! This was a tight, tough course, and Mike and I paid the price in a few places for sure, but we kept it mostly light and had a lot of fun together the whole way - although we thought we might have to tow Barry and Paul back to the clubhouse after their tire went completely flat on the 17th! We came back to find that Tim and Dave had the low round, with Barry and Paul in 2nd and Mike and I and Chump Fries and Don tied bringing up the rear. Great times were had by all though. We said our goodbyes to the excellently gracious host Don, and our fellow participant Dave (who had to head back to Arizona, had a blast playing with you bud!) and shot off a half mile down the road to grab some grub.




Chump Fries deserves all the credit for this, because he found it on Yelp. The little place we ate dinner, a hole-in-the-wall cheesesteak place called Giorginos, was absolutely INCREDIBLE - and I'm originally from the Philly area, so I know what's up! Got an AWESOME Pizza Steak and a local red ale, and we all chowed down and talked about the amazing experience we had just come out of and how sad we were it was over. But we still had Torrey in the morning, so we had one last hurrah! After getting back to the hotel, we washed up and all went down to the bar to have a few drinks before calling it a day for the early tee time on Saturday at Torrey Pines North. We thought we were done around 10, but then Paul aka Sanda Claus surprised us with another round of Stone IPA's (seriously, I was flabbergasted, had NO idea it was coming haha) and we ended up staying till almost 11 and chatting about all manner of hilarity including YouTube lightsaber battles and the ladies. Time for sleep!!

Grub time at Giorginos


I'll have one more recap post for the rounds at Torrey on Saturday and some final thoughts and individual shout outs, stay tuned.

11 GIR hit today with the custom shaft. 2 of them were bombs! (for me ). The 3 drives that missed were all just left of the fairway (hitting draws for days) and were playable with shots toward the green. I'm really liking it! Getting out tomorrow for more.

I need to finish my recaps with a shoutout thread. Maybe tonight after I get some chores done.

Played my home course today. Got to the course and immediately went out (no range, not even a warm-up swing). Wasn't hitting it great on the front but was keeping it in play. On the back I started seeing some better distance with 2 huge bombs on #11 and #17. Probably the 2 best drives I've ever had on those holes. Hit 7/13 fairways. Of the 6 I missed; 4 I had unobstructed shots that weren't a problem, 2 I was in some trees and had to hit a punch shot or layup. I'm liking the trajectory and feel of the club a lot. Was definitely a little rusty having not picked up a club in a week (as a teacher over the summer I play 4 times a week) but all in all a pretty good day. Hope to get out again next weekend. Will have my final recap coming up tomorrow.

Nice work boys. I wasn't able to get out for a round, but I did get some range and LM time in and the numbers don't lie, I am pummeling this thing. Had one on the monitor carry 260 and roll out to nearly 280. That is gargantuan for me! I'm hitting it easily 10 yards longer than my Titleist on the good strikes, and it's in no small part due to that wonderful custom shaft.

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I'm jealous of you guys getting to play. Two little kids and being gone for 6 days means extra makeup family time. Looks like the earliest I'm going to be able to get out is next week. Boo.


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#HandCraftedExperience Recap- Part 1


#HandCraftedExperience Recap- Part 2


#HandCraftedExperience Recap- Part 3


#HandCraftedExperience Recap- Part 4

This was by far my favorite recap to write. I met so many incredible people at this event that I thought I needed to dedicate a separate recap to everyone who was involved in the #HandCraftedExperience.


JB- You come up with these ideas that no one thinks is possible and give us hackers an opportunity to experience things that I could only dream of. Thank you so much for everything. The event was absolutely incredible and we owe so much of it to you. The dinner at Ballast Point (and drinks) was way above and beyond what I imagined. Thank you again for everything you do and I look forward to seeing you again at my next THP Event!

ddec- Dean, seeing you this week makes me wonder why we don’t get together and tee it up together. You are such an awesome guy and you worked so hard as JB’s right hand man this week. You were a huge part of this event and I really appreciate everything you did to make this event amazing. Also, really enjoyed your comments on Periscope, absolutely hilarious. Hope to tee it up with you soon buddy.

Don- I know JB came to you with an idea and you brought it to different level. I think the analogy was you didn’t want to show us the sports car, you wanted to let us get in and drive it. You are an awesome, hilarious dude. I also can tell how passionate you are about your work. The knowledge you gave us was way above my head but so interesting to hear. It was so much fun to talk to you about what I saw with the test shaft then see you go to work to create the perfect golf shaft for me and the other 6 THPers. I also appreciate you going above and beyond buying us food and beers at Balboa. It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope we didn’t drive you too crazy. Thank you again for everything!

Lauren and Sydney- These 2 were superstars all week. Lauren is the Marketing Communications Manager and Sydney is in charge of Social Media. Without Lauren, this event never happens. They were following us around, recording everything and couldn’t have been nicer. Thank you both for helping make this experience a reality!

O’Neil- The man who has Hashtag worried he no longer has the best hair in the industry. O’Neil is the graphics design guy. He is great at what he does. He seamlessly brought to life all of our visions. I got a little glimpse already of what my golf shaft is looking like and can’t wait to see it in person. He’s a great guy and enjoyed meeting him.

Larry, Arturo and the rest of the Project X Family- Thank you to all of you. Larry is the hand rolling expert who guided us through the shaft making process. Really nice guy and incredible at what he does. Arturo is a genius with the paint. You name the color, he can make it. Also a great guy. To everyone else at Project X HQ, you guys are like one big family. Everyone there always seems so happy and it was awesome to see all of them wearing the THP #HandCraftedExperience t-shirts while were there. Thanks for all your hard work including staying after we left on Thursday to make our custom golf shafts so we could use them on Friday.

Minh (sandiegonative), Alex (alez367) and Ken (Ken_H)- It was great meeting all of you guys at Torrey on Saturday. San Diego has a great group of THPers and I’ll definitely let you guys know if I’m ever back in town. You guys were so excited for us about our custom golf shafts, which I thought was so cool of you guys. Thanks for helping set up the tee times and being awesome guys!

Ryan (SkiBumGolfer)- My roommate from Day 1. Don’t know how you put up with me for 4 days, haha. Your passion for this event leading up to and during the event was incredible. Also really appreciate all you did organizing the money that was owed. You have a really good golf game and can hit the heck out of your driver. I know you’re going to be crushing that Vapor/Custom shaft combo. It was great playing with you at Balboa and Torrey South. You’re a real fun dude to hang out with and I enjoyed how you were on the “Chump Fries” bandwagon from day 1 and really wanted it to stick. Hope to tee it up with you again soon buddy.

Dave (Spivey)- My teammate at Balboa to see who would get their custom shafts first. You have such a great laid back personality. It was awesome riding around with you at Balboa. I told you how you have a “Zen-like aura” around you. Seems like whoever you are playing with, they always play well. We made a great team shooting 75 on a tough, tight course. Seems like you do a lot of winning when you play with THPers. You really crush the ball and have a very nice all around game. Also really enjoyed sitting next to you and hearing some funny doctor stories at Ballast Point for dinner. You are such a great guy and would gladly tee it up or be your teammate again.

Mike (Awkward Silence)- Really happy we got to ride together for our round at Torrey North. You’re dry sense of humor is awesome and it’s great when you bust out a zinger because I never know when it’s coming. Like when I’m spilling my breakfast burrito on your side of the cart. You hit some of the best hybrid and fairway wood shots I saw all week during our round at the North Course. Also glad you shared a room with me and Ryan. I’m sorry the pullout didn’t cooperate with you. By the way, there were socks I think were yours that were left in the hotel. Sorry though, I wasn’t touching socks that weren’t mine, haha. Great meeting you and hope to tee it up with you again.

Barry (cpljohnst)- To me, you represent everything that is great about THP. You bleed green and white. You just get it and it was great meeting you. So disappointed you were the only one I didn’t get a chance to play with. Glad you got a chance to follow us around on #18 at Torrey South and that Periscope is legendary. Your commentary was amazing. Also, thank you so much for driving me around all week. Even going out of your way to bring me to CVS and In-N-Out (although I wasn’t the only one who wanted to go to In-N-Out). It was really awesome meeting you and hope to tee it up with you in the same group sometime soon.

Paul (Galen Marek)- I know you said you were nervous because you weren’t sure if you’d “fit in” with us but let me tell you, keep being who you are because you’re an awesome dude. You got a great sense of humor; those stories of your website were hysterical. Thanks for the round of beers you bought us and sharing those ridiculous youtube videos, haha. It was great playing with you on the North Course. You absolutely crush the ball and your short game was on fire. It was great meeting you and hope to tee it up with you again sometime soon.

Courtney (Chump Fries)- Ahhh, Courtney. Every group, every event has one. The guy that takes the brunt of the jokes and you were an absolute champ taking it all in stride and being a great sport. I know I was the last one to jump on the “Chump Fries” bandwagon because I couldn’t tell if it was bothering you. But after that Project X lady came in and asked “Who’s Chump Fries” and we all lost it laughing so hard I knew there was no turning back. Glad to see you continue to embrace it changing your forum name. Just know that people only joke around with family and close friends. It was great playing with you at both Balboa and Torrey South although it seemed like I always played awful whenever we were in the same group, haha. It was an absolute blast meeting you and would definitely tee it up with you anytime buddy!

THP Community- I also want to thank everyone on THP who followed along and supported this amazing event. The support from all of you was incredible!

I'm sure I forgot some things and will continue to post them as they pop into my head. I just can’t say it enough; thank you, thank you, thank you THP and Project X for the experience of a lifetime. I can say Project X has a fan for life in me. It was an incredible event that far exceeded what I imagined. The experience we got was so special and it was an honor to be a part of it. Thank you again THP and Project X for making the #HandCraftedExperience something I will never forget!

Great recap Tim. I need to do the same so heck, why not right now!

Lauren and Sydney - You gals were great! The interviews were so awesome and all the coverage on social media was very nice too. Thanks so much for coming all the way out from Memphis, ladies. Sydney, I won't hold it against you that you graduated from UGA! Lauren, I hope you had a great vacation after hanging out with all of us THPers and thank you so much for letting this event happen!

Don - your sense of humor here on the forums came through loud and clear before we got to SD and you didn't disappoint out there! Kept us laughing with your quick wit and banter. Your knowledge on shafts was just incredible to behold! The round at Balboa was so much fun. You just like to have fun out on the course and that's exactly what we did. Thanks for lunch that day and the beverages out on the course, and that last round at Ballast the night before.

O'Neil, you were just great! Loved watching you interact with several different guys on their design and I really like the suggestions you made for mine. The stuff you've showed so far on Spivey and StanTheCaddy's shafts is blowing me away!

JB - Knocked another one out of the park! What you and Morgan have built is incredible. Thank you for the long hours in planning. Thank you for the long hours in travel. And thank you for the ideas that keep pushing the envelope! Fantastic menu at Ballast. This event was easily the best I've attended.

Dean - Was great chatting with you and JB at our end of the table at Ballast. Great job on periscope and updates to the live thread. I know we've been to at least one other event together but this was my first time getting to talk with you at length and I enjoyed it. Hope we get to tee it up together some time in the future! Taking a week off to volunteer to cover this event and accompany JB on his West coast trip was certainly appreciated by us!

Courtney - How else but to start a great trip out to the west coast than to share a nice dinner in Little Italy. That was some great food and I enjoyed exploring a bit of SD with you on Wednesday prior to playing Torrey. Its funny what you can learn about someone in such a short trip, but I learned that you are a dedicated Dad and husband. Facetime chats with the wife and kids each night show you've got your priorities in order my man. Hope we get to meet up at Dancing Rabbit in the spring like we talked about. You were a trooper this trip and took all the friendly ribbing in stride. And remember - "I'll play golf with you anytime"!

Skibum - Ryan, so great to see you again and enjoyed getting to play some golf. Youngest guy on the trip, but maturity level through the roof. You jumped right in and kept us all organized in the extra rounds and travel thread and also did a great job with the accounting! Owe you a cold one at some point for that! One of these days I'm going to have to make it up to the PNW and I'll buy you a beer and we'll play some more golf.

Spivey - You are one of the coolest THPers I've meet. Selfless and generous and also with storytelling abilities like very few posses. The round walking at Torrey South with you is one I'll remember for ages. Looking forward to seeing you in October my friend!

Awkward Silence - Mike! That first morning meeting you I had a first glimpse at your dry wit. I wasn't sure if you were really joking at first, then after a pause I saw a sly grin cross your face. Knew instantly I'd like you! You cracked me up a few times with that deadpan delivery of a sarcastic joke. Enjoyed talking a bit about Atlanta with you, and hearing about your move out to LA. I was glad to see that you seemed pretty normal for a guy that designed a blood drenched zombie golf shaft!

Galen Marek - Paul! I'm so glad you were in this event. You have an amazing sense of humor and had me cracking up this trip. Brother Loni must be proud! You absolutely crush the ball and for a short hitter like me that is real fun to watch up close. Wish we'd played the front nine of Balboa better so we could have given Dave and Tim a run for their money. Have to say I'm damn proud of the way we picked each other up through the back nine and got ourselves into second place in the contest for who will get their golf shaft first. I hope we'll get to play again together at another THP event!

StanTheCaddy - Tim, my only regret of this entire trip is that we didn't get to play any golf together. It will happen though! I had a blast watching you guys play the 18th at Torrey South. Enjoyed the night out at La Jolla Cove with you, Courtney and Ryan. Was a lot of fun talking about all the "birdie" and "eagle" chances we had! Never heard how your plane ride back went? Any better than the plane ride out to SD?:wink:

Alez - Though not an official part of this event, I can't say enough how awesome it was to enjoy your hospitality on Wednesday and Saturday. Absolutely a top notch guy. Your help in arranging tee times was invaluable. And letting me borrow your push cart was fantastic. I owe you! You have to visit Atlanta now so I can repay you!

Minh and Ken - was great meeting you both on Saturday!

And like Tim, I want to thank everyone that followed along in the live thread and also in the feedback thread leading up to the event. You guys asked some great questions and gave us some great interaction! Do yourselves a favor and make sure you try to be a part of #thehandcraftedexperience2016, you will not regret it! Project X will deliver something spectacular.

Friggin awesome final recaps guys! I'm getting close to posting my Saturday recap and shout outs, so I will save the responses to your most gracious comments for that time, but for now I'll just say that I'll always remember that long weekend and I really, genuinely hope we all get to hang out again soon because it was awesome.

Monday work shirt

I'm pretty jealous of those shirts. Such a great touch done by TT/PX

more shafts getting ready for print


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