Check out our photos of True Temper’s new PX prototype graphite driver shafts, which are being tested by tour players this week at the FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind.

The shafts have textured bands reinforcing the midsection that allows the midsections to be made substantially softer than the original Project X and Project X Black graphite shafts.

“If you measure out the butt stiffness and tip deflection, these shafts measure just as stiff or more stiff than our current PX graphite shafts,” said Don Brown, product development manager for True Temper. “But the middle section is much, much softer.”

Brown said that the shafts are higher launching and slightly higher spinning than the previous models. That’s because of the newly designed mid section, which has a “loading zone” that is located in different areas on different models to enhance performance.

Above: LZ 18 denotes a loading zone that is 18 inches from the butt of the shaft, while LZ 16 denotes a loading zone that is 16 inches from the butt of the shaft.

The softer middle section helps golfers load the shaft better during the downswing. In good golf swings, more “loading” means more energy released into the golf ball, which can result in more ball speed.

The trick, according to Brown, is matching the location of the loading zone with a golfer’s swing. Traditionally, golfers associate high bend point shafts with a lower trajectory, and lower bend point shafts with a higher trajectory. But remember, we’re not talking about bend points — we’re talking about loading zones.

According to Brown, higher loading zones make a shaft feel whippy to high-speed players, which is why the loading zones of the shafts are moved 1 inch closer to the tip for every half flex a shaft goes up in stiffness. So a 7.0 PX prototype shaft has a loading zone that is 2 inches closer to the tip that a 6.0 shaft. But for lower swing-speed players, a loading zone that is closer to the handle will allow them to more easily load the shaft.

The three models being tested on tour this week — 55-gram and 65-gram shafts with a 7.0 frequency, and 55-gram shafts in 6.0, — were handmade in True Temper’s San Diego facility and are still in the early stages of testing.

Brown said that True Temper is currently in the process of gathering data from testing that will help the company identify which loading zones and weight ranges will be best for retail.

Check out the photos below, and click here to see what members are saying in the forums.

Click here to see what members are saying in the forums.