Project X HZRDUS Yellow Driver Shaft

By Russ Ryden, A Golf Digest America’s 100 Best Clubfitter
Fit2Score, Dallas Fort Worth, Texas

The Project X HZRDUS Yellow is the third driver shaft in the Hand Crafted family from True Temper. It has a notably soft midsection. This is much like the first in the series, the Project X Loading Zone reviewed earlier. The bend profile is much like the profiles of the 70 gram versions of the Project X Loading Zone model. The soft zones of those shafts moved with weight and flex. I have fit a number of players into the 50 and 60 gram versions of the Loading Zone. Therefore, another shaft with that design grabbed my attention.

I had a chance just recently to test it during a fitting with a single digit handicap player that showed up with a 6 year old driver and a 103 mph golf swing. Working with the Yellow HZRDUS and a TaylorMade M1 we added 2 mph to his swing speed, 3 mph to his ball speed, dropped his spin 800 rpm all of which added 17 yards to his drives. His playing buddies are in for a surprise.

I have seen some unusual designs over the years but none that impressed me like the Loading Zone and the Yellow HZRDUS. Upon first look I found that soft mid spooky. It found its way into my bag last year and my buddies were wondering where that length came from. Despite my initial concern with the ‘soft’ zone I had no trouble hitting fairways. 

The first thing to notice is that the stiffness is consistent between the 60 gram and the 70 gram versions of the shaft. Not all shafts are like this. Most 75 gram designs are going to be a notch stiffer than the lighter weight shafts of the same model. A 75S is typically stiffer than a 63S. This is not the case here. The difference is primarily hoop deformation. Even the torque values are much the same. Hard loaders will find the heavier shafts more stable as they will oval less. The smooth loading albeit fast swinger will benefit from less weight in the 63 gram versions of the HZRDUS Yellow without giving up stiffness or torque.

The following charts are in the Fit2Score shaft software for all shafts in the system. The EI profiles are converted mathematically to the classical deflection profiles club makers have been looking at for decades. This pair of charts compares the Yellow and Black HZRDUS Project X Hand Crafted driver shafts. I looked at it as I was trying to understand the low spin numbers coming off a shaft with a soft midsection. Understand this about this kind of shaft analysis, deflection is cumulative. The stiffer the shaft is at the area furthest from the load, the more it will exhibit overall stiffness.

As you digest that idea, look at the butt loaded charts on the right. While the Yellow HZRDUS is soft in the mid, it is by comparison stiff in the tip and butt. And that very stiff tip results in less shaft tip deformation when loading is occurring at the butt of the shaft.
What does that mean? In limited testing to date, it means low ball spin in a design that I expected to see exactly the opposite. Take the Project X HZRDUS Yellow and its sole mate the Project X Loading Zone shafts for a test drive and see how they interact with your swing. And always remember, the best shaft is the one that fits YOU.

Lets take a look at a range test of the Black vs Yellow HZRDUS shafts. Our tester, a teacher / fitter at The Golf Center at the Highlands, Suti Siewsurut swing his driver around 118 mph. His driver angle of attack is negative. His numbers off the Black and Yellow illustrate just how important shaft fitting is:

For some browsers that report might be hard to read, so the highlight is that the Yellow mitigated his angle of attack, making it more positive, launched higher and spun slightly less. Hum, that is an interesting combination.

Suti’s comments, “My misses on the Black were more severe, it launched so low I felt I had to work my swing to help get the ball up. With the Yellow I had more control and less dispersion, my misses were not as far offline. It was easier for me to control the club face through impact.”

When I look at that big hinge in the EI profile, and then look at Suti’s dispersion I gained new respect for soft mid shaft design. If you have a problem with yellow, the Project X Loading Zone has a very similar bend profile in a color scheme that is not HZRDUS to your eyes. And always remember, the best shaft is the one that fits YOU.