What We Tried
TPT Nitro 15 LO. A comparatively new premium shaft from Swiss producer TPT. The Nitro options what TPT describes as optimized fiber placement that works to scale back weight and torque whereas rising energy and precision.
Yeah, we tried a golf shaft.
Your TPT Tester: Tony Covey, once-reformed shaft ho all the time only one overview alternative away from falling down the rabbit gap … once more. And right here we go.
About TPT
TPT could be new to you. It’s probably not new however, by trade requirements, it’s nonetheless a relative newcomer to the shaft world. The principle level of differentiation for TPT is that whereas each different shaft firm rolls shafts by hand, TPT’s is a totally automated machine-wound product.
This video ought to assist clarify the method.
TPT says its steady winding strategy yields a extra constant product which, along with offering tighter dispersion, permits golfers to get pleasure from a velocity profit through the use of shafts which are softer than what they’d sometimes play.
That mixture explains how TPT arrives at its declare of straighter and longer drivers.
The becoming course of
In an ideal world, I might have been capable of do an in-person becoming however the timing didn’t work. As a substitute, TPT put me in contact with fitter Jon Sinclair. At his request, I grabbed some knowledge with my gamer and despatched it his means.
Sinclair really useful (and constructed and despatched) the TPT Nitro 15 Lo. The advice wasn’t notably shocking. Once I did my GT becoming at Titleist, we obtained a great sense of the profile and stability level that labored for the place my swing was on the time. As we kicked round potentialities for extra unique options (I’m such a toolbox), the TPT Lo was on the quick listing of strategies.
There’s a becoming instrument on the brand new TPT web site, and I suppose it’s refreshing that it additionally really useful the 15 Lo as effectively. If it’s your solely possibility, on-line becoming is best than nothing but when you will get fitted in individual, do it.
Shafts are costly (the Nitro is admittedly costly) so you actually need to get it proper the primary time.
The preliminary expertise
My TPT shaft arrived the day earlier than I drove to Massachusetts for a deep dive on the brand new Professional V1 and a ball becoming. Not having an opportunity to strive it beforehand, a extra smart individual may need left it at house.
I’m not a smart individual so I pulled my gamer out, screwed the TPT shaft into the pinnacle and hit the freeway.
I’m glad I did.
It’s not the slightest exaggeration after I say that, throughout my ball becoming, I hit among the longest and straightest drives I’d hit all season.
Love at first swing. Can I get an envoy deal? All in, all of sudden. I believe I’d get my Tour card.
Honeymoon impact? Possibly. Don’t care.
Actuality test: I don’t suppose there are lots of guys on Tour as of late who battle to hit 100 mph clubhead velocity and TPT shaft or not, I can nonetheless prime a drive with one of the best of them.
Nonetheless, I actually appreciated it.
On-course and within the lab
Earlier than we get into the testing and knowledge portion, I need to be clear about the truth that the TPT shaft arrived half an inch longer than what I used to be gaming. Usually, provided that a part of the overview course of is a comparability, I in all probability would have lower it right down to match what I used to be enjoying. That stated, there are few absolute guidelines for this type of factor and, frankly, I used to be so enamored with how I hit it throughout my ball becoming that I discovered myself very a lot in an “I’m not changing anything” mindset … so I didn’t.
However then …
I did change the grip for my final spherical of the season however that grip is beneath embargo so I don’t have a lot to say about that.
The present state of my sport
It’s a large number.
My velocity is down considerably. If the motive force wobbles out of the gate, the entire spherical generally is a battle. The upside is that I’ve by no means hit my irons higher – a bizarre place to be. My house course is tight so I reside and die by the motive force. Something between the excessive 70s and low 90s is in play.
Golf is enjoyable (at the least that’s what they inform me).
A bit extra background
With the motive force, most of us are chasing distance and souls have been bought for a couple of extra yards. The factor is that I play on a very tight course and whereas it has taken me means longer than it ought to should determine it out, I’ve wised as much as the truth that, at the start, I would like to color between the traces with my driver. I’m not going to stroll away from an additional yard or two however I’ve obtained sufficient confidence in the remainder of the bag to imagine that if the motive force stays in play, I’m going to be all proper more often than not.
That concept of portray between the traces is, in no small half, how I ended up within the HZRDUS Black. My core numbers (ball velocity, launch, spin, descent angles) had been stable given my velocity (or lack thereof) however the distinction maker was that it took the soft-right miss out of play.
So, with any new shaft, TPT or in any other case, I wouldn’t need to put that again in play but when I may decrease the high-left miss, all the higher.
It could even be good to take the topped ball and smother-hook out of play however there’s solely a lot we will count on a shaft to do.
So how did it go?
With the TPT on target, I used to be as near snug as I’ve been with the motive force all 12 months. I performed all of my greatest rounds of the 12 months in a five-week stretch with the TPT within the bag. I’ll inform you, with out concrete proof, that I hit a few of my longest drives of the season, too, though, admittedly, my lengthy ain’t what it was once.
Did I hit some dangerous drives? Hell, sure. It seems I’m nonetheless a lot able to the memorably atrocious however I additionally managed a 72-plus-hole stretch the place I didn’t hit a single ball OB.
That’s completely unprecedented in my world and I’d gladly give away 5 yards of distance, possibly 10, if I had been positive it could final.
A handful of rounds isn’t an enormous pattern measurement however the anecdotal takeaway is that, with the TPT, I used to be so long as I’ve been all season and straighter than I’ve been since I finished velocity coaching.
Please excuse the blur. The grip is beneath embargo.
The information
I’m unsure how useful knowledge from a single golfer is in terms of serving to you select new gear however I wished to seize some anyway and see what I may discover within the numbers.
For this take a look at, I hit roughly 60 balls with every shaft over the course of a few storage classes. I collected head and ball knowledge with the Foresight CG Quad and I used the identical Titleist GT3 head for each shafts. As famous above, the TPT shaft is a couple of half inch longer (roughly 45.5 inches) and the grips are completely different.
I took a fairly light-handed strategy to filtering outliers which suggests preserving loads of the less-than-perfect stuff that I’m prone to hit throughout a spherical of golf.
Trying on the core metrics, head speeds are comparable, suggesting that half an inch doesn’t make an excessive amount of distinction (at the least not for me). As a tragic little apart, in the summertime of 2023, I used to be averaging near 110 mph. I’m down a stable 10 mph and whereas that’s a narrative for an additional day, suffice it to say that life comes at you quick.
Regardless of the same head velocity, ball speeds are sooner with the TPT and the effectivity numbers (Foresight’s model of smash issue) counsel I made higher contact.
The TPT Nitro Lo launched a bit decrease with a 130-plus rpm extra spin on common. All of that will get me about 3 1/2 extra yards.
That’s not world-changing distance however I’ll take it.
Typically, I used to be extra per the TPT as evidenced by smaller normal deviations.
Trying deeper on the stuff that issues most to me (Foresight’s accuracy metrics), I noticed higher (tighter) dispersion with the TPT Nitro Lo. Dispersion numbers are helpful however can be influenced considerably by one or two balls that aren’t essentially outliers but additionally aren’t tight to the remainder of the sample, both.
Digging deeper, my gamer was barely extra constant entrance to again (vary), however Foresight’s Spray metric (left to proper) reveals a wider sample as effectively. Neither shaft suffered from the fitting mis however the sample suggests an even bigger left miss with the gamer however a extra left-favoring sample total with the TPT.
It’s affect, not magic
What will get misplaced in how golfers (and a few reviewers) discuss shafts is that there’s no magic to this. That’s to say, shafts aren’t like knobs that assist you to dial up ball velocity and dial down spin.
Very merely, a shaft influences how the membership strikes by way of area and the way you affect the golf ball. With that, we regularly discover shaft adjustments produce greater variations in dispersion than we do with issues like velocity, launch and spin.
So to try to perceive what was influencing the downrange variations, I took a take a look at how I used to be delivering the golf equipment with every shaft.
My assault angle was a bit over half a level extra optimistic with the TPT.
I delivered the gamer barely extra closed to the goal and the trail.
My path was barely extra out-to-in with my gamer.
Vertical affect was functionally equivalent with each shafts (one millimeter of distinction) however horizontal affect was extra centered with the TPT.
As a result of TaylorMade says it’s necessary, I checked out closure fee and located negligible (50 levels per second) variations between the shafts.
Notable: practically each metric was extra per the TPT.
The underside line is that when mixed right into a sequence of golf photographs, the gathering of small supply variations appears to favor the TPT Nitro 17 Lo for me.
However why?
Is it the design of the shaft, the additional half-inch size, the manufacturing course of or is it so simple as me simply feeling extra snug with the TPT?
The shaft profiles are comparable so we’d count on fairly comparable outcomes – and I’d say for probably the most half that’s what I noticed.
Finally, the why doesn’t matter. Go together with what works.
A fast phrase about really feel
It wouldn’t be a shaft overview with out some point out of really feel. Frankly, I believe describing shaft really feel is commonly a nonsensical pursuit. Boardy, kicks like a mule, ball comes off face like rocket, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth. I’m unsure how significant any of that’s to anybody however for the sake of creating my contribution to the noise, my adjective of alternative is full of life.
The shaft has an vitality and whereas at greatest that’s relative, I suppose it simply feels just like the shaft is bending and twisting how I would like it to.
Wrapping it up
That is my third expertise with TPT shafts. I cherished the unique on the golf course (it helped me paint between the traces). I performed that one in a PING head however someplace alongside the best way, I obtained fitted into one thing else, PING modified its adapters and, effectively, it’s in all probability sitting within the basement someplace.
When TPT launched the Pink Vary, I attempted a couple of completely different fashions however nothing felt fairly proper so it didn’t make it into bag.
The Nitro would possibly simply stick. It’s a protracted winter right here within the Northeast however except any person matches me into one thing too good to not play, there’s no motive the TPT gained’t be within the bag when the snow melts, though there’s a great probability I’ll trim it a bit.
Specs and pricing
Whereas TPT doesn’t take the standard strategy to weight and flex, between the HI and Lo sequence, you’ll discover 13 choices that span a spread of trajectories and weights.
Not like most of its rivals, TPT provides devoted traces of fairway wooden shafts. I’ve been enjoying the POWER RANGE fairway wooden shaft in my 3-wood. Whereas the specs aren’t equivalent, the advice is to play the identical TPT profile (in my case, 17 Lo) in your fairway wooden as your driver.
That’s a dialog for an additional day however suffice it to say, I’m pleased with what I’m seeing thus far.
Retail value for the TPT Nitro vary is $650. Energy Vary driver shafts retail for $380. Fairway shafts are $350.
Given the associated fee, I can’t suggest getting correctly fitted sufficient.
For extra data, go to tptgolf.com.
The submit We Tried It: TPT Nitro Golf Shafts appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
