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True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT Shaft: Preview
24 Apr 2015
by Rusty Cage

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By their own admission, True Temper expected its Dynamic Gold AMT shaft to be a popular choice on the PGA Tour, just not to the extent it has been. The demand for the yet-to-be- released shaft has been so high that True Temper is doing all it can just to fulfill orders as they come in.

True Temper’s Dynamic Gold AMT (Ascending Mass Technology) shafts are designed to get progressively heavier as golfers move from their long irons to their wedges. Take for instance a standard pitching wedge that weighs between 125 to 130 grams depending on flex. Each subsequent iron shaft in the set drops down in weight by 3 grams all the way down to the 3-iron. As a result, long irons launch higher with more spin due to the lighter weight, while the scoring clubs maintain the familiar flight characteristics of Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shafts.

“What we found, particularly in the long irons, is that they launched a little higher just by virtue of the increased speed [from lighter weight],” says Chad Hall, True Temper’s Vice President of Global Sales. “That’s true for most players. From a wedge perspective, you’re talking about the same exact performance.”

The AMT shafts made their debut on the PGA Tour at the Honda Classic in February. At the time, True Temper released only a handful of sets to kick start interest among tour players. The new shafts claimed their first win on tour at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at the hands of Matt Every who used them in his Callaway Apex Pro irons. Just a week later, Jimmy Walker duplicated the feat at the Valero Texas Open. More recently, Boo Weekly changed out his shafts right before his pro-am at the Zurich Classic and went on to shoot an opening-round 64 for a share of the lead.

One of the key features to the design of the AMT shafts is the use of True Temper’s Variable Wall Technology (VWT). It allows engineers to manipulate the wall thickness throughout the entirety of a shaft to the reach the desired weight and performance. The wall is thinner towards the butt section of the shaft for improved feel and then thickens towards the tip for better control and accuracy. Hall says, “VWT allows us to create ascending weight design with no swing weight variation when using a standard head weight progression.”

To be clear, Dynamic Gold AMT is not a flighted set of shafts. The overall flight characteristics of each shaft adheres to the low-launch specification favored by better players. Within that profile, the long irons tend to flight a little higher and spin a little more.

True Temper has made several shafts in the past that featured ascending weight technology but none of those products were made with the drastic weight progression and launch characteristics favored by better players.

“The ascending weight concept is actually not new territory for us,” says Hall. “You may remember a shaft called Tri-Gold from back in the late 90’s. That shaft was also ascending weight. However, it was too soft in the long irons and very stiff in the short irons. With the new AMT, we’ve taken everything we learned from previous projects and combined it with all that has made Dynamic Gold so popular for so long.”

For the time being, True Temper’s Dynamic Gold AMT shaft will continue to be available as a tour-only product. When the shafts are finally released to the public (tentatively scheduled for 2016), the progressive weighting will allow amateurs to produce higher ball speeds in the lower lofted irons and the additional spin should help balls land more softly on long approaches. True Temper believes the AMT shaft will be a huge hit with accomplished players who currently enjoy the feel and performance of Dynamic Gold in their scoring clubs but require a lighter option in the long irons. According to Hall, the shafts are expected to be offered in the following flexes: R300, S300, X100, plus tour- issue versions in S400 and X100.

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