True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT Shaft: Preview
24 Apr 2015
by Rusty Cage
see also: Equipment Reviews
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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.