***** Note: amateurgolf.com traveled to Texas to get an inside look at the design of golf shafts and catch up with Rod Pampling, to view that video, click here.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Delivering high performance Down Under, the new Proforce AXIVCore graphite shafts by UST (United Sports Technologies®) captured its first win of the 2009 European Tour. Australia’s Rod Pampling won the Sportsbet Australian Masters after edging out the competition at the third play-off hole at Huntingdale Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia. For more information on the AXIVCore shaft, and why Rod chose this shaft, click here.

The Australian Masters was the 39-year-old Pampling’s first event for the new European season, and his first victory in his native Australia since the 1999 Canon Challenge.

“Rod (Pampling) was an early adopter of the new Proforce AXIVCore shaft so it’s extremely rewarding to see him leap into being one of the top money-earners for this European Tour season,” says Jim McIntosh, PGA Tour representative for UST. “The new Proforce AXIVCore Technology incorporates an exotic material that resists deformation at impact and then restores the shaft to its normal shape more efficiently than other shafts. The Proforce AXIVCore delivers an entirely new level of distance and accuracy.”

The new Proforce AXIVCore Series integrates a true weave — four-axis material — within the inner walls (shaft core), providing stability and consistent recovery at impact — a design which makes the AXIVCore shafts unlike any other shaft in the world. This unique counter-balanced shaft also reduces club heft that helps players generate more clubhead speed which translates to more ball velocity and greater distance.

AXIV Technology in the Proforce AXIVCore is a UST exclusive, proprietary process of weaving specific high-modulus carbon fibers in the critical four axis directions necessary in shaft design to optimize stiffness, hoop strength, and torsional resistance. The shaft resists deformation and returns the shaft to a round shape faster than other shafts on the market. The Proforce AXIVCore Series features a Blue, Tour Black and Tour Red models, and will be available in multiple weights and flexes to fit various swing profiles.

For more information on UST or UST products, contact Randy Stuart at 281.250.8465 or visit www.ustgolfshaft.com.

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