Update: 2/26: 7:28 p.m.

LA Golf Shafts’ Chief Product Officer, John Oldenburg, told us this

“Unfortunately, counter to your speculation, neither the OLYSS RSC Prototype nor the TPOC ZW are based off of old Matrix shaft platforms. These shafts are brand new designs (new tooling, processes, and materials) from a brand new company.”

“…The new prototypes are both brand new shafts based on flex profile platforms I developed years ago that have proven over many years to be extremely successful with tour caliber players. We have improved and modified these historic platforms based on the needs of today’s stronger, more athletic, faster swinging players, and the performance and mass characteristics of the latest driver heads.”

“The two prototypes are very different in construction, but do share one common characteristic. The modern trend for today’s professional player is higher and higher club head velocity at impact with a resulting increase in ball speed. To maintain stability and control for the modern high ball speed player, tour shaft overall stiffnesses have increased significantly over the past 5 to 10 years. This increase in stiffness certainly helps to provide the needed additional stability but also tends to impart an undesirable harsh feel to the shaft at impact. To counteract this effect, these LA Golf Shaft prototypes, incorporate a unique, high-tech, composite material in the grip end of the shaft, under the players hands.”

“This new, never before used material, is an ultra-lightweight, thin ply composite weave combining high modulus graphite with a unique PBO based fiber. The combination of the stiff, high strength, carbon fibers with an ultra-lightweight, ultra-strong and stiff PBO material that has outstanding vibration damping characteristics provides these shafts with significantly increased stability in the players hands, while maintaining outstanding feel at impact. Additionally, the rearward placement of the new material also aids to counterbalance the shafts, making them perfect for today’s heavier driver heads. Let’s say they are classic designs modernized for today’s player through advancement in design, construction, and materials.”

OLYSS RSC Prototypes (no relationship what-so-ever to Black Tie) 

“We currently have a 75 gram and 65 gram OLYSS RSC out on tour for evaluation and validation. OLYSS uses a constant taper physical profile to give it the feel of a smooth, controlled load and release. Low torque (2.8 degrees) and a mid-stiff tip section, allow the OLYSS prototype to provide a low-mid to mid ball flight with low spin for elite golfers with moderate to high ball speeds. LA Golf Shafts new OLYSS RSC 75-TX prototype gives the modern bomber the stiffness and stability they need with tremendous feel, a smooth load and release, and an optimized low-mid/mid launch, low spin launch profile.”

TPOC ZW Prototype (no relationship what-so-ever to TP) 

“The Tour Prototype TPOC ZW 75-TX is designed incorporating a long and slightly oversized parallel butt profile. Golf shafts with larger, long, nearly constant diameter physical profiles at the butt end provide the player with a crisper, firmer feel in the hands at impact. This solid feel is preferred by some players over the smoother, more subtle feel of a shaft having a slimmer more tapered profile under the grip. The slightly oversized butt dimension also provides a platform to create the larger grip sizes desired by many modern world class players without the need for the added weight of additional grip tape.

“The digitally optimized bending profile was created using five different types of carbon fiber, along with exotic PBO fibers, blended perfectly to provide low torque (2.5 degrees) and a stiff tip section that will yield a low-mid ball flight with low spin for elite golfers with moderate to high ball speeds. The TPOC ZW 75-TX prototype gives the modern player the stiffness and stability they need with a physical construction engineered to provide a solid, firm, but not harsh feel. The computer optimized bending profile allows the modern player to achieve a much desired low to mid launch angle with low to moderate spin characteristics.”

End update.

The “Florida Swing” is now upon us and we are only weeks away from The Masters — I hope you get used to hear that narrative until April — and we have again spotted some cool new product direct from the range this week at The Honda Classic.

LA Golf Shafts has a couple of new prototypes out for testings, one being a 65g model and the other being a 75g.

We’re not sure if these are related but based on the prototype coding on them it would be a good guess that these are different profiles and not just shafts from the same series.

With a bit of detective work based on the fact that LA has adopted a lot of the previous Matrix naming and color coding philosophies including the TPHDE, Red Tie, etc, the Black paint could be an indication that these prototypes are a line extension of the Black Tie series, which direct from LA Shafts is, “The lowest launch and spin profile in the OFS trio. A low torque tip stiff shaft with exceptional feel.”

Another theory would be the because the second of the two Prototypes has coding that starts with “TPO” it could be either an upgrade to the TPHDE line or an additional profile that maybe aded to the line in the near future. Since this is the first time we have spotted them, I’m sure there will be some more testing and pictures to come in the near future.

Join the discussion here in our forum and see what other GolfWRX members are saying about these new prototypes.