Sourceshttps://www.truetemper.com/collections/project-x, https://www.truetemper.com/collections/all, https://www.truetemper.com/products/hzrdus-g5-black, https://www.truetemper.com/products/denali-frost-black, https://www.truetemper.com/products/cypher-20, https://www.truetemper.com/collections/project-x-steel-shafts, https://golf.com/gear/shafts/shaft-continues-dominate-pga-tour-2026/
FamiliesHZRDUS, HZRDUS Smoke, HZRDUS G5, Denali, Denali Frost, Cypher, TITAN, Project X steel, Project X LZ, Project X Red, Project X Wedge
Story MdProject X is the American answer to the Japanese premium houses, and its whole personality is one idea: take stiffness out to the tip and leave it there. Where a Japanese wood shaft often sells you a smooth, loading feel, Project X sells you a shaft that does not do very much at all — and for a certain kind of golfer, that is exactly the point.
## Whose brand is this, actually
Project X is a True Temper brand. Its shafts are sold on truetemper.com alongside Dynamic Gold, and True Temper's own storefront groups its catalog under four brands: **ACCRA, AEROTECH/STEELFIBER, PROJECT X and TRUE TEMPER**. That is worth stating plainly because a lot of gear lists still treat Accra and Aerotech as independent houses. They are not; they sit under the same roof as Project X.
So when you are told to compare a Project X against a Dynamic Gold, you are comparing two lines from one company — the graphite-and-modern-steel brand against the heritage steel brand.
## HZRDUS: the shaft that defined a decade
**HZRDUS** is the family that made Project X's name. It is a low-launch, low-spin design that adds stiffness along the shaft's full length, including an unusually firm mid-section. The current **HZRDUS G5 Black** builds a 4D Optimized Carbon weave into that mid-section, angled for torsional resistance, and its published torque runs from about 3.5 in the softest flex down to the mid-2s in TX. That is the real spec that matters, and it is a rare thing to find printed: most makers publish a torque number grudgingly or not at all.
The wider HZRDUS universe includes the Smoke branch — Smoke Black RDX, Smoke Green, Smoke Yellow — plus handcrafted runs like HZRDUS T1100 and HZRDUS G5 Yellow. Different names, one philosophy: control before comfort.
## Denali, Cypher, and the rest of the shelf
**Denali** is the newer, feel-forward wood family: a stable butt section with a straight-taper mid, offered as a low launch/spin Black, a mid Blue and a high Red. **Denali Frost Black** is the second-generation version, listing medium trajectory and low spin, built around a Focused Rotational Stability idea that concentrates high-modulus fiber in the tip to hold the face steadier on off-center strikes. It is sold in 60, 70 and 80 gram builds at the premium tier.
**Cypher** goes the other way entirely — an ultralight family in the 40, 50 and 60 gram classes, aimed at higher launch and more clubhead speed rather than control, and bend-profile matched between woods and irons so a full set feels like one design. There is also a **TITAN Black** in the wood line, sitting at the top of the price ladder.
On the steel side, **Project X** irons are the famous ones: flexes named as numbers — 5.0 through 7.0 — rather than letters, because the family's founding argument was that R and S mean nothing consistent. The build uses a stepless design with a per-shaft taper length so the flex distribution is tuned club by club, and the result is a stout, tip-firm shaft that gives strong players a flat ball flight. It sits in the mid price tier for a steel iron shaft, in chrome or blackout. **Project X LZ** — Loading Zone — is the softer-mid, more active sibling for players who found straight Project X too dead, and there is a **Project X Red** and a dedicated wedge shaft as well.
## What the numbers say about the house
GOLF.com's September 1, 2026 tally of shafts in 2026 winners' bags put Project X third among driver-shaft brands with 9 wins, behind Fujikura's 17 and Mitsubishi's 11. Third out of a field that includes every premium house in the world is not a consolation prize.
## The honest part
Project X's stiffness is not a personality trait you should adopt because tour players have it. A tip-stiff, low-torque shaft rewards a golfer who delivers a lot of speed and needs the face to stop rotating; it punishes a golfer who needs the shaft to help the ball get airborne. If you put a stout HZRDUS in a swing that was already struggling for launch, you will hit lower, spin less, and lose carry — and the shaft will have done precisely what it was designed to do.
The number to watch is not swing speed alone. It is what your ball does when you miss. If your bad shots balloon and spin, a stouter tip may genuinely fix them. If your bad shots come out low and left, stiffening the tip usually makes them worse.
## In a bay
This is a good family to test back-to-back against something soft-tipped, because the difference is large and it shows up fast. Put a low-launch, low-spin wood shaft next to a mid-launch one, take twenty swings with each, and read spin and peak height rather than one carry number. Most amateurs discover they need more spin than they think, not less — which is why "tour low-spin" shafts have wrecked more amateur ball flights than they have saved. Find out which one you are before you buy the one the winner played.
Related Slugsguide-to-golf-shafts, shaft-flex-explained, stable-vs-loud-shafts, shaft-specs-decoded, made-for-vs-real-deal