Stephen Lowe is a 3-time International Long Drive Masters Division Champion ILDC, and member of the 2013 ILDC’s World Team Championship Canadian winning team, but his real passion is trying to help golfers hit the ball further.
After watching TPT shafts capture the World Long Drive Championships in both the open and masters’ divisions, Stephen made his first purchase of TPT golf shafts on eBay and he had his most successful professional competition outside of Canada in the fall of 2022 with a final four appearance in the 45+ age group at the XLD World Championships
As a proven business leader and serial entrepreneur who has launched and helped others launch successful start-ups in the business world, Lowe is taking his golf and business experience and bringing TPT golf shafts to Canadians.
TPT golf shafts are from Switzerland and the parent company (NTPT) pioneered Thin-Ply Technology for the construction of the carbon fiber sails (known as “Black Sails”) that revolutionized America’s Cup racing. The company later brought Thin-Ply to other high-performance industries including aerospace, F1 racing, snow sports, luxury watchmaking and now golf.
TPT has a formula for success in all the high-performance industries the company enters. To make the shafts they use an automated process that takes ultra-thin sheets of carbon-fiber and layers them into stacks to multiply their strength and toughness. This makes the shaft material 2X stronger. It also makes the shafts 3X tougher (i.e., resilience when loaded and twisted), allowing us to unlock even greater stability with our Red Range shafts.
A patent-pending process TPT developed uses automation to wind strips of carbon fiber into the form of a golf shaft. It’s this process that allows TPT to deliver a seamless, spineless shaft. No other company makes shafts this way.
They Wind Thin-Ply 2.0 preform from tip to handle to ensure precise placement and consistency throughout the shaft. The process removes the overlapping seams (known as “spine”) and inconsistencies that result from the manual manufacturing processes used by our competitors.
THE PROBLEM WITH GRAPHITE SHAFTS
The way most graphite shafts are made, it’s impossible to create two that are the same. Let alone 10,000 shafts. They’re flawed because they’re made by hand. And they’re creating wayward shots.
Even the shafts pros use have serious consistency problems. That’s why it’s such a big deal when a tour player has to replace a shaft. It’s impossible to get a new shaft that feels or performs the same if that shaft is made by hand
At TPT it never made sense that golfers would knowingly play a driver shaft that was too heavy or too stiff. Golfers are some of the most inventive and detail-oriented people on the planet. The founders thought there has to be more to this than ego.
And as it turns out, there is. The way most golf shafts are made creates inconsistencies that make a shaft “wobble” during the swing. These inconsistencies are known as “spine.” Golfers can feel this, and they can prefer a shaft that’s heavier and/or stiffer to try to counteract the effect of spine. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts. But it’s far from optimal.
The way TPT shafts are made, there is no spine. This is one of the reasons golfers tell us that our shafts feel more stable than other shafts: even our softer flexes.
Because of the differences in the way the shafts perform, TPT has chosen to sell them exclusively through fitters. These fitters have been individually vetted and fully trained on how to fit TPT shafts.
TPT golf shafts are now available to all Canadian, Long Drive Amateurs and Professionals, PGA of Canada Professionals, professional fitting centers and weekend warriors. It was the shaft brand that our own Brooke Henderson had in her driver, 3 wood and 5 wood to capture the HGV Tournament of Champions just last month. Lowe confirmed Brooke was using the 19Hi model in all her woods.
The Golf Academy in Burlington, Ontario is the Canadian HQ for fittings and demonstration center and is staffed by Canada’s fastest swinging male and one of the longest in the world, Professional Long Driver Ryan Gregnol.
Canada’s only full-time golf school instructor and former Ontario PGA Teacher of the Year Nick Starchuk at Nickstarchuk.com is helping Lowe spread the word as Nick has had the TPT in his driver since 2022 and its “never coming out”. It’s going in my 3 wood too, says Starchuk.
With the official launch coming after the PGA Show, the TPT shaft line will be made available to the public. TPT Canada is excited to announce that Modern Golf, Canada’s most popular golf club fitting, golf lesson, indoor golf and retail golf experience, will carry a full demo shaft matrix at their two flagship locations in Mississauga and Calgary immediately with more locations to come.
For more information on TPT golf shafts visit: tptgolf.com or call Stephen Lowe at TPT Golf Shafts Canada – (289) 834-2922. Follow their Instagram at stephen.tpt.canada
