nobmontana

Looks like the release is September on this one.

saw this on their website. http://www.a-designgolf.com/%E8%A3%BD%E5%93%81%E6%A1%88%E5%86%85/a-grind-1/a-grind-utility-prototype With the 440 driver and now this, looks like they are expanding out more gear designed towards added forgiveness. Are they coming out with a new FW as well? Been doing some research on spongy soft feeling fw and ut and so far A grind seem to be the ticket. but I also want some forgiveness. So their move towards added forgiveness is great!

for me, it is time to put a counterbalanced heavy headed putter in play. 4 to 5 foot putts are still hurting me. will see if a counterbalanced high moi putter would help me there.

Perfect. It's a 6 deg gap after a 52 and a 58 wedge setup. I might need to get one. conforming or non-conforming grooves with this one?

I'll be getting a DLL+ soon. I feel Yonex's products have gone downhill since Ishikawa left them. Unfortunately, not very appealing. They used to make great products. Not sure if I like the shape of that putter. too square.

looks really cool! Like Batmobile!! but based on where the weight screws are positioned, is this head geared towards natural fade or slice hitters? I have read that the feel is similar to VT511 and 8C Craft TA001 ( meaning extremely soft at impact )

I was planning to go to Hoshino but ran out of time. Those Souffle Pancakes are suppsed to be off the charts!

My favorite joint from an exposed waitress outfit perspective was a family restaurant called "Anna Millers." I guess they are down to one location in Takanawa. Sad.... :(

So I had the chance to see and try the TM ARC1 putters during my recent stay in Japan. The normal ARC1 which has a larger head comes with the well known Pure Roll polymer insert. The ARC1 Tour is the smaller of the two and comes with a newly designed 6061 Aluminium milled insert. To me, the Pure Roll insert sounds and feels a bit cheap. I have a Daddy Long Legs( DLL) I keep with my in laws in Japan and while I love how forgiving the head is and how well I can putt with it, not my favorite when it comes to feel. At a local Golf Do! in Machida, Tokyo, I got to try the ARC1 Tour. While I really did not care for the shape of the head as it looked a bit weird. I wanted to try it out since it is a Japan only model. I was pleasantly surprised by the firm feel and feedback which was completely different from the Pure Roll insert. My other putters I have are all fine milled and none are deep milled. I prefer firmer touch with my putters. I was thinking if the DLL came with this 6061 insert what a great putter it would be! Lo and behold, TM is releasing the DLL+ putter later this month. So I ordered it thru Golfsmith during their 4th of July sale. 50 bucks off of a pre-release putter! with free shipping. not a bad deal! Comes with a counterbalanced Super Stroke 2.0 and everything. Really looking forward to using this putter going into local tournament season!

Literally tons of super high end restaurants in that area as well as reasonable joints! from 100 yen per plate sushi to 100000 yen per person meals. Take your pick!! :)

That's great to know! Just in time for my annual local tournaments!

For most people, that is the case. For me, they did not have my sizes. :) Not an issue. Just bring or wear a pair of sneakers and bring your own gloves if you are significantly taller than the average Japanese like me. I loved the carbon fiber coaster they had to serve their drinks!

Agree that they posess expert knowledge and technology to produce the absolute best in industry shaft. Very very cool! :)

Thanks guys! Yes, It will be tough to wait for the delivery. I think he mentioned possibly upto two months... :( The process on site was pretty straight forward. I brought my driver, so first took a few swings with it first to obtain baseline numbers. Then they picked one of the test shafts that might feel and weigh close to my own and put it in a 915 D2 head and started to record my swing using two high speed cameras up on the ceiling. Their test shafts all have 7 or so motion markers that they use to analyze the dynamic movement of the shaft while in motion. I was told the analysis focuses on the speed and position of each marker from the 8 o'clock position to the 4 o'clock position. The granularity of the plot looked like every millisecond. They can then detect irregularity on a given marker in motion and determine what needs to be tweaked to remove irregular bend motion or unwanted resonance. Their design is to "smooth out " the dynamic property of the shaft to match your swing. He also let me test a few shafts that had some very unique specs really to demonstrate their design and manufacturing capabilities. XX flex with higher 3.5 torque and then a Regular flex with a rather low 3.2 deg torque. I was able to hit either shaft without major issues but did get significantly different launch as well as distance. The session lasted about an hour. He also mentioned that many of his users actually saw a slight increase in overall swing speed after a few months of using their shaft likely due to added confidence and better feel.

Woohoo! Got to do my Haute Couture fitting session earlier today at 7D labs Tokyo!! Though my two daughters will disagree, for me it was far better than Tokyo Disneyland ! :) Based on the data they collected today, they will analyze the kick points and bend characteristics and design a shaft to match my swing. I did'nt really choose Distance or Control but told them I want both. The fitter agreed and gave me an idea of what type of shaft he had in mind for me. 65 to 70g , S to SX flex , 46.75 to 47 inch club length , D6 to D7 swing weight. Sounds pretty crazy.... we also detemined lower torque is key to tighter dispersion for my swing. I told him that my goal was to drive passed my playing buddy back in Montana who drives it 320 yrds on any given day! He agreed he'll keep that in mind and thinks it may actually be achievable! As a baseline, my best drive today on their trackman was 292 including roll using a Grandista Version S head paired to Diamana B 60 X @ 46". This head will be getting the 7D shaft. really looking forward to the to the final product!

oh maaan! I can't wait for my fitting! I am in Japan now and I brought my Epon 153 head with me and got it shafted yesterday with a used Diamana W at a local Golf Effort shop. Nice assembly work they did. This will be my baseline driver I will bring along to the fitting. Not exactly the same shaft I use back home currently but I suppose its representative of what I typically choose . ( high kick, lower trajectory ) Still have a couple of weeks before my fitting so I am going to build up another driver with a different head. but similar specs. Thinking of Grandista Version S for a head to head comparison. Winner gets the 7D treatment! I don't want to leave off any potential distance in this investment if my Epon is indeed inferior to newer heads.

This is a really rare item now that the Endo Golf Lab project has ended. GLWS. Really interested to know how this compares to an AF-153.

Sounds like the RIP may be producing a bit much spin for you with this loft setting. perhaps a lower spinning high kick pt shaft might help lower the trajectory a bit and likely help the ball roll out as well.

If you are a high hitter modus 3 120 would be a good choice. 1150 S are actually my favorite nippon shafts. currently in my gamer. Right amount of weight and control very smooth feel with mid launch.

I am discovering several head companies now offer the same head with face made of DAT55 or SP700, i believe, primarily to offer users different feel off the face. How I interpret that is the distance performance is not different. They typically do describe the SP700 as being "softer" feeling of the two. I think we can look at it like how we compare different material used for putters or irons and wedges for that matter.

dat 55 is titanium as well.

I personally love the RIP Alpha. Super low torque tight feeling shaft. It has one of the lowest torque at 2.9deg torque for being 63g raw. I would imagine the trajectory of this combo being quite low. Let us know how you hit it !

PM sent

I have had 3 of the 415 Zeros in the past. None stayed in the bag for more than a month unfortunately. Wanted to love it but never really got along. The sweetspot is quite small and you need to be able to hit it consistently. Off center hits tend not to go straight and you also get punished quite a bit on distance. Highly sensitive to direction. Think sport car steering. Accuracy and precision control is required. I never tried it with tip active shafts but if I do try again, that might be the way to go. The small pair shape can look quite intimidating for some but it is beautiful looking and one of the sweetest feeling and sounding heads ever. When you do hit the screws with it, it is sensational an really long! I have hit my longest drive with it being a 45" or shorter build. So which RIP shaft did it come with? alpha, beta or gamma ? RIP shafts in general have really low torque. May even work to increase sensitivity of direction. No itentions of sounding too intimidating but what you have there sounds like a razor sharp combo with very little forgiveness.

V203 is one of the best sounding and feeling head there is, period!! Must be a great combo with the Miyazaki too. GLWS