+TourSpecGolfer Posted February 14, 2014 Report Share Posted February 14, 2014 By Tario via GolfToImpress It was an eventful first day as always at the Japan Golf Fair here at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba. Firstly weather was crappy as always seems to be the case year in and year out but especially this year with already a week of snow under out belt, he flurries began early and raged on throughout the day. We decided to go social this year by posting to Facebook, Instagram and Google+ while at the same time shooting as many photos as possible to blog and forum post about after and all the while squeezing in numerous meetings to improve Tourspecgolf's offerings and partnerships. While Tourspecgolfer, Tourspecgirl and I covered many brands and clubs, what stood out for me the most on the first day was the discovery of a non conforming Ryoma Maxima Special Tuning. Ryoma you see is not even here at the Golf Fair but the club was at Graphite Design's booth. TSG has an official meeting with Ryoma next week at their Shibuya office but we were glad to find the Maxima Special Tuning as many customers have been asking. (we also found a Ryoma utility by the way which can be seen in our Social posts.) First things first, this is definitely not the official Special Tuning model, it is a limited Beat Takeshi model that was actually made in honor of Tom Watson (in this case called Tobu Watson - Tobu in Japanese means to fly and in golf it refers to big distance). However the fact that this special edition model exists, means most likely down the road, a limited edition Maxima Special Tuning for the masses will be released (we'll probably know for sure now next week.). The Maxima which is already considered to be one of the easiest drivers to hit very long will be further enhanced by a 0.88+ COR Face. Another club that stood out to me was the new ONOFF Labo 358 Shingo Iron made for Japanese pro Shingo Katayama. Onoff took the very popular ONOFF Forged and made it to Shingo's specs including a much sharper overall profile, more compact head and much less offset. The face milling is also far more aggressive and the weighting adjusted for a more powerful spin heavy trajectory. ONOFF will be releasing limited sets of this Endo forged player's cavity in March so we will be taking pre orders soon. Imagine the wonderful feel and ease of use of the original ONOFF Forged in a smaller sharper package with a straight neck! I spent quite a bit of time as well hanging out with Romaro and their designer Abe-san which I will make a post about later. They featured not only their updated Type R driver, new iBrid utility iron, but also two new irons, the Ray MC (middle cavity), and Ray H as well as 3 new wedges. The MC is aimed at the middle to better player wanting forgiveness in a cavity back iron with great feel and balanced performance. The H is aimed at the better player who wants a smaller CB with less offset and a thinner top line. Stay tuned tomorrow for more highlights in the mean time its time for some rest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpbachman Posted February 14, 2014 Report Share Posted February 14, 2014 In Japanese, so relying on Google's translation feature, but it looks like Ryoma posted some news on the upcoming Maxima ST driver. Limited to 3k pieces and the Watson one, 200... http://www.ryomagolf.co.jp/news/news-1740.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gocchin Posted February 14, 2014 Report Share Posted February 14, 2014 Yup you are right Michael so it is official! 3000 pieces! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IshikawaFAN Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 any launch monitor vids? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wmclarenf1 Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 the gti blog and social page not loading for me. Do I need to do something with the new site changes? On Apple products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supo Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Gee that ryoma is a carbonof the yamaha tour 2009 That might be a beauty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shacco Posted February 15, 2014 Report Share Posted February 15, 2014 Had exactly the same thoughts when I saw that romaro mc. Copy of the Yamaha tours 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IshikawaFAN Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 TSG, can you please cover some PRGR and TOURSTAGE specifically the GR line... thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-500 Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 Had exactly the same thoughts when I saw that romaro mc. Copy of the Yamaha tours 2010 I had to double take. Very very similar to my 2010's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+TourSpecGolfer Posted February 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 TSG, can you please cover some PRGR and TOURSTAGE specifically the GR line... thanks! We have the demo's shot already, just got lots of posts to go through first. PRGR hasn't been at the show in years, TourStage this is the first year they didn't attend. Good move imo as the weather was WILD this year in Japan and because of that attendance was way down simply because people couldn't get there. The day of the show most train lines were down and taxi's were not working. We made it there by bus, foot, & a rare taxi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IshikawaFAN Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 We have the demo's shot already, just got lots of posts to go through first. PRGR hasn't been at the show in years, TourStage this is the first year they didn't attend. Good move imo as the weather was WILD this year in Japan and because of that attendance was way down simply because people couldn't get there. The day of the show most train lines were down and taxi's were not working. We made it there by bus, foot, & a rare taxi. That really sucks! I was actually thinking of going this year, glad I didn't. Thank you and your crew for toughing it out! So far, I'm loving the Buchi stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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