nobmontana

Here is a quick summary of my first few range sessions with the Tour AD PT High Modulus 6 Stiff. I've actually not had the chance to try the original PT shafts. But after trying the PTHM (PT High Modulus) in my Mavrik Subzero Triple Diamond 8.5* head, my impression is that even though Graphite Design claims that it is a neutral and mid launch shaft, to me it feels more similar to the likes of the original Diamana X or Fire Express BX70 It's mid-low launch and low spinning. It does not feel as refined as the D-Limited .. but I like how the overall feel of the shaft is very responsive. It's one of those shafts that don't have a lot of play. Still is a highly stable shaft. Unfortunately, I don't feel that this shaft is the best match with the Mavrik but possibly a better match to the PRGR Proto Single Clover. It may push out the Loop GK out.

Not sure... regardless of where the raw steel comes from, I feel it is the manufacturing / forging process that makes a difference in the quality of the heads. I've read many reviews saying these Nextgen / Proto Concept irons are as soft feeling as Epons.

Well done Hideki!!

these shafts retailed for 380 per shaft when new... full length 80T carbon is why it was so expensive.

My guess is that your friend's Cally was not a good fit for your swing. JDM standard driver specs are very different from current USDM driver specs. JDM typically much lighter overall weight and swing weight. About 305g, D0 to D2 are typical for JDM drivers and around 315g and D3 to D5 for USDM. I've been playing USDM for the last couple of years and I don't see anything wrong with it. Prior to that I played JDM drivers built to my specs, and I loved them. I really don't think there is a "better" or "worse" from an absolute performance perspective. It comes down to preference of shape, size, design, sound and feel. The only aspect of performance that may impact your choice may be the level of draw biasness ( not sure if that is a word) in some of the heads. Even that can be adjusted on many of the drivers today. Between my PRGR and Callaway drivers, though they have slightly different character in how the ball flies and how they sound and feel off the face, I love them both and they are both easy to play for me. Having said all that, If you prefer to stick with JBeam, yes, JBeam has released numerous new models after the ZY-11. some with even adjustable hosels.... however, ZY-11 is still legendary with such unique design.

Got to watch the Zozo live last night during prime time here in the US. 🙂 Matsuyama doing well ... but more notably the course looks in pristine condition!! then I read this article this morning about Hiroshi Iwata ... how ridiculous!! I hope Iwata continues to do well!! "A lot happened earlier in the week," said Iwata after his first round. "Someone asked me if I was a caddie when I was having a meal. Events like that get you more fired up to play well than someone giving you compliments. "I don't want to get into the details, but this person was not a player." Iwata, who turned professional in 2004, generously did not name the person who asked him this question, but whoever they are will certainly be feeling foolish now. The man from Miyagi is a three-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour, but arguably one of the moments of his career came in 2015 when he finished tied 21st at the PGA Championship.

If you haver an iPhone the pictures are in HEIC format. I don't think HEIC is supported on this website. You'll need to convert to JPEG or PNG to upload I believe.

There is a newer brand that's making some headlines among Golf youtubers in Japan. Brand is called "Proto Concept." The brand was recently featured in an article in one of the US golf community websites as well ... The company is a collaboration between Golf Partner and Endo which hinted that it's actually a revamp of Golf Partners's private brand "Nexgen." In fact, the forged series that Nexgen had a few years ago is exactly the same model as all of the Proto C irons. Nexgen forged irons don't hold much value in the market, but knowing that it is made by Endo, perhaps this is a very nice budget friendly choice for those who want Endo (Thailand) forged irons at a discount price!!

"Anniversary TR500" by Miura?

Please add pics.

Please add pics.

Glad to hear you got to use the CBI-80s built. I feel that even after 10 years, there has not been graphite iron shaft as good feeling as the CBIs. My regular flex CBI-80 sets will be used for the Seven x Shinagawa MBs sometime in the next few years.

I really wish I was disciplined like you, Ian. However, this year, I made some progress. Only 2 sets of irons in my rotation and 3 sets in idle. (used to be 5 in idle) 🙂

Very nice build!

OK, I tried a Mavrik Triple Diamond head with the D-Limited yesterday and wow. This shaft is just unreal! Smooth but pushes hard through impact. Penetrating flight yet high enough to give me max carry. - Mavrik Sub Zero Triple Diamond 8.5* / Diamana D-Limited 60 S / 45.5", 319g, D2.5 Will play with this combo in mostly wet weather this weekend to see how it goes.

You got all the translations correct Stu-san. I doubt these heads are actually made in Japan. 　If you look at the specs and footnotes one the other non-tourmodel VD and VD40 they also say - "Club: Made in Japan. " which leads me to believe they are putting "Made in Japan" on everything when they are actually not. But Seriously? why "VD?" I learned in a special Physical Ed. session during high school that "VD" meant something very different!! :( With this new release, the previous model RMX 020 will hopefully go down in price on the used market! I've kinda been eyeing on them.

I actually prefer the shape of the Single Clover... the face is a bit deeper and the toe area is rounded more. Reminded me very much of the Grandista RSD I played a couple of seasons ago. The Triple Clover is a bit more like a Titleist D2 shape. a bit stretched towards the back and slightly shallow face. I thought I was going to really like the Triple more based on pictures .. but in hand I liked the Single more. Honestly, I could probably game ether one really. It's interesting to compare the shape of the two PRGR heads against the Mavrik Sub Zero Triple Diamond which in their own words is supposed to be a 'Shape preferred by tour players' Single Clover took the toe shape of the the Cally and Triple Clover took the back half it seems.

Man, seems like I've been really slow to the band wagon this year! Back in March '21, Graphite Design released a Japan only limited edition Tour AD PT High Modulus shaft and I am just learning about it. Basically it is positioned to be the successor to one of their longest seller Tour AD PT ( Think Blue Board type profile ) but uses updated/higher grade material including 80T carbon fiber as well as Toray's T1100G around the tip section. Saw some Youtube videos a few weeks ago where they compare this shaft against Mitsubishi Tensei 1K as well as Diamana D-Limited. Though it is a mid launch, it appears that this shaft provides very low spin. Since my all time favorite is the Kurokage '13 which is a mid launch shaft, I decided that I need to get one of these shafts in 6S and try it out. Should arrive in the net couple of weeks. One I have it, I will compare this against my D-limited shaft.

My RSF Single Clover head arrived last week and I tried it with the Loop GK SX, Kurokage '13 60S, Tour AD XC 6S and Accra TZ5 55 M3 Kurokage '13 is at 45.5" and the swing weight was D7... just a bit too heavy. and I don't have adjustable weights for these heads. Loop, XC and Accra all came out to be 45" length wise and around D3.5 to D4. right about where I like them. - I had the best results with the Loop GK SX. Low to Mid trajectory, easy to control left and right. really heavy and dense feel at impact. - Kurokage '13 was just too long for the head weight. Will continue to use it for my 2016 RSF head. - Accra and XC were both good but it did not Wow me over the Loop GK shaft. I feel like I can confidently take this RSF Single Clover + Loop GK combo to a narrow technical course where good level of precision/control is required. And as a bonus, this head is as anti left as a head can be. The Triple Clover head more or less plays similar but with slightly more emphasis on straighter shots. If you were to describe the Single Clover like a muscle back, the Triple Clover plays like a half cavity back. Sticking with the Single Clover. The Triple Clover head will be posted on BST later this week. *** ↓↓↓ Single Clover at address ↓↓↓ Single Clover sole ↓↓↓Loop GK front ↓↓↓ Look GK back ↓↓↓ Single Clover Logo ↓↓↓ RS-F Prototype Triple Clover from top ↓↓↓ RS-F Prototype Single Clover from top ↓↓↓ RS-F Single Clover on left , Mavrik Triple Diamond on right ↓↓↓ RS-F Triple Clover on left , Mavrik Triple Diamond on right ↓↓↓ All three heads.

I tried a few of the shafts that I currently own including the D-Limited in the RSF single clover and though they all performed well. The Loop GK that I previously used in my Grandista RSD came out as the best match with this head. RSF Single Clover + Loop GK is one tasty combo. For my very first round with this combo last Saturday, I hit 13/14 fairways during a Tip and Tuck tournament. The one I missed was on me for putting a very bad swing where I tried to make a strong draw and over doing it. I could go with the D-Limited but I really like the Loop in this head. So my D-Limited shaft is still seeking a head to partner with. The RSF Triple Clover was definitely a good candidate but it's too similar to the Single Clover in how it plays and I need a different type of driver in my arsenal. Since the RSF + Loop is a lower trajectory fairway runner suited better for Summer conditions, I want to try a different head that will give me optimal carry distance since we are going into winter season with almost no roll on the fairway.

I have a couple of hybrids in the bag. One with a Diamond Speeder HB and the other just built with UST Mamiya Lin-Q hybrid. Both very good shafts. Also Ventus HB with Velocore is another excellent hybrid shaft.

I almost pulled the trigger on their first Erook driver ... nice shape at address and from what I have read, they are very good performing heads. This new one, construction wise, looks similar to the TR20 driver from Honma with the entire back half of the head being one piece carbon fiber shell. Pretty amazing on what they can do with carbon fiber molding/shaping these days. With JDM Boutique equipment you definitely get a higher sense of owning something special that no one else around you would have.

I received the Triple Clover driver head as well as 3wood and 4UT on Friday. took them out to the range so I'd have at least a quick hit before my round this morning. The RSF Triple Clover driver is no joke. possibly the most edgy type of driver head from PRGR as a proper successor to the 2016 1st gen RS-F. RS-F '17 was good but RS-F '18 became tamed too much and the '20 RS5 was mediocre. Glad to see there are some spirited soul left at PRGR to bring back true "player's " type clubs. I played 18 holes with my trusty'13 Kurokage Proto 60 S shaft in it this morning and it felt pretty good. Straight shots, low-mid trajectory, very controllable with very good distance. absolutely no fear of the left!! Sound and feel were very nice too. Then after the round, I went back to the range to try the Loop GK shaft which is probably a more low launch/low spin shaft compared to the Kurokage '13 Proto. And boy, the low spin character of the head really showed up with this combo. It may be too low spin head for me to use at 9.5 deg loft. May need to loft up to 10.5 deg. I'm still waiting on the Single Clover head ... so I will be doing a lot of testing over the next couple of weeks and ultimately leave myself with only one of these driver heads. First impression is quite positive!! As for the Fairway and UT, while the range session was fine, I didn't get along on the course as well as I had hoped. They are not ready for prime time yet. I'll give a few more tries ... but right now, I feel the Epic Speed fairway and Mavrik hybrid may be the better playing woods for me.

Draw bias issue is fixed!! All I had to do was to heat up the heel area with a heat gun and got it hot enough so that the hot melt started to flow inside (guessing) . then I let it cool with the toe side down... let gravity do its magic. Took it out to the range and the draw bias is completely gone now!! love it! Second range session: Trajectory: Tie ... both very straight and neutral ! Distance: Tie Forgiveness: Epic = 4.5 vs RS5 = 5 ( not a huge difference ) Sound and Feel: Epic = 4.5 vs RS5 = 5 ( not a huge difference ) Looks at address: Epic = 4 vs RS5 = 5 ( RS5 looks much cleaner and friendlier ) RS5 wins !!!

I got my RS5 5W yesterday and I had a chance to do a quick head to head against an Epic Speed 4W. I had a Kurokage 60X in the Epic and a Loop FW6TS SX (yes the one I was trying to sell the other day) in the RS5. For the RS5, I had to add about 7g of hot melt to get to a 42.5" length and D2.5 swing weight which is about the same build spec as the Epic. As a side note, this was actually my first time to do a hot melt on my own and so I believe the majority of the weight ended up near the hosel where I injected the glue. Not sure if that was the cause, but I ended up hitting a lot of rather strong draws with the RS5. The Epic was really straight. I'll need to adjust the hot melt position by heating up the head to move the glue more towards the toe and see if that does the trick. if that does not work, I'll try a different shaft.. either the same Kurokage or an I'lima that I have sitting around. The draw can also be caused by the more upright lie angle of the RS5 57.5 deg vs Epic 56 deg.... I occasionally hit the Epic 4W to the right as my miss so maybe its not a bad thing having a slight draw. Other than the slightly too much draw that I was getting, I thought the performance was outstanding with the RS5. The "Slash Groove" ( trench on the sole ) construction really helps get the ball up in the air even on misses low on the face which is great because that is always usually my miss on fairway woods off the deck. The sound and feel was a bit more hotter than the Epic in a good way.... but still quite muted probably due to the hot melt that I added. The Epic is very quiet and possibly a bit too muted. Looks wise, as Supo says the RS5 is a bit triangular and slightly larger footprint than the Epic, however, it reminds me of the old Taylormade V Steel which I gamed or a long time, and it does look a lot more friendlier and easier to hit. Looking at the most recent Titleist TSi fairway woods, they are somewhat triangular as well.. Epic is a traditional compact pear shape head which looks very playable but at the same time a bit more intimidating and its got ugly chevron alignment aid and lip lines. 😞 on this first test: Trajectory: Epic = 5 vs RS5 = 3 ( due to the draw bias on the RS5 ) Distance: Tie ( I mean they are both long based on loft.. 16.5 Epic speed is slightly longer due to loft ) Forgiveness: Epic = 4.5 vs RS5 = 5 ( not a huge difference ) Sound and Feel: Epic = 4.5 vs RS5 = 5 ( not a huge difference ) Looks at address: Epic = 4 vs RS5 = 5 ( RS5 looks much cleaner and friendlier ) So at the moment, the two clubs are at a tie. 🙂 Once the draw bias issue can hopefully be eliminated or reduced, I can happily replace the Epic Speed fairway (which is an excellent performing fairway wood BTW )