FrankThong

I am almost embarrassed to say that I've played Honmas for the past umm... 20+ years. My first set was the 708 blades in the late 80s; after that, the 708s became CBs and I've had 3 sets after that. My last was a 4-star set, which also was the last model of the 708 that Honma made. I've also used Honma drivers and fairway woods. In hindsight, I must say that the 708s served me well. It got ridiculous some time when they introduced the Beres. It's like they changed designer; suddenly, all the irons looked like gilded hockey sticks! I still have friends who use old Honmas; one of whom plays with a 5-star set and he carries his bag everywhere he goes, quite funny.

Stew, you left town already! I hope you had a chance to play all the good courses in Singapore during your stay. ;)

Craig, I think I need to hear more about Grace to know exactly how good the Ryoma feels heh. ;) Nice review.

You know what, I am going to do exactly that this weekend! ;)

Already done the head to head, sort of, next round will just be the Ryoma and lets see how it fares being the only driver in the bag.

Yeah, he's not known to be a long hitter, though he does pack a bit of power in his swing. With the Ryoma, he was right up there with the 'longer' guys; he was quite shocked, first, to even be able to use a new driver right off the bat and, second, to find himself hitting longer than he had ever done before. I was happy for him, he was clearly enjoying it, and happy for me -- he was on my team! ;) I doubt if I could get 15m over the Kamui off the sweet spot; hopefully, I can get decent gains averaged out between good and bad shots. Sometimes, I think I am Kamui biased. Maybe next week, I should just leave the Kamui at home and live or die by the Ryoma on the course.

Round 2 with the Ryoma this morning. Once again, I carried the Kamui as well. On the way to the 1st tee, my playing partner's bag fell off the buggy, breaking his driver. I lent him the Ryoma; it being the 'more forgiving' of my 2 drivers and the Kamui was customized to my specs, which may not suit him. He was cut slicing his drives the last few of rounds; I gave him a couple tips on the Ryoma and on the first drive, he found the fairway on a cautious shot. As he grew more comfortable with the Ryoma, he began asserting himself with it and gradually, his driving distance increased. By the back nine, he was consistently finding the fairways at places he had never reached before with any other drivers! I'd say he was easily getting 15m or more, his shots carrying and running more. He was greatly impressed with it, to say the least. Longer and straighter. Hopefully, next week, I could get a taste of that experience first hand.

Yeah, love to get some free golf lessons from Stew! ;) Though, will be tough for rest of Mar and early Apr -- end FY and moving house so weekday golf is out for a while and my usual weekend flight is almost always full.

That's like a 500m+ hole, if I recall correctly. Unless you hit your 3-wood 300m, otherwise I'd say yeah, it was a damned good drive!

You got a game at Sentosa finally! The winds do make a difference but if you found that many fairways at Serapong, even in fair conditions, I too say you'd be nuts to change. ;)

Yeah, I needed a couple of rounds with the Kamui before being able to milk everything out of it, so it shouldn't be any different with the Ryoma. I'm also hoping that I will enjoy noticeable benefits from the mis-hits, which seem to be more than the good hits these days ha!

As far as I know, the specs of both the Kamui and Ryoma were as close as they could be; other than the 'head' and lie angle (the Kamui was custom made to my specification, while the Ryoma was not), I wanted everything else to be exactly the same -- same shaft, same length, same grip, same swing weight. I feel I didn't get any distance gains over the Kamui, but honestly though, I am not used to the Ryoma yet and I neither drove so well (so as to test the solid hits) nor so bad (so as to test the mis-hits) to give it a fair assessment. In summary, after the first 9-holes with the Ryoma, lets just say that I am hanging to the Kamui. For now. ;)

My first round with the Ryoma this morning. I started the round with it; the 'feel' wasn't too much different from my Kamui and expectedly so, since they both sport the same Crazy shaft and made to be the same swing weight. The 0.5° open face of the V-Spec wasn't noticeable at address, which was a good thing. The first shot was a slight pull and I didn't get a good contact. It still sounded pretty good, I must say, and I still found the fairway but I didn't notice any significant gain in distance from this 'bad' hit as I would have expected from the Kamui. The performance was quite consistent on the off-center hits (wasn't driving too well today). I thought the dispersion was tighter than the Kamui but I still didn't see any noticeable increase in distance. I was beginning to think maybe it had to be a really poor hit to get the gains? Or else the Kamui is just as good? On the good drives, I also didn't get anything over the Kamui. In fact, in some instances, I felt I would have gotten a few more yards out of the Kamui -- but that is probably unfair to say since I am not completely comfortable with the Ryoma yet. Anyway, my partnership was 2-down after 9, so I decided to stop fiddling with Ryoma and switched back to the Kamui. Happily, we ended winning 2-up. This was by no means a conclusive test; I would probably have to find some range time with the Ryoma to get better acquainted with it. Lets see if it does better next week.

Hi, when I placed my order for the V-Spec in 9.5, it was also out of stock but it only took a couple of weeks for replenishment and the club arrived a couple of days ago. Of course, the situation in Japan presently may cause extended delay. I'd be interested to find out if there are any performance differences between the V-Spec and Premia.

Spoon, so true. For what it's worth, these clubs will always be special -- the ones that made it out against all odds! Hopefully, they'll be something special on the course too heh.

I have a game on Sat and will surely post a head-to-head match up with the Kamui after that. The long game wasn't so hot last week; hopefully, I'll be able to hit some good drives this week. Like I said, I have no doubt that the Ryoma will be more forgiving but I'm real interested to find out if the Ryoma could outdrive the Kamui off the sweet spot. Hey Stew, welcome to Singapore. If you're up for a game, or need anything to get settled in, let me know.

When I received Jac's email on Sat, Mar 12, about the Ryoma I ordered was despatched, my immediate thought was 'never mind the stupid club, get out of the office, save yourself'. Then I found out from T that the courier actually picked it up before the earthquake, and my thoughts turned to 'uh oh, the club wouldn't stand a chance'. So when my assistant brought a 1.3m x 0.15m x 0.15m package addressed to me into my office today, my jaw hit the floor. No way, it couldn't be! But it was. The V-Spec has landed. Not only did the club arrive in perfect condition, the special 'shipping and labeling' detail that I had requested at the time of order (couple of weeks ago) was completely and accurately done. To say I am impressed, is an understatement. Guys, you have added new meaning to customer service; it may be only one golf club but it is a monumental testament to the dependability, professionalism and spirit of the Japanese people. Be proud, be blessed.

My first set of Honma was the 708 blades. That must have been in the late 80s, early 90s; subsequent 708s were all cavity backs. The 737 was the last Honma blades that I know of. The 606s were cavity backs, not blades. The 727 was the predecessor of 737, I think. Never head of the 505 or 902.

Hope everyone at TSG and its members in Japan are safe and sound; my prayers are with you.

I've not come across many, if any at all, JDM gear at the usual used clubs store and such. Well, not outside of Japan anyway.

If you like tinkering, the Kamui is as customizable as it gets without having to buy the company first. Exact loft to the 0.1°, face angles and, most importantly, lie angle are all made to order. It gives you lots of carry but pretty good runs too; better than the Honmas that I also used to play and just about any other driver I have had. If you generally have no trouble making solid contact with your drive, then getting a good shaft matched to your swing type makes a Kamui the best driver that reasonable money can buy today, in my opinion. However, the Ryoma driver is all the rage now; it's apparently longer straighter easier -- don't think I've heard a bad thing about it yet. You can read all about it in several threads at the JDM forum. Enjoy the hunt! ;)

Billy, swinging faster is only useful if your swing speed peaks at impact. In any case, swing speed is not the only way to getting more distance. As importantly, if not more so, you'd want to get a good contact with the ball. Without control, the extra 30m may end up being in the wrong direction and that can't be a good thing!

I don't think I've seen any Crazy shafts on eBay for sufficiently lesser than TSG that was worth going for, considering the advice and service that T and company provide. As for proshopjapan, I've bought stuff from Kazu-san before (including possibly the last Miura staff bag in open market) and I must say he appeared to be a most respectable guy. Doubt he would sell anything fake. Speaking of which, I know a guy who plays a fake Taylormade, might be an R7, and quite proud that he actually hits it better than a couple of other friends who own and play the real McCoy. Kinda put a warped perspective to things eh.

That's good to hear. I didn't ask you -- I know for a fact that the custom lie angle on my Kamui made a big difference to hitting solid shots, how would the Ryoma measure up with its standard lie angle, which may not be absolutely suited to me?

I have a Kamui on a Crazy LY01 and have ordered a Ryoma on the exact same shaft. It would be an interesting head-to-head contest when I get the Ryoma (Tario, hurry hurry!). From what I have been hearing/reading, I don't doubt that the Ryoma would be longer and straighter on the mis-hits. But from what I've been getting off the sweet spot of the Kamui, I'd be really surprised, shocked even, if the Ryoma could outhit the Kamui on the good shots. We'll see........ ;)