TourSpecGolfer

GT Precision Milled Putters Geotech Golf has begun distribution of its new GT precision milled putters produced by computer controlled CNC machines just like many of todays most high end putter manufactures are using. The new PG " precision groove " face design makes the new GT putters feel awesome at impact and roll end over end with reduced skid and skipping helping your ball stay online to the target with an increased chance of success. 4 new models! Geotech is releasing four new models, ZM04a, TF00, KA04a, and KA01. Two of which are mallets and the other two anser style designs that feature adjustable weighting using the standard geotech wrench and screw system. Each putter is designed to have a low center of gravity combines with the PG groove system to make point and putt directional ease of use. The weigh screw system on the anser models allow the golfer to increase the heavy head sensation, adjust head weight for the desired length, and balance or give the player the ability to add weight out near the toe or in toward the heel portion. The New GT Precision Milled Putters are an affordable option made using the same high quality materials and process as other big name brands. These putters are produced with SUS304 Stainless Steel and fully CNC milled which is actually above the normal standard which has become carbon steel CNC milled. These putters run around 125.00 USD each plus shipping and will soon be available in the TourSpecGolf ProShop later this week.

Only 1 produced with this setup and sole design. There will be no others made with this type of sole unless custom ordered for a customer.

Here we have a Preview of one of the many new season Gold's Factory USA Putters. Some of the GF USA models will be made of J.I.S grade SUS303 which is what Scotty Cameron has called GSS for quite some time. Adolf Hitler created the DIN standard X10CrNis189 which is known in Japan as J.I.S SUS303 and in America as GSS to Cameron Fans. The Insert of the RYU ZEN putter is actual German Silver! Thats right Silver like Patek, AP, Paneral, and Frank Muller watches are hand made using. Each Tungsten Insert is High Grade Japanese Tungsten with silver plugs for enhanced decoration and feel. All views except the sole are flat Grey Finish. The sole is the same but polished. For those of you who have not noticed yet this is a totally new Head Shape and Design named GF00A.

I've had one for the last month. It's one of the early prototypes but it performs very well. Epon is not allowing me to release images at this moment but as soon as I can I will. For now sorry to tease you with this...

Today a very pretty Diamana box showed up at our Chiba office and in it was the all new Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Stinger Prototype. This full boron shaft as we reported before is the ultimate in high end materials from Mitsubishi Rayon. When we first posted about this prototype, we were unsure about the name. While it is still being referred to as "Prototype", the word "STINGER" is engraved on the shaft. This shaft is a beauty, with a jet black gloss like finish it looks like it is all business. Being able to hold these shafts in my hands, first impression is that they have a very stiff profile. Full Boron is meant to be very firm and stable and that is what the Stinger Prototype feels like. To recap what I described the shaft as earlier: This new shaft features a profile and specs just like the new Diamana Kai'li with the difference being the material. Boron is a premium lightweight fiber that is 5 times as strong as steel. It is often used in parts of shaft manufacturing due to its high modulus characteristics to increase strength of a shaft and overall stability. This new Diamana Full Boron Prototype will be all boron creating a shaft that compared to the typical graphite shaft, has thinner walls for feel but is considerably stronger equaling no energy loss and very very tight dispersion. This new prototype shaft will load and unload without twisting creating very low spin and very accurate drives thanks to its ability to quickly return to its original shape. This is considered Diamana's most high end premium shaft and is aimed at the tour player. We do have a few in stock so let us know if you are interested! www.golftoimpress.com

Thats a pretty general statement, each shaft company uses their own design and materials, The anology you use isnt too far off but it is a good way to generalize the ATTAS shaft and help people understand sorta what they would get. I dont know if I would say its less spin than the F7M2 either.

Ive got a couple brand new George Spirits Putters I can sell at 150.00 + Shipping Each. Let me know one mallet one anser.

Expect a Taylormade R9 Forged Version in 2010.

They are indeed hand ground but only for step #1, that is like most forged wedges on the market. They are the same kyoei heads we used to sell as blanks so if you were to grind your own it would produce a very similar feel. Product isnt that bad, most of the customers really digg it but I just got irritated because I see so many of them that are off or get many complaints on the QC. I'm happy you got a good couple of wedges there and very happy you enjoy them.

Just arrived today and it's looking great. Just wanted to post the pics before i ruin it's pretty little face

(via golftoimpress.com) New Taylormade R9 Irons Spy Pics! Our sources are telling us that the New 2009 Taylormade R9 Irons are coming this October to Early November. Actually Taylormade has a full line up of new product coming around that time also. I'm talking new putters, new hybrids, a new R9 MAX Type E LONG drive among other cool and exciting releases. We are also getting word of a Taylormade TP R9 Irons and Taylormade TP R9 Forged Iron Set in the works! Let's start with this image of the new R9 Irons over the today and tomorrow I will highlight images of all the new products that will be available at TourSpecGolf.com

Thanks T, love the part about the flat face wedge having almost as much spin in dry weather as a wedge with grooves.

Just for your guy's reference the AF-Tour uses V Grooves, while the other Epon Irons still use U grooves.

Hey Jer, Thanks for swinging by! Yururi is a 1 man company, the owner doesnt grind anything just uses factories like Kyoei to produce most of their product. There are major Quality Control Issues with Yururi IMO. The reason why you dont see 2 that are the same is that in order to get that raw black look they cant use the tumbler. Those are produced even faster than barrel made wedges, they do step one, clean it up a bit then apply the black finish.

We just posted a new short vid on Srixon - Cleveland - XXIO from the 2009 Tokyo Golf Show. Click here to check it out! feel free to comment in the forum or on the blog!

That's fine with me, I guess I should have used another example besides Rolex. What would have you used in the anology? Sorry this has become a thread jack guy's but while on this topic I gotta ask the expert here what his favorite models are in the Rolex line up. Mine of course is the newer stainless daytona and then a clean and simple meteor face but outside of that the design is getting old IMO. I am even considering aftermarkets like the newest Jaques Picard DLC DeepSea Dweller in Flat Black yet some people look down on aftermarket. Ya know something that looks very modern and good with a T-shirt and slippers. You hit it on the button as far as why I want an AP, it is because not many people have one. The AP escapement in particular.

I swing a bit over 100 and couldnt handle the 9003 consistently without having to really muscle up the club. I found I would start my rounds down the center with lots of roll and a mid trajectory but by the turn the fade crept in and after a sandwich and beer on a hot day i would begin losing it by the end. I really think its a great shaft but IMO the key would be to get a flex slightly under what you would play in another model or brand. just my 2 cents.

I do have an 08' daytona stainless white face in my collection that I am proud of. I do desire an AP even more than any Rolex and it's not for the quality because hey it tells time and thats about it but it is more so because Rolex is played out in my circle of friends no matter how great people think it is. I agree with you they make great watches. My point goes to being handmade. Can you educate me about Rolex's being hand made please, have you been to the AP factory?. I dont recall me saying anything unfair. This is what I said about that: So I still stand by it because honestly everyone i know personally would take an AP over a Rolex any day. If you are one of the few that would take a Rolex over an AP then thats your deal but I didnt say anything negative about the brand and like i said I have a beautiful Rolex that isnt easy to source. Anyday an AP over a Rollie for me. BTW if anyone is interested in a used but mint Wolf 3 watch winder let me know.

Bassara Griffin Prototypes I would like to thank our contributors on the JPGA Tour for helping us source some very rare and unique Tour Issue Mitsubishi Bassara Griffin Prototype Shafts. The Bassara Griffin Prototype has become my gamer ever since first hitting it a couple of weeks ago. Main reason being that not only did I see a very noticeable increase in distance but the shaft itself which is only 56 grams had a great feel and tight dispersion dispite its higher torque rating of 4.4 in Stiff flex. If you follow the reports and the trends on the USPGA and JGPA tours professional players are now using much lighter shafts than they did only several years ago. For example the main staple on the U.S tour used to be 90+ gram shafts then in the last 5 years you saw a movement to shafts in the 80 gram range and now the most common weight is mid 70's due to the advancement in shaft technology. More Distance & Consistancy For an average player like myself 70 grams just feels heavy and non responsive, and mid to high 60 gram shafts just dont provide the same distance that lighter shafts do now days. I really can't tell that the shaft is only 56 grams when im playing or swinging the club. It feels exactly the same as a mid 60 gram shaft but the distance is longer. This has also allowed me to back off in power improving my timeing and consistancy with the driver and 3 woods yet still gaining over heavier shafts in distance. Technology Leap's and Bound's Things sure have changed and while many in the Golf Industry say things are maxed out I know for a fact that high end shaft technology is making it's biggest gains in recent years and specifically now nearing 2010. Cool part is that the CPM's are a bit stiffer than your average Stiff flex and that for a light weight shaft Mitsubishi has made stiffer flexes available like the Tour Spec ( thats right not Tour Stiff, Tour Spec ) at 273 cpm's which is stiffer than your average X flex. I can only assume that they hiked up the stiffness rating and added a tigher tip section to stabalize this light weight shaft to produce more distance than a mid 60g range shaft yet maintain the same tight dispersion. The Bassara Griffin Prototype has the same 2 tone effect but no distracting graphics. It's pretty common for Tour Players to request lest graphics on a shaft for that very reason. We have several of these in stiff, if you are interested please drop me a PM.

Hi XXIO, Thanks for your question. The flaws are more based on what companies tell their customers than the performance. If I am paying 400+ for a wedge i want it to get something that the manufacture put a lot of care into making. If I paid 99-150 who am I to complain? If we had the choice of a porsche that was hand made vs assembly made we would all take handmade yet the HP, Torque, and performance would be the same. Same with watches enthusiests will select a hand made swiss watch like AP over something mass produced like Rolex. The price is different but so is the pride in using it while the performance is about the same but I do go back to the grind being 100% intentional. The difference as far as skill level between a person who is adjusting a made wedge aftermarket vs doing one 100% yourself is huge. I would love to see these guys do one from scratch like Sasaya does. Especially 4 wedges that are practically identical by hand. Very difficult to make two that are the same like Sasaya does. I would say the neck transition to the sole and topline is the most difficult part by far. When you say does GF make the heads themselves, Are you talking about the billet into raw blank? if so no way that is huge factory stuff, not even the Top OEM's do that. Not Mizuno, Taylormade, Nike, etc.. If your talking about raw blank to finish then yes 100% by hand by Sasaya like no other wedge company is doing... None. With mass produced product consistency comes in batches, they are not ordering a tolorence level at this point, there are times when the OEM can order specific tolorence but not in wedges as far as we know. I gave the example of 100 wedges in a barrell, that isnt a lot by mass produced standards and it goes much higher. Sasaya also uses machines that others just cant use. The CNC machine in Part 1 is fully hand controlled, I dont know of any company that has someone that skilled on hand to use a hand controlled CNC. Those machines have not been available for over 15 years originally made in Gemany then improved in Japan. All the CNC you see in America, Japan, China and especially now days are computer controlled which means you cant simply setup and make a design it must be programmed. That is another thing that doesnt require the same skill level that Sasaya puts into wedges. That skill can't be taught in months, it takes years to do it without ruining or damaging products wasting money. There is no CNC engraving setup charge either, no computer involved, straight and pure skill by hand all the way. let me know if you have any other questions, If I dont know the answer i can always ask.

For me the MB5003 & The AF-Tour are tops. I like the forgiveness of the AF-Tour. It's funny how each of us can love or dislike a club for different reasons.

( via GolfToImpress.com ) Gold's Factory: The last True Hand Made Wedges When shopping around for the best made wedges money can buy you have quite a few options on the market, but the real question is are these companies giving you a sales pitch or are they really producing their own hand made wedges in house and most importantly when they say it's 100% hand made is it really? Do you know who did the grind on your wedges and if you do, there are some things you should know about how it was made especially if your paying top dollar. TourSpecGolf has visited most of the manufacturing plants in Japan and even a couple in China noting the process used to produce some of the most expensive golf clubs on the market. We have learned a lot over the years and wanted to bring you the real skinny on 100% hand made wedges for those who care about quality and getting your money's worth vs what you are told you are getting. Not Always as it Seems... Almost every manufacture that claims they produce fully hand made wedges are really not doing so, well lets just say they are 25% hand made. The process that 99% of the wedges on the market uses takes the finished ground head from an unknown factory grinder and puts it into a barrel of small stones and shakes it vigoursly for about 2 hours. You can put 100 heads in these barrels turn it to shake mode for 2 hours, then set to vibrate for another 2 hours and presto you have 100 wedge heads done. I am not saying that these are not hand made or hand grind but the part that takes the most care, time and skill is done by the barrel. So lets call them Barrel made wedges... let's be honest it isnt rocket science to grind a wedge to shape from a raw blank, just about anyone can learn to do that in a week if they put great effort into it. True HAND MADE or HAND GRIND are made by hand from start to finish. It begins by using a #60 grit rough paper to change the shape as most companies do but it's after that where just about every manufacture skimps out at goes straight to the barrell while Master Sasaya of Gold's Factory continues to produce wedges with Pride using the True Hand Made method. The REAL Process After the #60 grit is used Master Sasaya then switches to a totally different grind machine to use #100, then #120, #180, and #240 making it semi smooth yet still seeing things that need to be adjusted or fixed. Following Semi Smooth #320, #400, #600 are used to make the wedge very smooth with no flaws. After that another specific machine is used that has a pencil thick sanding belt for all corners, edges, flowing transitional lines and fine areas and even after that the same process is done once again to ensure the smaller areas have the same flow. I am talking about all areas from the neck to the topline & sole etc.. Every line must lead into the proper area with consistency before using #1000 to made the wedge shine from raw metal to almost mirror finish. This means the shape is 100% intentional, Not 80% luck or cover up like barrel made wedges are. A master of grinding can only produce 2 wedges tops each day, it literally takes 10-15 times longer to produce a wedge using this true method over barrell made wedges. In fact the only other person I know who used this method has passed away making Master Sasaya to our knowledge the only person doing this in the entire golf industry. Better than the Tour Even the worlds top wedge companies use this barrel method, The worlds best PGA Tour players use custom wedges that are half ground half barrell. Now the barrell wedge will work on the course but the shape is always rounded, very round with few sharp areas. So if you are serious and big on quality and process we suggest a TRUE hand made wedge. If you see your wedge as simply a tool of golf then it's not a problem but if you are being told what your getting is a true hand made wedge question them and send us an image, we can tell you right off the bat if it really is. Plating does cover up flaw's as well, I know many like myself enjoy a satin finished wedge but keep in mind even the finishes that Gold's Factory does are done by hand 100%. Yes you can request it plated if you want but it's something to keep in mind if you are Quality oriented and want only the best hand made product. It's truley special from start to finish. I know it sounds like im knocking barrel made wedges but the truth is that the factories need to do this for mass produced product. It's when companies that sell product that is built with mass produced methods and try to pass it off as hand made that has motivated me to share this insight with you guys. CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE GRIND VIDEO and READ PART 2 of Master Sasaya's Interview!

Right On! that was you.

( via golftoimpress.com ) I forget who it was but a couple of weeks ago someone in the forum was asking about where to get fit for putters in Japan, then another member followed up suggesting it had a SAM studio, well i would like to thank both of you whoever you are because it got me thinking and searching for SAM studio's in Japan. and this is what we found. Callaway Odyssey SAM Putting Lab! The SAM process is an analysis and training system based on accurate ultrasound measurements. It analyzes the 28 most important parameters of your putting stroke and displays the results in easy to understand graphic reports. Helping the player discover your individual strengths and weaknesses for a better and more efficient putting style and putter. Within seconds the system gives you individual feedback on your putting stroke. The analysis reveals even the smallest details of your movements and allows you to develop improvements and training strategies. SAM PuttLab utilizes ultrasound sensory analysis and therefore is far more exact than any other similar system on the market. An Updated Version of SAM Callaway's version of SAM has been refined over the original version not only in software but also the hardware used. Let's go over the categories that the Odyssey SAM system measures at their new fitting studio. Then with the help of the certified SAM Odyssey putting specialist they move into the putter selection portion of the analysis which is based on 5 key areas which consist of 3 direction elements such as sense of distance, alignment, stroke type+ ball position. The other 2 are feel and impact location. The goals are to find the optimal putter for the particular players results. Less Complicated than You Think I know it all sounds complicated so to put it in a nut shell this is what happens during your visit a the new Callaway SAM fitting center: It all starts with a nice introduction of your personal specialist, The specialist then takes a bunch of measurements to figure out what type of length you should be using for the testing you are about to begin. You will recieve a putting questionare ( in Japanese! ) after you make your reservation so you can spend time on your answers and bring it to the fitting session. Your assigned a specialist that will have you hit about 7-10 balls using your normal putting stroke, dont get all fancy here use what you normally use on the course or your results will vary. After analyzing the measured data the specialist will propose a recommendation putter based on the 5 putting elements I covered previously. Following that the choosen putter is measured in SAM's 7 categories once again then once again in the 5 elements. If the result are not to your and the specialist's liking they will retry this process with other models that may also provide aid to your putting weaknesses. We plan to being working with the putting lab to secure an english version for TSG and GTI members that plan to visit japan on business or pleasure. We will keep you posted but so far this looks to be the most detailed and preciese fitting experience found anywhere in the world. Now all we need is one in the U.S that is this complete. The Callaway Odyssey SAM Putting Lab is located at: MG Shirokanedai Building Minato-ku Tokyo 0120-300-147