TourSpecGolfer

Well guys if you want the GS-MB now is the time to act because in about 1 week no one will be able to purchase them any longer. 350 sets made, only one production run this year. We are down to our last 3 sets all shafted with NS1150 at D2, one set with X100's. The next run of product will be the GT putters, Bag's, and GS-Cavity Irons. All woods including a gold plated or Ion plated driver and same for the FW's will be released early 2009. I must say the GS-Wedge is a master piece, the feel of the 1020 Japanese forged steel and its very soft brushed black finish make this club ooze pleasure at impact. Spin is off the charts and USGA + R&A approved, it will need some range balls to dull them down a bit but back spin is not a prob for most while using these. These wedges are in serious contention and imo will bounce the 208's out the bag. I am playing mine at D5 with S400's and they are deadly accurate with nice drop and stop. From above its a butter knife thats extremely compact and thin, much more playeresque than others on the market today. If you got the gold put your faith in these wedges I can vouch for them that they should be some of the best you have ever hit.

The Putters are by some peoples standards revolutionary. The alignment aid helps you setup your face square to the ball vs the target line. The GS-01 and GS-02 lack the traditional site line yet the 01 has a frame behind the area you hit the ball. We have found no difference in feel with teflon black vs the black star chrome standard retail finish. The feel is very soft at impact with great roll coming off the face. I'm not sure if you guys can see it close up but it does have some very fine milling designs on the face. The wedges are top notch, very thin top line with a compact presence. I have had these in the bag for 3 rounds, they spin the ball a ton and require the grooves to be dulled a bit or else some may be getting to much zip to the ball. They feel at impact was one of the best tested. These grooves are USGA & R&A approved for play. We are almost sold out of our DG S400 D5 pro configured wedges. We have been testing the GS product line for a little over a week with some excellent players over at TPC & Bali Hai. To be fair we had them hit a variety of irons for some grueling range sessions and 3 full rounds of golf. Among the irons tested : - George Spirits MB - Miura MB5003 - Epon AF301 - Miura CB247 - TM TP Forged Our testers currently use JDM gear one player using mostly PRGR & the other Miura Irons. Of all tested their favorite in feel was the GS MB, both testers adored the very soft impact of the GS Irons and attributed that to the meat on the lower back face. The players noticed the sharp toe and I mentioned this is something pretty unique to most of George Takei's iron designs. Based on the top line view the Miura MB5003 was their visual top pick with the thinnest top line and most compact head heel to toe. The GS MB does have a thicker top line when compared to a butter knife but I would still consider it a neo blade design made to be more forgiving yet have the soft feel and presence of a top players blade. The heel to toe measurement of the GS MB was very close to the Miura's making it a top compact option on the market. They both felt the GS MB was noticeably softer than the 5003. The GS brand is very exclusive and expensive making it a choice for few and not many, but it does fill a nice gap here at TSG as our customers require the very best of quality and design from Japan and these fit the bill. If you guys have any specific questions about the product line feel free to let us know.

For those of you who do not know who George Takei is, he is the original company owner and founder/designer for Gauge Design Japan. Later starting the brand G-Field which produced so many of our members favorite putters the premium zone. He is responsible for Premium Zone Face Milling, The original and updated version of the Aluinser as well as countless other design technologies used in high end golf products. Expect by years end the release of the GS-1W, GS-FW's, GS-CB's, GT-Putter Series, and GT- Wedge Series. The GS models are the top shelf product in the line up. Limited numbers of each product were produced and you now have the ability to purchase exclusive 1st Run Prototypes at the same price that the standard models will debut at. Thats right after this batch here all putters will not say 1st Run Prototype on them. Also just to make you aware, there are Tour Issue versions in a black teflon finish in the bags of over 7 JPGA tour players and 12 Japan Amatuer players. The GS-MB Iron Forged S20C Limited Production of only 350 sets World Wide! 100% Hand ground then CNC milled forged and finished in Japan. The GS-Wedge S20C Limited Production. Hand Ground then CNC milled Face forged and finished in Japan. The GS Series Putters. 3 Piece Forged Carbon S20, Limited Production of 350 putters world wide in Silver Star Finish. GS-01 GS-02 PiCs Coming Soon... GS-03

Yonex makes decent gear. We have not had many requests for the product but It is something worth taking a look at. This year at the show they had no new products at all. Our assumption was that they spent a ton of cash courting Ryo.

Go with DG putter shafts, then NS, never tried a Hybrex. In regards to the putter it's far from one of a kind, Its an open model putter head. Ask Gocchin about the putter he had one, its pretty bad.

The product has arrived! Will be posting all pic's shortly.

That one is not an open model head sir.

I just recently got an email from Todays Golfer UK I find it funny that he says their website is the biggest media website in the world when TSG has far more hits, visitors, indexed pages and we are far from the top.

Same thing was said about Yururi Proto's, only 55 made, well guess what they ran 150 more sets when they sold out of those and didn't tell us until we accounted for more than 55 sets sold. Talk about honest eh. 25 sets of anything doesn't mean it isn't an open model. They could produce only 1 and it would still be a catalog blank. My point is that people are paying 1200- 1400+ on stuff that should cost less than half that. The consumer truly thinks they have something special in hand when in reality its just something small brands do to spit out a new product without doing the R&D or paying for setup and tooling costs. If they were to produce an original design out of custom material forgings it will cost hundreds of thousands more and perhaps a million+ MB5003 is in no way an open model head, but starts off as the same pre ground raw heads that so many others use. FYI the MB5003's are my gamers most of the season, love them! In the near future TSG will be selling custom catalog heads at honest prices, we have no problem with the heads themselves we only have a problem with brands passing it off as new stuff and selling it as if it is original. Worse part is they do their best to cover up the fact that they are the same models that other brands have. Some brands even call the grinding house the foundry when it really isn't. So really does vega making only 25 sets mean anything when other brands have already had the same exact head with a different stamping released for over a year. Vega ( kyoei's) trend is to adjust the grind of models they sold to other companies, change the stamping and and brand it as their own.

Yes Anser designs are old like Ping, Scotty Cameron, and so many others but so is the game of golf, so are titanium woods and so are 56* wedges, i have no issue with that but it has nothing to do with Catalog heads.

These are open model heads, it doesn't matter who you buy it from when everyone is sharing this design. If you really like the design of the club then get it, open model or not at least you will get what you want. It also doesn't matter who had it first, they are all the same. What I am saying is open model product should be in the 400-800 range not the 1k+ range. I mean look at GeoTech they can sell what some brands sell at 1200 bucks for only 350 with 10pcs instead of 8 AND there is profit built in. That is the type of product your getting when you go with catalog heads. They are pricing their product based on what the market will pay not what they are actually worth. Think about it they charge original design product prices, the profit they make doesn't go into R&D or producing better product & technology when all they need to do is open the catalog and pick a head for their logo to be stamped on. The essence of a great company is to improve and produce new technologies and idea's along with quality original product. Not make the easiest product possible, make the most possible, and continue to do so without ever creating something of their own. Here is something that may effect how people think, Miura, Vega, Kyoei product, Hiro Matsumoto, Zodia, Scratch and many many others are all using the same RAW heads and simply grinding them differently. Don't get me wrong you can still shoot low scores and I really like Miura product but should people feel happy about that? What if the Auto industry was using the same car frame and motor and just making the body and paint look different and opted not to mention it to the consumers? Thats the thing, you got the same open model head selling for 350 as the one going for 1200 but really what are you getting that is different besides a few grind adjustments and a different logo? That is why you will see no sharp edge tooling and lots of rounded dull corners, no drastic tech or mateiral changes, they need to find the CG with a peg, instead of knowing where it will be through measurements and CAD. Not all heads are identical when you got a hand grind line as well. Big brands in USDM land and JDM land know the value of original designs, you will never see Callaway, Titleist, Bridgestone, and others ever using pre made blanks.

There are so many we can recommend that are not only original design but they are also made a heck of a lot better in regards to materials and manufacturing. Pick a good looking head to your eye, make sure its made by Endo or another top notch factory. Go get fitted and apply those custom specs to the set you select. It really depends on what you desire, some people want blades others CB's etc..

So you want to go from one catalog head to another? The Vega RAF-CM Raw Limited is 100% the same club as the Yururi Flat Back. The RAF-CM is the same as the Yururi Prototype. Even their new limited CB and the RAFC1 have been around since more than 5 years ago. If your going to pay top dollar why not get an original design?

Our shipment of product is in the air now, to be honest the cavity area is not the most pretty the GS version has a couple of screws next to the logo. The GT series looks perfect with no screws. The cool thing is how these putters frame the ball, I would have never thought about how a line going down the top line keeps you from opening and closing the face.

There are 2 new srixon drivers coming, neither are black. They painted them black when they were prototypes on the JPGA, the official release version is in normal version. I will post pics of the 2 new version's soon.

We will be providing comparisons of the following black drivers within a week: - Tourstage X-Drive GR Black - GeoTech 455 Black - MacTec NV-NXS - Mizuno Limited MP600 Black

My initial hitting impressions are: - Very long, this driver has some go. It seems to have a good amount of spin while keeping a tight dispersion. - The trajectory was mid, I personally hoped for Mid High this being the GR model and all but the height was very similar to the previous X-Drives - feel is superb, I like the metallic semi crunch this thing gives off. not as soft as my Epon 101 gamer but still a rewarding feel, you could tell Tourstage had the feel oriented player in mind. I like this driver a lot, the stock shaft is almost perfect for it. Keep in mind there are 2 stock shaft models and I opted for the lighter version to combat the deep face and lower trajectory with no luck. I would assume the heavier more stout stock shaft option would produce a lower or about the same trajectory. Great roll though. This is a very decent driver for mid to low handicap players.

Limited Edition for select Japanese accounts the new Mizuno Black MP-600 features a square face angle and comes with the wrench to adjust the weight bias. I was able to hit this club for a bit at the grass range near my home and it produced mid trajectory bullets with decent distance. the shaft feels a little dead like most stock mizuno USDM shafts IMO. It didn't have the bang or whip that many of the true JDM designed models have. However those of you looking for a workable driver that produces good distance and also has the ability to be adjusted this is a good option on the table for you. The feel was above average like many Mizuno drivers and the forgiveness was around decent IMO. What was pretty cool is that this weighting works, when i put it on max draw and put my same steady swing on it I actually got it. same deal with max fade. I did not notice the ability to control spin as much as the brochure says though. FYI TSG only has 4 left as of today.

Snaped a few pics this AM then took it to the range for a large bucket. This driver is very easy to hit, the stock shaft is on the soft side but once in the groove it produces about the same amount of distance as other more firm shafts with the same flex. I really don't believe in that quad kick point tech they boast about but the face did seem much easier than most to square up at impact. I had to go with the 9* because its face angle is only slightly closed when compared to the 10*. They don't make it with a square face. Overall the sound was decent hollow not to loud or tinky, the distance was superb and so was the forgiveness. I would suggest this for the mid to high handicap player looking for a user friendly driver.

I would suggest Iron head covers and simply cleaning them after each practice session or round. Once a month give it a quick spray of WD-40 or something and just make sure to take a drop when you feel a rock may damage the club. Remember clubs are built to be smashed against the ground so don't let this fear of damage cause you mental strokes.

Thanks Brett! Keeping the right leg braced and slightly pointed to the left has helped me create more torque and resistance from the right side. That combined with keeping the big muscles working with the triangle together I have seen a huge improvement in the amount of Torque/Resistance produced. It reduces the amount I am able to pick the club up which usually equals the club passing parallel at the top and ton's of extra movement. After practicing this a lot I am slowly training myself to get some push power off the right instep as well. Baby steps for now until I see Mr. Smith again.

No one has tried them because they are not out yet. Set to ship to TSG this Wednesday and we are very excited to get many of these pre orders off our back. In regards to double or quad forged that information is top secret, as is the name of the foundry in Japan. To answer WMC's question, Many Proto's were made some in 1005, 1010, and some even in Jyuntetsu! but the pro's unanimously desired the 1020C for better feel. Another thing too is I can find 1045 steel that is way softer than 1005 if the annealing process is done differently. Also keep in mind you are purchasing an original designed product not pre made blanks.

Don't know as they have not hit the ground yet. They are not sold, I am not sure if I want to keep one set and sell the other or sell both. I guess I gotta see them before i decide.

If you buy the Miuraism I can also get you custom face prog, and a few grind adjustments. The Miuraism line is usually sold to people who like custom work. BTW i have 2 custom finish sets of 5003's coming in, one white satin the other flat black.

I just can't get away from the feel or sound of Epon drivers, AF101 is my favorite but I also love the ZR460 of past. The GeoTech Black Driver head also has a very nice muted thwack that I like. Putting performance aside I am a traditionalist and enjoy a mute foamed head like the old J340.