TourSpecGolfer

Who ended up with these I forgot?

So member idrive has 2 of these monsters now, along with the 1st article F.I.T DASS bettinardi. Can you tell us which one is your current gamer and why?

Just in the Tour Seida Proto with no milling marks on the face, It feels softer!

So idrive how do these do against the Epon 301's? If they are not matching up I would love to buy them back from ya

These are now available gentlemen. Treating me very well while my Tour Seida's are being refinished post grind adjustment. I hope the Seida's have a spot in the bag when I return.

Yes Sonartec and RC woods are made in China. Not many woods are made in Japan now days. The ones that are are priced high like mini drivers.

I think its OK to have a $250 wedge or even a $1000 wedge but it depends on WHY it costs so much. I mean if its simply an owner trying to charge big bucks for a 1025C head he manufactures at 30-60 bucks in order to give his brand a luxury or high end presence then its a totally unjustified and wrong, but say for example you take Gold's factory wedges, you can be assured Sasaya has done the grind himself, the basic head shape is CNC milled to basic shape then hand ground to its end state, the grooves are milled after he received the blank not pre punched and that every part of it is hand done including the finish. No corners cut, true hand crafting of a master and very few wedges are made like this. As far as materials go 1012-1018-1020-1025 have a very little difference in price, Materials get expensive when you start using SS or FE99.9% grade or selecting a batch with a specific hardness rating.

Thank you everyone, I now have some help putting it all together. I appreciate your interest and thank you Claus for getting the ball rolling. I will announce the date at a later time ( summer 2008? ) We will only need about 7-10 guys for this test. It will most likley be held in Las Vegas so clubs can be adjusted quickly at the bat cave. I plan to use Vector, Zelocity, & Trackman for the test and invite some WRX'ers & BSG'ers to participate so it dont seem so one sided and bias. Thanks you everyone once again for the help and support.

I know for a fact that Tadd is not being paid to play the Vokey wedges.

Yes new ViQ forged coming around March.

If anyone needs these expensive irons let me know, Miura only sells them direct to the customer and not to companies like us but I can still get them at the advertised price.

Chikara is like a 1 man brand with a core group of supporters, also very expensive so it doesn't appeal to everyones taste. Gauge JPN / G-Field would be hitting its stride about now if their investors didn't pull out and break the bank. Epon IMO will be around a long time as they have been for 30 years, also I have confirmation of the production schedule as far out as 2010. Another thing is they have not officially launched in the USA and I hear they will be making a decent yet conservative attempt at that. PRGR, Tourstage, Miura, and others are here to stay also.

It was never released due to lack of distance but I found it to be a straight shooter.

Geo Tech is very affordable, We carry the entire line up so PM me if interested.

I wouldn't your hopes too high, not even top Tour Pro's are invited. Titleist and Bridgestone Japan staff as well have never seen the inside of this factory. The plant layout picture is a little outdated now I think it's building # 3 that has been transformed into the EPON HQ. Please remember this layout is of their smallest factory. The Stork & Eagle Factories are at least 4x this size.

It is because it is not released yet in Japan.

It will be in about a week sir. It's got a busy design but you can select custom finish, custom specs, and custom offset. Only thing is you cant change the busy stamping on them. They are also very expensive.

Sure I don't mind guy's gives me a reason to hit more balls with really great clubs, in the end I will just sell off the tester sets very cheap. Keep in mind guys I don't want to do this till slow season 2008 after all the new stuff has been released. That list will change, and grow! For sure Miura CB202, Miuraism, YuRuRi, and others we haven't even heard of yet will be in the running as well.

Imo, depends most on your swing and the shaft you are using, The 701 lofts are jacked up so I wouldn't expect a high ball flight. When testing clubs and giving feedback online its very difficult because some players are taking lessons and have their swings dialed in not to mention they have a pure understanding of why a certain result occurs when they do this or that, while other guys are swinging at a ball and are more into gear than the swing + fitting + gear and the goal of being the best golfer they can be. A 701 with X100's may do one thing for one golfer and a totally different thing for another. Its tuff to say and in most cases its very hard to tell ball flight by having a CG half or a full mm lower than another club.

So many variables enter into this, I'm willing to get these clubs together and even build them to testing spec's. Who is willing to be a tester? A good time for me would be early May 2008 when the next batch of releases come out. If we do only the listed clubs above soon, by the time they are all in hand and ready to go, sneak peaks of whats coming next year will be on the horizon. . What we need to do is set this test for a period where all new releases are out and there is some downtime after, perhaps May - June. I'm thinking Las Vegas or L.A would be a great place to set this up. I think I can get idrive, blader-X, acrazygolfer and a few others in the L.A - Vegas area's to participate. Ill put up the clubs and club making I just need guys to organize and take care of getting their swings to the location. Doesn't have to be only TSG'ers, WRX'ers & BSG'ers etc.. all welcome to participate. If its just me putting this together with limited participation im not interested. Gonna need some serious helpers. We should do Drivers and wedges while we at it to.

Early next year expect a new model VIQ Forged.

So fed, are you one to consider the AF301 a mid sized CB?

I agree its very hard to tell the difference if the swing weights and specs are the same.

Great topic bogeydog, imo many of today's clubs are in fact new spin's on preexisting designs or technology. Over the past 3-5 years I have seen leaps and bounds in golf club performance and i guess the question is has it hit a plateau? I don't think it has because only in last couple of years have the high M.O.I drivers have really come into contention against traditional design and 2nd, 3rd generation versions should have a higher MOI value than previous models as well as better esthetics. When talking about Irons this is where things start to all seem the same, I gravitate to traditional older style forged heads, while brands who cater to the game improvement market are building some very large and akward looking tech packed clubs, when measuring numbers they are indeed easier to hit for sure due to this technology and design. In the future it would be nice to see more woods made of forged beta ti and fairway woods built like mini drivers, overall i do feel drivers, fw's, hybrids, and irons will show enhanced performance every several years. They take a design or technology then improve it and over time its bound to get better, perhaps not as fast as we want it to but I think onward improvement will always be just over the horizon.

Its the same thing Imo.