TourSpecGolfer

#2 is a great one! keep um coming!

I got some great gear to give away, what type of contest and rules would you like to see?

I just want to remind everyone in order to purchase: 1. TSG staff must meet you in Tokyo or Kyoto for a fitting in english. If you choose Kyoto we will give you factory tour. It requires a commitment of at least $1000 purchase for any english fitting. 2. You buy one off my personal collection which I may never sell :) Not the easiest way to get a putter at all.

This is a form of black IP which likely feels and looks better than DLC yet is not as durable. The inner cavity and up and around undercut area is likely a durable paint. official pics:

No not at all,. I love that guy!

Here is the latest SEVEN Cavity Blade Prototype - Only 2 sets produced hand made of Forged SS400 in Ichikawa Japan. We have released multiple variants of this cavity design adjusting the grind and shape along the way. It is an Original CAD design that we are able to transfer to various head molds which allows for flexibility in manufacturing. The cavity design itself allows for enough center mass to aid in forgiveness and feel yet not so much that it reduces workability. By keeping the areas besides the center steps free of metal and slightly reducing perimeter weighting we have been able to blend the best attributes of a blade together with the forgiveness of a players cavity. Now SEVEN is able to add this cavity design to various raw heads letting different grinders produce their own iteration of this cavity back. Never before has this been done. 1 design through the eyes of multiple artisans. It took a lot of negotiations and explanations to get our idea across to these crafters. They are a proud group with different personalities some easy going while others at times stubborn. In the end we have arranged our first 3 craftsmen to produce. These photos are not by any of those 3 men, we are using this prototype to get an idea of how different one person is to the next. When this project officially releases SEVEN will not dictate what they do, this is a blank canvas for the crafter to express their grind philosophy. Some of the craftsmen will do custom options and grind to the customers requests, others will not allow any deviation. We will announce the names of the grinders and there will of course be visual distinctions between each version. How will the customer process this type of project? My apologies for being so bold and arrogant but we do not care. If we listen to the mass market a project like would never exist. If our goal is to reach the masses we wouldn't be producing Japanese handmade forged irons. We wouldn't be marketing the man we would be pushing the brand. There are hundreds of Japanese golf artisans and engineers that brands would rather you not know about, the people who design, test, and craft the amazing clubs we know and love. It's my goal to give these people some love and show our customers that in a sea saturated of low cost mass produced golf clubs there is still a another more human segment to be explored. So enough of my idiotic rambling lets talk about this iron. A member of TSG reached out with his favorite blade requesting a similar shape but made by hand. This customer is a die hard SEVEN fan and wanted to see if we could make him something special. We had a single prototype iron made to test it's shape and performance and I thought it was beautiful and needed a set for myself, 2 were produced one for my bag and one for his. It's basically a blade that is slightly longer heel to toe. It is more forgiving due to the cavity, it's feel is soft and pure due to the material we selected and it's still workable. Both sets were produced in Black Boron. As you can see in the photo above it's got beautiful trailing and leading edge grinds so that the sole sits a bit more narrow and it plays better with less digging. We will be listing it in the TSG ProShop shortly, it's first come first get on this one. Thanks for reading!

Next Week on TSG! My Personal Okuda Putters by Benock.

More good photos for you gents:

Forged S20C 365 gram head weight Deep Milled Face Custom Options Included in Price

Not attached to score, I guess I should say athlete player. Someone who can hit a deep faced wood easily and high, has a faster swing speed and consistently hits the center more often than most people.

I've got a Bennock Collection! Shall I post it? You can't buy it from any stores. You MUST get fit in person in Tokyo or Kyoto. Each putter is original using a brand new CAD design. He's got 4 cad designers who can produce only 8 designs each day. Putters range from 1k - 10k+ It's like 7D of putters, the fitting is so important.

Seven is not made at Endo but I can provide you insight on this one because I own it :) Year 1 was all about testing different foundries, grinders, cnc shops and finishers. That is why we have so many prototypes. I'm still not satisfied with the results. We have a new 100% made in Japan manufacturer for all the 2017 products expect everything to be completely different with a huge jump in quality.

I've been to Mizuno HQ in Osaka, It's correct they partnered with Chuo industries that does make trains, that forging press only does one thing make Mizuno's clubs. Mizuno owns it and the staff working the machine are employees of Mizuno. And they also do forgings in China as well, it's not only castings. Mizuno's factory is amazing. Possibly the best grinders anywhere, I wish we could get permission to tell each of their personal stories.

It's actually very X-Drive, power slits, variable face thickness, power rib, laser milled face. None of this has a major effect on performance really.

Bennock makes the best quality putters in the world hands down. I go to his factory every year in Kyoto.. 100% made in Japan with no doubt. Japanese machine, German Controller, Italian cad software this mans equipment costs triple what is necessary for golf. Mizuno does have a foundry (not sure if it has anything to do with trains ) but it only produces certain MP models there. The rest is made in China or forged in China and ground and finished in Japan.. This depends on the design.

Full post is in the blog, this driver is awesome! goo.gl/HD5fjq

It's a stretch trying to associate "500 limited" to having a higher quality. A mold lasts a very long time usually producing many thousands of pieces before breaking. "Limited" is a marketing word and we are talking about mass produced products. If they could sell 2500 sets they would use a Limited 2500 tag line. Epon's higher prices come from their brand image. 9 years ago they retailed at 1150 shafted and shipped full price on TSG 3-PW So many USDM brands were Endo made the exact same way as Epon is yet no body talks about their quality. So your a bit spun in branding and prestige imo. I don't see anyone talking about how superbly made those older Cobra, Titleists, and Callaways were on the U.S side or those Maruman and Fourteen irons were on the JDM side.

I think for the new 2016 Maxima is a great great choice!

Distance is longer than the kuro's, feel is different... I think Kuro's remind me of a different flavor of Mizuno type of soft. Forgiveness I think that's a tie. If you like the Kuro's these are a choice but the VG3 Forged is one that Kuro owners seem to prefer over their onoffs. Waiting on the new Kuros coming next March...

Thanks and yes I got your email sir. Just waiting on an update because these are almost all gone.

New CRZ UT is great but it's for the good player, deep, lower launching and very straight. I love the Crazy Full Titan FW, one of the best for sure for distance, shape, forgiveness. not good off the tee box but it thrives off the fairway. I wish there was a UT in between the CRZ series and the full titan.

Similar but different. I can't wait to hit these. check it out - http://products.mizuno.jp/c/item/5KJXS67506/040002004

Its nothing to do with quality, everything to do with money and costs. If the brand pays X for a mold that is an investment to create the product. The brand makes it's money on selling to shops at wholesale and that profit has to pay it all back. These molds are so expensive you have to sell a ton to break even. Some brands complain with Endo you make your first dollar after the 5000th piece is sold. So don't think this is 5000 of one series brands must spread it out over multiple years making more subtle adjustments to the design. Then when the mold is paid off it's time to make their money. The strategies that Endo used the past were sometimes against the brand often forcing them to produce an entire series with them in order to get decent pricing on their bread and butter product. But then driver adjustability became the fad and Endo did not ride this wave which created a bigger draw to go to Chinese factories. At this time China factories were weak and Endo was #1 but then with the rise of china and some extremely aggressive tactics in pricing and service they took most of the clients. Some brands may still use Endo for an exisiting mold that is already paid off, usually a players iron that is forged and then the rest of the line up is made in China. Also if you really want to break this down harder not everything made at Endo is made 100% at Endo. But in the end China in the past 5 years has done such a good job with mass production. Keep in mind really only 1 of the top 3 golf factories in China are doing well. The other 2 are up and down AND these 3 have most of the customers. The investment that China has made in their machines to produce new technologies for their clients is on another level now compared to Japan. Customer service with the Chinese factories in general even outside of golf is quick with less arrogance than in Japan imo, then there is how they party with clients to keep them coming back for more ;) Let's not get into that one.

This one does not appear to have the FAST Crown. It does have a laser milled face. Here is the reveal post in the blog: The Bridgestone Tour-B Series Golf Clubs have officially been announced. While TSG has been posting news of this including in hand photos (here) this new pro line goes straight for the athlete low handicap player. The first thing to notice is it reminds us a lot of TourStage and for those of you who are new to the Japanese golf scene TourStage is what Bridgestone used to be in Japan and at one time the #1 equipment company in Japan. Overall the TourStage product was better designed with more features than the Bridgestone gear they would later rebrand to. Not anymore as these new Tour-B's start off exactly where TourStage left off. Impressive to say the least. Another thing to take note of is that there are no adjustable hosels on these clubs, If you look on Tour most of the players opt for a non adjustable version of a club and this is the case here. Already all the younger athlete Bridgesteone staffers have switched over to the new line of equipment and as you can see below the bags look stealth too. Let's start with the drivers, as we have been reporting there are 3 types, the X0-3/X0-5/X-07. This is very similar to how TourStage used to do it. The Xo-3 is basically the mid model with a balance of forgiveness, workability and plenty of loft options. The X0-5 is the more forgiving version at a full 460cc with a slightly higher launch and higher MOI with a more rounded appearance. Finally we have the X-07 which back in TourStage days would be known as the "P" for pear shaped. It's the least forgiving of the 3, most workable and low launching but with that classic shape you would usually associate with a blade player. Below the differences in the shape from address. All three are uniquely different visually, if you can't see that I suggest you start to think more about how your clubs look and the little differences between two clubs. Things like how deep front to back, the area around the neck and how it tapers and the ovalness vs circular shapes of drivers. We all have a preference when we focus in and sometimes your visual preference doesn't match up with your performance characteristics that you require to shoot your lowest scores. For example I would love to stare at the "P" or X-o7 all day but I know I should be hitting the X-05. Hope that makes sense. There is a lot of technology incorporated into these heads which also makes them pretty expensive compared to most drivers in the U.S. My guess is that these are Japan Only or Bridgestone USA is headed way up market. We are talking about $720 for the Tour AD shafted model to $870 with a few of the other shafts. Oh yea on shafts this selection kicks ass, New Diamana BF, New Fujikura EVO III not even announced by Fuji yet and the New Tour AD TP-6 just 3 top options for you which I would be surprised if offered stateside as factory options. Next up a quick look at the Brigestone Tour B X-0F Fairway Wood and Hybrid, at the lowest these start at $390 and with a top shaft we are at $540. Those prices don't look very competitive in the USA. More like what TSG customers are used to. Both the Fairway Wood and Hybrid are 2 part using stainless and maraging steel. This tells me they are more workable with a lower trajectory which caters to the stronger hitter. The deeper faces tell the same story. So if your a mid-high capper maybe these are not the best options but if you love a pure "tink" heavier head feel and workability in a fairway club that should work both on the tee box and the short stuff it's a worthy consideration. Shaft options are NS950 and the Tour AD standard carbon. The Hybrid club retails for $310 to $330. I love these irons. Bridgestone is continuing with the X-CB moniker and I think it's fits as the perfect name. X-CB and X-BLADE! As I write this I have to keep hitting backspace because I'm typing TourStage instead of Bridgestone. Im so happy I feel excited that TourStage is back even if its under a new name. It's got a wider sole that sits narrow due to a trailing edge grind. They are Forged of course but we don't know of what material exactly and it's hard to tell where these are made. One thing to notice is all these new clubs say Made in Japan. I'm almost certain that means "assembled in Japan". But again we can't tell right now until we have them in hand.