TourSpecGolfer

There handicap average in the states is much higher :) It's not hard at all to bring the T388 to 202g, just takes the right type of melt.

T388 is a good performance/feel/budget-friendly choice, I think I have 2-3 more in 9.5 stiff I can let go at 375 + Shipping brand new.

Nope they have it all sorted and ship dates are on time again, they also compensated the 15 or so TSGers that experienced a delay. By September they say they may be able to cut lead time in half but I would be happy if they could just deliver in 1 month.

Not really, hot melt is used for weight it can change the feel but that's with no intent to do so. Foaming adds about 4g but keep in mind the ZY-11 is factory foamed so that is factored into the head weight already. I thought you were a foamed guy? Didn't your P-Tune feel this way and you liked it? I can appreciate both, not sure what I like better but I do know that the distance and especially straightness of the ZY-11 has saved me strokes. I notice that most people who like foamed also like sub 400cc heads or get nostalgic about heads of old.

For me I'm pretty certain these 2 drivers are the best I've had. Overkill yes but I've got all these built at once for testing: Blackout 435 10* w/ TRPX Aura Blackout 435 10* w/ AAA 60 Stiff Blackout 435 10* w/ 7D Distance ZY-11 10* w/ 7D Distance ZY-11 10* w/ AAA 60 Stiff Easily the 7D's produce more distance by at least 10 yards, the 7D ball flight is similar to the AAA just a better height of the arc at the very top. ZY-11 is straighter for sure, more forgiving, distance with the same shaft is equal to the blackout. BUT foamed is an acquired taste and not for all and add to that the 435 imo feels good not too loud, a firm metal light crunch is what I call it. As Nob says the ZY-11 is super straight always and my misses are high and low on the face not heel/toe so that shape helps me a lot. The only thing holding me back from suggesting the ZY-11 more is the fact that it is foamed.

Good question, not sure but in the past I've drilled holes directly into the head for hot melt on my drivers then plugged it.

I like A-Grind and many of their products but I just can't recommend this one unless you need tiny and really low. For most shots its a firm face I would be interested to see how this one does foamed though for some reason I think it would be like the J340 foamed. who remembers that one?

What we have here are the prototype Seven 577-AG Series the "AG" = Aggressive Grind, and while the retail version will differ slightly from these I still wanted to go ahead and give everyone a sneak peak of what these are all about. Obviously by name these focus on a grind that allow players to get creative with shots and have a lot of confidence in doing so. What are they? It's the same basic and rounded shape as the Original 577 but the sole grind has a few new features, what we created was a wedge that still has 8* low bounce but with the sole channel dug out the leading edge sits even flatter and closer to the turf which makes it even better tight lies, although the original was already above and beyond for tight lies due to it's low bounce profile already this one is a bit more extreme, we also removed the trailing edge grind to keep the head from rocking too much but at the same time we removed a lot of the heel and toe so the player can now sit square with less rocking off the face yet if they want to crank it open they can and in a way that is more reliable with more consistency than if the trailing edge grind remained. The Original & Prototype SEVEN wedges all have a more pronounced and rounded shape to them, some call it the JDM neck style but it really is a natural blend of say what a Vokey is vs a JDM neck transition, they have a higher neck to top line transition and a more rounded toe design, we did this strictly for performance and will continue to evolve it's design into the next series of 577 and 577 (AG) series wedges. What we noticed is our shapes contribute to spin performance and feel for both non conforming and conforming grooves not to mention having that extra space toward the heel vastly contributes to forgiveness and reducing hosel shanks. New Grind w/ Aggressive Heel & Toe Relief Conforming Grooves Sole Channel for harder conditions & tight lies New High Gloss Japan Brushed Satin Finish All Lofts feature 8* Bounce

Vizard is a completely different profile than the ARMRQ8 shafts. Stiffer by design with metal fibers in tip to help with timing, I would say this is the more cost effective route to the high end material way. Most likely 40T It's so hard to say without eliminating all the variables I will say that ARMRQ8 62 Stiff 4 Star feels pretty stiff, stiffer than my AAA 60 Stiff.

Many have heard of Honma star rated clubs and shafts but the majority still doesn't quite understand how the program works or how it's better than the standard versions so I figured it's time to explain. Only Veteran Craftsmen can work on 4-5 Star builds, each person must have over 20 years working in the factory with Honma. Honma clubs usually come standard at 2 stars with optional 3/4/5 star upgrade options each costing more the higher it goes. The difference between them are basically aesthetics, custom options, and shaft materials, for example 4-5 star shafted clubs are open to all requests within Sakata Factories realm of capabilities.. In this case if I just ordered a 4-Star TW727 without requesting options this driver would have arrived with a gold crown but I selected custom matte black because its my preference, the matte look combined with gold is gorgeous kinda a mixture of bad ass with luxurious. I decided to keep the 4 star shaft original gold color to flow with the rest of the theme although matte black with gold foil graphics would have been insane. The ferrule itself has real 24k gold accents on it as well, it's over the top yes but it's beautiful looking ferrule. Pink Shaft & Head no problem? White Ice cream cone looking driver is fine as well, Honma also let's you customize the specs from exact lofts to lie angles and face angles or weighting biases but besides the looks it's really the shaft that has a lot of the value. ARMRQ8 is an eight axis design made with 2 basic graphite sheets and as you go up in stars the materials used in the sheets change to higher grade carbon. 2-Star = 40T/46T 3-Star = 46T/46T 4-Star = 46T/50T 5-Star = 50T/50T Some of you are wondering where is the 80T? 80T is not the material of choice when it comes to performance & feel as a whole, it is a great option for anti shaft deformation but it also causes issues with feel and distance so it's not the ideal material for most shaft applications although on the web the higher # will tend to get the credit over design. The carbon material is different depending on the star grade so the higher grade shaft will minimize wobble at off-center hits and the negatively effected shot dispersion and distance loss are minimized. let's say you had a swing robot that hit the center perfectly the same spot and speed every time then there would be no need or difference between the 2/3/4/5 star shafts but the reality is we can't duplicate our best results over and over so this is where materials aid the player in keeping a tighter dispersion on off center shots which maintain straighter results and more distance or in other words it improves the results of our swing flaws. So what does this all mean? It means with better materials you rely on timing less, you get better distance on off center hits due to less shaft deformation and your trajectory is more penetrating in general. That matte crown looks so sweet, the Tour World 455S is the second most forgiving model of driver in the series, it's still draw biased but just slightly and like the others has a square face angle. The standard shaft is VIZARD which is designed for the harder swinger, it too also has a very tight dispersion due to the metal fibers in the tip section, the Vizard line is not available in upgrade stars only the ARMRQ8 series is. Below an image of the face, as you can see while still deep there is space on both sides heel & toe for miss hits. The 455/455S/ and 460 models are W-FORGED which is a new process developed by Honma which combines two new techniques, the first is an industry first high density forging method that increases the face strength by 15% via tighter forged fibers allowing Honma to make the face thinner and save 2g weight, this gives Honma a greater freedom of design. The second is Variable face thickness, and while this has been around for a while the method Honma uses is proprietary to create the perfect amount of rebound across a wider area thus expanding the sweet spot size. Bottom line bigger sweet spot, better feel, and more distance! Hope you enjoyed the run down and photos of this club, any of the tour world series drivers can be customized one thing worth mentioning is 5-Star customers when traveling to Japan can schedule a tour of the factory and have their clubs & shafts refinished and re gripped at no additional cost keeping their investment looking brand new even after years of play.

The Tours are actually totally different shape, grind, specs than the Gekku Raw. Tour is available in Conforming or Non Conforming as well. Gekku Raw is available in Non Confirming or the TSG exclusive conforming version.

Coming Soon... called the Tataki Blade, same exact grind but this is hand ground by Kyoei's Senior Grinder Okamura-san and this is actually a satin plated finish that keeps the raw look.

Maruman Shuttle & Ryoma FW are the two most forgiving I know of. Maruman Shuttle is surprisingly easy to get up and hit very long.

I'm not the biggest fan of copper but I know many of you guys are so here is something we did for fun, smoked copper crazies :)

It's hard to tell the difference with the audio but in your hands the feel couldn't be further apart. The ZY-11 comes muted by Jbeam from the factory, its dead, mute, thwack, tick, and not loud. The BM-435 Black Out is crisp, not so loud, more metallic, tink! I have both with the same shaft, and boil it down to: 1. Do you like foamed heads? 2. Do you miss heel to toe or high or low on face? If high/low go ZY-11 Ball flight is not a big difference, the ZY-11 is stated as high launch w/low spin but only flies a little higher than the blackout 435. Spin is equal, Distance is equal. Full review to come on the ZY-11. It's an awesome club.

The Miura Giken Type F vs Type D. Miura Giken has a couple of new variants recently announced called the Y-Grind series Type-D & Type-F blades, both very similar to the blades they already have the market but hand ground with some aggressive new angles and edges. Of the two models the D & F MG has released 200pcs of each model 100 in a more silver metallic finish and 100 in a flatter silver look x 2 different sets that means a total of 400 of these new blades combined will exist. While it looks like most of their other blades as the base heads are often shared there are still some visual distinctions that are easily noticeable from different angles So why buy these? really they are not so different from what MG already offers but the main difference is the toe grind and face shape. Miura-san has always had toe grinds that were usually more squared and boxed off over what other brands release and on the other side of that extreme is Zodia who has the toe's highest peak closer to the outline of the groove and most other brands are in between. In the photo above you can see the toe's highest point is as far out as you can put it which gives the appearance of a larger longer to toe heel to toe length and also helps push as much weight out for a more centered CG although it is still slightly toward the heel vs the middle. When you have a slightly squared & pushed out toe it also changes the appearance at address, I personally like this look very much as it's lines and shape just look stable and minimal, this shape is the less extreme of the two toe grinds as you will see in the Type F photos, I think the type D is just slightly more boxy than most of MGs other blades. Both irons share some of the best techniques used in my favorite MG iron the MB5003. Back when Miura made some of the Taylormade irons they looked similar to these and later grew a following which TM implemented into some of that eras MB and CB designs after finding that many MB players on tour also preferred this look but how does it compare to the opposite extreme? The Zodia extreme which almost aligns the toe peak with the outer groove edge is a newer look, sharper that some say produce a smaller head profile yet more forgiving as the bulk of the mass sits tighter and closer together. What I would advise is don't pick one and say you like it better, try both and you will notice that your eyes will prefer one of the other but at the same time your result or the overall performance may favor another.

4000 spin on a driver = lots of lost distance Under 1000 spin on a driver I've never hear of.

should be slightly bigger, more forgiving, but feel may not be as good due to material and undercut.

Something has gotta be wrong with the LM spin numbers..?! I've never seen them so low before.

MG is sending samples around and sent one to our club maker, while I haven't seen it personally this is a first for them, non forged face, multi piece, and we aren't sure if Miura made it as it doesn't look like Miura quality or even shape. Samples have been ordered and when I get them in hand we can look up close. Looks like a sticker or a glued on badge in the back, finish at the edges of the cavity looks sub par but this is a prototype so only time will tell.

The final 5 sets of CCB104's have arrived ( milled grooves and faces ) Also more Prototype Crazy Wedges are in as well.

It's for new TW727 series orders only.

This year the TW727 series has 4 models of irons, The VN is the new skinny boy designed for half cavity lovers who want traditional offset which makes way for the V ( as seen below ) to end it's diet and pig out for a bit. Slightly Larger Slightly Fatter Slightly Deeper Slightly Taller Slightly Softer W-Forged Thats the difference in a nutshell. The lofts are only 1* stronger than the Vn coming in at 46* on the PW. I got plenty of time with this one, It's solid one of the best players CB you can get, don't forget you can order these in Sakata Black Nickel with Vizard IB shafts to take it up a notch.

Totally different, the ZY-11's stock foamed from the factory yet It's still not dead mute like other foamed heads because it started off more hollow and loud in the first place by design but I think this is the perfect compromise between people who like foam and don't want a loud head. It's a thwack but a louder metallic thwack, I love it. For me the 435 blackout was never demanding, its forgiveness was average and not below. I still think it's one of the best ever.