ClubHoUno

Hey Gocchin I mean this seriously, when I say, I'm sorry I can't read Japanese - I hate it when I enter into an interesting site just to find out, that it's all in Japanese. They also have a lot of high tech sites, I wish I was able to read. I will seriously consider taking up Japanese at the University here in Copenhagen, Denmark. I need to be able to read some of the high tech stuff from the Golf gear world and the Computer High Tech world ! The danish, US, Swedish, German and UK golf magazines are lousy in my view. I can't speak for the Japanese golf magazines, I only wish I was able to read them. How come you can read Japanese, are your parents from Japan (I know your wife is) ? Can you also speak the language ? Somehow the Japanese mentality fits well into the Scandinavian I think - at least when it comes to quality and craftsmanship. I see more Japanese tourist in my country than any other country, and to think they have to travel around the world to visit my country, that doesn't even have a hot climate......there must be something else to it........

Did Endo forge these ? The TC-1000 Forged looks pretty great - I guess these are forged from the same material as the Epon AF-301.

I will follow this thread - as I'm also a bit hot on the R7 Forged. Only "problem" for me is that I can't find ANY information about where these are forged and finished. It looks like something Endo could have done, but I emailed a guy at Endo in charge of the tech service (kiyonari niimi) and he said they didn't forge the R7 Forged irons. They are probably forged and finished some where in China or Taiwan then......just would like to know, because I'm a forged club snob

Sorry....maybe I'm not quite following this scheme, but what kind of shafts have been used in this test - standard shafts or a wide range of shafts ? A lot of people tend to forget, that shafts play a VERY important role in the performance of a driver. A driver head with the wrong shaft can feel like cr_p to one person, while feel like heaven to another player - even if the two players have swing speeds within the same range. Golf magazine tests are in my view not really worth that much, because they very seldom - if ever - do test based on different shafts. This would be far too expensive to do such a test, and consequently I almost never buy golf magazines anymore. They are filled with literally 100's of anti slice tips and pretty useless golf gear tests...... Golf forums like this and others are much better at helping with proper advice to what will suit a certain golfer with a certain swing speed and swing tempo the best. Anyone know if the new Epon driver sits SQUARE at setup position and if the face is deeper compared to the old 460ZR ? Not sure if this have been covered in another thread, but tried to do a search and didn't find any information regarding this Thanks for helping

Hey Jeff, what's in your JAPAN custom Mizuno set ? You say the Epon feel better than the Mizuno custom set....wow.....looking forward to hear you test results of the new AF-301 set

Fantastic looking putter - incredible how the flag seem to flow from the face to the sole......very fine craftsmanship from Mr. Bettinardi

Interesting test you have there Looking forward to reading your final conclusion and nice to know what you like about the Miura blades that you don't find in the other great contenders The Miura blade looks best to me - the Fourteen TB1000 is a close second though How would you rate the feel in the Miura blade up against the other blades you tested ? I'm surprised you think the Miura's feels better than the Gold's factory Sorry forgot......did you use the same grip and shafts in all the irons you tested ? Also looking forward to hear what you think of the new great looking Epon AF-301 compared to Miura, Mizuno, Fourteen, Gauge and Tourstage ? Have you tried the new Miura Cb-202 Japan Forged cavity back set ?

My suggestion: Iron heaven !

Chris won't allow me to post in here anymore...... But I couldn't resist to make a post.....and I'm still a lurker in here. This new Epon AF-301 iron from Epon looks AMAZING. It's the best designed iron head I've ever seen. I love everything about it - even if I will have to make a trip to Japan to get custom fitted for it, it will be worthwhile. Only one iron head on the planet currently looks just close to this in greatness from a designers point of view - Miura Cb-202. Epon has done it - made an iron head with a more contemporary & modern graphics and logo, removed the medallion in the cavity and they really should start selling the Epon brand in the US and Europe. No matter if they will charge $1.250 a set, this will be a monster big seller among forged iron enthusiasts all over the entire planet. YOU CAN'T PRODUCE A BETTER LOOKING CLUB HEAD - IT'S NOT POSSIBLE ! I will rate the design of this iron head 11/10 - YES! you can't produce a better looking players cavity back iron head - it's not possible. The AF-301 will be an instant classic among forged iron heads in the world. Square looking face, small offset, satin finish, nice ferrule, thin sole, thin top line - SMASHING DESIGN ! Sorry, I just had to make this post.....hope it will not be deleted !

Yeahh...you're right. I tried to spray a bit of sarcasm in my last post - the R7 Tp's may be cast and finished in China, but they perform pretty well for a lot of the pro guys on the US and European Tour - and NO; the R7 Tp's of the Pro players are NOT cast i some secret place and they certainly are NOT forged either. The R7 Forged however are forged, but only 2-3 guys on the Us and Euro tour have the R7 Forged irons in the bag. The R7 Tp's are in more than 25 pro players bag currently playing on the US and Euro tour. I just wondered what my possibilities were, if I wanted a high class JDM set of cast clubs that was durable enough to stand up for a winter season on hard range mats. My R7 Tp's are in the bag for the upcoming winter season and I already have tried them on the course, and they play excellent - very good if not great set of stick for a cast club made and finished somewhere in China. I took all the clubs and scrutinized them thoroughly. The finish is very well made. No dings or small dents in neither of them. I'm definitely a forged carbon steel fan, when it comes to irons and wedges, but cast China made isn't all that bad as some say it is I take pride in trying to have some of the best forged gear in my summer bag, but will also try to fill my winter bag with some pretty decent stuff too. I think Taylor Made must have a pretty great quality control where ever in China their clubs are cast and finished, because almost all the products I've bought from them, have had a very high quality finish.

Thanks´- I'll check them out

Thanks for the replies so far - I'm actually surprised you could come up with some kind of answers at all I think I'll just stick to my cheap China made low cost cast Taylor Made R7 Tp irons as my winter sticks this year. They perform pretty well for me and I guess I kind of like the way they look overall: Pretty thin topline, pretty small offset, pretty good casting finish for a cheap China casting and cheap China finish and the cavity actually looks better in person than on photos. They are really forgiving compared to my Miura's and they will be able to look good even after one season on hard range mats and indoor golf simulators The G Field you refer to Gocchin - any plans on making them in another brand of irons, since the G-Field brand is history now ? I also plan on using my Miura Cb-301 as winter sticks next year, when/if I buy the new Epon 301 for my next summer set. Being spin welded the Miura's can take quite some beating

Pretty great looking topline, Gocchin - Srixon irons keep on getting better and closer and closer to me buying a set of them They just need to find tune the cavity 5% in design and a slightly thinner topline and I'm ON

Hello, I normally play with two full bags - one for the summer season, when it's dry - full of forged soft carbon steel clubs and one for the winter season and when it rains during the summer season. Forged carbon steel will easier get dinged and rust, therefore I only use them for the dry summer days. From November to March, the winter season is ON, where I live, and you can only practice on synthetic hard range mats in this period. This is an absolutely NO NO for soft forged carbon steel clubs. I also play a lot of indoor simulator golf during the winter season - once a week, so in fact, even though I'm from the cold norther Europe (OK, it's not exactly Siberia here - but still pretty cold for 3-4 months a year, and raining for the other 2-3 months basically) the golf season never quite ends for me. I play indoor simulator golf once a week during the winterseason and practice on the range once a week during the OFF season. Indoor golf simulators also use synthetic range mats - so I have a set of cast China made Taylor Made R7 Tp irons for this purpose and a trio of cast Titleist Vokey Spin Milled wedges. If I was interested in a set of JDM cast clubs, that would perform great, but still be durable and NOT soft cast like the CAST Fourteen and Beres clubs, what should I buy then - any suggestions at all ? I don't expect one single reply in this thread, because I don't think you can get a quality set of cast clubs, that are durable and not too soft from the JDM market - but still I'm asking you wise guys in here on THANKS IN ADVANCE

He had the new Epon 301 before this, but Endo didn't allow it - so both Gocchin (who had the new Epon 701) and Chris have changed their avatars

Looks good - is it forged and finished in Japan and is it 6 X struck forgings as they used to do with the Srixon Forgings I wonder if the cavity will be visible at address positions in the longer irons I think Srixon keeps on making better and better looking irons - I've only owned two set of Srixons, one cast set, probably made in Siberia, called AD I-403, but still a pretty good iron set for me back in 2004 (I used it for range practice on hard mats) and also a great forged set called I-302. I really liked the I-302 set, sold it and bought a set of forged Hogan Edge Pro's (also a great forged set BTW) back in 2005.

All sets are great - Ihaven't played with the Epon, but I own both the cb-301 and Mp.60, and I prefer Miura and find them better feeling than Mp60 - but all sets are great. You can't go wrong. Design wise, the cb-301 looks best in my view - no contest. The cb-301 has what looks like zero offset, thin topline, classic small clubhead, excellent feel, that I prefer to the Mizuno feel (even though some people keep tellin me Miura uses Spin welde hosels and are made in taiwan, every time I see a Miura head, the finish, quality and overall impression of the club head makes me sigh and conclude that this is iron heaven for me - nothing comes even close. You might find something softer than Miura cb-301 You might find something harder feeling than Miura cb-301 You might find something as good looking as Miura cb-301 You might find some thing more playable then Miura cb-301 You might fins something more forgiving than Miura cb-301 But you will never find something that surpass Miura Cb-301 in all of the above mentioned points.

Thanks for the information Gocchin Very interesting but I'm not as surprised as many others......almost no driver in the world will play true to loft.......only drivers direct from the tour van will do that, and they are often opened up a bit anyway.

What's going on with the two penguins

Sorry my browser obviously didn't like this site as I can not download the Mizuno Mp japanese site...... Anyone with a direct link to the japanese Mizuno Mp site ? Funny how Mizuno is really pronounced - not Mi-ZU-No, but Misju-no. I will start pronouncing it like that - it sounds cooler

I'm beginning to wonder if I should visit Japan some time in the near future - I'm a bit fascinated by the country and their customs and unusual way of living compared to the European way of living. I see a lot of Japanese tourist in Copenhagen (they stumble on each other trying the take photos of the little mermaid), where I live. Quite a few of them don't even speak English - and I say to myself that they are really brave visiting a country without even being able to communicate with the inhabitants of the country. I see literally thousands of Japanese tourist every year visiting Copenhagen - maybe I should visit Japan for a change I met a nice beautiful looking girl from Japan last year in a cafe in Copenhagen and she spoke excellent english - she called me 'Dolph Lundgren', because she thought that I looked like him Only problem is that I might need an interpreter to get around - don't know if I can expect, that a lot of them will be able to speak English

Where are all the players clubs from Mizuno ? I only see irons with big offset, big clubhead, fat topline and pling factor that resembles Honma irons It is as though the Mizuno Japan line is geared towards high cappers in their 50's and 60's with big money to spend and even bigger handicaps to control ! I have nothing against high cappers, but where is the Mizuno irons from the US and Euro line up - Mp60, Mp32, Mp67 - even Mp27 series is not there I can honestly say that I would not fancy any of the irons from the Mizuno Japan line - and I consider myself a big Mizuno fan

Looking great - one of the best drivers I've ever seen Does the face sit square or closed at address and how deep faced will the driver be compared to the Tourstage X drive 460 ?

J: smaller clubhead, smaller offset, thin profile S: larger clubhead, larger offset, thicker profile X: even larger clubhead, even larger offset and even thicker profile J is for lowcapper S for mid capper X for higher cappers

Wow, exciting reading for me The japanese people also have a favour for cartoon figures and and a lot of signs in general, I think. Maybe because of the written sign language - I don't know. In Europe and USA you wouldn't be able to find i.e. Como Come headcovers with small pandas, wine gum and pink pigs on - but I find it kind of cute and funny and in fact like this. But I think it's very Asian/Japanese to have these kind of colorful animated figures on golf headcovers. I can relate this to the use of the V sign - Gocchin's Girlfriend almost look like a cute animated cartoon figure in the photos of here doing the V signs - it's makes me smile and feel positive The euro guys and US guys lacks this kind of use of signs and cartoon figures, which I think is more common and prevalent in Asian countries - especially Japan and Korea. I also visit this golf forum because I'm a bit fascinated by japanese and asian culture. I would like like to read a lot of websites from Asian, Japan, Korea and Thailand - but even loading the websites is a problem for the Firefox and Explorer browser