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Last year was probably PRGR's best year ever sales wise and popularity wise. Their two top pros, Azuma Yano and Hideto Tanihara placed second and fourth respectively in the money rankings and their gear was more popular than ever. For 2009 PRGR has launched the new GN502 line. A high tech top quality line of clubs made to give a little something to all levels of golfers and that is performance. I received the PRGR GN502 in both graphite and PRGR's Inspec Light Steel. The head shape is definitely a mid sized cavity back and features an undercut cavity and raised sole with trailing edge relief (you can see this well in the second pic below). The GN502 multi piece CB with a soft stainless 630 body matched with a ES230 Maraging face which produces nice feel and high ball speeds. Inserted in the back of the topline is a lightweight plastic resin which allows for more weight to be placed in the sole. One neat feature for these irons is that the CG remains at a constant 20mm high across the whole set, meaning that it moves as the lofts get higher. By doing this the CG becomes shorter and higher up the face in the longer irons for stability and accuracy. It's a very good looking iron. PRGR equipment has always had great workmanship. They also use their own proprietary shafts which many deem as the best OEM stock shafts out there. The GN502 does have offset and a very forgiving sole. This iron is definitely classified as automatic. Swing away and the ball goes straight and high at the target. While it is probably best targeted at mid cappers and playable by high cappers, it fills a similar role like the Epon AF-701 in that even the lower handicapper who wants something easy and forgiving to play would be happy with this iron. I'm going to play with a full PRGR bag this weekend and check back in with updates. Here are the pics:

So Cleveland is set to release its first driver in Japan under the Sri Sports umbrella. They took the very popular Hibore design and created the HiBore MOAI XLS driver, the first club to be totally (head and shaft) made in Japan for Cleveland. I got a 10.5* to play with and first impression is it is BIG. The face is not the most shallow like the Srixon GIE or XXIO Revo (which coincidently are also part of Sri), it is mid height with a lot of hitting area thanks to the scooped out back the Hibore has become know for. The MOAI or Moment of Advanced Inertia (they added the A), is of course a high MOI driver and looks it. The head stretches way back and at address is larger than the Epon EMB and may only be out sized by the Revo. The large face I mentioned has 16% more area than the current Hibore XLS. The CG is placed low and deep with an additional 17g of weight to help promote a high trajectory. I haven't seen the true MOI numbers yet but this head is for minimal twisting and pure straight distance. The MOAI does have a louder metallic impact sound pretty much like all MOI drivers save the JPX A25 but the ball flies long and straight. The shaft is lightweight and mid to higher torque with a total length of 45.25". A very stable club which I must do more testing with in the next few days. Here are some pics:

I've been reading some interesting data lately on shaft sales and popularity in Japan. Some numbers pretty much tell the story that GD's Tour AD MD Series and Diamana's Ali'islei were the best selling shafts of 2008. They media has already touted the kai'li, EV Series and Rombax F series as the shafts to look out for in 2009, as makers shift towards control and stability, in other words hitting those fairways. Full write up on the blog: http://www.inpakuto.com

I have to admit when I first saw the Rossa Spider from TM I was curious but I just could not get over the thought of putting with something that looked like the Starship Enterprise. Last year Taylormade Japan came out with the Itsy Bitsy Spider and I thought, okay it shrunk a bit and it doesn't look too bad. At the end of last year they released Japan market versions of the itsy bitsy including a center shaft, short slant hosel and fat grip L neck. My curiousity finally got to me and I asked to try a Center Shafted version. On the test green, I stood 10 feet away from the hole and proceeded to make my first 5 putts in a row. I said "I'll take it". It blew me away as I tend to leave the face open and by compensating to much with the hands sometimes pull putts left of the hole. But with the center shaft itsy bitsy, balls were going in the hole from everywhere with my natural stroke. It is that forgiving and top it off it feels great in the hands with the heavy head and the asgi+ is very soft. If you can get over the looks this is one amazing putter. Took some pics to share.

Scrolling through all my new 2009 catalogs and more lefty gear than ever. Not only lefty stuff from Epon to look forward to but Tourstage as well!

Pretty much 90% of all high end shafts epspecially JDM ones are 0.335". All Tour AD are 0.335.

The P9003 can definitely handle the faster swing speeds but is not considered a low launching shaft. The MD series will launch lower but is not the lowest spin shaft. Both are very stable and popular choices for top pros in Japan. Another option is the whiteboard in D83 X flex. You're going to want heavy and stiff to go low. Ozik's F7M2 LTD is also very low launching and low spin. If you can handle an 80g+ driver shaft the 8M2 is Oziks lowest launching lowest spin shaft spec wise but I don't know about the feel as torque is at 2.5. I can't comment on Fubuki as there is NO hype at all on this shaft in Japan. It isn't even offered here as an aftermarket shaft (at least not yet but Japan usually gets things first especially if they are good (^_^).

T check out his driver too if you get the chance, he was noted to be using a GR prototype last month. I wonder if he still is.

As discussed in a previous thread, due to overwhelming demand. Left handed Epon will begin shipping very soon as follows! (idrive don't let your son see this!) Lefthanded AF-301 Lefthanded AF-901 22" Lefthanded 208KGX NiCr 52/56/60 starts shipping from February 1st Lefthanded AF-101 starts shipping from March 1st Good news for lefties!

I knew you would ask that... that's one spot Mizuno is still a step up on the others....

2009 will be the year of custom fit. TSG will be offering from many of the major brands direct from their factories all kinds of custom options. Mizuno Japan will no longer be the only ones offering full customization. Tourstage has finally figured it out and will be offering more shaft choices for irons, loft and lie adjustment, different finishes and paintfill and grips and even different head colors for their metal woods! Srixon and RC are also following suit allowing all clubs to be custom built. We'll have much more info up once I go through the many pages of literature I have and figure it all out but its cool that these mainstream brands are finally figuring out custom fit is the way to go.

Yes the PRGR M3 Hit Tour are also very flat at 56.5 for the 3 wood... an awesome wood!

Both are considered manual irons. While the lofts are about the same it seems the GR is a tad longer. Forgiveness wise, the GR is more forgiving on the toe while the Onoff is more forgiving on heel mis hits.

Yes the kai'li is a good shaft as well, it improved on the ali'islei being too high and soft. Have you tried the EV yet? It is very control oriented.

x since its meant to give only a very general idea of forgiveness, the percentages shown are averages of the three players misses based off 100% distance which is their distance shown in Check 1. So for example JPX E600 Forged 159 162 196 are the distances for the 3 players when hitting dead center. The average would be around 172y and mis-hit of the toe is 93% and heel 95% meaning on average: 100% 172y 93% 160y mis hit off the toe 95% 164y mis hit off the heel These are averages so it is possible the mid capper brought the averages down while the scratch golfer who swings faster brought it up, I guess that's why its called average. (^_^)

So Golf Today's December issue had a test of 24 of the latest irons to give readers a general idea of forgiveness. As we have discussed in the past, forgiveness is very difficult to measure and can depend on so many factors including different swing styles, speeds, courses played on, shafts etc. Golf Today's test is meant to give consumers a general idea of how these new models perform with toe mis-hits and heel mis-hits as well as the type of iron they are and approximate distances for different types of players. The test used 3 different testers: Player A 40m/s (90mph) 6i avg 145y (mid handi) Player B 45m/s (102mph) 6i avg 158y (low handi) Player C 50m/s (113.5mph) 6i avg 187y (scratch) There are 4 check points in the test: Check 1 is distance for the 6i Check 2 is distance on toe and heel mis-hits as a percentage of a shot off the sweetspot. Check 3 is whether the testers rated the iron as Automatic or Manual. Automatic meaning pretty much swing away and the ball goes straight or draw, or Manual where the ball flight is controlled and manipulated by the player Check 4 is whether the iron is available with steel or graphite or both which can affect forgiveness as well Test was conducted outdoors WITH a launch monitor and distances averaged among useable data ie if the mid capper chunked a shot, it was not used. I found this useful as I tend to miss towards the toe so looking for an iron with minimal distance loss towards the toe is important to me... (even if it is knowing its the Burner Plus!!)

It is definitely the trend of most JDM wedges where in general the bounce is higher. As XXIO said and is correct, the courses here are indeed lush and meticulously kept with soft sand and you rarely get hard stuff here on the fairways or even rough. And in general once again, the largest population of golfers here is the average golfer where more bounce can be more forgiving. That said, with changes in grinds, including multi grind soles, the bounce is not always representative of the actual or effective bounce. Even on the Epon's the bounce numbers are high because the mark the highest bounce point on what is in fact a multi bounce sole, which is why it is so versatile. Even the Vokey TVD's are like this because of their grind.

My only concern is that he is looking for a medium to high launch, the Blue board will bring his launch down for sure over the stock shaft. While most Diamanas "boards" are touted as control shafts, the Red Board which gets the least fanfare was recently picked from all the Diamana's in a Japanese shaft magazine as the choice Diamana for balance between distance/performance and control. It is also the highest launching of the white boards.

One good example of the raised costs is Vega's Zestaim which does exactly as you suggested. Forged by Kyoei it has two sets available and the difference is 4* in loft. However they pretty much priced themselves out as buyers say they won't pay more just because there are two lofts available.

Hi there, as I may have mentioned in my email. There is no ting or metallic sound with the AF-701 but a subtle click and it is not due to the asroll face which feels like its forged but rather caused by the undercut cavity. The JPX E500 Forged and the AF-701 are both great irons with the slight edge in ease of use and forgiveness going to the AF-701. The AF-701 and Type X have no similarities at all except they both use an undercut cavity which is also a different design on both. The AF-701 was a totally new design. The type X has been unavailable for a long time now.

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New year! May all of us bring our handicaps down!

The old 460D is the equivalent of the 4.6D and has a 1.0* closed face and is weighted for a draw. A very forgiving driver. Not quite the same feel as the newer Yamaha&s but was one of the best selling drivers during its release season.

Looks great J, I love the no paintfill e you should leave it that way!

Here are some other examples of Chris' great work... before and after:

I have not tried the new 4.6VRPM yet but compared to the 2008 model it has lower center of gravity but is designed to be lower spin for max carry and additional run. The head may actually seem more compact and pear shaped than the previous model and biggest change is the face design. The 2008 model used the X Inface design while the new drivers use the 3X Multiface design. What that equals is higher ball speeds, more forgiveness and feel.