gocchin

Yes Bat that's right, the EGG had a 5 which means it was the highest trajectory of the bunch. The rest are 4's and 4.5's.

Any questions just ask but I think the scans are pretty straight forward! (^_^)

I can get past the looks, but not the price... (^_^)

The 20 capper is hitting the 550 5 iron 165 not 185 like the pro R.... yeah those EGG's are long!

Yup it sure is... around 3 or 4 guys are hitting it now and love it.

Mid November release so no one here has hit it yet...

If you want to keep the weight but with better feel, your best bets which in my opinion will be better than Rifle are NS Pro 1150 Tours or Black Gold... these are in the 120g range and are smooooooth.

More scans! I hope people enjoy these. If you do, let me know and I will keep going! Waggle Golf Magazine previews 14 new iron models. Two testers this time around since it's only a preview and in depth reviews will come later. Ito is a pro with a swing speed of 105mph Staff A is part of the Waggle staff and he has a handicap of 20 and a swing speed of 94mph Basic impressions and ratings... just to give you guys an idea of these new irons. Not meant to be in depth. I translated one of the boxes briefly so you know what you're looking at here. Those are 5 iron and 7 iron specs for the loft and lie by the way not just 5 iron. Basically the irons are grouped into four categories: Professionals Athlete (low handicappers) Average (mid handicappers) Senior (high handicappers/game improvment) Any questions, just ask!

This is only a small sample of what Golf Digest Japan does... and they are not the only ones... Golf Gear is even more technical... so much that I have trouble reading the Japanese... Waggle, Choice, Alba, Classic... there are so many top notch golf mags in Japan... oh and they do give tips on anti slicing too (^_^)

Yup we frequently use links from there when users here ask what a driver sounds like for example so I usually post a link from GDO so they can hear it live. Great site!

Okay, I've been wanting to post one of Golf Digest Japan's tests here for some time but you see, they are always 20+ pages each shootout, and scanning 20+ pages and then trying to translate them all is... not easy. But this morning I decided to give it a go and scanned the whole article. If feedback from you guys is positive on this kind of post I can scan more regularly as there is TONS of amazing stuff in Japanese magazines. Golf Digest Japan holds it's D-1 (Driver No.1) tournament twice a year, once in the spring and once close to the end of the season to try and reflect the different releases from manufacturers. This fall they had 64 models enter and altered their testing methods a bit by including low handicap regular Joes like you and I in the early rounds (not that I am low handicap cause I'm not... but I am a regular joe). I will briefly and I mean briefly explain each page and how the test works as it goes along. If you have questions please ask as I have not translated everything here as I hope in some cases the scans are self explanatory. The article starts by explaining some of the changes in driver technology and the differences between so called pro model drivers and amateur drivers. Pro Model being those made for low handicap golfers and amateur models for everyone else. Athlete spec of pro model targets those handicaps 10 and lower and those with higher swing speeds 46m/s (103mph) and up. Drivers like the X-Drive are created for these kinds of players to get best results. Meanwhile the amateur around 40m/s (90mph) and 18 handicap or higher has a driver like the XXIO 460 with a shallower face and deeper CG made for them. That also leaves players in between, the mid-handicapper and medium speed swinger who has drivers like the Srixon WR and X-Drive GR to meet their needs. There are always Tour influences in the world of golf so Golf Digest dropped by a JPGA and JLPGA tournament to see which brands of drivers were in play among the top 100 men and ladies. Men: 22 Taylormade 19 Bridgestone 12 Srixon 47 All other brands Ladies: 22 Taylormade 15 Bridgestone 12 Mizuno 51 All other brands Model wise, the men's field saw the Burner followed by the X-Drive and Srixon's ZR-700 in third. On the ladies side, it was the R7 XR, ViQ and then Mizuno MP series of drivers. They continue to talk about some of the tour drivers and their differences... as well as a few other drivrs on tour.... After that, Golf Digest surveyed the retail market and off the shelf drivers that regular people like you and I can buy. The compiled data showing the top 10 selling retail drivers over the past 9 months: 1. Yamaha Inpres X 460D 2. Taylormade Burner 3. Callaway Hyper ERC 4. MacTec NV-NX 5. XXIO 460 6. PRGR T3 502 Silver 7. Nike Sumo 8. Tourstage ViQ MX 9. Nike Sumo2 10. Tourstage X-Drive GR They spoke to three shop owners from big retail stores to find out what their personal recommnedations were, to get an idea of what sales people push on consumers. S-san's favs were: Burner FT-5 Sumo T-san's favs were: ZR-700 Inpres X 460D MP Craft 460 M-san's favs were: X-Drive GR Burner Inpres X 460D Now on to the test! The first round of 64 involved low handicap golfers, chosen by Golf Digest because of their good and consistent driver striking abilites (many of these guys are regular equipment testers). Testers ranged from scratch golfers to a 9 handicapper. Sixteen golfers were chosen and each one would test 4 assigned drivers with similar lofts and flexes that matched their swing. The same drivers you can buy off the shelf at any golf store in Japan. No upgrade shafts were used, just stock shafts. Each tester would hit 10 balls with each driver. The best three shots with each driver was then averaged for the final yardage. The tester would put pairs of drivers head to head then the best two would square off. Only one driver of the four would progress to the next round. Golf digest knew it was difficult to test 64 drivers with all different technologies, lofts, and flexes so they randomly drew which four drivers would be in each group. Fair or not, it's like the world cup of soccer, you could get stuck in a pretty tough group and not make it out. The first 7 group matches saw no surprises as the big names moved ahead including the 2006 winner Yonex Nano V. Rounds 10 to 16 had some tough battles like group 10 which had the popular JPX E500 pitted against the long HiBore XL and Yamaha 425V. Group 16 saw a battle of US brands with the standard Burner prevailing. The round of 16 would see the driver testing fall into the hands of the professionals. One men's pro, one man scratch golfer and one lady pro with various swing speeds would test each and every driver. The site of the testing was Tome Country Club. The first tester was Yokota Pro who has taken part in the D-1 shootout 5 years straight and has a 112mph swing. The second tester was Ono a scratch golfer who has a swing speed of 96mph The third tester was JLPGA Tourstage staffer Kaneko Pro who has a swing speed of 89mph All testing was done with Tourstage X-01G4 Balls and distance verified with a Nikon Laser 500. The round of 16 took place on a flat and straight 10th hole. An closer look at the Final 16 drivers and sine if their key specs and stats including CG positioning height and depth. A clean slate was drawn and the drivers were again randomly matched up in 8 different head to head challenges that would see the 16 go down to 8 drivers. All three pros would again take 10 shots with each driver, averaging their best 3, then combining their results for that particular driver for a final distance score. Interestingly match 6 had the two super length shafts drawn against each other. Both the Fourteen JC707 and Yamaha Inpres DST feature 46.5" long shafts. A closer look at the final 8. The pros give us a closer look at some of the stand out features of the best 8 drivers remaining. The final 8 were moved over to the 3rd hole for testing. Featuring an 10y elevated tee and bunkers on both sides at the 240y mark. Now down to the final 4 drivers. Taylormade Burner Fourteen JC707 Tourstage X-Drive GR Yamaha Inpres X 425V You can see from the break downs below of each testers drivers one by one with the best three circled then averaged. Tests were done on the 9th hole which features a gradual downward slope from the tee. You can see the offical Nikon guy holding up the white board for the laser rangefinder. So the final two drivers left are the Yamaha and the Fourteen driver. On the same 9th hole for testing. Yokota goes first and through the fist 6 drives for each driver it seems the Yamaha is ahead but Yokota cranks out 357y driver on his last shot with the JC707 to edge out the Inpres X average wise!! Ono is second and his last two drives with the Inpres X 425v put it on top of the JC707. Finally ladies pro, 24 year old Kaneko hits both drivers and takes the first two shots with the 425v over 260y. She's unable to break 260 with the JC707 so the 425v takes the lead for Kaneko pro. And the final results are... By 2.2 yards average, the Yamaha Inpres X 425v wins the 2007 D-1 Grand Prix with a final average of 289.9y over the Fourteen JC707 at 287.7y. Best drivers for each tester were as follows with their average with that driver. This gives us a good idea what drivers excel for their swing speeds: Yokota 112mph 1. Burner TP 302.7y 2. HiBore XL Tour 301.7y 3. MP Craft 460 300.0y Ono 96mph 1. X-Drive GR 243.0y 2. Inpres X 460DST 241.0y 3. JC707 235.7y Kaneko 89mph 1. JC707 243.0y 2. Inpres X 425v 240.3y 3. Tour Links D430 237y So there you have it! Now that was a lot of work! (^_^)

The strong point of the 2008 X-Blades is NOT forgiveness, they are soft, playable and great irons but they are for a different type of player compared to the ViQ Forged. They are for the low handicapper to pro level player, while the ViQ Forged are for the mid handicapper as you know. The X-Blade is far more compact and has very minimal offset. The 550's would probably land inbetween the X-Blade and ViQ Forged... a little more towards the ViQ.

Yukorin played yesterday but was disappointed in her game as she has had no time to practice. She will be on a golf show soon so we will get to see video! (^_^)

It's funny you mention the 425V, Golf Digest just did it's D-1 Grand Prix with 64 driver models... and the 425V came out on top. I had the 460D from Yamaha, very solid driver.

I'll try to do this frequently, I have monthly subscriptions to all the main Japan golf mags, they are major gear lovers and there is lots to scan, even US stuff.... X-Drive red crown doesn't look that bad.... What's with that Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Lexus putter...

I'm reading an iron shootout test now for new models and it looks like the TC-1000 and X-Blade 2008 have the least offset followed by TC-550, PRGR is32 500BL and Honma Athport....

Hi Kent, it's gonna be a tough comparison to make right away as the 550's were only released last week. So side by sides and stuff will be hard to do. Initial reports out of Japan though give me the impression that it is not nearly as forgiving as I had initially thought and that they are probably in the same range as the R7 Forged. Magazines that have begun reviewing them are classifying them as an Athlete model so 5-15 handicap and good ball strikers. The lowest rating it received was distance. The tester had a 46 m/s swing speed hit the 5 iron 185 yards which scored the TC-550 a 4 out of 5 on distance. It received 5 out of 5 on feel, and 4.5 out of 5 on all other ratings including setup, control/playbility, trajectory. This outscored other irons in the test like the R7 XR Forged, TC-1000 Forged, Ping i10, PRGR is3 500BL and Honma Athport. It was a close call between the TC-550's and the new 2008 X-Blade (which received highest mark for control/playability and feel), and Srixon's ZR-700 which also received top marks for feel and control. The R7 forged was not in the test as it was only for new irons. Both I think would be great irons but aesthically will be hard to judge until we get them side by side.

Specs and initial reports from Japan say that this is a more technology packed Diamana, an evolution from the White Red and Blue using more advanced design, materials and technology to make hence the higher price tag. Profile wise, they have aimed to make a shaft that has higher trajectory as illustrated by the mid-high kick. Even though the torque numbers are a little higher than the other Diamanas, Mitsubishi has said that a special amorphous carbon they are using in the butt, provide control and stability and the high tech molding procedure has created a perfect circular tube with controlled flex... By the way I added it to the pro shop... thanks ArchangelGT for the scans... saved me from doing the work (^_^) http://www.tourspecgolf.com/proshop/p1505/...oduct_info.html

Depending on how busy Sasaya-san is (as you know he is a one man show and so everything is hand made by the master) and how customized your putter is, it can take anywhere from 2-5 weeks for delivery.

I've got two designs I can't decide on now. The heavy blinker one we discussed and a standard anser style ps2.

As many of you may know, Bettinardi made a special President's cut putter that was given to the US President's Cup team members. A small number were also sent to Japan for sale. Here are pictures of Bob passing out the putter to some of the President's Cup competitors and the one that TSG got! This rare putter is made of Double Aged Stainless Steel (D.A.S.S.). This is the first of its kind with nano milling of the U.S flag on its sole and face.

Lung-chia that is going to be amazing!! I am going to have to have to pay you a visit to see your beauties live...

The missus is a kawaii idol as well (^_^) who also golfs very well

Here are some shots from her own personal blog... she hits the driving range if she has a break in her crazy schedule....

Pro's in Japan using TB1000's have a mix of NS Pro 1150's and DG.