gocchin

Besides the taper we need to look at the actual thickness of the muscle and how high the muscle is. All this will change the COG. The Romaro Pro is pretty thick an high in the muscle... the Fourteen is just ultra clean!

I did take the topline already but they will go in the gallery later.

Don't forget to check out our facebook page where we will post lots of pics... it will take a while before we can get to the galleries here! http://www.facebook.com/TourSpecGolf

The entire TSG team arrived bright and early at the 2013 Japan Golf Fair at Tokyo Big Sight ready for a day of meetings and checking out the latest gear. To our surprise, unlike previous years, there was quite the lineup just to get into the show before the 10am gates opened. Perhaps the economy in Japan is finally turning around or this years golf show was to be unlike any other. All we knew is we had a busy day ahead and our predictions came true as for the first time ever we spent more time developing relationships than taking pictures... so yes admittedly we are a bit behind in our coverage. Today I will highlight just a few brands to start off our continued coverage over the next week(s). As we headed into the East Halls where the show is held every year, we quickly weaved our way towards the back where Taylormade and many of the bigger brands typically have their booths. This was the plan to beat the crowds. Taylormade's setup was twice as big in previous years and they had Adidas golf on one side and shared their space with Adams Golf. Tourspecgolfer actually ran into Tom Watson on the elevator who is here for promotions of the new Adams lineup and part of the morning events at the TM booth. Taylormade went all out as they do every year and had an army of R1 girls ready to promote the new R1 driver. While we know the R1 as well as new Rocketballz Stage2 clubs are coming out worldwide, we were excited to see the new Daddy Long Legs Spider Putter. The new DLL, which TM calls it for short is a high MOI putter in the spider line made for big forgiveness and improved putting. The DLL features a heavy 400g head matched with either a 34" or 36.5" length. It comes with an extra long 15" long 129g grip which is used as a counter balance. Built in tungsten weights as well as an adjustable weight help bring the heads MOI to over 8500. The face balanced DLL and semi long length can be used as a belly putter for many. The TM booth was separated into 3 areas, one for the R1, another for Rocketballz and a third for TM's premium Japan line the Gloire which features forged irons and drivers as well as the new carbon faced Gloire Reserve driver. As always Honma had a very nice booth but not quite as big as previous years. It was clear however that Honma has made a shift and change in focus as the new Tour World 717 models took front and center while the Beres Revolution line was moved to the "back all". Three new TW717 drivers the 460, 455 and all black 430, looked very good. The TW717 blade will be very popular. It is quite compact and has very little if any offset at all. The TW717 blade was the first muscle back we saw today but it definitely was not the last. Those who are always asking for blades will be pretty happy with the releases as this years show. Tourstage/Bridgestone had their new X Series lineup out in full force including 2 X-Drive 709 drivers and a new X-Drive 909 limited edition. New X fairway woods, a new X Utility and new X Wedges all looked very good. Three new forged irons will appeal to a wide variety of better players. The new limited edition X-Blade 909 muscle back is compact, sharp and has a very straight neck. A new X-Blade 709 MC or muscle cavity are aimed at the better player to pro wanting a small cavity that sets up like a blade. The third model is the X-Blade 709 CB which us the cavity back. All three models have very little to only small offset and all of them look fantastic. Fourteen Golf showed off their all new RM-12 forged wedge and its a looker. The reverse taper blade is more evident than ever. They rearranged the stamping and it looks very clean with the Fourteen leaf. They had both black and satin there but I really really like the black pictured above. And guess what? Yes another muscle back! The new FH1000 looks awesome. Very clean and it features that same reverse taper as the wedge. We'll be posting up address photos of all the irons at the show and it seems like a lot of JDM brands have figured out that better player models are preferred to have less offset! We also got the chance between meetings to visit Romaro and see their new Type R lineup. The Type R line features some of the most popular Ray models tweaked to appeal more to those players looking for max performance clubs. Lower CG, thinner club faces and modified shapes all to create easier launch and more overal distance. The Type R is available in the forged V iron as you see above (the shape is in fact different) and new Type R fairway woods and utilities all featuring forged titanium cup faces with thinner walls for increased ball speeds and distance. There was also a new SX wedge with newly offered I.S grind and lots of cool and colorful accessories (bags which you can see up in the top slide). The Callaway Japan booth featured the new Odyssey White Rize iX Japan only model putters a well as the iX Prototype Milled Forged models we have seen before. The iX as we all know features the Japan prototype tour insert which is more firm as requested by Japanese pros wanting more feedback at impact. Callaway Japan also focused on promoting their new X Hot line of clubs including the forged cup face fairway woods which they call the 300 yard spoon for Ryo Ishikawa... we all would love to have a 300 yard spoon! We were finishing up at Callaway just as the first day was about to come to an end and everyone was leaving the show. With a day jam packed with meetings as we find new and cool things for TSG, we actually ran out of time for photos. The Callaway girls posed for a final shot and I snapped the shutter on my trusty Fujifilm X-Pro1 and called it a day. Tourspecgolfer as well as Tatsuro also worked through out the day on videos of products and of hitting in the test bays at the show so stay tuned for videos over the next few weeks. Tomorrow will be some serious photo taking catch up. Its about time to hit the sack here even though its only 10pm in Japan. Stay tuned for more coverage tomorrow!

Changed the home screen today... something simple...

That appears to be the case as it cannot calculate much of the date ie blow angle, swing path at impact etc.

The advice is not something you need to read or use. All this info is great, and I have many bad fullmiere swings to share. (^_^) T don't unload your unit yet. Bob pulled down the app so you can install it. Bob thanks for all the great info and I am glad you got it working... it is actually pretty straight forward even with the instructions in Japanese, the app is fully english and that is where you pair the sensor anyway.

They have been around a long time. We have considered carrying them on several occasions as we do have access but I will see again when we go to the Golf Fair. Very much more on the enthusiast level, much smaller than Crazy.

I am looking into this, this is something I of course did not encounter since I live in Japan. I have asked Fullmiere but may not hear back until Monday. The app is English which means it is for a global release but it may not be permissioned properly in Google Play.

The second the evasi0n jailbreak came out the other day... I ran it. Once a hacker always a implusive with no fear of bricking their device... yes every tablet and smartphone I have ever used is rooted, hacked, jailbroken. I have longed for the jailbreak since the day I got the iphone 5. iOS is such a closed and simplistic system... I regretted losing control moving from Android to iOS... though in its simplicity it got the job done... but now at least I can have some fun and do things the way I want. Finally able to change my default browser to Chrome and default maps app to Google maps... changed to 5 columns and 5 icons in the dock. Redid the lockscreen and added widgets to the main springboard... got rid of the background on the notification center and made it transluscent... fake carrier... some color.... not bad for a start! Tweaking is an ongoing process... and makes your phone more fun....

Ahhhh you looked!

Actually they are not called bull eyes but for the life of me right now I cannot remember what he calls them... yeah suddenly I do, arc reactor... he has quite the names...

Master Sasaya's new MAC line. MAC stands for Meister Absolute Crafting. Stainless blast art, hand milled PZ next generation milling, new machined arc reactor inserts, hand polish and finish.

I should also note this club, because it had special specs was built for Steve by S-Yard's top tour craftsman. He is an independent craftsman who is also the top builder for Tourstage/Bridgestone. He builds Ai Miyazato and Shigeki Maruyama's clubs as well.

neither have booths at the Show. We will of course cover every single booth that is there, (^_^)

Great feedback B. The stock shaft is quite nice and alot of the feel is attributed to the higher torque, so those who fit in this shafts swing speed range get a pretty good stock shaft. Same for me unlike the Ryoma (especially special tuning) which flies too high for my liking, the T.388 is strong.

For me its pretty much close to right on. Quite a large number of Japanese tour pros use this as do Golf TV shows here in Japan. I think its quite accurate.

I went to the driving range on Sunday... stupid me I left the instructions at home. But it was pretty straight forward as the app is in English and goes step by step as you set up and swing. The bluetooth pairing is done in the app not in the phone/tablet settings. The unit itself is powered by 3 accelerometers, 3 gyroscopes, and 3 magnetometers which is why it can read so many points and movements. It appears to take a reading right at address and bases the face angle impact on this. Meaning at address you need to set up square and then it takes the impact reading relative to your original square setup. This is the only way it can tell the face angle since it cannot tell what your stance is or your body's orientation. It can only judge the shaft and club to a relative position. That said, data like swing path, level blow, angle of blow were all very accurate as it reads the club position. Speeds are right on and the 3D movies of the swing are awesome. I was able to look at the timing of my back swing and down swing, compare across all my swings to see tempo changes and inconsistencies. When my back swing was too fast thats when I don't strike the ball well. I was glad to see my swing speed does peak right at impact and when I had a few out side in swing paths I was able to conciously adjust by keeping my right elbow down which changed the path to inside out. Accuracy is hard to gauge since I don't have something like a very expensive track man to compare to. But one thing for sure is it provides very useful info that can very much help improve one's swing.

You still own the 460ZR?? Hang on to it. I so regret getting rid of mine, Chris does as well and between us we had a few. Of all the Epon drivers, that is the one actually going up in price lately in the used market. For me its still the best feeling driver.

Was one of my favorite bags! (^_-)

The M6 is probably closer to the TJ46.

Roddio always has good feel and good distance, the lighter models excel in distance performance, but are not known really as control shafts. As I had mentioned the M5 is probably more like the LY02. Not quite like the others, so easy to load, more for a smooth swinger looking for a draw to straight ball. They try and keep the launch down by moving the kickpoint to a mid/high position. The pentacross is more weaves resulting in a denser weave and this is directed at heavier models and iron shaft models which require more control. The Pentacross weave was a prototype... it never went into production. Roddio actually mentioned this morning to me that the new Roddio shafts are Autumn but we will see them next week at the Fair.

They are not even out yet... not till after the Golf Fair.

We can get them.... very expensive... also I won't see them in person till next week but based on the FP, looks to have a lot of offset. Don't know who makes them... yet.

1. How does this compare to Crazy or Quadra and what models did you play? Just as good if fit correctly. I played the BA WA, Pentacross Irons, Tricross, M Series. 2. Is this a high moduls carbon shaft and if so, what's the tonnage? 46/50/80T? Yes but roddio no matter how many times I ask will not say what the grade is. I have been trying to convince them that it is a marketing tactic to reveal the carbon grade especially considering how popular high modulus is. But they are very secretive. Even when I was at the factory and watched them produce the shafts from start to finish, I could not take pics... just of the admin offices and the outside of Globeride (two buildings in the pic below are Globeride in Higashikurume). I suspect between 40 and 50t. The bottom pic is Labospec where the assemble custom and tour builds. 3. Full sheet like the Quadra or part like the NS Pro Reggio? They won't say as above but most likely full sheets. 4. They are supplied by Quadra as well or they make their own? There are not many brands that make their own carbon. They won't say but my guess is Toray. 5. With a 93/94mph avg speed (range 91 to 95 mph), what flex for this? R or SR? If its the M5 then SR as its made to play at a longer length 46" or longer. 6. Which Crazy shaft would this play most like? Softer butt softer tip... probably most like the LY02 Noir. The Tri Cross vs the Penta cross is no differnce in tonnage but different patter of weaves.