Is the Ryoma the new king of Fairway woods

[Craig]

Hi guys

Have too much spare time on my hands at the moment and thought I would find out just what is the best fairway wood for me.

My old trusty is the old Egg Spoon 13^ with Quaddra FW shaft stiff.

Also have several other old Eggs with various shafts and a new Egg 15^ with Crazy FW 80 stiff.

Tested against the new Ryoma FW 13^ with Crazy FW 80 and a multitude of other Fairway woods including Yamaha 13^, Akiras 13^, RC 13^ and Epon.

Also tested were some other FW's but no real name brands.

The old Egg has always been my old favorite as it just goes and goes, straight most of the time.

However being afflicted with some kind of disease (I call it Supo Fever) the quest is always to find something longer and straighter. Hence my collection of many FW's.

So for my own benefit I set out on a quest to find the holy grail of fairway woods.

Over the last 2 weeks or so I have been pitting these clubs against one another and have hit many many balls all actually on the course on different days.

Have been hitting the Ryoma lately as it is still new and has that novelty factor.

By far the longest is the old Egg Spoon. Simple. None of the others come close. For me with this shaft it gives low to mid penetrating flight and just rolls forever. Not as easy to hit as the new Egg or the Ryoma though but at least 5 metres longer

The new Egg comes in at number 2. Much easier to hit than the old Egg, much higher launching than the old Egg and probably a fraction straighter than the old Egg. Mis**ts are punished much less than the old Egg

The Ryoma come in at number 3 but only fractionally behind the new Egg (probably only 2 or 3 metres shorter) is the easiest to hit of the top 3, is the highest launching and straightest of the 3.

It is also the best feeling FW of the 3 by a long way as well as being the most expensive by far

Interesting in that it gets high quick and seems to flatten out before appearing to soar again. Many times I hit one with it and thought that's it, that's the one, nothing will be longer than that, only to find that it wasn't.

Mis**ts, like the Ryoma driver, hardly seem to be punished at all.

Before this experiment I had thought that the old Egg would be longest, then my Yamaha with shingospec shaft, Akiras then maybe the Ryoma and new egg.

So the results have surprised me particularly how the new egg performed, and also the almost no difference between the non egg type woods.

In summary it would be my opinion that if you are happy with the FW you have and don't like the Egg Spoons, keep it.

The new Ryoma is nice, easy to hit but is certainly in my opinion no game changer particularly given it's price tag.

If you are looking for a new FW consider the Ryoma but I would suggest buy whatever suits your eye as I do not believe any particular brand stands out.

My apologies for the punctuation etc of the post but my computer is fried and I am doing this on my I pad and it is not the best to post with.

[Petethepilot]

I think Fw's and sand/lob wedges are the most personal of clubs. I personally prefer my Yonex 13*/Matrix Altus combo to any that have been listed but you might hate it. Find one you can trust and don't muck around would be my advice (although I am sure the Ryoma is good!).

Pete

[Chanaa]

personally, the ryoma FWs are overrated. As you said, not a game changer like its big brother.......and with a hefty prc tag as well. I found it easy to hit but not to shape. The ball flight of the ryoma would be difficult to control in windy conditions. Its not any longer or straighter than my RC Vs tours.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

ha ha supo-fever! I'm almost on the same page there. For me the old egg goes the same distance as the new egg with a FW80 shaft and it could be that the old egg is longer but when you combine the forgiveness of the new egg with it's better than average distance I'm getting consistently longer shots. Also if your using that New Egg with crazy shaft I sold you keep in mind that's an SX and may be holding distance back.

The Ryoma carries the same attribute as the driver to get up and flatten out instead of balloon, feels good, and is uber forgiving. When I had the stock shaft in it I would suffer on a windy day like chanaa mentioned, with the FW80 it's just about perfect no more high shots. That said even both the new and the old egg's ballooned for me with the stock shaft. I give credit to the Crazy FW80 shaft.

If you like Royal Collection, Yonex ST or the Akira M15 you will absolutely love the ONOFF Type S FW.

[stevopagolf]

I bought a ryoma f2 used here. I love the thing. I also have an egg 17 which I love as well. I actually hit the F2 on a great flight. It rolls out considerably more than my Egg so they pair well. With range balls off the deck I was rolling it out 250 and I am no big hitter. Hit on the screws I hit the Ryoma driver 265. I hit the egg much higher. I probably would have bought an Egg 13 in the new style if they made one. I understand the hard to work but I am a fan of straight and long. It is super forgiving. I would have to agree that for the price the Egg is a better value, but the Ryoma for me works really well

[potuna]

3 woods and putters I find can be the toughest clubs to get right. When you get the right one quit screwing around.

[supo]

is that like dengui ?

[Shankopotamus]

I don't want to thread jack, but wow, Chris. You must be having some kinda romance with those 2012 Onoff Type-S woods. It's the 3rd or 4th time you've praised them so. How do you feel about the more forgiving type-D fairways/hybrids? When will they hit the proshop, I only see the 2012 hybrids, but no D-long driver or Type-D/S fairways.

[IshikawaFAN]

+1 potuna

[supo]

the eggs. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, the eggs

ihave had played ,sold, traded, lost , so many of these, over the last cpl of yrs and i always seem to come back to them.

i looked in my stable the other day and i found that a 13* singer 15* kaili 17*( new) crazy black 8.2 fw had somehow just found thier way back into my bags. i just cant seem be without one for a long time ( or 3)

i gotta agree with you , the best distance is certianly from the eggs

i like to hit the yamaha the best , and it takes a real ask for me not to put the 5 wood in the bag come game time, as its my fav club. i just hit this so well and so consistantly, it gets a spot about 95% of the time if not more.

in japan il hardly ever not use it.

back home or in hawaii tho..,when it gets horrible windy.

ill use those crazy fw fw 14 and fw 16 , those thing are piercing .

love those at magenta shores, and turtle bay. they are pretty much the only ones that get a look in out there,

and i use them on about 8 holes from the tee as well.

thinking about it yes ur right the eggs are noticeably longer than everything else, but i stil have trouble off a tee box with them, i just have to chuck the ball o n the deck now and hit , no tee what so ever.

just hit the thing that u u like the look and feel of the best

but .........., always have an egg at the ready

juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust in case....,

[gocchin]

I have gamed an ONOFF fairway wood in my bag every year for the last 3 years. They are one of the hottest feeling but solid heads around. Are more traditional shaped and more deep faced.

I have also had all the eggs, the Ryoma, the RC TRC and VS Tour, as well as countless others I've tested for the blog. The ONOFF has the hottest feel and is my favorite to tee off with.

My apologies the Type S and D FW's are not in the shop yet.

I should have them in by early next week.

[JimThitipongSrivatanakul]

I've been using the F2 with Crazy Sigma 50 in 8.2 flex for quite sometime now. I've grown up using a FW than a Hybrid so I'm getting more consistency from F2 than the RC TRC 17. I love this club as I get a distance of about 280+ yards off the tee so it could easily replace any Driver that I have. Only one draw back....the head is too huge and the "closed" face at address kinda put me off sometimes. Other than that, it's a very well built club (definitely better than RBZ).

[NiftyNiblick]

The technology and design of these high end Japanese fairway woods look really great, but my word, those upright lie angles! I'd have to remove a couple of inches from each arm if I didn't want the toe of the club sticking up in the air at address.

Does anybody else experience this, or is it just I?

[ant]

no, its not just you and its not specific to jdm gear either as pretty much all new fws are too upright. same for drivers but with drivers its not that big of a deal at least. older RC fw models (and Sonartec obviously) with long hosel had some room for adjustment but all new releases seem follow one size fits all idea which makes alot of sense business wise but none whatsoever as far as customization goes. btw RC are not as bad to begin with comparing to some others as far as lie angles go. max manufacturer offered tweak i have seen so far with new releases is +/- 2 degrees and even that is hard to come by if you look at the specs. you can of course bend most of them more than 2 but that would probably require torching and it aint gonna look nice afterwards and of course there is a chance you screw it up. all that is kinda hard to accept when premium gear is involved. you can try to choke down and see if thats gonna be enough to help you with how it sits for you and if it does cut the shaft shorter then. this reminds me that i need to ask around here on any experience bending hybrids.

[+TourSpecGolfer]

Keep in mind guys we can get some FW's with factory bent even if they have the shorter hosel area. ONOFF, Epon and a couple of others.

Yesterday i went back to the Ryoma w/ Crazy FW80 from my PRGR egg. Spoon is long but I can get in trouble. I use the 13* Ryoma and I'm about to order the 18 & 24 as well. I want to use something other than a Ryoma driver and FW's just because tis the perfect time to try new gear but I just can't get away. It's like a freaken tractor beam. I got out of line for the Special Tune driver and now I'm back at the bottom of the list again. That was a dumb move.

[ant]

thats good to know, thanx! i was looking at kamui fw the other day and while it seems that they can really produce some crazy customized builds or at least should be capable to do so their fw just doesnt look right to me, maybe its better in person but looks real fat and chunky, almost like a driver. i know there some kamui fans around here who praise their drivers and Tario wrote some about their drivers on the blog but i dont think i ever heard anything on their fw so far. would be interested to know what people think about their fw.