Which Japanese companies offer the biggest endorsements?

[benseattle]

We know that American golfers place a great deal of emphasize on the endorsements of professional golfers when it comes to choosing their equipment. TaylorMade, for example, is well-known for it's "tee-up money" to members of the PGA Tour. In other words, if a pro uses, say, a Taylormade driver, then he's paid... what, $3000 or more just for using the club that week. Even if he's not a "staff" member.

Callaway pays big dollars to a handful of major stars, Titleist has an array of PGA players on staff, Ping has their stable and so on. The thinking, of course, is that American amateurs "want to play what the pros play."

As a newer member of TourSpecGolf (one who's now very interested in the renowned QUALITY found in Japanese products) I am nevertheless curious about the endorsement trend on the Asian tours. If, for example, Ryo Ishikawa, "The Bashful Prince," uses a particular brand of golf club, do buyers follow suit?

More to the point, are there Japanese companies who place a great level of importance on their "tour staff" or is the concept of a "celebrity endorsement" primarily an American phenomenon? I ask because many of the best Japanese brands are new to me and I'm wondering if some of these companies seek to achieve a higher profile due to their association with the pros. Which Japanese companies have the highe profile due to their endorsement deals with Asian professionals?

Thanks for the input.

[gocchin]

The "Tour Issue" phenomena that exists in the US does NOT exist here in Japan. Japanese golfers already consider their gear as high quality as "Tour Issue" type heads golfers seem to want to pay a premium for in the US.

As for endorsements, Srixon and Tourstage are the biggest domestic brands with the largest staff on the Japan tour. TM, Titleist and Callaway which have Ryo are also rather big.Tee up money is something that does not happen here at least not that I have seen on tour.

Interestingly amateurs have quite a mixed array of clubs, many playing clubs from smaller brands and even boutique brands as well like jbeam, crazy, even george spirits and epon.

The biggest faces in Japanese pro golf are of course Ryo and Ai Miyazato and now of course Hideki Matsuyama and as poorly as Ryo did this year he still had a positive impact for Callaway here in Japan.

[supo]

the golf club advertising here is very saturated on the golf channel.

and its mainly callaway , xxio and srixon.

taylor made do a fair bit and i i throw steamed vegies at the tv when that dross come on.,

"rocketballlz ."absolute trash!!!

u can hear the contemp in thier playing staff voices as they have to go thru affermation of thier quality product... that diatribe of B/S.. ,

ahh sorry i digress.....,again...., i lost my self.

there is a lot of advertising during the majors,by small companies. this year roma-ro and ryoma saturated the masters.

no one plays them on tour here . but the local market golfers are using esp ryoma a lot. now

they certianly dont pay anyone.

ryoma domesticaly is very popular now and commands a very high price secondary market.

interstingly... toursatge on the other hand, regardless of how good thier gear is , overall gets KILLED on the resale market and they have very big names playing thier gear . intereting dynamcs in japan as what is "percived " as good

the volume of gear that is moved here is staggering. absolutel staggering

XXIO commands high prices and they have a LOT of pros use it , esp the girls

they wud be no 1 with the women by a country mile. nad thier GI irons are as good as it gets ill pretty much only recomend to my buds XXIO irons for the beginners. ivehit them and htye are amazingly easy and good. and they are very expensive regardless of how old they are in compariosn to to other clubs.

dont know ho bought roma ro.. but htey have been aggressively advertising here a lot, somneon must have pumped some big con in them , bec till last year they were areal sleeper of a brand, very high cost. and only at the most undergroud locations.

now they are a lot more mainstream.

rio has amde a huge fdiff to callaway for sure. just loking at the show this year confirmed that his stand was 30 deep for 3 days.

and that was just the girls..!

[gocchin]

XXIO is definitely the biggest by far for lady pros here.

[mauvanilla]

That is an interesting topic...

Not specifically in Japan, but here in Hong Kong and China, we see that Honma has carved their brand with Liang Wen Chong who is still one of the big stars of the sport in Mainland.

I wonder if any otehr Japanese Brand will be interested in Guan Tianlang as he is heading to play a challenge with Tiger and Rory ... tho in his bag he has been carrying a mix of clubs but his irons are ... N-I-K-E.

In regards to Japan; I wonder if Ryoma's distribution was also a contributor of its sucess in Japan. I remember I bought my first one at Biccamera in Ginza; which I was surprise to find a more "exotic" brand in such a "common" golf venue; which is mostly frequented by "slary man" and not exactly JDM-freaks like us hahahahaha

Sorry deviating the topic, but T.; how is your business in Mainland and India going on?

[mauvanilla]

ALso one more to add here, Shingo Katayama got out from NIke and went into Daiwa On-Off, having asics in his feet and wearing Dance with Dragon. He was quite an icon back in the days; so does DWD really have enough "bullets" to sponsor such a big player(?!)...

[benseattle]

Great stuff, everybody... thanks. I think it's fascinating regarding the contrast between the average golfer in the U.S. and Japan. Over here, endosements may not mean everything but they mean a lot. We're very interested when a Tour pro changes equipement companies. Sure, we're aware that they move for a better deal but there's always the undercurrent that "Hmmmm... Sam Speed moved from company "X" to company "Z". Does that indicate the gear from company "Z" is better?"

Then, of course, there's the pro whose switch makes a big fuss .... and finally the results come in. Is there an average golfer who's now not wondering about Nike equipment following the dismal season endured by Rory McIlroy? (Of course, Player of the Year Tiger Wooods is bagging the same stuff. Weird, huh?)

By the way, are you all familiar with the term "blueprinting?" Perhaps it's a phenomenon present only here in the U.S. In this process, the golfer purchases a set of clubs and takes them to his clubmaker. The clubmaker then proceeds to dismantle the entire set and throws the shafts away. He then weighs each head, making adjustments to get each to weigh exactly the same. He then selects the chosen shafts and measures and weighs every one... insuring that every single shaft is identical. The clubs are now assembled and again measured for consistently correct lofts, lie and weight. This "blueprinting" process apparently evolved as serious golfers discovered that "off the rack" American stuff was subject to wildly inconsistent specs.... often erratic in every important category including loft, lie, weight, etc. They may not call it "blueprinting" out there on the PGA Tour, but you can bet that every pro is playing with a perfectly constructed set, regardless of the manufacturer.

Happy golfing.

[supo]

think u ll find most guys here are doing prety much the same as well.......

[JayDM]

I highly doubt anyone on this site doesn't do exactly that with every set of clubs they play mate, its silly not to have clubs built to your specs, you leave way too much to chance..... I have 43 iron sets sitting around, each and every one is built to the same specs loft, lie, and length wise, and all the shafts were either installed aftermarket in Japan when I purchased them or re built with my builder here in the states, even if a set comes stock EXACTLY as I want them, I still need to have the specs checked with my builder considering large manufacturers aren't always spot on with there builds, JDM companies are FAR superior than what I've seen from the US in that regard, but weird things do happen. Every pro isn't just playing a perfectly constructed set, in many cases theyre playing clubs far different than anything you can get your hands on from the brands they are playing, every single brand that has players on tour will offer even more radical tweaks than the custom Yoro Craft Mizuno's or Buchi gear you can order through TSG which offer a huge array of custom options that most companies wouldn't even think of offering the public.