cyco_igoy

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Hi, I am a new member to the forum. I enjoy reading all the posts, well most of them :), especially regarding review on equipments known to be circulated. However, most of them are not for-sale/available in my country, especially the latest Adams, Bridgestone, Scor, Tour Edge, etc.

In here, we got a lot of unknown brand to most of you as well :), and mostly or not all are Japanese brand, even well-known brand i.e., Callaway and TM created specific Japanese version such as Callaway Legacy or release a same model with totally different shaft. Interestingly, the price of those clubs are insanely expensive, I do find an iron set of Honma with 5 stars can go easily to USD 12-15k at golf shop. However, in terms of technology and performance, they are still quetionable compare to Callaway, TM, Titleist, and their bros and sis.

Hence, anyone can share on their experience with Japanese brand of golf clubs? Such as Honma, Maruman, Fourteen, Geotech, Grand Golf, Miura, Nakashima, Onoff, Yamaha, etc.

I did try Yamaha Inpress X with D Forged last week at the range, in term of distance, their 7i do add another 30yds to my Cobra S3 Max to an avg 180+yds of 10 balls that i hit, they are very impressive and don't ask me how they do that since the information booklet is in Japanese:beat-up:. Everytime I hit the ball, it just feel very soft, with almost no vibration. The only downside are the price :act-up:, they cost USD 1,800 per set compared to my Cobra USD 450. Oh well, maybe I can downgrade my diet to dog food :beat-up:this year and be able to save some to buy those set in December.
 
Wait, did I read that right? You got 30 yards more distance with a Yamaha Inpress 7 iron compared to the Cobra S3 Max 7 iron?
 
Wait, did I read that right? You got 30 yards more distance with a Yamaha Inpress 7 iron compared to the Cobra S3 Max 7 iron?
Yup, no kidding, based on my eyes though and it is carry-on distance. Never got a chance to check thru monitor to see the spin rate and other ratios. I usually hit 7i cobra at avg 150yds, while with yamaha I able to hit at least 175-180.
 
That's pretty good distance gains with the 7i! How accurate were they compared to the Cobra's? I tried a few irons last year where I hit the 7i around 175 (avg for me is 150), but I hooked them a lot so I didn't buy them.
 
Im a pretty big fan of Japanese golf clubs. It started out with Mizunos and lately Ive turned into a bit of a Tourstage fan. Theyre great clubs with a very high level of craftsmanship.
IMO, Epons and Yamaha are some of the best. They just amazing clubs. One thing to remember though with Japanese clubs, especially irons is that almost all of them outsource their forging to Endo. Thats not to say they are all just rebranded clubs because Endo simply takes your design, works with you on making it better if thats what you want and then makes the clubs for you. Thats a major reason why Epon is considered to be the best: its Endo's in-house brand.
 
Can someone explain why forgings from one foundry are different from another foundry? Japanese clubs are interesting and I'd like to try them but it seems like there is a 'vanity premium' built into the price.
 
I have no experience with any Japanese clubs but I just wanted to say welcome to THP and I plan to follow this thread to see what others may have to say.
 
Last year I was looking into the Yamaha irons I found most of my info here: http://www.tourspecgolf.com/m62/Yamaha/index.html most of the info there is in english.

The distance gains sound a bit unbelievable although I do believe there would be a gain in distance due to the maraging face, it's a really awesome technology that isn't available here in the U.S. For some reason.
 
Mizuno MP32s are easily the best irons I have ever owned and maybe the best I have ever hit. Lately I dumbed down to an easier to hit club but I may go back to them before the summer is over.
 
My guess, because most of them does not hold golf as their main business? For example, Yamaha in my country is famous for their motorcycle and piano. S-Yard, which is onwed by Seiko, is actually a watchmaker company. Yonex is famous for badminton equipments.
I can certainly appreciate the difference between a Seiko timepiece and one given for free as part of a McDonald's happy meal, but I guess when it comes to forging I don't see it as much - if at all. Forging as I understand it means you take a hunk of carbon steel and pound it with a 800 ton press into a certain shape. Now if you take a peice of 1020 carbon steel bar and mash it I'm wondering if there can be a practical difference whether that press is located in an Endo building or a foundry in western china. Just curious...
 
Now if you take a peice of 1020 carbon steel bar and mash it I'm wondering if there can be a practical difference whether that press is located in an Endo building or a foundry in western china. Just curious...

Location doesn't so much matter in that case, though as I understand it the forging equipment can play a bit of a roll. What matters more is if the 1020 really is 1020 like the foundry says or something else all together to save costs.

After that you still have all the grinding and mill work to do which while doing nothing for the "softness" does impact the rest of the club's qualities.
 
Just bagged Yonex...amazing!
 
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I'm a huge jdm golf club fan and I can pretty much make up a whole bag of jdm clubs. To be honest though, when it comes to woods, tech cannot be compared to U.S. clubs. That's not to say jdm woods are bad as I've had Yamaha, epon, s yard, ryoma heads but none of them could come close to the distance and forgiveness of the cobra fly z that I played last year.

As for irons, jdm clubs are far superior IMO. The materials and construction are top notch. I use the onoff kuros and have tested all the new titleist, taylormades, etc and they just can't compete. As far a pricing, I don't think there is a huge difference. Browse through rakuten and if you stay away from the high end boutique brands, you'll see that prices are comparable. It's hard to get a taylormade or callaway set under $1000 these days.
 
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