Miura Giken Japan has introduced their all new WMF-06 Forged wedge for the 2012 season (introduced late 2011). The WMF-06 is aimed at the better player wanting top notch spin control along with the purest feel in a verasatile wedge. Like all Miura Giken irons and wedges, the new WMF-06 is W.D.D. (Weight, Dimension, Density) Accurate Forged from premium JIS S25C.  This forging technique perfected by Miura creates a perfectly balanced shaped head with consistent density in the quality of steel and with perfect weight.

When I first received the WMF-06, the first thing that stood out was of course its grind and sole design. The WMF-06 features a two step or two stage grind which creates a versatile multi level sole. The purpose of this was to eliminate unecessary parts of the sole creating toe and heel relief as well as a unique type of trailing edge relief.  While the sole features a lot of relief, because there is less sole making contact with the ground it actually excels in tight lies as well. The unique cut away center area of the trailing side of the sole serves a couple of purposes, one is to create more pure approach shots by reducing friction through the turf and secondly to provide maximum control and accuracy out of the bunker by channeling the sand through that cut away and keeping the head on line straight at the target.

The WMF-06 is a tear drop shaped wedge with a taller toe allowing for better players to work the face and create maximum spin control.  The leading edge is slightly rounded to prevent digging and the bounce is actually on the high side at 9* for the AW (53) and a whopping 15* of bounce for the SW (58*). These bounce numbers can be a bit misleading as with the multi level sole, it is the point of he sole where there is the highest bounce.  However when opened up bounce is reduced dramatically due to the two stage grind and cutaway which plays an even bigger part when the face is opened up.

The Miura WMF-06 features very little if any offset at all which will please the better player. It sets up nicely at address framing the ball well with subtle nickel satin finish. The finish of the WMF-06 is a big part of Miura's new design for his wedge as well. It features a new Cu-Ni dual plating toe enhance feel and bite of the wedge. With conforming grooves, Miura decided to underlay a first plate of copper finish to enhance feel and bite of the wedge. They then used a thin plating of Nickel to protect the wedge.  This produces a very soft feel taking Miura impact even a step further.

This is certainly a very unique looking wedge and its design is one that I have to test out so I've decided to bag this wedge as my SW for a while and see how it goes.  I am no pro so spin is not my strong factor, so when I choose a wedge its very important to me that it feels great and while it looks compact and has a straight neck, still can produce good spin PLUS good forgivness.  So far on looks and design alone, the Miura WMF-06 will very well fit  those characteristics.  More testing soon but it the meantime, look for the WMF-06 in the pro shop available as 53* and 58* heads only or contact us to get a custom shaft and grip built to your specs!

Kamui Works sent me two of their new KamuiPro drivers to check out.  The new KamuiPro heads are available only in conforming versions with a specially designed 4 piece structure.  The crown is made of BT14 Ti while the sole uses Ti 4-1-1 and 6-4 Ti in the hosel. Kamui cold forges the face using high strength BT14 Ti for a hot but soft feel.  The KamuiPro is only available in 10.5* and targets the average player looking for more distance and wanthing to hit a straighter more accurate ball.

Kamui decided, in order to keep costs down and to make the head more attractive price wise, they would reduce the number of options available compared to the Ray and 456/420 models. The options are still pretty good though and you can choose from a brand new Pearl White finish they have or Dark Pearl Green. The head features a mid height face which is rounder than previous Kamui models and a head which uses a high crown design that quickly tapers off into a more shallow height at the back. This helps bring CG low but reasonably short for a strong trajectory low spin ball, optimizing carry and run.

The forged face is designed to provide soft feel and great energy transfer at impact.  The wider face reduces distance loss on miss hits towards the toe and heel which are common for average golfers.  While this head is aimed at more aveage and recreational golfers, it really can suit any player who wants more distance in an easy to use head. And for those looking for a premium Japanese forged driver that is more reasonably priced.

The following options are available for the KamuiPro:

Loft: 10.5* Marked - real loft choices of 10* 10.5* and 11* are available
Lie: choice of real lie angles 59.5* 60.0* and 60.5*
Face angle: choice of real face angles 0.5* closed, 1.0* closed or 1.5* closed
Head Weight: 193g to 200g
Finish: Pearl White or Dark Pearl Green
USGA Conforming Only

As always the new Kamui head will be available as head only or custom made with any Japan market shaft and grip. Based on the head weights available, Kamui suggests that this driver be best built between 45 to 46" depending on the shaft and desired swing weights.

I'm hoping to get the chance to test these heads out soon once the cold weather passes. I'd love to get a Crazy Royal Decoration in here and see how long this driver could be. In the mean time I will be adding it to the pro shop tonight!

Just got this driver head in and its dark outside so I can't take pretty pictures. Here is a little teaser until tomorrow. It's a 4 piece head, white crown and an all new face shape (not the typical Kamui Works face). Check back tomorrow for more pics and details

I was in Akasaka yesterday attending the Pro Support meeting for the LPGA. I met up with Miysohi-san from Yururi and we headed out after the meeting for lunch and to talk about some new clubs in the works for Yururi. One of the clubs he showed me, and keep in mind this is NOT the finished product so it may be a bit rough around the edge, is the new MH-1112 forged cavity back for 2012.  Yururi has always been known for intricate CNC Machining on its irons and the MH-1112 takes it a level further.  Many advanced cavity designs these days are simply produced by either a cast or forging moulds. Cavity steps or design features are all created in that mould. Yururi has always premium forged their head and rather than just mould the cavity shape, they CNC machine the head which makes it look like art and is much more costly to do. Miyoshi-san told me that some of the Yururi models take 3 hours to machine a single iron. He passed the head on to me so I could bring it home for pictures.

The older KM-0107 is a beautiful iron and features some very nice CNC machining in the cavity however if you look closely, each machined step is flat. The new MH-1112 is the first Yururi iron to feature a 3D CNC machined cavity. This diamond shaped cavity is machined so the center is the highest and thickest point of the cavity. Its in line with the sweet spot of the iron so center strikes are rewarded with pure and buttery feel.

As with most of Yururi's better player irons, there is very little offset. The clean satin finish is pleasing to the eyes.

The face of the MH-1112 Forged features a straight top blade and taller toe area for more spin control and a nice strong appearance. The MH-1112 is a smaller cavity but at the same time its not tiny so better players all the way up to good ball striking mid cappers should have no problems enjoying this beautiful iron. As I mentioned here, this head is not the final finished product. It will still be fine tuned and the finish will be tweaked to look much better. Lucky enough we were able to provide the first sneak peak of this iron though it probably will not be revealed until later next month at the Golf Fair!

Coming from Canada, snow is nothing new for us. As a matter of a fact we got so tired of shoveling snow we moved to Japan. (^_^) Here in central Chiba Prefecture snow is a very rare sight. In fact in the nearly 4 years we have been here we only had a light dusting once that pretty much disappeared in a couple of hours. Last night before we went to bed we could hear the thunder outside as it began to rain hard, rain turned into snow overnight and we awoke to a white Kiminomori, a first for us since we moved here.

Snow in the Kanto area (Tokyo and surrounding areas) mean chaos as people here are not used to heavy settling snow. And we aren't even talking about a lot of snow, maybe 5-10cm. But what that means is cancelled classes, people not going to work (empty bus stop in the morning above), 100+ snow related accidents overnight, suddenly a mad rush at the auto center with people buying chains and snow tires. I almost have to laugh at how a little snow can turn everyone crazy.  My neighbors all met on the street in the morning discussing what to do with the icy roads in front of our houses. We just said ah it will  melt and took our dog Saku, who loves snow and has not seen it in years, for a walk.

Before going for a walk I just moved my car around the corner under the sun and the snow melted off within half an hour. Its a rare sight seeing white powder and palm like trees in the neighbors yard.

Saku was thrilled to go to the park where the snow was waiting for him to play.

Even after we got home he wanted to run around in the backyard and catch the snow balls we threw in the air for him.

I guess in Japan this is what they call a "Snow Day".  Looks like the golf course is closed today! (^_^)

In case you haven't noticed, we've relaunched our blog, pro shop and forum with an all new look and color scheme.  Along with the new look, we've also got two new social networking pages. A new TourSpecGolf facebook page will now replace the old GolfToImpress facebook page. Joining the facebook page is an all new TourSpecGolf.com Google+ page. We'll be using these pages to grow our global reach and to try and create a closer knit community of golfers who can appreciate Japan Market gear.

Tourspecgolfer will be using facebook and Google+ to promote leftover inventory and stock as well as run promotions and giveaways. So in order to make sure you don't miss out, be sure to visit both pages and give us a "like" at facebook and a "+1" over at Google+!

Click here for the new TourSpecGolf facebook page.

Click here for the new TourSpecGolf.com Google+ page.

We received samples of the new Yururi Seida KM-0312 Forged iron today. They look simply fantastic. Before shafting them up for some testing I thought I would post a little preview here.  The KM-0302 is new for 2012 and does feature conforming grooves.

The premium Kyoei forged S25C head fits somewhere between a small and mid sized cavity back. The beautiful satin finished and CNC machined cavity look great and each iron has the loft engraved in the cavity which is kind of a cool design feature.

The cavity is low but deep and the face actually is thicker where the loft is engraved increasing soft feel right in the center of the face. Because of the pearl like satin finish the head just looks so clean!

The Seida Forged Iron is aimed at the mid capper to better player wanting an easy launch and some forgiveness but with premium feel. The face is not overly boxy but features a sharper toe with a rounder leading edge making it more versatile in various lies.

At address the sharp toe adds to the irons lines and defines where the face begins Less offset and a reasonably thin and straight top top line all add to the irons pleasing appearance. I'm looking forward to shafting these up for a go and a more detailed review!

At the 8 to 9 second mark the back end of the cars drift right in front of the railing making the plastic banners flutter. Even the professional camera man on my left who shoots these events for a living stepped back. I'll share more clips later but in the mean time you guys can check out this close drift... and I mean close to me. (^_^) Shot with my Nikon D5100 SLR and Tamron 17-50mm in Manual focus mode.

DRIVERS

The Gloire is the new distance driver and is Taylormade Japan's forged model - yes a forged driver from TM!  They've also added the R11-S and RocketBallz driver. One thing I did not expect was the redesigned R11-J which has been increased to 460cc in head size and 45.75" in length and re-tuned for max forgiveness and distance. TM calls it the R11 distance model for the Japanese market.

FAIRWAY WOODS

TM Japan has added the premium Gloire FW made for maximum distance and forgiveness and they have also thrown in a Japan only R11 Titanium FW! There is also the RocketBallz FW.

IRONS

TM Japan has two models of Gloire premium irons. One is in fact a utility iron at 20 and 23* lofts and the other are max distance irons with a Maraging face and 26* 6 iron! Though I must admit it looks a lot like the RocketBallz Max shape. They also added the RocketBallz Irons.

WEDGES

TM Japan added two new All Terrain Versatility Wedge models, standard ATV wedge in tour satin and the ATV Forged wedge in smoked Ion Plating finish!

PUTTERS

TM added the new Tour Preferred Ghost which features 4 head shapes and a deep milled forged face. They also introduced  Ghost Tour putters which feature 5 head shapes with Pure Roll faces as well as the Ghost Manta which goes along with the stingray and limited edition Itsy Bitsy Spider Ghost.

So it seems like an exciting time once again in Japan for new TM products. Stay tuned for live pics and reviews of all the clubs.

There has been a lot of hype for the new Ryoma F fairway woods. It has the reputation of its driver counterpart the Ryoma D-1 to live up  to. The D-1 Driver as everyone knows is probably one of the most forgiving drivers to ever come out of Japan. It was easily Tourspecgolf's most popular driver of 2011. So when Ryoma announced a fairway wood that would perform like the driver, people jumped at it right away. So after more than a month of testing, does the Ryoma F deserve all the attention its been getting?

As I had noted before the fairway woods looked better than I had originally expected. I was not the biggest fan of the look of the driver though its performance far out weighs its aesthetics.  The fairway wood is on the larger side at 220cc for the F2 to 140cc for the F9.  If you want to see a physical comparison, I did one earlier with the egg Spoon here. All of the D-1 F heads are spec'ed to have square face angles. Like the driver it appears to have a slightly closed face which many have said is an illusion caused but the slight onset/face forward and the way the sole sits. Even if the face is closed, its not by much and for many average golfers who will consider the Ryoma F, a tad closed may not be a bad thing. At address, the head does make the ball look small and could pass for a 350cc compact driver. For some the head may seem to big but for others, its size may inspire a can't miss image.  At first I did think the head was too large however I quickly got used to it.

The F2, F3 and F5 models all fall right below 0.83 COR and share the same all titanium monocoque (unibody) construction as Ryoma's D-1 Drivers. Ryoma is able to fit a 60g Power Booster weight on the back of all the FW models.  Not only that but they also add an additional 60g weight on the front sole called the Spin Control Unit. Considering the 13* weighs 209g, and uses 120g worth of weights, it means the 0.4mm walled body is a mere 89g in weight! Ryoma then plasma welds on their premium forged TDW face for maximum ball speeds and feel.  The F7 and f9 shorter woods have a similar design except use a maraging face and stainless steel body.

Thanks to that 60g backweight, the sweet spot of the Ryoma  fairway woods is huge. So huge that Ryoma claims there is very little difference in direction and distance on off center hits vs shots off the center of the club.  In order to counter the huge weight in the back which in a smaller fairway wood head would push the CG too far back and low, Ryoma uses that Spin Control Unit I mentioned earlier, another 60g right below the leading edge of the head. Ryoma says this weight drastically reduces spin and creates a strong and powerful trajectory that will not lose out to the wind. I certainly liked the trajectory and for me it was more of a mid ball flight.

Ryoma has designed the CG Point of their fairway woods to match the ball exactly at impact whereas on some deeper fairway woods the CG point on the face is in fact higher than the point of impact.  The face of the Ryoma's are considered shallow but not super shallow. They are shallow enough that make hitting off the deck and launching the ball rather easy. I had no problems teeing off with the Ryoma and I felt more confident doing so than with the ultra shallow egg Spoon. The egg Spoon which for me has always been the longest fairway wood, was coming short of the Ryoma by 10-15 yards on average. I also had a TRC FW and ONOFF Fairway Arms Plus as well as a Geotech GT SP and none of them could touch the Ryoma in distance. The testers I have here came with the stock Ryoma shaft. Its a good shaft but a bit on the soft side and the higher torque numbers especially in the softer flexes really do benefit the smoother swinger. I found that if I got aggressive with it, and I do have an aggressive transition and down swing, and if I released early, the soft shaft would cause me to go a bit left.  Even so, thanks to the very forgiving nature of the head, I was still out hitting the egg. It made me think if I had put my preferred Crazy Black FW80 I would gain more control and even more distance.

When it comes to sound and feel, at first the Ryoma F reminded me very much of the first generation egg Spoon with that hollow thwock. Its not nearly as loud but the pitch is similar thanks to the heads size and all Titanium construction.  It's rather solid feeling and while it did not feel hot off the face, it IS hot off the face. There were several times I did not feel like I hit it right on the screws and the ball just kept going, much further than I expected and pretty straight. Much of the results I got are thanks to Ryoma's huge forgiveness and near 0.83 COR. Considering how much smaller a fairway wood face is than a driver face makes this number quite staggering as many fairway woods on the market feature COR of around 0.70 to 0.75.

At the end of the day not everyone will like the looks of the Ryoma F. Not everyone will like its huge head size. Some people might get turned off by the sound. Others the price. But in the end you have to love the Ryoma F for what it is, and that is stupid easy to hit fairway wood that can probably rival your driver for distance AND forgiveness.

The stock shaft is a good fit for those who are smoother swingers, especially the softer flexes. The stiffer flexes do add some control thanks to lower torque and heavier weights. Many golfers will opt for an upgrade shaft and the Ryoma F is available with any shaft in Japan though more than 75% have gone out with Crazy shafts since they seem to be such good fits with Ryoma heads. If you need help with your selections as always just contact us. If you'd like to go ahead and get the stock shafted model, it can be found in the pro shop.

I took a quick video of the sound at impact. As you can hear its not terribly loud but its not that great sounding either. I also had my egg Spoon and TRC FW on hand and also an egg i+ utility so I thought I would throw that in as well.

Taylormade Japan has been teasing with a special site they created called GLOIRE, named after their new Japan Market lineup that will be announced tomorrow.  GLOIRE pronounced GU-RO-RE, sounds like Glory, looks to be a new premium lineup along the lines of the Japan only XR lines which started with the non conforming cult classic XR-03 to the XR-FCT which was the last we saw of the XR line a couple of years ago. Here in Japan, there has been talk about how TM wants a lineup that can compete with XXIO and Callaway's Legacy line as Japan market premium, easy to use high performance clubs. GLOIRE which features a Lion logo and gold, black and white clubs will be all about easy distance. I'll have more details tomorrow!

I received a press pass to cover the 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon here in Chiba.  I went yesterday as the first day on Friday is always the least busy and best for picutres. I love the Auto Salon as its the worlds biggest car tuning show and really brings out the hardcore in Japan whether it be automotive otaku (nerds/enthusiasts) or idol/race queen otaku. Luckily I am a bit of both. I ts always nice too that TAS is so close to home at Makuhari Messe and I can get there and back in no time unlike trekking out to the far edges of Tokyo.

I brought along my trusty Nikon D5100 and a single Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens which I used for all the photos at the show (I don't use a flash since I don't own one but I think I should get one).  I tried this year to actually enjoy the show more and not get caught up in the battles to take photographs thus less pictures this time around. I covered the 3 main aspects of the show, the cars, the drift event and of course the girls. I'll start today by posting the girls since I know there are many who look for these photos even before the cars!

So click on the photo below or read more to see pictures I took of only a few select girls of the Tokyo Auto Salon 2012 (there are just too many of them to take). Tomorrow I'll recap the drift event.

While some of my favorites from last year were not present on Friday, there were still some nice girls around (you can tell by the ones I took more of who I liked! (^_^).