Well it's been a long first day at the Japan Golf Fair 2012 at Tokyo Big Sight. I left the house this morning in the snow before 7am and met with Tatsuro our club tester at Tokyo Station. We then met Tourspecgolfer and Tourspecgirl at Tokyo Big Sight right before the start of the show. Tourspecgolfer (Chris) and Tatsuro headed off for a day of club testing and videos while I hit the big booths for photos. With over 1200 photos on the first day alone, it will be impossible for me to edit them all and load them in our galleries so we will start with just a few highlights from the first day. Plus we've all been making posts to our social network pages so be sure to check out our facebook and google + pages!
As we had all hoped, Titleist Japan released a second generation for the very popular VG3 lineup. The highlight is of course the multi piece forged VG3 iron which looks simpler and cleaner than the first generation which is something people might actually prefer.
Tourstage showed off their all new X Series 707 lineup including the muscular looking X-Blade 707 smaller cavity back.
Taylormade had one of he biggest boothes and of course it was all white. Standout clubs included the new Gloire forged driver, new TP Forged putters, R11J Driver, as well as ATV Forged Wedge. Once again TM has decided that Japan will get some Ti fairway woods in the form of the R11 Ti.
Fourteen unveiled their signing of PGA pro Ryuji Imada and showed of his set of 3 Fourteen wedges (48* above).
The Callaway booth was highlighted by Odyssey Japan's new Prototype Forged iX Milled and Flip Face iX for the Japan market.
Mizuno had their new JPX AD Forged as well as some very cool lightweight shoes.
Kenmochi showed off their new blade a well as new wedges.
Royal Collection had a whole line of new Pro TP fairway woods and a new BBD's 505v utility!
Romaro golf had an amazing new spring lineup. New drivers, fairway woods utilitie, irons and wedges but I'll just share their new Ray SX wedge for starters.
Towards the end of the day we stopped by the ONOFF booth and saw their all new Shingo Katayama Labospec model 59*wedge!
This was just a small sampling of the things we saw today. We will be back at the show first thing tomorrow morning for more pictures and coverage from the show. Look for the galleries to be updated this weekend as well once I get back to my desktop for editing! In the meantime I need to get some rest!
Very nice pics gocchin. Been waiting a while for that Shingo wedge. Shame they didn’t keep the look the same as the prototype. I may have to pick one of those up…
What the story with the Flip Face iX? One face for korai and one for bent?
The Titleist irons in the first picture are absolutely sweet. I like the orange Mizuno golf shoes too.
Drate….going to have to break out the checkbook again!
Anything for the moderate handicapper coming out of Endo for the Epon brand?
A new 502 iron maybe??
Epons new 503 is out in June..
New VG3 looks nice.
When do we expect it to be available?
How about shaft options?
Thanx-
The VG3 Series will launch towards the end of March, like the old model the irons will be available with 950GH and graphite shafts. Custom options will also follow.
@Golfbaka, pretty much for different speed greens. The white insert is the protoype iX insert found on White Ice and meant for faster greens, while the black insert is a new firm insert. The Japan model is an iX model which should differ slightly from the US models when it comes to finish and the black insert from what I saw.
Gocchin, Thanks for the pics. VG3 looks great. From what you have seen of the new irons, would the 4 or 5 iron show the sole of the club at address?
@ Henry
I couldn’t see the cavity pretty much through most of the set as the sole is not very wide.
I did not however look closely at the 4 iron which does have a strong loft and might show a bit of the back.
Wait for epon 503s or VG3s ???
Gocchin,
What graphite shafts would be made available to the VG3 irons? Will there be a #3 iron? Do you have any price estimate for a set of 3-pw with Motore 60 graphite shaft in SR flex? Thanks.
LR, all we know for now is their Motore shaft will be available right at launch. They typically announce upgrade shafts after launch so we will see though the last gen only had the stock Motore.