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New Royal Collection
Royal Collection the parent company of the long gone U.S Sonartec label has still been moving along in Japan with new releases each year.  This week RC announced some pretty good looking clubs at a Tokyo driving range where they held their press confrence about their new Qtr. 4 2009 products.

BBD TRC Hybrid
The first that caught our eye was a new Royal Collection BBD TRC hybrid wood that features a fariway wood like round shape but it's utility presence gives it some oval faced features.  A very interesting thing to point out about this new RC  TRC is that it's hosel size is 8.5 millimeters ( .335 tip ) Yup this doesnt happen very often in a hybrid for consumer use but it gives the customer the ability to install most of today's non hybrid shafts in it. Compared to the previous model our testers reported it looking more traditional and being somewhat easier to hit.

2nd Generation S.F.I Forged Irons
Another product highlighted at the Royal Collection 2009 golf club release event was a new forged iron which is basically shares the same name as a model released almost 5 years ago called the S.F.I Forged.  The S.F.I forged 2009 is of course forged but features a large undercut. Usually forged irons with such an undercut tend to feel almost cast but they are forgiving and easily bendable for customization.  I'm going to have to call this the 2nd Generation SFI Forged. This head is compact yet forgiving and features a semi gooseneck... Lastly a new Forged Wedge was announced taking the same script logo from the SFI iron and unfortunately in our eyes also having a semi gooseneck.

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Callaway PM Prototype Hybrid

Golf.com's David Dusek confirmed while speaking with Callaways lead designer Roger Cleveland that Phil Mickelson is using a new PM Prototype Hybrid this week at the U.S open.  Although its still in prototype phase Phil himself provided a lot of input in its build.

Previously Phil was using Callaway Golf's FT Hybrid off and on depending on the tournaments course venue.

Roger Cleveland did not devulge any specifics on the club, its design, or the technologies used but Mickleson did speak to reporters saying:

"This is a special club I actually made, taking the back part of the hybrid out so that I can open it way up and get through that thick rough."

Of course its far to early to confirm if this club will make it into retail release but it was still a great find by David Dusek and we felt is was worthy to report on.
 

It looks pretty good to me, very simple from what we can see from the small image, I can barely make out the word's Callaway & Prototype on it.  By what Phil Mickleson is saying it appears the logic is somewhat similar to a wedge with trailing edge releif to help him open it up. That makes good sense if you plan on being in the rough a lot.

DRIVER: Callaway FT-9 (7.5°) Tour hosel with Mitsubishi Fubuki 73 X shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD:  Callaway Big Bertha Diablo (15°) with Mitsubishi Fubuki 83 X shaft
HYBRID: Callaway PM prototype (18°) with Mitsubishi Diamana Thump X shaft
IRONS: Callaway X Forged (3-4), Callaway X Proto (5-9) with Rifle Project X 7.0 shafts
WEDGES: Callaway X Tour Forged (56°, 60°, 64°) with Rifle Project X 7.0 shafts
PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot XG #9 Blade
BALL: Callaway Tour ix

(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)