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The new Yonex Golf Ezone Series has been selling like Hot Cakes here at TSG, most notably the Ryo Ishikawa 380cc pear shaped driver and the new Japanese Forged Miyagi designed Ezone Wedges.  The feedback has been outstanding, customers are loving the ability to order head's only of the entire Yonex Ezone Series from TourSpecGolf.  We just received our demo clubs of the new Ezone Fairway woods.  In the same box was the utility woods and at first glance I thought the FW was a UT due to it's head shape.

There are two models of Ezone Fairway woods the Ti - Titanium and the ST - Stainless Steel.  Ryo Ishikawa put  the ST in play so I requested the demo in stainless and I'm happy I did so.  I hit these today for the first time at the range.  It has a soft spongy steel feel to it that was very rewarding.  It actually reminded me of the old Callaway Steelhead Plus fairway woods in that sense.  It's body is produced of SUS630 and it's face of 455 maraging rolled steel.  The 18* and 21* have a high strength carbon crown.  Now I'm sure most of you will be purchasing it head only but if you do opt to go with a shaft its the Yonex USA Rexis line.  The Japan version comes with the Tour AD DJ but the price is much higher.  Later this week I will preview the utility woods and hopefully later a full review + video.

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Yonex Golf EZONE 380cc Ryo Ishikawa Driver
At the 2011 golf show one of the most highly anticipated releases was the Yonex Ezone Series.  Up until now Yonex was known as more of a game improvement brand.  That all changed when they signed Ryo Ishikawa, since then they have been in development with the young phenom and top sporting good designers to produce golf clubs for the professional and low to mid amateur player.

Two clubs really stood out at the Yonex booth,  the EZONE 380cc and EZONE Forged MB. I'll quickly go over what the Yonex Ezone Ryo Ishikawa driver is all about in this post and follow it up with a video review by the end of the week.  I'm personally not good enough to bag one of these so we will have the help of TSG member idrive & TSG official pro Tatsuro Oshimoto to give me a hand.  Don't worry news on the MB to come soon.

The Ezone type 380 driver is made with a cast SP700HM rolled titanium face  and 6AL-4V Titanium body.  It's crown is made of high strength graphite carbon.  The casting is done in China then delivered in RAW form to Japan where the crown is installed and the club is completed.  The word PEAR comes to mind every time I look down at it.  I've seen drivers 80cc's smaller that don't look this pear.  It's face shape is unique and stands out when compared to the Ezone 420 & 450 cc models in the line up.

In Japan it's available with the Tour AD DJ-6 or DJ-7 in 9* or 10*.  TSG is proud to announce that we will be offering it with a variety of shaft options and sold HEAD ONLY, hand picked especially for us with the hottest faces.  I am seriously wishing I had the game to this puppy but that's not gonna stop me from trying.

That's it for now stay tuned for in depth reviews on all the new Yonex Japan Ezone products.  My goal is to get something solid up for you guys by or during the weekend.

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Ryo Ishikawa the 18 year old golf phenom from Japan became the youngest winner of a Japan Golf Tour tournament at the age of 15 years old.  Ryo also known as the " Bashful Prince " has had little success on the U.S PGA Tour yet a lot of success on the JPGA tour with 7 professional victories even a Japanese Major under his belt.  Ishikawa also has the Japan major tour record of 58 over 18 holes shooting 12 birdies.

I came across an interesting article in the latest Golf Style Japanese magazine that shows his golf club settings starting back in 2007.  Ishikawa has been with Yonex since 2006 and although Yonex is not at the top of the Japanese golf world they did decide to lock in Japan's most prized player.

Driver: Yonex Nano V 9* w/ Tour AD DI-8 X Flex D4
Fairways: 13* Yonex Nano V Tour AD DI-8 X flex & 18* Nano V DGX100
Driving Iron:  #2 Yonex Prototype Tour AD Graphite 115 X
Irons: 3-PW Yonex NanoV Forged DGX100 D3
Wedges: 52/60 Nano V Prototype by Miyagi formerly of MTI
Putter: Odyssey Black Series #9 with full sight line custom addition
Ball: Srixon XV

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If when you went to sleep last night, someone told you that you'd wake up to a first round almost completely in the books, and on top of the leader board at the British Open we'd be seeing Tom Watson, what would you say?  If that person also told you that while Tom Watson, who is 59 years old, shot a five-under-par 65 first round, while Tiger Woods struggled to post a 1-over-par 71, while his playing partner, 17-year-old Ryo Ishikawa whooped him and shot a -2, would you think I was even crazier?  Welcome to the crazy house then, because all of those things have already transpired today.

Tom Watson, 59, Shocks World

That's right, Tom Watson shocked the entire field and the entire golf community today as he shot an opening round 65, blasting away golfers half his age and sitting comfortably tied atop the leaderboard as we speak.  What makes it even more impressive, however, is the simple fact that Watson hasn't played a single round of competitive golf at Turnberry since the 2003 SENIOR British Open.  Yes, I said Senior.  When asked about how he felt about his extremely impressive first round, Watson had this to say:

"I still feel as if I can compete against the kids...I'm a ceremonial golfer at [too long] Augusta National, I admit that."

Watson Demolishes Woods

Considering his first round today included 5 birdies and not a SINGLE bogey, I'd say he is most certainly competing against the kids.  One of those kids just so happens to be the odd's on favorite going into today, Tiger Woods.  Despite the fact that he was favored to win it all, errant shots proved to be his undoing and he was completely outplayed by both Lee Westwood, and the young 17-year-old golfer from Japan we talked about yesterday, Ryo Ishikawa, who both came in at -2.

Can Tiger Come Back?

Can Tiger get it together before tomorrow, or given the excellent play of everyone else, is he in a hole he can't dig himself out of?  If Watson is correct, and the course is playing with its defenses down, we could see scores plummeting.

(Image via Robert Beck/SI)

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Ryo Ishikawa, only 17 years old, has enjoyed one heck of a roller coaster ride the past few months.  Considering he's basically been famous since he was 15 years old and became the youngest winner on any Tour, anywhere, that is sanctioned by the Official World Golf  Ranking, and has since seen more countries and tournaments than just about any teenager, ever, to say he's about to face his first true test must really mean something.

Ishikawa, Woods & Westwood

That's right, Ishikawa, the Japanese wunderkind and newest media sensation, is paired with none other than Tiger Woods for the very first round of the British Open at Turnberry, in Scotland.  Interesting, as Tiger knows exactly how it feels to be in Ishikawa's shoes, and might have some good advice and who knows, even a calming presence to the torrent of reporters and media he's used to as of late.

Humbling & Exciting

Tiger, who has gone on record as saying that Ishikawa is handling the media support and the pressure extremely well hasn't gone unnoticed to Ishikawa.  Here's what he had to say concerning Tiger Woods, and his upcoming pairing with him and Lee Westwood:

“It’s unbelievable that Tiger is talking about me...And it is like a dream come true. Ever since I got into the British Open it’s like a total dream. I’m surprised to see Tiger in the same group.”

How he'll handle Tiger remains to be seen, but the other big question waiting to be answered is how he'll handle the golf course.  He's never seen anything remotely like the style of course he'll be facing at Turnberry and it will be beyond interesting to see how his game adapts to it, or rather, how quickly.  If it does adapt quick enough, we might be seeing Ryo in all four rounds this British Open, if not, it might be a 36 hole dream.

TUNE IN, This Will Be Good

Stay tuned, this is one of many reasons it's going to be so good this year.

(image via Damian Dovarganes/AP)