Japanese Clubs

Before you get too excited, I am not talking about Japanese KTV or Kabuki clubs. Just golf clubs. The Japanese launched a revolution in various industries aided by the Americans after the war and they not only excel in many areas but came out with top notch products that were cheaper, more economical and often come in new and better styles. They have such a reputation that people just trusted the Made in Japan products. There was this guy who came to the doctor for an eye test. The doctor asked that he stood a certain required distance from the reading chart of alphabets from Big As to small z and inverted others. Before the doctor could point to any alphabet, the smart Alec read out: "Made in Japan" and the doctor called off the test and passed him. The Made in Japan was printed in the smallest font right at the bottom of the chart. Well, this article is dedicated to fans of Japanese golf clubs. Today, everything under the sun is "Made in China". The Koreans are making waves in some areas and one day so too will be the Chinese.

Above all, Japanese products are always smart and thoughtful, forgiving and easy to use and this includes golf clubs. Some big companies we see today did not started out doing the same thing, for example Toyota started out with textiles. Seiko does not only make watches. Sometimes, they spawn into different industries. For those who love Japanese clubs the following are the best selling clubs and top shafts in Japan according to Alba Tross Charts are as follows (based on Q1 2009 report):

Best-Selling Drivers - (1) Yamaha Inpres D (2) MacGregor MacTec NVR Type 1 (3) Yamaha Inpres R (4) XXIO Revo (5) Titleist 909D3 (6) Tourstage X-Drive GR (7) TaylorMade Japan Burner Plus (8) Mizuno JPX E600 (9) MacGregor Mactec NVR Type 2 (10) ONOFF Driver Red.

Best-Selling Fairway Woods - (1) Yamaha Inpres XD (2) Tourstage X-Drive GR (3) PRGR GN 502 (4) Mizuno JPX E (5) XXIO Prime (6) Maruman Mega Shuttle (7) Yamaha Inpres XV (8) Tourstage X-Drive 701 (9) Titleist 909 F2 (10) Callaway Legacy Aero.

Best-Selling Irons - (1) Callaway Legacy Forged (2) XXIO Prime (3) XXIO 2009 Forged (4) Tourstage X-Blade C-1 (5) Tourstage X-Blade 701 (6) PRGR GN 502 (7) Callaway X-22 (8) Srixon GiE (9) ONOFF Plus Forged (10) Tourstage X-Blade 701G.

In Japan, it is hard to get into the irons market if you are not forged because the Japanese believe only forged irons are the best.

Top Ten Shafts - (1) Diamana Kai'li (2) Bassara Griffin (3) Graphite Design Tour AD (I recognised this as Cleveland Japan specs XLS hybrids use Graphite Design and the latest Ping G15 Japan specs driver are fitted with Tour AD and I think if you ranked above Fujikura including the Motore Speeder says something) (4) Fujikura Motore Speeder (5) Diamana ilima (6) Fujikura Rombax F (7) Diamana Whiteboard (I have seen many pros using this) (8) Qudra Fire Express (9) Diamana Stinger Prototype (10) Ozik HD.

Akira

Akira only started in golf related products in 2001 from a company that was in drainage and energy related construction. This is not related to our local brand.

Bridgestone

Bridgestone was founded in 1931 by one Shojiro Ishibashi and is a global market leader in the rubber industry and polymer science technologies. He converted his golf passion into a commercial success (how I wish to be like that) when they first produced golf balls by 1935. When they advanced in tyre developments technologies they got breakthroughs with golf balls becoming the number in Japan producing golf balls. Production of golf clubs came in 1972 and they have since gained a leadership position as well.

Daiwa

Whenever someone says Daiwa, I will straightaway think of fishing. Daiwa Golf belongs to Daiwa Seiko Inc. renowned for manufacturing of fishing, and other sports gears including golf. In 1955 they began making fishing reels and only enter the golf industry from 1972. It was only from the 90s did they make a name. Ian-Baker Finch was one of their staff on PGA Tour. In 2008, they broke into the US market with great success with their OnOff line of golf products so much so that Golf Digest Japan voted their irons the best of 2008.

Fourteen

Fourteen is a Japanese golf club manufacturer established in 1981 on the premise that they will make the best fourteen clubs in your golf bag. They used to develop exclusive designs for Titleist, Yamaha, Srixon, Wilson and PRGR. They made the popular first hybrid iron for Power Bilt called Citation. You can see their quality from the names mentioned when they did OEM.

Geotech

Geotech began as the wing of Dynamic Precision Industry Company and became the first mail order golf sales service in Japan. Dynamic is one of the largest in the world and oldest in Asia since 1972 supplying component parts including heads and have even supplied heads to TaylorMade, Wilson and other OEMs with quality products. By 1990, be became independent and changed its name to Dynamic Golf doing Internet sales by 1999 and finally by 2000 they renamed themselves as Geotech Golf Components growing to become the number one component brand in Japan. Now they make their own golf club brand under Geotech.

Giga

In 1997, GigaGolf was given birth out of a concept due to a vacancy in the market where you have high end retailers and top brands like Callaway, Titleist and TaylorMade dominated and at the other end it became a budget end for cheap equipment in department stores. Where quality heads may be found, shafts were price-driven. So they gathered a team of experts to fill that gap and doing it with love and passion for the game to serve the golfing world.

Honma

Honma Golf was founded by the Honma brothers in 1959 and they believe making golf clubs is an art form. By 2000s the brand became synonymous with celebrities and wealthy people and is now a luxury brand. The cheapest Honma set of irons will cost you a few thousands of dollars. I saw a set once when they have a shop at Suntec City and I remembered thinking to myself that If I bought that I would have to leave my car behind and take a bus home. The sign stated: $85,000. These are for Royalties but Honma clubs may not be easy to use and is certainly not meant for every golfer even if you have the moola.

Kasco

Was started in 1964 as Kamatari it switched to making leather gloves for bowling and golf. It was so good it became the market leader. By 1974, the Kasco brand was launched. By 1980, they included balls and soon others were added with factories in Thailand and Taiwan making bags, gloves and accessories and until 1992 they began making clubs. In 1994, they used the maraging metal process pioneered in rocket technology to create an alloy twice as hard as titanium.
Katana

The Katana are weapons of history. The Samurais carried Katana in battle. They can have some of the most expensive clubs. I saw some friends play with them and when they missed with a Katana I would ask why they Tak Kana? You can get one of their drivers at $1,500 and still you tak kena (Malay for did not hit).

Maruman

Maruman is a typical company that offers such a wide range of products for everybody from entry level to a very expensive "Majesty" range that made Forbes List as the most expensive in the world. I saw a friend carrying it and wonder if they were for real. They were the first among the Japanese to use nano technology and have been around for 40 years. Playing your Maruman today, how many of you know that Maruman was once a watch and clock maker? Later, they invented the world's first electric gas lighter. Malu man if you don't know.

Mizuno

Mizuno is a sportswear company founded by Rihachi Mizuno to produce sportswear and then later baseball gloves and bats and soon diverted into other sports as well. My first knowledge of Mizuno was in their swimming trunks. They started the golf line by 1930s and they became world famous when they had Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo in their stable and together they won 11 majors. Mizuno espouses quality and though making inroads in the driver markets and others, it is their irons that are really very special especially for their feel and they have a patented method of grain flow technology for their legendary forged irons. Tiger used to play with Mizuno clubs during his college days and switched to Titleist and Nike later when he turned pro. If I have to use Japanese golf clubs, Mizuno would surely be one of them to consider.

Miura

Miura are hand-crafted forged irons by Katsuhiro Miura who is a master craftsman. He is sometimes referred to as the "Hands of God" similar to Maradonna in soccer but not for the dubious ways. In his quest for perfection, he has 10 series. People claimed that it was love at first sight when they put a Miura club in their hands. Needless to say, he also indulges in woods, utility clubs and putters. His wedges has unusual lofts like 49, 51 and 53 degrees instead of the typical even numbers of 50, 52, 54.

Nakashima

Nakashima is a premium golf manufacturer with a high-end studio to make metal woods and utility clubs. The company was founded by one John Nakashima and based in Stockton, California. You may be Japanese but not necessarily based in Japan.

ONOFF

ONOFF is a Daiwa line. See Daiwa.

PRGR

PRGR, short for Pro Gear is a division of Yokohama Rubber Industries and has been outstanding in the last few years.

S-Yard

Have you heard of Seiko? A popular watch since time immemorial? They make precision instruments and optical products and a very popular S-Yard range of golf clubs. Seiko Corp. was established in 1881 and they produced clocks. Seiko's first watches were introduced in 1924. In 1969, they released the world's first quartz watch. Seiko only introduced S-Yard golf clubs by 1993. They are a favourite too. I would consider their irons. A driver could cost you $1,500.

Tourstage

Tourstage is the more prestigious brand for Bridgestone who already owns the Bridgestone and Precept brand like Lexus for Toyota. Basically Tourstage golf clubs are built for better players but they do have the more friendly types too.

XXIO

This is a strange name. Is it a symbol or an initial or a name? It's the small brother of Srixon Golf and they are part of a division of SRI Sports (SRI = Sumitomo Rubber Industries) and can be found in stores in Singapore but in Japan it is one of the market leaders. They usually make clubs for mid to high handicappers.

Yamaha

When you hear of Yamaha you think of motor-cycles, electronics, pianos, guitars and musical instruments but Yamaha has sports equipments particularly in Archery and Golf which top athletes enjoy. They launched the world's first titanium golf club in 1991. Yamaha started in 1887 as a piano and organ maker. Their logo till today is a symbol of three tuning forks. Afer the war, they started making motor cycles. In 1989, they made the worlds' first CD Recorder. From here you could see their qualities and abilities so their golf clubs may purr like a motor cycle engine and give the sweetest sound of a symphony. Don"t you think?

Yonex
I know this name very well because I was more than a decent competitive badminton player. Before Yonex, they were known as Yoneyama. They started out making wooden floats for fishing nets in 1946 before moving on to badminton and tennis rackets and embarking onto the golf scene by 1989. In badminton, they were the best outdoing all my old favourites of the time which were Dunlop, Silver Gray, Carlton, etc. to become everyone's favourite. Yonex knew things about graphite just like how they do their badminton rackets. 2010 Ryder Captain Colin Montgomery and PGA Tour's favourite rookie Ryo Ishikawa use Yonex clubs. Phil Mickelson was once a Yonex player before his switch to Titleist and then to Callaway. They specialised in long drives too. I play with American clubs but if I were to go Japanese Yonex would have a soft spot due to my old badminton days where I could really trust Yonex.

Yuji

Yuji Golf was started By Mr. Yuji Mori 13 years ago in Singapaore. They are a custom fitting shop focus on being a research centre and golf hospital and he has his own Yuji brand golf products.

Well, may be I should break into that market someday with a Yakuza driver and the shaft will have designs with motifs and tattoos.

The Japanese always seem to need something special and differentiated from the rest. In business, you can be increasing rates of services or products by a given date but the Japanese will have it their own way and at their own timing - different from the rest of Asia. It is very hard to succeed with your golf irons until you intorudce forged irons. That was exactly what TaylorMade and Callaway has done. Callaway has a Legacy model just for Japan. Ping recently introduced the Ping Anser forged irons in Japan, the first time in 30-40 years. TaylorMade r5 became r5 XL or something. Their latest R9 irons is known as R9 Max and R9 TP is known as R9. Some kind of marketing psyche. The Japanese love slot machines. They do that for so many things. I am tempted to go there and put some slot machines for golf clubs or employ a few models in nurse uniforms. I'll call myself Dr. Golf with the slogan: "If you wish to talk to pretty nurses, you got to be patient, my patient."