Honma is one of Japan’s older golf brands and has at times had a tumultuous history in Japan’s golf market. They have however remained true in providing premium golf gear at premium prices to some of the most demanding golfers in Japan. Many old school golfers have long supported Honma and it showed over the years as Honna developed a reputation as golf clubs for old people and bling bling gold clubs for the rich old folk. This however changed with the introduction of their Beres lineup which with cutting edge designs and performance and less bling, attracted more mainstream golfers.

Beres 6 Series for the Master…

The Beres line has several models aimed at different levels of players. The Beres 6 series which includes the MG613 Driver and MG603 iron are two new clubs I am going to look at today. The 6 Series is called the MASTER series, aimed at senior golfers with a smooth swing. The 6 series incorportates technology and designs with a focus on ease of use, forgiveness and distance performance for those with slower swing speeds.

The ARMRQ Shaft

Part of Honma’s allure has always been their hand manufactured graphite shafts. They were one of the first brands in Japan to utilize a 4 axis (quadraxial) design and with their ARMRQ line of shafts have a stock shaft that rivals any top end shaft like Diamana, or Tour AD etc when it comes to stability and performance. There is a different model for every Series and the 6 Series uses the ARMRQ UD45 shaft. The UD45 is a lightweight shaft made for the slower swinger. Keep in mind that while this Series is for the senior golfer, there is no senior flex. The Regular flex UD45 is naturally softer than say the Regular Flex UD54 which is aimed at the Athlete/better golfer. So shafts are made to correspond with the target audience of each series.

Honma Star Grades

Honma also offers their shafts in several grades or stars from 2 stars to 5 stars. The difference in the stars is the quality of carbon used for each shaft. The more stars, the higher the quality of carbon. Higher grade carbon is made of more glass particles rather than rubber particles and what this means is the shaft returns to its original form more quickly with less rounding equalling more consistent rebound timing and less energy loss.  Honma themselves claim there is not much difference when it comes to “feel” of the different grades but for those who want the utmost in accuracy and dispersion a 5 star shaft vs a 2 star shaft is a world of difference. One can see the differences in grade as represented by Honma in its test using an MG713 driver and UD49 shaft above.

The MG613 Driver

So the shaft is a huge part of Honma clubs but what about the clubs themselves?  As I mentioned above, the 6 Series focuses on designs that provide ease of use and distance performance. The MG613 driver is rather good looking with its shallow back design and pearl like gradient crown. The head design leads to a low CG thanks to an ultra thin carbon crowm. This allows weight to be placed lower in the head which helps the player get the ball in the air for a high launch max carry type trajectory.  The head at address appears almost pointed which provides the player a method of alignment and confidence leading up to impact of the ball.

Thwack goes the MG613

There is also a tungsten weight in the heel of the sole which helps the player square the face and hit a much wanted draw. The face does appear ever so slightly closed at address and my guess is that it is closed 0.5 to 1.0* on this 10.5* Regular flex demo I had.  The first thing that I took note of when I tested the club at the driving range was the sound at impact. While many drivers today, especially models geared at the average golfer and distance oriented MOI drivers,  give a higher pitched crispy metallic tink at impact, the MG613 is more muted twack sound most likely thanks to its carbon crown (see video from Honma below).

Sound at impact video…

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Goes pretty far

I took a relaxed first swing with the club and initially because of the sound I thought I missed the sweet spot but the ball carried out to 210 yards and rolled some 15 yards more. The driver is 45.25″ which is manageable by todays longer length standards so I decided to go after the ball a bit and took a more aggressive swing. The shaft was very stable and my uptempo and more agressive transition resulted in a soft draw carrying about 220 and rolling out another 15.  I continued to throw aggressive swings mixed with smoother swings and I pretty much got straight to draw shots every time with good distance.  The MG613 is indeed forgiving and highly recommended for any player with a swing speed around 75-85mph looking for distance. The MG613 is available in 10.5 and 11.5* lofts and R flex UD45 shaft. Faster swingers may want to look at getting a heavier model like the UD49 or UD54 or stepping up to either the MG713 or MG813 models.

Beres MG603 Iron

I also received a demo of the new MG603 iron. This is of course also for the Senior or Master Series as mentioned above. This SUS630 soft cast iron has a head shape and design that differs through the set depending on which iron it is and for what purpose. The long irons 4 and 5 feature a wider sole, thicker top line and 2 x 4g of tungsten in the sole. The long irons are made to produce easy distance. The mid irons 6 and 7 also have wide sole but not as wide as the long irons, the weight is shifted to produce mid irons that focus on a balance of distance and accuracy.  The short irons 8-SW features a slightly thicker construction and no tungsten weighting bringing the CG higher for what Honma calculates as 12% more spin and a lower stable controlled trajectory for accuracy in attacking the greens.

Distance performer

The MG603 also has a pocket cavity for added forgiveness and rather high face height which I found to be an interesting shape. There is offset to help players square the club at impact and the MG603 comes with ARMRQ graphite shafts only for lightweight distance performance. In my testing, the wide sole helped prevent digging and the tall face also allows the player to tee the ball higher on those short par 3’s and not lose much distance with a shot towards the heel. In testing the wider sole helped to prevent digging and the iron was pretty easy to hit though I must admit I was not that big a fan of its styling and shape (unlike the MG803 which is one great looking iron). This is definitely a distance iron as the lofts are strong (24* 5 iron) coupled with very lighweight shafts making this easy to swing faster.

The average golfer and slower swinger segment has a plethora of offerings when it comes to easy to hit distance irons. The Beres MG603 place itself in the thick of the competition but not quite ahead of the pack.

You can check out all the Honma Beres clubs in the Pro Shop and as always here are the pictures I took:

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