With the 2010 season underway in Japan and only 3 weeks until the Japan Golf Fair, Demo Days are being held all around Japan for many of the top brands. I was lucky enough to get invited to a demo day today in Oamishirasato at the local driving range which is about 5 minutes from my house. Several of Japan’s biggest manufacturers were there today including Tourstage, Sri Sports with both Srixon and XXIO clubs, Mizuno, MacGregor Golf Japan, and Yamaha. All the brands had company representatives on hand to talk golf and club design as well as loads of all the latest models on hand for a day of testing.

I’ve already had a chance to previously try and review several of the new products that were on hand today including all the new XXIO and Srixon clubs as well as Tourstages new 703 driver and irons and ViQ woods and irons. So my focus was on products from Yamaha, Mizuno and MacGregor especially with an interest in today’s inpres Day. I was excited about trying the new drivers, irons and especially the new Power D Spoon. I even brought along my PRGR EGG Spoon to hit side by side for a comparison. The Yamaha rep pulled out several clubs for me to try including a D201, D201 Type S and V201 drivers. I also had the D Power as well as D FW and D UT. Irons wise I had the D Black and V Forged with Tour AD 75 in an awesome EV color.

The weather was awesome and coupled with being the weekend, the driving range was very full and there was a lot of waiting to do as we testers rotated in and out of the different brand areas. All testers were signed in at the front desk for what brand we wanted to try. We were then assigned somewhere in the two story driving range to warm up and practice with our own clubs. It was about 45 minutes before I got called in from the second floor for my first session with Yamaha.  For each test session I was accompanied by a representative of that brand who answered any questions and said “nice shot” after every ball. ^^ It was fun hitting shots and having a brand representative fit me as I’m so used to being the one fitting other people for TSG. Unfortunately though due to the large amount of people waiting I was unable to take specific club pictures and just took general pictures of the event. Not to worry though we’ll have lots of on hand pictures when we hit the Golf Fair in a few weeks.

It was late afternoon while I was at the range and the sun was directly in our eyes while teeing off and watching ball flight which made things quite interesting. I had to make a bit of a swing adjustment especially with the drivers and D Power Spoon which are quite a bit longer in length than what I typically play. I have a late release which with a long club can either result in being late at squaring the face and leaving it open for a push right (bad shot most often is right) or rushing my release and cutting across the ball.

Inpres D201 Driver…

The first club I tested was a 10* D201 driver. The D201 has a 1* closed face and is paired with as dual kick Yamaha Orbit shaft that kicks high and low to promote a draw. On appearance this is the shallowest “D” series driver that Yamaha has released to date. It is aimed at the average golfer who battles the right side and misses towards the heel and toe. As is the case with all Yamaha drivers of past, feel is superb at impact. Yamaha produces drivers that are soft yet crisp with feedback as opposed to some drivers that are overly soft or too solid to feel.  The stock shaft is 45.75″ long and has a lot of feel to it thanks to the higher torque. I could feel the shaft load and kick before impact thanks to the bend points being at the tip and butt. I tried both a 10* and an 11* D201 and the 10* was about right trajectory wise with as mid to high shot, pretty much straight and around 220 yards of carry (blinding sun estimate by the Yamaha rep). The trajectory of the 11* was a bit too high for my liking. The hot face of the D201 launches the ball quickly and the ball begins an upward climb instantly. This is what the D201 is meant to do as it is a max carry type driver with low CG. Every drive I hit pretty much went straight and in the same place which is what an automatic average golfer model should do.

Inpres D201 Type S Driver…

Next in line was the D201 Type S. The Type S has a 0* neutral face and the shaft was a Yamaha mid and high dual kick shaft with a stiffer tip section. The Type S is meant to be the more workable driver of the two new “D” series drivers. The look of the head is pretty much the same as the D201 and the CG point is in the same position. However the shaft and the neutral face produce a slightly lower trajectory with a very soft fade for me. With the longer shaft, if I went after the Type S I definitely went right with it so the better fit for me is the D201 (especially with a shorter shaft). For those wanting the forgiveness of an average golfer model but do not want to go left and perhaps hit a straighter to fade ball. The Type S is the right choice.

Inpres V201 Driver…

Up next was the athlete model V201 driver. The V201 has a deeper face than both D201 models and its head shape is more compact looking at address with its high bck design. The V201 has shallower and shorter center of gravity and was shafted with the 6J10 Japan only Rombax shaft in SR Flex. Overall the V201 is heavier, and shorter length with more of a focus on balanced distance and control. The SR 10* model I tried was 20g heavier than the D201 and I could feel the difference in my hands.  The feel is different from the D201 series as the V201 features a thicker sweet spot area that benefits the better and faster swinging golfer. While the thinner faced D201 drivers are soft and crisp, the V201 is soft and solid.  The V201 is not for me as it launched much lower than the D201 and will definitely fit a golfer who can work the ball and more of a power type player who can swing hard enough to create the piercing trajectory that the V201 is meant to produce.

Inpres D Power Spoon…

Now I was really excited to try the D Power Spoon. Everyone in Japan is always talking about using a spoon. It’s that go to club for the second shot on a par 5 that nearly rivals your driver in distance. People who follow the blog know that many members of our site as well as myself, are tremendous fans of PRGR’s EGG Spoon, probably the most popular Spoon in Japan today and also used by many top Japan pros including Shingo Katayama and Hideto Tanihara. I actually warmed up with my EGG before hitting the D Power Spoon so that I could get a good comparison. My EGG is the 17* model but has the same dimensions as the 15 and 13* EGG which are all 165cc in size. The D Power Spoon is 208cc in size and looks like a mini driver at address. I have to report that it is obviously larger than the EGG Spoon at address. The face is just as shallow on the Power Spoon as it is on the EGG. Both clubs feel completely different.

The D Power Spoon sounds and feels more like the D201 series drivers with a soft but crisp feel. It does not use the same face material however it is made of 6-4 Forged Titanium as is the entire head. The EGG still has the most unique sound and feel which other testers at the range kept commenting about. “That’s an interesting sounding club” they would all say. My main concern about hitting the Power Spoon was the length of the club which is 43.5″ as opposed to the EGG which is a full inch shorter. Manufacturers in Japan argue that an inch increase in length results in a 1m/s increase in swing speed with minimal loss of ability to hit the sweet spot. I believe the part about the increase in swing speed but the ability to hit the sweet spot is debatable and really depends on the  person. It took 5 swings or so with the Power Spoon to finally hit one good which carried over 200 yards which is typically my EGG distance.  I will tell you now that I have never made a par 5 in 2 shots and I believe most R flex players can’t unless they tee off from the ladies tee or are hitting from an elevated tee down slope however both Spoons from Yamaha and PRGR give an average player the confidence that they can hit that second shot far. The 43.5″ Power Spoon length definitely takes some getting adjusting to but for those who regularly hit 43″ 3 woods, the adjustment would be minor.

Another mini driver…

The Power Spoon feels hot off the face like the driver does and its shallow profile helps get the ball going in the air.  In the hands of the better player these clubs can be deadly especially with the right shafts. Most better players will find both the Spoons from Yamaha and PRGR to be too light and soft for their liking. When PRGR first released the EGG Spoon it was meant to target the average golfer and PRGR only offered shafts up to 43m/s. However many better golfers discovered that the EGG was a deadly weapon to have and PRGR began offering it with heavier top upgrade shafts. I expect the D Power Spoon to have the same affect.  It is already available in Yamaha’s custom club program and there are many who will be attracted by the Power Spoon’s flat 57.5* lie which is very athlete driver like. So the verdict is the D Power Spoon is a great club especially with the right shaft. People will want to get over the bigger head but if they can, they will have a great performing club. Personally I still prefer the EGG Spoon as I have it dialed in right now but if I built a Power Spoon at 42.5″ with an ‘ilima 60 it would surely give my EGG a run for its money.

I think I’ve talked enough today about Yamaha and will report back on the other FW’s, UT and irons in another post on another day. It sure is fun though these demo days but there just isn’t enough time to try everything! Check out the Yamaha 2010 Lineup in the Pro Shop!