Geotech Golf has always been known to make some very nice metal woods with very good cost performance attractiveness. Geotech’s roots afterall were in the metal wood manufacturing business beginning over 23 years ago as part of Dynamic Golf. In the past I’ve tried many Geotech fairway woods and utilities and come away fairly impressed with overall performance especially when factoring in costs. Geotech has become Japan’s top components brand and that is a lot to say in probably what is the most demanding and picky golf market in the world. What other country has every global golf club model PLUS all its own Japan only models from all the big golf brands. Japan’s consumers demand premium selection, so the brands oblige.
Simple Gets it Done…
Geotech, being a smaller company, has always thrived on creating a wide selection of performing golf clubs, many of which are no frill clubs that simply do their job. When I saw the new Prototype RF700 fairway woods and utilities back in February at the Japan Golf Fair, they immediate caught my eye because of their simplicity. Believe it or not there are still golfers today who prefer simple and back to basics and that is what the RF700 line provides. Geotech sent over a couple of demos for me to try out this week, a Prototype RF700 18* 5 wood and also a Prototype RF700 18* 3Utility.
Handsome looking faces…
When comparing the two clubs, aesthetically they share the same visual design which makes sense since they are from the same line. They have a very similar face profile and shape with the RF700 fairway wood being slightly deeper allowing for versatility off the tee or deck and allowing for a slightly higher CG point. The fairway wood is designed to spin less giving more distance and a stable penetrating trajectory. It has a smaller gravity angle and its square to open face is meant for workability including draw and fade. The RF700 Utility is shallower and has a lower CG allowing for an easy launch from a variety of conditions including bad lies. Its higher launch and higher spin allow you to attack the green using the utility instead of a long iron from a distance and get the trajectory and back spin you need to stick it close to the pin.
Pleasing at address…
The Prototype RF700 is aimed at the low to mid handicapper and better player. Those players will appreciate the smaller more compact head sizes and the simple clean lines at address. The RF700 fairway wood features a strong 3 wood with 13* loft. The 13* is the only RF700 with a closed face at 0.5*. As the lofts increase the RF700 fairway woods have increasingly open faces, in other words the 15* is 0* square, the 18* 5 wood is 0.5* open, the 21* 7 wood is 1.5* open. This allows for more control and avoiding a pull or hook with shorter woods which can be common among faster or harder swingers. For me the RF700 Utility looks very much like the very popular Royal Collection TRC Utility at address.
Focus on stability and control…
Geotech wanted to ensure stable and firm flexes with the Prototype RF700 line so instead of a standard 30mm insertion depth, the hosels of both the fairway wood and utility have hosel depths of 40mm. This stiffens up the tip of any installed shaft to create more stability and control again aimed at the better player. The Prototype RF700’s also provide rather solid feel at impact. The body and face are all made of SUS630 stainless steel creating a more subtle thwock at impact rather than the high pitched tink we hear from many metal woods today.
Attractive Cost Performance…
The sole design of the RF700 features a dual level sole with cut away trailing areas to minimize friction at impact with the turf. This is about as technical as the RF700 gets but honestly, it doesn’t need to be any more fancy. I like its clean looks and it feels solid at impact. Its design creates a workable and stable ball flight and I find the the shape of the fairway and utility heads blend well together ie if you carried a RF700 3 and 5 wood and then 4 and 5 Utility it would seamlessly flow from club to club. Certainly the RF700 will not rival the PRGR Egg Spoon in a distance competition, nor will it outdo Royal Collection when it comes to feel, however at its price, it is a solid performer which will appeal to many golfers who don’t have the deep pockets for the big name brands but want to build their own clubs to their own specs (the FW takes 0.335″ tip shafts while the UT takes 0.370″ tip). So what will the RF700 set you back? It’s 80.00 a head for the fairway wood and 70.00 a head for the utility. Even with the ultra strong Japanese yen, those are pretty darn good prices. Look for them in the pro shop this coming week!
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