Introducing Akira Golf

Akira Golf – TourSpecGolf will be offering Akira Limited Tour Issue products via the TSG ProShop starting tomorrow. The Akira Golf Company is under Azumo Holding Co. which is a division within Hitachi which is a huge multinational corporation specializing in high tech manufacturing and services in Japan.  They produce everything from electronics to military technology for the JDF and a variety of countries.  That said the backing of Akira Golf is obviously substantial but it still operates under a Tour Only design and distribution concept.

Akira produces clubs for the Tour Player, they produce small batches with little to no concern about revenues or the standard consumer market.  Several months ago I hit a variety of their golf clubs in Japan and with the drivers especially I noticed the ball flight was lower than most which is similar to Ryoma & JBeam in some respects.  Now that we have a relationship with Akira I better understand why that was,  It’s the JPGA & PGA tour players input that weigh’s heaviest on the design and performance of the golf club.

Notice how the irons and blacked out driver images above are labelled “PROTOTYPE”. There are two famous designers at Akura Golf,  one is Masuda-san who was the personal crafter and design consultant for Jumbo Ozaki.  The other is Horie-san who worked for Daiwa for over 15 years through the 80’s and 90’s.  Some of the clubs are labelled M109 or H109  the first letter designates which designer it came from.  On that note Akira Golf also designs Prototype Golf Clubs specifically for players.  The top image in this blog post shows a Proto iron called the KS-201,  well the KS = Kawano who is a Rookie in 2011 on the JPGA tour. The driver designated as K109 was produced specifically for Kenichi Kuboya Akira’s Marquee JPGA Pro.

The Prototype series are all designed for the top level or professional athletes, The TM series is geared toward the better player as well.   Akira also has a lot of products to offer the mid to high handicap level and while TSG may sell some of it we will focus primarily on the rare and more limited Tour Issue & Prototype models.

More on the Prototypes – In regards to drivers Akira makes small batches for the Tour Pro.  This allows Akira to set the COR much higher than the big box manufactures due to the rejection ratio.  Big OEMs have to produce thousands of driver heads, then they hand pick the hottest and send those to the tour.  So in some cases 1 of 500 or 1 of 1000 will have the on the edge of legality COR for their most important contract players. Each Akira driver is like that 1 of 1000 head.  They produce smaller amounts  higher tolerance because there is a lot less risk of rejection and its all for the Tour Pro anyway.

When it comes to their wedges, many may not know this but there are wedges on the PGA tour that are considered grey, some perhaps illegal.  They are carved very aggressively and again hand picked the same way the drivers are.  Akira produces very aggressive original design CNC grooves right on the edge.  Big brands have to go well below the limit to again avoid the risk of mass rejection.

Above we have pictures of a putter never seen before in the public.  It’s called ” The Weapon to Win” designed by Masuda-san.  It’s scheduled for a limited release August in Japan only.  Last week sunday it won a JGTO event.  I will be posting more pics of it as I have it in hand.  It’s a stunner!  Actually this week will be sort of an Akira week.  A few weeks ago a huge box arrived at the TSG offices with all their products.  I’m pretty critical when it comes to design and I must admit through the entire Prototype & TM series line up it’s top notch.