PRGR 2011 iD Fairway Woods Review from Katsuura Country Club

Last weekend was some crazy weather here in Japan. On Saturday temperatures reached 24C but winds were howling like a summer monsoon.  I was pretty concerned as I knew I’d be heading to Katsuura to play golf on Monday. Monday rolled around and it was a nice and calm day with 19C temperatures. Katsuura is a city located in southern part of Chiba, Japan. Katsuura city is famous for Katsuura Fishing Port, which features one of the top three largest morning markets in Japan. It’s very close to the eastern coast and beaches where many surf spots and resort getaways also exist. The golf course we went to was Katsuura Tokyu Golf Course. Tokyu is a development company that owns several golf courses around Japan including Kiminomori where I live.

The weather was beautiful for a week into December so not surprisingly it was busy, even for a Monday. I decided to bring my backup irons today as well as all PRGR demos for the woods. In the top picture you can actually see my chocolate brown ONOFF caddy bag in the top right cart.

My bag consisted of  the id 435 Driver which I reviewed earlier and a iD Hit 3 Wood and iD Hit Type C 5 Wood along with a iD 22* Utility. I also had a Royal Collection Td+ to replace my 5 iron and I carried Callaway Legacy Forged 6-PW. My wedges were my regulars, the Yururi Seida Rupas 52 and 58*. I’ve been struggling with an anser putter so I put into play for the first time a White Ice Teron center shaft. I also decided to try the new Taylormade XD. Distance 60 Ball in bright bright yellow.

I decided it would be a good day to test the PRGR iD clubs on the course especially with the course being nice and dry and still in great lush condition. There was pretty much no wind and it was mostly sunny with some cloudy periods here and there.

I’ve always been a big fan of PRGR woods, and the last few generations have been pretty popular clubs in Japan, the older M3 Hit and M3 Hit Tour as well as the GN502 FW from last year and of course the egg series of fairway woods which are monster distance performers. The new iD fairway woods fill a different role from the egg. There are two models, the standard iD Hit Fairway wood and the iD Hit Type C Fairway wood.

The new iD fairway woods are considered mid sized to slightly smaller sized woods. They share the same construction using a stainless SUS630 face and body matched with a tungsten Ni,W,Fe sole. Even when it comes to head design and shape, both models are very similar. The standard Hit is made for the average golfer and slightly slower swinger while the Hit Type C is for the faster swinger and better player.  Both models feature shorter than usual club lengths and the reason for this is that PRGR knows the iD FW’s focus more on control and stability while the egg already fills distance needs. Because of this the 3 wood is 42.5″ and the 5 wood 41.5″ in length.

Even at address it can be hard to tell the two apart at first glance. The standard Hit FW does have an alignment mark while the Hit Type C does not. Both are actually pretty traditionally shaped with a compact pear head and both had a straight face angle to my eye. The Type C is a touch smaller, the 5 woods above being 153cc for the standard model and 148cc for the Type C. So what else is different?

Looking at the face of both clubs you can see that the standard Hit is ever so slightly shallower and longer from heel to toe. The Type C has a deeper face, I’d say around mid height. Besides these visual differences, the CG placements in both heads vary. The iD Hit has a deeper and lower CG than the Type C.  The Type C also has a much shorter CG placement relative to the hosel making it more fade biased. The shafts are of course different as well with a ligher 55g range shaft on the standard model and a 65g range shaft on the Type C. The iD FW’s are not lightweight FW’s. They have a hefty substantial feel to them especially with the stiffer shafts. For example the Type C with M-46 stock graphite is 337g for the 3w, 345g for the 5w and 350g for the 7w. Again this shows the iD’s focus on control.

So how do they perform out on the course? I had the opportunity to use both the Hit 3W and Hit Type C 5W on the course several times. Even though the 5W obviously has a higher loft than the 3 wood it launched lower for me than the 3 wood. The 5 wood had a penetrating trajectory with run and was obviously more fade biased. The 3 wood launched higher and produced a very straight ball. Distance from either was not spectacular but direction very accurate and controlled.

I’ve always liked the way PRGR clubs feel at impact and the iD FW’s are no different. They have that crisp crack at impact not a dead and muted feel. I liked their feel better than the GN502 and likened the sound and pop to the old M3 Hit (though slightly different as that model used a Carbon composite crown which altered pitch at impact). I felt that the sweet spot on the new iD FW’s is bigger than the GN502 which suffered with heel mis hits.  I could really feel the heavier club weight control swing tempo and influence stability. The egg is ultra light and the difference is obvious when swinging the iD. My playing partners also tried the clubs and the Type C produced a soft fade for all of them. The stock shafts are pretty stable and none of the typically whippy feel you find in some Japanese OEM’s.

Overall I had a pretty good day with the clubs. I only missed two fairways with the driver and after my soba and tempura lunch pictured above, I drove the ball 270 yards with the iD 435 driver at the #10 hole which was slightly down slope. That’s about 40 yards longer than my usual drive and I was pretty happy as the ball just kept going and going.  I always eat noodles when I go play golf. I learned the hard way in Japan because all the courses offer such great lunches many that are very heavy and can really disrupt your game. Imagine eating a steak or tonkatsu (breaded pork) and then heading out within 5-10 minutes to tee off for the afternoon half… I did that the first few times when I first came to Japan and I played terribly in the afternoon always, feeling too full and bloated. Now it’s some light noodles and off I go. While most of my clubs worked well for me that day, the undulations on the greens were very tough and fast so I struggled yet again with my putter, not quite getting used to the Teron CS on the way to an 87.

So for those looking for a controllable fairway wood that will keep it in the fairway, that feels pretty good, and has a pretty decent stock shaft, the PRGR iD Fairway Woods are a great choice. They’re scheduled for a spring release so be sure to look for them in the TSG pro shop!

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