Traditional and Unorthodox Side by Side

We don’t typically review US Market gear let alone carry them on TSG. The skewed market here in Japan and exchange rate factor make pricing of US market release clubs very unbalanced. Of course Japan gets all the US models plus all their own brands and JDM only models from US brands.  Some of the US model releases even have varied specs and options in Japan that differ from the US. A few weeks ago I had requested demos of the new Titleist VG3c driver and VG3 fairway woods. Since they weren’t coming out for another month, Titleist Japan sent over their new 910 series of clubs.

I decided instead of letting the clubs sit there I’d compare their 910F to the egg Spoon. Why? I thought it would be interesting to compare tradition which Titleist is known for, to unorthodox, which most people consider the egg Spoon. The Titleist 910F is compact, pear shaped and has a mid to deep face and high back.  While its shape screams traditional as we all know the 910’s are Titleist’s most advanced clubs yet featuring their Sure Fit technology. The 910F while maintaining the classic shape uses weighting to create an easy launch off the ground not unlike the ultra sleek and shallow egg Spoon. So more than anything, this was kind of a fun post at making a visual comparison between the two. I’ll game the 910F this week but based on its design its probably a balanced and stable control FW unlike the Spoon whose primary role is a distance beast that scares your own driver.

The egg Spoon is not a huge club at under 160cc however the way it is designed makes it look larger at address. When you look at the face profile straight on though, its not any bigger than the 910F and its certainly much shallower. This is one of the reasons why the Spoon is a considered one of the easiest fairway woods to launch in the air. While the Spoon is more upright, it features a V sole which allows you to drop your hands, flatten the lie and still pure the ball.  The 910F has a very nice looking black satin face. It’s the kind of deeper face you can use to tee off with confidence. The egg is a monster off the tee but you need to be careful with your tee height due to the very low face.

The original egg Spoon took a book out of the Cleveland Golf’s pages and features a similar taper back to the Hi-Bore. The new egg Spoon took it a step further and literally scooped out the back. There pretty much is no crown which is why PRGR is able to spread the weight so low and far back.  On the other hand, the 910F on the left still looks classic though it does taper back a bit towards the rear. It achieves its low CG through weighting placed towards the back region of the sole. It is this scooped out back of the egg Spoon that gives it that aerodynamic SWOOOSH when you swing it. Some customers have said it sounds like a samurai’s katana sword cutting through the air.

There can be two trains of thought when looking at the both clubs side by side at address. One, is that the egg Spoon is too weird looking, especially next to the classic pear shape of the 910F or… Two that the egg Spoon provides confidence at address and the scooped out back actually acts as an alignment tool, framing the ball as PRGR designed it to do. You can’t go wrong with the 910F’s looks, traditionalists will love it while higher handicappers may shy away with the perception that it is harder to hit.

I did quickly hit a few balls down the street at our range with the 910F and I thought it felt and sounded pretty good, surprisingly similar to the egg Spoon. The new egg Spoon was a huge improvement over the first generation model in both feel and sound as you can see, well actually hear in the video I made a few months ago in this post. It still amazes me that with head design like what the egg Spoon has that PRGR was able to improve both feel and sound. I guess its a credit to PRGR for listening to its customers and sticking with top notch premium materials to get it done.

Overall it was fun to take pics of the two clubs side by side. I just kept saying to myself, wow what a difference in looks. The 910F is pretty much the same club in Japan as it is in the US. The only difference is that the shafts are NOT “Made for Titleist” versions but the actual top grade aftermarket shafts installed. The 910F comes with the Diamana ahina 60 and 70, ATTAS T2 6 and 7, and the Tour AD DJ-6 and 7. Just something a little different to distinguish it from the US market model like the way Titleist Japan offers the AP2 Forged with milling marks on the face in Japan for more spin (if I’m not mistaken the US model doesn’t have the milled face). So in case people are wondering we can get all the clubs that are US models with JDM shafts from the manufacturers here. Just because something is not listed in the pro shop doesn’t mean we can’t get it. All you have to do is ask as we have access to everything.

Off to Katsura tomorrow with both the 910F, 910H and egg Spoon in the bag… all just for fun. (^_^)