Yonex at the 2011 Japan Golf Fair

After a few days away from the blog and entertaining Tourspecgolfer (Chris) and Tourspecgirl (Jacquelyn) here in Japan, its time to get back to blog posting. We did have a great time and a round at Hirakawa Country Club on Friday which I think Chris will be reporting about.

So on to Yonex at the Japan Golf Fair. Nearly 3 years ago when Yonex signed a high school freshman named Ryo Ishikawa to a 10 million dollar contract, I certainly had my doubts. 3 years later, Yonex has reaped the rewards of having one of Japan’s most recognizable faces as the face of their brand. Ishikawas has driven Yonex golf to new heights when it comes to sales and marketing and everyone wants to be like Ryo.

This years Yonex booth featured many new products that are some how tied in to Ishikawa including new forged wedges designed and ground by former MTI man Yuuji Miyagi who now is in charge of making a forged wedge that Ishikawa will replace his TVD’s with. A completely new line called the EZone was launched at the show which all these new clubs fall under including the prototype irons you see above forged specifically for Ishikawa but not in production yet.

Yonex also showcased new drivers and fairway woods with their new 380cc driver garnering a ton of attention. I was pretty surprised they would create a driver that small and compact. It looks smaller than 380cc at address and almost appears like a fairway wood thanks to its very classic shape which is very much persimmon like. Our tester Stew was fearful, yes that is the right word, fearful of its tiny size but ended up hitting the small head very well.

Another big draw at the Yonex booth was the new forged Zero Iron. This driving iron first appeared at the British Open in Ishikawa’s bag to counter the strong winds in England. He was teeing off to the tune of 250-260 yards with his Zero Iron and now Yonex has tee’ed the Zero Iron into production and made it available for retail. This iron looks very sharp however is really meant for the better player who is looking to replace their long irons and don’t carry much more than a 3 wood.

There were also new putters as well as an abundance of clothing and accessories as the Ishikawa boom has transformed Yonex into a fashion machine as well as golf club maker thanks to Ishikawa’s weekly appearances on TV.

Chris took some video as always and Stew also tested some of the clubs as mentioned above. You can also find the rest my pics of the clubs below.

Please click on the album below to see the rest of Yonex’s pics from the 2011 Japan Golf Fair!

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