Japanese Golf Clubs @ Inpakuto.com - All about Golf, JPOP and Japan

I was lucky enough to have PRGR Golf send me some demos today from their new 2009 GN502 lineup to try. Whenever new demo golf clubs show up, my little home office can become quite a mess but its always fun to try new clubs, and take nice pics.  First came pictures and I took lots which always end up in the Tourspecgolf Gallery here . I then usually head to the driving range here in Kiminomori which is just a short walk over towards the main clubhouse.

I was able to test the new GN502 Silver Driver, GN502 Fairway Wood, and GN502 iron. I came away very impressed. In the last two years, PRGR or Pro Gear as we know it, has grown immensely in popularity in Japan. Much of it has been based on the success of several of its Japanese pros including Azuma Yano, Hideto Tanihara, Erina Hara and Korean pro Ji Yai Shin, who all play PRGR pretty much exlusively. You can see that a lot of effort has been put into the design and performance of the new GN502 series. It is aimed at the average golfer but forgiving enough that a higher handicapper can play them and still good enough that a low handicapper looking for forgiveness can play.

The GN502 fairway woods are very easy to hit but have a good solid feel to them (not tingy and metallic). You get a nice pop on contact and the ball really goes off the face. The fairways too are open faced and mid to compact sized another interesting decision by PRGR even though these are made for all levels of players. But it works. 

The irons are winners. Golf Today had a forgiveness test to show how much distance was lost on toe and heel hits. PRGR's GN502 ranked near the top still able to achieve 96% of full distance off the toe and 98% of full distance off the heel. The irons with their pocket cavity and maraging face feel very very good. Especially with a TPU like resin insert along the top blade.

I have loved my Epon AF-701 irons and honestly for over a year nothing could come close to them forgiveness and performance wise. But I have decided to replace them with PRGR's GN502 iron. Those kind of forgiveness numbers, in a lightweight automatic iron with a hot and great feeling face and very forgiving grind and sole to boot make these my new gamers for 2009! Stay tuned for a report down the road on my new and revamped bag for this season!