[Super Tuna]

Greetings all,

I'm going to admit right up front that this is likely to ramble a bit and be extended over a number of posts as I try to reassemble the cypher text that is my hand written notes.


The Beginning:
I've eyeballed Miura's for a long time. I'm a huge fan of JDM golf gear for a number of reasons and given where I live, most of it is pretty accessible. I've also wanted a custom set of irons for quite some time. Something that has the looks and feel I want but also has the grinds. sole size, specific offset, etc that's going to help me play better. Combine those two things, a small dash of jealously at Golfspy T regarding his fitted set and the fact that Miura's head office is 10 minutes from my office and it seemed a no brainer.

So step one was to try and weasel my way into the Miura site and do a iron/wedge fitting directly with the company. While this would break my current policy of no more OEM fittings I didn't think it was that bad of an idea. Plus for some inexplicable reason I've wanted to meet Bill Holloway for quite some time. Unfortunately said weaseling was rebuffed with Ken directing me to a local partner. Unfortunately I loathe that local fitting with a burning passion otherwise reserved for people who don't know how to use signal lights on a car while trying to cut me half or groups of 6 on the course on a busy Saturday morning. Hmmmmm, so it appears this was going to be harder then expected. Cue the knight in shining armour custom shop in Washington who got me all sorted out as well as suggestions about other things that would work that they don't have/deal with.

The Irons:
During the fitting, they identified pretty early on that iron play is the strength of my game and what I prefer with irons doesn't really match the rest of my set.
We also figured out that putting anything but a standard or Tour Issue DG shaft in my hands was a waste of time unless it's called a Program. I hit everything else with too much spin barring the C Tapers and there were other issues with that.
Otherwise I spec'ed pretty boring regarding the other stuff. Standard grip size, standard length. Interestingly enough though was the 2 flat lie angle due to how low I have my hands at address. That explains why I've been hooking other irons with a large side of Mallard recently.

As to the heads and the meat of that part of the fitting:
A: I hit smaller heads better. He couldn't really explain it but the smaller the face, the better I did

B: I've always obsessed over how much bounce my irons/wedges have and am usually concerned with getting ride of as much as possible. As it turns out, I wasn't working with the whole picture. Yes, I should use less bounce, but more important is having a smaller sole. Average bounce with a small sole turned out much better results then a larger sole with less bounce. I found that a fascinating shift to be honest.

C: Equally important is what the leading edge was like. Most of what I know for sole grinds that works for me concerns the trailing edge and heel relief due to my flatter swing. It appears a sharp leading edge needs to be added to that list as well for me to really get under the ball when I sweep at it.

Thus for irons what I ended up with was
4-6: CB202's with DG S300 hard stepped, standard length, 2 flat, VDR Grips, front edge and heel grind
7-PW: Tournament Blades with DG S300 hard stepped, standard length, 2 flat, VDR grips, front edge grind

Interestingly enough they found me an older set of heads to cut down on costs which was neat. The custom work is just being finished up so I'm hoping to have them out for a round on Saturday morning. Until then I'm not going to wax on about butter, crème Brule or anything else. The demo heads I hit were really quite nice, but until I have some time invested in my set I don't think it's fair to comment on such issues.

Still to come:
Hybrids: A look at hybrid styles and Miura vs other options out there (mostly Callaway, Adams, Nike and Royal Collection)
Driver: I take on the SIT and see's if he can get it to roll over or even heel
Putter: A case of two tails. What I want vs what really works
Wedges: Wedge fitting extraordinaire. It's the first time I've really gone in depth into wedge fitting. It was certainly interesting

Pictures and such will be upcoming as well as things roll in.

[MyGolfSpy]

Looking forward to reading the follow-up posts Tuna...thanks for sharing.

[RookieBlue7]

Post up some pics when you get them, maybe you'll get lucky and get the K reverse K stamps. Those would be hand worked by Mr. Miura himself.

Are they fitting your wedges? If so, have you hit them yet? I'm curious about their K grind and how their fitters explain the technical reasoning for the grind and how the turf interaction is from someone that's got to hit that grind. I know James Patrick is doing a similar grind but those are really the only two I've seen really perfecting that grind. Just don't understand what the advantages are to it other than maybe less sole resistance through sand (from looking at it).

[GolfSpy T]

RookieBlue7, on 16 May 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

Post up some pics when you get them, maybe you'll get lucky and get the K reverse K stamps. Those would be hand worked by Mr. Miura himself

It's a good story, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. The "K" denotes that the iron/wedge has conforming grooves (Y-Grind wedges have a y). Everyone I've ever seen both in person and in pics has been backwards. I think they're all backwards. It's possible that Mr. Miura has done them all himself, but it's a stretch.

[RookieBlue7]

GolfSpy T, on 16 May 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

It's a good story, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. The "K" denotes that the iron/wedge has conforming grooves (Y-Grind wedges have a y). Everyone I've ever seen both in person and in pics has been backwards. I think they're all backwards. It's possible that Mr. Miura has done them all himself, but it's a stretch.

From everything I've read and seen, if it has both a backward and forward K stamp then they're ones he's done (double stamped instead of the single K).

[GolfSpy T]

That makes sense. I was looking through various Miura pics and found one on their Facebook page of a K-Grind wedge that has double stamp.

None of mine have the double stamp. I've got 3 wedges on the way. Maybe I'll luck out.

[Super Tuna]

Part Two: A club in each world

After going through the iron make up, our next port of call was the land of hybrids as it would influence what woods were tested later on. Now, hybrids are a tricky breed and a group of clubs cobbled under one heading could not be more disimilar. You have hybrids that look like woods with offset or with no offset. Hybrids that look like irons, again with varying amounts of offset. Then there's the heads that slot in between and yet still more variation with what a typical launch looks like.

Miura hybrids, like others are an interesting blend. They've gone to great lengths to make the face of the hybrid look like an iron, sort of reminisent of the VR Pro hybrid from last year. However unlike the VR Pro, there's a much larger area on the back in black to get the weight low and back, making it more of like a fybrid to my eyes. There are two weight ports in the back to help the launch and get the COG lower.

The feel in hitting these is certainly more meaty then the irons. The sound is a little lower and you can feel the head weights pushing through the ball. In this respect, I think it slots nicely into the Miura iron sets. That being said, this is not a hybrid for the faint of heart or those who use certain hybrid designs to help with flaws when the club gets longer.
Offset is pretty much non-existent and it functions just like a blade with toe strikes, IE it goes no where and feels horrible. Heel strikes feel nearly as bad but the results are a bit nicer. If your release isn't spot on, this club is going to take you to the wood shed.

What is nice is the the sole is cambered. They've taken off some material from the heel and the toe to better allow you to lever it as the lie dictates, something that a lot of OEM's forget with their "hybrids".

Miura talks about "strong and ideal" trajectory with these and I'll certainly give them the first. This is not a hybrid that kicks the ball screaming up in the air like say a G20. It's more along the lines of the Adams A12 Pro, in that it keeps the ball low on the amusingly named penetrating trajectory that is the buzz word now days along with high launch/low spin (a discussion for another time though). Stick this head with a low launching hybrid shaft as well and one of two things is going to occur
A: You swing like speedy gonzalez and will get a nice low flight out of it with a reduced spin level
B: You don't swing like speedy gonzalez, get a frozen rope flight that goes 130 yards, give or take, and then runs like a scalded chipmunk.

While I find Miura irons, in certain models, to be pretty forgiving, this is not. Again, for those guys who are great with irons but get iffy when the club gets longer (me, some days) I don't think this is the right fit.

I do have to give a shout out to the Matrix Studio shafts here. I wasn't a big fan last time I tried them and wasn't thrilled when we tested these heads with those shafts. I have to say, the 84 and 94 version of that shaft are pretty good actually and for a lot of guys that can handle the no offset but want some more launch, this is an excellent pairing.

The end result here was we couldn't find anything in the Miura combo's that beat my current models. He did has something else that killed my gamers but that's another story.

Stay tuned people, same Tuna time, same Tuna channel as there's more stuff coming like a giant POW to the screen.

[Super Tuna]

RB: They did try and fit wedges to me. I'll get to that part shortly.

Long story short, the K grind is neat but doesn't do squat for me since I appearntly don't play sand shots "properly" and thus the neat sole does squat all for me.

[GolfSpy Matt]

Really enjoying the write up. Looking forward to the next installment.

[Super Tuna]

Part Three: Putters "Stop tap tap tapping the stupid ball and HIT IT NANCY"

This was pretty much the quickest part of the fitting for me. I know what suits my eye, I know the feel and weight I generally like and I especially know what I don't like. After watching me take a couple strokes with my chosen beauty that I made a straight b line for it was quickly agreed that the KM-005 and the KM-007 were out. The head weight was too light in the 005 to do the length adjustments I needed and the 007 was out as I can't put with Del Mar style putters worth a fishcake.

My initial choice was the KM-006 and then I did a serious run with the KM 350 which I quickly named Turbo Mejor (roughly translated to best turbo or something like that if my spanish hasn't entirely gone down the tubes) due to the immediate velocity it put on my putts.

So the KM 350 eh. I can think of no better putter to liken to a awesome Lucha libre wrestler. It's small but it packs a wallop, weighting in at a rocking, a obvious by the name, 350g. It's got a sweet spot the size of the entire face because, well, there's barely any there. Face that is, no sweet spot. Let me put it to you this way. If you miss the sweet spot, you pretty much just whiffed on hitting the ball and missed seeing a frolicking unicorn. That being said it's still really, really easy to use. It has a confident mass despite being so small and it well balanced through the stroke. It's neither super clicky like a Cameron or mushy like a Odyssey. It's muted but quite nice.

Then there is the KM 006. Really a KM 006 is the same thing as the 005 just with a heavier head weight rolling in at 370 grams. I liked the extra weight from the off but it was especially fantastic when we demoed them at 33" (yes, I hunch over my putter like a dwarf while I stand up straight through my irons). This maintained the solid head feel despite the overall lack of weight.

Why did I go with the KM 006 over the 350? The extra head weight and nothing else. They could have doctored the 350 but since I hit either equally well we saw no point.

Again, I have to give an extra nod to the shaft. I don't know what pixie dust Nippon put in that putt shaft but the thing is gold. Enough vibration to tell you that a putt was missed but it takes off the harsh edge of the feedback. Yet it does nothing to impede that lovely feeling on a well struck shot.

I wasn't a fan of the standard Lamkin grip on these at all but I can understand why some people would like them. They were simply too big, I like a thinner putter grip to release my hands.

Honestly, I'm of the opinion that you love a putter right from the off. Yes, you can learn to use other putters just as well but that isn't what I was looking for. What I found was a putter I have confidence in no matter how crappy I'm playing on the day.

Fitted putter: Miura KM 006, 33.25 length, 1 flat, Iomic Black standard grip, Nippon "Pixie Dust" shaft. I call it Don Lino

[Super Tuna]

Part Four: What is in the name of the wedge? Is it a club or a foot?

To be honest, I was initially thinking about going on and on (and on and on and on, ugh) about the wedges but upon reflection, I'm not sure that's the greatest idea. Miura wedges really shine in their customization and the ability to keep the same feel as your irons throughout the set. Picking one up off the rack for the absurd asking price isn't going to do anyone any favours and is IMO a terrible introduction (or extension) of the Miura brand.

I found getting a hang of these wedges really hard while went through it. With irons, it's easy enough to hit one, have just slightly off results and have the fitter figure out that some heel relief is needed along with the lie angle change. I still see a pretty good shot, just not the shot that the perfectionist fitter has in mind. This makes sense to me. What I couldn’t get a grip on was seeing a meh shot with the off the rack club, hearing all the changes that need to be made and trying to visualize the difference in the shot and club interaction. Altering the irons was really more about tweaking the design to suit. Altering the wedge(s) was like building a entirely different club that only scarcely resembles the club I was trying to work with. It's not that I didn't trust the fitter but it's hard to justify dropping the serious cheddar required for two of these things with effectively no idea what I'm getting.

Aside from these I did get to hit the K and Y grind wedges.

The K was pretty neat with its knuckled appearance. I understand the theory behind the grind but it took all of one swing out of a bunker to figure out that it would serve no purpose for me. I pick the ball from everything, including the sand and the edge and the sole is more suited to those who blast the ball out of the sand instead.

The Y grind wedges are pretty neat. It sort of reminds me of the 360 grind that Mizuno does on some of their irons where they give you relief pretty much everywhere to allow you to manipulate the club head at will for just about any lie. The heel relief isn't aggressive enough for someone that needs true heel relief (same would go for the toe side) but if it's just a touch you need, these should get a serious look. They would make a great match for someone using say the MP 59/63/69 IMO as the design is quite similar.

[Super Tuna]

They've finally come in, I'm hoping to nab some picks for you guys shortly. They're nothing special though since I opted for preused heads that were then adjusted to spec. I love them but they definately have a ding or two in them.

In the meantime I did want to update some more thoughts from the experience. For the fun of it, I got to hit the SIT driver while I was there with a variety of shafts. I was going to do this part earlier but everyone's been so jazzed on it, that I didn't want to be the debbie downer.

The head certainly doesn't look like it's 460 CC. It's sets up more with a deep face and a pear shape, sort of reminiscint of the 910D3 or i20 where it doesn't look nearly as large as it is. The face makes a nice sound, perhaps a bit more ting then I expected from a deeper faced driver, but as I understand it, that's the hallmark of JDM driver heads for the most part. The head isn't really high nor low launching on it's more. More of a mid low, sort of like the Yonex drivers in the 380/420 size with spin being on the lower side, along the lines of the R11. Personally, I actually found the performance of the head very similair to the R11 the fitter had me try. Now the R11 head was one of the Tour Van spec's so the fitting knew exactly what he was getting with it rather then something off the rack but still.

We tried a variety of shafts as well. For what it's worth, I appear to be a perfect canidate for the Attas internation/Elements DK line along with the Speeder 6.1. The performance was nice, but it didn't really wow me to be honest. It meet or exceeded a number of other heads but similairly was beat out by a couple of others for me. In the end, I didn't like the looks or the sound enough to part with the extra moolah and get less performance out of it then a couple of other options.

There are guys out there that are going to love this head though and the fitter had sold a tone of them already so has been pretty pleased with it.