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Honma Fitting Experience at Reunion Resort


Tpoole22

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Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to meet with Chris Cooper, the Honma rep for north Florida. The fitting was part of the prize package that I won from Honma's pick up your pro sweepstakes. I had put it off for a while due to Covid, but decided pretty late to go ahead and take the trip as we really needed some time away. Luckily Chris was able to fit me in on Sunday morning and I was his only appointment so we had a good bit of time to talk over some things before the fitting started. I could tell right away that he knew his stuff and he was very knowledgeable. He played college golf and worked for Taylormade for 6 years before coming to Honma. Oddly enough we both grow up about 15 minutes away from each other in Memphis.

The fitting was done on a range mat using a GC quad. I wasnt able to bring my clubs down there as we brought the whole family (in laws and baby) so there was no room in the car to take them with me. I started to warm up with the TR21X because that's the one that caught my eye and had really been wanting to test since the launch. The shaft that we started with was the Modus 105 at +1 inch because I have the LZ 105s in my current irons. Irons were also set a 2 degrees upright. My warm up shots were all pretty terrible and almost every one of them was a push fade (not intentionally). Its hard to tell if I was just having a terrible day or if it was a combination of that and being drenched in sweat since I came from 30 degree weather when it was 85 down there. Anyway, after a few shots there and not really hitting any great shots I decided to switch over to the TR20P with the same shaft. Right away I started hitting better shots and loved the feel of them. It took quite a few shots, but once I was able to get a few solid shots around 180 with some consistent spin, I knew that was probably the one that I would go with. I was pretty frustrated with my early shots though so I had to give the TR21X irons one more shot and just didn't love the feel of them as much but once I was warmed up they were very easy to hit and were surprisingly forgiving on my off shots. For that reason I decided that I would mix them into the set as the 4 and 5 irons then have 6-pw as the TR20P. He also had me switch back and forth a couple of times between the Modus 105 and the Neo95 as well as switching between + 1 inch and + 1/2 inch. We ended up going with the Modus 105 at + 1/2 inch after we got the launch and spin where we wanted it to be.

After that we moved on to the TR20 driver, which I was very excited about. I have been playing the Callaway rogue sub zero with hzrdus yellow shaft which I was not fit for. I told him right away that I wanted a shaft that launched a good bit higher than what I was currently playing so he started me out with their FD6 shaft. This is their higher launching shaft, but I just couldn't manage to hit one straight so we decided to switch over to the FP6 which is mid launch and designed to reduce pulls and hooks. This one really wasn't working for me that well either. I was still slicing the ball, which is mostly on me, but on the ones that i hit well the launch and spin numbers just weren't there. After a few there I mentioned that I have their Big LB 3 wood with the stock vizard shaft that I have been hitting well so decided to give that and shot and it was a much better fit. The numbers were much better here with about 2000 spin and 13 degree launch angle. Just for the hell of it I asked him if I could try out a couple of the upgraded shafts so he grabbed the Venus Blue to start with. The spin and launch were about the same, but after about 6 or 7 shots i could tell that my dispersion was much better so I decided to go with the Ventus over the stock Vizard.

All in all my numbers improved for both driver and irons so I'm very happy. Chris was definitely very patient with me throughout the process because I had plenty of bad shots but he worked with me for a while to make sure that i was happy with everything. This was also my first time doing a club fitting so I was probably also a little nervous to hit the ball well. To give you an idea my driver swing speed on average was about 125, but I only averaged around 165 ball speed. The hits closer to the center were obviously much better but that gives you an idea of how bad my ball striking was yesterday. Im definitely excited to get these out on the course soon and see how well they perform off the mats.

Here's some pictures I took of the fitting area 

 

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Edited by Tpoole22
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Very cool @Tpoole22 - nice report on what sounds like a fun experience. 

Was hoping to arrange a fitting with Honma's mobile fitter here in New England this summer, but we never could get on the same page. Maybe we'll have to take a trip down to Reunion, COVID permitting.  Thanks for sharing!

 

What's in the bag:
 
Driver:  :titelist-small:TSR3; :wilson_staff_small: DynaPWR Carbon
FW Wood: :wilson_staff_small: DynaPWR 3-wood; :titleist-small: TSR 2+
Hybrids:  PXG Gen4 18-degree
Utility Irons: :srixon-small: ZX MkII 20* 
Irons:;  :Sub70:699/699 Pro V2 Combo; :wilson_staff_small: D9 Forged;  :macgregor-small:MT86 (coming soon!); :macgregor-small: VIP 1025 V-Foil MB/CB; 

Wedges:  :cleveland-small: RTX6 Zipcore
Putter: :cleveland-small: HB Soft Milled 10.5;  :scotty-small: Newport Special Select;  :edel-golf-1:  Willamette,  :bettinardi-small: BB8; :wilson-small: 8802; MATI Monto

Ball: :bridgestone-small: Tour B RXS; :srixon-small: Z-STAR Diamond; :wilson_staff_small: Triad

Stat Tracker/GPS Watch: :ShotScope:


 
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10 hours ago, Tpoole22 said:

I wasnt able to bring my clubs down there as we brought the whole family (in laws and baby) so there was no room in the car to take them with me.

I had the same issue and I had to bite the bullet and grab a rooftop cargo box and haven't looked back since.  What a difference it's made for packing and trips.  I have a 2, 4, and 6 year old so it's been strollers and pack n plays for a while.

Great write up and it sounds like Honma is starting to set a good name for itself in terms of equipment and the fitting experience. 

I too ended up going with a Ventus Blue shaft in my driver this year and it's been far and away the best dispersion with driver that I've ever had.  Took me about 3 - 4 rounds to get used to it so I was a bit nervous after spending much more than usual on an upgraded shaft, but has proved to be worth it. Going forward, it's likely that I'll just continue to buy driver heads and keep this shaft. 

My swing speed is a bit below yours around 118 for me, but I've also had good luck with Tensei Blue shafts, Fuji Pro TS 2.0 (White one), Fuji Atmos TS, and Aldila Rogue shafts.  Hope some of those could help.  You can definitely find them much cheaper than Ventus.

Driver:  image.png.3c6db1120d888f669e07d4a8f890b3f1.pngMavrik Sub Zero 9* (Set to 10) Ventus Blue 6X

2 Hybrid: :titelist-small: TSI3 Hybrid Tensei Blue 80 X (17.25*)

3 Hybrid :titelist-small: 818 H2 Hybrid Hzrdus RDX Black 6.5 (20.5*)

4 Iron -  :titelist-small: T200 4 Iron Graphite Design Tour AD IZ X Hybrid Shaft

Irons 5-PW:  :titelist-small: T100-S 5 - GW KBS Tour 130 X

Gap/Sand Wedge:  :titelist-small: Vokey SM6 49*  SM8 54* 

Lob Wedge:  image.png.3c6db1120d888f669e07d4a8f890b3f1.pngJaws 5 Wedge 58* DG Tour Issue Stiff

Putter:   :scotty-small: Phantom 5.5 34"      Pro Platinum Newport 2 35"      Taylormade Tour Black Spider 34"

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