Nakamura travels to the tournament site on Monday of a tournament week, and he takes care of final club adjustments during Tuesday’s practice round and Wednesday’s pro-am tournament. He also performs meticulous checks of shots at practice areas before and after rounds, and he listens to opinions and requests from Team PRGR players concerning their clubs. He then provides this information to the development staff. The accumulation of these steady efforts is useful in club design and it contributes to players having trust in PRGR.

The GN502 Silver TOUR driver and GN502 Silver FORGED irons newly introduced this season have also been tested by Team PRGR players. At this year’s opening tournament, Azuma Yano used the new driver and irons, while Hideto Tanihara used the new driver. Senior tour player Seiji Ebihara also uses the GN502 Silver clubs as his clubs of choice.

Before hearing about how the players felt about using the clubs, let’s listen to Yoshihide Nakamura talk about the characteristics of the GN502 Silver TOUR driver and the GN502 Silver FORGED irons.

“While the centre of gravity of the GN502 Silver driver is designed be deep and low, a characteristic of the GN502 Silver TOUR driver is that it is designed to have a shallow and high centre of gravity. For golfers with a high head speed or those with a low handicap, the head moves so that it is parallel in the impact area. The swing course is a level course rather than an upper course, so it's not likely that any excess spin will be applied to the ball. However, when a low centre of gravity head is used, there’s too little spin on the ball and it becomes difficult to make the ball carry.

To resolve this problem, we designed a club with a shallower and higher centre of gravity position. Even with a higher loft angle, thrust is applied to the ball at high head speeds, and the result is that golfers can expect an increase in the amount of carry and roll on their shots. Furthermore, another effect is that the ball bending width is controlled.

The idea behind the GN502 Silver FORGED irons was to make easy-to-hit forged irons. If the stainless GN502 Silver irons are considered slingshot -type clubs, then the FORGED irons of the same series have stiff face surfaces and a mild feel on impact. As these are forged clubs, one characteristic is that loft and lie are easily adjustable. There are no significant head design differences with the GN502 Silver, so the ball is easily gripped and the follow-through of the head feels exceptionally good.”

If you ask about the TOUR driver or FORGED irons, the image that tends to come to mind is of extremely difficult clubs or clubs that are only for high-level golfers. At the root of this general image is the idea of ease of use.

Nakamura had the following to say: “With tee shots, golfers feel that they’ll be OK if they can reach certain areas with their shots. However, with recent course layouts on the tour getting more difficult, you can’t post good scores unless you reliably stay on the fairway. We’ve changed the specifications of these clubs from difficult to use specifications to specifications that make the clubs somewhat easier to use, and this produces balls that stay on the fairway and achieve distance. A club that realizes this concept is the GN502 Silver TOUR driver. It keeps the ball straight and prevents bending of the ball. This club provides the advantage of inhibiting left to right bending of balls hit with the appropriate amount of spin. When I’ve mentioned this characteristic to players, they’ve gone out right away to test out the club and have even used it in actual tournaments.”

Clubs that provide straightness. Clubs that inhibit bending of the ball. For the average golfer, these are ideal clubs, but for tour pros, they can also lead to trouble…

“Tanihara always lets me know whenever he's raised the percentage of his shots that stay on the fairway and has been able to produce some breathing room with his follow-up shots. With Yano, right now he’s still getting used to playing with the GN502 Silver TOUR driver.” For tour pros, particularly with shots where they're aiming for the pin, they sometimes want to deliberately bend their shots. For this reason, while players may recognize the high performance of the GN502 Silver FORGED irons, there’s still the factor of needing to get used to using certain clubs in actual tournaments, so it’s necessary to consider whether players may want to control the path of the ball or control bending of shots on their own. This is a major point when selecting clubs.

In contrast with regular tour members, Seiji Ebihara, who plays on the senior tour, has been using the GN502 Silver TOUR driver and GN502 Silver FORGED irons for some time. Ebihara offered high praise for the clubs. “Over the years, I’ve used various PRGR clubs, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to switch clubs so smoothly. The direction with the driver is always great. Shots don’t bend. I always feel that the ball will travel in the same direction that it takes off in. They give me a feeling that my total distance has increased, so I love getting up to the tee box. With the irons, the ball height is right and they also produce distance. More than anything, the follow-through of the heads is excellent. With the shape of the soles, the heads don’t bounce, they don’t give any resistance, and they don’t get stuck. You can also feel confident in being able to stop the ball.”

What type of amateur golfers are the GN502 Silver TOUR driver and GN502 Silver FORGED irons right for? We asked Yoshihide Nakamura.

“They're not difficult clubs at all. We would really like golfers who want to control bending on their shots to give these clubs a try once. We would also recommend these clubs to golfers that are always looking for ways to improve their game. How do you want your golf game to be? What kind of shot are you aiming for? I think the more a golfer has that clearly in mind, the better the chances of them finding the optimum club.”

PRGR clubs are constantly evolving, and we naturally expect that your game is constantly evolving, too. (End)

Comment from Azuma Yano
“It’s easy to address the ball, and swinging is easy. I think this driver keeps the ball straighter than the TR driver. With the irons, adjusting the trajectory strength is easy, and the feel for distances is just right. From 220 yards, you can either hit a strong 5 iron or hit a 3 iron with a softer swing."

Comment from Hideto Tanihara
“With the driver, addressing the ball is easy and you won’t get shots that shoot straight up. The amount of spin is low and ball roll is extended. The irons are also easy to address the ball with and the ball lifts easily. They’re great at keeping the ball straight, so it’s hard to hit a bad shot. You don’t have the feeling like shots will bend, so you don’t have to think about bad shots at all.”