A Honma Mobile Experience Club Fitting

A Honma Mobile Experience Club Fitting

I recently had the chance to get a fitting for a driver at one of Honma’s Mobile Experience stations.

Update: Read the Honma XP-1 Driver Review.

Honma’s Mobile Experience is a fleet of custom Mercedes Sprinter vans loaded with the latest in Honma golf gear, a huge variety of mix-and-match components and state of the art swing measurement devices. The Honma Mobile Experience vans are stationed at fifteen locations across the United States and Canada, with the ability to drive to golf courses near prospective clients. Honma also has three fixed location fitting facilities — in Orlando, Oahu and Victoria, BC.

In my case, I traveled from GolfBlogger World Headquarters in Ann Arbor to nearby Toledo, Ohio to catch up with the van. Honma’s midwest clubfitter, Jim Troy, had set up shop for the day on the range at Stone Oak Country Club.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw the iconic mole logo on the van as I drove into the parking lot.

Honma is a Japanese firm that has established a solid reputation in Asia as a manufacturer of premium golf clubs with premium materials. Their Beres line of clubs are instantly recognizable for their gold inlays. The luxury materials naturally demand a luxury price. There’s a set of Honma Beres irons right now on Amazon is going for $31,000.

That’s probably an anomaly, but the point is made.

My interest was in Honma’s TR and T//World lines. These are more nearly products for the general consumer. The clubs still incorporate Honma’s core technologies, however, and in particular, their holistic clubhead-shaft design. Honma engineers its own shafts to ensure that they work properly in tandem with their clubheads.

“Harmony” is the word Honma uses.

My session began with a warm up with my old clubs, during which Troy took baseline measurements using a Foresite GC Quad launch monitor. The quad uses a quadrascopic high speed camera system that takes thousands of images per second to build a 3D model. It measure ball speed, launch angle, azimuth, total spin, spin-tilt axis, club speed, impact point, angle of attack, club path, delivered face angle, delivered lie angle, impact loft and closure rate.

As an aside, the EyeSight driver assist technology on my Subaru uses a similar system of high speed cameras to scan the road for dangers, control the adaptive cruise control, keep the car in the lanes, and apply brakes in emergency situations. It is seriously faster than I can react to changes in the road ahead.

After getting those base metrics, Troy had me work my way through a variety of shaft and head combinations, using the Foresite GC Quad to take measurements on each setup.

The two heads that we tested were the TR20 460 and the XP-1. I honestly lost track of all the shafts that we ran through.

The TR20 has a titanium frame and a carbon body with adjustable weights and hosel. The XP-1 features a carbon crown, and a double slot in the face to increase flex.

Ultimately, Troy fit me in a 9.5 degree XP-1 with a 43 regular shaft in a flat setting.

I also had the chance while I was there to test a couple of Honma’s irons. I really liked the TR20 irons, although we didn’t run any of the numbers on them as compared to my usual gamers, which are Srixon 585s with graphite shafts.

In all, the Honma Mobile Experience was a great experience. Jim Troy is a thorough professional, whose goal is to put you in the right club, not to upsell you to more expensive components.

The article A Honma Mobile Experience Club Fitting first appeared on GolfBlogger.Com on October 5, 2020