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The first time you flush one of Miura's new CB-501 irons, expect the word 'butter' to be inadequate.

Crème brule' works better. The CB-501's are that soft and that sweet.

"Actually, what people describe as soft is really more solid," explains Bill Holowaty, who represents the Japanese company in North America. "The grain structure in our forged steel is the tightest in the industry. It translates to better ball speed."

Most recreational golfers have never heard of Katsuhiro Miura, the company's patriarch, who has masterminded its club designs and forging process for almost fifty years. Mr. Miura is to golf club aficionados what Steve Jobs is to computers. Rumors and photos of his clubs circulate long before the company actually releases them. It's almost a cult status.

Much of Miura's work and achievements remain secretive. Until a few years ago, companies like Taylor Made, Hogan, Titleist, Cleveland, and Nike used Miura's factory and forgings for some of the special irons they gave to touring professionals. To this day, Miura Golf has many clubs on the PGA Tour, but they bear labels of other manufacturers. Without naming names, Miura claims two Masters Championships, one United States Open Championship, one Senior PGA Championship, and twenty-five wins on the Japanese tour.

Hence, the mystique. One could argue that Miura manufactures the finest hand-made and hand-ground irons in the world. The company is about quality, not quantity. In a good year, Miura might sell twenty-thousand sets.

CB-501 Rumors

Typical of Miura, word of the CB-501 leaked two years ago. Early rumors pegged it as a forged cavity back with a muscle notch behind the sweet spot, similar to a design from 1996. Those reports proved true, but the prototype evolved after further research and testing.

Today's CB-501 looks like a forged blade at address, with a thin top line and minimal offset. The sole is narrow, but easy-to-square and release through impact. The irons do not dig excessively, due to a softened leading edge. When hit well, the CB-501's fly and feel as good at impact as the company's most pure small blades. And, for a player of average abilities, they perform that way more often.

In short, the CB-501's are bliss.

Custom Fitting

Miura does not sell sets out of a box or off a rack. Instead, it deals with a small number of certified club fitters, like David Butler of Half Moon Bay, about whom I have written extensively in the past. By now, he is responsible for every club in my bag. When a guy helps you hit the ball longer and straighter as you get older, stick with him.

David uses a TrackMan launch monitor, which analyzes every element of a golf swing, from shaft and club angles, to swing and ball speeds, to spins, descents, and a bunch of esoteric stuff that titillate nerdy mathematicians. Fittings take hours, not minutes.

Butler built my set of CB-501's to a swing weight of D-7 with stiff, Tour Concept shafts by True Temper. But, David balanced the clubs so well that they feel fairly light. Aside from being the most beautiful irons that my buddies or I have ever seen, they are also the sweetest swinging and most efficient.

David's TrackMan numbers with the CB-501's were particularly impressive. Their Smash Factor, or Power Transfer Index, approached the mythical 1.5 on several swings, which is close to perfect, and not easy to achieve. The CB-501's delivered straighter, longer shots with more consistent quality than another set he had built for me with the same shafts, but a different brand of heads, and a well-respected one, at that. I have gained three yards.

In Butler's laboratory, and on the course, the CB-501's provide perfect, but workable trajectories. When you can nut a 6-iron and stop it in six feet on a super-fast green at Pebble Beach, that's impressive. And, believe me, it wasn't the guy who hit it. Miura engineered just enough spin into these irons to hold their lines, but not enough to balloon. I have hit shots with them in blustery conditions when it seemed the wind never moved the ball, at all.

The longer irons surprised me, even more. Miura sells the 3 and 4 irons optionally, and they are very easy to hit. Never, before, has a 4-iron been my favorite club in a bag, but this one stands a chance. It's just plain fun, and almost as reliable as a hybrid.

Miura C Series 1957 Wedges

Miura Yoshitaka Grind, Series 1957 Wedges

In 1987, when violinist Jascha Heifetz died, he willed his famous violin, known as "The David" to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He stipulated that it remain in the city, and be played by a worthy musician.

The lucky recipient was San Francisco Symphony concertmaster Alexander Barantschik. "It has an amazing complexity of sound," he said of "The David". "If you were to compare it with a painting, it has hundreds of colors, not fifty. Colors within colors within colors."

Essentially, Barantschik was saying that the violin would allow him to be as good as he could be. That analogy also works for Miura's new C and Y-Grind wedges.

The 51 degree Yoshitaka series, designed by and named for Katsuhiro Miura's son, looks fairly conventional, but with a narrow sole. It serves as a smooth transition club into the more radical, and extremely effective C-Grind wedges, which took some getting-used-to... about 10 minutes.

The C-55 has 12 degrees of measured bounce, and the C-59 has 14 degrees. Like the Y-series, they have very narrow soles, but because Miura ground them with considerable heel relief, a player can manipulate their effective bounce angles. Use the clubs as low bounce wedges from tight lies, or high bounce wedges from fluffy sand or rough. They can be what you want them to be, and will do what you want them to do.

With other brands in the past, I had always used a lob wedge as a specialty club, but not anymore. This C-59/14 has become my most versatile wedge. I use it more, even, than its 55 degree sibling. With this one club, a decent player can flop fifty yard shots from sand, and can hit high or low low-spin knockdowns from around greens.

Miura produces these new wedges with either non-conforming, or the new conforming grooves. I chose the former, and am able to achieve eye-popping spin rates as the result. On David Butler's TrackMan, the 59/14 reached 11-thousand rpm's without much effort. It sucks back readily on greens, if you want it to, and sometimes when you don't, until you spend time with it. On one such occasion, I put a little extra into a high approach, landed it next to a back pin, and then watched the ball spin twenty-five yards to the front. Such a display almost made the resulting bogey worthwhile.

If this review sounds more like a endorsement or even an advertisement, I apologize. These irons and wedges are, quite simply, the best I have ever played... a perfect blend of designing, manufacturing, fitting, and building.

If you catch me even looking at or considering the purchase of another set of irons anytime, ever, commit me to an insane asylum and throw away the key.

The Miura CB-501 irons and these new wedges are it. I'm done. For life.

http://www.miuragolf.com/
http://www.pgamasterfitter.com

(Copyright ©2010 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Kramski Putter Review

March 20, 2010
By Wayne Freedman

"You're not that good."

Or else, "You aren't that bad."

Either way, such a weighty price puts serious expectations and pressure on a putter. About as much as, say, a breaking four-footer to win your club championship against your arch rival. But, if that putter is a Kramski, and if you follow that company's methodology, there is a very good chance that you will make it.

"Nice putt." After a while, you will hear that reaction quite a lot, too.

Wiestaw Kramski never set out to make putters when growing his precision tool and instrument company in Germany. But, the man is a golfer and a perfectionist who never purchased a putter he liked, so in 1999, Kramski began designing and manufacturing his own. Kramski's line of boutique custom builds have been gaining slow but steady momentum ever since.

Fifteen players, including Ian Woodnam, Nick Faldo, Berhard Langer, and Laura Davies, have used and won with Kramski putters on the European tours, and now the company has begun marketing in the United States and Asia . "We're not looking to sell the most putters," said Michael Torres, who manages sales and distribution. "Our aim is to sell maybe 50,000 putters. We want to sell a product that actually improves players."

In short, whomever buys a Kramski putter should not be looking for a psychological band-aid. Let's hope not, anyway. At $1,400 per copy, therapy would cost you less.

I went into this experiment as a cynical non-believer. Generally speaking, a golfer should mess around on a good and trusty putter about as often as he cheats on his wife, which means never. And, I really like the putter I had been using.

But, my friend and club maker, David Butler of Half Moon Bay, signed a deal to become one of Kramski's few American dealers. Butler has never steered me wrong. So, when Kramski's Michael Torres came out for a visit, he fitted and then built a Kramski putter for me to try.

It's a game changer.

"So why do they cost so much?" I asked Torres.

"Because each putter is one of a kind. Nothing comes from mass production."

It is true. Kramski has designed a system that guarantees a player will begin his stroke from a proper position every time. "He was concerned that players do not pay enough attention to alignment, set-up, posture, putter position, and technique," said Torres. Each of those elements figures into every putting stroke. A mistake in any of those areas magnifies through the putting sequence, causing misses.

Kramski putters are generally shorter, as are those of PGA tour players. Torres said the company's average putter measures 33 inches long, which promotes a rotational, side-to-side, shoulder stroke through a wide arc. That's another part of the Kramski philosophy: remove hands and wrists from the putting motion.

My fitting, in fact, felt more like a lesson. Whether Torres fits you, or David Butler, it begins with an analysis of your present stroke, followed by the inevitable re-teaching of the shoulder rotation stroke. To make that happen, Kramski has built proprietary equipment to get your eyes over the ball. Next, they find a position where your hands and arms drop naturally and comfortably. Finally, they adjust for length, followed by lie, weight, and balance. For me, the numbers were radically different than any previous putter. I have always played putters at 35 inches and a lie angle of 70 degrees. The Kramski came in at 33 inches and 67 degrees, and feels more comfortable.

The company offers twelve different designs. All are face balanced. I chose a model 325---a black, anodized, triangular aluminum mallet. That aluminum is a full block, machined into a shell, and then filled with a patented mixture of molted metal and plastic. It generally takes two days to manufacture. Every notch, groove, and marking on top of a Kramski putter serves to reinforce proper lie angles, putter positions, and aiming points. Align them, and you will be in a proper and repeatable position. On the sole, each putter has a fine grind, almost like a tire pattern. It grips the putting surface, allowing a player to set the putter down on a proper line, without fear of it twisting or moving. This is an important part of the company's putting methodology. Kramski encourages:

1.) Aiming with a line on your ball

2.) Re-checking it that line by using your dominant eye to sight it along the shaft

3.) Aligning your putter to the line on the ball

4.) Making the stroke, following through from an inside-square-inside rotational arc

I must say that, on the course, those changes of length and stoke failed to produce good results, at least not for the first nine holes. I began by putting along the ball's aim line, as instructed. But, as a long-term spot putter, that method proved distracting. Several times, I missed so badly that had my old putter been in the bag, I would have used it.

Fortunately, it wasn't. On the back side, I returned to my tried-and-true spot aiming method, continued using the rotational shoulder stroke, and needed only twelve putts for those nine holes. With proper aiming from a confirmed repeatable set-up position, the Kramski felt buttery and more automatic than any putter, anywhere, ever. The face balanced head was extremely solid and forgiving. Putts rolled true, without sidespin.

Now, I don't know how much money you wager when you play, or how much discretionary money you have for a $1,400 putter. But, in my experience, that Kramski has been good for at least one, or possibly two fewer putts per round. On the PGA Tour, or in your club championship, that could make the difference between making the cut, or taking home a title.

Put your own price tag value on that. Or else, buy a Kramski and then pay for it by upping the ante with your buddies.

(Copyright ©2010 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Club review: Miura 390cc precious edition driver

  By Wayne Freedman

Astronomers tell us that our universe is ever-expanding, but some of the objects in it are shrinking.

Drivers, for instance. Miura Golf's new, 390cc Precious Edition driver is 70cc's smaller than the legal limit of 460cc's, but discerning players will not miss the extra mass. This club should appeal to purists with visceral swings, and to players who do not follow the crowd. It has the look and feel of persimmon, with a two-piece, deep-faced titanium head, and a perfectly tuned sound.

Designer Katsuhiro Miura made his company's reputation with quality, forged irons. Last year, he introduced a hybrid which we like for its playability. The Precious Edition driver and fairway metals add to that product line.

"We think this driver is more forgiving because it is smaller," says Miura's North American president, Bill Holowaty, who warns against confusing size with efficiency. "A club is forgiving and efficient only if a player can square it at impact, and for that, 390cc is optimal."

Miura's new driver is better suited to game enhancement than game improvement. It is a club for confident players with repeating swings. Mr. Miura reportedly designed the Precious Edition for himself. He is sixty years old, with a 12-16 handicap. The club has a fairly square set-up, allowing draw hitters to swing freely. Players who hit a draw will appreciate this club. Those who live in fear of the duck hook will love it.

I have spent eight months experimenting with a 10 degree head, courtesy of David Butler, who fits, custom-builds, and sells Miura out of Half Moon Bay. We tried more than a dozen shafts, and settled on a stiff, 63 gram, Diamana Blue Board by Mitsubishi Rayon. One swing sealed that set-up.

David and I were curious about the forgiveness of the Miura's smaller head. For comparison, I hit the new club side-by-side against what had been my Sunday driver, a larger, Ti460 Cleveland Launcher with the same shaft, frequency, weighting, and loft. We call that driver 'Old Reliable' because in three years of testing, no other club had beaten it.

Now, the Miura has replaced it in my bag.

I warmed up to my average club head speed (about 105 mph), and measured fifteen equal swings with each driver. The results were very close. In our initial review, we decided that declaring a winner would be a matter of preference. Now, it's a no-brainer. The Miura has a better top ball speed (158 mph vs. 153 mph), and a higher average ball speed, (151 mph vs. 149 mph).

Old Reliable has a more forgiving miss-hit ball speed (145 mph vs. 144 mph).

The Miura averages a better farther carry (246 yards vs. 244 yards).

The Miura flies a hotter, lower, more boring trajectory, has less reverse ball spin (2800 vs. 3200 rpm), lands a shallower angle, and rolls much farther when it lands. I have hit both clubs, side-by-side, into strong winds, and in such conditions, the Miura excels by 10-12 yards. In competition, recently, it exceeded 300 yards, which felt pretty darn good.

I am not alone in liking the Miura. It has become the 'let me try that club again' favorite among solid swingers at the range. Our match play champion at Richmond Country Club, Dr. Peter Allen, tried the club, and absolutely killed the ball. He hits a draw, we should add. "It's much longer than my regular driver," said Peter. "Excellent control. The ball seems to remain on the face just a millisecond longer."

In summary, Miura's new Precious Edition driver is not for beginners, but this leaner, meaner, smaller head performs remarkably well, and handles like a sports car with a big engine. If the fun factor matters to you, this premium driver is well worth a try, a fitting, and a buy.

(Copyright ©2009 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

A Club Fitting with 'Doctor Grip'

By: Wayne Freedman, ABC Channel 7 News

Congratulations to my friend, David Butler (a.k.a. Dr. Grip) of Half Moon Bay. After more than half a century of building and perfecting other brands of clubs, he has designed his own. Based on early results, his ‘Butler' irons are already big winners.

David's son, Robert, christened the first official set by scoring a hole-in-one on the 218 yard, par 3, 17th on the Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay. It was his first round with them. He used a 5-iron. Two days later, David and Robert won their flight in the Half Moon Bay club championship.

Three weeks later, Carlmont High School's Joanne Lee took her set of Butlers to Lake Merced, and qualified for the U.S. Women's Open. She's eighteen years-old, and also headed for USC on a full golf scholarship.

There's more. Joanne's teacher, David Balbi, is also using them. He reported another near ace the first time he used his 8-ion on the par 3, 17th at Pasatiempo. "I would have retired the club then and there," said Balbi. "I would have mounted it with an inscription reading, ‘This club is perfect'".
David designed his irons for one specific shaft---the extremely light and stable, M80, from True Temper's Tour Concept Division. "Most other clubs accommodate shafts weighing from 50 grams to 130 grams, but that kind of range requires compromises. By making these heads for that 80 gram shaft, and only that shaft, I was able to fine-tune the heads, moving the center of gravity towards the toe, with a bigger sweet spot in the middle of the face."

At address, Butler's double nickel, double chromed, cavity back irons look like blades, with a thin top line. The soles are somewhat wider, but not unwieldy. They have one degree of progression, allowing good players to take divots, even on hard ground.

I, too, have begun using the irons, even though I never thought another set could push my beloved Mizuno MP-60's onto the shelf. Butler built those clubs, as well.

As one of those typical golfers who misses towards the toe, I am missing better, and hitting straighter, more pure shots. I have also gained distance, due partially to higher swing speeds from the lighter shafts (about 6 mph), but also because Butler forged the heads from 1035 carbon steel, which has more density and a greater rebound factor than the more traditional 1020.

All of those elements create a higher sense of fidelity when swinging. "Most players, with other clubs, never feel the head," says David.

Not anymore. As Joanne Lee describes it, she can actually feel the shaft's spine snap into place just before hitting the ball. I would agree with that description, and add that never has an iron felt more buttery and responsive. With these irons, I am like a country fiddle player trying to figure out a Stradivarius.
The ‘M-grooves' Butler are used on his irons. This design disperses water more effectively, and produces more spin. These grooves work particularly well in the 52, 56, and 60 degree wedges that come with the set.

"It's a real pleasure to put these in people's hands, and to see their reactions," says Butler, who spent his college years playing football for Woody Hayes at Ohio State.

"I'm almost 70. I don't hit the ball like I used to. But, I love the satisfaction of building clubs, and watching people play well with them." He does. When sees somebody make a great shot with his clubs, the guy just smiles.

The magic happens in the fitting and building. Even Butler admits that he gets carried away in the process. He is a mechanical engineer by design, and a former chief of power trains for Chrysler Corporation. He's supposed to be retired, and limits business to two fittings and sets per week. "Otherwise, it takes too much time," says David.

As with any other customer, Butler spent hours with me, looking to identify the correct combination of shaft length and flex. I must have hit four-hundred balls in front of his launch monitor, into the range. He has a bucket of 6-irons, all fitted at different lengths, lies, and flexes.

David estimates fifteen steps in assembling each club. If you multiply that by eleven irons, it adds up to a tedious, day-long process. I know this from experience, because Butler made me do much of the work in putting together the set. "Sometimes, I'm in here until 3:00 in the morning."

"Why bother?" I asked him. "Supposedly, you retired."

In what amounted to my first immersive club making lesson, we began by weighing each individual iron head, then the shafts, and also grips. Yes, even the grips. We searched through eighty of them, seeking eleven grips at exactly 59.5 grams. "You're serious about this?" I asked.

"If you make one small mistake, it can resonate through an entire set," Butler lectured.

"I even weigh the weights."

There's more. Butler frequency tests the shafts, and matches them, as well. It's the difference between throwing a set together, and creating something that becomes greater than the sum of its parts.Lining up the shafts and their bend points. Each M80 shaft is designed for a specific iron.

And so, the blend between art and science in creating the tools of so much pleasure, pain, consternation, self-deprecation, elation, and on, and on, and on. Anybody can stick shaft into a head, and call it a golf club.

But a lasting instrument that becomes an extension of your golfing spirit? That is another matter, entirely.

Golf review: Miura Precious Edition Utility Clubs

  By Wayne Freedman

Some golf clubs look pretty.

Others hit the ball well.

Rarely do they achieve both. It is rarer, still, when the performance of such a club exceeds aesthetics.

Hence our infatuation with Japanese club maker Katsuhiro Miura's first utility club, the 'Precious Edition'. This two-piece gem combines an elegant appearance with good, old-fashioned, hefty swing appeal.

Among purists, Mr. Miura has an almost mythical reputation for hand-crafted, ultra-high quality forged irons. Generally, his work appeals to better players who pure the ball rather than hack at it. This utility club continues that tradition.

Frankly, other clubs of genre are larger, fly higher, and may better serve higher handicap players who just want to blast straight, long shots. Miura's utility exchanges a measure of forgiveness for more feedback, which often leads to better and more controlled shot making.

Miura makes the heads in lofts of 17, 20, and 23 degrees. The company loaned us an early release of the 20, fitted with a stiff, 85 gram, Tour AD shaft by Graphite Design. When we mounted the club and checked the shaft's spine, the head did not oscillate, which is rare for a club from a factory. Such building takes time, and while it leads to more consistent shots, most manufacturers don't take the time to do it. In practice, Miura prefers marketing and selling to custom club makers.

Miura's test club measured just less than 41 inches from tip to sole. It was heavier than any hybrid we have tried before, with a swing weight of D-5. I like such weighting because it allows a player to sense keep track of a club head from take-away through finish. Grip the Miura, waggle it, and you know you have a quality piece in your hand.

The new utility has no screws, external plugs, or additional weighting. Its hosel accommodates a .350 tip, allowing club makers more options for fitting with stronger shafts.

The club looks slightly closed at address. Initial shots flew a bit low and to the left due to a slight draw bias, but the Miura showed its stuff within half a bucket. Most balls followed a medium trajectory. When we hit down harder, they soared higher in a pleasant, rising arc. By opening the face a small amount, balls held their lines, even against strong, right-to-left crossing winds. Very impressive.

Off a tee, balls carried farther than many 4 and 5-metals. I swing a driver at about 104 mph. That tempo on this club produced ball flights of 210-220 yards, with reasonably soft landings. By choking down, I could easily maintain spin, control, and trajectory to 180 yards. Remember, again, that the this was a demo test club. With fitting and custom building, Miura's 'Precious Edition' could undoubtedly perform even better.

This utility slides well through moderate rough, but can make serious divots from fairways. The 20 degree version seemed somewhat shallow for chipping around greens. The 23 degree would be better.

Miura engineered an addictive, blade-like sound into the club. The metallic red finish looks nice enough to wax. From grip to sole, this club is impeccable.