Review - 2007 Maruman Conductor Power Forged Irons

[jick]

The best irons I have ever tried...

INTRODUCTION

The Maruman Conductor brand is rich in history. It has two Masters wins courtesy of Ian Woosnam (1991) and Jose Maria Olazabal (1994). Laura Davies used Maruman when she was at the peak of her powers in the 90s before Annika came of age. Two-time US Open champion Curtis Strange was among their endorsers back in those days. Then Maruman went into a long slumber and stopped making quality clubs. That was until October last year when I was in Transview Golf in Citigolf Pasig when their manager Marlon Dizon pulled out an eye-catching new set from his stockroom called the Maruman Conductor Power Forged. Seeing this beauty made me realize Maruman was back.



As much as I wanted to get the set, Marlon told me it was not yet for public consumption. It was a prototype set intended for Juvic Pagunsan to use when he would return from an overseas tournament. It was all look and no touch. But I knew the set was special, since Juvic immediately put the sticks in his bag and in his first tournament outing with it, he finished second in the UBS Hong Kong Open which guaranteed him Rookie of the Year honors for the Asian Tour.

Fast forward to June 2007, I finally got a set from Transview Golf. I chose the one with the NS Pro 950 shafts in stiff flex because I am an advocate of lightweight steel shafts for irons. After more than one month with the sticks I feel I can now review it. But let’s start with a brief description of the set.


DESCRIPTION

The Conductor Power Forged is a high performance players iron set incorporating the latest Maruman research and development. These supremely soft-feeling irons have variable construction throughout the range setting the gravity point lower on the long irons with an undercut cavity in the 3 to 6-irons while a regular muscle-cavity in the 7 to PW. Grooves are also varied being U-shaped on 3-6, square 7-PW and deep square AW and SW. Below is a diagram of the grooves:




MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Unbeknownst to most, the Maruman Conductor Power Forged irons are manufactured by the Endo Japan, whose reputation in the forging industry is second to none. They are made out of the ultra-soft S20C grade of carbon steel which is softer than the more common forged metals like 1025(S25C), 1030 (S30C), or 1045 (S45C).

Endo produces one-piece forgings unlike the other popular Japanese foundry Miura, that relies on spin-welded hosels and hence a two-piece design. Whereas Miura has to outsource its sharp-edge tooling, Endo's in-house tooling and technology allows them resharpen the tooling after any given amount of presses. The result is tight tolerances, consistent soft feel, and unsurpassed quality control.

Maruman sure did their homework in finding the best forging house in the industry. Endo has been around for almost 60 years.


SPECIFICATIONS AND TOLERANCES

Published specs mean nothing to me at all. Being a hardcore hobbyist club-tweaker, I always baptize a new set by measuring their actual specs with my own measuring rigs. Experience has taught me that the actual measured specs vary from the published specs. Here are the published specs:



My actual measured specs were so close to the published specs, it was unbelievable. The lofts and lies that were off were by half-a-degree which is negligible. The overall weight was exact to the last gram in most clubs, and those that were off were by 1.5 grams at most. Those are really, really, really tight tolerances! Our Ninoy bills weigh 1 gram each. So we are talking about the club being off by less than the weight of two money bills. That is a tolerance deviation of 0.004% - Talk about tight! And if you want to talk about exactness – every club in the bag clocked in at D2 swingweight. It was all exactly as advertised.

I was amazed because the industry standards for overall weight are plus-minus 3 grams, while for the lofts and lies are plus-minus 1 degree, and the swingweight is plus-minus 1 point. And if the clubs meet those industry standards, those are already really tight and impressive. But the Marumans are bar-none the tightest measured irons I have ever put in my gear which consist of a Golfsmith Economy Weight Digital Scale, Golfsmith Professional Loft Lie Machine , and a Golfsmith Swingweight Scale.

After doing all those measurements, I bent my clubs to my specs before putting them to play. Based on their product literature, I needed it to be three degrees flat so that is what I did while maintaining the lofts to keep with the intent of the club designed. Now my set was ready for play!


APPEARANCE

These clubs are simply beautiful. You get standard fare nickel-chrome plating just like in every other blade. When you setup side-by-side with other irons, the face is bigger than your standard forged musclebacks and they actually border on midsize. But when setup on its own, the transitions, the curves, the topline, and the minimal offset make you feel like you have a compact players’ club in your hands. It frames the ball really well but the bigger face profile inspires confidence, while still giving the blade look and not the thick-topline look of Pings or Callaways.

The backs are understated with just “Conductor Power Forged†on them and Maruman in the hosel. The soles are wide but there is an anti-bounce grind to make them play effectively narrower, and a leading edge grind which some call the “K-grind†which is to help for fat shots. They come with Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips that have the reminder rib.




FEEL

Butter. I have played extensively with these sets: forged Macgregors (Muirfield 20ths, PMB Tours, PCB Tours, VIP 1025Ms, Mactec M685), forged components (Snake Eyes 600M & 600B), graphite shafted irons (Wilson Staff 45s with Firesticks), soft cast Honmas (FE-400s). With not-so-extensive testing but I have tried in the range of for a round or so include these forged clubs: Titleist 690, Dunlop Japan DP-101, Mizuno TN-87, and Mizuno MP-67. Among the different shafts I have tried are Rifle Flighted 6.0, Dynamic Gold S300, Dynamic Gold SL Stiff, Rifle Flighted Lite 5.5, Rifle Project X 5.5, and True Temper TX-90 Stiff. These Maruman Conductor Power forged irons with NS Pro 950 shafts are easily the softest feeling irons I have ever hit in my life – bar none! It could be the softer metal or the Endo manufacturing process. I don’t know what it is for sure. Even the longer irons with the undercut cavity were just as soft as the short irons. I expected a clunkier hollow sound, but it wasn’t the case at all.

I did try an identical set that had Dynamic Gold S300 shafts, and the feel was just as soft on center-hits. But when I would miss the sweetspot, it had a harsher feeling feedback than with my NS Pro shafted set. The feel of my set must also be attributable to the NS Pro shafts which give a soft feel even on mishits. So the butter-feel I get with these irons is from the synergy of the Endo-forged heads with the Nippon Steel shafts. If you choose S300 shafts, your mileage may vary.


PERFORMANCE

Trajectory. These irons have stronger than standard lofts, but this is made up for by the lower-kickpoint NS Pro 950 shafts. The trajectory is not lower at all compare to my previous sets, but it has a flatter flight which fights the wind better. It maintains the same apex but has a shallower angle of descent.

Distance. The lightweight shafts and stronger lofts made me gain approximately 5 yards in carry distance per club. When I need to go after it hard and swing out of my shoes, I gain even more distance as compared to doing the same with my previous sets. This must be attributable to the bigger face profile which inspires confidence.

Dispersion. I noticed my long irons up to the 6-iron had a tendency to miss left. Then I realized Maruman was unique in the way they spec their clubs. The lie angle gap throughout the set is 0.5 degrees, which made the long irons play more upright for me even if I had already bent it 3 degrees flat. So I had to space the gaps, I bent my 6-iron half a degree flatter, the 5 one-degree flatter, and the 4 one-and-a-half degrees flatter. Now the dispersion is great and misses are well-forgiven.

Forgiveness. These are the most forgiving irons I have ever tried when I hit fat shots. The K-grind glides through the turf and I lose very little distance. It will still reach the green. I highly recommend these sticks for those who tend to miss their shots fat. Here is a closer look at the grind:



The anti-bounce grind makes the wide soles play effectively narrower. It is not clunky like a Callaway, but it retains the forgiving nature of wide soles that bring the center of gravity in the club lower. The midsize profile gives it a bigger sweetspot and makes it more forgiving across the face. The only downside to the forgiveness is that I sometimes can’t be really sure where I missed it because it feels soft no matter where I hit it in the face.

Tournament Conditions. The true test of any clubs is how they perform under the gun of tournament pressure. I have only played two tournaments with this club, and ironically, both were not in my home course. The first one was in a major member-guest invitational where I shot 71 and our team won best score for the first day. This was only my third round with the set. The next outing was in a one-day tournament with a field of 373 players. I shot a 73 and bagged Class A runner-up honors. So that’s a two out of two trophy batting average for these sticks, which means I did not need a break-in or adjustment period anymore.

Durablity. With clubs this beautiful, I just had to use iron covers. So I am not the best to judge durability. But I have seen Juvic Pagunsan’s set, which he has had since October last year. The set still looks pretty good and he never used iron covers. There is no sweetspot rust which means the chrome plating is holding up pretty well consider Juvic hits the ball harder than most of us, and practices much much more than all of us. Nine months of his using that set (given he is a touring professional) is like two or three years of us mere mortals using the set. The only downside is that the finish on the undercut channel in the long irons seem to be chipping off but they are not rusting at all. Pictures of Juvic's set, which is worth nine months with 12 hours a day of practice is here:




VALUE

My research with online stores show only two that has them in the USA: Mortongolfsales.com which sells these for $1,499, and Tourspecgolf.com which sells them for $1,495. This would put it on the upper level of the price range but remember we are talking about a 10-piece golf set including the AW and SW, and premium NS Pro 950 shafts. Nevertheless, it is still quite pricey.


SUMMARY

Positive. These sticks suit players of virtually all handicap levels. It is midsize for the higher handicappers but has a blade profile with minimal offset for the low handicappers. It has a wide sole for the high handicappers but an anti-bounce grind for the low handicappers. What sets it apart from other sets is that it has the softest feel, and is the only set I know of that has a perfect grind for Philippine turf conditions, with the proper mix of the anti-bounce sole and the K-grind for fat shots. The strong lofts give you added distance, and the trajectory is not compromised because of its variable center of gravity construction. The specifications and tolerances are the tightest I have ever measured so every club in the bag will play as designed and up to spec. The care and quality control is evident from the manufacturing process down to the assembly and component matching.

Negative. The strong lofts will make your distances farther so you might find yourself overshooting greens in the first try. The strong lofts also put a premium on shaft matching for better trajectory management. The forgiving nature of the iron head design makes it harder to work the ball compared to muscleback blades. The grip has a remainder rib which is a favorite among Japanese users but which might not suit everyone’s tastes especially those using US clubs. Regripping should not be a problem though.




CONCLUSION

I would give this set the highest possible recommendation to players who are scratch golfers up to those who are break-90 players. The design is so versatile it can suit so many skill levels, but the higher handicappers will get a kick out of using a set that feels this soft and buttery. Endo-forged, super-tight tolerances, attention to detail, tour-van type sole grind, buttery soft feel, undercut channel Titleist never pushed through with the 690CH, premium Nippon Steel shafts --- are all these features enough to justify the price the set costs? You decide.

[littlepingman]

Great review on some really beautiful irons!!

[villa]

I think I love you!

 

Thank you so so much for posting this.

 

A friend of mine is using these on the European Tour and he only let me hit the 8 iron once! Such a tease.

 

I owned a set of the original Maruman Conductors (arguably one of the best muscle back irons ever made) and I keep looking at purchasing these.

 

I've recently put an old favourite set of clubs back in the bag because I can't find anything current that I like. If (and probably when) I purchase these clubs, i'm going to have to buy them blind because I don't have the ability to demo them other than that one sweet 8 iron.

 

Your post has helped so much. The lofts are a bit strong and the standard shafts aren't to my liking but with a bit of bending and glueing, i'm sure I can make them perfect.

 

Once again, I love you.

 

Now, where's my credit card.

[Landy]

Great review and the irons look awesome.

By the way Curtis Strange also played Maruman in the late 80's early 90's.

[DRGJR72]

I think I love you!

 

 

 

A friend of mine is using these on the European Tour and he only let me hit the 8 iron once! Such a tease.

 

Your post has helped so much. The lofts are a bit strong and the standard shafts aren't to my liking but with a bit of bending and glueing, i'm sure I can make them perfect.

 

Once again, I love you.

 

Now, where's my credit card.

 

Classic. When I read the bolded part I laughed. Too funny.

 

The irons look amazing.

 

DG

[jick]

Who is your friend? Based on the Maruman websites, they only have two staff pros ... John Bickerton of the European Tour, and Juvic Pagunsan of the Asian Tour. So I'm guessing your friend is Bickerton?

[baalforhire]

a well written review but any american who pay full crack for a set of these---well that's just the deity letting you know you have too much money.

[jick]

a well written review but any american who pay full crack for a set of these---well that's just the deity letting you know you have too much money.

 

I sort of agree. It's too much to spend for someone in the American market, but then there is a market for those who want import clubs or are willing to splurge on tour stuff. For these kinds of people, I would highly recommend the Conductor...

[raidernut1234]

Great thorough review. Would you mind publishing your swing characteristics?

SS

tempo

transition

scratch player?

thanks

Noticed you replaced the AW SW with Mizunos. could you post pics of those wedge grinds?

thanks

[eggs]

Thanks for posting a rather excellent review - all I can add is to say that's a beautiful set of irons.

 

What is it about that kinda minimalist Japanese style?

I've no idea but looks like Maruman have hit the nail squarely on the head with these.

I'm going all misty-eyed for a set of their MST-41 irons I had way back when...

 

Forged, a bit of forgiveness, sweet styling, just what I'm looking for.

So it's these... or the MP-57s... or a set of Vegas... etc... AARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

 

 

(my first post here - hi everyone).

[jick]

Great thorough review. Would you mind publishing your swing characteristics?

SS

tempo

transition

scratch player?

thanks

Noticed you replaced the AW SW with Mizunos. could you post pics of those wedge grinds?

thanks

 

I'm 29 years old, 5'5", 145 lbs and swing it at 102 to 105 mph with the driver. I have a fairly quick tempo and transition with a sort of downswing that my arms drop close to my body and I come a bit from the inside for a natural draw flight (although I'm trying to straighten it out). I have been a scratch player since 1998.

 

I only had a brief run with the Mizuno MP-R's. It did not suit me at all. I now use Fourteen wedges as can be seen in my signature. I got my set 3-PW. Actually, I am looking for a matching AW, as I can't get along with my current 52 which is a Nike SV bent to 50.

[jick]

Just wanted to add to my blurb on "Tournament Conditions." My first was the 1-under par 71 in the member-guest invitational of Alta Vista Golf and Country Club that netted me first-day best score honors. Then it was for school pride in the Ateneo-LaSalle Classic Cup Golf Tournament which I played in the north course of Canlubang Golf and Country Club and shot a cool 73 to bag me Class A runner-up honors and help my school Ateneo win the title.

 

Just yesterday, I played the first tournament with my new sticks in my home course, Cebu Country Club. I know it's kinda ironic that my first two tournament outings with these sticks were away from home. Anway, I shot a 1-under par 71 to win the lowest gross of the tournament in a field of 127 players.

 

And not just to toot my own horn, there is a 13-year old kid in our club who is a 16-handicapper and shot 78 in his second game ever with these Maruman sticks. His was an R-flex version NS Pro though. He did it in the monthy junior tournament, and he gave credit to the sticks in his interview. The article about his win, which was published in the sports pages of our local dailies can be found by clicking here.

 

These sticks do perform under the heat of amateur tournament pressure.

[jick]

Wow ..I was just googling "Maruman Conductor Power Forged" and a link to this review I wrote came up. I guess it goes to show the reach and popularity of this forum ..to be number one in Google when it comes to searches for this. Great job to the guys at Golfwrx! Keep it up! :tongue:

[rge]

I can attest to this testimonial because I got the same set at about the same time that Jick got his. Our local distributor only brought in 5 sets and one was already reserved for our local touring pro so i snagged one set and got a matching staff bag to go with it. I loved the set as-is but ever the tinkerer, I replaced the shafts with the new Accuflex evolution graphite shafts. They are a tad lighter than the N.S.Pros at 85 grams but they the dispersion behavior of a steel shaft. Shot my lowest score to date with this set. (1 under par, not shabby for a 9.5 index). The clubs just feel phenomenal and they look really snazzy too with the iridescent orange/gold/red shafts. I think this set is a keeper.

 

They really are soft though. had the misfortune of hitting a pebble (not even a rock) in the rough and put a sizeable gouge on the bottom of my club. I would highly recommend it to someone that's in the market for a tour caliber japanese set. It was worth getting sent to the doghouse!! :tongue:

[subrew]

On 8/8/2007 at 5:02 AM, jick said:

Wow ..I was just googling "Maruman Conductor Power Forged" and a link to this review I wrote came up. I guess it goes to show the reach and popularity of this forum ..to be number one in Google when it comes to searches for this. Great job to the guys at Golfwrx! Keep it up! 👅

 

And I want to thank you for all the info in your original post.  I just picked up a set of heads, 5-PW, so I'm looking forward to building these up.   

[subrew]

On 9/17/2023 at 11:55 AM, subrew said:

 

And I want to thank you for all the info in your original post.  I just picked up a set of heads, 5-PW, so I'm looking forward to building these up.   

After a quick trip through the ultrasonic cleaner.  The pockets on the 5 and 6 were filthy.

[HeadCovered]

Oh yeah, them typical wicked Japanese style off-set irons. 
I hit the blades in those and they were beautiful. 

[jick]

On 10/8/2023 at 6:37 AM, subrew said:

After a quick trip through the ultrasonic cleaner.  The pockets on the 5 and 6 were filthy.

How are these irons playing so far?

 

 

[jick]

On 10/8/2023 at 9:15 AM, HeadCovered said:

Oh yeah, them typical wicked Japanese style off-set irons. 
I hit the blades in those and they were beautiful. 

 

Offset here is not wicked at all.

[HeadCovered]

2 hours ago, jick said:

 

Offset here is not wicked at all.

 

Show us the top lines please 

 

 

[JosephNewton293]

On 7/27/2007 at 1:24 PM, Landy said:

Great review and the irons look awesome.

By the way Curtis Strange also played Maruman in the late 80's early 90's.

If I remember correctly I think Strange won back to back us opens using them ?

[subrew]

On 11/14/2023 at 8:03 PM, jick said:

How are these irons playing so far?

 

 

 

I'm digging them.  They play a lot like the Mizuno MP59Tis I have, maybe with a touch more forgiveness.  Not overly large head, not too small, big cavity gives a decent sized sweet spot.  I mostly got them because I wanted to add a Maruman product to my collection, and these popped up at a good price.  

 

I went on a kick building some blades, but I really think the sweet spot is the 2000-2015 era cavity back JDM stuff.  Old enough to be cheap, not old enough to be "cult classic" expensive.  $100-150 for heads only shipped from Japan is a pretty big market as it turns out.

 

Some of the ebay saved searches I have are hitting me hard with Bridgestone and Tourstage offerings right now, so I'm doing my best to not click those links.  So many sets of awesome forged heads for less than $150 delivered.