Honma TW-X Irons

[thed0n]

Yes, if you’re left-handed, you can get these irons with the Vizard 85 graphite shafts for $494. This is an unreal deal, especially for graphite.  The Vizard 85 isn’t a bad shaft either.

[dmeeksDC]

2 hours ago, thed0n said:

Yes, if you’re left-handed, you can get these irons with the Vizard 85 graphite shafts for $494. This is an unreal deal, especially for graphite.  The Vizard 85 isn’t a bad shaft either.

if they have not sold out, Pro Clubs has them in right or left for that $494 price. For new premium Japanese forged irons! This design would please a wide range of golfers if they tried them. You just don’t see high-tech irons made like these with all forged pieces, plus they are very forgiving but don’t have super long blade lengths. I don’t know of another club quite like it. They had to be more expensive to make, Honma did not go it again and went with a cast body in the next iteration.
 

The Vizard 85 is made in Japan by Honma and is high quality. It feels excellent. Surprised me with its steady peformance. 

[gdb99]

I need to buy another set...

[flushem]

keep 'em in low profile so that we can buy 'em cheap.  

[localpar3guy]

I want a new set of irons but I’m not sure what will have me take the TW-X irons out of my bag.

 

Maybe a set of Miura CB-801’s, can’t think of much else. The wider soles of the TW-X’s have bugged me a little bit but most of the time I don’t even notice. I think the pre-worn, beveled edge of these irons helps a lot with turf interaction.

[GolfingLefty18]

How’s the PW offset? I have a set of blades but the PW & 9’s offset puts me off a bit. 

[braincramp52]

On 11/17/2022 at 12:20 PM, GolfingLefty18 said:

How’s the PW offset? I have a set of blades but the PW & 9’s offset puts me off a bit. 

I think it's very minimal. My opinion. 

[braincramp52]

[braincramp52]

On 11/17/2022 at 12:20 PM, GolfingLefty18 said:

How’s the PW offset? I have a set of blades but the PW & 9’s offset puts me off a bit. 

PW offset

 

[gdb99]

14 hours ago, braincramp52 said:

PW offset

 

I see you have the regular flex Vizard shafts. Do you know what your swing speed is with a 6 or 7 iron? 

[braincramp52]

2 minutes ago, gdb99 said:

I see you have the regular flex Vizard shafts. Do you know what your swing speed is with a 6 or 7 iron? 

No. I've never paid much attention to swing speed. I'm 70 so I doubt it's very high. I hit a 31 degree 7 iron around 135.

[dmeeksDC]

On 11/18/2022 at 6:31 PM, braincramp52 said:

Great looking irons. I think they look very stylish. The long irons are so playable too. 

[braincramp52]

3 hours ago, dmeeksDC said:

Great looking irons. I think they look very stylish. The long irons are so playable too. 

@touch and @conrad made me aware of these. I had seen them but never paid a lot of attention to them. The more I looked into them the more I realized they were the perfect iron for me. Small amount of offset, smaller profile , thin topline, forged feel and wider sole for my miss which is fat.

[dmeeksDC]

14 minutes ago, braincramp52 said:

@touch and @conrad made me aware of these. I had seen them but never paid a lot of attention to them. The more I looked into them the more I realized they were the perfect iron for me. Small amount of offset, smaller profile , thin topline, forged feel and wider sole for my miss which is fat.

It was a teaching pro from Asia who played them who told me about them. Guy is a plus handicap and played the 4-8 TW-X heads in events, paired with pure forged 9-PW. He said I hit compact faces better (he said that is not unusual for better players) and to check them out. He called them consistent and fast. On wrx, my Texas buddy @wam78 also spoke highly of Honmas and said these “have another gear.” That is spot on. 

 

They’re unbelievably affordable now for a high-tech, quality forged iron. Honma is a top brand in Asia (very popular in South Korea, I noticed when I was there) but has little resell value in the U.S. But who cares when sets can be found for $450 or less new! Just buy new Honma sets first released 2-3 years ago and avoid that major depreciation. I think players are put off by the lighter Izard shafts but those are high-quality shafts. Honma does their own R&D in Japan. It’s a top shelf company. And they can be changed or kept in the longer irons and changed in the shorter clubs. No big deal.
 

Even better they are easy to combo in the short irons if you want with either the TR20P or V — newer models but already dropping in price, especially on the preowned market. The P is actually a perfect matchup. 

And fyi, last week Rock Bottom was selling the easy-launching 2020 Honma XP-1 fairways (3 wood has a carbon crown), new for $75! Those were north of $300 new. So I got the 3 with a really whippy 53g regular shaft. I’ll change that to a Diamana BF 70g I have and see how she goes.

[wam78]

@dmeeksDC is spot on!  Honma makes incredible gear, especially irons.  I had the tr20v, p and TW-x combo set last year and they were impressive.  The TW-x was one of the best looking hollow body irons I’ve seen.  Has plenty of horsepower without techy.  Some amazing irons for sure!  Could easily game them again.

[ChadL]

If I wasn't as steep as I am (I'm not changing either), I'd have a set of these.  However, I can't imagine the wide sole is going to work well for me.  For perspective I'm 5.5-6.0 down with a 6 iron, 6.5-7.0 down with a PW.

Edited November 21, 2022 by ChadL

[GolfingLefty18]

Well- I’m bummed. Put in an order with Pro Clubs on eBay and they cancelled my order after marking it as shipped, stating no more sets in inventory. Was going to be a Birthday present to myself. Crud. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by GolfingLefty18

[dmeeksDC]

6 hours ago, GolfingLefty18 said:

Well- I’m bummed. Put in an order with Pro Clubs on eBay and they cancelled my order after marking it as shipped, stating no more sets in inventory. Was going to be a Birthday present to myself. Crud. 

That is a bummer. Looking for a lefty set? May want to keep checking. Sometimes they get returns. The Pro Clubs eBay store is currently showing one lefty set in stock. So maybe they found one more set or could be their eBay listing does not stay current.

[GolfingLefty18]

1 hour ago, dmeeksDC said:

That is a bummer. Looking for a lefty set? May want to keep checking. Sometimes they get returns. The Pro Clubs eBay store is currently showing one lefty set in stock. So maybe they found one more set or could be their eBay listing does not stay current.

Thats a regular. I put in for stiff flex with the Vizards. 

[flushem]

Quite unfortunate.  I been buying handful of Honma clubs from ProClubs.  

[GolfingLefty18]

7 minutes ago, flushem said:

Quite unfortunate.  I been buying handful of Honma clubs from ProClubs.  

Give me my iron set!!! haha

[wobgon]

Somewhat off topic here, but does anyone know where a tr20v 11 iron could be bought?

[dmeeksDC]

53 minutes ago, wobgon said:

Somewhat off topic here, but does anyone know where a tr20v 11 iron could be bought?

If you don’t get one in a set, best bet is to keep checking eBay for a single. They’re not super rare, they’re out there, but they are a bit hard to come by. They do pop up. I picked up a new T20V 11 head only from Mike’s Golf Outlet for $90. Had been seeing 8,9 and 10 heads for a while and one day there was an 11 head. Them, Pro Clubs and Quickship Golf often have Honma stuff. 

[wobgon]

1 hour ago, dmeeksDC said:

If you don’t get one in a set, best bet is to keep checking eBay for a single. They’re not super rare, they’re out there, but they are a bit hard to come by. They do pop up. I picked up a new T20V 11 head only from Mike’s Golf Outlet for $90. Had been seeing 8,9 and 10 heads for a while and one day there was an 11 head. Them, Pro Clubs and Quickship Golf often have Honma stuff. 

So you are the one 🧐......You bought this one just before I started looking.....I saw it among the sold items. 

[dmeeksDC]

44 minutes ago, wobgon said:

So you are the one 🧐......You bought this one just before I started looking.....I saw it among the sold items. 

Well, I am not sure I am going to play it. I am testing an Edison 51 gap wedge at that spot against the incumbent New Level Type M 50 degree, which is a lower bounce option built with an s300 8 iron shaft trim and has performed very well. If either of those sticks, you can have first right of refusal on the TR20-V 11 head if you have not already found one (and you still want it.) I won’t let it sit around. I am solid on my Edel SMS T grind wedge at 54. Had a great season with that club. It got me in tight for a noticeable uptick in birdies. 
 

I am settling on some combo of TW-X (4,5), TR20P (6-8) and V (9-10, undecided on 11.) The head size and playability in that lineup suits me. I’m impressed by the Honma irons. Compare any of those three irons to irons of similar construction, the Honmas are real contenders. 

 

I may have to reshaft to make it work. I like the feel of the stock Vizard 85 in the TW-X but I’ve tested exhaustively and I need heavier. Have been pleased with a test 6 iron built with a Paderson Kinetixx Ballistic 110 (reg flex, they are stable.) The P’s have Project X Rifle 5.5’s in them and I could just leave those and do the Paderson in the long irons. I have no problem mixing shafts in a set, I pay attention mainly to weight. 

[braincramp52]

45 degrees and sunny with very little wind so I got in some quality time with the Honma's today . Can't think of the last time I've been this impressed with a set of irons. They are everything Touch and Conrad said they were and more. Here's my take.

 

Distance - they are a degree weaker in lofts than my G400's but distance seems the same even though it was pretty damn cool. They could be longer if the temps would have been in the 60's or 70's. They feel Hot off the face.

 

Feel/Sound - I can't describe what perfect sounds or feels like but that's what they are. I flushed one 5 iron that just made me laugh out loud. I'm going to speak a word I swore I'd never say when it comes to iron feel....... Butter!

 

Forgiveness - I have no idea how Honma got this much forgiveness out of a iron with such a small footprint but they passed with flying colors. They are every bit as forgiving as my Ping G400's were but the turf interaction is so much better. They are so easy to play around the green. The 11 iron is money.

 

I need to get them bent a degree or two flat but these could remain in my bag for quite some time. They are everything I've always wanted in a iron. Bag appeal and a boatload of performance in a neat little package.

[wobgon]

11 hours ago, dmeeksDC said:

Well, I am not sure I am going to play it. I am testing an Edison 51 gap wedge at that spot against the incumbent New Level Type M 50 degree, which is a lower bounce option built with an s300 8 iron shaft trim and has performed very well. If either of those sticks, you can have first right of refusal on the TR20-V 11 head if you have not already found one (and you still want it.) I won’t let it sit around. I am solid on my Edel SMS T grind wedge at 54. Had a great season with that club. It got me in tight for a noticeable uptick in birdies. 
 

I am settling on some combo of TW-X (4,5), TR20P (6-8) and V (9-10, undecided on 11.) The head size and playability in that lineup suits me. I’m impressed by the Honma irons. Compare any of those three irons to irons of similar construction, the Honmas are real contenders. 

 

I may have to reshaft to make it work. I like the feel of the stock Vizard 85 in the TW-X but I’ve tested exhaustively and I need heavier. Have been pleased with a test 6 iron built with a Paderson Kinetixx Ballistic 110 (reg flex, they are stable.) The P’s have Project X Rifle 5.5’s in them and I could just leave those and do the Paderson in the long irons. I have no problem mixing shafts in a set, I pay attention mainly to weight. 

Thanks....Let me know...I am deff. interested in the head.....Send me a message if you decide what you want to do.

[GolfingLefty18]

Well - went with the only remaining set left on eBay in the reg flex even though I play 130x KBS .. reading that Otto Phlex thread on another site could still work. Or I change out shafts- only $439 brand new, no biggie. 

[GolfingLefty18]

They’re here. Lighter flex than I usually play, but I’m taking them to the range before the USA game in the morning. 

[GolfingLefty18]

Definitely got that bag appeal. Side note, I have an unopened LH 11 Iron that I don’t see myself using if anyone’s interested.

Edited December 3, 2022 by GolfingLefty18