Bridgestone USA tour players with Tourstage irons

[prairiegolfer]

I noticed in the Riviera tourney photos that Schedeker and Kuchar had Tourstage irons, while Charles Howell had a J38 blade not seen under the pga show forums...Shegeki Maruyama was using a tourstage iron as well but a more forgiving style than his previous blade styles...

Anyone know the forging house for the irons?? Endo??

[Foreleft]

I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.

It seems to me that Bstone made a strategic error in trying to brand its golf division as "Bridgestone" and not keep with Tourstage.

Bridgestone is known for tires, not golf clubs, it would seem.

[prairiegolfer]

Thanks for the info...I agree...they really confused the US consumer...very good products, just confused by the brands. I have a tourstage hat fm Japan and all my fellow golfers have no idea that tourstage is bridgestone.
Hope they get their marketing together...

[Scott@84]

I believe Bridgestone came to the US under Tourstage many years ago and did very poorly.

[Putt For Dough]

I've always found Bridgestone's place in the golf market quite strange. They have a huge budget and could quite easily be one of the dominant OEM's in the western market. I presume they've never seen the potential return in the west as they do with their Tourstage brand in Asia. They invested many millions to be the only brand of tyre in Formula 1 and they must see a return in tyre sales. A bigger stable of staff players on the PGA Tour would presumably see the same return? It's common knowledge that OEM's make more from ball sales than they'll ever make with clubs and Bridgestone has been one of the biggest ball manufacturers for years. They spent a lot of money getting Faldo to play the Rextar brand and it's my understanding that they paid a fortune getting Charles Howell III but haven't seen any success.

I guess if you're currently a Bridgestone staff player, you've got the best of both worlds. Many of them are currently using Tourstage irons and I presume Bridgestone are pretty happy with that. To answer the original question, I believe all of Bridgestone's irons are forged by Endo. Freddie Couples was the only player who had his irons made by Miura but looking at what's currently in his bag (J38 Dual Pocket Cavities), they look pretty standard.

[t_m_harris]

[quote name='Foreleft' date='13 February 2010 - 10:08 PM' timestamp='1266120531' post='2250091']
I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.

It seems to me that Bstone made a strategic error in trying to brand its golf division as "Bridgestone" and not keep with Tourstage.

Bridgestone is known for tires, not golf clubs, it would seem.
[/quote]

The American consumer is familiar with the "Bridgestone" brand, TourStage, not so much. With the brand recognition already in place in our domestic market they wanted to try in capitalize on that and not try and create a new brand. What surprises me is the phasing out of the Precept brand that was already established in the US Market. Seems they could have done so much more with that.
Here are the pics of Brandts GR-XDrive irons from LA...pretty nice!

[Putt For Dough]

Is this the first season they've managed to get Brandt to actually use a set of their irons? The last time I saw his bag (albeit a couple of years ago) he had Taylor Made R7 TP's. In fact, the only Bridgestone club was a prototype 3 wood.

If that's the case, getting him to use any Bridgestone product (Tourstage or not) is an improvement.

[18th Legion]

[quote name='Foreleft' date='13 February 2010 - 11:08 PM' timestamp='1266120531' post='2250091']
I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.
[/quote]
Some Bridgestones are forged by Endo and some by O-Ta Preceision Manufacturing according to Tourspec.

[spark]

[quote name='prairiegolfer' date='14 February 2010 - 01:52 AM' timestamp='1266115942' post='2249941']
I noticed in the Riviera tourney photos that Schedeker and Kuchar had Tourstage irons, while Charles Howell had a J38 blade not seen under the pga show forums...Shegeki Maruyama was using a tourstage iron as well but a more forgiving style than his previous blade styles...Anyone know the forging house for the irons?? Endo??
[/quote]

CHIII seemed to play a rebadged/repainted J36 blade.....

[t_m_harris]

Add Will MacKenzie to the list...some black TourStage 701's. Can anyone make out or know what Driver/3 wood setup he is playing? Thanks.

[varsityhacker]

[quote name='18th Legion' date='16 February 2010 - 05:13 PM' timestamp='1266358413' post='2256099']
[quote name='Foreleft' date='13 February 2010 - 11:08 PM' timestamp='1266120531' post='2250091']
I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.
[/quote]
Some Bridgestones are forged by Endo and some by O-Ta Preceision Manufacturing according to Tourspec.
[/quote]

I believe that the BS J36 line was forged by O-TA the TourStage line is forged by Endo. Not sure about the new J38 line but, with the pockets in them that would signal to me Endo because they are one of the few companies that can forge heads with notches etc. in them.

[HipCheck]

[quote name='DallasPanic' date='15 February 2010 - 06:04 PM' timestamp='1266275040' post='2253782']
[quote name='Foreleft' date='13 February 2010 - 10:08 PM' timestamp='1266120531' post='2250091']
I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.

It seems to me that Bstone made a strategic error in trying to brand its golf division as "Bridgestone" and not keep with Tourstage.

Bridgestone is known for tires, not golf clubs, it would seem.
[/quote]

The American consumer is familiar with the "Bridgestone" brand, TourStage, not so much. With the brand recognition already in place in our domestic market they wanted to try in capitalize on that and not try and create a new brand. What surprises me is the phasing out of the Precept brand that was already established in the US Market. Seems they could have done so much more with that.
Here are the pics of Brandts GR-XDrive irons from LA...pretty nice!
[/quote]

Trust me. Those GRs are pretty damn ugly in person. Not nearly as elegant as the ViQs of years past. I played ViQs for 3 years. LOVED them. I always look for TourStage first, but I've been disappointed recently.

I'm excited to see the CBs and FWs from Bridgestone this year.

[PGAMBR2007]

Ok, here's the answer to all questions straight from Bridgestone guys. In Japan Tourstage has a 75% share of the market, more than Titleist has EVER had and will ever have in the US. It was going to be brought to the US about 5 years ago and got right to the point and then they changed their mind. They have talked about going only Bridgestone and branding the Tourstage stuff Bridgestone but are afraid of losing their 75% share in Japan. It all boils down to not wanting to bite the hand that feeds you. They could bring Tourstage to the US, nobody would know it's Bridgestone. They could change the name to straight Bridgestone and the Japanese would wonder where Tourstage went. When you have 75% in any market you don't really wanna change anything.

[Toosum]

Bridgestone put next to no effort into their international club marketing. Their product development for outside Asia has always seemed to be an afterthought. Why can't they market the same equipment under two brands? I would have though the likely cost of some of the tourstage stuff would have been prohibitive in an international market. You can't fault the quality but if they thought they could sell it into western markets, they'd be doing it.

[PGAMBR2007]

Clubs are not what Bridgestone is all about. They want to make the best ball on the market, and it's pretty obvious that they do since Callaway is paying to use patents, Titleist was sued for stealing patents, and Nike has Bridgestone make it's golf balls!!

[bchester6]

Bridgestone golf clubs have flown under the radar for quite some time now due to their success marketing golf balls and tires, but that's OK. Heck, I had no idea about Miura clubs until I started up on golfwrx so it doesn't surprise me one bit that Bridgestone is one of the industry's last kept secrets. Having said that, they cut absolutely NO corners when it comes to their club designs and apparently they share a lot of design ideas between Japan(Tourstage) and US(Bridgestone). Here's a cool little article, albeit older (2006), that pretty much nails it all and yes they're Endo forged!


http://www.thegolfchannel.com/equipment-insider/words-bridgestone-part-ii-20060/

[poorputter]

I have 3 iron sets: Bridgestone J33 combo irons, tourstage x blade GR not the ones used by brandt snedeker but a previous pocket cavity model and J36 Black Limited Cb's. IMO I bought all three bec. they are the softest best performing irons I have ever tried and believe me I have gone through alot. For me they are even softer than fourteen tc 770's considered to be one of the softest forged irons ever.

[Sloth1098]

I seem to recall hearing about some legal issues directed towards Tour[i]Stage [/i]from the folks at Tour [i]Edge, [/i]and that Bridgestone agreed to change the name for the U.S. market. Perhaps someone better in the know can confirm or deny, perhaps was just a rumour.

[CallawayKid86]

I just picked up a set of my first Bridgestone irons and can attest that they are the best I have ever played. I went back and forth with TM 300 forged, to Titleist 710 CB and was actually looking at a new set of AP2s when I got a great deal on the J38 DPC in like new condition. Definitely glad I went with them as they are more forgiving than anything I have ever played and extremely responsive. I would love to see Bridgestone come out with more GI to SGI stuff for some of the guys I play with. I can count on 1 hand the number of guys in my association who play a forged iron.

[tsupo]

[quote name='HipCheck' timestamp='1266421034' post='2257552']
[quote name='DallasPanic' date='15 February 2010 - 06:04 PM' timestamp='1266275040' post='2253782']
[quote name='Foreleft' date='13 February 2010 - 10:08 PM' timestamp='1266120531' post='2250091']
I believe that most, if not all, of Bstone's forgings are from Endo.

It seems to me that Bstone made a strategic error in trying to brand its golf division as "Bridgestone" and not keep with Tourstage.

Bridgestone is known for tires, not golf clubs, it would seem.
[/quote]

The American consumer is familiar with the "Bridgestone" brand, TourStage, not so much. With the brand recognition already in place in our domestic market they wanted to try in capitalize on that and not try and create a new brand. What surprises me is the phasing out of the Precept brand that was already established in the US Market. Seems they could have done so much more with that.
Here are the pics of Brandts GR-XDrive irons from LA...pretty nice!
[/quote]

Trust me. Those GRs are pretty damn ugly in person. Not nearly as elegant as the ViQs of years past. I played ViQs for 3 years. LOVED them. I always look for TourStage first, but I've been disappointed recently.

I'm excited to see the CBs and FWs from Bridgestone this year.
[/quote]

the latest offerings form tourstage .
the new 909 nad the 709 are a cpl of the standout out irons this eason,
they are a fantastic evoultion to previous models in look and size and playbility.

a definaite improvement over the last 2 seasons.

[lumberman2462]

Agree with above poster about how odd the Bridgestone strategy has developed.

However....if I were Mr. Bridgestone I would rather have the Bridgestone name out there vs Tourstage.

Whoever forges those clubs does good work.

[Joe9977]

Fast forward several years here and Bridgestone Golf is pretty awesome, I hope they stay small and just make great products.

[pjc]

Fast forward several years here and Bridgestone Golf is pretty awesome, I hope they stay small and just make great products.

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