Japan’s Honma brings Gain Speed, Beres lines to India

Japanese club and lifestyle brand Honma are looking to gain a share of the growing Indian market for quality equipment with the entry level T//World Gain Speed and mid-range Beres lines of golf clubs.

With the Beres NX, Honma brings the cutting-edge technology, design and finish the brand is known the world over for, most famously for its five-star gold clubs. The philosophy behind the Gain Speed line is to reward golfers with moderate swing speeds greater value for their shots.

In essence the GS series is an entry level set with good looks designed to give golfers greater distance via clubhead speed and stability in shot-making using design and technology to make ball contact more productive. As the product catalogue says, “the TW GS Driver has a raised keel sole toward the heel. This promotes a draw bias.

“An adjustable weight in the heel helps further customize ball flight, while the low/deep centre of gravity works to maximize forgiveness. Made of titanium, it’s thick and thin where it matters, creating straight-and-long tee shorts to optimise speed and stability. The driver also includes a non-rotating hosel adjustment system to keep shafts well aligned and offered in lofts of 9.5, 10.5 and 11.5 degrees.”

Other features of the GS line include lesser spin and greater club-face flex, making for more forgiving clubs. In other words, a much bigger sweet spot that promises no matter almost where you make contact with the club-face, the ball will travel will good pace off it.

GS woods and hybrids, modelled on the same philosophy, offer similar aesthetics and design characteristics giving golfers a familiarity and distance gapping that a matched set provides. The woods sport a traditional shape and size with a draw bias from the heel-weighted design which is mirrored in the hybrids that also help get shots airborne.

For its part, the Beres NX brand promises high technology and high performance translating to better distance and control at a price designed to appeal to the Indian market. As per the catalogue, the Beres NX Vizard driver, the three- and five-woods, a 19° hybrid and the irons (5 to the wedges) minus putter together retail at Rs 4.45 lakh (approx) for 13 clubs in the bag.

On the product itself, the catalogue suggests, “The Beres brand has a tour design taste and is a novel model. It brings high initial ball speed performance through new face and crown structure, high straight stability through high MOI design, stable distance with high trajectory and low spin ball by low and deep centre of gravity and maximum performance by integrated

design of shaft with head by master craftsman in Sakata” (the company’s manufacturing base).

“To attract customers looking to marry performance and exclusivity with a degree of economy, the Beres NX set retails at the Rs 4.45 lakh price point and the GS for Rs 2.04 lakh,” Honma Golf India’s country head Radhika Mehta said.

Honma recently did a three-day demonstration at East Point Golf Club in Vishakapatnam for the first time and is an equipment partner at an upcoming event at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club besides demo days at BPGC and Willingdon Sports Club in Mumbai in late April.