The new TW757 hybrids are part of a line of affordable offerings from Honma

Honma may not be a name that springs to mind for American golfers when considering a golf club purchase, and while you may have heard of their eye-wateringly expensive Beres line (which includes a $4500 driver) the more affordable offerings in the new TW757 line—driver, fairways, hybrids, and irons—from this premium club maker are worth a look if you are looking to update your WITB lineup.

The thing that stood out for me when I started learning about Honma clubs is that they are built 100% in-house at their manufacturing facility in Sakata, Japan. The benefit in this approach lies in the high level of quality control that is achieved. In my day job I am a mechanical engineer in a large manufacturing facility (not in the golf industry), and believe me, it is much easier to keep an eye on process and product quality when it is happening at your home base and you are not dealing with suppliers.

CONSTRUCTION

The TW757 family of hybrids utilize full stainless-steel construction in the club head, with a 455 Maraging steel face and a Japanese spec SUS630 body. Without going into too much materials science detail, the face material is a high-strength stainless steel that is easily workable in its annealed state before undergoing a single-stage aging treatment to develop the strength and repeatable flexibility required for consistent long-term performance under the impact forces encountered in ball strikes. The body is formed from another type of stainless steel which is subjected to a three-stage annealing-quenching-aging process to develop the high strength and toughness that is needed to support the club face.

The new Honma TW757 hybrids offer advanced design in a classic-looking package.

Equally as important as the materials that comprise the club head, of course, are the shape and configuration of those materials. The TW757 hybrids are designed with a low center of mass (commonly referred to as “center of gravity”, or CG), which is a key characteristic that contributes to the club’s ability to get the ball up into the air for both distance and green-holding ability. The Honma hybrids also incorporate a sole slot behind the face which is said to increase ball speed while boosting launch angle.

Connected to that well-built club head is the Honma Vizard graphite composite shaft, hand-rolled in their Sakata facility, and available in a full range of flex specs.

PERFORMANCE

My hands-on introduction to Honma came in the form of the sleek black beauty of a TW757 4 Hybrid: 40 inches long, 21˚ of loft, weighing in at 357 grams on my scale, with an advertised swing weight of D2.

I will be the first to admit that my 25.2 GHIN handicap may not inspire confidence in my ability to evaluate a golf club’s performance, and I can’t deliver the launch monitor ball-flight data that the full-time equipment sites do since my evaluation of club performance is done the old-fashioned, low-tech way—I take them to a nearby golf course and smack balls down range—but I can certainly judge the feel of impact and the look of the ball flight.

That being said, my relationship with my current hybrids has been problematic, on and off, a situation which I have attempted to treat with grip changes and counterweighting, with moderate success. Comparing my current 4H, a somewhat dated Taylormade product, to the Honma 4-hydrid I found that I was definitely getting more consistently acceptable shots with the Honma. I can’t say that the Honma TW757 turned me into a sharpshooter on long approach shots—it’s not a magic wand, after all—but it inspired a level of confidence that has earned it a spot in my bag, displacing the not-so-trusty Burner Superfast.

At $350 suggested retail the Honma TW757 slots in near the upper end of the price range for hybrid clubs, at or a bit above the price of the premium offerings from domestic manufacturers such as Callaway, Titleist, and Ping—which in my book, makes them worth a tryout at your local clubfitter.