HONMA’s BERES Lady Irons - Craftsmanship and Performance . . . for a Price

- HONMA Golf of Japan recently released a new model of irons in their BERES series: the thin sole, ML503S. These irons are special for both their design and craftsmanship. In a way, the HONMA BERES is golf’s equivalent of the famous Hatori Hanzo samurai katana (sword) found in the “Kill Bill” movies. According to the HONMA website, built at the SAKATA Factory, which is one of the largest golf club manufacturing facilities in the world, each and every golf club head and shaft is painstakingly handcrafted.

That translates into it taking up to six months to produce each club. Needless to say, a HONMA club is something that should be treated with respect. A frustrated golfer would be better off flinging a shoe or towel than mucking with the karma that comes with these clubs.

What Makes the HONMA BERES ML503S Series So Special?

HONMA did quite a few smart things with the design. Starting with a traditional iron shape, the toe and heel of the sole have been rounded with the extraneous weight being transferred to the back and bottom of the sole. What that does is lower the center of gravity, which is helpful for increasing trajectory (height of the shot) as well as distance. If you ask women, they’ll tell you these are two major concerns, with the third being accuracy. What HONMA did was use CAD to tinker around until it came up with a design that would help the club grip the ball more uniformly on the face.

The club head of the ML503S consists of a SUS630 stainless body and a high-strength custom steel "Forged F" face. The two-piece structure offers a nice balance of strength and feel – which is mild at impact. Think of it as “gain without pain.”

The BERES ML503S series features the new ARMRQ UD40 graphite shaft that was specially designed for lady players with slow to average club head speed.

Last but not least, what makes the HONMA BERES ML503S series special is the way the clubs are built. If you go to the section of the website that talks about the SAKATA Factory (http://www.honmagolf.co.jp/mono/c_0.php?lang=en), you will see the words Pride, Perfection, Joy and Ultimate Skill. Here’s what was written under the word Joy:

“As a master craftsman finishes a HONMA club, he experiences a special feeling. It’s a feeling known to the master violin makers of Italy: a close, almost spiritual connection to the future instrument owner. He can almost hear the sound of a shot at impact, see the soaring flight of the ball, and share the delight of a well-played hole. The special contentment that comes from a round of golf may not appear on any scorecard, but it exists nonetheless. It’s part of the HONMA experience, and it’s something we all share. Your victories – and your special moments on the course – will be HONMA’s as well.”

This is powerful stuff and definitely a contributor to what makes holding a BERES ML503S club so special.

Grades of Handcraft…

Since these are NOT clubs cranked out in volume, you won’t be seeing bargain basement prices. In fact, you should probably tear up any price list you may have from industry standard sets of clubs by Nike or Callaway or Ping. The HONMA BERES series comes with a premium price tag:

>> The lower, 2-Star grade, which is considered “standard production” runs $345 per club.

>> The ultra-prestigious, 5-Star grade escalates to over $4K per club (you read that right!). In this price range, you’ll get a club that features P1000 Platinum, 24k gold embellishment and an ion-plated shaft. Quite the showpiece!

Watch Your Sizes…

An 8-piece set of HONMA BERES ML503S irons consists of No.5-10, 11, and a sand wedge. Since a typical set starts with either a 3 or 4-iron and ends with a pitching wedge and sand wedge, this numbering scheme can be kind of confusing. HONMA’s website has a handy chart that shows which lofts are associated to each iron. What they call a 5-iron IS a 3-iron equivalent (24-degree). Their 8-iron is equal to a normal 6-iron (34-degree) and their 11-iron is what we call a 49-degree pitching wedge. That pretty much means that if you do invest in HONMA irons, you need to re-think the clubs you are using.

From Japan to You…

Getting a hold of these clubs could be a challenge in the United States. If you go to the HONMA Golf website and try to track down a dealer, you’ll find this message:

“Thank you for visiting the Premier Golf Distributors, Inc. Authorized Dealer search form. Unfortunately, this feature is currently under construction. Please check back later to find an authorized HONMA dealer near you.”

If you go to the Request Info page, you’ll see this:

“Premier Golf Distributors, Inc. does not sell directly to the public.”

Clearly, the press release issued in October for the BERES Ladies Irons was designed to get dealer interest. So for now, this is a “coming soon” story.

Conclusion

HONMA is onto something with its approach to designing “designer” irons that have been optimized for performance. This level of iron is something that would fit well in a high-end resort or Neiman Marcus if they were to feature a golf boutique in their store in Scottsdale, Arizona.

It would be great if the dealers that end up handling the HONMA BERES irons would do a swing off. Again, this would be ideal in a resort setting where you could “borrow” clubs for a round of golf and see how they’d play.

Seems that just knowing you have the “Hatori Hanzo” equivalent of golf iron in your hand would do wonders for your game. Let’s hope that HONMA gets its feet (and clubs) on the ground in the U.S. in the coming year. They seem to be offering a worthy, albeit pricey, contender for space in the bags of dedicated lady golfers who are looking for a performance and karma bump.

For more information, go to www.honmagolf.com.