Equipment
Honma Beres Nx set: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Honma Beres Nx lineup of woods and irons may take its inspiration from the ultra-high end pricing of that main Beres line and its gold-plated, five-figure offerings, but the Nx is at once slightly more economically accessible and dare-we-say-it more technologically savvy. Included is a carbon-crowned titanium face driver that turns face design on its head for better off-center hit flexing. Also in the mix is an iron head that’s weighted with tungsten and stabilized with an internal resin bar for less twisting on off-center hits.
PRICE: Driver, $750 (9, 10.5 degrees; 11.5 in women’s); Fairway wood, $500 (15, 18 degrees); hybrids, $400 (19, 22, 25 degrees). Iron (7- through 11-iron), $1,750 (graphite), $1,500 (steel). Available at retail April 1.
3 COOL THINGS
1. Speed from the top down … To create more potential distance even on mis-hits, the Beres Nx driver looks to maximize the way the face flexes by using a different approach to how the top of the driver impacts ball speed. Specifically, the multi-level carbon composite crown and the way the face design wraps around the crown (not the sole like other drivers) reflect new ways to generate more ball speed.
On the crown, the pattern of indentations is designed to stiffen the structure so the face can flex more effectively and across a broader area, said Takahiro Suzuki, Honma’s senior product manager. He said that effect is enhanced by the way the face overlaps into the crown, called an “L-Cup.” This technique moves any welding line off the face. By contrast, when the face overlaps into the sole, that weld line would occur in an area high on the face closer to where impact with the driver often occurs.
“In the case of a non-cupped face construction, it is necessary to weld the part that you want to make thinner to increase the rebound of the face,” Suzuki said. “On the Nx, the rigidity is increased with the carbon crown, so it is necessary to obtain high repulsion at the upper part of the face, so we adopted the upper L-Cup construction that does not require welding.
“The construction of the face is very important, and in order to avoid any increase in the thickness of the face near the face due to welding, we welded at a location away from the face.”
Not to be overlooked are the fairway woods and hybrids with heavy steel soles and titanium frames for better low-spin flight and distance-enhancing ball speed.
2. … And from the bottom up. But there are plenty of impacts low on the face, especially on the fairway woods and hybrids, which feature a similar construction on the sole. Specifically, there’s a wide slot in the sole close to the face that’s designed to allow the face to deflect more on impacts that occur low on the face. The slot is widest at the heel and toe areas in an effort to provide more assistance where impacts are often the weakest. All that distance potential is also enhanced by a distinctive variable thickness pattern on the face that radiates in multiple thickness levels away from the center.
Sometimes you see something so different and cool that you’re immediately intrigued, like Honma’s new resin bar behind the face of this club that stretches all the way to the toe where it is attached via a toe screw. The bar is 90 percent resin, making it super light so that it saves weight while damping vibration. The L-face (in which a lip goes over part of the sole) produces plenty of ball speed, especially on shots hit low on the face.
3. The irons play the weighting game. The problem with making a thin face in an iron, especially when you don’t have the support structure of a full hollow body, is making it feel more substantial. That thin face will deflect to improve ball speed, but the vibrations can make it feel like you're being electrocuted. Even worse taking weight out of the face often can leave your center of gravity too close to the heel and not in line with the center of the face, which would give you the best energy transfer.
Honma solves those twin problems by adding a heavy tungsten plug in the toe to help shift the CG back in line with face center. Then to damp unwanted vibrations it connects that tungsten with a cylinder made of polymer resin. The tungsten and resin form a kind of tube that stretches from heel to toe in kind of a low tunnel within the back body of the iron.
“It is possible to lengthen the center of gravity distance by placing tungsten, which has a heavy specific gravity, on the toe side to improve the stability of the head at impact by lengthening the center of gravity distance of the head,” Suzuki said, explaining that the “CG distance” is a measurement of the CG location in the head in relation to the shaft. “The resin bar makes an effective construction to prevent the body from twisting, and as a result, it is possible to achieve a stable shot by increasing the rigidity of the body.”
The ultimate benefits are a high-strength steel alloy face on the 5- through 9-iron that deflects more consistently across a wider area for more consistent speeds. Unlike the driver, the face insert here wraps around the sole to get better flex on low face impacts. While the number of irons in the Beres Nx set is just five, the lofts are strong (the 5-iron is 21 degrees) and spaced out in an effort to get consistent distances. (Note: the 10-iron is 40 degrees and the 11-iron is 45 degrees.) The set also offers a 50-degree A-wedge and a 55-degree sand wedge.
