Waited Two Years For The Hands Of God

Two years ago, I found out about a master craftsman, Mr. Katsuhiro Miura, known by the Japanese media as the Hands of God. He hails from Himeji City, Japan, an area steeped in antiquity as the home of the Samurai sword.

The forging skills of the ancient master sword makers have been handed down the generations and today have evolved into making some of the finest forged irons and wedges known to man.

Among many others, the most notorious urban-myth type of rumour was that Tiger sought him out, and insisted Nike bought Miura's forgings, put their logo on them, and used them as his blades.

Wow, these guys are good, that's the best sales pitch I have ever heard. But, a part of me wondered, was it all just hype? Can it be that good?

"When golfers see a Miura club for the first time, and actually hold it in their hands, there is a common shared experience - LOVE at first sight. And like trying to define love, no words can seem to describe the absolute exhilaration one gets from swinging a Miura club, it is something that one needs to FEEL to discover."

Really? I mean, I know marketing's job is to sell the product, but... really?

Anyway, my curiosity was peaked.

One fine day, a demo club, the Miura Tournament Blade arrived at my friendly neighbourhood clubfitter. So I took it with me for a few days, to see what the fuss was about.

Being a beginner back then, my swing was rather haphazard, and I painfully failed to see what the fuss was about as I mishit one shot after another.

Suddenly, the ball took off with quiet sound of a gentle breeze, and my hands felt the impact as light as a feather's caress. I had finally found the sweet spot.

Wow... my jaw dropped.

Long story short, fell in love with the buttery feel, like the ad said above, and I had to own a set for myself. I ended up choosing the small blade special edition, the Miura Series 1957 Special Edition Small Blade. The beauties arrived accompanied by a 'birth certificate'.

I looked at each of these art pieces and realized it would be a pity to scar them with an inconsistent beginner's swing. I stored them away carefully, and I vowed that one day, I will develop a swing worthy and able enough to handle them.

That was two years ago.

After patiently working on my swing all this while, I am finally about to know what these beauties feel like. This morning, I took these lovelies out of storage and instructed my clubfitter to build up the set.



They are almost too beautiful to hit, won't you agree?



Look at the fine and uniform flow of the grain.



The shaft of choice, Project X 6.0.



Two years was a long wait.



The wait is almost over...

Very nice club bro!

Drooling!

Very very sweet set indeed!

Well worth the wait.

They are nice!

Looks like ikasu blades... Himeiji forged too. Jap blades are really nicely done. And almost looks the same. I guess this set should be as nice as the ikasus.

Fantastic story ... Good luck , and keep us posted on your progress!!!

Very cool story! I actually like the story so much, I almost want to try these clubs...
Great marketing by Miura liao! Keep me posted on how they feel on the course.

....small blade !!!!

what a beauty....this is the type of iron that i would only take and keep...really can't bear to hit it

do update us more on the performance on this set.....i'm very keen to know ....keke

once a again...very beautiful set of iron

Too sweet to use I bet they play very well

ok....I want to honest...I don think i have the talent EVER to use such clubs


and I want to be more honest.....I am pretty much tasteless....in the sense that I cant really tell or appreciate the workmanship


but I want to be very honest....I herad many good things about the quality of this brand

and lastly I am honest to wish our bro....best wishes and enjoy the irons


honestly...

They look really very nice sia......
Must be the photography....

How much a set like that?

simoner wrote:

Very nice club bro!

Drooling!

Thanks bro! So good I could not resist despite (or perhaps even because of) the hefty price tag.

asahi wrote:

Very very sweet set indeed!

Well worth the wait.

Originally just wanted to keep these in a frame as a collectible, very happy learning to hit my Mizuno MP52. Then recently my swing after two long years of working on it began to hit blades well, until I could not wait any longer...

FD448 wrote:

They are nice!

I surely agree. In fact, I think they are engineered to evoke precisely such a response, followed by a secondary response of reaching for the wallet to produce a piece of plastic...

If subject needs further convincing, have subject hit some golf balls with it, and the resulting reaching for the wallet is almost inevitable.

duffader wrote:

Looks like ikasu blades... Himeiji forged too. Jap blades are really nicely done. And almost looks the same. I guess this set should be as nice as the ikasus.

Naturally I googled Ikasu blades, and I can see what you mean. It even has a slight Japanese Transformer look to the edges of the muscle. Oooh.... sharp....

A quick check, and I observed the following, if I'm not mistaken...

Difference in philosophy of the manufacturing process and hosel construction. Miura presses the forgings three tines, while Ikasu twice. Miura presses the club head without hosel to avoid distorting the grain, Ikasu presses the club including the hosel as one-piece to avoid welding the hosel. Miura uses a proprietary spin-welding process where the hosel is actually spun at high speed into the club head until the heat melts the steel and creates an accurate join. Engineering techniques like that really appeal to my childhood inner nerd.

TourSwing wrote:

Fantastic story ... Good luck , and keep us posted on your progress!!!

Thank you bro, the story of the two-year wait is actually also the story of my swing evolution, so definitely more to come.

Schulo wrote:

Very cool story! I actually like the story so much, I almost want to try these clubs...
Great marketing by Miura liao! Keep me posted on how they feel on the course.

All they had to mention was Himeiji, samurai sword makers, and my imagination did the rest.

It seems many brands seek Miura to produce OEM clubs for them, but to quote the website, "Due to the confidential nature of his prior OEM engagements, it isn't possible to describe in detail the championships that have been won with clubs forged by Katsuhiro Miura, but the list is lengthy and the championships that are a matter of public record include: 2 Masters Championship, 1 United States Open Championship, 1 Senior PGA Championship and 25 wins on the Japanese Tour."

The way they offer just a bit of information, leaving the rest to your imagination is pure genius.

Just like a full-length cheongsam that only reveals a slit of thigh, just enough of a hint... ooohh...

golf_snowman wrote:

....small blade !!!!

what a beauty....this is the type of iron that i would only take and keep...really can't bear to hit it

do update us more on the performance on this set.....i'm very keen to know ....keke

once a again...very beautiful set of iron

Yes, looks intimidating how small it is.

I will take some photos later today the view when addressing the ball - really small! Esp when compared to other clubs.

I have not even hit a baby blade even once before, so this will be a first. Will update here for sure.

Technospaz wrote:

Too sweet to use I bet they play very well

Like you, I appreciate art and beauty, and this thing is the embodiment of both.

So, I would really hate to nick it up.

Guess I will be sorting out the clean balls from the dirty balls at the range before hitting with these, and wiping the face with a towel after every strike, the way I do with my Adams A12 hybrid now; which by the way, still looks almost new after a few sessions, so I am well pleased with it.

Duval_S wrote:

ok....I want to honest...I don think i have the talent EVER to use such clubs


and I want to be more honest.....I am pretty much tasteless....in the sense that I cant really tell or appreciate the workmanship


but I want to be very honest....I herad many good things about the quality of this brand

and lastly I am honest to wish our bro....best wishes and enjoy the irons


honestly...

Thank you for your honesty bro! And thanks for all your good wishes, sincerely.

And if we're really honest, at the back of all our minds we are thinking, hey this guy, two years into golf, are you sure you can hit such a small blade? Sure or not....???? In fact, it is at the back of my mind too.

To find out how I made up my mind, finally, after two years, to take these beauties out and play them, read on...

scarynight wrote:

They look really very nice sia......
Must be the photography....

How much a set like that?

See what just happened?

You joined in July 2009, and this is your first post ever.

The Hands of God has moved you to post. It does things like that.

And you're the first to note the photography - must be a fellow photography buff, thanks.

How much? Let's just say, if I were to buy a completed set of Mizuno MP68 in Project X, full set, it will cost almost twice as much to buy these blades, just the heads alone. I know, it hurts me every time I think about it. Beauty comes with sacrifice.

Lee36328 wrote:

Technospaz wrote:

Too sweet to use I bet they play very well

Like you, I appreciate art and beauty, and this thing is the embodiment of both.

So, I would really hate to nick it up.

Guess I will be sorting out the clean balls from the dirty balls at the range before hitting with these, and wiping the face with a towel after every strike, the way I do with my Adams A12 hybrid now; which by the way, still looks almost new after a few sessions, so I am well pleased with it.

Hmmm....

Odd story - my friend told his wife something similar when she got a pair of Manolos. "They're pretty when kept but prettier when worn." Scratched 'em soon after. Blamed him ever since.

Technospaz wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Technospaz wrote:

Too sweet to use I bet they play very well

Like you, I appreciate art and beauty, and this thing is the embodiment of both.

So, I would really hate to nick it up.

Guess I will be sorting out the clean balls from the dirty balls at the range before hitting with these, and wiping the face with a towel after every strike, the way I do with my Adams A12 hybrid now; which by the way, still looks almost new after a few sessions, so I am well pleased with it.

Hmmm....

Odd story - my friend told his wife something similar when she got a pair of Manolos. "They're pretty when kept but prettier when worn." Scratched 'em soon after. Blamed him ever since.

bro,

it really depends on where she wears them..

After two years at the range, and uncountable buckets of balls, not to mention buckets of sweat, I have finally outgrown the Mizzy MP52's. The offset was good in the beginning when I needed help squaring the club, but now that the swing is more neutral, the offset is causing me to hook.

Like this.



I tried the Mizuno blade, the MP68, but had great difficulty squaring the face sufficiently, blocking it waaay right with an open face.

My helpful friendly neighbourhood clubfitter, Duncan of Absolut Custom Golf, gave me an important tip in my takeaway - I was going back too deep - and it started getting better. Still not quite blade-ready, but improving. Using this tip, I smashed the Adams Pro Black hybrid at 95mph, and 195m carry in the Trackman.

So, it was back to the range, this time I switched off the camera, and explored purely by feel, using the unforgiving Adams Pro Black and it's friendlier brother the A12.

Next, I attended a swing clinic courtesy of Titleist, conducted by American pro Berry Henson, with multiple wins on the Asian Tour. He gave me two comments - my preshot routine and my setup. Sounds real simple, right? But oh, so profound when I explored and internalized it.

I started hitting balls at the range beyond the fence, up the slope, at the tree outside of the range...Wha...?

To be continued.... first I gotta go to Absolut to decide on the grip for my beauties and pick them up today!

6I with 22m of roll !?!?