SirShanksAlot
A relatively new player has emerged on the golf club scene. Since its big launch in 2004, Nakashima has been making waves among golfers around the world. Their unique approach to selling golf clubs along with cutting edge technology and classic designs has made them a rapidly growing manufacturer.
John Nakashima, President has shunned the traditional mass-production approach to making golf clubs. Quality craftsmanship is stressed in all Nakashima golf clubs ensuring performance and great looking clubs. As well, all Nakashima dealers are authorized Master Clubmakers who ensure that all of their clubs are fit properly.
The NP-1 line of drivers introduced in 2004 exudes all of the qualities that Nakashima stresses in their golf clubs. It is a very clean looking golf club with a deep face and a classic pear-shape. The glossy black finish is simple and classy. The NP-1 is a two piece driver consisting of a titanium body and a Super Micro Grain forged titanium face. The use of only two pieces as opposed to three or four means more energy is transferred into the golf ball at impact. Because of their custom-fitting approach the NP-1 is available in almost any shaft imaginable. It also comes in four different head sizes ranging from 380 to 460 cc’s so there is something for everyone.
As well as being one of the nicest looking drivers on the market, the NP-1 performs. It is long off the tee and the larger of the four models, 442 and 460 cc, are extremely forgiving. Despite it’s classic looks the feel is somewhat surprising. The feel and sound at impact are alot tinnier than one would expect from the club and not very solid. The other downside is a limited distributorship. Because Nakashima only deals through authorized club builders you might have to search a little harder to find these clubs. Once you do find them though, I’m sure you’ll agree that it was worth the effort.
Overall Rating – 80%
Target Handicap: Anybody – depending on head size
Ball Flight: mid to mid-high in the larger heads
Lofts: range from 8.5 to 15.5 depending on the head
Shafts: custom
I have been playing 10.5* NP-1 for 3 months.
I currently have it setup with proforce gold low torque 55g 350 tip stiff shaft, callaway oversized grip at 44.5 inches total length. Ball flight is mid on proper impact and anything else is from angle of attack being other than optimal. I find that driver length is by far the most important part of my driver fitting simply because consistency over the whole set trumps consistency with only one club and most sets have too large of a gap between the longest iron or hybrid of equal length it was replaced with and the driver length. Most sets will leap from 39.0 inches for a 4 iron to 45.5 inches for a driver. Personally most heads are only as good as the shaft it was paired with and the swing it was fitted for. I can pure this setup at 280 carry 300 or so with roll but the shaft is to long for my swing and will be dropping 2 inches or more and trying a steel shaft or light extremely stiff graphite shaft. My consistency is not rewarded at 44.5 inches and when it comes to dispersion from off centre contact and sending that carry off line I end up loosing the advantage. And there has been to many rounds I have destroyed with 2 driver swings out of play. Playing a driver length over 42.5 inches is what prevents me from breaking 80 and that affects the rest of my game no matter how focused I stay I know where the strokes went either in the bush or from ending up in offline negating the distance towards the pin. I believe 42-42.5 is by far the best driver length for anyone interested in impact consistency off the driver face after that mess with weight, stiffness, and torque all you want but at least the length won’t be to blame anymore. 2 inches in length isn’t going to cost me much in distance because it will be straighter, the shortest route to success plus if the contact is more on centre ball speed will improve perhaps improving distance when I pure it over the 44.5 inch length. So remember a club cannot fix a bad swing if the bad swing is caused by the club that requires a different swing than the rest of the clubs in the set. Keep the length gapped so it maintains balance with the whole set and what you want to accomplish (consistency consistency consistency). Most people would like more of that on the predictable side instead of unpredictable.