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Company Spotlight: Epon by Endo

Published

11 years ago

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Golfers who are passionate about equipment know the name Endo, a forging house that accounts for 90 percent of forging on the professional golf tours worldwide. But what some of those golfers might not know is that on top of forging products for companies like Bridgestone, Callaway and Nike, Endo also produces its own line of equipment, called Epon.

While Epon is relatively unknown in the US, the company has a 35 percent marketshare of custom clubs sales in Japan. According to William Cho, North America distributor for Epon Golf USA, the company is taking steps to grow in the US and Canada, placing its products in the hands of certified clubfitters who are handpicked based on their expertise and geography.

Chris Darakdjian, owner of Pure Impact Golf Studio in Commerce, Mich., is one of those fitters. Darakdjian has been fitting golfers for Epon clubs for nearly two years, and has been impressed with the quality of Epon products, especially the irons.

[youtube id=”VNAuJXoH8aM” width=”620″ height=”360″]

“The tolerances are pretty much always perfect,” Darakdjian said. “Most golfers who I fit hit them longer than what they came in with.”

According to Cho, the secret of Epon golf clubs is the 40 years of experience that its parent company, Endo, has spent designing, developing and forging equipment for major OEM brands.

“Throughout the years, Endo has accumulated so much information and knowledge on club design and manufacturing,” Cho said. “Endo is the only manufacturer in the world with their level of technology, design, and R&D team to truly develop and create a product from beginning to end — raw material selection to retail sales.”

That control gives Epon the ability to forge complex iron head shapes that other companies are forced to cast, according to Cho, creating products that have a much better feel. The company also uses a special robot laser welding process on its more forgiving iron models that Cho says creates club faces with 0.83 COR, the maximum allowed by golf’s ruling bodies.

Epon 502Epon 702

For Darakdjian, this has resulted in higher ball speeds and higher smash factors during fittings, which has translated to longer distance. All this technology and attention to detail comes at a price, however. While Epon does not provide specific pricing for its products, sets usually cost $2000 or more when puchased from an Epon Certified Club Fitter.

Click here to see in-hand photos of more Epon products in the “Japanese Domestic/non-US market equipment” forum. 

epon irons

Here is a gallery of photos

 

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4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. John

    Jul 30, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    So J40’s from Bridgestone are just as good as epon would you say however hopefully cheaper. Does endo make the Titleist Mb CB blades and Mizuno forged products. Cheers

    Reply Report comment

  2. MyBluC4

    Jan 23, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Absolutely stunning equipment in terms of design and construction.

    Reply Report comment

  3. pablo

    Jan 18, 2013 at 6:25 pm

    Interesting. I hit Bridgestone J40 cavity backs and never knew that Epon made them.

    Reply Report comment

    • no@thanks

      Jan 18, 2013 at 7:29 pm

      I hit J40’s as well, but ENDO makes them. Not EPON, that’s the house brand from ENDO.

      Reply Report comment

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Whats in the Bag

Matthieu Pavon WITB 2024 (May)

Published

17 hours ago

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May 9, 2024

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Driver: Ping G430 Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X

3-wood: Ping G430 LST (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 7 X

Hybrid: Ping G430 (19 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 10 X

Irons: Ping i230 (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X

Wedges: Ping Si59 (52-12S, 58-8B)
Shafts: Nippon Modus3 Tour 120 X

Putter: Ping Cadence TR Tomcat C
Grip: SuperStroke Claw 1.0P

Grips: Golf Pride MCC Align

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Check out more in-hand photos of Pavon’s gear here.

 

 

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

Published

18 hours ago

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May 9, 2024

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Club Junkie WITB, league night week 4: Some old, some new

Published

18 hours ago

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May 9, 2024

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We enter week 4 of Thursday night men’s league feeling a little more confident in the game. BK is hoping to go a little lower and reduce the mistakes out there with these clubs in the bag. Watch the video for the full breakdown of why these clubs are getting the starting nod this week!

Driver: Titleist TSR2 (10 degrees, neutral setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana WB 63 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Lin-Q M40X TSPX Blue 7F5

7-wood: Ping G430 Max (-1 degree, flat Ssetting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 S

Iron: Mizuno Pro Fli-Hi 4
Shaft: Aerotech Steelfiber hls880 S

Irons: PXG 0317 Tour (5-PW)
Shaft: LA Golf A-Series 105 Low (4)

Wedge: Titleist Vokey SM10 (50-08F)
Shaft: UST Mamiya Dart V 105 F4 Wedge

Wedge: Ping S159 (56-10H)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115

Wedge: Ping S159 (60-08B)
Shaft: Ping Z-Z115

Putter: PXG Battle Ready II Brandon
Shaft: BGT Stability Tour Spec One

Ball: Callaway Chrome Tour X

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