Honma designs and builds clubs to be high-performance tools in the hands of discerning golfers, and with the release of the new Honma TR21 fairway woods, Honma TR21 hybrids, and Honma TR21X irons for 2020, the company is pushing technology and forgiveness like they never have before in a players performance line.

Honma’s TR backstory

The TR21 line builds on the successful TR20 line, which was released earlier this year. The TR line is geared towards the better and aspiring players looking for performance, while Honma’s XP line is catered to players looking to maximize forgiveness.

As a refresher, the entire TR line includes

a multi-piece forged iron in the TR20 P

a single piece forged cavity back in the TR20 V

a blade TR20 B which was released just a few weeks ago

It also features the TR20 driver, which comes in both a 460cc and 440cc version to provide golfers a lower-spinning more traditionally shaped option.

As great as the TR line is up until this point, it was not all-encompassing and left room for traditional lower handicap players that were looking for Honma fairway woods and hybrids to fill out the rest of their bags. It’s not that Honma doesn’t offer clubs in those categories, but the nonadjustable XP-1 fairway woods and hybrids and their draw-biased higher-launching and higher-spinning designs are not where the “TR” player fits in.

This brings us to the TR21 series, which rounds out the line and creates a full bag of options for golfers across the board.

2020 Honma TR21 fairway woods

The TR21 fairway woods come in two options with one being exclusively available in a 3-wood for those golfers looking for a larger fairway wood off the tee or to maximize forgiveness from the fairway and rough.

Honma TR21 F fairway woods

The TR21 F is a precision fairway wood designed for workability and control. At the heart of the control are two adjustable sole weights—one at the rear and one near the front towards the face—as well as the Honma patented “no turn” adjustable hosel. The weights come stock in a 12g/3g configuration to help increase or lower spin, and along with the adjustable weights, there is forward and toe-positioned mass to help centralize the center of gravity and maximize forgiveness.

The 455 carpenter steel crown and face offer proven performance and are both built with variable thicknesses to reduce mass around the head and boost ball speeds off the face. Optimizing mass around lower stress areas of the head might seem commonplace now, but these types of details allow the engineers at Honma to continually fine-tune the end performance of the club and the acoustics to appeal to the end-user.

The final component here is workability, and as mentioned, the adjustable weights and hosel allow Honma fitters and golfers alike to dial in ball flight and distance. The one detail, which Honma designers meticulously honed but may go unnoticed by many golfers, is the leading edge and sole shape. Fairway woods have to be versatile and be hit from all kinds of lies. By removing a small amount of depth from the heel, it becomes a lot easier when a player has to “squeeze down” on one or hit from a tough lie.

Specs, availability, and price

The TR21 F is available in 3-wood, 4-wood, 5-wood, and 7-wood models and comes with one-degree of loft adjustability. The big standout is the 4-wood since most OEMs have dropped that option with the introduction of adjustable hosels. Honma knows loft gapping is crucial in the long game and having the extra wood available prevents golfers from having to close the face to add loft with the standard 3-wood.

They come stock with the in-house designed and manufactured in Japan high-performance Honma VIZARD shaft with 50, 60, and 70-gram options in regular, stiff-regular, stiff, and extra stiff.

The TR20 F fairway woods are priced at $299.00 and will be available at retail starting November 1 (right-hand only).

Honma TR21 F Ti fairway “Big LB”

This is “The Big One.” The TR21 Big-LB packs all of the available technology into a package designed to launch the ball high while drawing inspiration for its name from a club that was first introduced when woods were still, you know, made out of wood.

The key technologies built into the new TR21 BIG-LB are all designed to do one thing—launch it high and launch it far. The thin one-piece titanium body and face are brazed to the heavy steel soleplate.

NOTE: Brazing differs from welding in that the temperature is considerably lower and does not melt the base metals. Rather, the heat source melts a filler metal and draws it into the joint by capillary action. It creates a metallurgical bond between the filler metal and part surfaces. (Source: MachineDesign.com)

The brazing process is commonly used in the production of premium club designs and allows engineers to save weight that would have been added by the welding process. Brazing offers much tighter control of the final center of gravity placement. It is a more costly process for a number of reasons, including the fact the brazing material features a large amount of silver, but when you are trying to squeeze every bit of performance out a design, it’s worth it.

So about that soleplate: It, along with the adjustable tungsten weight, combine to a mass of 102g (with the stock 12g weight). This means that at an estimated total club head weight of 217g, the soleplate and weight make up just over 47 percent of the club’s mass. That’s how you achieve an extremely low and deep CG into a club head.

Other key technology feature

Variable thickness face to maximize ball speed off the center and when mishit

Sole slot behind the face to increase flex, to boost ball speed on lower face strikes

Non-rotating loft and lie adjustability adapter to reduce shaft variation and change lie and loft up +/- 1°

Specs, availability, and price

The BIG-LB is 14 degrees with 1 degree of loft adjustability.

The stock shafts are the in-house designed and manufactured in Japan high-performance Honma VIZARD shaft with 50, 60, and 70g options in regular, stiff-regular, stiff, and extra stiff.

The BIG-LB is priced at $329.00 and will be available at retail starting November 1 (RH only).

Honma TR21 H hybrids

The TR20 H falls in line after the fairway woods in providing a traditionally shaped, compact hybrid with adjustability.

Much like the TS21 fairway woods, they were designed with workability and the better player in mind by providing a visibly higher toe and square topline. Honma understands that better players fear the “hooky” hybrid and engineers have done everything they can to offer maximum workability along with shot-stopping power.

The key features of the new TR20 hybrids are

Thin internally ribbed crown for acoustic tuning and a lower center of gravity

Variable thickness face for faster ball speeds on mishits

Adjustable non-rotating hosel for lie and loft, which according to Honma can also help adjust spin rates up to +/- 700 RPM

Adjustable sole weight (same design as the weights used in the rest of the TR20 and TR21 line) to aid in custom fitting and feel.

Specs, availability, and price

The TR21 H hybrids are available in 18, 21, 24-degree lofts and come with 1 degree of loft adjustability.

They will come stock with the in house designed and manufactured in Japan high-performance Honma VIZARD shaft in 65, and 75g options in regular, stiff-regular, stiff, and extra stiff.

The TR21 H hybrids are priced at $249.00 and will be available at retail starting November 1 (RH only).

Honma TR21X irons

The TR21X irons are Honma’s first entry into the hollow player’s distance category and are going to make the biggest impact as far as any iron they have released to date. They are the biggest iron in the TR line but mirror the design philosophy and aesthetics of the rest of the line, which makes them the perfect candidate for building combo sets.

The TR21X and the whole TR iron series follow what has become an industry trend by designing entire families of irons that allow fitters and golfers to perfectly blend together their perfect combo set. The visual cues of the new TR21X mirror those of the smaller TR20B, so you should expect to see a number of players go that route.

Excelling in the players distance category requires technology, and Honma is pulling out all the stops by building multi-material iron that brings together a high strength steel face, thin steel body, concentrated tungsten weight bars, and low-density foam for acoustic tuning.

Let’s break down the details

Face – The high strength steel face is “L” shaped, which means the bottom wraps around the leading edge to the sole. This moves the weld away from the face and allows for more flexing which creates the potential for more ball speed, especially on lower face misses. It is constructed of C300 maraging steel and is only 2.2mm thick, which puts it near the top of the category.

– The high strength steel face is “L” shaped, which means the bottom wraps around the leading edge to the sole. This moves the weld away from the face and allows for more flexing which creates the potential for more ball speed, especially on lower face misses. It is constructed of C300 maraging steel and is only 2.2mm thick, which puts it near the top of the category. Thin body construction – In order to maximize the amount of discretionary mass in each head the thin body saves as much mass as possible to be positioned around the head, and in this case, is precisely located using concentrated tungsten.

In order to maximize the amount of discretionary mass in each head the thin body saves as much mass as possible to be positioned around the head, and in this case, is precisely located using concentrated tungsten. Tungsten weight bars – Based on the iron in the set, the tungsten weight bars vary to accommodate increasing head weights and to finely position the COG. By using tungsten, engineers can achieve placements not possible with either standard construction of my using less dense steel – the end result is each iron being tuned for loft performance since your 3 iron has to launch a lot differently than your 9 iron.

Based on the iron in the set, the tungsten weight bars vary to accommodate increasing head weights and to finely position the COG. By using tungsten, engineers can achieve placements not possible with either standard construction of my using less dense steel – the end result is each iron being tuned for loft performance since your 3 iron has to launch a lot differently than your 9 iron. Injected foam – The final part of the process is the foam filling to acoustically tune the irons. Performance is important but without making them sound appealing, it’s all for none. In the case of the TR21X we have a set of irons that designers meticulously engineered to deliver on both fronts.

Specs, availability, and price

The TR21X irons are available 3-11 iron (gap wedge)

They will come stock with the in-house designed and manufactured in Japan high-performance Honma VIZARD graphite shaft in 65, and 55g options in regular, stiff-regular, stiff, and extra stiff. They are also available with Nippon’s Steel 950GH Neo along with other custom options available.

The TR21x irons are priced at $212.00 each in graphite and $188.00 in steel. They will be available at retail starting November 1 (RH only)