Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Miura's New Driver: The Most Compact 460cc in Golf

The Perfect Partner for Miura Irons

(VANCOUVER, British Columbia) - Miura Golf has released its new SIT-460 driver, the Japanese company's biggest driver yet. Its large volume offers the benefits of a big-headed driver while its careful design offers a compact look not often found in such clubs.

The SIT-460 (SIT stands for Strong & Ideal Trajectory) has an all-titanium head with a volume of 460 cubic centimeters, the maximum size allowed by the Rules of Golf. But patient and careful shaping by Shinei Miura, son of company founder and legendary club maker Katsuhiro Miura, has yielded a head that offers the golfer a much more compact look at address than other 460 cc drivers.

"Our dealers told us their customers have been looking for the forgiveness and distance a bigger head can provide," said Adam Barr, president of Miura. "With the help of his father and his brother Yoshitaka, Shinei took that as a challenge and set to work on something that would offer big-driver satisfaction while still giving a confident, classic look at address. What he came up with has surprised a lot of people who put it behind the ball and think it's much smaller than 460."

One of the ways Shinei accomplished this was to make the face of the driver taller than in other models. This not only makes more vertical space for overall volume, but also increases the effective hitting area. The large face has visual benefits too: a golfer seeing the tall SIT-460 face behind the ball gets the feeling of confidence that he will definitely strike the ball solidly in the back.

"This is a design lesson Shinei extended from the success we had in 2011 with our new MG Hybrids," Barr said. "The faces of those clubs are about as tall as the golf ball, and that gives a good sense of 'ball coverage' for the coming hit. The driver simply builds on that theory."

Miura's irons, wedges, and putters are forged in their Himeji, Japan forge and factory, but its drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids have always been cast products. The new SIT-460 is a total Miura design, with close supervision of the casting process by Shinei. The all-titanium head is cast in two pieces, the body and the face. Then the face is laser-welded onto the body and carefully finished so that they two pieces are completely unified. Shinei insisted on the two-piece construction because he is convinced this results in a more stable head than three- and four-piece options.

Even though the SIT-460 is 70 cc bigger than Miura's previous driver, the Precious Edition 390, the new head weighs just 196 grams -- four grams less than the Precious Edition. This light weight opens up more fitting options for authorized Miura dealer/fitters, who can pair a wider range of shafts with the large, light head.

The Miura SIT-460 driver will be available in 9 degrees and 10.5 degrees of loft, right-handed only. It will be available at selected Miura dealers immediately, and at others by mid-April. Suggested retail price will begin at US$595 and will vary depending on the shaft the golfer chooses with the advice of an authorized Miura dealer/fitter. To find a Miura dealer near you, go to www.MiuraGolf.com and click on Find Dealers along the top navigation.

Contact: AmericanGolferBlog@gmail.com

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