Brandt Snedeker Testing New Bridgestone J15 Line of Clubs

[mvmac]

For the American market Bridgestone doesn't release new irons and woods every year, heck not even every two years, so this is big news.

At Firestone this week

Quote:

"Sneds is currently testing a prototype version of the new Bridgestone Golf J715 Driver.  These prototypes are the precursors for a larger Bridgestone Golf consumer club launch coming in January.  Since these are not yet 100% ready-for-release we can’t provide a ton of tech details, but we can tell you the new drivers will utilize a proprietary clubface design that reduces spin, resulting in longer more accurate drives.”

Bridgestone Golf will also be launching 3 sets of new irons in 2015.

It appears the order in playability would be the CB then the DF and finally the game improvement DPF.
J15 DF Stands for Driving Forged and J15DPF Stands for Dual Pocket Forged.

Also there's two types of wedges with two different finishes. The Bridgestone Golf Forged and the Forged M. The forged included lofts from 50 to 60 at 2* increments and the M is more limited with only offering 50,52,56 and 58*.

What do you guys think about the NEW Bridgestone Lineup?

[iacas]

That's interesting… I wonder how it looks at address.

[14ledo81]

I agree with @iacas .  That driver face looks interesting.  Definitely different than anything else I have seen.

[jamo]

Those irons look niiiiiiiice.

[Golfingdad]

Those irons look niiiiiiiice.

Agreed!

[David in FL]

I don't care for the irons. They just not that clean looking to my eye......though the CB's are better. Maybe a little reminiscent of the old Titleist 962 DCI's. Driver looks like a beast. I'd like to see it at address too.

[saevel25]

I don't care for the irons. They just not that clean looking to my eye......though the CB's are better. Maybe a little reminiscent of the old Titleist 962 DCI's.

Driver looks like a beast. I'd like to see it at address too.

I agree with that, they just don't look good to me.

[billchao]

The CBs kind of look like my Mizuno MP 62s. I can't quite place it, but these clubs aren't that appealing looking to me.

[jamo]

I don't care for the irons. They just not that clean looking to my eye......though the CB's are better. Maybe a little reminiscent of the old Titleist 962 DCI's.

Maybe I just like the CBs because they look like my irons:

[Golfingdad]

Maybe I just like the CBs because they look like my irons:

Wow.  They look a lottttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt like your irons.  If it wasn't for the B instead of the swoosh, I'd not be able to tell the difference!!

[Ernest Jones]

The CBs are gorgeous. Droolin' over here. Wonder how forgiving they are.

[Golfingdad]

The CBs are gorgeous. Droolin' over here. Wonder how forgiving they are.

I don't know ... perhaps @mvmac should get ahold of a couple sets and send 'em our way so we can find out??? ;)

P.S.  Just went back to look at them and noticed that the one set looks very Titleist AP2-ish.

I also love the Japanese writing on the brochure pics.  :)

[Jeremie Boop]

I never thought about looking at bridgestone clubs, aren't they "players" clubs?

[Dave2512]

PGA SS stocks Bridgestone irons in a far back corner somewhere, I demoed the J40's there a while back. When these are out will probably go just to see. I like manufactures that don't ram out a new iron set every 6 months.

[mvmac]

I don't know ... perhaps @mvmac should get ahold of a couple sets and send 'em our way so we can find out??? ;)

Noted

I never thought about looking at bridgestone clubs, aren't they "players" clubs?

They've made a variety of irons in the past but yes most of the designs have been forged "players" irons. Basically for 12 handicaps and below. With the J40's they had the CB's and Pocket Cavity's, similar to what Mizuno has with the MP 64 and MP 54 irons.

[Chris223]

I never thought about looking at bridgestone clubs, aren't they "players" clubs?

like all manufacturers they make a set or two of "game improvement" clubs as well.

[14ledo81]

The CBs are gorgeous. Droolin' over here. Wonder how forgiving they are.

Agreed... although I think @jamo 's Nike irons look a bit better.  Maybe I just like the swoosh??

[WUTiger]

I never thought about looking at bridgestone clubs, aren't they "players" clubs?

As others have said, Bridgestone usually offers a Game Improvement iron in its mix, as in the current J40 series from 2012:

J40 Cavity Back irons (MPF = 455)	J40 Dual Pocket Cavity irons (MPF = 682)

The cavity back is a player's iron, the DPC a GI. On the pro tour:

• Fred Couples plays DPC 3-PW.
• Brandt Snedeker plays CB 3-9.
• Matt Kutchar plays CB 5-9.

Bridgestone will mix and match combo sets, DPC on longer irons and CB on shorter irons.

This spring, Bridgestone sent me a Test Drive set for Dual Pocket Cavity:

• a 5i and 9i shafted with TT Dynamic Golf SL R300
• 5i and 9i shafted with NS Pro 950 GH, R.flex.

The R300 were OK, but I really liked the NS Pro shafts better. For both shaft types, the slightly cambered sole really moved through the turf cleanly on iron shots.

The Bridgestones were a bit shorter shaft than my Callaway X20 Tours, so I would probably need a slight staff extension if I bought the DPCs. (I ended up reshafting the X20 Tours with NS Pro 8950.GH, a very similar shaft).

See if you can find a Bridgestone demo day. Spend a half hour hitting the irons to get a better idea of how they work.