Hidemasa Hoshino has long been a major face of Sri Sports in Japan, primarly Srixon and XXIO. There was a time where he was considered one of the most promising up and coming golfers in Japan but has struggled sometimes to live up to the hype and expectations. However Hoshino is still rather young and has a lot of golf still ahead of him. He is still an example of what is on the horizon when it comes to new golf clubs from Sri-Sports. You will always see him sporting some black prototype driver of the next generation release as well as new model irons with his signature baby blue ” H”.
His current bag is no different. Hoshino sports an all black Srixon Z-TX 8.5* driver as well as all black Z-TX 3 wood. It would be awesome if Srixon released all black clubs like this or at least gave the option for a prototype finish like Tourstage does.
His 5 and 7 woods are 2006 XXIO models which he has been using for the past 3 years based on their great feel and ultra forgiveness. All his woods are shafted with Mamiya Axiv V-Spec shafts in silver and baby blue rather than the usual silver and red. My guess is that Hoshino will be changing or is in the process of changing over to the new UST Mamiya ATTAS shaft.
Hoshino has been bagging the new Z-TX Forged irons for the last few months, and again they sport his baby blue “H” mark. He carries 4-9 but no 3 iron or utility. His irons are also marked with roman numerals rather than regular numbers for a cool touch.
Hoshino has three wedges in the bag, and like most Srixon pros has gone to Cleveland wedges after Sri Sports’ purchase of Cleveland Golf. He has a special custom Tour Action Reg 588 pitching wedge and a 52 and 58 degree in the new Cleveland Tour Action 588 Japan Forged model. He’s using an Odyssey 2-Ball Blade and Srixon Z-Star balls.
Here are Hoshino’s distances with the above clubs:
1W 285 yards
3W 260 yards
5W 230 yards
7W 225 yards
4I 215 yards
5I 200 yards
6I 185 yards
7I 170 yards
8I 155 yards
9I 145 yards
PW 130 yards
52 120 yards
58 95 yards
