LABO SPEC 358 DRIVER – Shingo Katayama is ONOFF Golf’s star player especially with his recent victory at the JPGA Tour’s Casio World Open last month. He collaborates with the Tour Division Labo Spec Department to produce some of the models in the limited edition Labo Spec series and the latest creation from LABO + Katayama-san is the Labo Spec 358 Driver.
I’ve had this driver in the bag for 5 of 6 recent rounds and it’s awesome, long, forgiving, low spin, high trajectory, great feeling which I can confidently recommend to a core group of TSG’ers with no hesitation whatsoever. Follow the Jump for the rest of the photos and review!
Material : Rolled 6-4Ti face with an 811Ti body and tungsten alloy.
Specs: 460cc, 0* Square Face Angle, 59* lie angle and only available in 9.5 loft.
Shaft Options: Shinari 60 Stiff or Tataki 50 Long.
The Shinari 60 Stiff is designed for faster swingers in between 96mph – 109mph depending on the players tempo/transition. 63 grams 3.0tq only stiff available. I find it interesting they say this will hold up to 109mph but if it’s a smoother swing I can see how it’s possible as my swing hovers +/-100mph finds it firm and accurate I could use it a little softer myself. The Tataki 50 Long is an interesting one, light weight (54g) and anti left it’s designed as a distance shaft also for the faster swinger. 46.5″ length @ D6.
At address it’s beautiful, easily one of the best 460cc sized drivers ever made from an appearance aspect, the shape is understated and the face while deep doesn’t seem overly tall. I’ve already mentioned it’s great in about every category from distance to forgiveness to feel but one thing I want to stress is it’s truly neutral, the head itself has zero bias to the left or right where as even square face drivers have a slightly more weighted heel side. I noticed my fades got a little bigger than normal with my first shaft but after installing an SX flex Crazy Regenisis LY-03 I was getting more carry than ever with the straightest high piercing bullets, I’m extremely pleased with the trajectory I’m getting with this combo. ( went a flex up on the LY-03 to SX).
This driver is made based on what Shingo likes a high launch low spin forgiving driver with a particular setup and feel, These go along great with the TS358 3 wood and CB358 limited edition forged irons. The Feel is soft and muted not loud just pure all around. Before the shaft change my distance was already up from my other drivers by a few yards on every hole and by round 3 with the new shaft I gained a lot of carry finding myself in new areas more consistently from the same tee box in similar conditions.
The 358 Driver being perfectly neutral allows the player to experience the full effect of the shaft’s design and profile. I noticed performance changes night and day between the original shaft vs the LY-03 the Shinari felt firmer, flew lower with less spin and a tighter dispersion it helped fade the ball while the Crazy shaft softened everything up increased launch and helped it draw a bit more with a little less roll.
I’ve hit the Shinari, LY-03, and Tataki 60 in the new 358 so if anyone has questions feel free to email [email protected] we have less than a dozen of these drivers left and they are going quickly when you think about it 358 pieces is very few, now days limited edition is 2000 pieces for most brands this size.
Forgiveness was excellent considering it’s a players driver, there are more forgiving 460cc drivers out there but none with such low spin nor as well rounded as this one in my opinion, it’s one of the longest drivers I’ve ever hit and scores well in all categories. Interested in getting one? “Click Here” for the pro shop listing
