Winners' equipment
Winners' bags: Hosono won the Japan Open with two 6-irons
Yusaku Hosono, the first left-hander to win the Japan Open since 1981, carried a Ping G440 6-iron and an i230 6-iron at Tarao, in a 14-club bag built from three Ping iron models.
Yusaku Hosono had two 6-irons in his bag when he won the Japan Open on Sunday. The list Golf Digest Online (GDO) published from the championship shows left-handed Ping G440 heads in the 5 and 6, i230 heads from 6-iron to 8-iron and Blueprint T heads in the 9-iron and wedge. With three woods, three more wedges and a putter, that comes to 14 clubs.
Hosono finished on −13 at Tarao Country Club’s West Course, set up at 7,411 yards with a par of 70, two shots ahead of Yusuke Sakamoto. He is the first left-hander to win the Japan Open since Yutaka Hagawa in 1981, and the title brings invitations to next year’s Masters and Open. No equipment lists had been published by Monday morning for Sunday’s other winners: Eugenio Chacarra, Ruoning Yin, Wang Wei-hsuan and Vijay Singh.
Hosono’s Japan Open bag
| Club | Model and shaft |
|---|---|
| Driver | Ping G440 LST (10.5°), Graphite Design Tour AD GC, 60g, TX, 44.75in |
| 4-wood | Ping G440 MAX (17°), Tour AD GC, 70g, X |
| 7-wood | Ping G440 MAX (21°), Tour AD GC, 80g, X |
| Irons | Ping G440 (5, 6), Ping i230 (6–8), Ping Blueprint T (9, W), Nippon Shaft N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 120 TX |
| Wedges | Ping s159 (52°, 56°, 60°), N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 120 X |
| Putter | Ping Kushin 4 (2021) |
| Ball | Titleist Pro V1x prototype |
GDO’s list from his Japan PGA Championship win in May has the same clubs, with two differences: the ball was then the 2025 Pro V1x, and both fairway-wood shafts were TX rather than X.
Hosono told GDO in May that left-handed clubs had been hard to find when he was a junior, and that Ping now builds left-handed tour clubs for him.
Two 6-irons four degrees apart
GDO does not give his iron lofts, so Ping’s standard specifications are the only guide, though tour players often have their irons bent. At standard loft, the G440 6-iron is 25.5° and the i230 6-iron 29.5°. That makes the G440 6-iron half a degree stronger than an i230 5-iron (26°), and the G440 5-iron, at 22°, close to an i230 4-iron (22.5°). Ping also makes its G440 4-, 5- and 6-irons longer than standard, which it says helps launch shots higher.
Minna no Golf Digest, describing the same blend in July, gave each model a job: the G440 for forgiveness and height, the i230 for all-round balance, and the forged Blueprint T for control into greens.
The same standard lofts put the G440 5-iron one degree from the 21° 7-wood. The 7-wood came in after a change at the top of the bag: according to Minna no Golf Digest, Hosono struggled to get enough height from his old 3-wood, replaced it with the 17° G440 MAX 4-wood, then found the 4-wood and his 5-wood carried too similar a distance and swapped the 5-wood for the 7-wood.
A driver set a degree weaker
GDO lists the driver as a 10.5° G440 LST. In July, Hosono told Minna no Golf Digest he had it set a degree weaker, at 11.5°, because a swing change had altered his angle of attack and lowered his ball flight. The Japan Open list does not say whether it is still set that way. His shaft is 44.75 inches. Ping’s standard length for the LST is 45.5 inches with its tour shafts and 46 inches with the stock Alta CB Blue. The head comes in 9° and 10.5°, and the hosel adds or takes off up to 1.5°.
A dot on a five-year-old putter
The putter is Ping’s 2021 Kushin 4, a wide blade. Hosono told GDO in May that he had added a white alignment dot to the head at the start of this season, after noticing that many new putters had one and asking Ping’s staff about it. He uses a claw grip and has done since the second hole of his first tour event, the 2018 Mynavi ABC Championship, which he played as an amateur in his first year of high school. He also has lead tape across the whole sole, according to Minna no Golf Digest.
Price and availability
Ping cut its US prices in August. The G440 LST driver went from $619 to $449, the G440 fairway woods from $369 to $299, and the G440 irons by about $20 to roughly $143 a club, according to MyGolfSpy. Ping’s UK site lists the G440 LST, the G440 irons and the i230 in left- and right-handed models but gives no prices. American Golf has the G440 LST at £529, against an RRP of £575.
The i230 is no longer in Ping’s main range. Its product page says the model is “available for fill-in or replacement only”, and it must be ordered through an authorised Ping retailer with a valid serial number.
Sources
- GDO: Yusaku Hosono club setting, 2026 Japan Open
- GDO: Yusaku Hosono club setting, 2026 Japan PGA Championship
- GDO: Hosono wins the Japan PGA Championship and Japan Open in the same year
- GDO: The dot behind the first left-handed win in 35 years
- Minna no Golf Digest: Hosono’s 14 Ping clubs and his G440 LST at 11.5°
- Ping: G440 LST driver
- Ping: G440 irons
- Ping: i230 irons
- MyGolfSpy: Ping drops G440 driver prices but not the G440 K
- American Golf: Ping G440 LST driver
- The Head Pro: Hosono wins the Japan Open by two and earns a Masters invitation
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