The best way to see what's going on is to find a small custom shop, and talk to the people who run it.Īlso, talk to the shop's customers. These models are fairly stable from year to year, and can be customized with the shop's label, or for a label used by a group of shops. Maltby/GolfWorks has its own R&D operation, and also rates new irons each year from the major OEMs in the Maltby Playability Factor system.Ī lot of the custom club shops will find anįamily of iron, metal wood and wedge heads from different golf equipment foundaries. Some of the component club sources include the Maltby line from GolfWorks (now owned by Golf Galaxy), and the Snake Eyes line from Golfsmith. Once you get past the year 2000, a lot of these custom club shops faded away, especially in big metro areas. So, I went to regular-shafted clubs (except light-stiff wedge flex in my GW and SW). I had lost about 15 yards per club in distance, and had ruined my swing tempo trying to hit the ball harder. Main reason I dropped the clubs was in 2008 I couldn't bend the shafts any more.
I met dozens of other golfers during the 1990s who also played the Pro Tour iron heads. Supposedly in the late 1990s Ping won a lawsuit against Pro Tour, and all unsold clubheads had to be melted down. Through the years I hit some rocks with the heads, but the heads showed minimal denting or anything. The iron heads were quite durable - I played a $5 premium per head for these irons over some other available heads. The lie was 2* flat, and the irons were shafted in True Temper's Dynalite Gold S300 (the high-launch cousin of Dynamic Gold, the low-launch shaft). The clubs were custom-fit for me by a small club shop down near Dallas, TX.
When I purchased a driver at the beginning of the year, the Nike at $299 (or even $199) was better than every other driver except the Callaway (which was $399 at the time and has been discounted since) and several of those were $349 to $399 (Titleist, Callaway, TM R1, etc.)įrom 1994 to 2008, I played Ping Eye2 clone iron heads, the Pro Tour Blacks. If it fits your swing, you will still find it to be a great golf club. The Nike Covert driver is a great driver that the beginning of the year was $299, you can now buy it for $199. Ping is one of the companies that discounts alot less than Nike / TM / Callaway. It is safe to say that the G20 isn't 80% of the club that the 25 is, but it is approx. For instance, the Ping G20s can be purchased for $549 compared to the G25s which are $699 or $799 (I don't remember the exact price). I will tell you that last years models typically sell at 50~70% of the the cost of when they were new, and the benefits of new clubs isn't huge from one season to the next. A human however does not.Īs to your "hidden" message, is there value in less expensive golf clubs. When you don't hit the exact middle of the face, does the ball travel 50% of the way to the target, or 90%.Ī machine would swing a golf club relatively the same way over and over again. Good golf clubs are made for the less than perfect golf shots. That being said, a good swing, regardless of the club will produce a good golf shot. Some clubs will impact spin and launch differently. This means that no legal club should hit the ball further than a different club. The transfer of Energy from a driver club head to the ball is called COR (I think this is an overly simplistic explination) and it is limited by the USGA/R&A to. Likely the consistency and feel of the shaft is going to be much improved. It isn't to say that the store brand isn't a quality piece of equipment. typically have higher quality shafts than those made for store brand companies.
Expensive golf clubs, such as the current year drivers from Nike / etc. For example Dunlop have the more expensive (than their others) NZ9 range, which probably uses the same materials as some (possibly last year?) premium brand golf clubsĪ few things to consider. Of course I mean with Wilson/Dunlop for example being reputable companies (even if they're not leaders in golf) I don't mean really cheap copies that might snap or bend when you hit them once. However the year after if they use the same materials, the cheaper ones should be as good as last year's premium clubs, until new technology is discovered, or existing technology improved upon I don't mean clones, but I mean when any company makes clubs, surely they look at golf clubs made my other companies as well (like with phones, cars, computers, etc.), so if you take a 2013 model of a Wilson/Dunlop driver, and then one made by someone like TaylorMade, then the TM would most likely be better because they've worked on improving it. I don't like someone stealing the IP of someone else.