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How you view brands of clubs

Imurg

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No it’s not a spider. It’s not a permanent fixture either. It’s just an odd base to make an assumption on...what clubs people play?
I’d much rather judge people on whether or not they; use iron covers, use a black glove, tuck a towel in their trousers, use a chipper, are a grown up with an 18+ handicap. They all belong in the special place in hell along with those brexiteer fellas
Phew...*mops brow*.....:LOL:
 

Sidsidgwick

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I like the concept of this thread asking
For people perception so I’ll add in mine (only been playing golf for just over a year)

PXG/Honma or other obscure Japanese brands-Custom fit club for your excellent ball striker with an equally impressive wallet.

Titleist-single figure/low handicap player. Great looking clubs for the serious golfer.

Ping-great forgiving drivers and irons, good price and well made.

Taylormade-market led branding, forgiving and distance clubs that are renewed/refreshed each year. Lots of players have the latest iterations of their clubs and change them often.

Callaway-great drivers, woods and wedges. Irons are either beautiful and aimed at low handicap players or not as nice looking and aimed at huge distances.

Srixon-nice looking irons, evolution not revolution in terms of development of irons.

Cobra-nice clubs, better woods. Purveyors of the Bryson’s.

Wilson-Box set irons.
 
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HomerJSimpson

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Lets extend this then as putters have been mentioned. So you also have pre-conceived conceptions about certain makes and models. I'll be honest and say I'd always start with Odyssey and Ping as my starting point. I'm open to different designs but wouldn't move to another brand before looking exhaustively at them. From there I'd go Scotty and then probably TM. After that I tend to get rather brand snobbish.
 

Smasher

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What is even odder is that someone would buy a club based on some pre conceived idea & not the fitting facts.
I wrote similar things about certain brands but tried them all during a fitting. I'd play the best regardless of my opinion of the brand.
 

USER1999

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I think it is fair to say that I don't really think about brands like that is being posted about.

If I like the look of a certain club I just go on that alone and then think yeah I would like to try them out and can I hit them consistently, brand does not come into it or really think about brands.:)

Probably explains why I have a mixed bag from old adams, TM, callaway, Envroll, vokey, Srixon bag, wear Dunlop clothes and play any whiteish ball. Played with cobra historically and maybe shortly with pxg irons if I can hit them when they arrive and someone help me after reading some of the above replies, as I bought them are just great looking clubs and for no other reasons;).

PXG, while wearing Dunlop clothes, I like your style. Opposites, but why not?
 

Hammertoe

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I like the concept of this thread asking
For people perception so I’ll add in mine (only been playing golf for just over a year)

PXG/Honma or other obscure Japanese brands-Custom fit club for your excellent ball striker with an equally impressive wallet.

Titleist-single figure/low handicap player. Great looking clubs for the serious golfer.

Taylormade-market led branding, forgiving and distance clubs that are renewed/refreshed each year. Lots of players have the latest iterations of their clubs and change them often.

Callaway-great drivers, woods and wedges. Irons are either beautiful and aimed at low handicap players or not as nice looking and aimed at huge distances.

Srixon-nice looking irons, evolution not revolution in terms of development of irons.

Cobra-nice clubs, better woods. Purveyors of the Bryson’s.

Wilson-Box set irons.

Really??? I wrote about this recently in the Wilson Staff Irons thread, Wilson Staff make some of the finest Irons on the market and are perceived as a box set manufacturer, which are made by ‘Wilson’, 2 completely different brands under the same umbrella, it’s like comparing Top Flite to Callaway, same company different brands.

Look at these new Wilson Staff blades and tell me they are a box set manufacturer. I know this thread is about perceptions and that is part of Wilson Staffs problem and if more people tried their Irons that perception would change
 

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Oldham92

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To give a different viewpoint, I've been playing since around May, and until then probably only knew of Taylormade and Callaway. Not been in the game anywhere near enough to have brand loyalty. Didn't have a budget to be bothered about looks. Not been victim to marketing.

After meeting plenty of people and reading a lot on here and similar sites and researching myself, I've come up with this:

PXG - buy them if you've got the money and want them, but they're not twice as good as the club's that are half the price. Plenty of people seem to want them just to say they've got them.

Titleist - decent stuff but not much for 15+ HCP

Ping - majority very ugly to look at, seem to work brilliantly for some people and terribly for others.

TM - have made some decent stuff but very much like a Nike or Adidas in other sports where they just churn out seemingly hundreds of models at a high price.

Callaway - see TM

Cobra - hearing and reading good things. Want to give them a try. May be the brand that keeps Titleist Callaway and TM a little more honest in pricing.

Cleveland - as others have said good wedges, limited irons and woods. Personally think the putters are decent but as people have said putter is all about personal preference.

Srixon - don't really know anything about their clubs

Wilson Staff - people seem to expect every club they have to be a package set. One of the least fashionable brands so people don't seem to want them.

Benross - so overlooked that they didn't even make most lists on this post.

Honma - never seen one for sale, or met or spoke to anyone who has one of their clubs

Scotty Cameron - people just seem to think that saying they have a Scotty in their bag takes 10 strokes per round off their score - but only if they point it out at every opportunity.
 

Britishshooting

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I honestly don’t look down on any of the brands or judge them in any particular way.

I have my own personal preference and that’s what I run with.

My only gripe is the ridiculous number of releases from the likes of TM, I do hold Titleist in high regard for sticking to their bi-yearly release schedule.

A lot of the clubs on offer these days are pretty consistent in quality however the price tag seems to come with the name with the likes of TM, Callaway, Titleist and Mizuno

Cobra, Cleveland, srixon, to me offer the same quality usually at a lower price point.

Wilson, Adams and such brands equally as good from clubs I’ve tried however fallen out of favour in terms of popularity.

I’m exclusively Titleist and Scotty Cameron with exception of wedges I do like Callaways offerings along with Oddyssey putters.

I’m looking down the Vega, Epon, Miura and Honma Route next for irons as I just like the Japanese options. There blade forgings are beautiful and have that master craftsman workmanship, and there usually so simple and traditional. I’m getting a little bored of the MB’s.

Think I’ll be going the Vega VM-02 route, a few people I’ve played with have never heard of them so assume there cheap but the quality is second to none.
 
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Sidsidgwick

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Really??? I wrote about this recently in the Wilson Staff Irons thread, Wilson Staff make some of the finest Irons on the market and are perceived as a box set manufacturer, which are made by ‘Wilson’, 2 completely different brands under the same umbrella, it’s like comparing Top Flite to Callaway, same company different brands.

Look at these new Wilson Staff blades and tell me they are a box set manufacturer. I know this thread is about perceptions and that is part of Wilson Staffs problem and if more people tried their Irons that perception would change

Agreed this is indeed Wilson’s problem. That is a nice looking club but will not find it’s way into many lists or in many bags as club marketing is key. Most players I see at my local courses are using TM and Callaway drivers/irons due to the incredible amount of money they spend on marketing the product (these players will inevitably have a new driver in their bag each season)

The difficulty is trying to find a Wilson Staff club to try, Srixon has the same issue, great clubs but no market footing thus hard to see/try one (I did have a set of 545’s which I liked a great deal)
 

Parsaregood

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Don't really stereotype brands, bit pointless really. They all make good stuff. I use what I like and what works best for me. Honma arnt really that expensive and the tour world series is actually not that far off what you'd be paying if buying the major oem stuff. Difference is, the honma gear is built to much tighter tolerances and better quality. Srixon irons are forged by a company called endo in Japan, very high quality at a very good price. Best value irons on the market by a long way.
I personally use at the moment
Taylormade M3
Cobra f8 3 wood
Srixon zu65 2 iron
Srixon z765 3-7 irons
Srixon z965 83-pw
Vokey sm7 52 & 58
Seemore 100% milled custom putter
 

6535

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Well all of the above manufacturers mentioned bar 1, driver and 3w, don't even get in my bag. All my kit is of little known brands, that you can't buy at your local pro shop or retail shop.
 

Smasher

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Well all of the above manufacturers mentioned bar 1, driver and 3w, don't even get in my bag. All my kit is of little known brands, that you can't buy at your local pro shop or retail shop.

That's an embellished way of saying you play Dunlop ;):p.
 

Sweep

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PXG / Honma. High quality, daft price. Even reasonably priced clubs are expensive now, so I don’t see any excuse for their prices.
I like Titleist a lot but their recent releases don’t seem as forgiving. Just my opinion. A serious player’s club though. Scotty has become too much a collectors brand. Evenroll and others are taking their place. Mizuno make great irons but having played them for years I have to say I think they held me back. My Pings are so much better. I accept that is probably me though.
Srixon seem to fly under the radar to me.
TM are the big selling market leaders. The fact that they make great equipment is tainted by their gimmicky style.
Callaway are solid. Always an option you could never ignore.
Ping are hard to pigeonhole. The innovators of custom fit. Top quality throughout the range. Solid, dependable. As good with woods now as they are with their irons and putters they were first renowned for. They have resisted gimmicks and going too high in price. As a result they are seen (wrongly in my view) as an old mans or average players brand. And yet they remain at the forefront of design and innovation. It’s no coincidence to me that whenever I look for new clubs I try everything and genuinely don’t care about brand, but end up leaving with Ping.
Wilson have made marketing mistakes that have cost them their place in the quality market despite making excellent products.
John Letters, Benross, MD did / do make excellent stuff but aimed it at the cheaper end. Proving you don’t have to spend PXG money to get quality.
 

shortgame

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Taylor Made - actually gone right off them. Heard horror stories about their irons collapsing and breaking
Heard smilar from an AG manager about TM and he said the same about Titleist (poor quality, made in China) which surprised me as I always thought of them as top drawer.


Oh and Murphthemog has won this thread :LOL:
 

Birdie2

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I’m surprised by the ping comments. I think they make a fantastic golf club. Sadly, I think many players pick an iron for ego reasons rather than what’s best for them. If I had a pound for every golfer that’s got forged Mizuno irons and can’t hit them properly I’d be rich.

I reckon many low single figure players would drop a few shots off of their scores by playing a more forgiving iron like the G series.
 

Parsaregood

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As it goes, never been much of a mizuno fan, I'm 6'1 so the lie angles stock are too flat for me because they are made stock for smaller Asian people. If I ever picked one up to hit, I'd hit a fade because of the lie angle . Nice irons though but titleist for me make a nicer looking iron.
My first set of irons were titleist 690.mb irons and I still think they are the nicest looking clubs made, still have them and no club I've hit beats them in terms of looks and feel, they are pretty beat up though.
 

Dando

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As it goes, never been much of a mizuno fan, I'm 6'1 so the lie angles stock are too flat for me because they are made stock for smaller Asian people. If I ever picked one up to hit, I'd hit a fade because of the lie angle . Nice irons though but titleist for me make a nicer looking iron.
My first set of irons were titleist 690.mb irons and I still think they are the nicest looking clubs made, still have them and no club I've hit beats them in terms of looks and feel, they are pretty beat up though.

I haven’t had any issues with my mizuno blades and they’re all stock lies and lengths and I’m certainly not a small Asian person.
The lie angle doesn’t make me hit a fade.
The only thing that would kick my Mizuno’s out of the bag would be miura blades
 
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