Golf clubs revolution history
In days past you had your choice of 5-6 major brand names, you did not have a lot of choice about how your golf clubs were made, how they were fitted, what materials were used, etc. The golf club of today, is not your Daddy’s golf club!
Today the number of major club making manufacturers has exploded, you can buy custom made clubs, you can buy brand name mass produced clubs fitted exactly to your swing, you can buy clones or knockoffs of those mass produced brands, you can buy build it yourself components that will match the specifications and quality of any thing offered by the major manufacturers.
Irons are now oversized, mid-sized, cavity backed cast, forged, milled, offset, sling backed, and this is just part of the verbiage. The array of shafts available is staggering, the range of prices for shafts is amazing. A major brand name full set of irons (Titleist AP2 Irons) priced at $1,100 or more is not unusual.
Let’s not overlook putters, the traditional blade putter could be hard to find. Check the names of these putters, SRT 2-Ball Putter, Tri-Ball SRT Putter, Studio Style Putter, 2 Bar Putter, some of the styles available look as if they came from another planet. The site I found these putters on listed 138 brand name putters, ranging in price from $19.99 to $299.00, the vast majority of them were around $130.00.
What is the value of these companies? Glad you asked…most of them sell their products at a fraction of the cost of the major brand name products, even if your ego will not let you carry a clone club in your bag, you can still buy one of these discount golf clubs that has similar specs and features to the brand name you are considering, this is a relatively inexpensive way to check out what you think may work. Another way to perform the same experiment is to have a custom club maker build you a club that mimics the brand name you are after, or of course you can buy the components and tools and build-it-yourself.