hi all,

what are your thoughts on best club manufactorers! who,s your favourite, whats your favourite club? what clubs do you wish you had in your bag?

i personally am a big taylormade fan, but cannot afford to shell out on the lastest gear. i have recently tried out the taylormade tour burner irons and "i,m in love" but it will be awhile before i can convince the wife to let me invest in them!

your views guys!

Paul,

Like you im a taylormade man, and most of my clubs are TM's, however i ahve 2 Vokeys and a feel pitching wedge which always seem to find there way into my bag. 

currently my favourite club in the bag has to be my new Taylormade burner driver. I have so much confidence with it and its improved my driving no end. 

As for what would like to have in the bag, i would love the new TP Burner Driver, but like you i cant justify that kina outlay for a club. Also i would love a set of new forged irons (i currently have the TM300's and cant recomend them enough) but this is only due to my want of "new and shiney".

with regard to the tour burner irons they are very nice, but i more than happy with my 300's at the moment!

cheers

I have a real mixed bag of clubs:

Nike Sumo Driver which I can't hit-for-toffee these days, but that is my fault and not the drivers.  It usually stays at home when I play these days.

TaylorMade V-Steel 3-wood which is my fav club. 

TaylorMade Rescue Dual 3 & 4 Hybrids which I love.

The rest of the irons are MacGregor's which are OK I guess.  

Putter is a Scotty Cameron Titleist Futura Phantom, which could only be better if the wally using it could line up the shot better.

I'd like to replace the irons, but none take my fancy at the moment. I'd like an oversized face/head with less offset and a satin/matt finish. So at this time the only improvement I'd like to my equipment, is to have Kelly Brook in hot pants pull my trolley around the course for me. 

Cheers

Keith 

hi danny,

when you upgrate to the tp burner, give me a shout! (i'd gladly take your standard burner of your hands at a respectable price!) its worth a try!!!

i,m on the lookout for a larger headed driver, at the moment i have a t/m 510. driving is the strongest part of my game! so really i should stick with it, but i need that feel/confidence setting up that you get with the burners!!!

keith, on a putting front, i,ve just upgraded from from a taylormade rossa monza to a rossa inza. i should of done it months ago, its a superb putter, great feel, great weight, like yourself the only time its fails when i fail it!!!!!!

hi paul,

You will be waiting a while im afraid, as at the moment it doing me very well. I do have a 860 Burner 8.5* and a 540 10* if your intrested. Let me know!

I also have a mezza rossa and i love it, i was a blade person (nubbins B7) for years and i tried a friends Mezza rossa and i was sold. I bought a second hand one off of ebay i havent looked back! 

to be honest with you danny, i'm abit of a "modern tech geek" and looking towards the r5,r7, burner sort of area. its just a case of raised the funds! for which ebay is being kind to me at the mo!

I'm a Ping fan. I just love a company that devotes its time to custom fitting and ensuring you only play with whats going to help you and be good to you.

My Bag is all Ping apart from the Driver at the moment, however next month I expect that to change. I have a fitting booked for 22nd September and am going to see what I should be using in my bag now, since I haven't been fitted for 18 months and I've been having regular lessons since Last November.

Simple answer: Mizuno

I can't comment on the putters, but everything else is the business. They produce the best forged clubs by a mile imo. The rescue clubs and long iron/driving irons are incredible when hit well. Call me a Mizuno fanboy if you want, and well, you wouldn't be wrong. 

I tried the Callaway Prototype blades the other day, that retail at over £1,400, and have to say they were shocking. Prototype is the word, and they belong in the bin, especially at that price. Why do all club manufactuers, Callaway, Nike, and Cleveland especially, have to copy the design of older Mizuno models when making bladed clubs? The answer is obvious to me. It's such a shame that Mizuno couldn't keep hold of Tiger when he turned pro, and the big money that Nike had to offer lured him away from the family run business that just couldn't compete money wise. 

They are all the same. I love my Mizunos but you can play well and win with anything.

Jon, thats a bold statement about forged clubs, Ive tried both mizuno and TM forged and found that the TM300 series (with rifle shafts) felt a load better and "faced up" better on address to the ball. But of course thats imo. 

JP, i cant agree more that if you play well you can play with anything. One of my golfing partners who plays off of 6 and has the most random selection of clubs in his bag some of which are as follows: Nike forged irons (not a full set), a cleveland wedge that looks like its been runover, a non label putter and 2 donnay wedges and a slazenger rescue iron. However he's whole game is impresive...... just goes to show that the golfing marketing machine is indeed powerful!

i fully agree with you on that danny, i think the marketing machine homes in on the small part of our imagination where we dream of being "tour pro's" then we get a shot in the arm of reality once on the course. BUT WE CAN ALL DREAM!!!

When people ask you for your opinion on which manufacturer is the best, there is no such thing as a bold statement Danny. There is only my opinion

 personally like Wilson staff.

i don't own any but they seem to work for Mr Harrington at Birkdale so must be good !

I have maxfli revolution forged clubs and they are great sometimes but not so great others. It's good to get the right gear but really it's all good in the right hands if its the right length and lie.

spend less on clubs and more on fitting

Nike driver, Nike fairway woods, Taylor Made rescue, Srixon Irons, Cleveland 52* and 58* wedges, Nike 56* wedge, Maxfli lob weddge, Odessey putter. 

Looks like I don't have a favourite manufacturer.  The only club I bought without trying lots of different one was the Nike wedge.  That will be coming out of my bag now I have the Clevelands.

I honestly think that it is down to feel and personal choice, though some of it really is in the head. Either the marketing machine or the "Tiger uses Nike so they must be the best" attitude.  Guy at work won't even look at Callaway because he thinks they are an "old man's club". 

It's all down to personal preference in my humble opinion. I spent an hour at American Golf last week trying out Ping G10, Callaway Hyper-X and Taylor Made RGB's - in the end I got a Ben Sayers Benny 2008 for under £100 from my local golf shop and played better with that than all the more expensive brand drivers.

I've got a £30 putter that feels and plays better than my mates >£100 putter, my driver, as I've said was less than £100 and the best shots I played all day on Saturday were with a Dunlop DDH ball I found in the rough!

I won't argue against your choice of equipment Nick because whatever you feel comfortable with is the ideal choice, but a "Dunlop DDH" ball!!! for god sake it's like hitting a stone, get yourself a reasonable ball like the Titliest NXT or SO/LO (they don't cost a fortune) the feel you will get is immense compared to the dunlop.

Wayne, Don't worry - I lost it last night during the downpour (lovely slice into no-mans land)! and now I'm back with the Callaway Warbirds.

Now they're a good ball for a player like you, you must notice the difference Nick??

Da Lung, D&M or J. Union Tech are the best manufacturers - no argument.

Don't they make about 95% of the world's heads though Tim?

My point exactly, Chris

I wonder how many dies those guys actually have.  And how much machining is required to get the heads to finished condition.  If I end up in China on my travels (feasible) then I will try to get into one of these places and let you know what I find. 

Probably not that much Chris, especially for the cast heads.  Probably not the place to start another nerdy discussion, but most of the pressure casting dies for a cavity back will be 7 or 8 piece composites, so changing the cavity back for a 6 iron will only mean mods to 2 or 3 components. Will still need basic moulds for each iron, but they are easy to rapid prototype now.  They probably finish them by hand as well, a couple of semi-skilled chinese labourers are cheaper than a CNC machine....