Best golf clubs made in the UK?

John Letters?

MD - by a mile

Jack wedges surely?

Wondered who was going to come up with that - my money was on Floody

Still waiting for the "big launch" with the "huge names" using them on tour

Achilleas Constantakopoulos is probably their biggest name....

I'm amazed that any of them are actually made in the UK !

Well, depends what you mean by made Brian. Along with virtually every other club the components are made in China or Mexico (a couple of notable exceptions with high end shafts and heads made in Japan and the US) and assembled in the country of 'origin'. MD are assembled in Northern Ireland so are as UK as Callaway or Titleist are US.

I agree Tim, but this assembled in the country of origin is just smoke and mirrors for all those that use it, and simply tries to get around the fact that they all use cheap labour elsewhere to manufacturer their clubs.

So when comparing between clubs is it the quality of assembly that matters, or quality of he complements used?

.... and that's before even getting onto the extremely subjective term "best"

Well, best is obviously 'best for you', surely? I'm sure in the hands of a pro even the cheapest Sports Direct specials would thrash any of us on here.

Seriously though, you really should forget the myth of the Chinese cheap labour. OK, the rates of pay are not comparable to here for manufactured products, but this is because the Chinese really know how to mass produce high quality kit now, hence me always banging on about the so called counterfeit market.

However, MD do use quality components, their current Seve range use quality forged heads and Rifle shafts. Their woods at the moment seem to Mitsubishi Rayons and my redundant collection are fitted with Pro Forces and UST Mamiyas. Where they differ from the bigger names is that they actually use the proper versions of these shafts rather than rebadged OEM versions - there is a huge difference between the Aldila DVS 60 (the proper shaft) and the DVS 65 (the OEM version).

I'm very suprised to hear they use actual oem shaf not the made for like all other manufacturers. I know some try and sutily disguise it now by not having made for on the ahsft and just have different weights ompared to the originals.

Hi guys,

Having worked in the industry for Golfsmith I am not aware of any golf equipment being made in the UK. There are no forging presses and 95% of golf clubs in the world are made in China and that includes all the major and smaller brands available in the UK with the exception of Mizuno which are made in Japan.

UK and Irish owned brands are a different matter..

MD Benross Orka John Letters

Tim is right to talk about components. Look at the quality of shaft and grip when buying. Oem shafts are designed to help the mass market, so if you feel you need something different search it out. There are loads of pros and club makers that can supply a particular shaft.

What is really important when looking at head quality is the type of metal. A soft Japanese steel such as S25 will feel softer than a cast 431 used in many game improvement clubs.

MODS!

On it Tim, but only for those with dodgy links

I agree Tim, but this assembled in the country of origin is just smoke and mirrors for all those that use it, and simply tries to get around the fact that they all use cheap labour elsewhere to manufacturer their clubs.

Is it just cheap labour? or is it the fact that these companies are set up for super mass production, something we don't do much of in the UK any more.

It's more to do with financial engineering rather than labour rates Bob. It's true that the Chinese in particular are very good at quality super mass production, better than say India because of the legacy of the socialist regime (may change in the near future though). However, you'll find that most US clubs are actually assembled in Mexico and the grips finally fitted in the States. This gets round the vagaries in import/export duties between various trade blocs rather than labour rates. It also allows a certain amount of shifting profits between manufacturing centres to minimise tax liability.

See also my numerous posts on the dubious 'fake' clubs scams carried out by the big players*

*Or so I've heard, ahem