Worst product releases of 2014?

[markb]

Well, I reached back to some of the bad classics in the hope they'd be recognized as undisputed classics.  Sure, people bought Sumo's and Pros were paid to play with them.   Corey Pavin was paid to play with Cleveland VAS's too.  And he was ridiculed every time he teed it up.  C4's looked bad, felt bad, were short, had a tiny sweetspot and FELL APART.   Yet Callway thought they were aces when they released them.

 

I guess I'm missing my point, because y'all seem to think that everything every OEM makes is good these days and that it all really works well right out of the box.   If this were true, there is no point in having different equipment.

 

Maybe I look at things differently.   I see turbulators that don't boost my head speed at all from g25 to g30.   I see an Adizero that feels good on my feet and shreds greens.   I see a SLDR that launches 2 degrees lower than its stated loft and which has its glued toe-plates fall off before they are screwed on.   I see a Ping putter with finely-milled American grooves designed to do a very precise thing, which are milled wrong for 6 months before anyone notices.   I see a Titleist 913 driver that is stable but quite a bit shorter than the 910 it was supposed to replace and consequently many pros and legions of Titleist homers skip it until the 915 comes out.  

 

And I'm sorry, I see a good-performing BioCell iron that wins the Edsel award in product design, hands down.   If the BioCells don't look ugly to you, then you are the exact person I need to hit the bars with at 2:00 am when it comes down to two girls left to take home.   I'll give you the "pretty" one.

 

Granted, the "bad" stuff may not be as bad today as some of the really bad stuff was in years gone by, but no one seems to be willing to say the emperor has no clothes with some of these modern boo-boos.   It's not all just marketing, although marketing can work wonders in terms of damage control when boo-boos threaten to undermine your efforts.    (Loft up!, anyone?)

 

Or maybe I skipped the rule about not speaking Voldemort's name in the MGS user agreement.  If so, let me see how many more sacred cows I can violate in the next little bit.   Ya ready?  Avert your eyes all you squeamish types....

 

1. Rocketballz fairway woods clog with dirt after EVERY shot!
2. Apex forged irons lose their chrome real fast!
3. Just about all Winn grips crumble and erode quickly if you are not careful to clean them in very precise ways!
4. No golf tee will make your shots go farther (although giving you a consistent tee height every time may help.)
5. Modern drivers and fairways are painted all over in order to show wear faster so you will think they are worn and replace them more frequently!
6. Iron distance is acheived thru a combination of shaft length and degrees of loft in the head!
7. Sliding perimeter weights don't make much noticeable difference until they're shoved to the far extremes!

[revkev]

Mark you can believe it or not but the TMag numbers work. The fact is that club won the most outstanding driver by tests done on ths sight.

 

I would respectfully submit that looks are truly a matter of opinion, you may dislike the look of a club that someone else loves, you may think a ball is trash and it works well for another player.

 

I will give you the Adizero beyond a doubt. It marks up greens, that's not good and could ultimately get it banned at courses. It's a big mistake.

 

The rest of it seems like opinion to me. IMO This or that doesn't work. Well I guess what Tiger Woods uses is crap because I'm not getting half of it off the ground. . It must be faulty equipment then.

[RoverRick]

 

No golf tee will make your shots go farther (although giving you a consistent tee height every time may help.)

 

 

I have tried some of these and there is one called. "4 More Yard Tees". These absolutely live up to their name, once you realize something. Every time I hit one, it would bounce back and be behind where I teed off some 12 feet.

 

So, you tee off, and walk back to pick up your tee, and push the button on your GPS and "Voila!" 12 feet = 4 more yards.

[revkev]

@ Mark

 

Actually several of your critiques listed are why I typically like to purchase last year's stuff, that and the savings. The SLDR has been a rare acception because the science makes sense for my golf swing and it has worked for me. It has also worked for others here.

 

But consider this - the rocketbalz fairway added 15 yards for better players with higher swing speeds and forced the competition to up its anti on fairway woods. It was a long needed improvement with a fixable annoyance.

 

No comments on the short term wear of products, no doubt some is intentional, some not. It's why I wait to buy and don't but Winn ever no matter how hot Natalie Gulbis might be.

 

There are some who swear by that tee and we've had a review on this site by a reliable source saying it gave him added yardage. Why not seek him out and take it up there. Doesn't work so well for me because I can't find the right tee height.

 

While iron lofts are jacked and shafts longer that has occured because modern material are lighter and head weighting maximizes launch conditions. It's not as if you can grab your 20 year old 4 iron and go toe to toe with your current 6 iron. That modern iron is easier to hit.

 

If you think the weights work, they work. If you still hit a big slice, take some lessons.

 

So if your point is that not every product released this year was perfect, I agree. If your point is that they are crap, I don't think so. Very little, if anything that anyone here would even think of purchasing is crap.

 

Cheers - I'm off to the walk in clinic to try and treat this respiratory infection.

[Tony Covey MGS]

 

1. Rocketballz fairway woods clog with dirt after EVERY shot!
2. Apex forged irons lose their chrome real fast!
3. Just about all Winn grips crumble and erode quickly if you are not careful to clean them in very precise ways!
4. No golf tee will make your shots go farther (although giving you a consistent tee height every time may help.)
5. Modern drivers and fairways are painted all over in order to show wear faster so you will think they are worn and replace them more frequently!
6. Iron distance is acheived thru a combination of shaft length and degrees of loft in the head!
7. Sliding perimeter weights don't make much noticeable difference until they're shoved to the far extremes!

 

 

Some things I'd agree with here, and others not so much.

 

Regarding the Apex forged. No first hand experience, so I can't say absolutely, but I will say that I had an extensive conversation with somebody very well-connected within the industry...the kind of guy who knows the guys who handle the paints and finishes for the golf companies. I will tell you that coming out of last year's driver tests, no clubs showed more cosmetic wear and tear than the Callaway offerings. Consider this...the company has cut costs, but it hasn't cut R&D, and hit hasn't cut Tour Spend. Sure...it's eliminated some unnecessary crap from the catalog, but sources are telling me, they have cut costs on cosmetics. From what I've personally seen, I believe it.

 

Your finishes wear statement is far from a universal truth. It really depends on the manufacturer. Some are worse than they were 3 years ago, some have improved significantly, others have remained consistent.

 

A bit off topic, but I will add that one of the biggest separators between big OEMs and small component (and just above component level) companies is the quality of the paint and finish. We see it year after year when we test. Generally speaking, finish quality on the big boy drivers (TaylorMade, Titleist, PING) is substantially better than the little guys. From dings to the ease at which small surface scratches emerge, there's absolutely zero comparison.

 

You're wrong about iron distance. In the beginning of the distance wars that was absolutely true, but if you compare launch conditions from old irons to modern irons, you'll see that there's a lot more to this then inserting longer shafts and jacking lofts.

 

Yes...distance does come in part from longer shafts, but those shafts aren't all about distance. Think about the evolution of the shaft...in roughly a decade, we've gone from a 115-125g standard to iron shafts that are routinely 85-90 grams stock. There's only so much weight you can take out of the head, so to keep static weights comfortable, you absolutely must lengthen the lighter shafts. Definitely part distance, part necessity.

 

I have 125s in my SpeedBlades and built them off a 37.75" 5-iron (same as TP MB spec). That's the length that puts the swing weights back to 'normal'. Point is that no spec exists in a vacuum. They're also substantially longer than another set I have here with absolutely identical specs.

 

Lofts too are stronger because they have to be. With everything that's evolved with perimeter weighting and lower CG (the forgiveness stuff), all other factors being equal, the modern iron would launch substantially higher and spin way too much compared to a classic iron at the same loft. Lofts have to be lower in order to provide the desired launch conditions. 

 

Let's take a 38° club as an example. If you put the modern iron against a 10-15 year old non-perimeter weighted design, you'd likely have to bend the old one to ~42° (3-4°) weak to get the same launch as the modern 38° club. At that point, your spin rates would probably be too high - unmanageable really (distance loss), and because of increased spin loft, your ball speed would drop measurably.

 

It's easy to say that the modern iron is just an old iron bent 4° strong, but for that to be true the opposite (the old iron is just the new iron bent 4° weak) must also be true; and it's absolutely not. 

 

Absolutely, there are designs that take distance a step or two further than may be necessary (my opinion), but making a blanket statement that lofts are jacked for distance purposes is simply incorrect. It's as much a practical playability decision as anything else. Compared to a decade ago we have irons that fly farther and land softer...that last bit disproves the all because of loft jacking theory.

 

That all plays a role in distance (obviously), but to say that more distance comes exclusively from longer shafts and stronger lofts is incorrect.Like any other club in the bag, iron distance comes from optimization of launch conditions.

 

Driver, iron, fairway...doesn't matter...take variances in individual golfers out of the conversation for a moment...launch angle (one of 3 key performance variables) is most closely associated with loft. That still leaves ball speed and spin as contributing factors to distance.

[markb]

I realize that as paint and finishes go, a company's choices of what parts of the club they will paint may have more to do with fashion than with an optimum look for longterm wear and tear.   I've been quite pleased with Callaway's paint choices for the crowns of their woods.   Hard, durable, attractive.   But I don't get their finishes for their black faces and black soles, which wear really fast.   Tmag's choices for their Rocketballz woods weren't any better.   My 3 year old RBZ;s look trashed all over.   But the more steely SLDR's and JS's still look great.  I also had great fear for how my smoky finish Speedblades would hold up -- but no problems at all.  

 

But all this said, wouldn't we all do better in the long run with brushed steel finish faces and soles on woods?  It'll never happen though.   Fashion is too prevalent in equipment design these days.

 

Granted I exaggerate many of my declarations for stimulating affect -- I much prefer gumbo to bouillabase -- but I am legitimately going backwards on the causation of distance in irons.  

 

I play Speedblades and I love their long light shafts and jacked heads.   Yes, their lowered CG and big ol' forgiving faces gets the balls up and makes them easier to hit, which are factors in distance as well.   A blade that you can't make good contact with won't go as far will it?  My average shot height with a MacGregor VIP 1 iron was about 35 feet with a shot height of a bug's ass.   Contrarily, a GI iron that you can get up reliably will give you more distance.   So naturally after I switched to SB's I was convinced it was all tech and not jacked lofts and shafts.   Then I did two things.  

 

First a tried an even newer TMag UDI driving iron marked with a 3 on it as a comparison to my Speedblade 3 iron.   Newer club, more tech in the UDI right?   But guess what?  It went about 20 yards shorter than the SB 3!   Why?  Because it had only 20 degrees of loft and a shaft length of 38.75" while the SB 3 had 17 degrees of loft and 40.5" inches of shaft.   Hmmm, mystery solved.   (The UDI did go higher though.)   My next retrograde step occured when I wanted to switch my 9 and PW Speedblades out for Scors.   I didn't want to futz up my gapping or distances so I asked Barry at Scor what to do.   He said, "Just pick the Scor heads with the same loft as your current SB's and select the shaft that's closest to what you use now and cut it to the same lengths, they'll go the same distances."  I did and he was right.  They do go the exact same distances.  

 

So I'm moving back to the old school of thinking now.  But you'll get no argument out of me on the overall shot height or launch angle created by modern cog-shifted clubs.   That higher launch angle allows for the use of jacked lofts and the greater face forgiveness allows for the use of longer shafts.   Together both combine to produce a modern 7 that goes as far as an old timey 5, but is easier to hit and goes higher.

[Tony Covey MGS]

My next retrograde step occured when I wanted to switch my 9 and PW Speedblades out for Scors.   I didn't want to futz up my gapping or distances so I asked Barry at Scor what to do.   He said, "Just pick the Scor heads with the same loft as your current SB's and select the shaft that's closest to what you use now and cut it to the same lengths, they'll go the same distances."  I did and he was right.  They do go the exact same distances.  

 

Sort of the dirty little secret of the modern GI/Distance iron design...not really a secret I guess...they all own up to it...just one of the things the average consumer doesn't really know about.

 

As the irons get shorter the gaps between irons get progressively smaller. Reality is that if you put a classic iron design in the average golfers hand, the average gap between say a 4,5, and 6 irons will be much narrower than it should be (with some averaging longer with a 5 than a 4). Gaps are intentionally widened on the long end to provide actual gaps, and as the clubs get shorter, gaps are narrowed (because just about everyone consistently hits their 8 longer than their 9), and you know...practicalities and whatnot, 25 more yards out of your PW isn't desirable, so yeah when you get into Scor territory, distance has been more or less normalized.

 

Worth checking the next time somebody releases the next great distance iron...note that comparisons are always done somewhere between 4 and 6 irons...nobody ever talks about short iron distance, likely because the gains are far less substantial.

[Kor.A.Door]

 

Honorable mention for me goes to the Cleveland Smartsquare putter and the Cally SR line of golf balls.

The launch may not have been successful for the cally sr line of golf balls, but have you layer them, the SR2 is a very good ball, Distance is good, and you can stop them, there are 3 in the line SR1, SR2, and SR3, (you all know this), try them you may be surprised.

 

I do agree with the name changing, pick a name and stick with it.

[revkev]

Mark you're point that none of these products is perfect is well taken. My point is they aren't junk either, somewhere in between. SCORs they are another matter. Had another sick day with them today.

 

BTW I'm with you on the gun metal, way prefer it.

[Kenny B]

Or maybe I skipped the rule about not speaking Voldemort's name in the MGS user agreement. If so, let me see how many more sacred cows I can violate in the next little bit. Ya ready? Avert your eyes all you squeamish types....

• Rocketballz fairway woods clog with dirt after EVERY shot!
• Apex forged irons lose their chrome real fast!
• Just about all Winn grips crumble and erode quickly if you are not careful to clean them in very precise ways!
• No golf tee will make your shots go farther (although giving you a consistent tee height every time may help.)
• Modern drivers and fairways are painted all over in order to show wear faster so you will think they are worn and replace them more frequently!
• Iron distance is acheived thru a combination of shaft length and degrees of loft in the head!
• Sliding perimeter weights don't make much noticeable difference until they're shoved to the far extremes!

I haven't jumped in here because I find it interesting to hear everyone's opinion on the issues that seem to keep coming up all the time. I guess I agree about some of the club problems, jacking lofts, and yes sliding weights is just a gimmick that was served in the past by swappable heel and toe weights.But RBZ fairway woods and hybrids do not clog on EVERY shot. I have played them in 4 states and while some grass does sometimes get in the channel, it's easily removed by normal cleaning before it goes back in the bag. Certainly that issue does not out weigh the fact that it is a very good club, at least for me.As for the Winn grips, they do tend to break down but before they do, they work great. Before I switched to Pure Grips, I played Winn Classic Wrap and had to change them out every 6 months which wasn't too bad considering how much I play.Now, can a golf tee actually give you longer drives? MyGolfSpyLabs say YES. Here's the link to the test done 3 years ago.http://www.mygolfspy.com/mygolfspy-labs-golf-tee-wars/So, my bottom line is that all of these sacred cows are effective for what they are; some are more worthy than others.

[jpcgolf]

Mark

 

That's a bit harsh on the adidas shoes, they are very popular in the Uk indeed - I'm surprised if they aren't in the US. Bit narrow for my liking but incredibly light. Perhaps a bit pricey at MRRP.

 

Frankly the worst launch this season (think it launched in late 2013 really) has got to be the TM Jetspeed.

 

As well received as the SLDR was, the Jetspeed was instantly reduced and just never got traction at all. It wasn't a bad club, but it justwasnt a Burner.

 

I'd agree the big bertha launch wasn't great, but surely better than the effort Callaway made with Optiforce?

 

Or, and this is controversial, how about the Ping Ketsch? Create demand and then not fill orders - then discontinue......clearly there's a problem but Ping go quiet, aside from handing out cheques!

I have the jetspeed 3 wood and hybrid and they are pretty good clubs.

[jpcgolf]

I find it quite amusing that some folks want to post replies to this topic as if the question was one of marketing, rather than product quality. I'd hazard a guess that many of us couldn't care less about marketing.

Take the Jetspeed line, for example. 1) the driver is the longest in the current marketplace for lots of players (I have observed three very competitive Senior pros with 100+ mph swing speeds play it in a significant local tournament in October; each swears they've never had a longer stick.) It's longer than the SLDR for me, which was longer than anything else I've played. 2) The 3 wood and the hybrids shoved my RBZ Stage II's out of the bag. Better contact, better feel, more accurate, longer.You're missing a bet if you don't try them, especially at the highly discounted prices for discontinued clubs. TaylorMade's marketing failure has created a great opportunity for players.

I second that.  Off of the tee, my jetspeed 3 wood is the longest most accurate club I have ever had.

[jpcgolf]

Nah, the major OEM's NEVER release equipment that is actually bad, or that has gimmicks that don't actually do anything.....can't happen, they're too smart.

 

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I think all we need is a little time for the kool-aid to pass through our systems and in hindsight maybe today's brilliant brainstorms will look like the clunkers of yesteryear.

 

My current candidate for clunker gimmick of the year is -- I hate to say it -- Ping's turbulators.

 

The G30 is a fine, stable performer -- but the turbulators have not boosted club head spead for me or for any normal non-Bubba of my acquaintance.

My grandpa still bags the old big bertha.  Its funny because he actually hits it pretty solid.

As for the worst club release of the year.  I would give it to the new big bertha's due to a 500 dollar driver performing horribly, and being replaced in a few months.