Confession Corner - Admit Your Golf Equipment Biases

[Kevin Bergeron]

I am a Ping snob even though I have only been playing for less than a year. My love for Ping comes from my dad and after he passed away I got his set of ISI-K irons 3 through pitch. And Callaway Big Bertha driver and 3wood along with a Ping Zing 2 putter. The irons (6 through 9) are what I am learning on now. I have tried other clubs and they are ok, I have nothing against them but for some reason Ping just feels like home i know it is all in my head but it is what it is. 

[berkeleybob]

On 2/22/2023 at 12:16 AM, GolfSpy_APH said:

Is there any single Club that you've used which really swung your bias towards a company one way or another?

Kirkland’s KS1.

If Kirkland ever fronts an LH forged CB iron set, I’d definitely want to get my hands on it. I mean, I’d wait for reviews, etc., of course, but these guys have definitely jumped the queue for consideration of future club purchases.

This is a big deal if you knew me and the rants of my youth about how big box stores are ruining the socio-economic fabric of our western societies, not to mention the negative impact it has made on mom & pop businesses and industries and their local communities…

I’d throw all that away for a decent set of cheaper irons. 

[richk9holes]

I picked up many biases from what my father played, I know that. He always had a notch better equipment and when I was a teen I got super competitive with him. Back then he was working with snake eyes and I had Spalding executives. To this day I like the look of Snake Eyes equipment when I see that logo. 

Then a decade of G-something everything in dad's bag while I gamed 3-PW Cleveland ta3 with pistol shafts. I'll always view Ping as that echelon of FW I wish for the newest model when I buy tees there's a 50% chance I pick up, waggle and foot a 430 14.5°.

Some new biases have come from 3 or 4 cycles of replacing clubs once I started trading in, swapping, etc. as I recognized more quickly what I'm attuned to and what I'm not. I don't look at Wilson, Tommy Armour or XXIO, Srixion, Cobra and Mizuno get almost as little attention.

Of the other brands I only play Titleist Callaway. I have Tour Edge, Ping, Snake Eyes, Cleveland and Adam's clubs in assorted sets in the garage. Those are probably the brands I continue to game unless stats really jump off a launch monitor. I am constantly testing and I hope improving, so I'm open to anything..or am I?

[The Mad Bomber]

I have a terrible bias for Titleist Drivers. I look down at my TSi and I think that every single other driver on the market is butt ugly next to it. Horrible looking.How can anybody even look down at their ugly Callaways and Cobras (and PING’s)??? I hit everything that comes out, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I play a driver that doesn’t say Titleist on it. Everything performs well, very well even - I just hate them all lol

 

 

[KC Golf]

I readily admit that I am biased to Titleist.  Its a sickness.  I can't get over the fact that my clubs rarely deviate from a Titleist, no matter how many fittings I get or Demo days I go to. 

I may need some help / counselling to move towards inserting a club or two from Cobra, Callaway, Mizuno or Miura.

[Merlin1313]

1 minute ago, KC Golf said:

I readily admit that I am biased to Titleist.  Its a sickness.  I can't get over the fact that my clubs rarely deviate from a Titleist, no matter how many fittings I get or Demo days I go to. 

I may need some help / counselling to move towards inserting a club or two from Cobra, Callaway, Mizuno or Miura.

I have to agree with that thought pattern- except with Callaway. I've been to counseling- they tried to get me to play with TM and I started going through withdrawal and had anxiety issues

[TomBomb51]

On 2/22/2023 at 11:18 AM, Bob Jerabek said:

I believe Mizuno makes the best irons period.  The look and feel is unmatched anywhere. Most golfers differ to the big OEM’s and never give Mizuno a look.  Those that do play it begin to feel cult like with this club.

I agree and liked your comment, then saw your signature and the irons you are currently playing 

 

[GPS111]

2 hours ago, The Mad Bomber said:

I have a terrible bias for Titleist Drivers. I look down at my TSi and I think that every single other driver on the market is butt ugly next to it. Horrible looking.How can anybody even look down at their ugly Callaways and Cobras (and PING’s)??? I hit everything that comes out, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I play a driver that doesn’t say Titleist on it. Everything performs well, very well even - I just hate them all lol

 

 

Everything is pretty when it works.  They become butt ugly when they stop working.  

[JakeSmith2316]

Let me just sweep away the small amount of cobwebs over here so I can get my golf bias out of the way. 

Fanboy Levels

Cobra - I have always rooted for the underdog when it comes to anything in my life and that was no different when it came to golf. While everyone around me played the ‘snobby’ brands I stuck with my Cobra’s the whole way. I would play all 14 clubs worth of Cobra, but alas the lefty in me does not allow for that option.

 

Positive Bias

KBS Shafts - Now this is a company I can play all 14 Clubs in, and I happily do so currently. Now, I will admit that I am still learning the ins and outs of shafts but I have never found a shaft personally that does exactly what I like it to than the C-Taper Lite I currently have in my Irons.

 

Neutral Bias

Titleist - Now their wedges are next level and if we were to go into just Vokey wedges I would have a positive bias maybe even fanboy levels. However, the rest of the lineup does not do it for me. The design philosophy is bland and the feelings are meh with just about everything else, including the Scotty’s. Now they are great clubs I can only assume, but they are just not for me.

 

Negative Bias

Taylormade - I have never hit a good thing from Taylormade. It could be their balls, drivers, wedges, etc…. they just don’t give that tingly feeling I get with other clubs. And I know that everyone has issues with QA but these Stealth’s just worry me a bit more than others.

[Another Steve]

I would consider myself more of a “gear geek” than a “club hoe”. I like to look at the designs and tech and know/learn the how and why they work or behave how the do. And if it makes sense for how i want to play the game. Because of this i have had a general disdain for all the hype and marketing claims preferring to see (independent) data. I also do not see the need change equipment other than maybe balls very often. 
 

Neg bias :

OEM manufacturers in general. I get the marketing and need to come up with new stuff and generate sales but am old enough to realize that new and improved usually is neither  

PXG, hate the marketing and the clubs are beyond fugly to my eye. They might be the best club i could ever play but will probably never know as i have zero interest in trying them  

Ping - looks and feel just never appealed to me. Too much offset and always looked like i was swinging a garden hoe. I did try to cozy up to eye, eye2, i3, and zing irons. Tried multiple different ping drivers over the years too, they just never worked for me. I do have a curiosity about the i blades and blue print irons but doubt i will follow up on it. 
 

Calloway - tried to cozy up to Bertha and her sisters but never quite got along. Some of the newer driver offerings showed promise but got edged out by a good deal on a TM M1 head  

Irons always looked too fat/thick to ever get comfortable looking down on them  

tried the odessy putters when they came out and the were meh….. didn’t give me enough reason to pull the ping from the bag

Titelist

Drivers never worked for me.
620MB &CB would be a great combo set but are priced beyond my pay grade 

ProV balls - love hate relationship.  Too expensive in general and IMHO have been kept artificially expensive since they first came out to establish and maintain the “tour ball $50/dz price point”. When i figure out the version that works for me we make good music til they change it.  I’m tired of the seemingly constant tweaking so they fo in and out of the bag. With a couple years playing the original Strata, the B330 and now B-xs.
scotty putters- too expensive, too much hype. 
 

Taylor Made

Mostly marketing hype. Too many/frequent driver changes over the years. Some gems mixed in with a lot of filler  

 

any club labeled as game improvement. Or players distance ….

 

mallet putters no workie for me. Tried and always go back to the ping Anser4. Still in the champion with 35 years in the bag. But I am willing to another one. I would like to try a Sub70 vs my ping.  Maybe the added weight and ability to tune the weight will carry the day.

 

positive bias:

 

Blades- i am a dinosaur and went from learning on blades to the perimeter weighted/cavity back/internal cavity weighting GI irons for 10 years thru the 90’s and ended up back at a combo mb/cb forges blade set. 

Component and DTC. Still playing golfsmith combo forged md/cb set i built in 1999. I would consider maltby and others if I had a way to demo and bend lofts &lies. 
 

keep looking at sub70 and trying figure out if I want to try to buy a 7 or 8 iron at my specs to compare. Their demo deal no workie for me as i am 1” long and 2* up from their stock specs. They have a couple modles that pique my interest as I am in the market for a new set of irons. 
 

bridgestone - played their balls on n off for years nuff said

sirixon - played various qstar and zstar balls off and on. Like looks of some of their irons and may try them out in the future

Cleveland- played rtg 588 wedges forever. Need to find replacements and will look at what they offer  

Nike- never was a tiger fan but demoed a set of TW blades back in the day head to head vs my TM iCW 11 irons and wished i had the cash to buy them at the time. They are a big part of why I built the Golfsmith set  

Mizuno - have a wedge in bag now. Played a friends MP33’s a while back and got along very nicely with them. A set of blades from them might be a grail set for me. 
 

Taylor Made. Have played a TM driver since 1988 seven different drivers  earned the place in the bag. Haven’t really given their irons a long look in a few years as they newer really caught my eye.

True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts. S300 and x100. They work for me, why change. 
 

Golf pride tour wrap or tour velvet grips. Same as DG shafts. Wraps on the irons and velvet on the woods. They work so why change. 
 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Another Steve

[GolfSpy_APH]

It took one good fitting from Titleist for me to go from never having playing their clubs to legitimately seeing myself with a near full bag.

I just got the irons and have yet to play them but that fitting changed my whole perception of them.

[Fred Mitchell]

Drivers/Fairway woods/Hybrids = Pings to me to me What few yards I lose on my best shots are more than made up on average or worse shots BUT COMMA I did acquire a used Stealth 3 wood H/L for a specific course and couple of holes and just to use for fun and I will say its the best 3 wood I have tried 

[GolfSpy TCB]

No sooner do I build a bias... as does another OEM come out with a new set of gorgeous clubs.   I am brand agnostic.  Looks and performance... I don't care what name is on it.

[Dead Solid Bogey]

Cobra hybrids and any club that floats 

[Shrek74]

In my "old age" I find myself loathing the OEM's and their ever increasing costs. They're pricing so many out of the game. Now, I go DTC wherever and whenever I can.

[skraeling]

I prefer yellow balls.

Sorry not sorry.

4yds difference is literal margin of error.  I dont buy it vs a white ball.

[Dead Solid Bogey]

4 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

In my "old age" I find myself loathing the OEM's and their ever increasing costs. They're pricing so many out of the game. Now, I go DTC wherever and whenever I can.

Secondary markets my brother…. Instead of used, I look at those clubs as being pretested.

[skraeling]

1 minute ago, Dead Solid Bogey said:

Secondary markets my brother…. Instead of used, I look at those clubs as being pretested.

and some dont even look used.  Got both my sim2 max and my mizuno putter for significantly cheaper.  Putter didnt look used at all and the sim2 had I think one tiny wear mark somewhere maybe?  Cant even remember at this point.

[SliceBoss]

Pretty biased towards a bloody mary on the front 9...  Am I alone in this preference?

I haven't developed a bias yet, as I am relatively new to playing on a regular basis (few times a month now).  I have a lot of firsts that may be causing some bias... like being able to hit 200 of the tee (stop laughing!) with my Cobra RadSpeed 3 wood.  The more I play, the better the swing gets, the more firsts I will have.  I will say though, I will always remember Cobra for being the first one I ever was able to do that with.  My Callaway hybrids are the first I've ever striped one from the rough or first cut with confidence and success.  And so on...

I will have a fitting in Feb/Mar next year and look forward to seeing what happens to my bag then.

[Dead Solid Bogey]

15 minutes ago, GillegendGolf said:

Pretty biased towards a bloody mary on the front 9...  Am I alone in this preference?

I haven't developed a bias yet, as I am relatively new to playing on a regular basis (few times a month now).  I have a lot of firsts that may be causing some bias... like being able to hit 200 of the tee (stop laughing!) with my Cobra RadSpeed 3 wood.  The more I play, the better the swing gets, the more firsts I will have.  I will say though, I will always remember Cobra for being the first one I ever was able to do that with.  My Callaway hybrids are the first I've ever striped one from the rough or first cut with confidence and success.  And so on...

I will have a fitting in Feb/Mar next year and look forward to seeing what happens to my bag then.

Man, oh man, do I ever envy you and your Bloody Mary starter kit. 
   A couple of years ago our club staff went through an almost complete turnover. Almost all of the new staff including the manager are now female. 
Myself and the other Ancient Agers went from having zero female  supervision and Double Bloody Maria’s to start the round, to being told that we indeed did have female SUPERVISION and are now limited to Virgin Maria’s, even sans, celery salt. I can’t prove it, but I believe the regal one that I serve had something to do with the supervision. 
 Enjoy my young friend, enjoy. 

[dinomack99]

This is a fun topic. I will admit that PXG has won me over the past year or so. I imagine there's a lot of us out there. I see the comments on the Average Golfer's (Andy) YouTube channel and there's a cult following since unlike some of the other reviewers, he makes a point of trying out their stuff and more times than not, the PXG club stays in the bag. I got fit for the Gen 5 driver as a Christmas present this year. I was fitted in January and it was a bit of a disaster. It was cold and wet and my normal driver swing had evaporated, so I was fit into an anti-slice 7.5-degree extra stiff driver that I didn't get along with. Luckily, they allow a tech check within the first 30 days to see if the setting are still working, so I did that on a warmer day and was fit into a completely different club for free. The fitter couldn't have been nicer. It was a 9-degree, neutral-weighted, stiff shaft. I loved it until just about 2 weeks ago when I got my hands on the Gen 6. Wow! Up to that point, I had hit the Gen 5 against the Rogue Paradym, ST Max, Aerojet, 430 Max, original Stealth and the Gen 5 was the best of the bunch, but Gen 6 smoked it. I've hit the longest drive of my life on my simulator within one week of having it. And the spin rates are now comfortably in the 2,200 range. I also have PXG 0211 irons and they are not going anywhere soon. That said, I think TaylorMade makes the hottest hybrids and woods, and so I have those in Stealth. I also have been a fan of Tour Edge over the years. So those are my three go-to brands. Never owned a Ping nor a Titleist. Maybe just too snobby for me? Too expensive? 

[GolfSpy_APH]

I wonder how many of you feel about the DTC brands, they have so much less exposure and I would be very curious to hear what the first word or sentence comes to mind when you hear brands like 
 

Red Rooster - 

Sub 70 - 

Takomo - 

New Level - 

Haywood - 

MacGregor - 

Caley - 

Sacks Parente - 

Indi Golf - 

Edison - 

I am sure some of them many have never heard of and there are many there I left off because frankly now the list is way longer than it had been even a few years ago!

 

[ejgaudette]

2 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I wonder how many of you feel about the DTC brands, they have so much less exposure and I would be very curious to hear what the first word or sentence comes to mind when you hear brands like 
 

Red Rooster - 

Sub 70 - 

Takomo - 

New Level - 

Haywood - 

MacGregor - 

Caley - 

Sacks Parente - 

Indi Golf - 

Edison - 

I am sure some of them many have never heard of and there are many there I left off because frankly now the list is way longer than it had been even a few years ago!

 

Having been lucky enough to test Edel no bias there for sure as those performed and are still in the bag. The only tough part with DTCs sometimes is shaft selection which I get to keep costs down. Though I see many of the brands are now selling only heads so you can simply shaft them with anything you like. I love it, generally you can take those heads and put them on a premium shaft and still end up just under the OEM prices, never mind if you want an up-charge shaft.

[Alan Scalzi]

The only 2 in your list i heard of before joining this MyGolfSpy was MacGregor ( for baseball) and Red rooster.  I only bought and recently this was, a few pairs of the red rooster gloves and love them. I only did this said purchase because of MyGolfSpy!

[Usmcgyrene]

My only personal bias would be Taylormade. I've had a few quality issues with Taylormade over the years. Their customer service was iffy at best. At this point, there is ZERO chance a Taylormade club goes in my bag. I was always a huge Adams fan. I played Adams clubs for a long time. Now that Taylormade owns them, they are also off the list.

[Redhawk]

Taylor Made all the way. Gotta have their new driver every year!!! The looks and their innovative changes to the game are unsurpassed. Period!

[GolfSpy AFG]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

I wonder how many of you feel about the DTC brands, they have so much less exposure and I would be very curious to hear what the first word or sentence comes to mind when you hear brands like 
 

Red Rooster - 

Sub 70 - 

Takomo - 

New Level - 

Haywood - 

MacGregor - 

Caley - 

Sacks Parente - 

Indi Golf - 

Edison - 

I am sure some of them many have never heard of and there are many there I left off because frankly now the list is way longer than it had been even a few years ago!

 

Ha, this is good.

Red Rooster - glove experts

Sub 70 - DTC kings

Takomo - DTC on the rise

New Level - niche

Haywood - Barely heard of them 

MaxGregor - Hanging around, still

Caley - who?

Sacks Parente - securities fraud (read the Golf Digest article)

Indi Golf - another who?

Edison Golf - niche, speciality 

Don’t know if this just exposes my own ignorance, but there it is…

[Preeway]

The only thing keeping me from being serious about DTC brands is the desire to be fitted for clubs. I’ve tried PXG and for me the Gen 5 doesn’t perform as well as the Titleist TSR or Callaway Paradym so a new driver is in my future this off season. I could very well be talked into a DTC brand for wedges if I can get enough information to feel confident in the grind and overall playability. I already carry a Bettinardi putter which feels like a DTC in many ways but not sure if it is considered one. In the end I don’t really care about the brand as much as I do the performance. But it’s near impossible to test drive a DTC brand which for makes it much harder to consider. 

[RCGolf]

Unabashed Titleist and Graphite Design fan. Whole bag. Have been since around 2000. I have switched a couple times throughout the years to Taylormade once, and Ping once.

[Josh Parker]

I don't have a bias towards any particular brand.  When I first started learning golf, I bought a used set of Wilson prostaff clubs from the local pro for next to nothing and being a lefty, there weren't many options then.  Up until I got fitted, it had always been used clubs other than my wedges.  In my opinion, it comes down to performance, cost and availability to us lefties....  ha.