LA Golf - will they become a significant player in the golf industry?

[ChitownM2]

I think they will always be a niche player.  Maybe something like Evnroll or Bettinardi.  If they are lucky they could grow to be Miura sized but that would take a long time.  It's just such a hard market to crack as average golfers don't upgrade all that often and are more likely to stick with brands they are familiar with when spending large amounts of money.  Someone previously mentioned them getting to a 10% market share.....that would be huge.  Depending on what were talking about that would probably put them just outside the Big 5 and I don't see that happening in the next 30 years.  

I also don't think their main product categories are all that appealing to the average golfer.  I'm pretty current on all the latest equipment and reviews, etc and I'm still not convinced that a $400 putter shaft is going to substantially improve my putting skills in the long run.  Might be some short term gains due to confidence but those always fade....just like you always putt well with a new putter but 9 months later you're putting something else in the bag.

Their other big product line is high end shafts and because of their strong ties to Bryson, etc I tend to think of them as a shaft for faster swing speeds.  As someone with a 100mph driver speed, LA Golf is not who I would think of as fitting me, even though I'm sure they have an offering that would be appropriate.  

[T McKinnon]

Please disregard my post as the manufacturer was probably Stroke-Lab not LA shafts     

Edited February 21, 2023 by T McKinnon
shaft manufacturer may have been a stroke Lab

[ChitownM2]

4 minutes ago, cnosil said:

Let me ask you a question which ties to @releaseresponse above.  Why is a Scotty a dream to have.  It may not be the best putter for you sowhy not find the putter that works best for you.  Why does everyone want a Scotty? 

Imo it's partially marketing and partially that mythical magic dust that makes them good.  Similar to Miura.  

[cnosil]

2 minutes ago, T McKinnon said:

 Reading above about a putter shaft breaking, it seems to me that the cost/quality of LA shafts is a little suspect?  I for one will be looking for other shaft options.   

The putter shaft reference above was an Odyssey Stoke Lab shaft not an LA Golf.   

[CTQuinn26]

Let me ask you a question which ties to [mention=98]release[/mention]response above.  Why is a Scotty a dream to have.  It may not be the best putter for you sowhy not find the putter that works best for you.  Why does everyone want a Scotty?  
 
Your post is  about LAB Golf which is not the same company LA Golf which is what this thread is referencing.  But your point is valid that LAB has kind of a cult following and people seem willing to spend more on those putters than the LA Golf putters.

I’d say there is something that is ionic about the Scotty? A lot of buddies play it which might influence me? I do remember when I started golfing it felt like Scotty was a “coveted” thing to have in your bag.

At the end of the day it sounds maybe like personal bias but some day when I get fitted for a new putter I’ll keep an open mind.

As for the Lab vs LA Golf thing - great call out the morning coffee hasn’t kicked in here apparently and to be honest until your call out i hadn’t even heard of these putters.

Sadly, doing a quick google of LA Golf - I’ve never done research in this brand. Call Me a novice or maybe this is a prime example of LA Golf’s lack of reach to the average golfer at this time.


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[ChitownM2]

3 minutes ago, T McKinnon said:

I have a good golf buddy who when fitted at Club Champion had a LA shaft installed in his new driver at a premium cost.   Well, within the first week or two the shaft snapped between the club head and the grip.  He got the shaft replaced under warranty and within a week the shaft snapped again.  He was not happy with his experience!  Reading above about a putter shaft breaking, it seems to me that the cost/quality of LA shafts is a little suspect?  I for one will be looking for other shaft options.   

the broken shaft mentioned above was a strokelab not an LA golf shaft.

Also, I would say something funky has to be going on with your buddies golf swing or something.  Either that or whoever is installing the shaft doesn't know what they are doing.  Breaking 2 shafts in 3 weeks is highly unusual.

[cnosil]

1 minute ago, ChitownM2 said:

Imo it's partially marketing and partially that mythical magic dust that makes them good.  Similar to Miura.  

I’d also add that they are widely used on professional tours so people think there is magical dust that makes them better so they want one. .  

[T McKinnon]

7 minutes ago, ChitownM2 said:

the broken shaft mentioned above was a strokelab not an LA golf shaft.

Also, I would say something funky has to be going on with your buddies golf swing or something.  Either that or whoever is installing the shaft doesn't know what they are doing.  Breaking 2 shafts in 3 weeks is highly unusual.

You may be correct in your assessment of the shaft manufacturer.  During the 20+ years I have played golf with my buddy, he has never broken another shaft.

[RickyBobby_PR]

8 minutes ago, T McKinnon said:

You may be correct in your assessment of the shaft manufacturer.  During the 20+ years I have played golf with my buddy, he has never broken another shaft.

PX had issues with the hzrdus shafts breaking to the point they put a freeze on them.

Fujikura had an issue with the initial release of the ventus tr shafts.

There have been others over the last decade or so.

[David LD]

If you thought they'd never be significant, it's because you DON'T know anything about the company...

First and foremost they bought Matrix Ozik when they went under, they own ALL of their patents such as their revolutionary HD shaft design - matrix was one of the biggest players in the world for shafts - the putter for $2500 is a bit obscene, but so is the same price for a custom out tour issue scotty.

 

The biggest difference most ppl don't quite grasp is instead of the hand rolled junk shafts your getting machine rolled tour quality shafts and most of them are actually selling at retail for about $150-$300 not $500 - so you san find one for cheaper than a project x small batch and they are all 100% made in the US down to the custom graphite blends - they make their own it's not made in a slave labor camp in India or China... Probably 50% of the price are the LA taxes.

I have a driver shaft with over 50,000 swings - still like brand new, several other brands are just done after 5000 ish swings.

There have been many great shaft improvements over the past few years, lots of good stuff, but LA golf by far is the most reliable / consistent - you could pick up someone else's driver with the and shaft and the specs are going to be virtually identical - vs hitting a shaft at a fitting a then getting a totally different shaft when you get yours or something that's mislabeled... Another major brand accidentally misprinted am their reg flexs as stiff flex last year. Many other shafts are wildly inconsistent with a few great ones here and there. Go hit a few shafts at 2 different stores, you'll see what I mean.

[RickyBobby_PR]

40 minutes ago, David LD said:

The biggest difference most ppl don't quite grasp is instead of the hand rolled junk shafts your getting machine rolled tour quality shafts and most of them are actually selling at retail for about $150-$300 not $500 - so you san find one for cheaper than a project x small batch and they are all 100% made in the US down to the custom graphite blends - they make their own it's not made in a slave labor camp in India or China... Probably 50% of the price are the LA taxes.

Can you show anything that proves their shafts are machine rolled and there are no hands touching them? Iirc it was only pederson that had no hands touching the production of their shafts.

All companies hand roll the the flags onto the mandrel then out that under a rolling machine to finish the process. I’ve visited two shaft companies and watched the process and also at one of them made my own shaft. 
 

 

[Quigleyd]

I didn't read all the responses, but I don't think LAgolf is ever really going to elevate from where they are. They are a bit of a mess internally from what I am hearing. They bought a pretty successful putter company to completely scrap it and go almost full carbon in putters. They are pretty ugly and unrefined. Their marketing is all over the place. They tried to do a high-end high-class deal with the first putter release and all the tour pros at a swanky party. That fell on deaf ears so now they have low-brow YouTube commercials. All the while their biggest name stopped playing their driver shaft. 

 

I do know they are producing shafts for House of Forged shafts for them now. 

[Soonapa]

Look at MyGolfSpy.  Top rated putters are Cleveland and Wilson this year.  Two of the lower cost putters beat out all the others 

[Dog Faced Pony Soldier]

2 hours ago, Quigleyd said:

I didn't read all the responses, but I don't think LAgolf is ever really going to elevate from where they are. They are a bit of a mess internally from what I am hearing. They bought a pretty successful putter company to completely scrap it and go almost full carbon in putters. They are pretty ugly and unrefined. Their marketing is all over the place. They tried to do a high-end high-class deal with the first putter release and all the tour pros at a swanky party. That fell on deaf ears so now they have low-brow YouTube commercials. All the while their biggest name stopped playing their driver shaft. 

 

I do know they are producing shafts for House of Forged shafts for them now. 

I agree LAGP’s marketing is downright horrible. The street style marketing campaign doesn’t exactly scream high tech and high performance. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 hours ago, Quigleyd said:

I didn't read all the responses, but I don't think LAgolf is ever really going to elevate from where they are. They are a bit of a mess internally from what I am hearing. They bought a pretty successful putter company to completely scrap it and go almost full carbon in putters. They are pretty ugly and unrefined. Their marketing is all over the place. They tried to do a high-end high-class deal with the first putter release and all the tour pros at a swanky party. That fell on deaf ears so now they have low-brow YouTube commercials. All the while their biggest name stopped playing their driver shaft. 

 

I do know they are producing shafts for House of Forged shafts for them now. 

Buyin companies and scraping their product happens all the time in all kinds of industries. They get the patents and IP. 
 

It’s what TM did with Adams. 

[ChuckZ]

8 hours ago, cnosil said:

Yes, they have an anser and #7 style putter just like most manufacturers.  The $2500 version is a different model.  Aside from the players/investors you mentioned players are using their shafts.  For example Tom Kim who is becoming one of the tours most popular players uses a Cameron putter and LA Golf shaft.   

Shafts is what they are noted for.  

 

Just now, ChuckZ said:

Shafts is what they are noted for.  

 

Tom Kim is one of our Brand Ambassadors.  

[ChuckZ]

7 hours ago, Dog Faced Pony Soldier said:

I will add that my latest driver fitting proved a LAGP “DJ Signature Series” (and 8* TSR3) was the best option tested for me. I love this new build!
i did also add a LAGP P Series SOHO to my new Evnroll too. 

I tried a EVNRoll putter last year with a Fujikura shaft in it.  Loved the feel of that shaft.  Never could get the feel I liked with the head of the EVNRoll putter.  Seemed a little to heavy for me.  That combination ran over $700.  The shaft is what ran the cost up.  All my drivers, fairways and hybrids have Fujikura shafts.  They just seem to give me the performance and feel that I am looking for.  

[CANADA1]

Why consider buying a putter from a new player in the putter jungle at $450 or even at $1500 when the latest mygolfspy blade putter test has 2 putters at the top of the performance list for less than $200. Ego most likely. There are no bad putters, only poor strokes, save the money and get some putting lessons.

 

[fozcycle]

12 hours ago, cnosil said:

Where did the shaft break? Did it actually snap? Did the epoxy between the graphite and steel section fail?  LA Golf putter shafts seems to be appearing in mor tour player putters and I think as more young players come on tour they will continue to grow in usage.   

It broke a couple inches above the steel……graphite break.

[cnosil]

31 minutes ago, fozcycle said:

It broke a couple inches above the steel……graphite break.

Interesting, First I have ever heard of that happening.  

[TylorJudd]

6 hours ago, CANADA1 said:

Why consider buying a putter from a new player in the putter jungle at $450 or even at $1500 when the latest mygolfspy blade putter test has 2 putters at the top of the performance list for less than $200. Ego most likely. There are no bad putters, only poor strokes, save the money and get some putting lessons.

 

Man, 1st post since being here from 2011. You must deeply want more people to stop buying clubs and get lessons!

[Quigleyd]

16 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Buyin companies and scraping their product happens all the time in all kinds of industries. They get the patents and IP. 
 

It’s what TM did with Adams. 

I know. I just dont think in this case the killed a pretty good brand and replaced it with .. Taylormade bought Adams then ran with it and had awesome products. Well, they bought them because they stole IP, then lost a lawsuit and it was cheaper to just buy them then pay the lawsuit. 

[release]

On 2/21/2023 at 7:52 AM, cnosil said:

I’d also add that they are widely used on professional tours so people think there is magical dust that makes them better so they want one. .  

The manufacturers been playing the same cards since day one.  Prop up the initial pricing ( perhaps to recover the cost from sponsoring the Tour players).  Make some noise in the market to announce the presence, either the action received the attention from the consumers or it'll fade away but comes back in another name later.

They play the cards where the golfers favor to seek solution in the equipment.  Why?  Because it's a promise to provide a quicker solution. I believe the industry is gradually shying away from depending on using the image of the professional to sell their products.    This is one of the questions appearing over and over again in various golf related survey, whether the consumer's purchasing be influenced by the branding of professional golfers.  

To survive in this highly competitive and involving players with endless financial backing.  The Boutique outlet will need to find a way to safely expand into the next stage or they will be crushed either doing badly or even successfully ( when supply could not meet the sudden increase in demand, which will kill the business as there was no demand ).

[ChitownM2]

On 2/21/2023 at 7:25 PM, fozcycle said:

It broke a couple inches above the steel……graphite break.

 

On 2/21/2023 at 7:56 PM, cnosil said:

Interesting, First I have ever heard of that happening.  

Obviously there is no way to ever know what would have happened, but my guess is that something happened and even if it had been a steel shaft you'd have ended up with a nice kink in it and an unusable shaft regardless.  I can't see a graphite putter shaft just snapping from regular use, the swing speed is just too slow.  Either that or it was defective in which case I'm thinking you would have felt something off from the get go.

[fozcycle]

6 hours ago, ChitownM2 said:

 

Obviously there is no way to ever know what would have happened, but my guess is that something happened and even if it had been a steel shaft you'd have ended up with a nice kink in it and an unusable shaft regardless.  I can't see a graphite putter shaft just snapping from regular use, the swing speed is just too slow.  Either that or it was defective in which case I'm thinking you would have felt something off from the get go.

Not sure how it broke. I did see it after repairs. H3 took a nylon screw, sawed off the head, then used epoxy and screwed it into the inside of the graphite shaft. It looked a little rough but he could use it.