Designer Golf Explodes the Myths

The greater majority of "manufacturers" of golf clubs are in fact only club assemblers, buying in all of the component parts and assembling them on a production line basis. Some don't even assemble their own clubs.

Write to your favourite manufacturer -Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist, Wilson, Adams, Cobra, Lynx etc - and ask them where their heads are made, whose steel shafts they use, who makes their graphite shafts, and where do their grips come from. You might be surprised by the reply that you receive.

What you will discover is that by far the vast majority of heads, both woods and irons, are manufactured in either Taiwan or (increasingly) in mainland China, where the Taiwanese manufacturers have opened factories in order to benefit from lower labour costs. The quality speaks for itself: you play with it every day, it is excellent.

For steel shafts, read True Temper. These are used exclusively by all of the major "manufacturers". There are two other steel shafts currently available in the UK: Nippon, a Japanese-manufactured shaft in the same category as True Tempe, and FM Precision Rifle shafts.

But write the letter and let us know what they say or email News@designergolf.co.uk with your response.

Wild Claims from Manufacturers

These same "manufacturers" also come out with really wild claims to encourage you to buy their particular brand. My favourite is "enlarged sweet spot", which of course is not possible. What makes the head more forgiving is the peripheral weighting, common in all modern cavity backed irons, but if the "manufacturers" said that all of their advertising would be the same. You would be really confused which clubs to buy then wouldn't you ?

TaylorMade for example used this illustration in their product brochure:

		Explaining that their "new improved scorelines on toe and heel increase forgiveness and spin throughout the clubface." We all know what happens when you hit the ball off the toe of the club or out of the heel and no amount of extra scorelines are going to alter that.
Hold your mouse over the image at various points for interactive comments.

This is just one example of what in marketing terms is commonly know as "pratt value" , there are of course many others used by all of the major "manufacturers".

Another "technological breakthrough" in club head design has been the VFT (variable face thickness) on woods, commonly called the trampolining effect.

This illustration taken from the current Dynacraft catalogue clearly shows how the "spring" works. Unfortunately however it only works if you hit the ball from the centre of the thickest part of the clubface, which is ok for tour pro's or very low handicap players, but for the greater majority of golfers it will prove to be a very expensive mistake.
		Hold your mouse over the image at various points for interactive comments.

Why their Clubs are so Expensive?

Finally ask yourself why their clubs are so expensive, knowing what we do now about where the components come from. The answer is in the cost of worldwide advertising in all of the glossy monthly golf magazines and the massive endorsements paid to tour players. The millions spent have to come from the profits made from club and ball sales. So you become your own worst enemy.

Impartial Advice

We intend to keep you advised on matters such as these, with regular updates in our " News " section, where we will at all times aim to be totally impartial and to bring to your attention only matters that we consider to be newsworthy.