best club manufactorer

hi all,

what are your thoughts on best club manufactorers! who,s your favourite, whats your favourite club? what clubs do you wish you had in your bag?

i personally am a big taylormade fan, but cannot afford to shell out on the lastest gear. i have recently tried out the taylormade tour burner irons and "i,m in love" but it will be awhile before i can convince the wife to let me invest in them!

your views guys!

Paul,

Like you im a taylormade man, and most of my clubs are TM's, however i ahve 2 Vokeys and a feel pitching wedge which always seem to find there way into my bag. 

currently my favourite club in the bag has to be my new Taylormade burner driver. I have so much confidence with it and its improved my driving no end. 

As for what would like to have in the bag, i would love the new TP Burner Driver, but like you i cant justify that kina outlay for a club. Also i would love a set of new forged irons (i currently have the TM300's and cant recomend them enough) but this is only due to my want of "new and shiney".

with regard to the tour burner irons they are very nice, but i more than happy with my 300's at the moment!

cheers

hi paul,

You will be waiting a while im afraid, as at the moment it doing me very well. I do have a 860 Burner 8.5* and a 540 10* if your intrested. Let me know!

I also have a mezza rossa and i love it, i was a blade person (nubbins B7) for years and i tried a friends Mezza rossa and i was sold. I bought a second hand one off of ebay i havent looked back! 

Jon, thats a bold statement about forged clubs, Ive tried both mizuno and TM forged and found that the TM300 series (with rifle shafts) felt a load better and "faced up" better on address to the ball. But of course thats imo. 

JP, i cant agree more that if you play well you can play with anything. One of my golfing partners who plays off of 6 and has the most random selection of clubs in his bag some of which are as follows: Nike forged irons (not a full set), a cleveland wedge that looks like its been runover, a non label putter and 2 donnay wedges and a slazenger rescue iron. However he's whole game is impresive...... just goes to show that the golfing marketing machine is indeed powerful!

Nike driver, Nike fairway woods, Taylor Made rescue, Srixon Irons, Cleveland 52* and 58* wedges, Nike 56* wedge, Maxfli lob weddge, Odessey putter. 

Looks like I don't have a favourite manufacturer.  The only club I bought without trying lots of different one was the Nike wedge.  That will be coming out of my bag now I have the Clevelands.

I honestly think that it is down to feel and personal choice, though some of it really is in the head. Either the marketing machine or the "Tiger uses Nike so they must be the best" attitude.  Guy at work won't even look at Callaway because he thinks they are an "old man's club". 

Da Lung, D&M or J. Union Tech are the best manufacturers - no argument.

Don't they make about 95% of the world's heads though Tim?

My point exactly, Chris

I wonder how many dies those guys actually have.  And how much machining is required to get the heads to finished condition.  If I end up in China on my travels (feasible) then I will try to get into one of these places and let you know what I find. 

Probably not that much Chris, especially for the cast heads.  Probably not the place to start another nerdy discussion, but most of the pressure casting dies for a cavity back will be 7 or 8 piece composites, so changing the cavity back for a 6 iron will only mean mods to 2 or 3 components. Will still need basic moulds for each iron, but they are easy to rapid prototype now.  They probably finish them by hand as well, a couple of semi-skilled chinese labourers are cheaper than a CNC machine....