Golf Club Brands

Believe it or not, the origins of golf are not all that clear. Most accept that the game developed in Scotland in the Middle Ages, but did not become overly popular until it spread to the United Kingdom and later the U.S. Others point to literature that shows a game similar to golf being played in the Netherlands in the early 1300s. Whatever your take, golf today is a massive sport, widely accepted as one of the top 10 sports in the world and a big money maker for those who excel at it.

Along with the development of the sport comes the development of the equipment to play golf. While we’ll be talking golf club brands here, the most notable advancement in golf has been with the actual ball. The weight and size of the ball has shifted dramatically over the years and is now accepted as “perfect,” at least for the time being. Regarding clubs, as you can likely imagine they started rather rudimentarily (made from wood) and evolved into refined pieces of graphite and lightweight titanium heads.

When talking best golf brands, it is useful to separate them into categories. For example, the best driver brand hands down has been, and continues to be, TaylorMade. They are driving the ball roughly 10 yards longer now than they were 10 years ago. Compared to competitors such as Ping, Callaway and Titleist, TaylorMade consistently outperforms them in adjustability, feel and distance. With amateurs and juniors TaylorMade is ever-present and that’s certainly a good sign for market share.

The best fairway wood brand is a tough one. It honestly comes down to a handful of brands, and that handful is Callaway, Ping, TaylorMade and Tour Exotics. The first three are very well-known while the last one, Tour Exotics, is a new player in the game. In summary, lots of brands make good fairway woods. You can’t go wrong with any of these. On the hybrid side, it begins and ends with Adams. Hybrids are good for those players who struggle to strike the ball well. Adams has a series of hybrid options and the company counts on the great Ernie Els and Aaron Baddeley as loyal users.

Next, we want to talk a brand that while not golf centric, has made significant inroads into the sport. And that brand is none other than Nike. Of the Top 50 players on the tour today, Nike counts on Rory Mcllroy, Charl Schwartzel and of course, Tiger Woods, all flying the famed Nike insignia. When Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996, he signed a mind-boggling five-year, $40 million dollar deal with Oregon apparel company. Nike has since branched into golf equipment so while the other brands on this list are more “old-school” in the golf vernacular, watch out for Nike, there’s a reason they hardly fail.

Some great starts here if you’re just wading into the sport. It can be time-consuming so tell the significant other to keep lunch warm on Saturdays and Sundays. You won’t be getting to that til 5PM at best.