It's a Great Time to Be a Gear Head

I learned to regrip a club long before I ever learned to swing it. The truth is, ever since I started playing golf as a kid, the equipment fascinated me more than anything. The problem was, the more I wanted to learn, the more I found dead ends. Information about gear was limited to magazines and books and there were no big box golf stores you could just walk into on a Saturday morning to try a few clubs.

Even as I got older and became a better player, launch monitors (still very new at the time) and club fitting felt like a foreign concept, only available to professional golfers and those with very deep pockets. That limited access gave me the drive to constantly experiment until I figured things out on my own. I’m probably the only kid on the planet that asked for a lie and loft machine for their 16th birthday. I did get it, and I still use it to this day.

But those days of limited information and access are long gone. Heck, you can walk into a Costco and buy two dozen multi-piece urethane golf balls for less than $35, get an accurate launch monitor that hooks up to your phone for $500, adjust your driver and fairway woods with a wrench, and find experts breaking down the newest in technology on your phone. It’s never been easier to be educated and in control of your golf game.

The reason equipment is so exciting to me is because now more than ever, golf gear has been democratized to the point where what’s in your golf bag has never been more personal. Whether you’re a gear nerd of the past, recently starting honing in on the performance in your bag, or you’re a new golfer looking to learn more about how this all works, it’s a great time to dial your understanding of how equipment can help make you a better golfer—and I’m not just talking scores.

Your golf bag is all yours!

The thing that makes golf so wonderful is that it's an individual pursuit that gives you the opportunity to enjoy it however you see fit, equipment included. Whether that means getting professionally fit to maximize and optimize your potential on every shot, building a golf bag that brings you back to a place where you first picked up the game (one of many sets I’ve built for myself is a replica of my favorite high school sets), or you want to connect with the history of the game through persimmon and hickory wooden clubs, there is no wrong way to play.

I encourage golfers both new and old to scour everything from flea markets to big box golf stores to try all of the gear you can. The more you try, the more you get a personalized understanding of what you like and don’t like—and you could find a hidden gem along the way. It's no different than expanding your palate by trying new foods–you might not enjoy everything you try and that’s OK. Right now there are more club manufacturers and innovators than ever, and the leading club makers are pushing the boundaries of innovation further than they could in years past.

Ever since Karsten Solheim introduced the world to the perimeter weighted irons, golfers have clamored for clubs to help make the ball fly higher, straighter, and farther. With the help of modern day space age materials and engineers combining them to relocate CoG (Center of gravity) and boost MOI (a measurement of forgiveness) it has never been easier to find clubs to optimize your shotmaking. Although it still seems futuristic, it's been 15 years since the first mainstream adjustable hosel driver was introduced with the TaylorMade r9, and 20 years since the adjustable weight r7 launched a revolution of adjustable weighting.

All of these adjustment technologies are now commonplace in metalwoods from almost every equipment manufacturer and bring custom fitting right to the palm of your hands.

Another key part of the technology game is launch monitors. Although the top models designed for R&D and precision club fitting still cost well over $10,000, it's easy to find many models for less than half of that, with some consumer options designed for carry and dispersion tracking for less than the price of a new driver. So rather than feeling the need to buy a brand new club, you can buy a piece of gear that can help you better understand your swing and how your current equipment works for you.

It wasn’t always this way. In the 60s, if you wanted a shaft in your driver it was either steel or steel. If you wanted a new set of irons it was blades or other blades. That not to say there weren’t nuances from club to club, but the fully hand-built nature of them made each one unique. It's what makes old wooden headed persimmon and laminate golf clubs so coveted today. Similarly to how vinyl records made a comeback with audiophiles who wanted to experience analog music after the digital revolution, these clubs are making a big comeback with golfers looking for a new challenge. Right now, there’s a select group of club builders dedicated to preserving the craft of making wooden clubs from scratch and refinishing those that are still being found in garages and proshop basements.

This is where we come in. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong way to build your perfect set of clubs and you shouldn’t either. If you’re a golfer who values performance over everything else, we're here to help you understand the latest in golf club technology built into every component from the head to the shaft to the grip. And not just that—innovations like affordable launch monitors, free club fitting apps, and even the scale at which you can adjust a driver will all be a part of the conversation.

If you are looking to understand how we got from the original steel headed TaylorMade Burner to modern day carbon behemoths, we are here to talk to the people who are bringing these clubs into existence. The innovators behind the scenes that pore over the details so you can miss your sweet spot by a half-inch and still find the fairway.

And if you’re a golfer that prefers to enjoy golf in the analog sense we want you to know that we're here for that, too. We're here to share stories and talk to the people behind the clubs and offer a new perspective on the past, present and future of equipment in the golf world. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and play some of your best golf because of it.