How the Wilson Staff Empire Crumbled

I love my Wilson 8802 putter (no not the collector's version).

I hope Wilson is successful. We need some some new (well actually really old) blood to offset the "new" club offerings from TM and Callaway that we see on a semi annual basis.

My first set of clubs were Haig Ultras, made by Wilson Staff. It was my understanding that the Haig line was very similar to Staffs but they would use them to introduce innovations before incorporating them in the Staff line. Now this goes back to the late sixties so my memory may be a bit foggy on this. I do know the Haig Ultras were first rate blades and the served me well for many years. I still have them BTW. Back then Wilson Staff along with Hogan, I believe, was about as good as you could get.

cubdog

27 years ago I got a starter set of Wilson clubs that got me into golf.   Years later I had a Dyna-powered wedge and thought it was as good as anything that I had seen at the time.   So I suppose I could recognize the difference between their starter line and their higher end clubs.

However, the article does make a good point.   Not having the pro shops happy definitely hurt them.   I never saw Wilson promoted where I caddied and have rarely seen their clubs on display anywhere I've played golf.   Titleist, Ping, Callaway and TaylorMade were the big names in pro shops at that time and Wilson was left behind for a lot of people.

Brand identity is very important.   My current Mizuno irons came about from years of people talking them up and saying that there is no better players' irons.   Your mileage may vary on what your ideal clubs are, but I believed those people and finally got my set.   And they live up to the hype and ideal.  I think they are beautiful.   The comments in the article have a lot of people who feel that way about their Wilson irons.

Wilson looks like they are rebuilding and they have a similar story.  Smart people who work there, tightly focused and won't throw differing product lines and marketing hype.   I already got my golf balls for next season, but I'm going to get a box or 2 of the Wilson Duos.   They look like they are a smart, solid ball.

Yeah. I was learning to play back then, too, but unlike nowadays when you see high handicappers with really expensive clubs, back then (or at least in my cloudy recollection) if you saw someone with Staffs or Haig Ultras or Hogan Apexes they were really good golfers. If you weren't as good you had Sam Snead Blue Ridges or something. You could only buy top of the line clubs at an on course pro shop so most folks didn't want to spend that much money and go to that much trouble. I had some PGA Tommy Armours and in hindsight those clubs were very expensive valued in today's dollars. You could buy a nice new car for less than 2 grand and I spent over a third of that just on clubs No way I'd spend five grand on clubs nowadays.

Wilson and MacGregor and Ram really had to make an effort to screw up all the good will they had. If Wilson had just waited a little bit for the off course pro shops to come along they might have done ok but I sure remember the big hullabaloo when off course pro shops started selling top of the line clubs.

My thoughts exactly, where is the link or article?

The article is still out there, it is on another golf site (so I'm guessing that the link was removed by a mod on this board)

just google "wilson staff empire" and then you can read the article . . . or at least you can find it until my post is removed {shrug}

I started playing golf 5 years ago.  I knew nothing about golf brands before then.  My impression of Wilson as golf brand is not very good.   Before this article/thread, I thought Wilson was a golf brand wannabee, not a former powerhouse of golf equipment.   Most of my impression was based on Wilson Ultra golf balls which did nothing for me.   I tried their newer balls and like them, but not enough to switch from what I use now.

the Wilson Duo and the ProV are not even close to being comparable balls.  BTW i dont play either.

Duo is a marshmallow.

Whoa.  Taking me back to the days when the Wilson TC2 was my go-to cheap ball.

I have a set of Di11 irons.  I gotta say, I love looking down at them and the feel on a flushed shot is super sweet.  The offset is moderate, the top line is sorta thin, and I don't even notice the fat shaft other than the fact that it makes the top line look thinner than it actually is.  The feel is like a trampoline sensation -- really nice compression.  Stock grips are among the best.  Lofts are a club strong even by today's standard so the 8 iron is really a 7, etc, but they launch high!  Great quality, but that being said I don't seem to play my best when using them.  I think the face might be a little too springy for good distance control.  Also, the blade length is actually pretty moderate (like a Ping i series) even though they are supposed to be SGI.  So it's just another club that fills me with confidence right up until I realize I am hitting one bad shot for every 2 good ones.  They will be hard to part with and with so much great stuff out there I can't imagine I'd seek out another Wilson product even though they do impress me.

I currently use Di9 irons and they are really good fir the high handicapper. I must admit for a brand that once dominated the majors (for irons anyway) they seem ti have gone down hill of late.

Its a shame they cant keep up with the bigger brands such asTaylormade, Ping etc. but to do that on tour you need the players and to get the players you need a product that will get them interested. Vicious circle!