Help, Is This a Fake Club?

[Bman]

I bought a TaylorMade SIM MAX driver from eBay, the seller (Golf Partner USA) in Japan has great feedback (99.9%), the 2 negative rating was about shipping, no complaint about club.  Over 2200 feedback and all were happy with their clubs.  The reason I bought from this seller is because the driver is the Asian version 10.5 loft with the Tensei 50g shaft which is more suited for me.

I received the club this morning, from what I've read, the best way to tell if it's a fake is the screw in the face's speed injected port where the real one has an actual screw but the fake one is just one is painted on.  The screw is so small it's hard to tell, I took several pictures and I still can't tell. 

At certain angles, it looks like a real screw with a hole but at other angles it looks faked, like painted.  I don't have a real SIM MAX to compare so I can't really tell, the pictures of some of the real club looks like there's a gap between the screw and the face housing but I can't really see a gap between the screw and the face.  The top half of the word Made in the logo TaylorMade has a darker color than the rest.

Anyone has a real SIM MAX that can compare my pics and let me know if this is a Fake or Real?

Thanks

[Vinsk]

It’s got a hole there so looks real to me. Easy way to find out….get a star driver and have at it. 😃

[iacas]

I wouldn't say those screws look great:

At the very least they look "worn" like someone has actually… not "stripped" them but almost wore them down a little.

[Vinsk]

I wonder if the clubs been hit and it wore the screws some? They have polished the face to buffer out the strikes but couldn’t restore the screws….

[Hohjoe]

The screws look like someone tried to remove them with a smaller size Torx bit or used an allen bit and stripped them a little bit.

 

[ChetlovesMer]

The discolored Taylormade logo is interesting, but not necessarily a cause for alarm. There are lots of reasons that could have been discolored. Some legit and some not so legit.

The screws look real to me. To me it appears as though somebody tried to remove them. Which makes me think it might be real. I remember hearing folks talking about this driver when it came out. They were talking about ways to remove the screws, heat up the foam in the face, and drain it out. I guess the idea is that Taylormade actually built these to "faster than legal", but then they inject foam behind the face to bring the speed down to legal. (If you believe in that sort of thing.) Anyhow, when they came out there was a lot of discussion on how to get the foam back out again to bring the face back up to "faster than legal". 

To my untrained eye it looks like the previous owner may have thought they could somehow get their face-foam back out again to get the face to be faster than legal again. 

Have you hit the driver? 
Do you like it?
If so, I'd say don't lose sleep over it. 

If you are truly concerned Taylormade has this to offer. But I'm afraid it's not much help once you already have the driver in hand. 

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/shared-customer-service/customerService-counterfeit.html?lang=en_US

 

[billchao]

4 hours ago, Hohjoe said:

The screws look like someone tried to remove them with a smaller size Torx bit or used an allen bit and stripped them a little bit.

 

Yea looks time like someone tried removing them with the wrong bits.

[Bman]

18 hours ago, iacas said:

I wouldn't say those screws look great:

At the very least they look "worn" like someone has actually… not "stripped" them but almost wore them down a little.

Yes, that's my biggest concern, are they actually the real TM screws or are they trying to make a replica looking like the real thing? They don't look like the genuine TM screws on your club.

4 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

...

Have you hit the driver? 
Do you like it?
...

 

I'm planning to bring this club to Golftown and ask them to let me try a SIM MAX driver with same specs then compare 10 hits between the 2 clubs.  I think this is the only way to tell if it's real of fake.  There are a couple of YouTube videos in which people hit the real and fake clubs on the course, and they all found that the fake drivers are so much shorter and very inconsistent.

[bkuehn1952]

You might consider contacting Taylormade. They might have some tips for spotting counterfeit equipment.

[Bman]

UPDATE:

I tested the club by hitting a few shots with both the store's club (same loft, same reg flex) and this one I bought from eBay.

The results were very similar, this club actually averaged a few yards longer, so it's confirmed a real TaylorMade club, not a fake.

I then took it to the driving range, all shots were long and straight, even the mishits were only slightly off target and still went long. This TaylorMade SIM MAX is long and very forgiving for my swing, I'm now a believer of the Twist Face technology.  

Just FYI, a couple of months ago I played with a friend who has this driver in his bag, I tried it on the back 9 and hit all 7 fairways so I've had my eyes on this club for awhile now.  I bought this one because it's a JDM version with a lighter shaft 50g (vs 60g shaft US version here) which is more suited for my slower swing speed (~88mpg clubhead speed).

By the way, it took only 2 days shipping for the club from Japan to Canada which was impressive.  I also just found out from several online reviews that the seller, GolfPartnerUSA, is the real deal as well, apparently it's the biggest golf store chain in Japan so I would suggest anyone looking for Japanese clubs to check them out.

[bking]

On 11/6/2022 at 4:44 PM, Bman said:

UPDATE:

I tested the club by hitting a few shots with both the store's club (same loft, same reg flex) and this one I bought from eBay.

The results were very similar, this club actually averaged a few yards longer, so it's confirmed a real TaylorMade club, not a fake.

I then took it to the driving range, all shots were long and straight, even the mishits were only slightly off target and still went long. This TaylorMade SIM MAX is long and very forgiving for my swing, I'm now a believer of the Twist Face technology.  

Just FYI, a couple of months ago I played with a friend who has this driver in his bag, I tried it on the back 9 and hit all 7 fairways so I've had my eyes on this club for awhile now.  I bought this one because it's a JDM version with a lighter shaft 50g (vs 60g shaft US version here) which is more suited for my slower swing speed (~88mpg clubhead speed).

By the way, it took only 2 days shipping for the club from Japan to Canada which was impressive.  I also just found out from several online reviews that the seller, GolfPartnerUSA, is the real deal as well, apparently it's the biggest golf store chain in Japan so I would suggest anyone looking for Japanese clubs to check them out.

I'd say congrats on the find!!