How Important Is the Appearance of Your Equipment?

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, StuM said:

@ChetlovesMer is clearly into style,  not sure how he voted in this pole but below from one of his older posts..

 

And I think @Vinsk would appreciate the color scheme.

Color scheme is sweet! Now Schwartz committed a slight breach of etiquette by not having a Mizuno bag for his Mizuno irons..lol. But, you went with a club neutral bag with Sun Mountain….so that’s tolerable. 

[Darkfrog]

I voted 2.

I care about keeping my clubs clean, but that's about it.

Bag chatter, scuffs, and the like don't bother me, my philosophy is golf clubs are tools, and tools get used.

I have aesthetic preferences. I like irons with medium to thin top line, but not too thin. I prefer deeper faced driver, but recently I prefer shallow face fairway woods. I like dark grey/black finish for woods/hybrid, but don't care for black finish on irons/wedges. But I don't need my bag and clubs to all be one brand, I don't care about rifled vs stepped shafts, and I don't care about shaft color.

My putter (LAB DF 2.1) might be the ugliest putter ever.

I have a GEN4 PXG hybrid, the one with a thick silver strip on the top of the club and I absolutely HATE the way it looks. But the head/shaft combo works really well for me, so I just deal with it.

[boogielicious]

5 hours ago, StuM said:

@ChetlovesMer is clearly into style,  not sure how he voted in this pole but below from one of his older posts..

 

And I think @Vinsk would appreciate the color scheme.

Every artist has their Blue period.

[StuM]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Every artist has their Blue period.

elton+john+the+blues+video - Yahoo Search Results

the+blues+brothers+soul+man - Yahoo Search Results

 

[iacas]

6 hours ago, billchao said:

I don’t think it’s a mutually exclusive situation. I can think the club is ugly and still be willing to put it in my bag if it putts better than my Edel.

Yep.

[snapfade]

I voted 4. I have to look at the stuff so I might as well like what I see. I like my WS setup, I bought into Titleist a few months ago because I liked the way they looked and well its Titleist, but sold them off and went back to WS. It's the logo. Old school looking, reasonably priced and I do OK with them. I literally bought them off the rack without even hitting them because I thought they looked cool. Irons and wedgies only of course, big stuff is Ping. Why Ping? I liked the logo and they do their job pretty darn good.                   

[Vinsk]

19 hours ago, billchao said:

I don’t think it’s a mutually exclusive situation. I can think the club is ugly and still be willing to put it in my bag if it putts better than my Edel.

But wouldn’t you have to have some pretty solid info on the putter to even try it in the first place then? I’m saying if the club is hideous you’re much less likely to grab it and give it a try. There are hundreds of different styles, designs, of putters out there…I doubt you’d grab one that immediately had an undesirable appearance.

[ChetlovesMer]

15 hours ago, boogielicious said:

Every artist has their Blue period.

Two things. 

1. You called me an artist... I'm taking that as a compliment, even if it wasn't meant as one.
2. Not sure why, but blue has always been my favorite color. All things being equal, when in doubt go with blue. 

19 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Color scheme is sweet! Now Schwartz committed a slight breach of etiquette by not having a Mizuno bag for his Mizuno irons..lol. But, you went with a club neutral bag with Sun Mountain….so that’s tolerable. 

Mizuno DOES make a really nice looking blue bag. I have PXG irons now so I'm kinda glad I never got around to getting the Mizuno bag. Here's the thing, though. The Sun Mountain C-130 has the "Smart Strap" system. In my opinion, if you don't have the "Smart Strap" system you don't have a cart bag. It is far and a way the best and most important feature ever added to a cart bag. Once you start using it, you will never want to go back to putting that ridiculous strap that the golf cart provides around your bag. 

.... Plus, the C-130 comes in at least three versions of blue. 

28 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

But wouldn’t you have to have some pretty solid info on the putter to even try it in the first place then? I’m saying if the club is hideous you’re much less likely to grab it and give it a try. There are hundreds of different styles, designs, of putters out there…I doubt you’d grab one that immediately had an undesirable appearance.

I think this is a very good point. I'll try to add to it if I may. 

Not only am I unlikely to try a club that I think is undesirable in appearance, but I might give a club a go only based only on it looking cool. 
There have been many times, I've actually tried a club just because I thought it looked good. With no information on it at all. Just walked by, saw it on the rack and said "Man, that looks cool." Then given it a try. 

[klineka]

This thread is particularly timely as I saw a few images starting to come out for some of the newer models of equipment. 

I personally love matte finishes on my woods, and when I did my wood fitting back in September I was fit into the Cobra Aerojet 3 wood and hybrid and they were hands down better than everything else that I hit. They were glossy but the performance I saw with them allowed me to overlook the design. I hadn't gotten around to pulling the trigger yet, just figured I'd wait and see if I could find any deals over the offseason.

Well now it appears that Cobra's newest models that will be coming out this winter will have matte finishes for the woods so I'll likely pay the slight bit extra and go with those assuming they perform the same as the Aerojet model.

[billchao]

47 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

But wouldn’t you have to have some pretty solid info on the putter to even try it in the first place then?

@StuM specifically brought up the Lab Mezz putter thread. To my knowledge, they’re not available anywhere to try. The same goes for the side saddle putters I mentioned. I think some of those companies offer a free trial period but I’ve had some bad experiences in the past with that and I’d rather avoid it altogether.

50 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

I’m saying if the club is hideous you’re much less likely to grab it and give it a try. There are hundreds of different styles, designs, of putters out there…I doubt you’d grab one that immediately had an undesirable appearance.

You’d be surprised. I’m a bit unorthodox with my golf equipment when it comes to appearances. I played with a pink Vice ball for two years and my current grips are purple. I didn’t play golf growing up so I have no attachment to the traditional look of clubs.

But more to your point, I never said looks don’t matter at all. Although it might just have the opposite effect on me. I’d see something on the rack and think, “that looks so stupid, I have to try it.”

[ChetlovesMer]

46 minutes ago, billchao said:

@StuM specifically brought up the Lab Mezz putter thread. To my knowledge, they’re not available anywhere to try.

The PGA Superstore by me has several of them for testing. 

 

47 minutes ago, billchao said:

I’d see something on the rack and think, “that looks so stupid, I have to try it.”

Dare I say it... hmm.... Yes, I dare. LIKE A WHITE BELT? 

[billchao]

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The PGA Superstore by me has several of them for testing. 

The PGA Tour Superstore by me is 45 minutes away plus tolls.

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Dare I say it... hmm.... Yes, I dare. LIKE A WHITE BELT? 

No, more like a two-toned golf ball.

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, billchao said:

No, more like a two-toned golf ball.