Tour pro and tour issue clubs?

[jackace]

Why are these clubs so much more money then the regular clubs?

From the specs they have no offset usually and have a little different design to keep ball flight low. I don't see why they charge 2-3x as much for these clubs. Am I missing something?

[IeaglePar3s]

well the head pro where I work at has the R7 tour issued or w.e and he was telling me that the difference is in the face. It's not set in to fix the slice most people have with their drivers rather its set slightly out more for people who play more of a draw(which is not a bad thing, becuase draws add more yardage). So the tour model will be harder for an average person to hit, but for an experienced player they can play their draw, and it will be a straight shot with the added yardage. Im sure there is more to it, but thats kind of what i got out of what he was telling me.

[iacas]

  IeaglePar3s said:

well the head pro where I work at has the R7 tour issued or w.e and he was telling me that the difference is in the face. It's not set in to fix the slice most people have with their drivers rather its set slightly out more for people who play more of a draw(which is not a bad thing, becuase draws add more yardage).

Two misperceptions here:

1) The TP line has a square or slightly open face. The non-TP line doesn't. "Tour issue" is just a slightly tweaked TP model, and by "tweaked" I mean the loft is adjusted perfectly, the lie, and the face angle tweaked slightly. 2) Draws don't add yardage. They used to largely because the dynamic loft was decreased (as was spin), but if you have optimal launch conditions with your normal drive, and it's a little cut, you'll lose yardage hitting anything but that shot.

  IeaglePar3s said:

So the tour model will be harder for an average person to hit, but for an experienced player they can play their draw, and it will be a straight shot with the added yardage. Im sure there is more to it, but thats kind of what i got out of what he was telling me.

Most tour pros don't prefer to hit draws with their driver, actually. The open face you'll find on a lot of tour pro drivers allows them to close the face aggressively through impact without fear of the duck hook. The duck hook is the good player's miss - the huge slice is the bad player's miss.

Ben Hogan spent years battling a duck hook. Vijay Singh's bad miss is a big duck hook. The open face just helps them prevent the clubhead from closing too quickly.