Playing All The Same Brand Clubs

[1badbadger]

There are a lot of guys who feel very strongly about having matching clubs...the driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges, bag...everything has to match, or at least be the same brand.  Others want their woods to match, and their irons and wedges to match, but they can be from different companies.  Then there are players who have a mix of everything...a driver from one company, different fairway woods, irons from yet another company and different wedges.

How is your bag set-up and how do you feel about matching clubs vs. playing different brands?

[dennyjones]

In a perfect world, I'd like to have a complete matching set of Ping..don't know why...just do.   My current setup is completely different.   I have different woods, irons, wedges and putter.   These work for me especially the hybrids but I'm always wondering what if...

[Piz]

I carry a hybrid, sometimes two, that are of different manufacture than the rest of the bag.  Also, I swap out putters, once in a while.  I've no aversion to a mixed bag...I'd rather the individual clubs suited the set than have the same brand name.

[Shooting29]

Haha I am about as mixed bag as you can get.

Cleveland 9° driver, Taylormade 12° mini- driver, Callaway Razr Fit 5 wood, Nickent 4H, Callaway X-Hot Pro 5-AW, Top-Flight 56° SW, odyssey white hot putter, Titleist ProV1x ball.

To me they are tools and I go with the tool to do the job I want it to do. 

 

 

[Lagavulin62]

As long as the irons through pw are the same I don't care about the rest. 

[Lihu]

Started off thinking the same thing as @dennyjones, if I had my way Ping for everything.

However, this is my bag:

Quote

        

Ping Karsten B60 1959 Putter
TM Rac 60,52 wedges TT WS, MD2 56
Mizuno MP-52 irons P-4, DG S300
Ping i25 PWR-75 Tour XStiff
Callaway Diablo 3W S, X2Hot Pro 20 degrees S

I have no idea how many strokes I can save by perfectly fitting everything, but since I hit my irons long enough there is no reason for me to change those. My wedges do the job. Enjoy hitting my hybrid and 3W. My driver is consistent enough. I suppose I could gain a little distance if I used a more modern 65 gm shaft? Possibly at the cost of accuracy.

[Kalnoky]

My irons 5i-48*W came as a matched set. I later added GW, SW, LW and a 4-iron off the same brand, same model, just different year(s). My fairway woods are also this same brand. My hybrids and drivers are a different brand, and one (1) of my putters is an orphan (PING). So all told I carry 2, sometimes 3 different brands. I set it up like this from the beginning, just thinking I might want to sell or upgrade one day, I'd have better luck selling them as two families of products, rather than 4 or 5 different products.

I have no loyalty to balls, gloves, or anything else. I have tried (and continue to try) all kinds.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Kalnoky

[Groucho Valentine]

Im not really a brand loyalist. But i get an excellent deal on Titleist equipment through a good friend who's on staff with them. He gets anything he wants at wholesale price or cheaper. I Its like 99% of the reason why i game titliest stuff...lol. I use an odyssey putter, though. 

[jamo]

Nike driver, Ping fairway wood, Bridgestone hybrid, Nike irons, Titleist Vokey and Callaway wedges, Nike putter. So no real attempt to be consistent. 

[WUTiger]

Certain brands seem to "fit my eye" on set-up better than others: Callaway, Tour Edge, Ping and Srixon.

Also, one of our club pros has switched to Callaway, so we get a chance to hit a lot of Callaway stuff. It makes the search simpler, although I look elsewhere for hybrids.

Note: I like TM irons and wedges, but I can only buy so many clubs.

[Patch]

Up until last summer, I always played a matching set of irons, which was way different than my matching set of metal woods. I was a matching set kind of guy for several decades. 

My wife needed to find something she was looking for, so we went into a 2nd hand store, out in the middle of no where. Nearest golf course was probably 40-50 miles a way. 

As I was browsing around, I found a set (3-pw) of Topflite irons for $15. I offered the register lady $10 for them, and she accepted. My plan was to donate them to some worthy charity. They were in excellent shape too. 

A week or so later, I took them to the driving range just for the heck of it. I had one of those "WTH"  moments with them. Just about every club seemed to fit my swing like a glove. 

After a lengthy comparison between the Topflites, and my normal gamers, I now have a mixed set of irons in my bag. 

[1badbadger]

Personally, I've never had a matching set of clubs from top to bottom.  When I was a kid, I was kind of anal retentive about stuff like that, so I'm surprised I didn't insist on matching clubs.  The first real serious set of pro-line clubs I bought was sold to me by Sean Toulon when I was a freshman in high school and taking lessons from him.  It was the original TaylorMade Pittsburgh Persimmon driver (not the Tour Burner with the dimples around the side...I wanted one of those so bad) and the 3 and 5 wood, Titleist Tour Model blades, Wilson R-90 Sand Iron (this was before gap wedges and lob wedges), and a Wilson 8802 putter.  And ever since I've been fine with mixing brands.

Back in the '80s and '90s it was very common for Tour players to have a bunch of different brands in their bag, before the current "head-to-toe" trend that a lot of manufacturers are insisting on.

I spent many years in golf retail, so I have seen from one end of the spectrum to the other, and there are some guys who have to have matching everything...clubs, bag, golf balls, glove, hat, etc.  Then there are others that have different everything, including several types of grips just on their irons and they don't think twice about it.  I find it interesting how different people feel about it. I don't have to have matching clubs, but I do have a thing about matching grips.

[65ross]

Have always had multiply brands, my irons match 4 through to wedge in ping, different drivers for different courses, Cleveland in bag at present, Callaway fairway wood, ping hybrids,stay in bag full time, Cleveland Rotex 2 wedges 50deg,54deg. Rife putter. This what works for me at present.  

[tristanhilton85]

I used to be the first guy in the OP that wanted everything in the bag to be the same... then I kind of became the second guy with matching woods and irons and wedges, but not necessarily matching each other. Now I don't care, whatever works for me is going in the bag; if it matches, great, if not it no longer bothers me.

[Shorty]

9 hours ago, 1badbadger said:

how do you feel about matching clubs vs. playing different brands?

Have a look at the bags of pros who are out of contract if you get the chance.

This is when they have the freedom to play what they REALLY want to play and you'll find that they are very often literally mixed bags.

Also, many pros prefer not to have a 13 or 14 club contract.

Obviously, my irons match (Brand W), as do my fairway woods and hybrids, (Brand X)  but I play different brands of putter (Brand Y) and driver (Brand  Z). My wedges are the same brand as my irons. (Brand W) 

[Gator Hazard]

I am all Adams clubs except my 54 degree titleist vokey which I found in a water hazard and was my first club. It's one of my favorites. Go figure. 

15 minutes ago, Shorty said:

Have a look at the bags of pros who are out of contract if you get the chance.

This is when they have the freedom to play what they REALLY want to play and you'll find that they are very often literally mixed bags.

Also, many pros prefer not to have a 13 or 14 club contract.

Obviously, my irons match (Brand W), as do my fairway woods and hybrids, (Brand X)  but I play different brands of putter (Brand Y) and driver (Brand  Z). My wedges are the same brand as my irons. (Brand W) 

Is it really you?  Glad to see you back on the boards!

[Rainmaker]

I want everything to be the same . .if it were up to me, I'd always have a set of the latest model year all from the same company and in a bag with their logo, too.  However, my requests for sponsorship continue to go unanswered.  

So it ends up being that, whatever it is I need at the time . .I go buy whatever I like that's in my price range.  

Frankenbag:

Driver - TaylorMade

4W - Adams

4Hybrid - Adams (loved the 4w so much I bought the hybrid)

Irons - Mizuno

GW - Wilson

SW - Nike

Putter - Ping

I think it would be odd to have individual irons from separate companies - it would just be too much work to get a good gapping.  Otherwise I think it totally doesn't matter.  

 

Unless you work for Titleist . . I have always loved Titleist the best...all that stuff above is just, you know, stuff I say on golf forums.  I have this whole idea on how you could sponsor this "regular guy" who sucks at golf . .and give him the "tour experience" . .you know . . as a marketing thing.  Call me!

 

[Lihu]

2 hours ago, Shorty said:

Have a look at the bags of pros who are out of contract if you get the chance.

This is when they have the freedom to play what they REALLY want to play and you'll find that they are very often literally mixed bags.

Also, many pros prefer not to have a 13 or 14 club contract.

Obviously, my irons match (Brand W), as do my fairway woods and hybrids, (Brand X)  but I play different brands of putter (Brand Y) and driver (Brand  Z). My wedges are the same brand as my irons. (Brand W) 

Hey, great to see a post from you! Many of us miss you.