➡Check out the full details of the irons used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros here: golfingfocus.com/what-irons-do-the-pros-use-top-100-pga-tour-player-guide/
Your videos are always refreshing because they are fact-filled without being verbose, as is the case with too many other golf “experts” on RUclips. Kudos!🙌
I must interject that the opinion that Titleist irons are "the best" is something I find inaccurate: it would be more accurate to say that Titleist pays the most athletes to play their clubs, and since most club endorsement deals require a minimum of 10 clubs in the bag from their manufacturer, that almost always invariably means it's their iron set they're gaming.
Yup, very fair challenge and appreciate how much deals play a part. Given the '10 minimum' number in most of the endorsement deals which clubs do you think the pros focus their allowed changes on? And do you think any of them are making a mistake in that regard gaming a set of irons based on a deal rather than what works best for them given the overall importance of approach shots compared to other aspects of the game?
@@GolfingFocus first off, apologies for sounding so critical or accusatory in the tone of my comment; secondly, I LOVE your reply questions, so thanks there, and I appreciate the excellent tone of your reply; thirdly, my answers: -just per my personal scrutiny, I'd say top foci of the pros, in order would be 1. putter, 2. driver (very, very close 2nd place), 3. wedges, 4. fairway metal (close behind wedges);5. lastly the utility clubs of hybrids or driving irons -my answer is 'no' to your second question, and I'll tell you why I feel that way: think about every manufacturer of popular note that pops into your brain, and I'll wager they have a very strong iron category at any given time or at least within approx. a 3-year recent production history in which they allow their staff pros to choose from (which can spell at least 2 or more iterations each of their pro or pro-cavity or nowadays hollow blade iron offerings); if this question were asked 10-15 years ago, my answer would differ, but the homogenization/proliferation of new iron head design styles suited to the better player throughout the brands (i.e. all brands are able to offer their pros a stereotypical player's iron featuring minimal offset, thin top line, narrow soles with a focus on turf interaction, more traditional lofts and more penetrating/workable ball flights, etc...with whatever happening that you can see in the back of the club head that they could care much less about like cavities, etc.) is what informs my answer. In essence, the manufacturers have created an environment where the irons are almost a non-issue: an example I recall is John Rahm signing with Callaway, who was asked about the change, and with regards to the irons, his answer was quite a glaze-over of [paraphrasing here, lol], "The irons look about the same at address as my previous irons and give me about the same numbers; what was most important to me was that I could continue using the same (Project X shafts) I'm used to, so they really do feel the same to me." I digress!
@@jaxongolf No worries at all and I didn't take your comment as critical at all. 👍All for learning on this channel and the more we can get back from our audience's own expertise and experience the better for sure. Appreciate the detailed response and will see if next time we do this we can filter by players who are on deals and those who aren't and see how that potentially changes the overall picture. Was suggested by another contributor and think its a great idea if we can get the data. I'm also about the embark on my own 'refresh' of my own clubs this winter and will be interesting to see how close all the brands are. Think I'll struggle to see past another set of Mizuno irons but will be important to keep an open mind given what you're saying. Thanks again for the comments and will be interested to hear your thoughts on the rest of the bag as we go through them on the upcoming videos 👍 PS I can see that Jon Rahm look in my head as you paraphrased that response to the irons question. Seems to be well used one in his press conferences! 😂
Yup very fair challenge and had a few comments on this. Going to see next time we do this if we can split off a comparison of the pros not on deals and see what results that throws up 👍
Great videos and so factually done. Would love to see videos on type of ball to use,golf without a driver,best or worst golf aids,weather influences on distance, etc. There's alot to cover. And just to say wilson being the number 1 years ago down to this-thats a video topic maybe.
Many thanks and delighted you enjoyed the video. Will definitely add as many of those as we can to the list and do our best 👍. There is already another video on weather though which you can find here and hopefully answers a few of your queries 👉 ruclips.net/video/PR_a7h7ffI4/видео.html. Another one here on golf balls and whether they all go the same distance which maybe of interest - ruclips.net/video/_DfVrleEbBM/видео.html
Do you think some of the pros are prioritising $ over performance in that regard and go with the deal rather than the irons that will work better for them. Or do you think they are so good it doesn't matter which irons they play they'll make them work. I must confess I'm a massive Mizuno fan and am struggling to give up my MP-32s even though I know I'm not good enough to play them!
No question it's a big factor. Always wonder though how much of it is whoever sponsors the top guys they make them whatever clubs they want even if its a copy of another manufacturer and then just stick their logo on it without saying anything?
@@GolfingFocus even the top companies don't really have the resources to create duplicates of other brands with their own logos on them. It's just too much to invest in either a new set of 3-5 forging dies or the creation of new castings, not to mention additionally adding multimaterial construction cost increases for sourcing carbon, etc. The only true case that I'm aware of in which a manufacturer attempted to "emulate" another manufacturers model specifically to be made for one athlete is Adam Scott's recent work with Miura to recreate his old favorite Titleist 695MB blades. Point of note is that Adam is no longer under any major club contract. ...are custom golf balls made for each individual staff athlete?? 100% this happens a great deal and is the only way a Callaway athlete could possibly function at the tour level using "Chromesoft" golf balls.
@@jaxongolf Do you think they 'borrow' any design features from other brands in that case and apply them to their own models to keep a player happy or would that not work from a performance point of view? PS As for the balls got a video coming up on that shortly which covers the point about pros using different balls and would be great to get your views on that too 👍
@@GolfingFocus 100% I see all the manufacturers have a synchronicity in the trend of their designs, with some lineups being literal "answers" to their competitors' models. Although it seems much easier to see the similarities happening in the driver category (example: Cobra King F9 set a new standard in driver shape that most are emulating or outright copying even still today), you can see that "player's" package of demanded features in the iron or wedge categories, as well.
Really all obvious and simple payers are hitting further than ever, so given the number of clubs they can play they are able to play as many wedges as they like largely, why many are stopping at 9ir and have a fleet of specialists wedges with tight yardage. The what they play is not about quality per se it is about contracts and service (tour trucks etc).
➡Check out the full details of the irons used by the top 100 PGA Tour pros here: golfingfocus.com/what-irons-do-the-pros-use-top-100-pga-tour-player-guide/
Your videos are always refreshing because they are fact-filled without being verbose, as is the case with too many other golf “experts” on RUclips. Kudos!🙌
Many thanks. Delighted you are enjoying them. Is much appreciated! 👍
I must interject that the opinion that Titleist irons are "the best" is something I find inaccurate: it would be more accurate to say that Titleist pays the most athletes to play their clubs, and since most club endorsement deals require a minimum of 10 clubs in the bag from their manufacturer, that almost always invariably means it's their iron set they're gaming.
Yup, very fair challenge and appreciate how much deals play a part. Given the '10 minimum' number in most of the endorsement deals which clubs do you think the pros focus their allowed changes on? And do you think any of them are making a mistake in that regard gaming a set of irons based on a deal rather than what works best for them given the overall importance of approach shots compared to other aspects of the game?
@@GolfingFocus first off, apologies for sounding so critical or accusatory in the tone of my comment; secondly, I LOVE your reply questions, so thanks there, and I appreciate the excellent tone of your reply; thirdly, my answers:
-just per my personal scrutiny, I'd say top foci of the pros, in order would be 1. putter, 2. driver (very, very close 2nd place), 3. wedges, 4. fairway metal (close behind wedges);5. lastly the utility clubs of hybrids or driving irons
-my answer is 'no' to your second question, and I'll tell you why I feel that way: think about every manufacturer of popular note that pops into your brain, and I'll wager they have a very strong iron category at any given time or at least within approx. a 3-year recent production history in which they allow their staff pros to choose from (which can spell at least 2 or more iterations each of their pro or pro-cavity or nowadays hollow blade iron offerings); if this question were asked 10-15 years ago, my answer would differ, but the homogenization/proliferation of new iron head design styles suited to the better player throughout the brands (i.e. all brands are able to offer their pros a stereotypical player's iron featuring minimal offset, thin top line, narrow soles with a focus on turf interaction, more traditional lofts and more penetrating/workable ball flights, etc...with whatever happening that you can see in the back of the club head that they could care much less about like cavities, etc.) is what informs my answer. In essence, the manufacturers have created an environment where the irons are almost a non-issue: an example I recall is John Rahm signing with Callaway, who was asked about the change, and with regards to the irons, his answer was quite a glaze-over of [paraphrasing here, lol], "The irons look about the same at address as my previous irons and give me about the same numbers; what was most important to me was that I could continue using the same (Project X shafts) I'm used to, so they really do feel the same to me." I digress!
@@jaxongolf No worries at all and I didn't take your comment as critical at all. 👍All for learning on this channel and the more we can get back from our audience's own expertise and experience the better for sure. Appreciate the detailed response and will see if next time we do this we can filter by players who are on deals and those who aren't and see how that potentially changes the overall picture. Was suggested by another contributor and think its a great idea if we can get the data. I'm also about the embark on my own 'refresh' of my own clubs this winter and will be interesting to see how close all the brands are. Think I'll struggle to see past another set of Mizuno irons but will be important to keep an open mind given what you're saying. Thanks again for the comments and will be interested to hear your thoughts on the rest of the bag as we go through them on the upcoming videos 👍 PS I can see that Jon Rahm look in my head as you paraphrased that response to the irons question. Seems to be well used one in his press conferences! 😂
Or it suggests that Titleist has the most PGA pros on staff.
I agree, per my above comment. Cheers 🍻
Yup very fair challenge and had a few comments on this. Going to see next time we do this if we can split off a comparison of the pros not on deals and see what results that throws up 👍
Great videos and so factually done. Would love to see videos on type of ball to use,golf without a driver,best or worst golf aids,weather influences on distance, etc. There's alot to cover. And just to say wilson being the number 1 years ago down to this-thats a video topic maybe.
Many thanks and delighted you enjoyed the video. Will definitely add as many of those as we can to the list and do our best 👍. There is already another video on weather though which you can find here and hopefully answers a few of your queries 👉 ruclips.net/video/PR_a7h7ffI4/видео.html. Another one here on golf balls and whether they all go the same distance which maybe of interest - ruclips.net/video/_DfVrleEbBM/видео.html
Yeah if paid sponsorships weren’t a thing, a ton of them would be playing Mizuno and Mira. Japanese forging is just that much better
Do you think some of the pros are prioritising $ over performance in that regard and go with the deal rather than the irons that will work better for them. Or do you think they are so good it doesn't matter which irons they play they'll make them work. I must confess I'm a massive Mizuno fan and am struggling to give up my MP-32s even though I know I'm not good enough to play them!
I love my Srixon ZX7's
Love my Mizuno irons!!
Scottie Scheffler loving his Stixon irons.
“Choose?” Might be helpful to know how the pros choice is influenced by paid sponsorships…🤔
No question it's a big factor. Always wonder though how much of it is whoever sponsors the top guys they make them whatever clubs they want even if its a copy of another manufacturer and then just stick their logo on it without saying anything?
@@GolfingFocus even the top companies don't really have the resources to create duplicates of other brands with their own logos on them. It's just too much to invest in either a new set of 3-5 forging dies or the creation of new castings, not to mention additionally adding multimaterial construction cost increases for sourcing carbon, etc. The only true case that I'm aware of in which a manufacturer attempted to "emulate" another manufacturers model specifically to be made for one athlete is Adam Scott's recent work with Miura to recreate his old favorite Titleist 695MB blades. Point of note is that Adam is no longer under any major club contract.
...are custom golf balls made for each individual staff athlete?? 100% this happens a great deal and is the only way a Callaway athlete could possibly function at the tour level using "Chromesoft" golf balls.
@@jaxongolf Do you think they 'borrow' any design features from other brands in that case and apply them to their own models to keep a player happy or would that not work from a performance point of view? PS As for the balls got a video coming up on that shortly which covers the point about pros using different balls and would be great to get your views on that too 👍
@@GolfingFocus 100% I see all the manufacturers have a synchronicity in the trend of their designs, with some lineups being literal "answers" to their competitors' models. Although it seems much easier to see the similarities happening in the driver category (example: Cobra King F9 set a new standard in driver shape that most are emulating or outright copying even still today), you can see that "player's" package of demanded features in the iron or wedge categories, as well.
You keep showing the Titleist 620 blade and calling it a cavity back. Did you review this video and not notice that?
New follower, great content. Thanks! Stop by in my Somerville, MA golf shop if ever you cross the pond to visit the Boston area!
Many thanks and welcome to the channel! Delighted you've decided to follow and if ever lucky to be across in MA will for sure try to drop in 👍
Really all obvious and simple payers are hitting further than ever, so given the number of clubs they can play they are able to play as many wedges as they like largely, why many are stopping at 9ir and have a fleet of specialists wedges with tight yardage. The what they play is not about quality per se it is about contracts and service (tour trucks etc).