What are the best golf equipment brands?
A rundown of the most important manufacturers in our beautiful game
Who are the golf equipment brands you need to know about? Let’s dive straight in, shall we?
Golf equipment brands: Titleist
A brief history: When a gentleman by the name of Phillip E Young, a graduate of MIT, missed a short putt while playing a round with a dentist friend, he was convinced the ball was irregular. They put it under the dentist’s X-ray and found the ball’s rubber core to be off-centre. Young took X-rays of more balls and found this to be a common theme so, in 1932, he developed a machine that could uniformly wind rubber around the core, meaning the core was always centred. Titleist was born, and in 2000 they changed the golf ball market forever with the introduction of the Pro V1.
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Notable products: Titleist Pro V1 ball, TSi woods, AP irons, Vokey wedges, Scotty Cameron putters
Notable tour players: Patrick Cantlay, Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas
Golf equipment brands: TaylorMade
A brief history: In the spring of 1979 a golf equipment salesman named Gary Adams took out a $24,000 loan on his home and founded the TaylorMade Golf Company. He rented a 6,000 square-foot building that at one time housed a television assembly plant. Counting him, there were three employees and a single, innovative product: a 12-degree driver cast of stainless steel. Read more.
Notable products: TaylorMade SIM2 woods, P790 irons, MG wedges, Spider X putters, TP5x golf balls
Notable tour players: Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Charley Hull, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods
Golf equipment brands: Callaway
A brief history: “I’m not a good enough salesman to sell a mediocre product,” founder Ely Callaway once said. So he tasked his company with creating products that are “pleasingly different and demonstrably superior”. This philosophy led to a long list of clubs and balls that have helped golfers of all skill levels improve the quality of their games; easy-to-hit metalwoods and irons that help you hit longer, straighter shots; high-spinning wedges that help you stop the ball fast; great-rolling putters that help you sink more putts; balls that deliver a variety of combinations of distance, flight characteristics, spin and soft feel. Read more.
Notable products: Callaway Apex woods and irons, Jaws wedges, Odyssey putters, Chrome Soft golf balls
Notable tour players: Jon Rahm, Georgia Hall, Phil Mickelson, Danny Willett
Golf equipment brands: Ping
A brief history: Ping started off in 1959 as a one-man operation making putters when a General Electric engineer named Karsten Solheim was dissatisfied with the putters available on the market. He designed a new one in his garage, calling it the “Ping 1A” because of the sound the metal blade made when it contacted the ball. The Ping putter’s head was weighted at the heel and toe, which created a larger sweet spot in the middle of the clubface. The rest, they say, is history. Read more.
Notable products: Ping G irons, Glide wedges, Anser putters
Notable tour players: Lee Westwood, Harris English, Tony Finau, Tyrell Hatton, Brooke Henderson, Viktor Hovland
Golf equipment brands: FootJoy
A brief history: In 1857, the Burt and Packard Shoe Company was founded in Brockton, Massachusetts. Soon thereafter named Field and Flint Company. FootJoy’s first line of success came during the 1927 Ryder Cup when it became the American team’s official shoe. Eighteen years later in 1945 FootJoy won its first shoe count on PGA Tour. Ever since then, the golfing apparel company has prided itself on being home to the #1 shoe and #1 glove in golf. Read more.
Notable products: FootJoy Premiere golf shoes, Sta-Sof gloves
Notable tour players: Justin Thomas, Georgia Hall, Billy Horschel, Charley Hull, Louis Oosthuizen, Lee Westwood
Golf equipment brands: Cobra
A brief history: The Cobra Golf Inc Company was started by Thomas Crow in 1973. Crow, winner of the 1961 Australian amateur golf championship, was inspired by the notion that golfers in the United States typically bought clubs at a whim, with the hopes that they may make their game better. The company’s first success came in 1980 in the form of the Baffler, a fat-head club that assists the golfer through tough lies. In five years, the company was selling about $4.5 million worth of these clubs annually. Today, Cobra are renowned for their high quality drivers, fairway woods and hybrids which are among the very best on the market. Read more.
Notable products: Cobra Radspeed woods and irons
Notable tour players: Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Dufner, Rickie Fowler, Andrew Johnston, Lexi Thompson
Golf equipment brands: Galvin Green
A brief history: When Galvin Green made the decision to concentrate exclusively on the game of golf in 1990, the wet-weather apparel market it entered was very different to today’s. Waterproofs were heavy and unwieldy rain suits that restricted your swing, came in just a few uninspiring colours – mostly black and navy – and didn’t always keep out the rain! The brand became an official supplier to the European Ryder Cup teams in 2016 and 2018, the latter benefitting from a new Super Stretch fabric. More recently the Edge range, targeted towards younger players, was released in 2018 with bold military and camo themes combining performance with contemporary fashion. Read more.
Notable products: Waterproof jackets, sweaters
Notable tour players: Laurie Canter, Alexander Björk, Chris Paisley, Kurt Kitayama, Lanto Griffin
