An Open Letter to TM and Callaway: Stop Flooding the Market

Don’t get me wrong, I love new golf clubs.  In fact, I just got custom fit (for the first time) for everything but my putter this past August.  And I loved it.  Besides the obvious benefits of fitting (some added distance and, more importantly, better dispersion), it’s nice just to have clubs that are unique and were built for you.

But golf is not cheap.  Yea, while some smaller companies like Vice, OnCore, and Cut have broke into the industry by selling ProV1 alternatives at Top Flight prices, golf clubs are still outrageously, borderline illogically, expensive.

And therein lies the problem.  In 2015, only 2 years ago, TaylorMade released the M1 and M2 drivers.  TM’s big selling point here was the M1 and M2 both had carbon-composite crowns, which lowered the center-of-gravity to help with launch.  The T-shaped Back Track was exclusive to the M1 and allowed players to manipulate weights on two separate axis to dial in their desired shot shapes (draw or fade-bias and high or low launch).

Although the M2’s adjustability was limited to two interchangeable weights, it was actually the more forgiving driver.  No surprise, the M1 and M2 were top drivers in 2016.

But then Callaway kicked off 2017 with the Epic, Epic SubZero, and Jailbreak.  Taking a page out of TM’s book, both the Epic and Epic SZ had carbon crowns, but Callaway also added carbon to sole of the club to further help distribute weight.

But the real highlight feature of the Epic drivers was Jailbreak–two titanium rods placed right behind the club face that connected the crown and the sole and, as a result, helped reduce flex and generate higher ball speeds.

A post shared by Bryan LaRoche (@bryangolf) on Jan 5, 2017 at 4:25pm PST

TM didn’t want to get ignored like the red-headed stepchild, so what’d they do?  NO, they didn’t release a driver with any real new technology.  Instead, the M1 also got a carbon sole, along with a larger Back Track (providing more adjustability), while the M2 became slightly more draw-biased.

And, for anyone who hasn’t heard, Callaway’s Epic was a homerun, while the M1/M2 were nice upgrades.

So what have both companies have planned for 2018?  NEW DRIVERS!

Yep, Callaway has already started teasing the new Rogue series while TM will be releasing the M3 and M4 (aka, the next generation M1 and M2, respectively).

While no real information (pricing) has been released, we do know that the Rogue series will have Jailbreak technology, and the M3 will have a Y-oriented weight track.  In addition, while only the M2 had the Speed Pocket, both the M3 and M4 will now have Hammerhead (which kinda looks a little like a rebranded Speed Pocket).

Now, maybe it’s just me, but this is what I imagine the TM and Callaway board rooms looks like sometimes:

Contrary to TM and Callaway, Ping really doesn’t engage in this nonsense (the G Series came out in 2016).  And maybe that’s one of their greatest strengths because when Ping releases something new, you know they took their time, did lots of research and testing, and are releasing a product that they genuinely believe offers quantifiable gains over the previous generation.

A post shared by PING Tour (@pingtour) on Dec 15, 2017 at 9:02am PST

Like I stated earlier, I love new golf clubs.  But I don’t think most of us can justify buying new clubs every year.  I mean, Bob Parsons probably has the money to be custom fit for new clubs every month, but he got so frustrated with golf equipment that he started his own golf company.

Clearly, the OEMs aren’t helping anyone by releasing a “new” club every calendar year, especially when there isn’t some new landmark technology, but the marketing hypes up distance gains.  Consumers, rightfully so, just get pissed off when the product doesn’t live up to the hype (see, e.g., Bob Parsons and PXG), and the manufacturers end up killing themselves.  In fact, Epic, Epic SZ, and M1 are all $500+ drivers (the M2 goes for $400), but the 2016 M1 can be purchased for as low as $250 (50% off) and the 2016 M2 as low as $270.

Honestly, would anyone really be surprised if everyone who had 2015 drivers just waited a few more weeks and picked up 2017 models for 40% off before the start of the 2018 golf season?  No, but then again I guess that’s part of the transparency that a real fitting provides: a neutral comparison between your current setup and the best possible driver head and shaft combination that the fitter can put together.

A post shared by TaylorMade Golf (@taylormadegolf) on Sep 8, 2017 at 12:14pm PDT

That said, I’d be lying if I said that I don’t want to hit the TM M3 and M4 and Callaway Rogue drivers with the hopes they outperform my current setup and justify making a purchase.

Cover Image via Instagram