Having a solid understanding of the various golf brands is beneficial if you take golf seriously. Making an investment in high-quality equipment from the most reputable golf manufacturers can make a world of difference in your game.
We examine some of the most reputable golf brands currently available on the market, beginning with how they got their start and moving on to how they established their credibility and standing in the golf industry.
If you have a golf bag, how many of these items are there?
The best golf brands
- Titleist
When Phillip E. Young failed to make a short putt in 1932, he X-rayed the ball and discovered that the centre was off. This ultimately led to the establishment of Titleist. According to the proverb, the rest, as they say, is history. The first Titleist ball was released in 1935, and the brand won its first ball count at the 1949 United States Open.
Helen Robinson, an office secretary who was famous for her intricate handwriting, was the one who came up with the idea for the logo.
When Billy Andrade won the tournament in October 2020 with the Pro V1, it was the first time that the ball was used on the PGA Tour competition. More than ninety quality checks are performed on the Pro V1, while more than one hundred and twenty are performed on the Pro V1x. Since his beginnings with Titleist in 1996, Bob Vokey has become an expert in the production of the company’s wedges, while Scotty Cameron is responsible for the production of the equally excellent putters.
- TaylorMade
A salesman named Gary Adams took out a loan for $24,000 in 1979 in order to establish TaylorMade. This was the beginning of the firm. In 2004, the company introduced the R7 Quad driver, which featured the Moveable Weight Technology. This was one of the most innovative innovations that the company has ever introduced.
It was one of the first firms to offer custom-fitting with its clubs, and TaylorMade was one of those companies. After another five years, in 2009, the company released its R9 driver, which gave golfers the ability to experiment with loft, lie, and face angle. Currently, its most prominent players include Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Nelly Korda, and Tiger Woods, the latter of whom joined the organisation in 2017 and went on to win The Masters in 2019.
- Callaway
The most well-known club in the Callaway Golf brand is the Big Bertha Driver, which was named after the German Big Bertha Howitzer. Callaway Golf was established in 1982. During that time period, its design was regarded as being extremely contemporary and a significant departure from the persimmon heads. In the past, it had a head volume of 190 cm3, which was considered to be an unprecedentedly large volume; however, the current legal limit is 460 cm3.
After joining Callaway in the 1990s, Roger Cleveland has been responsible for the design of the company’s wedges ever since. There are a number of other brands that fall under the Callaway umbrella, including TopTracer, Odyssey, Toulon Design, Ogio, TravisMathew, and Jack Wolfskin. “Jon Rahm” is the star of the show.
- Ping
The history of the Ping putter can be traced back to 1959, when Karsten Solheim, a Norwegian engineer, drew a sketch of the design on the dust jacket of a record album called 78. Solheim believed that this record was the ideal putter. During the year 1966, the legendary Anser putter was introduced to the market. The name of the putter was derived from his wife, Louise. In order to commemorate a player’s victory while using one of Ping’s putters, the company has established a gold putter vault.
There is no aspect of the game that Ping does not cover, and it is well-known for its excellent clubbuilding. The fact of the matter is that it was the first company to release cast clubs of a good grade. As far as the men’s game is concerned, Ping’s “major hope” would be Viktor Hovland.
- Bridgestone
Bridgestone is well recognised for its tyres; nevertheless, the company has also been manufacturing golf balls since the year 1935. Bridgestone, on the other hand, did not start manufacturing clubs until the year 1972.
At the present time, its tour team is comprised of notable individuals including as Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Lexi Thompson, Fred Couples, and Matt Kuchar. It should come as no surprise that the biggest interest in the brand is directed towards Woods, who plays with the TOUR B XS ball.
Prior to his move to LIV Golf, Bryson DeChambeau used to play with a Bridgestone ball; however, this association came to an end after he made the same switch.
From 2006 to 2018, Bridgestone gave its name to one of the World Golf Championships (WGC) tournaments that were played on the PGA Tour. Tiger won this tournament four times.
- Wilson
The fact that Wilson Golf has won a major championship in each and every decade since the 1920s is a remarkable fact. This achievement was made possible by Gary Woodland’s victory at the 2019 US Open, which took place at Pebble Beach.
Using its other equipment, it has achieved even more major triumphs (62), which is an even more astounding accomplishment. This was made somewhat easier by the fact that Gene Sarazen was his partner in seven of Wilson’s first eight victories in the Major. The fact that he was under Wilson’s employ for seventy-five years makes it, without a doubt, the longest-running sports contract in the history of the world.
This company’s premium golf brand is called Wilson Staff, and it is geared at tour professionals and elite players like Padraig Harrington, who has been a Wilson fan for a very long time.
- Mizuno
Japanese origin In 1933, Mizuno began selling golf equipment after having previously been in the business of selling baseball equipment. In 1961, it established its first factory in the United States of America, and it went on to establish operations in Germany, France, Scotland, and Hong Kong.
Using two moulds rather than just one, Mizuno quickly established a name for itself as a manufacturer of high-quality clubs, which led to the company’s now-famous irons.
Brooks Koepka won his first four Majors with Mizuno JPX 919 Tour irons, while Tiger Woods also won his first Major with a set of Mizuno irons in his bag. Both of these players are credited with winning their respective Majors. Luke Donald, who has been with the company for a long time, came to the top of the world rankings in 2011 with a backpack full of Mizunos.
- Cobra
Cobra Golf has established itself as a forward-thinking brand, and in 2023, the company will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Baffler was the first utility wood that the company released two years after it was originally introduced to the market. Since then, the company has incorporated this technology into its more recent utility woods.
A 46-inch driver and one-length irons have been introduced by Cobra in more recent years, with the assistance of a partnership with Bryson DeChambeau that came to an end in 2023.
As a former part-owner and global brand ambassador for Cobra, the American who is now the company’s leader, Greg Norman, was instrumental in propelling the company to the forefront of people’s minds in the 1990s. Puma and Cobra Golf become partners in the golf industry in the year 2010.
- PXG
When American entrepreneur Bob Parsons launched his own golf company in 2014, he took the golfing world by storm with the launch of PXG, which stands for “Parsons Xtreme Golf.” He claims that he spent three hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually on golf equipment that was not successful, which is why he wanted to construct better clubs.
Mike Nicolette, a former player on the PGA Tour, was involved in the design process, and by 2015, Ryan Moore was using a set of PXG prototype irons and wedges on the tour.
As a way of paying tribute to the Marine Corps, the name of the PXG club was derived from the military occupational code. Parsons served in the Vietnam War on both sides of the conflict. Currently, the company sells a comprehensive range of golfing equipment, which includes drivers, woods, hybrids, wedges, irons, and putters alike.
- FootJoy
If a list of golf brands were to be considered complete, it would be impossible to leave out FootJoy, which is the industry leader in golf shoes and gloves in particular.
At the very first Ryder Cup, which took place in 1927, the American side competed while wearing FootJoy golf shoes. In 1945, the company achieved its first shoe count victory on the PGA Tour.
In 1985, Acushnet, the company that owns Titleist, purchased FootJoy, and in the middle of the nineties, the company sold its fifty millionth glove.
In the year 1980, FootJoy was the first company to employ Cabretta leather in the production of its gloves. The year 2003 was a significant year for FootJoy since it was the year that the company released the MyJoys range, which allowed golfers to personalise their footwear on their own. The golf shoe industry was taken aback when Tiger Woods played the Masters in 2022 wearing a pair of FootJoy Premiere Series Packard shoes rather of his typical Nike footwear.