Which club brand offers the best custom builds??

Iron wise, who does the best job on custom builds?? I’ve dealt with Cleveland, Cobra,& W/S and always had great service. Any other suggestions? Looking for a user friendly, players cavity back iron or a split set. Prefer bounce as I’m steep. Extra distance if possible is a plus. 7 iron is 150-155.

If you're willing to pay and be patient I'd go PING or Titleist...Mizuno was also up there when I worked the industry 6 years ago.

What’s the turnaround on Titleist or Mizuno?? Thanks!

Best custom build has two parts, the fitting and the club assembly at the factory.

First the fitter and golfer need to be on the same page. How skilled is the fitter? If the fitter is just pushing one product, or the golfer is hardheaded and won't listen to suggestions, the fitting may fizzle.

Then, the custom order goes to the factory. Were the specs clearly written? (had specs mix-up with Nike once). At the factory did a mainline worker or a part-timer do the assembly?

I've heard sad stories about most of the OEMs at one time or another. Rarely, a shaft batch will be flawed and a couple days of production may have to be reworked. A guy I met who ran a custom club shop in New Orleans said he has cleaned up after component flaws by OEMs.

Reality check: A pro and fitter at a St. Louis area public course always checks factory custom-build clubs before turning them over to his golfers. He says that in most iron sets, regardless of manufacturer, one or two clubs are enough out of spec the needs to tweak them before releasing them to customer.

Basically, it comes down to transparency and good customer service. It something is wrong and the manufacturer gracefully "makes it right," they're a quality outfit.

Srixon, Ping, Mizuno, Titleist are usually pretty good. I know they get a bad rap here at times but Callaway has alwasy been solid when I have spot-checked them. Your best specs are going to be your boutique brands, like New Level, Epon, Haywood, Miura, etc. They don't have enough product going out (yet) where they are sloppy, but they also make sure all the specs are bang on. This is one of the benefits of buying through a place like Club Champion or a local fitter vs. a nig box store as the specs will always be double checked before hand off.

In my personal experience, Titleist, PXG, and Mizuno have been pretty solid spec wise, maybe in a set of irons being a degree off in loft/lie once or twice. I've found Callaway a little worse, having maybe half of the clubs off spec in some way. Not a huge deal, as I always have a club builder double check and correct specs before putting clubs into play.

Well said, and thank you!

Thanks for replying!

Thanks!

Ping is probably the best OEM when it comes to hitting certain swingweights and whatnot. Ping irons also have quite a bit of bounce. If price isn't an option I'd hit up national custom, they'll hand shape or ground irons and then send them to will peoples to be built.

That is why we offer a 'Hand Pick' service. Because of the +/- tolerances at manufacture, we will measure each head that we pick if requested for loft, lie and weight. Each head is certified as being checked before shipping. We have a large number of clubmakers who take advantage of this service. Tom always offered it and we continue to do so.