The most under-rated brands/equipment on the market?

[dmeeksDC]

My All-Underrated team. Some of these brands are well-regarded in other categories but underrated or overlooked in the one listed:

Drivers and fairways — Wilson

Irons — Proto Concept

Hybrids — Srixon

Wedges — the updated New Level SPN lineup just released. 
Putters — Odyssey DFX heads (low cost line). 

[Trouble_shooter]

Tour edge. Bought a full set woods, and irons 20 years ago for $300.00. The whole set was a point and shoot set. I read up on tour edge and read that tour edge was started by a pga tour player that wanted to make irons amd woods for the average golfer to play well. The man did a heck of a job building his brand. 

[Thayneil]

14 hours ago, dekez said:

Maltby.  It doesn't get the love of the other DTC's.

Maltbys are  designed in house .The DTC  models are house brands  modified slightly  if at all

 

 

[A.Princey]

Wilson, Maltby, and DTC’s

[dekez]

12 minutes ago, Thayneil said:

Maltbys are  designed in house .The DTC  models are house brands  modified slightly  if at all

 

 

Yes. I didnt want to take a dig at the open-source brands because they provide value also.  

 

Maltby's doesn't merchandise their irons the same way. They don't have a site whose contents are exclusive to their irons (as far as I am aware).  Their irons are merchandized as components or Paks buried with all the other stuff Golfworks sells.  Perhaps the margins are better this way.  But I think it's why they aren't thought of the same way.

[EddieEdwards]

Maltby, irons are great, most people won't even consider them. I won't consider anything else.

 

Tour edge.

[shoeshine]

+1 for Srixon irons 

Edited March 28 by shoeshine

[Philfil]

Srixon was underrated 3 years ago, they are now in the conversation at most high end fitting shops. 
 

Cobra, on my radar currently, extremely underrated. 

[elwhippy]

Wilson irons. Hogan wedges. TEE woods, irons, hybrids. Wilson Staff balls.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

Living in Japan it used to be Bridgestone. Then they put out some really unappealing stuff for a few years, but they are back now with some really fine looking irons and wedges. Unfortunately I think they use actual donkeys to plan the marketing for their goods. I took a picture of the new PRECEPT line in the store the other day. Really sweet looking gear.

Edited March 28 by Christen_The_Sloop

[uglande]

I have always hated the name, but everything Srixon makes is as good as the stuff from the Big Four (TM, Callaway, Ping, Titleist), including their Cleveland wedges. I just don't care for a lot of their designs. Some of their clubs look great (e.g., utility irons), but a lot of them look lower-end than their performance would suggest. They need a better design team and a larger marketing budget (and maybe a rebrand? 🤷‍♂️). 

[Thayneil]

2 hours ago, dekez said:

Yes. I didnt want to take a dig at the open-source brands because they provide value also.  

 

Maltby's doesn't merchandise their irons the same way. They don't have a site whose contents are exclusive to their irons (as far as I am aware).  Their irons are merchandized as components or Paks buried with all the other stuff Golfworks sells.  Perhaps the margins are better this way.  But I think it's why they aren't thought of the same way.

my favourite  non  oem is  Wishon  but  they are marketed  through Diamond Golf which is  trade only.

 

I have played  them almost  exclusively since  Wishon opened  over 20 years ago

 

 

[shoeshine]

3 hours ago, Philfil said:

Srixon was underrated 3 years ago, they are now in the conversation at most high end fitting shops. 
 

Cobra, on my radar currently, extremely underrated. 

I agree to that to a degree. They are in the conversation at high end or reputable fitters, as well as here in the forums. But for the mass general public there’s quite a bit of people that don’t go the fitter route and only know the big company names that are marketed more heavily. imo 

Edited March 28 by shoeshine

[Mike_C]

3 hours ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

Living in Japan it used to be Bridgestone. Then they put out some really unappealing stuff for a few years, but they are back now with some really fine looking irons and wedges. Unfortunately I think they use actual donkeys to plan the marketing for their goods. I took a picture of the new PRECEPT line in the store the other day. Really sweet looking gear.

Bridgestone/Precept is such a classic example of of a Japanese company that just totally fumbles the ball when marketing to the US.  I've seen it with other areas.   For the past 20 years, Bridgestone should have been in the place Srixon and Mizuno are now, but have bungled it so badly, they probably never will recover.....

 

15 Years ago, 12 of my 14 clubs were Bridgestone.  Tried one of their wedges a couple of years ago, it was OK, but overall wasn't impressed.  So sad..... Yet they do well with their golf balls I would say, makes no sense.....

[bekgolf]

These might even be a "not rated" category.

 

Tour Edge Exotics!  The 7xx series in particular. 

 

I have a C721 driver that I thought was the most forgiving driver ever but then picked up a E722 with the right shaft and it's the most forgiving I've ever swung. 

 

They have a generous return policy of 30 days and that's 30 days of play with all money refunded to you, not just a store credit.  The products that get returned go to their CPO program and are sold at a significant discount.  They also have a 30 return policy.

 

Tour Edge Exotics.  A fantastic customer experience that puts the customer and their satisfaction ahead of everything else.  On top of all that they offer a 15% veterans discount when purchased from their website.

[zap311]

Maxfli golf balls

[TKS]

3 hours ago, Thayneil said:

my favourite  non  oem is  Wishon  but  they are marketed  through Diamond Golf which is  trade only.

 

I have played  them almost  exclusively since  Wishon opened  over 20 years ago

 

 

Yeah, me too. There is something for everyone in the Wishon line, OEMs follow him - try to hire him.

 

[CapeCodGolfer]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:43 PM, bmyles said:

Hybrids - Mizuno.  Beautiful shape, great performers.  Can get the STZ for 150-160 brand new currently which is just ridiculous.  

Where are you seeing that?!  Sounds like an incredible deal, I tried those out today and they were very nice clubs.  Stock shafts seemed very solid too.

[CapeCodGolfer]

double post please delete

Edited March 29 by CapeCodGolfer
double post please delete

[Eeecc]

On 3/28/2024 at 7:48 AM, Christen_The_Sloop said:

Living in Japan it used to be Bridgestone. Then they put out some really unappealing stuff for a few years, but they are back now with some really fine looking irons and wedges. Unfortunately I think they use actual donkeys to plan the marketing for their goods. I took a picture of the new PRECEPT line in the store the other day. Really sweet looking gear.

Looks really nice like the Edel or Foreward (sp. probably off) irons.

 

Hard to try out in North America. Have to take my gamble via reading reviews here then ordering JDM untested

[Ben B]

Driver: Mizuno, current gamer is a ST-G 220. Mizuno gets plenty love for their irons, but their drivers have always been underrated. I've played the Pro 300S, MP-600 fastrak, MP-630 non-fastrak...all of them great. Bridgestone, still love my J40 430!

 

Irons: KZG. Brisgestone/Tourstage

 

Wedges: Mizuno, until recent. Brisgestone/Tourstage

 

Putter: anything other than SC...🤨

Edited March 29 by Ben B

[Christen_The_Sloop]

6 hours ago, Eeecc said:

Looks really nice like the Edel or Foreward (sp. probably off) irons.

 

Hard to try out in North America. Have to take my gamble via reading reviews here then ordering JDM untested

These have actually been out for about a year, if you can believe it. They looked really nice online and I finally saw this in one of the big boxes. I think these are the new premium (tourstage-esque) iteration of Bridgestone. The face progression (offset) on these is perfect for me, they've got a nice progressive cavity into bladed short irons. But, there are so many options these days. The wedges also look really nice. There's a spec sheet for these somewhere online I have to find...

[hammergolf]

Wilson, and Tour Edge make really good stuff but don’t get the love they should.

[bill.ig]

Taylormade putters, non Spiders. Have an Anser style as well as a mallet. Good putters.

[miles2go]

On 3/27/2024 at 2:02 PM, MelloYello said:

Honestly, it's probably just Ebay these days. 

 

The fact that golf equipment has hit such a wall in terms of overall quality means that there is a ton of great stuff available from the last 5-6 years that's all outstanding. 

 

Most every brand is uniformly great these days and many have been doing best-ever models in their irons or drivers for several years so despite the popularity of buying new equipment in fittings & at demo days, the truth is that it's probably never been more beneficial to hop on Ebay.

 

I feel like I haven't been on Ebay in forever but honestly, it's probably stocked with better stuff now than ever before. 

 

 

.

 

 

Yep. I have a great set of Endo forged Epons for sale on eBay very cheap right now. They are totally ignored. Rather keep them than give them away.  Lots of great choices out there. 

[Chrischo555]

Seemore putters. While not my current gamer (played one for 3 years), think they’re pretty great and they make models that fit literally every budget and have a crazy variety of shapes that all utilize their tech. Been doing the whole lie angle balanced thing (they call it face balanced at impact or balanced to the plane) since the 90s. Not quite as stable as a LAB but 90% of the way there with better looking shapes imo and cheaper. Can also pick them up very cheap used.

[RoverTiger]

On 3/28/2024 at 11:18 AM, zap311 said:

Maxfli golf balls

Yep. They're all I play.

[MotherTeresa10]

17 hours ago, Chrischo555 said:

Seemore putters. While not my current gamer (played one for 3 years), think they’re pretty great and they make models that fit literally every budget and have a crazy variety of shapes that all utilize their tech. Been doing the whole lie angle balanced thing (they call it face balanced at impact or balanced to the plane) since the 90s. Not quite as stable as a LAB but 90% of the way there with better looking shapes imo and cheaper. Can also pick them up very cheap used.

 

I used to be obsessed with center shafted putters and they're hard to come by in lefty. I liked the idea of seemore, but they were in the Scotty price range, which seemed absurd to me at the time, so I never pulled the trigger on one. Now that everyone is in that price range just about, I might have to revisit.

Edited April 1 by MotherTeresa10

[indianagolf2]

On 3/27/2024 at 11:24 PM, dmeeksDC said:

My All-Underrated team. Some of these brands are well-regarded in other categories but underrated or overlooked in the one listed:

Drivers and fairways — Wilson

Irons — Proto Concept

Hybrids — Srixon

Wedges — the updated New Level SPN lineup just released. 
Putters — Odyssey DFX heads (low cost line). 

Proto concept is very expensive, that isn't underrated 

[Masterhacker]

tour edge exotics