TM 200, 300, Smoothie, Ridgie, Tour, etc.

DrSchteeve · September 7, 2006

Sorting the options for my last ho'ed clubs...

Well, as many if not all 'ho's experience, newer and/or more expensive isn't always better. It all comes down to the fact that I hit a simple 15* TM 200 with stock stiff as well or better than anything else.

So now I'm in the market for TM 200 woods. SOooo... I start looking and find that there are a LOT of TM 200 and 300 woods, ridge top and smooth top. I know (from a search here) that smooth tops are slightly deeper faced and launch a bit higher, which really doesn't matter to me (since I hit the ball high enough and don't especially care for a deep face), and ridge tops may dig a little less (which does matter to me, since I tend to dig a bit, even with fairway woods), all of which leads me to a ridge top bias, despite the apparent mountain of general opinion that smooth tops are better.

Then there's the 200/300 thing. TM doesn't even acknowledge in their "Vintage" section that they ever made 200 woods - there are some specs for 300 woods, but not 200's. Of course there's no discussion about Tour vs. retail clubs, even though some of the 300 woods are called 300 Tour while of course I know that these aren't the real tour clubs, which have Tour printed below the sole plate.

The 300's seem to more readily available (which probably explains why TM lists the 300's and not the 200's on their website). Are they much different? Without engendering a huge tour vs. retail debate, especially in these clubs where we're talking about a relatively small difference in price, is there much difference between tour and retail? Thanks for any info.