Well, the regular season of the PGA Tour is in the books with Scottie Scheffler dominating though with “only” five wins in 2025 versus his seven in 2024, but he still is so far ahead in the World Golf Rankings it hardly made a difference. His outstanding season and top spot in the FedEx Cup earned him over $46 million so losing out to Tommy Fleetwood in the FedEx Cup final wasn’t as big a downer as it could have been.
The point of this article is not to talk about Scheffler or Fleetwood but to again point out millions of dollars are spent by club makers each year to influence our perception of their brand by payments to professionals on the assumption if someone like Scheffler uses a club it must be the one we should use.
Not very logical and maybe from a lot of standpoints an unlikely truth…unless of course you can swing at the speed of Tour players AND hit the center of the face most every time while keeping the face square to the proper path. Certainly, it is not a stretch that not very many of the 27 million people in this country who play golf fall into that category.
But we are human and hope springs eternal—maybe a driver like our buddy hit so well will gain me 25 yards or that funny looking plumbing hardware he was putting with is the answer to our short stick woes.
Understand I am in no way being critical of club manufacturers. They are a vital part of the industry both from the standpoint of promoting and nurturing the game but also in the constant research to find better club designs, materials and construction methods.
My experience with golf club manufacturers is they are all aware that if they make better clubs, they will be more successful. A good analogy is the old General Electric slogan, “Progress is our Most Important Product.”
We track the brands Tour winners use and for the past season Ping, Titleist and TaylorMade Golf were about even in victorious drivers while Srixon, Titleist and TaylorMade were close in irons.
In putters Titleist’s Scotty Cameron brand and TaylorMade were on top and as usual it was no contest in golf balls, Titleist had over half the winners.
The bragging rights lists are below.
Drivers:
Callaway 5
Ping 10
Srixon 3
Titleist 12
TaylorMade 10
Irons:
Bridgestone 1
Callaway 2
Mizuno 2
Ping 5
Srixon 8
Titleist 11
TaylorMade 11
Putters:
LAB 1
Odyssey 7
Ping 7
Scotty Cameron 12
TaylorMade 13
Balls:
Bridgestone 2
Callaway 2
Maxfli 2
Srixon 8
Titleist 21
TaylorMade 5
