Let me ask the people at Diamond Golf in the UK to look into this and see what they can find to help you. I agree as noted above that Mizunos play/feel soft and Titleist plays harder more clicky. At one time, the country seemed golf crazy, but it became synonymous with corrupt officials. Not just golf clubs. No other brand of forged club that I’ve ever carried in my bag gets dinged so much as Mizuno from bag chatter. Ouch... You have clicked a page that seems to be very popular. The decline has been the death of the middle class. This is a topic that interests me but something I know nothing about. no, i think Ping is out of Arizona somewhere. Thanks and congratulations. With that, there’s a measure of refreshing honesty regarding where/how Fourteen clubs are produced. Many of you lamented the disappearance of actual “Made-in-the-USA” golf clubs. Both the Japan forging companies as well as Virage Tech routinely make their forging dies from a very hard tool steel called SKD-61 alloy, which has a Rockwell hardness of HRC55-57. Online golf stores such as Golf's Best Stores and Online Shanghai Golf provide a wide range of golf must have items. However I do believe that enough of the golfing public would contact the golf club manufacturers and press the issue perhaps things would begin to change. In 1958, the Honma brothers opened a driving range in Tsurumi, Yokohama. Get deals with coupon and discount code! Ouch... You have clicked a page that seems to be very popular. Design wise, if the creator of the head model doesn’t do his job to design each head in the set so all the dimensions and mass properties are perfect, doesn’t verify this on the tooling masters/3D models/CAD file, doesn’t check it on the initial raw forging runs, and doesn’t ensure it on the first production runs of the finished heads,  it isn’t going to matter how much skill and experience the production factory has – the head model will not perform as well as one that has been managed perfectly through all its pre-production development. Callaway golf clubs are the most advanced golf clubs you can use on a golf course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj5KOk2oXU0 Iron head design is pretty much stalled. I have owned/tested/trialled/tinkered with countless sets of irons. A neat trick that seems to work, demonstrating how modern golf balls behave differently to the 80’s. IAN And I would argue in response that this matter of Virage Tech plucking off most of the industry’s forged iron business from the Japanese forging houses is not anything new in the industry and that these changes are not predicated all or chiefly by a lower cost. While +/-2g weight tolerance is capable with an investment cast head made by a quality foundry, +/-3g for a forged clubhead is as good as can be achieved. Even Ping has their cast stuff made in China. 2 main questions: 1. If you could make $100 dollars an hour instead of $20 would you do it? Be wary of any seller that requires payment by person to person money transfer, such as Western Union. Koova Golf Bag Storage Rack- Wall Mount Garage Organizer for Golf Clubs - Fits Any Size Cart or Stand Bag - Easy to Install and Use - Gets Your Clubs Off The Floor - Made in USA Thanks Much, Henry: based on over 35 yrs in the golf equipment industry and 26 yrs in clubhead design, while I might wish myself that some of the US based head production business would return, the practical side of all that experience tells me that is never going to happen. According to the S & W supervisor, the poor quality of the forging dies caused all sorts of problems, to the point that S & W admitted the heads were not even close to showing what they could do. A 5th forging die was made for each head and the result was far less material to grind off the edges of the heads, which in turn meant all heads of the same number came out of production looking the same. The only thing the adjustable hotel is good for is fitting. I think some of the higher end of their ranges are still made in the USA. This is not the case. I will ask them to comtact you directly to let you know what they can find out. would i need to reshaft? Firstly, there aren't many places that you can buy golf clubs in China, most of them are located at driving ranges and country clubs, and if you do see a shop front for selling golf stuff they are most likely be legit, in China golf clubs are not sold individually, e.g. Tom, it’ Stu Anderson again, A couple of things. So I know nothing about any other company’s design models and cannot offer any information about them. Just glance at the items packaging to see where it is from? All Callaway golf clubs are made with precision and advanced science. In the AISI nomenclature for steels, the 10 means it is a carbon steel while the second two digits indicate the percentage of carbon with the iron in the steel. Thanks for the very informative article Tom. Golf pride grips also. Most of the golf balls, etc. Simply, if the club is cast, it’s not made in Japan (likely China or Taiwan). We hope to contribute to the decline in counterfeit club sales by giving you all the information you need to identify counterfeit golf clubs. have a "Made In" on the packaging - and it is almost always USA. I have a set of Founders Club Tour C B irons (2-pw) with Rifle 6.0 shafts with only the iron number on the sole. Available at most golf shops. Did you ever do any work with the Kahler team out of California / Nevada? 2) The surface condition of the raw forging has to be of very high quality so that the minimum amount of material has to be removed in the machining, grinding and finishing processes to again achieve a very tight finished head quality. have a "Made In" on the packaging - and it is almost always USA. JOE thanks for taking the time to pay us a visit and drop us a note ! Any metallurgist will tell you that the typical carbon steel alloys used to forge ironheads are the easiest to formulate of any metal – meaning getting the right percentages of the Carbon, Manganese, Phosphorus, and Sulfur to mix in with the base metal of Iron are very easy to achieve. carry out a certain amount of R & … They're not trying to fool anyone into thinking they're buying a Callaway Iron, for example it'll say "GIGAGOLF Powermax GX922" on the side, but the design elements will be similar to a Callaway X-22 iron. BAck in 1998 I was part of the team at Golfsmith that negotiated to buy the assets of Snake Eyes when they went bankrupt. Acushnet Holdings (Fairhaven, MA): manufacturer of Titleist golf balls at plants in North Dartmouth and New Bedford, MA and golf clubs assembly in Carlsbad, CA. Stuart Wilson’s forging factory used to be located in Tullahoma, TN. These types of transfers are not traceable and counterfeiters often use them. I doubt that’s a matter of forging and more a matter of the steel being softer and a different tempering process. VT is the leading forging factory in the golf industry now and is the primary maker of the Taylor Made and Callaway forged iron models as well as a primary raw forging supplier to Titleist and Mizuno. As always, if you have comments, that’s what our comments section for each topic is for. Malarkey. I’ll stand on what you will hear from any of these gatherings of golfers out there. I would say that if you can, take a look at the 575MMC muscleback version I designed. A bore through titanium forged head. Christopher Griffin says Ben Hogan inspired his quest to resurrect the great American iron.“I wanted a product that, if Mr. Hogan walked into a room and every iron on the planet were laid out on a table, he’d walk over to the P53 and say ‘I choose this one.’”Griffin is a careful and reticent sort. I also had a brief experience with Smith & Wesson, the US firearms manufacturer who had a short lived stint in the golf business when Snake Eyes contracted with them to make a forged carbon steel iron in the late 90s. You can sign in to vote the answer. Our company mainly specializes in various of golf equipment and accessories including golf drivers, fairway woods, irons, hybrid, wedges, golf clubs and some of golf head cover, golf ball, golf bag, golf gifts, training aid, golf cap, golf umbrella etc. All clubs are assembled in Carlsbad. I would think that the forging plant you worked with will be involved. Source high quality products in hundreds of categories wholesale direct from China. If you take a look at Taylor made’s most recent TV commercial showing their forgings being made, I guarantee you that was shot in the Virage Tech factory in Chengdu, China. I design only my own head models and I have nothing to do with any other company or their various models of clubheads. But… Read more ». Just glance at the items packaging to see where it is from? These types of transfers are not traceable and counterfeiters often use them. OEM Factory Wholesale Forged Full Set Golf Head Club Custom Golf Driver Golf Wood Plain and simple, the price difference comes chiefly because of the labor cost differences between Japan and China. The decline has … 'A complete bungle': Anger over Texas power failure, Brooke Baldwin, CNN's afternoon face, to depart, Buck admits to drinking tequila with Aikman in booth, Judd shares photos from 'grueling' 55-hour rescue, Amazon just extended its Presidents' Day deals, Trump era in Atlantic City to end with a literal blast, Dr. Fauci thrilled to find he's inspired a new dating term, Presidential daughters buying stakes in NWSL team, Canceling student loan debt may close racial wealth gap, The jobs with the largest rise in deaths in the pandemic, Steelers QB is dating tennis pro Eugenie Bouchard. I’ve read a bunch of the forums and I am much more educated on the topic than I was beforehand. Do you Know the Difference between a Pro and Beginner . If the raw forgings come out of the die at the correct weight, loft, lie, face progression, shape requirements and are within the required +/- tolerances for each, the quality of the dies is assured. Second, many consumers report websites to TaylorMade after they made the unfortunate mistake of falling into the counterfeit trap of a deal that was "too good to be true". I am the original owner and believe these were forged and made in the U. S. at the Hoffman Company. Ping is the Only one and they are in Scottsdale. By the mid 80s there were nearly 100… Read more », Hi Tom I am about to build my own custom set of irons. More than 120,000 pieces of counterfeit golf products bearing the brand names of Titleist, TaylorMade, PXG, Ping, Callaway and XXIO were recently seized in what the U.S. trial and error and experience. Golf Central. Koova Golf Bag Storage Rack- Wall Mount Garage Organizer for Golf Clubs - Fits Any Size Cart or Stand Bag - Easy to Install and Use - Gets Your Clubs Off The Floor - Made in USA Golfers use different kinds of clubs for different types of shots. If the goods are shipping from, or located in, China or Hong Kong, they are probably counterfeit. Titleist golf balls are made in the U.S., not China. Both the Japan forging companies as well as Virage Tech routinely make their forging dies from a very hard tool steel called SKD-61 alloy, which has a Rockwell hardness of HRC55-57. I guarantee you these companies’ decision to switch vendors was not done 100% on the basis of cost savings because all these companies have a reputation to defend that they certainly would not want… Read more ».