Connect with us

Equipment

An introduction to haywoodgolf

Published

on

Recently, I was in Vegas for some golf with friends (promise, it was golf only). During my round, I, unfortunately, broke a shaft on a root and had to get it re-shafted. Luckily, my buddies at Club Champion were there to help, and while the club was being prepped and set, they showed me a prototype head from a company in Canada by the name of haywoodgolf. The club had a sleek look, and because I was unfamiliar with the brand, and intrigued, I reached out to the company to learn more.

This story is about my experience with Joshua Haywood and his company.

The haywoodgolf story

Joshua, a long-time golfer, started haywoodgolf out of frustration after visiting his local Golf Town, Canada’s version of Golf Galaxy, to buy a new set of wedges. After exploring all the options and testing the few clubs he found visually appealing, he priced out a set that cost around $600 CAD.

After a little deliberation, and walking out of the store empty-handed, Joshua came to the realization that there must be a way to reduce the cost of clubs while maintaining the integrity and quality golfers have come to expect. After months of research, and dozens of prototypes of forged wedges tested in different conditions, Joshua officially launched haywoodgolf.com in June of 2018. With a select product release of non-conforming wedges, which offered the average golfer more spin and control, buyers were responding very positively to their quality, modern and minimalistic designs, which cost only half the price of the major OEMs.

As the team listened to feedback from existing users and from folks that decided against purchasing, they started working on the new design of their signature series forged wedges as well as their two-piece stainless steel game improvement signature irons, which have been tested and approved as conforming to the rules of golf by the R&A. The clubs are offered in both right and left-handed and have black and silver finish options.

With the wedges starting at $99 USD and iron sets at $650, I needed to find out if they measure up to what I had in my bag.

Testing of Signature irons

Josh kindly sent me a haywoodgolf signature series 7-iron, which I fitted with an Accra 70i R-flex shaft, measuring 37” inches long and 30 degrees of loft. This data was collected at Golf Galaxy in Wesley Chapel using Foresight and was compared to my personal 7-iron; a Cobra Forged Tec 37” iron with Accra 70R with a 29.5 degrees loft. Here are the numbers

Beyond the testing at Golf Galaxy, I actually used the club for almost two weeks, hitting range balls plus many shots on the course.

Bottom line, what did I think?

To be honest, I was shocked in the most positive way at the performance. I saw from my testing that they matched up to the major OEMs, while being almost half the cost. I’m very fond of its clean look, and even including the little-bit thicker top line it has (similar to the G700 or TaylorMade 790) along with a touch more offset than I’m used to. The club is hollow-body design, not foam-filled, and I noticed no difference in feel or distance versus a club like the P790, which are, and I have hit multiple times. I really enjoyed hitting the haywood iron, which feels very solid and has a crisp sound to it.

I consider these clubs to be one of the best bang for your buck sets of irons on the market. Haywood Golf has created an excellent product, and I think players looking for a new set would be wise to consider their products.

Your Reaction?
  • 237
  • LEGIT49
  • WOW28
  • LOL8
  • IDHT8
  • FLOP9
  • OB6
  • SHANK27

Brendan Ryan, an entrepreneur and scientist, is a passionate golfer who loves his local muni. Armed with a keen interest in the game, a large network of friends in the industry, Brendan works to find and produce unique content for GolfWRX.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Geoff

    Jan 14, 2020 at 7:12 am

    If you like these guys you’ll really love golfworks. Their maltby clubs have been around forever and they have very simple but beautiful designs at even better prices than seen here. Can get a wedge with premium shaft for $60.

    • westy

      Jan 14, 2020 at 4:57 pm

      Nice. Dude is going after it, way to hijack.

  2. Mark

    Jan 14, 2020 at 1:05 am

    On a site like WRX, I suspect there will be many readers, like myself, who want to know more about who designs them and the process for selecting a manufacturing resource. (I doubt Haywood has the volume required to do business with Tier 1, Taiwanese-owned, China-based manufacturers.)

    • Dan

      Jan 14, 2020 at 1:10 pm

      I found something similar to their irons and wedges on alibaba. Very likely that they didnt do the design and just stamp their logo on them.

      • Eric

        Jan 14, 2020 at 3:06 pm

        How can you make such a statement like this (Alibaba) without any concrete evidence? Not fair in my book to the owners, who may have done a lot of work on the design and securing a producer.

        Looks like great stuff, the best of luck to this company?

        • Dan

          Jan 15, 2020 at 2:27 pm

          Its not like u have the any evidence that the owners actually design their irons.

          • William

            Jan 15, 2020 at 7:19 pm

            And Its not like you have any evidence that they don’t.

      • Jim

        Jun 17, 2020 at 6:27 pm

        https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000482009668.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.35ae3c00oCEbsj&mp=1

        And you can find any grind, loft, etc model of Vokey you want on AliExpress. The owner was actually selling OEM Aliexpress rangefinders in Vancouver locally before then – so he knows his way around Chinese sourcing.

  3. haywoodgolf

    Jan 13, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    Here there – haywoodgolf here.
    We appreciate you checking out our site.

    If you select the last photo on the irons page, that is the spec sheet, and then you can click the actual photo itself in the larger format and it will zoom in for you to make the spec sheet very clear.

  4. SV677

    Jan 13, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    After reading your article I thought I would click on the link to learn more about Haywood’s products. Their site gives different options when purchasing, but since they give no specs for the irons it is impossible to know if one would want a longer or shorter iron or have the lofts changed, which are options they offer. Being a left-handed player I am always interested in new alternatives, but I anticipate a company actually giving me information about their product.

    • Johnny Penso

      Jan 13, 2020 at 6:05 pm

      Specs are there. Click on a set and on the bottom left where you see the various angled shots of the clubs are the specs. It’s tiny, but if you click on it you can read it…barely.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Equipment

Why Rory McIlroy will likely use the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper at the RBC Heritage

Published

on

Although we spotted Rory McIlroy testing the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper last week during practice rounds at the Masters, he ultimately didn’t decide to use the club in competition.

It seems that will change this week at the 2024 RBC Heritage, played at the short-and-tight Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head.

When asked on Wednesday following his morning Pro-Am if he’d be using the new, nostalgic BRNR Copper this week, McIlroy said, “I think so.”

“I like it,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday regarding the BRNR. “This would be a good week for it.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

According to Adrian Rietveld, the Senior Manager of Tour at TaylorMade, the BRNR Mini Driver can help McIlroy position himself properly off the tee at the tight layout.

Here’s what Rietveld told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday:

“For someone like Rory, who’s that long at the top end of the bag, and then you put him on a course like Harbour Town, it’s tough off the tee. It’s tight into the greens, and you have to put yourself in position off the tee to have a shot into the green. It kind of reminds me of Valderrama in Spain, where you can be in the fairway and have no shot into the green.

“I’m caddying for Tommy [Fleetwood] this week, so I was walking the course last night and looking at a few things. There’s just such a small margin for error. You can be standing in the fairway at 300 yards and have a shot, but at 320 you don’t. So if you don’t hit a perfect shot, you could be stuck behind a tree. And then if you’re back at 280, it might be a really tough shot into the small greens.

“So for Rory [with the BRNR], it’s a nice course-specific golf club for him. He’s got both shots with it; he can move it right-to-left or left-to-right. And the main thing about this club has been the accuracy and the dispersion with it. I mean, it’s been amazing for Tommy.

“This was the first event Tommy used a BRNR last year, and I remember talking to him about it, and he said he couldn’t wait to play it at Augusta next year. And he just never took it out of the bag because he’s so comfortable with it, and hitting it off the deck.

“So you look at Rory, and you want to have the tools working to your advantage out here, and the driver could hand-cuff him a bit with all of the shots you’d have to manufacture.”

So, although McIlroy might not be making a permanent switch into the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, he’s likely to switch into it this week.

His version is lofted at 13.5 degrees, and equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft.

See more photos of Rory testing the BRNR Mini here

Your Reaction?
  • 3
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Spotted: TaylorMade P-UDI driving iron

Published

on

It seems like the RBC Heritage is full of new gear to be spotted, and you can add TaylorMade’s P-UDI utility irons to that list.

We spotted a 17-degree P-UDI 2-iron in Nick Dunlap’s bag yesterday, and now have some photos of both the 3- and 4-irons. Nick has his P-UDI 2-iron setup with a Project X HZRDUS Black 4th Gen 105g TX shaft.

From what we can tell, this new P-UDI utility iron looks to have some of the usual TaylorMade technology as we can see the Speed Slot on the sole of the club for additional face flexibility. A toe screw is usually used to close off the hollow body design that will probably be filled with a version of TaylorMade’s Speed Foam that is present in the current iron lineup. This hollow body, foam-filled design should offer additional ball speed, soft feel, and sound, as well as an optimized CG for ball flight.

“Forged” is etched into the hosel, so we can assume that either the face, body, or both are forged for a soft and responsive feel. The club looks good from behind and at address, where we can see just a little offset and a topline that I would consider medium thickness. We don’t have the full details on what is under the hood or how many loft options will be available yet.

TaylorMade P-UDI 3-iron – 20°

TaylorMade P-UDI 4-iron – 22°

Your Reaction?
  • 4
  • LEGIT1
  • WOW1
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Whats in the Bag

Collin Morikawa WITB 2024 (April)

Published

on

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 LS (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 60 TX (45 inches)

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (13.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P770 (4), P7MC (5-6), P730 (7-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Mid 115 X100 (4-6), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (7-PW)

Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (50-SB09, 56-LB08), TaylorMade MG4 TW (60-TW11)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: TaylorMade TP Soto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 2.0

Grips: Golf Pride Z-Grip Cord

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

Your Reaction?
  • 0
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending