Connect with us

Equipment

Custom wedge company Hopkins Golf opens it doors

Published

on

For most amateur golfers, the ultimate goal is to play like a pro and shoot as close to par as possible. Most will never get there, but players can now customize their clubs like tour pros at a “better value” in hopes of lowering their score.

Hopkins Golf officially launched its website this week with the goal of providing golfers with “tour authentic, custom-built equipment factory direct at a fair price.”

“This is a banner day for us,” said Greg Hopkins, CEO of Hopkins Golf who has more than 30 years of experience in the golf business. “For a long time, we’ve been preparing to be able to get golfers custom wedges just like Tour players get. We can’t wait to hear their reactions when they receive the true tour experience for themselves.”

By heading to its website, golfers can customize their wedges the way the pros do in eight steps or less. The wedges are available for men and women, in six different lofts and seven different grinds. The price of the wedge runs about $100 each, with some additional fees for extra features such as custom engraving, stamping, paint fill, ferrules, grips and shafts.

Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., Hopkins Golf has partnered with UPS and placed its club assembly inside UPS facilities. UPS will handle shipping for the company and will allow for less overhead cost for the company, leading to a lower cost for the consumer. The typical golf company takes five steps before his or her clubs are delivered to the player, the company said in a press release. Hopkins Golf golf takes three.

Capture
Chart courtesy of Hopkins Golf.

Hopkins Golf was founded earlier this year when Greg Hopkins left his position as CEO of Cleveland Golf to start his own company.

According to its website, professional players who use Hopkins include Don Pooley Jr., who won the 2002 U.S. Senior Open and the 1985 Vardon Trophy, John Huston, who has seven PGA Tour wins, and Danny Pohl, a member of the 1987 Ryder Cup Team.

Your Reaction?
  • 5
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

David Cheng is a former ESPN Production Assistant. He is currently pursuing his master's from Villanova's School of Communication and holds a bachelor's degree in journalism with a marketing minor from Emerson College.

26 Comments

26 Comments

  1. Taylor Made

    Dec 12, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    They dont offer different bounce. So much for “custom”. LOL

  2. Taylor Made

    Dec 12, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    Who cares if their assembly is inside UPS?? The savings is not passed on to the consumer. It goes in Hopkins pocket. This whole operation sucks. Can get better clubs off the rack.

  3. Brock Libby

    Sep 25, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    Intrigued by these, but the graphic implies that some UPS worker is the one building the wedges.

  4. Kyoung

    Jul 19, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    Anybody test out these in the field?
    Does anybody know the bounce? Forgive me if i should know.
    I ordered a 56 Heel/Toe Grind, and 52 helf Grind
    Wanna know how the 56 compares to a Cleveland 56 14 bounce i’ve played for 3 yrs

    I couldn’t pass on the custom club with some grind options.
    It does add up when you start customizing, but i was in abut 165 for custom color, grip, grind options.
    Personally i dont think its that bad considering some of the new Clevelands with the “milled face” are 120. I dont really buy into the more spin with the milling on the face. Especially if youre a hi80’s/90 hitter like me.
    Thanks and please let me know if you’ve tested these out on the course!

  5. Karl

    Jul 9, 2013 at 11:29 am

    I bought a 56* wedge fully customized with engraving, paint fill, and a free shelf grind promotion, added a colored lamkin midsize grip, and colored ferrule for $136 shipped. +1″ shaft, with 3* upright lie for no extra charge. I got the wedge in about 6 days and I could not be more pleased. It’s absolutely perfect and feels amazing! I will be ordering a 52* and a 60* soon.

    • Karl

      Jul 9, 2013 at 11:43 am

      You just cannot get that level of customization off the shelf. Thank you Hopkins Golf!

    • Kyoung

      Jul 19, 2013 at 1:00 pm

      Hi,
      Just ordered a 52 Shelf Grind, and 56 Heel Toe Grind.
      Did u get to use these on the course?
      I used a Cleveland 56 14 bounce for years and wanna know how the 2 compare.
      Thanks.

  6. Randy

    Jul 3, 2013 at 12:29 pm

    Hey, marketing guy at Hopkins Golf here. I have to say that I’m really surprised by the cast vs. forged discussion. I’ve toured the factories and worked out on the tours and I thought that argument was put to bed. Heat treating changed the game. Cast 8620 that when heat treated properly is the best of all worlds; the consistency of casting and the feel of forging. If tour players can’t tell the difference in feel, why are amateurs so concerned about it?

    • Steven

      Sep 23, 2013 at 4:24 pm

      hey randy,
      since you work at hopkins golf can you tell me why their phone numbers are not in service and their email is essentially the same. i have been trying to return my wedges which rusted in a matter of two days back and i finally called five days ago and got a woman on the phone who was nice and said i would be receiving the free shipping label via email. im no computer wiz but emails go through in a matter of minutes, not a week. i am very displeased with the quality of the wedges, the price, and the customer service. i just bought two vokey design wedges for $227 compared to the $246 i spent on hopkins wedges just to have a four leaf clover… dumbest decision i have made in a long time. all i want to do is get my money back and be done with hopkins golf. worst experience of my life. if your a serious golfer. go to cleveland or titliest, bottom line.

      • Taylor Made

        Dec 12, 2013 at 2:51 pm

        It says right on the site that the wedges will rust.

      • David Smith

        Dec 12, 2013 at 8:53 pm

        They’re meant to rust… dumbest decision you say? perhaps you should read what you’re buying before making arrogant remarks.

      • john

        Jan 27, 2014 at 1:43 pm

        hey goof-ball they are meant to rust.

  7. Joe

    Jul 2, 2013 at 11:11 am

    Sic Golf has custom handmade wedges forged in japan for the same price as these… lol

  8. Eve

    Jun 27, 2013 at 3:08 am

    CAST. Nuff said.

  9. Jimmy

    Jun 26, 2013 at 10:52 pm

    Overpriced and nothing really “custom” about them, so you can get some stamps and engravings, wow, who cares? Everything else you can get at any reputable golf store like grips, shaft, etc. They can keep them. I doubt it outperforms my Cleveland 588 RTX wedges that I got for 40$ a piece brand new.

    • J

      Jun 28, 2013 at 10:32 am

      What about the custom grinds, loft, lie? The grind is very important, and not something you just get off the shelf… Looks good to me

  10. G

    Jun 26, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    $166 isn’t bad for custom wedges. Maybe you should cut back on all the unecessary stampings/paint fill/colored grip and only concentrate on what you need to PLAY the game

    • J

      Jun 26, 2013 at 9:01 pm

      I didn’t do anything other than standard paintfill and ZERO stampings…

      Purely for a grip ai could tolerate and the grinds I want…

      The point is… A brand new company charging those prices is a bit pretentious..

      I will be able to get my choice of grips and grind from Callaway when the MD2’s come out for about the same or less… And besides that… I just said no thanks. I didn’t actually say it was out of one or criticize… Maybe the two of you should learn how to read and stop making assumptions…

      I said what I did and said no thanks. Was a pretty simple statement.

      • Adam

        Jun 26, 2013 at 11:05 pm

        I just went through the process with one wedge and it came out to $130.99 with spinner shaft, upgraded grip and colored ferrule.

        Not to bad for a semi custom wedge (no stampings or paint fill).

        Maybe there was an option that you had in there by accident???

      • Jake

        Jun 28, 2013 at 10:30 am

        I just did it for three wedges, without custom stamping or engraving, with the black steel shaft, lamkin grip, custom grinds, and it was $367 for my three wedges! I think that’s a phenomenal deal. Maybe their was some glitch on the page or something like that, b/c I’m not sure how it could get to $500.?

  11. Ryan

    Jun 26, 2013 at 11:29 am

    So you want custom wedges for off the rack prices then? $166 each seems reasonable…

  12. J

    Jun 26, 2013 at 10:56 am

    After one trip through the customization program I was over 500.00 with Hi-Rev shafts… Lamkin grips and grinds on 3 wedges… 500.00

    No thanks.

Leave a Reply

Cancel 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.

Whats in the Bag

Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)

Published

on

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX

Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4

More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.

Your Reaction?
  • 4
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

on

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

Your Reaction?
  • 3
  • LEGIT1
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK2

Continue Reading

Equipment

Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird

Published

on

With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.

On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.

Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?

Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’

So that’s why I went back.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?

It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.

Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.

It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.

Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.

Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.

So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?

Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play? 

Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.

There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.

It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.

Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.

And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?

Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’

If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’

My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’

I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”

And you’re going with it this week?

Hundred percent.

Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week. 

Thanks, man.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

Your Reaction?
  • 43
  • LEGIT5
  • WOW3
  • LOL2
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK5

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending