Golf’s first-ever metal driver was conceptualized almost 100 years ago and despite what the high-paid executives at the major OEMs will tell you, the fundamentals of the Driver haven’t changed all that much. However, we as a people have grown accustomed to a cyclical product release schedule (we’re looking at you, Apple), in which each product released ‘supposedly’ nudges us closer to our goals. Yet creating products that accomplish these objectives can be immensely difficult. Being not even five years into our business, we never imagined designing a line of Woods at this stage - the financial significance of an endeavour like this aside, mentally, are consumers ready to accept that a smaller brand like us can truly compete in the Woods category?
We’ve worked tirelessly to create this line of Woods that proves to the golf world that we can contend with the other options on the market- and we’re not about to get it wrong. Through rounds and rounds of iterations, taking feedback and revising, we’re confident we got it right. But we are acutely aware of what we’re up against - decades of performance and millions of marketing dollars from the brands golfers have grown to trust and love and the pros that use them.
Part of devaluing this ethos begins with concrete evidence that when compared to the trusted products on the market, our woods quite literally go the distance. In order to do this, we headed to San Diego, California to Golf Laboratories, where we met industry vet Gene Parente and his colleague, the golf robot. Since 1990, Gene and his computer-controlled robot have tested thousands of golf clubs from the world’s leading golf manufacturers. The results are independent, and unbiased and capture all swing and flight data with precision repeatability and consistency.
We began this experiment with the following clubs:
Drivers
- Haywood Driver 9° with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
- Titleist TSR2 9° with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
- TaylorMade Stealth 9° with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
3 Woods
- Titleist TSR2 with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
- Haywood 3 Wood with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
- TaylorMade Stealth with a HZRDUS Gen4 Black shaft
Hybrids
- Titleist TSI with a HZRDUS Smoke Black
- Haywood Hybrid with HZRDUS Smoke Black
- TaylorMade Stealth with HZRDUS Smoke Black
Beginning with the Drivers, each club performed dozens of strikes on center, ¾ toe and ¾ heel. To capture and record the data, a Trackman and a GC Quad were utilized. Both launch monitors offer in-depth data analysis, but they perform in different ways - the TrackMan uses Doppler Radar technology to capture ball flights. It measures a host of ball and club data including club speed, ball flight, carry distance, launch angle, and many more. This gives you comprehensive detail on all your shots with a high level of accuracy. The GC Quad, on the other hand, uses Foresight Sports’ proprietary Quadroscopic Camera Technology. The imaging technique has a large ball capture area and delivers a high-quality image resulting in highly accurate data. In order to account for discrepancies in the data, we ensured the use of both launch monitors simultaneously. We then averaged the data from both monitors to provide us with the most accurate number.
Our goal, as intimidating as it was, was to create a lineup that performed comparably to other major OEMs. Taking feedback from our supporters (and skeptics), we knew that if we could closely match performance and beat on cost, we’d be able to turn some of our critics into customers. Fortunately for us, we’re in an advantageous position. Utilizing the knowledge from years of R&D by the most trusted and performant brands, access to the same factories, and ex-in-house engineers have enabled us to design and manufacture a lineup of woods that meet our lofty expectations.
The Driver data:
Data collected for the 3 Woods and Hybrids are equally representative of performance, showing minimal differences between all three brands. Based on our findings from robot testing, we wanted to put our newly developed Woods and Hybrid through the paces with human testing. There, we received transformative feedback about how the clubs felt and sound, and of course how they performed.
The new product cadence that consumers have grown to expect from the major OEMs won’t include us. We’re not in the business of making incremental changes to existing products and touting them as ‘revolutionary’ or claiming to get you 10 extra yards. Our goal is to create products that not only look timeless, but withstand time, utilizing high quality, durable, and performant materials, tried and tested construction, and modern, minimalistic aesthetics.
We’re excited to have you try them.