[John Kavanaugh]

If you choose to buy golf clubs from eBay your barrier of stupidity is so high the quality of construction becomes moot.

JK,

Should I assume that buying from Craigslist decreases my "barrier of stupidity" (making me more directly stupid)?  

JC and CJ,

Thanks for your input.  Historically, the amount of money I've spent on clubs and technology have not correlated with my performance.  I guess I need to think about all this some more.

Thanks Tim.  It never occured to me that I could be buying a counterfeit club.  I've had good luck with Ping's WRX (?) department in the past and your suggestion (+ my recent experience) makes total sense.  As the old adage goes: "if it is seems too good to be true it probably isn't".   

Lou,

Only if you gave the seller your home address before you ratted him out.

[Rory Connaughton]

Not sure about the Tiger Mizuno/Titleist question but Adam Barr has been named president of Miura and was on the radio this morning discussing the quality of the product.  He stated that Miura irons have been used by a number of major winners though stamped with the mark of other manufacturers.  It was a good interview.

[Chris Johnston]

Not sure about the Tiger Mizuno/Titleist question but Adam Barr has been named president of Miura and was on the radio this morning discussing the quality of the product.  He stated that Miura irons have been used by a number of major winners though stamped with the mark of other manufacturers.  It was a good interview.

This is factual. 

[JC Jones]

Not sure about the Tiger Mizuno/Titleist question but Adam Barr has been named president of Miura and was on the radio this morning discussing the quality of the product.  He stated that Miura irons have been used by a number of major winners though stamped with the mark of other manufacturers.  It was a good interview.

This is factual. 

I don't know, Chris.  If a bunch of guys on an internet golf club message board can't conceive this practice to be true, there is no way it can be true....

[JC Jones]

Not sure about the Tiger Mizuno/Titleist question but Adam Barr has been named president of Miura and was on the radio this morning discussing the quality of the product.  He stated that Miura irons have been used by a number of major winners though stamped with the mark of other manufacturers.  It was a good interview.

I have a simple question: do the manufacturers whose clubs are being used get paid by the company who "stamps" their name to the club? If so, what is the going rate? If not, and the manfuracturer does not give it's approval, isn't it illegal?

Maybe they give their approval and don't receive compensation beyond the costs of the irons.  Seems to me, that if the president of Miura was openly discussing this and not mentioning a lawsuit that he was implicitly consenting to it and possibly bragging about it as it makes his company look quite good.

[Ben Sims]

I'm finding that a cheaper alternative to a completely custom set of blades is to go onto Ebay and find some good to excellent condition set of some bygone irons.  Say, a Mizuno MP-32 (not so bygone) or even MP-14 or 33. 

Irons:  300 bucks
New shafts: 300-400
Shafts pured, installed, loft and lie adjusted: 200
Grips: 150-ish

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

[David_Tepper]

David Cronan & JC Jones -

As I posted back several pages, I believe Miura (and possiblity one or two other Japanese companies) have made forged iron clubheads that have been sold to American golf club companies to be assembled in the U.S. and sold under brands such as MacGregor, TaylorMade, Orlimar, etc. There is nothing unusual or unethical about that.

This is not uncommon in the golf club business. Most golf club companies buy component parts (clubheads, shafts & grips) that are made by another manufacturer. I think PING has a factory to cast their own clubheads, but I doubt any other U.S. golf club company does.

DT

[Kevin_Reilly]

I'm finding that a cheaper alternative to a completely custom set of blades is to go onto Ebay and find some good to excellent condition set of some bygone irons.  Say, a Mizuno MP-32 (not so bygone) or even MP-14 or 33. 

Irons:  300 bucks
New shafts: 300-400
Shafts pured, installed, loft and lie adjusted: 200
Grips: 150-ish

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

Some clubmaker would be very happy to sell you shafts, SST Puring, loft & lie, and grips at those prices.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Not sure about the Tiger Mizuno/Titleist question but Adam Barr has been named president of Miura and was on the radio this morning discussing the quality of the product.  He stated that Miura irons have been used by a number of major winners though stamped with the mark of other manufacturers.  It was a good interview.

Easy way to tell...if they have big, ugly roundish looking short irons, then yes, they quite possibly could be Miuras.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I hate speculation as much as the next guy, but I'm going to do it...from memory, Tiger was absolutely playing a forged blade that was not available from Titleist for a number of years...it may have been Mizuno from the outset, although I would more likely believe that it was just a Mizuno club with Titleist markings. Mizuno would be fine with this because they never want to pay anybody anyway and everyone on the inside would see this as proof that the Mizuno clubs are the best. I feel like it took a few years before Titleist actually produced a forged blade in Tiger's model...am I wrong on that part?

Yes, the Titleist 681 was not released commercially until 2001.

But then again Tiger used a model 970 3-wood that was never released commercially.  Davis Love used a variety of Titleist wood and iron models that were never released commercially.  The Nike driver that Tiger used for a spell was never released commercially.  I could go on and on.

Funny, there are internet rumors that Tiger's Nike blades are/were re-badged Mizunos.  Or they are Miura blades rebadged as Nike.

Miura must be making a mint from these re-badging!

[JC Jones]

I'm finding that a cheaper alternative to a completely custom set of blades is to go onto Ebay and find some good to excellent condition set of some bygone irons.  Say, a Mizuno MP-32 (not so bygone) or even MP-14 or 33. 

Irons:  300 bucks
New shafts: 300-400
Shafts pured, installed, loft and lie adjusted: 200
Grips: 150-ish

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

The black oxide looks awesome, I've always been a fan.  As with chrome or anything else it will wear but it will look sweet.

[JMEvensky]

I'm finding that a cheaper alternative to a completely custom set of blades is to go onto Ebay and find some good to excellent condition set of some bygone irons.  Say, a Mizuno MP-32 (not so bygone) or even MP-14 or 33. 

Irons:  300 bucks
New shafts: 300-400
Shafts pured, installed, loft and lie adjusted: 200
Grips: 150-ish

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

The black oxide looks awesome, I've always been a fan.  As with chrome or anything else it will wear but it will look sweet.

The problem with black oxide,aside from durability issues,is the feel.They become "clicky"(this is probably not a technical term).If you're buying irons as soft as MP-14's,coating them defeats the purpose,IMO.

[JC Jones]

I'm finding that a cheaper alternative to a completely custom set of blades is to go onto Ebay and find some good to excellent condition set of some bygone irons.  Say, a Mizuno MP-32 (not so bygone) or even MP-14 or 33. 

Irons:  300 bucks
New shafts: 300-400
Shafts pured, installed, loft and lie adjusted: 200
Grips: 150-ish

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

The black oxide looks awesome, I've always been a fan.  As with chrome or anything else it will wear but it will look sweet.

The problem with black oxide,aside from durability issues,is the feel.They become "clicky"(this is probably not a technical term).If you're buying irons as soft as MP-14's,coating them defeats the purpose,IMO.

That is a good point and one I had forgotten.   I also get the same feeling from a chrome finish.

[Rory Connaughton]

Kevin.

 Sorry, I did not intend to imply that Tiger was playing Miuras in 1997 just that re-badging seems like it was fairly common at some point in time.

 

[Matt_Ward]

Someone who is more knowledgeable than i on the subject will have to explain how today's cavity back clubs -- at the highest of the spectrum -- really provide less than what you see with pure muscle back clubs.

I think it's primarily personal preferences because I don't see the performance dimension being so glaring.

If someone believes completely different -- I'm all ears.

[Richard Choi]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Lou. Unfortunately, your story is pretty common with eBay and Craigslist. I would never buy a popular model from those sites as vast majority of what is out there are fake. Unless you are very good at spotting fakes and/or buying from a very trusted source, it is not worth it to buy from those sites.

I only buy clubs from on-line if I am looking for something out of the ordinary, something that was not popular enough that counterfeiters never bothered.

There has been a lot of talk about buying Mizuno forged irons from eBay on this thread and that is kind of ironic as eBay is flooded with cast counterfeit Mizunos. Many of you may be playing with cast club thinking that it is "forged" soft...

[Will MacEwen]

Rich - the one nice thing about being a lefty is that you can be morally certain you aren't buying counterfeit.

[Sven Nilsen]

http://www.mygolfspy.com/best-golf-blade-iron-designs/

Nice collection of photos of 35 different blade designs.  Enjoy.

[PCCraig]

This makes for a much more custom set of irons than off rack, "fitted" irons, and allows for a few more customization pieces.  I'm also considering sending the irons off to get a Black Oxide coating.  Any thoughts?

Black oxide MP-14's look great!

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