M-CRAFT V: A short slant-neck toe-heel deep mallet with maximum toe-hang to suit a strongly arcing stroke. Gay Brewer and Bobby Nichols (both major winners) along with Frank Beard played them. “To see people who have unbelievable experiences because of something you’re doing in an iron or fairway wood or driver or golf ball, and to see the joy it brings somebody? bet you wouldn’t say that to Sam Snead but I date myself. Very big. No more than two weeks ago (3/2/2020) I inquired at wilson.com about buying my father a wedge for his Wilson Launchpad set. Quick View . Tim is doing an outstanding job in getting the company and name back to the” King of The Hill “. p..s. I too prefer the name “WilsonStaff”. I do believe Wilson is as good as anything out there today although the Marketing is not as good as the bigness spend Millions to convince you they are better, Wilson chooses to put the money into better product. You essentially get a normal iron face, with a huge, hybrid-like cavity protruding from the back. https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Wilson-Staff-Golf-Iron-Sets/115280/bn_75624544 Had TaylorMade launched low compression, would it be a huger thing today? Liked the price point bigly., compared to Miz, TM, Titleist. I have been playing Wilson for years and have played almost everything they have made in Left Handed. Probably the oldest and most respected brand out there, too bad the new owners don’t know what to do with it. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. AU $265.70. The wedge assortment is the best out there. “I mean, I get the job and then he wins, he wins, he wins, and I’m thinking, ‘hey, this is easy. Golf Clubs men's clubs left handed sold as package . Quick View . Improving on the previous V6 irons, Wilson engineers have repositioned a tungsten weight to the toe of the mid and longer irons versus the middle of the sole in the V6’s for additional stability while still maintaining a lower center of gravity. “I had the mindset that you could do anything. Wilson Staff D7 Forged Irons - Custom 7 Piece Set. Reply to this topic; Start new topic; ... WIlson Staff C300 forged 4-pw Srixon U-85 20d. John_Thoms 1 That means out of every 200 iron sets sold that year, only one was Wilson. What’s even better about these is that the offset and lofts match up with the Staff blades from what I can tell. Making the heel and toe weighting appear segmented keeps the overall look sleeker and breaks up the lines of the wide sole. Shaft: Aldila Tour Green 75 TX, 5-wood: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (18 degrees) Normally game Titleists, but the Duo Softs played pretty darn well. “Make no mistake, Gary picked Wilson,” says Clarke. The irons will come stock with True Temper Dynamic Gold steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips, with other options available through Wilson’s custom program. I want to make sure the brand is in the right spot so when I do move on, I can go through the rest of my life looking back and being proud to have been part of something so cool. Today, Wilson says its door count exceeds 3,000. Top Rated Seller Top Rated Seller. $975.00. “The e-Family has a lengthy, storied history at Bridgestone,” It had all the Top Golfers for years as present day TM is staffed . Most of my bag is Wilson, including the bag. “People can say they loved Driver vs. Driver and people can say they hated Driver vs. Driver,” says Clarke. Learn how your comment data is processed. I have played Wilson Staff for years. He’s very proud of the team he’s assembled and believes the company’s biggest strength right now is its collective focus. Since purchasing them a few months ago, I’ve seen a couple of even-par front nines (before my short game/brain blew the back nine. ) I have a profound interest in the game from a young age and was a member of Spring Valley G C. for 13 years. When I worked for PGA Superstore we would try all of the brands. Don’t sell it short.. Yup, the Triton is a beast, straight down the fairway. “My view is there’s still 90 percent of the market that’s open-minded and curious about us. There’s a new-decade sea change going on at Wilson. Wilson Staff FG-51 Forged Iron Set 3-PW Dynamic Gold R400 Shafts Gold Pride Grip “While the sell-through (of the Cortex) has not been stellar, the value of the advertising has helped the brand tremendously.”, “We’re finding more people asking for Wilson than they have in years past,” says Randy Peitsch, Senior Operations VP at PGA Tour SuperStore. Been playing the V6 Irons 2-3 years after playing Mizzies for many years prior. “We have very aligned strategies,” he says. “We’ve made huge investments in innovation,” says Clarke. Matched To Your Swing. Taylormade took the idea of the speed pocket from Wilson, just saying. I loved their irons, and the D7’s almost won a spot in my bag as it’s back to Super Game Improvement for these old arthritic shoulders. Clarke is in his 14th year as the top exec at Wilson Golf and very well may be the longest tenured chief in golf today. Set of 7 x Wilson Staff DI9 Irons 4-PW Uniflex Steel Shaft Wilson Staff Grip. Wilson was the game’s standard-bearer for decades but, by the mid-2000s, had spiraled into irrelevance. If you want to be competitive, and pay for a large advertising budget, stick with the Big Five. They were 1 year old Wilson Staff Dynapower fluid feel, not a good choice for a new would be golf maybe as blade clubs. Torch and Pitchfork Nation did go Code Red when Cortex hit the streets at $499. That gives smaller brands the opportunity to be disruptive. They were getting a tad old and I decided to wait for a new offering. I was a Wilson Staff contracted player in the late 60’s. Selling in this market with a website that’s a horrific mishmash of brands, sports and unrelated products is death. “Why couldn’t we be more serious in the wedge category? All rights reserved. But the system works for baseball bats, tennis rackets, basically anything you can hit a ball with.” – Tim Clarke. At first we thought it must have been the shaft. M-CRAFT VI: A familiar-looking face-balanced winged mallet putter offering a heavier standard head weight for extra stability for players with a straight back and through putting stroke. “You just spent $5 billion acquiring us. I recorded two 280+ Drives last week with the Triton! Got the 2, 3, 4 utility hybrid v4’s — they’re great too. “When you do the right thing for a period of years, you expect to see acceleration, which is exactly what’s taken place.”, “I remember one of my comments to you was it took a few years to get the brand on the wrong path. “The energy required to get it to this point today has been substantial and the energy required to get us to where we’re going is even more substantial,” he says. The driver category is just so difficult to compete in, irons are more unique and not so Tech driven. Advanced Golf Analytics matches the perfect clubs to your exact swing using connected data and machine learning. In general, they still feature game improvement technology but in a much sleeker and more … To have that actually happen, it was like a dream come true.”. In fact, many of Wilson’s retail partners thought the price tag was too high. In 2015, what Wilson calls its door count (the number of actual stores stocking product nationwide) was around 700. We had to get innovative. Agree completely Ed. Well, looks like my V6’s will get an upgrade in January… gorgeous. The woods are still too draw biased, the C300’s were better but not great performers for me. Once you have credibility, there’s still hard work but it’s much more strategic than it is to try to change the mindset of millions.”. Your email address will not be published. On occasion I game the Duo/Duo Soft/Duo Pro golf balls. Would take any day over the cliche names. Clarke says other categories need work, too. They’ve maintained a solid stable of PGA and Euro players. Sell or trade your used golf clubs online with 2nd Swing Golf, and put that trade credit toward your purchase. And others stay on the sideline, just watching. “I can’t thank our R&D team, our marketing team, our product development team and our product line manage team enough,” says Clarke. Older now (50), and game the D7 irons, graphite shafts. Absolutely love the irons and will be interested in Wilson’s new offerings in the future.. My only criticism is I don’t like the font and location of the sole #s. Ping has used this placement of tungsten in the toe in the long to mid irons since the i10 or i15. Staff D7 Women's Iron - Graphite WILSON R5778F $149.00. No Guesswork. Who’s next?’”. It still sells them, but look up boxed sets on Walmart’s website and you’ll see a lot more Callaway than Wilson. “It was one of those years,” says Clarke of 2019. I’m on the back nine of my career. ,Young upcoming talent Playing like their hair is on fire … They could engage web developers and marketers who are golf freaks. As along time player who has counted many Wilson clubs in his bag, I really wish which ever conglomerate owns Wilson this week would spend some actual money on advertising and brand building. “It’s hard to get anything as exciting as a driver,” he says. It didn’t matter how much money I was waving around. No chat, no single irons and no used products. Clarke admits at his age, he’s never going to be a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram whiz but adds he does enjoy interacting with customers. The Cobra FMAX Superlites barely edged them out. Wilson. I hope you succeed with flying colors. “Make no mistake, the business acceleration from winning a major is strong,” says Clarke. Call (731) 607-5557 Ask for Bart he will get anything Wilson ASAP and at a competitive price Lower than anyone !!!!! If new ownership decides to release the hounds and invest in fast growth, well…, “It used to be, ‘yeah, don’t worry about Wilson,'” says Clarke. I haven’t found any club since that I like as well, and I’ve played nearly every blade out there. That ain’t happening. The new D7 Forged is a player’s distance iron, D7 a game-improvement bomber, and LaunchPad a super-duper game-improvement line. No, they need to get rid of the cheap PROSTAFF name for box sets, because that is what hugely devalved the Wilson Staff name. I have a lot of the people I play with scoffing at me for playing Wilson but every timed I outdrive their Epic or whatever they start asking questions, but of course they but the BS and of course what to look good with their bag of whatever. BATTLE OF THE HYBRID IRONS: Wilson Launch Pad vs Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo. I have played Wilson Staff golf equipment since 1964. I’m looking for a better life and believe I would be an asset to the company once again. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Second, even 10-percent jumps don’t happen without major marketing dollars. That, as Roy McAvoy would say, was a defining moment. Wilson needs to change their website. Now retired and a SR I play the D7s and love em.. Players on tour have been playing Staff gear, even as they’ve lagged in sales. Wilson Staff Golf Irons and Iron Sets. Pace of Play: Did COVID-19 Teach Us Anything. I hit them no where but love that I know exactly how far they go. Couldn’t quote numbers, but it seemed Cobra was in a similar position not all that long ago. Most people here played Hillerch and Bradsby (a local clubmaker). John is an aging, yet avid golfer, writer, 9-point-something handicapper living back home in New England after a 22-year exile in Minnesota. Wilson has got it going on! Odyssey white hot pro Link to post Share on other sites. Hope to hear from you…. This article has prompted me to respond for the first time ever. He hosts the "On Spec" Podcast on the GolfWRX Radio Network which focuses on discussing everything golf, including gear, technology, fitting, and course architecture. They already do a great job but they could be really special. Here’s my idea for replacing Driver vs Driver. With so many seemingly bemoaning the big brands duping us with rebranded junk every six months, their retro/alternative and more affordable brand can be the springboard to success. Pete Line, GM at Carl’s Golfland, says he’s also seeing more consumer interest in Wilson. Keep up the good work Wilson Staff! “We walked away from about $10 million in packaged sets,” says Clarke. Ditto – picked up a set 2 weeks ago – unbelievably stout. By displayname: Wilson has been an established name in the golf world for decades and in recent years has been gaining popularity with their D and C series of irons. The technology story behind the putters is straight forward, and that’s OK, because we’re talking about a milled putter and not a multi-material 460cc driver. If we were a golf-only brand, it would be pretty hard for us to make that kind of investment. You can chalk that up to several factors: a decade’s worth of high-performing irons, a commitment to innovation, and Gary Woodland’s U.S. Open victory at Pebble Beach last year (more on that later, too). And the fact they sent us to my nearest box store only hurt them in the end. “Every brand and his brother wanted to sign him and other companies thought they had him. “The e6 is actually the longest-running model in the e-Family and is our most successful two-piece Surlyn golf ball model to date. Up until 2 years ago, I was gaming their balls as well. I think we’re at the point where we’ve done a lot of right things.” – Tim Clarke. For 2020, that's the important part. The final touches are a full blue Lamkin Deep Etched cord grip, KBS Tour putter shafts, and a cover that takes its cues from the classic Mizuno lineage of colors, for a trip down design memory lane. Wilson Staff Launch Pad Iron Review. Can you name the golf equipment company that owns the most major championship victories? I did not and have regretted it ever since. Shop used Wilson Irons from 2nd Swing Golf and hit more greens. Stuff sure can change in five years. 3 Club Championships and 4 holes in one. I also packed a Fybrid in the bag. Yeah, we have Driver vs. Driver, it was our disruptive model but, in the building, it’s focusing on what’s going to drive us long term and that’s irons and golf balls.”. I started with the Wilson blades back in the late 60’s -early 70’s and have played Wilson irons ever since . Now, if we want to get somebody and we’re willing to pay the dollars, the sky’s the limit again. The new Mizuno M-Craft IV, V, & VI putters will be priced at $299.95 and will be available February 4. Their forged irons are awesome. “Five years ago, you had to spend a ton of money with Golf Digest. If you look at the test data and everything that driver did, I’d say Cortex is the best driver Wilson has put out since maybe the Killer Whale.”. I have the V2’s. I’ve been saying this for awhile now, they need to change names. Not sure why. These look great. These were definitely not designed on their iron vs. iron tv show! AU $84.30 postage. My manager was Jim Black a tough man if ever I’ve see one. or Best Offer. Can’t wait to give these a try. Play your best with Wilson Golf Irons, including Staff Model Blades, C300 Irons, and D7 Irons. All Major Brands. The Wilson Staff C300 Forged irons are a new model that aims to bring the Power Holes of the C300 irons into the forged head of a better players' iron. The last part of the design puzzle was to further stabilize the head—while never losing sight of the end goal to produce a forged cavity back iron that delivers the ultimate feel—and that’s where the “Tri Brace Stabilizer” comes in. If you want to really see accelerated growth, baseball is going great, tennis is going great, but if you want to grow, golf is where you need to go.’”. Dropped my index by 3 pts to a 5….they didn’t hurt my game.. The all-new Wilson Staff model CB irons will be available starting January 15th, 2021, and will retail for $999.99. Learn how your comment data is processed. Wilson Staff D7 Forged Irons - Custom. In other words: fanboys, haters and everyone else. For a company the size of Wilson Golf, consistent year-over-year profitable growth is the goal. But for many others, it’s an also-ran challenger brand that’s barely a blip on their radar. You can also expect a Tour-level Staff Model ball to be added. Wilson isn’t going to be crashing the Big 5’s party any time soon – the status quo simply doesn’t change like that. They work for me ! They need to get the clubs our into the community. I was surprised more tour pros who use Wilson didn’t use those heads. This comparison of other balls to Titleist really hurt them because it was apparent that they weren’t round much of the time. Moreover, tried the new Wilson Duo Soft balls over nine holes the other day. Free shipping on orders over $50. I played the blades as a PRO and as I got older started playing the GI clubs, all good. So yeah, Wilson isn’t what it was in the ’70s and ’80s. My first irons were Wilson Staff; once I learned to hit them, sure were sweet feeling/accurate. Wilson fanboy or not, you can’t deny Wilson Staff is a player in premium golf gear once again. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. I got three email responses saying that they were sending me to other departments to get an answer about my inquiry. Yes it is loud but its also long. Set Of 6 x Wilson Staff D-FY Irons 5-PW Regular Steel / Graphite Shafts. Put a set in your bag and experience why these clubs are so good. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, (your email address will not be published), New Sub 70 Forged Wedges: Two Options For Your Game. Louis?? #wilson #staffmodel #staffblades #forgedbladeI test probably the best looking golf forged iron that's available.... the Wilson Staff Model Irons. Have always had a soft spot for them. The new e6 golf balls will be available at retail and online starting February 26 2021, and for more information on the entire Bridgestone line of golf balls and for help selecting the right ball for you, visit www.bridgestonegolf.com. And I insured his major win bonus, so thank God I did that!”. The irons will come stock with True Temper Dynamic Gold steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips, with other options available through Wilson’s custom program. Still got ’em, still love ’em. Consider a market share increase from three percent to four percent may be only one percentage point but it’s actually a 33-percent increase. Thanks for the great tip. W/S is a brand with long, long history in golf, getting rid of it would be huge mistake. I said [back in 2015] we were going to refocus on our iron heritage and we’ve retrenched there,” says Clarke. Wilson doesn’t. If you want to be competitive, give Wilson Staff a try. What is good for any brand is innovation. Designed … Meh, nothing new here. Hey Bobby, Wilson had a bridge in the forged FG Tour F5 irons that i still game. How can Wilson golf be making inroads when I can not find them to demo at my country club or Golf Galaxy in St. I smashed a leg playing football in 1967 so badly that it was the end of that. “I would argue if you look at innovations – from power-hole technology to low-compression golf balls to changeable sole plates on a driver – there aren’t many brands that have done more innovation in the last five to seven years than Wilson.”, “That’s my personal opinion and have we gotten the credit for it? Another great looking set of Wilson Staff irons and the predictable condescending comments about the company. Still, I do not understand how a company who also makes the best baseball and softaball bats cant figure out how to build a GREAT driver. CATEGORY: Max Game Improvement Irons PRICE: $600, steel; $700, graphite WE TESTED: 4h-6h with UST Mamiya Defy graphite shafts and … And if you think cutting the price and making it up in volume is the answer, go back to business school and let the adults talk. Gear: Wilson Staff Launch Pad irons Price: $699.99 (4-PW) with KBS Tour 80 steel shafts and Wilson Staff 2 Crossline Mid grips; $799.99 with UST Mamiya Recoil 460 graphite shafts Specs: Hollow-bodied irons with variable sole width Available: Jan. 17, 2020 For high-handicap golfers, the most common problem when hitting tee shots with a driver is a slice. Trotting out that hack Shiels did not help my opinion of their show. Wilson irons have a long pedigree of high performance. Speaking of the face, it is precision milled to ensure flatness and scorelines are also CNC milled to push them to the limits. But now I’ve got a dilemma, because I made a resolution to NOT buy any new clubs this year. or Best Offer. Clarke had to clear the deal with new ownership, since it was a larger the normal contract for the brand. Staff D7 Iron - Graphite WILSON R5758F $149.00. “I get more joy hearing from people who just had their career round, or just broke 100 for the first time with their D7s and they want to tell me about it,” he says. That’s a pretty reasonable target,” says Clarke. “They knew we had to step up our game to get back into the core thinking of golf and they’ve done a lot of great things.”, Market share doesn’t change easily but it’s not the only – or even most important – success metric. And, yes, Wilson was innovative! It took another 11 years but Woodland’s win was huge for Wilson, as is Harrington being named Ryder Cup captain. “If you start talking about Putter vs. Putter, it’s interesting, but are you going to be able to hold an audience?”. Just don’t ever start sacrificing quality for volume again. Before the set of Srixon’s that got replaced I was playing a wonderful set of Wilson Staff Di 9’s. Wilson Launch Pad iron specs . “It was also to put out the best possible Wilson driver in the market. I used their Scotch Blade irons. M-CRAFT IV: A short slant-neck, deep square back putter with moderate toe-hang to suit players with a moderate putting arc. The Staff Model moniker represents Wilson’s Tour-level lineup and you can expect the three-year-old FG Tour V6 irons to be replaced with a Staff Model upgrade within the next year. “We had to change that perception with the consumer,” says Clarke. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. They have wide soles, plenty of offset, a thick top line and offer some pretty extreme forgiveness. Drag Racing term . They got there before; they can do it again. $600. Instead of placing the primary emphasis on distance in the Staff D7 Forged irons, however, Wilson engineers’ first goal was to make a club that would visually appeal to better players, then get more distance from it. It wasn’t until I saw the MSG study that I knew why I could hit the C300 so far. Not changing. Tim Clarke is all class.. Great article! I was always a Wilson guy and the coolest job you could have was president of Wilson Golf. “Why couldn’t we be more serious in the putter category?” he says. I started playing golf in around 1969 and have never had Wilson golf clubs and rarely ever played Wilson Staff golf balls. Wilson’s market share in irons remains in the sub three-percent range and despite claims of yearly sales growth, it’s still a small number. that was told that wilson.com could not help me with purchasing a single iron that they manufacture. Good Luck, I got the D7’s last year to replace my Di11’s. The Triton is a” super sleeper” ! Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI (Black) 8 X, Irons: Callaway UT Proto (3), Callaway Apex Proto (4-PW) Shaft: Aldila Tour Green 75 TX, 4-wood: Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (16.5) I don’t know what happen to the golf side of Wilson but I’m glad there back. “I had to sell my boss on the idea,” says Clarke. I’ve found this design to be highly effective at stabilizing the club face on off center hits, which the marketing material cites in this article. Signing Woodland for the 2019 season was a big cash investment for Wilson. Currently play their ball, two wedges, their bag, a hybrid and the Triton driver. From a marketing standpoint, social media takes away the Big 5’s ability to box everyone out by spending big dollars. I'm not sure Wilson makes a Staff Fat Shaft now, but I have seen the Staff models on Ebay for practically nothing. I was a very casual golfer for the next 15 years before I had my first lesson and joined my first club in 1987 by then I had learnt how to use them. They come stock with KBS 80 shafts which I got stiff flex. I started launching balls with the D7. Wilson Staff Launch Pad Irons Review. $15 million in losses and a 0.6-percent market share actually sound more like a nightmare. “I look at low-compression golf balls and what we did there. No need to replace them. C $116.65. That’s changing, too. I can honestly say that my 3020 bag includes the Wilson Staff Triton Driver and Wilson Staff D7 irons. The C300s were never promoted much which surprised me. There is head weight adjustability with a kit that comes stock with all putter that gives the golfer the opportunity to fine-tune head weight as well as causing slight changes to toe hang. That would be Asia, where Wilson has never been much of a player. Amer was publicly traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange but the ANTA group, which includes LuluLemon founder Chip Wilson, is strictly private. Wilson Staff V6 Tour irons (4-PW) 7 irons Bought new early 2020 as a spare set KBS Tour 90 regular shafts "Std length" Original WS Lamkin grips **Lefty - Left hand** Mint condition. I played junior golf with FG-17s (in the 70’s) and used them until 2001. Great article, honest ,straight forward .. This means less mass to create a better feel, and the remaining grams shaved from the cavity can be repositioned around the head to help with additional forgiveness. Golf equipment remains a very competitive game and the status quo is a harsh mistress. In today’s golf review post, we take a look at the Wilson Staff D200 Golf Irons and highlight the technology that makes these some of the best irons to buy in 2019.. Wilson is renowned for creating some of the best golf irons in the game and in fact Wilson irons have been used to win more major championships than any other golf brand since the 1920’s.