Gary Woodland's driver this week?

[J13]

Its crazy how much weight he's lost. The new swing looks good especially with the slower backswing which i'm imagining helps his transition.

[MarkTheSark]

I dunno, IMO....... Agreed that the driver didn't sell tons, but it got exposure and recognition. I think, from there - it got people talking. I think that's objective #1 from a marketing standpoint.

[eweyant]

I am actually liking the look of this driver. Interested to see how it plays.

[MarkTheSark]

Here's a great article about Wilson - and exposure.

 

https://mygolfspy.com/wilson-staff-2020/

[PapaJohick]

 

callaway and taylormade are also in stores like cotsco/walmart/kmart/etc haha. soooo ya

 

 

I had the cortex in play for about a year. It did very well overall, but forgiveness wasn't quite there and it did seem to have lower ball speeds even though my overall distance was not that far off from other drivers.

[WristySwing]

I have nothing to really add here specifically about the new clubs other than the woods do look cool.

As for the rest of my comments, Wilson has had a "player" driver recently in the c300. It looked good at address and came with an upgraded Fujikura Pro shaft. It was low spin and decently forgiving with a bit of moveable weight tech. It still sat on the shelf and was at a good price point ($450 CAD I think when everyone else was $600 or more). I think what somebody above me said, for now, Wilson should focus themselves on trying to position themselves in an iron and wedge market. Srixon, Cleveland, and Mizuno all did it before with success before they slowly broached into woods. I know Wilson has that coveted most wins ever in majors going for them, but at the end of the day, new golfers are starting every day and a lot of juniors don't care about some guy who won with a set of Wilson blades 40 years before they were born. Did you care at 20 years old what kind of clubs Bobby Jones or Walter Hagan used to beat so and so by 2 at the X championship? No, probably not.

If Wilson stuck to their roots and kept a really traditional Staff blade, a nice Staff CB (update the V6 maybe?), and then had 2 other products, a pseudo player's distance like the D7 forged and then a total hack club like the D7 with mega strong lofts, that is all they would need. A couple of hybrids that can only be bought with the D7 line is all they need. Keep the Forged wedges. Build brand recognition around these 3-4 core irons and nice wedges and they are good and will likely see an improvement in sales enough to warrant making some woods that are not gimmicky to heck. Like c'mon the D200 or D300 had literal spikes all across the crown, they were completely out of ideas at that point.

Some marketing would also help. They have loads of money to run a show that made them the OEM laughing stock and enough money to have 3-4 different Wilson Duo commercials, but not enough money to run 1 commercial saying "hey we are Wilson Staff, remember us? Look at these awesome blades and CBs we have. Guess what, we don't charge for any shaft as long as it is Dynamic Gold and KBS. K thanks bye,"? That seems a little bit odd. I only saw the D7 commercials for about 2 weeks last year when they had the group of 10-30 handicaps hitting the irons on a Trackman range and complimenting how far they went and how easy they were to hit. It's a good start for sure but it needs to be constantly run, not for a month and then disappear.

[braincramp52]

Well said!

[cugolf14]

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

[SUPERG]

To piggy back on the KBS and DG comment, makes you wonder how many irons they would sell if they offered a ton of no upcharge shafts like Srixon, hell with them you can get Tour issue DG, PX and even C tapers all free. Sucks to want a Woodland set but have to pay another 300 for the shafts he has lol

[woods991]

Mizuno drivers the past two years are legit just as good as any others with the properly fit shaft.

[WristySwing]

In their blades and CBs it makes sense. However, I think a lot of it is cost. If they want to sell D7 forged at $300 cheaper than everyone else to give them a unique market then something has to give. I think having KBS 80-90-105, Tour V, and the Tour 110-130 all free along with Dynamic Gold 120 and standard Dynamic Gold is fine. Chances are you are going to fit into one of these even if it isn't perfect perfect. Most people don't get properly anyways, at least not at a big box store, so playing something like a Tour 105 Reg when you are likely better off with a C-Taper Lite 105 or Modus 105 Reg isn't going to hurt you that much that it would be super noticeable for most people. IT costs money to have inventory around. Even Srixon is charging now for non-Modus Nippon, they charge for Modus 130, and are charging for KBS Tour and Tour-V and XP, which were free in the 45 and 65 series, and weirdly charging for AMT Black when AMT White is free. They never even brought on $-Taper as an option unless you pay for it and while the Steelfiber is available in the Utility for a modest upcharge it is crazy expensive in the irons. It's just not worth it to stock all of those components and a lot of the OEMs are realizing that and moving more to a Mizuno style offering, where they have like 20 shafts and that's it. If you don't see it, too bad.

[braincramp52]

I doubt it would do much. Majority of golfers aren't going to spend hours testing a bunch of shafts to see if one gives them 3 more yards or better dispersion.

[J13]

I can stand on the roof of my house and scream obscene remarks and get exposure and recognition but that doesn't mean it's doing me any favors.

[QuigleyDU]

Interesting way to put it...

[Steve o]

You see it your way. I think it helped them as a brand. I think I am closer to agreeing that now a year later they need to act like a more grown up brand. Stop acting like your selling toys. They arent. but its like they dont know what to do. I would act like Tiltiest, Mizuno and Hogan. Time to grow up. Make players proud to carry your clubs.

[J13]

haha I try
@Steve o I agree. If they plan on being competitive the first thing they need to do is stop the american idol search for the next failed driver design.

[James the Hogan Fan]

According to the WITB on the front page for the Travelers he had gone back to the G410 LST and SIM 3W. However on Getty Images the club I see him using does not appear to be a ping and seems to resemble the mystery W|Labs proto. Not sure which is correct, or if my analysis of the picture is accurate.

[Pingman2019]

Also looks like he switched from the rpg shaft, the graphics look pretty funky not sure what the new shaft would be.

[Renmazuo27]

I'm strangely intrigued by this, love the color of the crown from what we can see so far.

[James the Hogan Fan]

So Woodland was leading the Memorial, at least temporarily, but I believe he has benched the driver for the Ping. Anyone catch a glimpse today?

[TheMoneyShot]

I cannot tell which driver he has in the bag today?

[Golfingfanatic]

I think he's back to the Ping.

[QuigleyDU]

He was playing the Ping last week.