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What's in a Name by Taylor Spalding Surely by now you have realized that the name "Taylor Spalding" is a psuedonym, or pen name if you prefer, and that many writers like to assume them. Samuel Clemens is perhaps the most famous of them all, having taken his name "Mark Twain" from a commonly performed activity on a Mississippi river boat. The name "Taylor Spalding" is obviously related to sports equipment and, in this authors view, serves as a parody of the equipment mirage and of the glitz involved in the marketers promise to deliver a better club. Yes I used to hit Taylor Made clubs, but what's in a name? The problem in the market is that if a person is going to play the game he has to hit something...and why shouldn't it be "brand X"? Early this spring I decided to test market the new Bob Mann titanium insert irons and "Great Big Brother" titanium insert driver. I wanted to have the titanium experience before I completely excused them. Those are the clubs I played for my first round of 1998. Now here is where this whole glitz mentality comes into play. The clubs are indeed "pumped up"! The shafts on every club are about one and a half inches longer than standard and the faces on each club seem to be de-lofted. I did not verify with instument testing that the clubs were de-lofted, but sometimes you just get the intuition that they are. Perhaps hitting a seven iron 200 yards is an indication. But the bottom line is, I don't want to hit a seven iron 200 yards! I want to hit a seven iron somewhere between 150 to 165 yards. Plus the sound of "shwa-ping," which belongs to the titanium driver, is very annoying. Did these clubs improve my play? No! But then I would never blame a club for the state of my play anyhow. I would rather focus on the purity of swing than on how a particular club can polish up the ungainly swing and make less of a punishment for the state of its impurity. These clubs went right back to California! Sad to say, the company was not forthcoming with the refund and I had to contact my credit card issuer in order to clear the purchase from my record. Bob Mann and any company that he endorses has lost every ounce of respectability in my book. What was the answer? A used set of Golden Ram Tour Grinds (2 through sand wedge) in mint condition and a Taylor Made 9.5 degree Burner Plus for a grand total of $210.00. All these years of the professional preaching that the amateur is just not good enough to hit forged clubs... I love these clubs and I don't think I'll ever hit another cast club for as long as I live. These are the clubs I used in my second round. And though I don't expound much on this round, I'm much better off with these clubs. These are the kinds of clubs I want to pass on to my children.
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