Equipment
TaylorMade plans to open its own outlet stores
TaylorMade has announced plans to open multiple retail outlet stores that sell off-season, discounted products from the TaylorMade Golf Company’s portfolio of brands: TaylorMade, Adams Golf, Adidas Golf and Ashworth.
The first store is scheduled to open in April in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with a second location scheduled to open afterwards in Livermore, Calif. The company plans to open additional locations by the end of the calendar year.
Ben Sharpe, CEO of TaylorMade Golf, says the stores are designed to help the company’s retail partners and golf consumers, since there has been an influx of products “that has moved at a slower pace than expected.”
[quote_box_center]“The outlets allow us to sell off-season product at a discounted price, while giving our retail partners the ability to set prices on in-season product at sustainable levels,” Sharpe said.[/quote_box_center]
Cameron Young’s WITB from his win at the 2025 Wyndham Championship. Cameron is a Titleist staff player but his bag is definitely filled with some unique clubs. Here are the clubs he used to secure his first PGA Tour win!
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX
3-wood: Titleist GT3 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 80 TX
Hybrid: Titleist GT2 (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus HB Black VeloCore+ 10 X
Irons: Titleist T200 (4), Titleist T100 (5), Titleist 631.CY Prototype (6-9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold X7 (4-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F, 52-12F, 56-14F @57), WedgeWorks (60-K* @62)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold X7
Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.5 Tour Prototype
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x Prototype
- Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Titleist GT3 (10 degrees, C2 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Project X Denali Blue 60 TX
3-wood: Titleist GT3 (15 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X
7-wood: Titleist GT2 (21 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 X
Irons: Titleist T150 (4, 5), Titleist T100 (6-9)
Shafts: True Temper AMT Tour White X100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F, 56-08M @57, 60-04T @62)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Fastback 1.5 Tour Prototype
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x Yellow
We’re proud to once again partner with 2nd Swing Golf to bring you GolfWRX Members Choice 2025! 2nd Swing has more than 150,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.
What is the best driver in 2025? At GolfWRX, we take great pride in our online community and the cumulative knowledge and experience of our members. When it comes to the best driver of 2025, we want to know what our forum faithful think.
Since our founding in 2005, the bedrock of GolfWRX.com has been the community of passionate and knowledgeable golfers in our forums, and we put endless trust in the opinions of our GolfWRX members — the most knowledgeable community of golfers on the internet. No other group of golfers in the world tests golf clubs as frequently or as extensively, nor is armed with such in-depth information about the latest technology.
Below are the results of GolfWRX member voting for the 2025 best driver, along with the vote percentage for each club.
Best driver of 2025: The top 5
5. Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond: 6.02%
Callaway’s pitch: “For golfers looking for a fast, forgiving, yet workable driver, the Elyte Triple Diamond features a tour-inspired shape and is the preferred model by most Callaway tour players.”
You can read what other golfers are saying about the driver in the GolfWRX forums, and see our launch piece here. Shop the Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond here.
4. Ping G440 Max: 6.86%
Ping’s pitch: “The most forgiving G440 model, MAX has a hotter face to generate speed and distance, and a lighter overall system weight with a longer shaft (46″) for faster clubhead speed, higher launch and longer carries. The Free Hosel and Carbonfly Wrap crown save weight to create our lowest CG ever and increase forgiveness while contributing to a more muted, pleasing sound.”
You can read what other golfers are saying about the driver in the GolfWRX forums, and see our launch piece here. Shop the Ping G440 Max here.
3. Ping G440 LST: 9.53%
Ping’s pitch: “LST is an especially good fit for faster swings, offering less spin and more control with a penetrating trajectory. A hotter face, lighter overall system weight and longer shaft (46″) deliver more speed and distance while maintaining tight dispersion.”
@phizzy30: “Not a fan of Ping drivers in general, but 440 LST takes the cake. It’s super forgiving across the face for a low spin head, looks and sounds good and the ability to make it play neutral or slightly fade biased through the hosel settings is very appealing.”
You can read what other golfers are saying about the driver in the GolfWRX forums, and see our launch piece here. Shop the Ping G440 LST here.
2. Titleist GT3: 16.55%
Titleist’s pitch: “The GT3 Driver offers Titleist’s boldest combination of power and personalization through adjustable performance. Dial in the CG Track to your frequent contact location to make your biggest drives even bigger while taking total control over flight and shaping.”
@mrmikeac: “I’ve been Anti-Titleist for years and years and years (outside of Vokey, of course). With that being said, HOLY BEGEEZUS the GT3 driver is an absolute NUCLEAR MONSTER! This thing blew my G430 10K Max out of the water in every single category. Forgiveness is the biggest thing that stands out of me, the 3 model has always been one of the less forgiving models in the past but this GT3 can take bad shot after bad shot and still end up in the fairway, I think a ton of that has to do with the adjustability, it’s actually effective. Feel and sound is perfect, that solid crack is so addicting to hear and when you hit it out the screws this thing can absolutely bomb it. Titleist, I’m sorry for doubting you. You have converted me.”
You can read what other golfers are saying about the driver in the GolfWRX forums, and see our launch piece here. Shop the Titleist GT3 here.
1. Titleist GT2: 22.91%
Titleist’s pitch: “Delivering impressive distance from any impact point, the Titleist GT2 Driver extracts maximum performance through a forgiving design. Get the stability and added confidence of a high-MOI driver without sacrificing speed.”
@DTorres: “The Titleist GT2 has proven to be the best driver of the year. Packaged in a classic profile, GT2 perfectly balances performance and forgiveness while consistently being a high performer across all categories.”
You can read what other golfers are saying about the driver in the GolfWRX forums, and see our launch piece here. Shop the Titleist GT2 here.
Other drivers receiving >2% of the vote
| Driver | Vote percentage (%) |
|---|---|
| Cobra DS Adapt Max K | 4.85% |
| Ping G430 Max 10K | 3.85% |
| Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond | 3.68% |
| TaylorMade Qi35 | 3.51% |
| Callaway Elyte | 3.18% |
| Cobra DS Adapt X | 2.34% |
| Cobra DS Adapt LS | 2.17% |
| TaylorMade Qi35 LS | 2.17% |
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Peter Malnati WITB 2025 (August)
Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
Camilo Villegas WITB accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. Villegas was undecided on a 3-wood when we shot his bag. ...
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Brandt Snedeker fired a final-round 65 at the 2018 Wyndham Championship to outlast Webb Simpson and C.T. Pan. His 5-under...
Robert Boyd
Jun 8, 2015 at 1:46 pm
I heard they would have a store near Atlanta. Anyone know if this is true and, if so, the details?
Ken
Mar 7, 2015 at 8:42 am
How any golf shop can carry Taylor Made products is beyond me. There is ZERO loyalty or respect….
Fsubaseball21
Mar 6, 2015 at 8:08 pm
Golf galaxy will be extinct very soon and with the overpriced way too long drug out leases that Golfsmiths subscribe to they won’t be far behind. Internet chop shops are the way things are headed. The golf industry will get worse before it gets better.
Jack
Mar 6, 2015 at 12:16 pm
Because Myrtle Beach did not have enough golf stores……
cw
Mar 6, 2015 at 10:12 am
people complain here, but most golfers will like the idea and check it out and it will also allow new players to enter the game at a more reasonable price point. the new players are the ones ultimately buying more and more expensive stuff once they get in to it. from my experience, the old, experienced golfers are the stingiest because they know new equipment does not make them better players.
tlmck
Mar 6, 2015 at 6:23 am
Their problem is trying to keep all the marketing people and engineers employed. They are constantly bringing out a new advertizing gimmicks with the hope that something sells. Sort of like blindly throwing darts and hoping something hits the board. The problem is that they tout “new and improved” when it’s really just a new paint job type of thing. Of course Callaway and Nike are guilty of the same. Not that the products are bad, just overhyped.
tlmck
Mar 6, 2015 at 5:57 am
They sort of already had this covered with their web site and outlets like Hurricane Golf. I do not think adding brick and mortar stores will help. Laying off marketing staff and maybe a few engineers may work better. Trying to keep all those people employed is how they got in this fix.
ac930
Mar 6, 2015 at 12:20 am
This is done to HELP the Retailers? …… to compete with them? I don’t care if it’s liquidating closeouts, this is BS to constantly try to sell directly to consumers rather than allow your retailers to do so. Taylor Made will sink fast as both retailers and consumers are tired of their business practices.
Dave
Mar 5, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Pop-up stores to get rid of the inventory they’ve accumulated over last 5 yrs
HackerDad31
Mar 5, 2015 at 6:26 pm
First everyone hates Taylormade for the stuff left over in the market. Taylormade come up with a plan to try to fix that model and liquidate it themselves. Everyone hates Taylormade for that. There’s no winning. You know why golf isn’t growing? Its not because of Taylormade or Callaways. Its because golfers are a-holes. I’m convinced of it.
Tim
Mar 7, 2015 at 4:07 am
True story…too much negativity. People forget how much fun the game is supposed to be and that nobody makes you buy new product.
obobgolf
Mar 5, 2015 at 6:01 pm
Isn’t this really about how to manage YoY stock price performance in a publicly traded golf equipment company. Stockholders in Addidas/TMAG, Callaway et. al. demand QoQ/YoY return on stockholder equity, otherwise they unload the stock. Ping and Wishon (just as an example, not a fanboy) are privately held, family managed companies not beholden to the public (only the golfer marketplace), therefore, they can basically do whatever they want (as long, of course as they make some profit to satisfy the owners/partners, etc. and remain somewhat competitive). Both Callaway and TMAG (as well as any other public stock corporation) believe they’ve had to accelerate their product release/marketing strategies to support stockholder demand for performance. Many, if not most of the folks on this site have some type of 401-K and likely aren’t too happy if they see lousy performance on their personal quarterly reports. My opinion is that the root cause here is more about economic cause and effect of publicly traded golf/sporting goods manufacturers. (BTW, I have no dog in the fight, nor do I work for or own any golf company stock) Just my $.02
Beacher50
Mar 10, 2015 at 3:48 am
I don’t have a dog in this fight, as I use equipment by another maker.
But isn’t this really about managing production, and not over producing when a new model is coming out in a few months. Every set sold at discount, is a lost customer for the new, higher priced, and thus more profitable product.
Corey
Mar 5, 2015 at 4:13 pm
I work for a big box retailer and Callaway has significant less amounts of stock clubs sent out this year. We get 200 taylormade drivers at once and they just sit and collect dust. And to answer questions about Tmade buying back old product that is correct. They have taken back all the slider product from us. My store has sold 2 r15 in fittings and done dozens of Ping, Titleist and over 100 of the new cally drivers in fittings.
B-man777
Mar 5, 2015 at 1:54 pm
Hey all: golf equipment companies can’t win with the public in that they are either releasing new equipment to often or not often enough go figure. I also think what’s hurting the equipment market is that golfers don’t feel the need to upgrade their clubs as often now as they did years ago since equipment advances aren’t as big now as they were years ago as well as there is just to much equipment available in what is a relatively small market. Thanks
shanker056
Mar 5, 2015 at 4:32 am
It’s almost like TaylorMade are trying to help out those retailers who keep whinging about having too much old product which they couldn’t sell. Can’t see the issue in allowing the retailer to just focus on selling new product with higher margin …
How much money were retailers making churning out RBZ II for $60?
slimeone
Mar 5, 2015 at 2:22 am
TM has had outlet stores in Japan for years. My wife used to work at one. To be honest it was pretty weak. The selection of clubs was very disappointing, with mostly 2-season old stuff aimed at the GI market. No TP or X flexes to be found. I got a nice polo and a glove, though!
Scooter McGavin
Mar 4, 2015 at 8:30 pm
What’s the way that this helps retailers? At the store I worked at, cheap folks buying last year’s TM equipment was a significant number of people. Is TM going to buy the old product back from retailers in order to stock the outlets, or are retailers going to be competing with factory-direct stores now?
CHRIS
Mar 5, 2015 at 10:22 am
Cheap folks? Just because some of us would rather spend $500 on a set of irons than $1000 doesn’t make us cheap. It’s hard to justify spending that kind of cash when you’re not making a living off of it.
Sammy Moon
Mar 4, 2015 at 5:11 pm
First of all its obvious who those commenters are who are Taylormade fan girls. If you are trying to state that Taylormade has smarter researchers than everyone else we can all laugh at that comment as they are starting to use technologies now that Ping and Callaway developed nearly 10 years ago (yeah that’s some real hard research).
Next, Ping and Titlest have very good supply management programs, keeping them from flooding the market and more companies are trying to go that direction now. Callaway’s CEO reported on this about a month ago, stating that they had been guilty of flooding the market in the past as well. They are now releasing the same amount of products in far more scarce quantities like ping and Titleist to better match market demand.
Lastly, Taylormade is going to hurt themselves and retail stores with this new business. The more old product they offer on the market, the weaker the demand will be for high priced versions of their new models. It will be a recurring cycle trying to clearance product. Keeping the market flooded will affect their bottom line as new products see diminishing sales. Consumers within distance of these Outlets will be sure to visit for inexpensive goods, stealing potential sales from Clubhouses and retailers, further hurting the industry as a whole. It is ok to release new products as often as they do, but they need to reduce the production runs to quantities that can actually be sold over the course of the year.
West
Mar 4, 2015 at 6:23 pm
nah…
People with tight wallets will buy at the outlets, and those who like to flaunt the latest and greatest will buy at the big-box retail stores. Taylormade will be be selling from both ends. It’s a win-win…
NWG
Mar 5, 2015 at 2:35 am
Callaway have launched more drivers in the past year than Ping and Titleist combined..
Johnny
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:21 pm
TM selling discontinued products?? With their short release cycles, I doubt there be any inventory shortages….
Keith
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:09 pm
Hmm…I guess this is helpful to the retailers. Not sure how it works, does TaylorMade sell retailers the product and merch and then buy it back at significantly cut prices and then mark it up and sell it direct to consumers?
I guess that is mutually beneficial.
A
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:07 pm
Something new and innovative from TMaG…. here come the haters crawling out of the woodwork
west
Mar 4, 2015 at 12:34 pm
Taylormade can thank me later for that one. Right Barney Adams?! 😉
Keith
Mar 4, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Hahaha where are all of the “how many companies have you run” comments?
Well played
glennithy
Mar 4, 2015 at 11:53 am
You wouldn’t have to help out the retailers if you’d stop flooding the market with products. Use the Titleist and Ping models; every 2 years not every 2 months.
tim
Mar 4, 2015 at 12:02 pm
True, but how many times do we have to hear this comment? It’s repeated over and over and over.
luck box
Mar 4, 2015 at 12:30 pm
I guess as many times as it takes for them to implement an “obvious” solution and stop trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to product cycles.
slider
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:50 pm
they just have smarter researchers working for them that develop ground breaking technology in 2 months vs 2years that the other companies take
What?
Mar 6, 2015 at 11:10 am
This is a completely ridiculous statement. Smarter researchers? No, they change the paint job jack the loft down and sell it as a ground breaking product. The tour preferred MC and CB are the exactly the same as their rsi counterparts with a different paint job.
Tim
Mar 7, 2015 at 4:14 am
And faceslots!!!!!!
CHRIS
Mar 5, 2015 at 10:28 am
Well their model must be working because their profits are currently double that of their competitors.
slider
Mar 5, 2015 at 3:41 pm
not profits revenue is greater they have the smartest people working for them so they lose profit in paying the top researchers. Look at the R15 it is like 500 drivers in one where ping only has 3 drivers in one looks like they did a better job with a huge development staff at Tmade
Roosterredneck
Mar 4, 2015 at 11:46 am
smells like Callaway !?