Should All Your Golf Clubs be the Same Brand? Results Matter More

When I started playing golf I was completely obsessed with looking “sponsored”.

Not only did all my clubs have to be the same brand, but I drove my family nuts insisting my golf balls, gloves, towels, golf shoes – and even my golf bag – had to match perfectly.

Because surely that’s what ‘good’ golfers did right? The reality is however quite different.

Golf clubs absolutely do not need to be the same brand. In fact, focusing on brand matching is often an expensive strategy that overlooks what actually matters for your game when it comes to your clubs.

What is far more important is consistency in elements like shaft, length, lie angle and crucially weight.

In short all final club decisions should be based principally on what gives the best results.

And here’s what else might surprise you: even the world best players, whether they are sponsored by a major golf manufacturer or not, follow this principle.

Golfing Focus has done deep dives into all the golf clubs used by the top pros on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA Tour and this has clearly highlighted one thing almost above all else – the pros are absolutely ruthless when it comes to selecting their clubs based purely on performance.

So in this post, we look in detail at why amateurs should follow that same principle when it comes to the concept of ‘club brand matching’, the arguments for sticking with the same brand in some instances and how a smarter approach can save you hundreds of pounds while actually improving your game.

Golfing Focused Takeaways For Time Pressed Golfers

• Brand matching golf clubs is a poor strategy  – Performance matters more than logos on your clubs
• Play what works! – Don’t replace good clubs just to match the brand of a new purchase
• Pros mix golf clubs ruthlessly – Even sponsored pros will sacrifice a club of their ‘chosen brand’ if another delivers a better performance
• Multiple club components are far more important than brand – club head, shaft, weight, length, loft, lie angle, grip etc
• Test before buying – Get fitted for individual clubs, not complete matching sets
• Wedges can be an exception – Same brand wedges, especially high lofted gap, sand and lob, can help with consistent feel and gapping
• Track your results – Results data beats pretty ‘same brand’ equipment every time.

Results Matter More Than Matching Golf Club Brands

I’ll be honest – walking to the first tee with a perfectly matched set of golf clubs feels pretty good.

There is something about the visual consistency that makes you feel like you are a good golfer.

If only golf was that simple and it won’t surprise anyone who has played the game for any length of time, and knows how hard golf is to play, that it is more complicated than simply focusing on making all your clubs the same brand.

Golf is clearly more than just looking the part.

The honest truth therefore is that it is absolutely okay to have different brands of golf clubs.

Golf clubs are made up of multiple components – club head, shaft, weight, length, loft, lie angle, grip amongst others – and all of these can have an effect on the result you get with an individual club.

Brand is just one element and it is often the least important one for your actual performance.

And after going through a series of 8 different golf club fittings recently, including with master club fitter Simon Cooper of Precision Golf, one of Europe’s top custom fit and build studios, I can absolutely confirm from personal experience different brands of golf clubs deliver better performance.

A proper (golf club) fitting shouldn’t match (clubs). You might be giving up a lot of performance. Head designs are so different now so being open to playing what works will always give you the best results.

Simon cooper, mASTER CLUB FITTER

This approach is also endorsed by our Golfing Focus community who overwhelmingly were of the same opinion.

So the bottom line: To only look at the question of whether your clubs are the same brand or not will unquestionable make you miss many of the key club elements that actually matter and will make a difference to your game.

Your scorecard does not care what brand names are on your clubs!

Surely Your Driver and 3-Wood Should be the Same Brand?

But surely you should at least have the same driver and 3-wood? Especially if you hit your driver great.

It will have been designed in the same way – and most likely by the same group of club designers – so it must make sense as a result to go with the same brand.

If you read a lot about golf also you will often find club fitting experts commenting that they do frequently find issues being caused by the drivers and fairway woods they test amongst amateur players having very different shaft lengths, flexes and weights from one brand of clubs to the next.

More evidence you would think that is a good idea to have your driver and fairway woods for example all be the same brand.

We look in-depth at the topic of matching your driver and all your fairway woods in another article, together with looking specifically at the following questions more critically, but the short answer is still no.

• Should Your Wedges Match Your Irons? Consistency is Key
• Should All Your Wedges be the Same? Focus on Gaps & Variety
• Should You Have the Same Grips on All Your Golf Clubs?

And again most importantly for the simple reason that your clubs should be chosen on what best matches your game first, second and last.

Think about it this way: if your driver works brilliantly but your 3-wood from the same brand doesn’t suit your swing, are you really going to keep struggling with the 3-wood just for the sake of matching?

Also consider why manufacturers offer so many combinations of lofts, designs, shafts etc in their own family of clubs?

For the very reason that they know different golfers and different swings require different things.

While one player may indeed have success matching the brand of their clubs you can bet your last dollar or pound or euro there will be hundreds more who don’t.

Stick therefore to choosing your clubs (and the individual components of them) based on what works best for you, and don’t worry if they are the same brand or not.

It will take a bit of time testing all the options but you will reap the benefit compared to just grabbing the same brand in one club simply because it works well in another.

When Brand Consistency Can Make More Sense

Now I am not saying you should completely ignore consistency entirely. After all consistency is one of the key watchwords of any good golfer.

Having a ‘pick and mix’ approach to your set of golf clubs is all very well. But it has to be based on testing combinations and ensuring that mix delivers the best results for your game.

The key is focusing on the right type of consistency.

The following groups of clubs and elements of those individual clubs for example are more likely to find benefit from keeping the same:

Shaft and lie angle consistency between your wedges and irons is often a good approach for the average golfer to help ensure proper distance gapping and better shot dispersion.

If you have different shaft flexes and weights in the shafts of your wedges and irons that can also often lead to loss of distance and different ball flight than expected.

Club fitters are also close to unanimous that the vast majority of amateur golfers should have wedges that are the same length as their shortest iron which in most cases will be the 9-iron.

Wedge considerations are also interesting given their importance as scoring clubs.

Many golfers do find benefits in keeping their wedges the same brand because consistent groove patterns, faces and materials lead to better distance gapping and shot feel.

Plus there is something to be said for the confidence of looking down to familiar shapes when you’re trying to get up and down.

Grip consistency makes sense too.

It is very common for players to use the same grip brand throughout their bag to help give a consistent feel whatever club they are using with the only part of the club you are actually in contact with your hands.

But although these elements of the golf club set are often ones that can lead to golfers choosing the same brand of clubs they are never reasons for every player to automatically choose to match the brand of all their golf clubs.

Golf club selection must always be based on what give the best results and the brand of golf clubs you end up with should always be a consequence of that rather than the driving factor.

The Hidden Cost of Club Brand Obsession

Here’s where refusing to have different brands of golf clubs can also hurt: your wallet!

Say for example you, like me were fitted for a driver that adds 20 yards and better controls that dreaded hook you have.

Are you really going to replace your perfectly good irons just to match the brand if they don’t already?

Or worse, are you going to pass up that game-changing driver because it doesn’t match your current set?

Of course not but it’s a simple illustration of why pursuing a club brand matching strategy does not make sense overall.

And especially when you take into account the cost of clubs these days!

Do Pro Golfers Use Different Brand Golf Clubs?

As with all things in golf it is always fun and interesting to check out what the pros are doing when it comes to their golf clubs.

Golfing Focus has done regular deep dives into all the clubs the top pros on the PGA Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA Tour use.

As a result we can provide a very detailed insight into whether the best players in the world mix golf brands or consistently use the same brand throughout.

Given they get free equipment in the main the cost factor constraining amateurs consistently maintaining the same brand of golf clubs is obviously removed.

And while on average pros have much more consistent brand set ups across their golf clubs than amateurs the ruthlessness with which pros select their clubs based on performance cannot be understated.

The best players in the world do make a lot of money from sponsorship deals, so it in return manufacturers like Titleist, Callaway, PING, TaylorMade, PING, Srixon and PXG, demand in return that the player whom they back play with their clubs.

As a result you find many pros use the same brand of clubs throughout their bag because they are paid to do so.

For Scottie Scheffler it’s TaylorMade alongside his stable mates Rory McIlroy and Nelly Korda.

For Ludvig Åberg and Justin Thomas it’s Titleist. For Viktor Hovland and Tony Finau it’s PING while Shane Lowry and Brooks Koepka are Srixon men.

But even when it comes to the paid ranks there are key things to bear in mind.

1. Sponsored players have freedom to choose within that brand’s range rather being locked into a set number of clubs.
2. Only the very top ‘full bag’ flagship players might be asked to carry the latest driver, and even then it’s usually the driver only.

Also you don’t have to look far for examples to see how even those players who are paid the most by the biggest brands focus on playing what works rather than the same brand of golf clubs.

• Scottie Scheffler uses two Srixon utility irons and Titleist Vokey wedges despite his deal with TaylorMade.
• Nelly Korda (TaylorMade sponsored) uses a PING hybrid.
• Brooks Koepka (Srixon) plays a Titliest driver, TaylorMade 3-wood, Nike 3-iron and Scotty Cameron putter.
• Ludvig Åberg (Titleist) uses a TaylorMade 3-wood and Callaway Odyssey putter.
• Viktor Hovland (PING) also carries a TaylorMade 3-wood and Titleist utility iron.
• Tony Finau (PING): Carries the same old school Nike Vapor Pro 3-iron as Brooks Koepka.

The list of sponsored pros choosing clubs not ‘on brand’ goes on.

And when it comes to non-sponsored players like Justin Rose and Adam Scott the variety of brands in their bag highlight just how much the best players in the world will simply choose what works over brand.

Titleist’s Vokey wedge range is another telling instance of where pros most often break with a consistent brand club set up.

44% of wedges used by the top 100 PGA Tour players are Titleist Vokeys — way more than the percentage of players actually sponsored by Titleist. Why?

Because when vital scoring clubs like wedges, these elite players choose what works, not what matches.

And that’s not to mention the golf shafts all these players use which can vary hugely throughout the bag and are almost never from the same manufacturer.

The lesson? When millions of dollars are on the line, even the world’s best players prioritise performance over pretty matching sets.

If it’s good enough for them, it should be good enough for us.

Before You Go …

While the overall case for matching clubs across your whole set is flawed the arguments for using the same brand of golf clubs is perhaps strongest when it comes to your crucial scoring clubs – your wedges.

So check out our next article where we take a deep dive into the question of whether all your wedges should be the same?

Should All Your Wedges be the Same? Focus on Gaps & Variety

Other great articles related to this topic:

• Should You Have the Same Grips on All Your Golf Clubs?
• Should Your Driver Match Your Woods? Don’t Waste Your Money!
• Should Your Wedges Match Your Irons? Consistency is Key
• How Much Does a Golf Club Fitting Cost? Is it Worth it?
• Can You Get Your Existing Golf Clubs Custom Fitted? Complexity = Cost
• What Hybrids Should I Carry? It’s All About Ego
• Should Beginners & High Handicappers Use a Driver? Yes & Yes
• How Much Does Driver Loft Affect Distance? Loft is Dynamic Too!
• What is the Most Difficult Golf Club to Hit? Take it Easy!
• Are Your Golf Clubs Too Heavy? Trust Your Feelings & The Numbers
• Are Your Golf Clubs Too Old? My 20 Year Old Irons Weren’t But ..
• Gear Up: Uncovering The Most Used Clubs On The PGA Tour
• In The Bag: Unpacking The Clubs Champions Tour Players Use
• The Complete Guide To The Most Popular Clubs On LPGA Tour