golfrewind.com

"Measure twice. Cut once."

Hireko golf makes Acer and just purchased Dynacraft sometime last year. They are good.

I was impressed. I made a Mantara driver for a client and met him at the local range to test it out and I was impressed by how well it boomed off of the (rubber) tee.

I hit it, and even though the length was too long for me (the guy was 6 foot 3) I choked up and hit some nice ones. Really straight.

As far as knock offs, as long as you stick to the major ones (you can look on ebay or on sites that sell clones to see what brands are major) you don't have much trouble.

the tolerances of these clubs are similar to the majors. I can name a list of 100% authentic, major brand names that have been brought to me for work whose loft and lie angles were all over the place. One of my long time buyers brought me a brand new (with tags and still had the receipt with him, right from the store) major name driver to pull the stock and reshaft with a UST and I measured the face angle, loft and lie and found them all to be off by well outside the manufacturers stated tolerances.

Fact is, the place where clones bite you is when you damage it due to a manufacturing defect and you are out of luck. With majors, if the crown just shatters or cracks, the sole splits, etc. they will replace it for you no questions asked. No clone maker is going to do that.

Oh and DON'T BUY COUNTERFEIT CLUBS. A new Superquad with headcover, fuji. shaft and complete weight kit does not sell for $200!!!!

COMPONENT does not mean CLONE.
I agree with a lot of you guys that Golfsmith, KZG, Matlby, and let me add, Hireko, formerly Dynacraft, are of superior quality clubs equal to the OEM's.

I have a set of Snake Eyes and hit them better than my old Pings and Cally's. I'm not knocking those companies, I just felf that these companies do not have the shafts that match my swing speed, shaft load, etc.

It's too bad that Clones give Components a bad name. They are completely different.

jac499;
Exactly how do you define a "Clone??

If you define a clone as being a copy of an OEM. then we have a big problem.

Last time I looked at a catalog of OEM irons, I saw a lot of new irons that look like copies of the old Callaway X-16's.

Way to dig this one up from 11 months ago. I'm sure the guy has forgotten he even asked the question in the first place!

Hi, OnePutt,
I think clone is a club which looks similar to the OEM's. The writing or "font" on the clubs is just like the Ping, Callaway, Titleist writings and the names are close to these names, also. I'm sure some of these clones are just as good as components and OEM's. I guess whatever helps us lower our scores is matter of preference.
Golfsmith, Hireko, KZG make originals, I hope.


Although the question of clone vs. component was posted 11 months ago, it's helpful to bring it up again since many of us are new to this great site.

You idea of a clone sounds reasonable. Sounds like a club that is made to look like an OEM, and confuse golfers into thinking it's the same thing, or close enough. Welcome to the site incase no one else has mentioned it.

Thanks, OnePutt,
Your explanation of a clone is much clearer than mine. Yes, a club that is made to look like an OEM is confusing.