I am a writer for a local New Jersey golf magazine.  Over the past two and a half years I have conducted extensive research into the counterfeit golf market starting in China and ending in your golf bag.  There is too much information to go into here but I wanted to share two instances involving Taylor Made drivers.

An acquaintance of mine who makes frequent trips to mainland China purchased a Taylor Made Superquad, 10.5 degree driver before Christmas as part of my research.  Upon receipt and inspection of the club, I was quite impressed with the quality of the counterfeit.  However, knowing that it was indeed a fake Taylor Made, I began looking hard and deep at this club.

Lets look at the grip.  It stunk to high heavens of formaldehyde.  A "dead" giveaway.  Real/genuine grips do not stink.  I had an original TM R7 grip and decided for my family's safety to change the stinky grip and replace with a real one.

Next, the shaft.  Once the grip was grip was removed, I noticed that the area of the shaft under the grip was entirely painted and of poor finish.  A genuine shaft made by or for the major manufacturers, the area under the grip is unpainted and contains the shaft information.  Then. on the surface, the TM R7 logo on the real club is in line with the shaft at address just below the grip.  On the bottom side of the shaft or 180 degrees from the R7 logo is the shaft information such as MAS, 60g Stiff and so on.  On this club, the information looked real enough but was 110 degrees from the R7 logo.  Not a very good job.  Look at a wall clock and see the twelve o'clock position then look at the six o'clock position.  The logo's of the real/genuine club would line up properly to this orientation.  not the twelve o'clock and four to five o'clock position.

Now, the head.  This was an amazing copy of the real deal.  If the counterfeiters had gotten the deatils of the shaft and grip right, it would be extremely difficult to tell this was a counterfeit.  However, the differences are not on the surface.  The TM weights are 12 and 4 grams respectively.  This club had 12 and 2 gram weights.  I borrowed a friends fiber optic camera and after removing all the weights, inserted the camera in one of the center weight ports and shined a Mag Lite in one of the toe ports.  What I saw was amazing.  TM's claim to fame on these drivers and many of their products recently is called Inverted Cone Technology.  This technology is applied to the back side of the clubface and looks like a mini crater.  Check out TM's website for more exact details.  Inside this driver, the back side of the club face was entirely smooth.  No ICT.

With the new grip installed, I palyed several holes at a local course and saw a definite decrease in performance over my personal driver.  Ball flight was uncontrollable even when the weights were changed to various ball flight configurations.

Last but not least, I presented this driver to three professional clubmakers and they all believed it to be the genuine article.  It took some time, but, I finally convinced them that it was indeed a counterfeit. 

Just think what the everyday golfer would have thought?

Just yesterday, I went to a clubmaker's shop and looked around the shop and spotted a Taylor Made driver that looked suspicious.  I asked my friend where it came from and he assured me that it came from a reliable source and was genuine.  I was not convinced.  Remember the orientation of the labels on the shaft I described above?  This was similar but not as bad.  The grip was ok also.  The head was the giveaway.

The crown looked real enough.  Just the sole plate looked weird.  The sole had Taylor Made R7 HT.  HT is TM's High Trajectory driver from a year or two ago.  The loft of the club is 13 degrees.  What was strange is the fact that on the heel of the driver was 9.5.  That us usually found on the normal TM R7 driver.  NOT THE R7 HT.  We debated the point for several minutes and I gave up arguing.  I did however, write down the serial number and take it with me.

Today, I called TM customer service and described the driver and verified that the TM HT drivers were in fact 13 degrees and that the 9.5 was not the HT loft.  Next, I gave them the serial number and TM verified that the number was indeed a counterfeit and not a genuine TM club.

I called my friend back and broke the news gently to him and he was still in shock.  He and I have been friends for over twenty years and he knew that I had researched the subject for over two years.  He accepted the answer and was now trying to decide how to handle the problem.

These are true stories and not just fodder to write.  Counterfeits are everywhere and can even fool the most experienced clubmakers.  You have to be extremely cautious when dealing not only with Taylor Made, but all manufacturer's products.  I've written time and time again about this subject and it seems I could write forever.  There is so much information to pass on.

I hope you read this guide and acknowledge its helpfulness.  Thanks for reading God Bless America and Support our Troops and Veteran's.