Wilson

The Wilson Sporting Goods Company was established in Chicago in 1913, using the byproducts from nearby slaughter-houses to manufacture sporting and leisure equipment. They used pigs’ bladders for footballs, cat-gut for tennis racquets, and in 1916, they entered the golf market, using animal hide for golf bags. In the 1920’s Wilson began their policy of affiliating with top names in the game, seeking innovative technology, and a higher profile. An early member of the now famous “Wilson Staff Advisory” team was Gene Sarazon, who won the 1932 British Open using a revolutionary club of his own design: an aerofoil-shaped head, intended to glide smoothly through sand. The sand wedge was born, Wilson selling 50,000 of the R-90 in that year alone, and influencing the design of sand wedges to this day.

In 1962, Wilson made a further design breakthrough, introducing matched shafts in each iron of a set. This provided the player with the same “feel” from each club in the bag. Thirty years later, they combined the cavity-backed irons (with a larger sweet-spot) for longer irons up to six, while providing traditional blades (for better feel and feedback) for the seven iron to sand wedge. An obvious idea in retrospect, and immediately much imitated, these “Wilson Staff Progressive” clubs were used to devastating effect by the Fijian pro golfer, Vijay Singh. In 2004, Wilson Golf chose to mark 90 years in the golf equipment market with the re-launch of its famous Wilson Staff brand: the distinctive shield (first used in 1960 on the head of a Dyna-Powered iron) has been re-modelled, and encourages golfers to “make every day legendary”. Padraig Harrington, world No. 4, has played a key role in developing a number of new clubs as a member of the elite Wilson Advisory Staff. Wilson has had a huge resurgent with their 3 time major winner on board and have come up some superb new designs in 2009. Wilson have made advancements on the incredibly successful and award winning Di7 iron by launching the Di9 at the end of 2008. The Di9 continues to use the wide tip technology applied to shaft that is synomymous with Wilson. The wider diameter means greater distance together with a lower centre of gravity but they have stabilised the club to give it a straighter ball flight.

Two other award winning irons in the range are the Ci7’s and the Pi7’s. The Ci7 was extremely popular last year and is designed for a mid handicapped golfer who needs greater control with his irons and a degree more accuracy. The irons have an undercut cavity which gives the irons more stability without reducing the power.

The Pi7’s are still being used by Padraig Harrington this year given they produced such great results last year. It is designed for the better player but is still a forgiving club and is still recognized as a cavity back design.

In terms of drivers this year the Spine driver continues as it was so popular and focuses on High MOI and low centre of Gravity to give it great all round forgiveness without reducing any distance. The club offer less ball spin than many drivers and a higher ball speed. The new smooth driver combines all the best of the Spine drive with a more aerodynamic head design for increased distance and a fujikura shaft for an outstanding drive and the perfect compliment to a great club. The ever popular and customisable Wilson fybrid, hybrid and fairway woods offer an unprecented service to ensure you get the right club simply log onto this link and answer three simple questions to ensure you know which the right club is for your game. This will soon become your favourite club.

Wilson also have a stunning new range of golf balls and some old favourites. The most popular ball last year was the two piece DX2 which combines a distance ball with a lot of feel and bite on the greens. The new Tx4 is more of an all round ball but will still give you the control you are looking for without compromising distance. Clickgolf continues to support the excellence of the Wilson brand and therefore a preferred retailer it stocks the full Wilson range including the gloves, bags both stand bags, Wilson staff carry and the tour series.