Fourteen Clubs is one of the very established brands in golf. Unknown to many, it has been around for more than 40 years now having been established back in 1981.
Visionary Founder and Designer
Fourteen was the brainchild of Japanese golf club designer Takamitsu Takebayashi. It came at the time when he felt the need to have an ideal set of golf clubs as there was none.
He wanted to create the best set of clubs that can be used by any golfer with 14 clubs. As a golfer, Takebayashi came with an illustrious record.
He won the Best Amateur Award during the Hong Kong Open in 1975 and Japan Open in 1977. It was his experience in the game that compelled him to make use of golf clubs to improve the game.
Fourteen was envisioned to be a company that designed clubs for big brands with a lot of thinking and research put into the designs over the years.
Fourteen used quantitative data to identify certain design elements including denoting the best location of the center of gravity for the club head. That would have formed the basis of how modern golf clubs are today, all of which are designed with considerations of CG height, CG Depth, CG Distance and such.
Suffice to say, Fourteen was the first company that incorporated the elements and concepts of CG into the development of golf clubs.
Besides that, Fourteen was also involved in the creation of other instruments like their lie and loft gauges. This is an important element used for measuring specs which is a common apparatus in professional tour vans.
Products by Fourteen
As a golf equipment manufacturer, Fourteen designs a full range of items for the modern golfer. This ranges from golf clubs to golf bags as well as apparel.
In terms of golf clubs, Fourteen makes a full range (as per their original philosophy) that covers drivers, fairway woods, utility, irons, wedges and putters. Besides that, Fourteen has clubs made specifically for ladies as well.
The Fourteen TC-7 Irons
One of the most popular clubs from Fourteen is the TC-7 Irons. This one club is made with minimal offset and hence it is different from a traditional blade. It is also one of the nicer-looking clubs in its category.
Made with forged S25C steel, it comes with some squared edges and is then completed with a toe that is rounded. They also put mirrored chrome on the back part of the iron with a solid cavity back.
The point of contact is strong and steady, creating the sound that most golfers would want. The best thing you would get from the TC-7 Irons is consistency and this is all around the game.
In other words, you get consistency in the trajectories, spins and notably, the distances, particularly during a good hit.
One thing to note here is that the TC-7 might not be the club to use if you are looking for forgiveness.
Overall, the TC-7 is one club that can be used by anyone starting out in the game until the intermediate levels as it helps a lot in perfecting the swing and hit of the ball.