I am rather remiss in this post. In fact, it is my first post, even though I have been familiar with Maltby and GolfWorks for well over a decade.
I have been playing golf off and on since I was about ten. I never got to pursue the sport as much as I wanted. Education, a war, and a career always seemed to take all the time that I would have spent on the golf course if I had the chance.
About eleven years ago, while living on a golf course. I needed some new clubs but family and finances just wouldn’t allow it. I started looking for the best clubs I could afford and amazingly I found Maltby. Surprisingly, about the same time, my wife found full set of TM Burner irons, two Burner Hybrids, and an R9 driver with a bag for $200. She snagged it and my obsession with the perfect set of Maltby’s faded. Even though I had clubs that were suitable, I always knew that one day I wanted a set of Maltby’s. Anyway, life’s went on and I have played those clubs whenever the opportunity presented itself, but it was truly less than a round a year. I was just too busy raising kids and focused on work.
Last fall, I got the urge and went out to my local course and fell in love with the greatest game again. I IMMEDIATELY remember how badly I wanted a set of Maltby’s and much to my happy surprise, both the GolfWorks and Maltby still existed. I instantly pulled out my old dreams sheet of my idea of perfect clubs. All I knew was I wanted a perfect set of custom fit blades, a Moment putter, and the best driver I could get for my game. As I looked at the new offerings, I also thought a couple fairways and a hybrid would do nicely……ohhhh and throw in some wedges.
Mind you I have said I love golf. I have NOT said I am good at golf. I wasn’t good at golf when I began this chapter of my golf adventure. About April 24 I decided that I was going to give this a go in earnest. I have devoured every bit of information I can about the game. I decided to only play strick rules of golf and haven’t taken a gimme or a mulligan once. I could every penalty, play every lie, and love the game more for it. My goal was to play MY best golf and to KNOW what my best golf truly was and always strive to do better, but be grateful every time i get to go swing my sticks.
I talked it all over with my wife and she was more than happy now that things are more settled in our lives to support me in this. She said she would be my cart driver and cheerleader. So I took my TMs and dreamt of breaking 100.
I knew I could do better, and I knew I wanted a challenge, not that golf isn’t a challenge no matter what. I got fit and I ordered my irons. I was so excited when I put in my specs: +3/4” and 1* upright for a full set of TS4s. I knew that If i went with something more forgiving, my game might have improved faster, but I am a traditionalist at heart and I love the romance, history, and feel of the blades. I knew if I could learn to hit them well, I would enjoy it even more. And so one day, they arrived. I couldn’t wait to get to the range. I was still learning MY swing when I got them, but I had never felt anything so overwhelmingly soul gripping as when that first well hit ball left the club. At first it was rare, the feeling of a perfectly struck blade. You don’t see it or feel it….It is more of a hear it and then it is almost like there is an absence of “feeling” the ball hit the club….. Don’t get me wrong..you feel everything, you can tell which grove you hit with the ball over time, but there is ZERO resistance from the club and ball meeting. It is as many before have described it….it is PURE.
After this experience I knew that Maltby and the GolfWorks were everything I had hoped for. I had gone and played TM, Titleist, Mizuno, and Miura blades or muscle backs and I knew how epically good the Maltby’s felt. They were as good or better than ANY of the others and more importantly they were fit FOR ME.
Now it was time to get serious. I ordered my TSW wedges, 54* and 60*. Next, was the IST 5 wood and 4 hybrid, followed swiftly by a 3 wood. The greatest putter i have ever played came next (got two because it was being discontinued) the Moment XII Black. Lastly, I got my TC Pro Driver with a Hazardous Smoke shaft. That shaft was the first and only thing that sent me wonky…..it is a wet noodle. So that was quickly replaced with a Kuro Kage XS shaft. What a weapon!! Today, my launch monitor numbers were 260 yd carry, 285 total length, 149.8 ball speed, 87.5 peak height, and 1450 spin….repeatedly. Ball was Bridgestone Tour B XS Mindset. Needless to say, I have a full bag of Maltby and I utterly adore them. My wife and son say, I am always hanging out with my “new friends”.
All of this sounds great. Happy customer, hooray, but to be honest that isn’t the best part of this story. I have always played golf with randoms or solo. None of my family has any interest. My wife loves the outdoors and she was more than happy to talk the course with me. One day, I found a pink React ball and she thought it was pretty. I dropped it next to mine handed her the hybrid and said “bash it then”. She whacked the heck out of it and had the biggest grin on her face. Now, I am well over 6’2” and she is 5’1” on a good day. Her playing with my clubs would be frustrating. So I just let her whack around with the old TMs to see if she actually liked the game. She couldn’t care less what her score is, she just likes whacking the ball and having fun. But I wanted her to have more fun. SO, a custom fit set of M890s were soon on the way. cut down to her size, followed by a Glider, and a 5 fairway. Once she was hitting consistently, I got her a 3 wood and lastly a M890 driver (her clodhopper as she calls it).
I have never had more fun that watching her sink her first par and the day she smashed her first par three onto the green and it rolled to within a couple feet. She loves the game almost as much as me now, and I always have someone to enjoy this game with.
My game has improved indescribably over the past few months. I regularly break 90 and am aiming to break 80 by the anniversary of my first Maltby order. I KNOW that scratch is possible for me and I enjoy every step of getting there. The clubs are not the only factor in this game, but I know for a fact that I couldn’t play any better with any other brand.
The fact that I went straight to blades might not have been the quickest way to my very best game and I know that, but is definitely the most fun and rewarding.
That was a whole lot to read to get to one small point. I cannot thank Britt, Jim (thank you so very much for the very last Moment XII) all the customer service ladies, and the whole GolfWorks team enough for the joy your products and services have given me. I have had several people ask about my clubs and I love sharing the whole Ralph Maltby, GolfWorks, Britt Lindsey, Jim Yachinich story. Just a couple days ago, I wanted to really push the Maltby TC Pro Driver to the most grueling test i could so I took it to the local golf shop near me. I hit the new Titleist GT and The Callaway AI drivers. We tweaked and tested them until I was hitting them both consistently. The Titleist is a bit more harsh but longer. The Callaway is far more forgiving. I then asked the rep if I could hit my Maltby on their sims to see how my club compared to theirs. The said absolutely, you should see about 10-15 yds more out of the Titleist compared to your “other” driver. Well, my Maltby blasted 20yds past the best hit I had with the Titleist. The guys response after the third hit was, “ Man you have zero need for a new driver. WHAT IS THAT?!?!” And now I hope you get another order! I’ll never buy another brand of clubs. My next project will be building my own set of clubs, not because I need them; but just because I want to know I can do it, and I love ever aspect of the game. I just ordered all my TSW wedges in the DRM finish. The sun does glare off the chrome, so I can’t wait to see how the DRMs look. I am sure they will be as flawless as every other stick I have ordered has been.
Thank you again! Hope you all have the greatest of holidays and a very Merry Christmas!!
Jackson and Amy