By Terry Koehler, The Wedge Guy

Terry Koehler has been in the golf industry for over 30 years and currently spends his days as the President of EIDOLON Golf, a small premium wedge company in Victoria, Texas. He's been blogging for over 3 years and has written hundreds of articles ranging from golf tips to equipment issues. His blog will appear on ClubSG twice per week. You can reach Terry to have your golf questions answered at askme@thewedgeguy.com.

I have been engaged in the development and marketing of golf clubs for almost 30 years, and one of the subjects I've found most fascinating is the naming of new golf club products. As I look back on that history, there are some product brand names that hit me as borderline brilliant, as they clearly conveyed a sense of confidence to inspire the target consumer. Others I thought to be very vague or even a little "weird," though many of those ended up being attached to products that were hugely successful. I thought it would be fun to explore some of the golf club brand names that register with me and get your thoughts on them, too. And then I have a little project/contest for you all to participate in at the end.

Two of my favorite brand names come from the old Ben Hogan Company – Apex and Edge. Apex was tagged to that company’s player’s blade early on and it was exactly that – the top of the mountain in that club category. When Hogan entered the game improvement arena with the first cavity-back forging, “Edge” was the name given – how appropriate, as that is what we are all seeking, right?

When TaylorMade introduced metal woods under the name “Pittsburgh Persimmon”, I thought that was very creative and conveyed the evolution that they triggered in the category. TaylorMade also get high marks from me for “Burner” and its offspring, as that just feels long, doesn’t it?

Staying with metal woods, however, I thought “Big Bertha” was not a very good name for a driver, but that shows what I know, huh? Apparently it really resonated with millions of golfers as the sales history proves.

In golf balls, “Pinnacle” stands out to me as a great name, for much the same reason “Apex” does for the Hogan blades – what’s better than the top? I also liked “Revolution”, the name Maxfli gave to their first three piece golf balls, when they pioneered the category back in the 90s. But “Noodle”????? And the Precept “Lady” was able to transcend gender and become very popular with the guys as well a few years ago. Who would’ve thought we could set aside our bias to play a “Lady” golf ball. I did, and it was a good one.

The examination of golf brand names can go on for dozens of pages, but I thought I would see what brand names are among your favorites . . . and why. And I’m going to give you the chance to see how good you are at naming golf products, too. First of all, let’s have a dialog on this post to share your thoughts and opinions of great and awful golf club brand names that have come down over the years. This should be fun.

And here’s the more “secretive” part of the formula . . .

In 2011, EIDOLON Golf will be introducing a completely re-engineered product line that optimizes wedge design for the new grooves which we’ll be using from now on. This new line has a long list of features that will surely raise the bar in the wedge category, but I can’t share those with you yet. The “missing link” is that we haven’t settled on a brand name for this line, so that’s where you come in. Click on the link below to give us your ideas for a name. Every entry will earn a chance to win a complete custom set of these next-generation wedges from our first production run. And if we choose the name you suggest, there will be an even bigger prize for you!! So, click the link to our “Name Survey” as many times as you want to increase your odds.

https://app.icontact.com/icp/sub/survey/start?sid=600&cid=727628


Thanks for playing along, and becoming part of the EIDOLON Golf “ex officio” marketing team!

* The Wedge Guy's views and opinions are his own do not necessarily reflect those of SkyGolf.

Terry Koehler is "The Wedge Guy" and President of SCOR Golf- The Short Game Company.

Click here to learn more about Terry.