Review: Stix Golf Clubs

There's a very boring phrase in the corporate consumer goods world: disruption of mundane products. "Ohh … what's that?" I don't hear you asking. Well, a while ago, companies realized that rather than pouring loads of cash into reinventing the wheel to try to be innovative, they could take rote products and make them "exciting" by changing how they were sold, adding just a dash of R&D and nice design of their own. Presto.

Thanks to the convenience of direct-to-consumer internet sales, we got things like the mattress-in-a-box craze, where a boring mattress was delivered to your door with some funky color trim added to make it hip. We also got razor companies like Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s looking to undercut big brands like Gillette with cheaper prices and better-looking handles and accessories, while at same time locking customers into a postal subscription model for blades.

It's been quite the success for some, which is why Stix wants in on this direct-to-consumer action, but with golf clubs.

The company has hit upon the idea that most people who play golf aren't really that good. The sport is filled with weekend hackers who don't practice enough, or players in the “fair to middling” bracket who can at least find their way around a bag of irons.

The open secret in golf is that just because you can afford an $1,800 Honma Beres driver doesn’t mean you know how to make it work. Champagne budgets won't help Kool-Aid skills. Unless you are very good, it's useless spanking thousands of dollars on a set of clubs. Stix has zoomed in on this, and the company has created what it claims is the ideal set of golf clubs for beginner to middle players of the game. The build quality is nice, and the value can't be ignored. The Stix clubs aim to look the part of serious equipment, serve you just fine out on the course, but not cost the earth. Is it a winning formula?

Photograph: Stix

There's no denying that the first impression of Stix's all-black full set of 14 clubs is a fine one. You get everything from driver to putter, including 3- and 5-woods, a 4-hybrid, irons from 5 through to pitching wedge, three additional wedges (52, 56, and 60 degrees), and a putter. 

They do indeed look the part, all stealthy and powerful in their Vader-worthy matte darkness. And the woods look as good as the irons too. Titanium and stainless steel heads are evident, as well as graphite shafts, which provide more flex and greater clubhead speed than steel. The grips also feel high quality and give confidence, particularly on the putter. 

The $185 weather-resistant stand bag, sold out at the time of writing, is well worth the extra investment, being well organized (five-way divider and two full-length inner dividers) and lightweight (4.5 pounds) with plenty of pocket space (six in all, with a fleece-lined valuables pocket and insulated cooler pocket for mid-round refreshment). It all matches the clubs' aesthetic.

The $65 Stix headcovers, however, are a different story. Here we get the first clear glimpse of corners being cut to save cost. The look and feel cheap. Ugly, in fact, compared to the rest of the set. Why Stix has fallen short here, design-wise, I'm not sure, but it lets the side down and is the one thing that I would suggest leaving well alone and instead finding options elsewhere.

The Stix headcovers are not worth the investment.

Photograph: Jeremy White

And the clubs scratch far too easily.

Photograph: Jeremy White

You're going to need headcovers, though, as after only a few sessions with the Stix clubs I quickly became aware of their second, and perhaps biggest, failing: the black finish. While it looks superb out of the box, this chic veneer will not last long. Rest the iron heads on a paved surface and when you pick them up you'll see glints of metal shining through scratches on the black.

A few swings through the sand will likely also reveal scratches forming. And unless you have headcovers protecting your drivers, these will pick up unsightly marks almost instantly as your clubs rub up against each other being carted about.

The damage is only skin deep and certainly not severe enough to have any bearing on performance—but it leaves me wondering what these clubs will look like in six months' time. Again, this sort of fragile, wafer-thin covering is likely symptomatic of the relatively low price you're paying for the full set of clubs.

Another design fail is the small markings on the end of the club heads telling you which club is which. To keep the stealthy design consistent, these indicators are not done in a friendly bright color but inlayed black—on a black background!—making them hard to see when all the clubs are together in the bag. So, rather than easily reaching for the 7 iron, say, you spend a few moments nosing around for it, scraping the paint off your Stix clubs as they clatter into each other, all the while looking like you don't know what you're doing. 

Photograph: Wilson Hennesy

As a near beginner, I felt like I needed some help assessing the performance of the Stix clubs, so I roped in Kevin Lunt, course pro at Great Hadham Country Club in Hertfordshire, UK. He gamely tried the Stix clubs on 15 brave pupils, as well as having a good go himself. The results were interesting. 

Overall, the beginners and middle players hit the Stix clubs much better, but oddly these clubs then penalized experienced golfers. “I like the package,” Lunt says. “It does do what it says on the tin—it works. Personally I don't like them, but then they're not geared to me. There's a lot of weight down at the end. And these are a graphite shafts and I play with steel.”

While they weren't geared to Lunt the pro, they were geared to me. The graphite shafts give more flex on each swing, and when combined with more weight and some jiggery-pokery with delofting the angles on the clubheads, I was able to consistently hit the ball much farther than I did using my own set. Like Lunt, I also found the extra weight a little hard to get used to, but I was still pleased with my results.

With the Stix driver, I was getting a carry of 206 yards compared to the 190 I get with my usual Ping G10. So a solid gain for me. Lunt, on the other hand, was getting 203 to 210 with it, but he usually carries 240 yards. With the hybrid wood, Lunt hit 168 when he would normally go 190 on a club with the same loft. I, however, was getting around 165 yards with it, bringing me up to Lunt's distance with the hybrid.

“For anybody who hits the ball with aggression, these just didn't work,” Lunt says. “There are better clubs on the market for those people.” But Lunt had to admit that for Stix's target market of beginners to competent players, the clubs did perform as stated, offering up more distance on average. The key point to remember, he says, is that there will come a point where diminishing returns will force improving players to upgrade from this slickly designed value offering.

But that's the key here: You're spending $699 for a “casual” set of clubs, or up to $899 for the full 14. That's everything you need at half the outlay for that single Beres driver. And I can see a set of Stix clubs being good enough for me for years if my glacial rate of improvement continues as it is. How the Stix clubs will look after they've been used that long is another matter.