Srixon

Three golf brands sit under Sumitomo Rubber Industries, and Srixon is the one aimed at players chasing tour equipment. That business made the first golf balls produced in Japan, back in 1930. Cleveland Golf and XXIO are under the same roof, which is why a Srixon bag so often has a Cleveland wedge in it. It all runs from Kobe. The American arm works out of Huntington Beach, California, and runs the trade-in programme and the online ball and club selectors. The name itself is Sumitomo Rubber Industries pressed together with the word onward.

Balls are still the anchor: the Z-Star family at tour level, Q-Star and Soft Feel below it, with the Spin Skin urethane coating doing the greenside work. On the club side the ZX and ZXi lines cover drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons, with the Z-Forged blade for anyone who wants nothing between the ball and a lump of soft steel. Those iron heads use the company's own i-FORGED process. The bag it builds toward is a full one, which isn't obvious for a brand most golfers first meet through a golf ball, and the tour record backs that: Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters with Srixon woods, irons and ball in play. Shane Lowry's won an Open with them too.