Operational Assessment: Robin Men’s 9-Club Golf Set

Robin Men's Essentials 9-Club Golf Set

Two, Robin’s set has the potential to be one that a new golfer could grow into as their skill level increases. The brand’s driver, for example, is adjustable, which allows players to change the club’s loft, as well as its center of gravity. Meanwhile, the putter features a milled face, which apparently offers an enhanced sense of feel but is mainly a marker of quality that will cause golf nerds to nod approvingly. 

As for the rest of the set, there’s a fairway wood, a hybrid, pitching and sand wedges, and a five, seven, and nine iron. That’s nine clubs; the max number allowed on the course is 14. Though Robin also offers a 13-club set, I’d argue that nine is just as many as you need — fewer clubs cut back on unnecessary decision-making, as well as back pain if you’re walking (which you should be!).

I started off my highly scientific testing by taking the clubs to the range with my friend Zach, who I recently introduced to golf and who volunteered to test Robin’s clubs with me and offer his feedback as a beginner. (A bonus: as a fashionable Millennial, he falls squarely in the brand’s target demographic.) 

The last time we’d played together, Zach had used some random clubs that live in my basement, most of which are the sort of ill-suited thrift store clubs that Robin’s offerings might hope to displace. He noticed a difference with the Robin clubs immediately, especially when hitting the driver. One of his problems is slicing the ball right, and the forgiving, left-biased design of the Robin irons helped him straighten his shots out enough to keep them in play.

Similarly, I was able to adjust Robin’s driver to its most anti-slice setting, which helped Zach start hitting lasers off the tee. As a control for our experiment, I also had him hit shots with the clubs I use every day, all of which were designed for serious golfers. He had a much tougher time with them, especially when it came to hitting with my Mizuno MP-60 irons, which are basically just tiny bits of metal that offer no forgiveness whatsoever. Later that evening, Zach texted me his review of the Robin clubs: “I’m thinking that’s a birdie.” (He is still getting the hang of golf terminology.)

So let’s imagine that Zach, armed with the confidence provided by his Robin golf clubs, played every day for two years straight and worked his way into intermediate golfer territory. That’s where I, an intermediate golfer, come in. Would they perform the way I wanted them to on the course?

A bit of a caveat here about the clubs I normally use: My current setup favors aesthetics over utility — i.e. I want my golf clubs to look cool more than I want them to help me hit good shots. That’s my personal preference, and not one that every golfer shares. Unsurprisingly, then, I found Robin’s clubs wildly simpler to hit than my own. The brand’s driver beat my decade-old Titleist 913 D3 by far in terms of ease of use.

Robin’s sand wedge, meanwhile, is much less forgiving and is instead geared towards flexibility. Its design focuses on helping the player hit an array of shots around the green and all the way to a hundred yards out. I was able to hit wind-killing knockdowns, high-flying flops, and delicate pitches with the thing — a versatility I wouldn’t have expected given the idiot-proof, point-and-shoot nature of these irons.

The real star of the set, though, is the putter. In addition to its milled face, it’s got substantial heft that gave me a sense of confidence and control. After a few practice putts with it, I found myself draining almost every short putt I tried, and giving medium-length and even long putts a chance of going in. While nobody will confuse this thing with a rare Scotty Cameron, having a murdered-out milled putter is just genuinely cool on its own merits.

In terms of cons, I’m hesitant to levy too many criticisms at these clubs, because they’re not really pretending to be anything they’re not. While I struggled to hit basic bump-and-runs with these irons around the greens, that might have been a function of me not being used to them rather than some sort of inherent flaw.

Similarly, I experienced problems with hooking basically all of these clubs besides the sand wedge, but I have a left miss no matter what — the design of these clubs merely accentuated it. (Newer golfers, the type who might buy these clubs, tend to miss right, so the elements that were tough for me might make things easier for others.)

As for the price and quality, you can definitely get better used clubs for less money if you know what you’re looking for — but really, you’re paying not to have to think about any of that stuff. That’s not a knock on Robin, especially when considering the frictionless purchasing experience the brand offers: fast and free shipping, the ability to try them at home with a $150 deposit, etc. Overall, Robin offers a very specific thing for a very specific type of customer. If that’s you, then you’ll be satisfied.