At the end, they voted on their favorite clubs, and Mandel published the results. He realized his testing process was flawed but knew he was on to something. Rankmark's tests vary depending on the type of club tested, but most follow a similar process. In a test for drivers, for example, reviewers test each club and award points for distance and number of fairways hit. In a wedge test, participants hit shots from the fairway, over bunkers and out of sand traps.
Reviewers also rank the products before and after testing.
Performance for each criterion is assigned points that are tallied to determine overall ranking. Clubs that perform poorly are not listed. Nearly 40 equipment manufacturers submit clubs for testing with Rankmark, Mandel said. Though the company ranks in order the equipment manufacturers in each category, it does not break out results of specific tests. For example, while revealing a driver's overall ranking, it will not show how it fared in distance or fairways hit.