GagHalfrunt
Lifer
As promised, my essay on the hidden facts of the golf club business
Section 1: OEM, COMPONENTS, CLONES AND KNOCK-OFF.
"OEM" means "Original Equipment Manufacturer", that a name brand, pro shop type club like Taylormade, Ping, Callaway and Titleist. The words "clone" "component" and "knock-off" are used interchangably, but should not be. Both "clone" and "knock-off" are essentially synonyms, they're clubs designed to imitate a well-know OEM style as closely as possible. The term is used perjoratively by many as they look down upon any club that is a derivitive design rather than something original. "Components" differs from "Clone" and "Knock-Off" in that they closer to original designs and are clubs that stand on their own rather than trying to imitate something else. They're also designed to be sold a la carte, buy a set of heads from one company, shafts from another, grips from another, etc, to create something truly unique. They're held in higher regard than clones and knock-offs as being original is more noble than being a copycat. In actuality, those lines are blurred beyond the point of relevence. There are few truly original designs these days, almost everything is a slight adjustment to a proven design. Even OEMs copy each other and make minor cosmetic changes to distinguish their stuff from the design they pilfered. Scotty Cameron lifted almost every one of his putters directly from Ping, the Futura is the only original putter he ever made, the rest are just clones. Scotty works for Titleist though and has that marketing clout, so Scotty copies Ping and he's considered to be OEM while if any smaller company copies Scotty they're "Clones".
What's important is quality and there are lots of companies that sell knock-off or clones that are of inferior quality. Tolerances are way too loose, materials are 2nd-rate, fit and finish are lacking, etc. There are also many companies that sell clubs that are considered to be clones or knock-offs because of the design, but that are every bit as good as the major OEM clubs they're imitating. Companies like Wishon, Bang, SMT,
Dynacraft, Golfsmith, Golfworks, Raven and KZG all are top notch in quality and easily meet or exceed the designs and performance of the big OEM players. They all specialize in mostly original designs, but all have been accused of being clones or knock-offs from time to time. There are only so many ways to make a driver look and the fact that a Wishon looks like a Titleist which looks like a Golfsmith which looks like a Taylormade merely reflects that reality, it doesn't mean that they're copying each other.
Section 2: THE FUNDAMENTAL FACTS OF GOLF
Golf is a hard game. Unlike millions who are born with great speed or the potential for great strength, very few are born with natural golf ability. Progress takes practice, hard work, good instruction and patience. Nothing happens overnight and improvement comes s-l-o-w-l-y. In an attention-deficit-disorder world, that isn't acceptable to most people. Nobody wants to do the work, they expect to be able to walk into a pro shop and buy improvement. If it was that easy we'd all be Tiger Woods, but that just isn't possible. The manufacturers know this and they prey on the desire to improve through spending rather than through practice. Despite inflated claims by the manufacturers that their equipment will revolutionize the game, things really change at a glaciers pace. About 25 years ago investment-cast perimeter-weighted iron heads started coming into vogue. Those were a huge step forward for the average golfer and were much easier to hit than the old forged blades. In the intervening 25 years, only 3 pieces of technology have had any impact in golf. Everything else has been smoke and mirrors, empty hype and ridiculous marketing claims. 3 things and only 3 things have made the game easier.
1) The new multi-cover balls. The biggest change in the game since hickory shafts gave way to steel, the new balls are actually destroying the game. They go too far, fly too straight and are too easy to control.
2) Oversize titanium driver heads. Forget the talk about hot faces and high COR trampoline clubs launching balls into the stratosphere, that's just BS. Spring-faces have surprisingly little impact on distance, most of the distance gains recently are due to the ball. The impact of titanium clubheads is that you can make them HUGE without increasing weight. A 460cc titanium head weighs the same as a 200cc steel head that was considered large a few years ago. 460cc has a sweet spot about the size of the entire clubhead on a 200cc driver. Balls struck near the heel and toe now fly almost as far as balls hit perfectly. THAT is the benefit of the new heads, they don't hit the ball much farther than older smaller heads, they just forgive tons of mistakes and a mishit that would have gone 70 yards on a tiny head now catches that huge sweet spot and flies 250.
3) Good graphite shafts. Early graphite shafts SUCKED. They were underpowered, overhyped and prone to breakage. Now graphite shafts have hit the 21st century. They're light, powerful, reliable and available in thousands of configurations from low torque, superstiff beasts that allow fast swing pros to control their distance, accuracy and trajectory to supersoft ultralight 45 gram 48" garden hoses designed to maximize the swing speed and carry distance of even the slowest swingers. Everyone can now find a graphite shaft to help their game and getting the right characteristics can help significantly.
That's it. That's what's changed in 25 years. Iron heads have remained static, they're no better than they were 25 years ago and in many ways are now worse, especially in quality control. Steel shafts are about the same as they were 25 years ago. Shoes are the same, tees are the same, fairway woods are pretty close to the same and even putters are about the same. There's not a golfer on earth that can be turned from a crummy putter into a good one just by changing models. Belly length, high-tech inserts, new gizmos like the Futura all exist for one reason: To make a bad putter think that he can become a good one by spending more money. The manufacturers love people like that.
Section 3: THE ECONOMICS OF GOLF EQUIPMENT
Ely Callaway is largely to blame, but like Bill Gates he's an evil genius who determined how to take advantage of his customers stupidity, so maybe it's more accurate to say that the customers are to blame. Callaway tapped into the mindset of those morons who think you can buy improvement and came up with the simplest, most profound aspect of the golf business. People equate more expensive with better and most expensive with best. He found that you could take 3 identical clubs and place them in a proshop. Mark one $99 with no hype, mark one $250 with a good ad campaign and mark one $400 with a great ad campaign and a tour pro saying he plays it. The $400 club will outsell the exact same $250 club 10-1 and the exact same $99 club 25-1. Sadly, that's the real difference between most $400 clubs and most $99 clubs, marketing and endorsements.
The ugly truth and well-kept secret is that the parts that go into a set of clubs are dirt cheap. Even the parts that go into superexpensive clubs are mostly dirt cheap. What the manufacturers sell is the hype, the illusion of superiority and the dishonest endorsement of a pro who "claims" he's using a club. The typical $400 proshop driver is well less than $100 worth of parts. It's a titanium head that costs $40-$75 sitting on a $6-$10 shaft capped with a $1 grip. That's it folks. That shiny new $400 miracle club is as little as $60 worth of parts. Where does the money go? The manufacturer makes over $100 profit, the dealer makes over $100 profit and $100 goes towards marketing and supporting the tour program. It's expensive to buy endorsements. In a carnival it might cost 50 cents to throw a baseball and attempt to knock over a bottle to win a prize. The prize itself costs the carnival 17-25 cents, so even if you win, they win. Golf equipment is a lot like that. If you buy your equipment on closeout when it's being replaced by the next shiny miracle club, you're getting a better deal, but you're still getting hosed. That driver that was $400 2 months ago but has been replaced by the new $400 driver, is now down to only $200. What a deal! You're getting the privilege of spending $200 for a $60 club and sadly, many people think they're actually coming out ahead in the bargain. In a way they are, they got less money stolen from them than the schmuck who payed $400 for it. On the component club route, a $50 head paired to a $25 shaft produces an EXCELLENT driver that would be a great performer for many people. I've been testing out a new prototype shaft from Accuflex and have it matched to a $30 titanium head that is easily as long as solid as the head in any $400 driver on the market.
The manufacturers like to maintain the illusion that more expensive is better and will artificially inflate prices accordingly, even if the part prices don't justify it. Look at the prices for drivers or irons with graphite shafts versus those with steel. Normally, for a driver it'll be $299 with steel and $399 for graphite or for irons $699 with steel and $899 with graphite. Newsflash here, the stock graphite shafts are in many cases CHEAPER than the stock steel shafts. It's not unusual for a driver to come with an $8 Dynamic Gold steel shaft, but to have a $4-$5 generic graphite shaft as on option. There will still be a $100 markup to get the graphite. With irons it's even worse. It could cost the manufacturer $50-$100 less to build a set with cheapo graphite shafts that those with decent steel, but they'll still upcharge you $200 to get the graphite just to make people believe that it's a superior set. There's as much as $300 MORE PROFIT in a set with graphite shafts, so it pays to foster that belief.
One of the keys of golf economics is that you need to have endorsements. There's an old adage in all sports that what wins on Sunday sells on Monday and nowhere is that more true than in golf. Despite the fact that Tiger is a +8 handicap with a 125mph swing speed, Joe Moron 36 handicap with an 84mph swing speed will still think he can and should play what Tiger plays. So he'll buy ill-fitting equipment that he doesn't have a prayer of hitting well in the belief that it's step one towards getting on tour. The manufacturers know this, so they want to be winning on Sunday. They need to get their logo on as many bags and visors as necessary and they'll pay for the privilege. A journeyman no-name pro or a guy fresh out of Q school will have an equipment deal worth $500,000 a year for clubs, balls, shoes, etc. A big name will have a deal in the millions and a real top player will be $5 million+ a year just to be a walking billboard. Tiger is closer to $10 million a year for clothes and equipment from Nike, not counting what he makes from Buick, American Express, etc etc. That's cool, but does a pro really play what he endorses and tells you to buy? NO!!!
Even if a pro actually uses the brand he says, he is not using what you can buy in a pro shop. In many cases, the equipment that goes to the tour is a completely different model than what's available to the public. Even if not a different model, the pros are using specially selected equipment hand built to their specs by teams of experts who follow the tour from stop to stop in tractor trailers that are rolling clubmaking shops. A pro needs a loft adjusted it's done. He needs reshafts, no problem. He needs 40 new sets of clubs built to different specs so he can try them all and pick the one he likes best the clubs will be delivered to him in a week. What are the pros using? COMPONENTS!! Custom clubs, just like what they're telling you NOT TO BUY. They don't use off-the-rack stuff, every club in the back is extensively fitted, customized and adapted to their swing with special shafts, funky grips, different grinds, non-standard weights or varying lengths. If that wasn't bad enough, they often start with equipment that you and I can't obtain at any price. Mike Weir won the Masters with a hand-built, one of a kind set of Taylormade irons that isn't available. But he tells you to buy Taylormades from a proshop because they're good enough for him. They're not good enough for him, HE ISN'T PLAYING THEM!!! Tiger was playing a Nike ball that was specially made just for him and not for sale until they got caught at it and were forced to market his version too. Tom Watson, Nick Price and Justin Leonard were using a Precept ball for half the year that was a prototype not for sale, others are using special clubheads or shafts that can't be bought. What's wrong with the equation when a guy tells you to buy a product because it's so good that he uses it, but doesn't actually use it? Even worse, club and ball contracts are pretty loose. They allow a player to change equipment that doesn't work, even if they change to a different manufacturer. Most club contracts are for 10-11 clubs while a golfer can carry 14. He's got wiggle room to get rid of junk and replace it, so a guy that endorses Nike drivers can be hitting a Titleist driver while still endorsing Nike. Tiger isn't the only guy to have dumped some equipment to change to a competitors while still endorsing the junk he can't hit. Duval is another notable who dumped his Nike in a search for something better. Right now Sergio Garcia is featured prominently in ads for Maxfli's M3 ball which he is payed big bucks to push. The problem? Sergio tried that ball for half a season and couldn't hit it worth a lick, he dumped it and is now hitting a ProV1x while telling you to buy an M3. Hmmmmm.
It's also important for manufacturers to win the Darrell Survey, that's a weekly poll of who's using what equipment and it's conducted on the first tee, the bags are checked and the number of Taylormade drivers, Ping putters, etc, are tabulated. The manufacturers use that in their ads, like "#1 driver at the US Open" or "Most played putter on tour..." right there in bold print. How do they get there? By paying weekly bounties. You want to be #1, just offer $5,000 to $10,000 to every pro that tees up your driver on Thursday. You'll win the survey and can use that in your ads. Meanwhile the pros got the money from using your crap and went back to what works the very next day, but by then it's too late, you bought yourself a place as the #1 driver on tour. There are stories about pros who enter tournaments just to collect bounties. If they hear Callaway is introducing a new driver model and needs to be #1 for the marketing push, they'll enter a tournament, collect $10,000 for helping Callaway win and withdraw after 9 holes. $10,000 isn't bad for 2 hours work, eh? There's a rumor (likely true) that Taylormade offered Kenny Perry $25,000 to use their new Monza putter in the recent tournament where he was up 6 shots heading to Sunday. They figured he'd get all the TV time with such a huge lead and that $25,000 for one round of golf was a great investment. He declined, but the next time you walk into a pro shop and spend $400 on a Taylormade driver, THAT is what you're paying for, bribes to PGA players, NOT the club itself.
Section 4: MANUFACTURING, TOLERANCES AND QUALITY CONTROL
Due to high costs, major manufacturers do not build their own club heads. Only Ping maintains their own foundry, all the other manufacturers outsource their clubs to foundries in Asia where the heads are cast or forged. The heads are then shipped back to the manufacturer where they're glued to a shaft bought from a shaftmaker and a grip from a gripmaker. That's the role of major OEMs these days, they buy pieces and glue them together, then sell them to you. It's the same role that a clubmaker/clubfitter does, only the manufacturers don't do it nearly as well. Here's why: All the heads are made in the same foundries. The component companies are outsourcing their work to the same foundries as the OEM and getting back a product of similar quality and design. In any manufacturing process, there are variations in the work. A part might be heavier or lighter, have more or less loft or a different lie angle than the specs called for. It's theoretically possible to get only perfect parts, but the cost is huge. You need to reject any head that doesn't meet spec and that costs more, so some leeway has to be allowed. Each manufacturer sets their own limits on how far a part can be out of spec and still be accepted. For clubheads, tight tolerances are around plus/minus 2 grams of weight, 1 degree of loft and 1 degree of lie angle. Some allowances will be as high as plus/minus 4 grams of weight, 2 or even 3 degrees of loft and 2 degrees of lie angle. Setting such lax tolerances allows you to reject fewer heads for being out of spec which keeps costs low. EVERYONE does the same thing, major manufacturers and components alike all have parts out of spec. That's normal. The difference arises in that component and custom club makers measure tolerances and either fix or work around them while the major manufacturers DO NOT.
If I (or any competent clubmaker) buys a set of heads to make a set for a customer, the first thing we do is to check the parts. We'll weigh and measure all parts to insure proper weight, lie and loft gapping. Parts out of spec will be adjusted as necessary. We'll bend for loft and lie so that all heads are the same. We'll add or subtract weight to maintain a consistent swing and static weight through the set. If there's supposed to be 4 degrees of loft difference between a 5 iron and 6 iron, you damn well will get 4 degrees of loft difference, if you need clubs that are all 1* upright in lie, every club will be 1* upright in lie. All shafts will be flex tested to make sure that they feel and play the same way. In short, all manufacturing tolerances will have been eliminated by the time the clubs get to you.
For OEMs the process is different. All parts are pass/fail and all passed parts are considered to be the same. With 3* of loft tolerance and 2* of lie tolerance there can and will be a huge difference. A 9 iron that should have 44* of loft can be either 41* or 47*. A club that should be 1* upright can be either 1* flat or 3* upright. One that should weight 220 grams can weigh 224 grams or only 216. All are the same in their eyes because all are within allowable tolerances. The heads are then mated to shafts that likely are weight sorted, but not flex tested. That's pretty common, a shaft that weighs 126 grams should be stiffer than one that weighs 117 grams and that's stiffer than one that weighs 109. This creates a problem because the shafts themselves have tolerances. One that is supposed to weight 125 can in fact weigh 116, yet flex the same as one weighing 125. By weight sorting that winds up in the wrong batch and will be marked regular rather than stiff.
Since all parts are the same as long as they meet spec, nothing actually mates to any other club within a set, each is deemed a separate entity. A 9 iron is a 9 iron is a 9 iron and an 8 iron is an 8 iron is an 8 iron and a stiff shaft is a stiff shaft is a stiff shaft. Let's do a little math here folks. Let's build 3 clubs, a 7 iron, 8 iron and 9 iron with regular shafts from that "all passed parts are equal" bin. The true specs say the 7 iron "should" be 36*, the 8 40* and the 9 should have 44* of loft. Cool, if all parts match it's a nice set with perfect 4* gapping. But let's assemble that set with a perfect 40* 8 iron, a 9 iron that is 3* strong (still within spec, so it's okay) and a 7 iron 3* weak (also okay). Instead of 36-40-44 you get 39-40-41 and instead of a normal 12-15 yard gap between how far you hit each club you have clubs that differ by 3 yards in difference potential. Whoops, that won't work too well, so let's toss that 9 and 7 iron away and keep the 8 because that one is perfect. Time to grab 2 new heads only this time we get a 7 iron that's 3* strong and a 9 that's 3* weak. Instead of 36-40-44 you get 33-40-47, suddenly 7* of gap between clubs and a 12 yard difference it's an unmanageable 20 yards. Makes it really hard to pick a club for the approaches, huh? Let's take it a step farther and have the 7 iron use a head that's 1 degree flat and a stiff shaft while the 9 is 1* upright with an A flex shaft. You wind up with 33*(S) 1* flat - 40*(R) normal lie - 47*(A) 1* upright lie. To an OEM manufacturer, that's a perfectly valid set of club as every part used is within tolerances. To a clubmaker that set is a piece of junk that would never ever get sold. This might seem like an exaggeration, but it's not. I've never, repeat NEVER tested a set of OEM irons that were right directly from the box. Every single set had major problems with loft, lie, shaft flexes or all of those things at once. Price is not a determining factor, a $1200 set of graphite shafted Callaway X-16 isn't any better at matching spec than a $200 set of Northwesterns from K-Mart.
Section 5: ASSORTED RAMBLINGS
When considering a set of clubs, you should always go by fit. Ignore brand, cost, status and what pro is playing which model. A set of clubs that fits you well will work well no matter who makes it or what it costs. A $200 set from K-Mart will easily outperform a $2000 top of the line set if the cheap set fits you and the expensive set doesn't. After fit comes shaft performance. The shaft is the engine of the club and it has the greatest impact on how it feels and hits. Think of the shaft as the speakers of a stereo or the CPU/motherboard of a computer. An expensive head on a cheapo shaft will not work as well as a cheap head on a quality shaft. Don't let your ego get in the way, if you want to be using extra-stiff shafts but the fitter thinks you need regular flex, believe the fitter and don't cater to your threatened manhood. Likewise, don't buy clubs as a status symbol. Nobody cares if you're got the newest hot irons or the driver that won last Sunday. You want to impress people, do it with your game, not shiny toys. If you've got $2000 worth of clubs and a 2 bit swing, you're going to get laughed at, if you've $200 worth of clubs and can hit the hell out of them, that will impress people. Consider getting rid of some long irons and adding more lofted woods. That goes back to the ego thing, most guys refuse to believe that they can't hit a 3 iron well, but most guys truly can't. If you're one of them, dump the 3 and 4 irons and pick up a 7 wood. Nobody laughs at good results and knocking a 7 wood onto the green is much better than knocking a 3 iron into the woods.
Accept the fact that there are no magic wands. You can't buy a game, you can only buy the tools necessary to build one. Good clubs that fit are the foundation, not the sole answer. When you walk into a pro shop, keep it in your mind that the path towards improving your game leads to the guy giving lessons, not the racks of clubs or stacks of balls. Don't try to buy your way out of swing flaws, a new driver is not going to fix your slice and new irons will not keep you from hitting ground balls. This takes work and if you think you can write a check and have skill delivered to your door, save yourself the time and frustration. Just send the money to me and I'll spend it on beer, you'll get the same results and I'll be drunk and happy, so at least one of us will be better off.
Spend your money where it counts and where it'll do the most good. Get an oversized titanium driver with a graphite shaft that suits your game and swing speed, they really are a major breakthrough. Don't spend $400 on one though, that's insane. You can get one far superior to that for $150 or less. That's money well spent. And don't be afraid to get one with plenty of loft. The pros might be playing drivers with 8-10* loft, you should be 11-12* and perhaps even more. Be honest with yourself, the slower you swing the more you'll benefit from added loft. Unless you're a single digit handicapper or less, you should not be paying more than $22 for a dozen balls. There are plenty of excellent balls in the $15-$22 range. You need to be a really good player to get the true performance out of a ProV1 or Nike One and if you're not highly skilled you won't be any better with a $45 ball than you could be with a $15 ball. Go for low compression, for swing speeds under 105MPH (that's almost everyone) you can hit a Maxfli Noodle or Dunlop LoCo farther than a ProV1x. Fight against the inclination to spend more.
That's about it. I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this, so I'll add and edit as necessary.
Section 1: OEM, COMPONENTS, CLONES AND KNOCK-OFF.
"OEM" means "Original Equipment Manufacturer", that a name brand, pro shop type club like Taylormade, Ping, Callaway and Titleist. The words "clone" "component" and "knock-off" are used interchangably, but should not be. Both "clone" and "knock-off" are essentially synonyms, they're clubs designed to imitate a well-know OEM style as closely as possible. The term is used perjoratively by many as they look down upon any club that is a derivitive design rather than something original. "Components" differs from "Clone" and "Knock-Off" in that they closer to original designs and are clubs that stand on their own rather than trying to imitate something else. They're also designed to be sold a la carte, buy a set of heads from one company, shafts from another, grips from another, etc, to create something truly unique. They're held in higher regard than clones and knock-offs as being original is more noble than being a copycat. In actuality, those lines are blurred beyond the point of relevence. There are few truly original designs these days, almost everything is a slight adjustment to a proven design. Even OEMs copy each other and make minor cosmetic changes to distinguish their stuff from the design they pilfered. Scotty Cameron lifted almost every one of his putters directly from Ping, the Futura is the only original putter he ever made, the rest are just clones. Scotty works for Titleist though and has that marketing clout, so Scotty copies Ping and he's considered to be OEM while if any smaller company copies Scotty they're "Clones".
What's important is quality and there are lots of companies that sell knock-off or clones that are of inferior quality. Tolerances are way too loose, materials are 2nd-rate, fit and finish are lacking, etc. There are also many companies that sell clubs that are considered to be clones or knock-offs because of the design, but that are every bit as good as the major OEM clubs they're imitating. Companies like Wishon, Bang, SMT,
Dynacraft, Golfsmith, Golfworks, Raven and KZG all are top notch in quality and easily meet or exceed the designs and performance of the big OEM players. They all specialize in mostly original designs, but all have been accused of being clones or knock-offs from time to time. There are only so many ways to make a driver look and the fact that a Wishon looks like a Titleist which looks like a Golfsmith which looks like a Taylormade merely reflects that reality, it doesn't mean that they're copying each other.
Section 2: THE FUNDAMENTAL FACTS OF GOLF
Golf is a hard game. Unlike millions who are born with great speed or the potential for great strength, very few are born with natural golf ability. Progress takes practice, hard work, good instruction and patience. Nothing happens overnight and improvement comes s-l-o-w-l-y. In an attention-deficit-disorder world, that isn't acceptable to most people. Nobody wants to do the work, they expect to be able to walk into a pro shop and buy improvement. If it was that easy we'd all be Tiger Woods, but that just isn't possible. The manufacturers know this and they prey on the desire to improve through spending rather than through practice. Despite inflated claims by the manufacturers that their equipment will revolutionize the game, things really change at a glaciers pace. About 25 years ago investment-cast perimeter-weighted iron heads started coming into vogue. Those were a huge step forward for the average golfer and were much easier to hit than the old forged blades. In the intervening 25 years, only 3 pieces of technology have had any impact in golf. Everything else has been smoke and mirrors, empty hype and ridiculous marketing claims. 3 things and only 3 things have made the game easier.
1) The new multi-cover balls. The biggest change in the game since hickory shafts gave way to steel, the new balls are actually destroying the game. They go too far, fly too straight and are too easy to control.
2) Oversize titanium driver heads. Forget the talk about hot faces and high COR trampoline clubs launching balls into the stratosphere, that's just BS. Spring-faces have surprisingly little impact on distance, most of the distance gains recently are due to the ball. The impact of titanium clubheads is that you can make them HUGE without increasing weight. A 460cc titanium head weighs the same as a 200cc steel head that was considered large a few years ago. 460cc has a sweet spot about the size of the entire clubhead on a 200cc driver. Balls struck near the heel and toe now fly almost as far as balls hit perfectly. THAT is the benefit of the new heads, they don't hit the ball much farther than older smaller heads, they just forgive tons of mistakes and a mishit that would have gone 70 yards on a tiny head now catches that huge sweet spot and flies 250.
3) Good graphite shafts. Early graphite shafts SUCKED. They were underpowered, overhyped and prone to breakage. Now graphite shafts have hit the 21st century. They're light, powerful, reliable and available in thousands of configurations from low torque, superstiff beasts that allow fast swing pros to control their distance, accuracy and trajectory to supersoft ultralight 45 gram 48" garden hoses designed to maximize the swing speed and carry distance of even the slowest swingers. Everyone can now find a graphite shaft to help their game and getting the right characteristics can help significantly.
That's it. That's what's changed in 25 years. Iron heads have remained static, they're no better than they were 25 years ago and in many ways are now worse, especially in quality control. Steel shafts are about the same as they were 25 years ago. Shoes are the same, tees are the same, fairway woods are pretty close to the same and even putters are about the same. There's not a golfer on earth that can be turned from a crummy putter into a good one just by changing models. Belly length, high-tech inserts, new gizmos like the Futura all exist for one reason: To make a bad putter think that he can become a good one by spending more money. The manufacturers love people like that.
Section 3: THE ECONOMICS OF GOLF EQUIPMENT
Ely Callaway is largely to blame, but like Bill Gates he's an evil genius who determined how to take advantage of his customers stupidity, so maybe it's more accurate to say that the customers are to blame. Callaway tapped into the mindset of those morons who think you can buy improvement and came up with the simplest, most profound aspect of the golf business. People equate more expensive with better and most expensive with best. He found that you could take 3 identical clubs and place them in a proshop. Mark one $99 with no hype, mark one $250 with a good ad campaign and mark one $400 with a great ad campaign and a tour pro saying he plays it. The $400 club will outsell the exact same $250 club 10-1 and the exact same $99 club 25-1. Sadly, that's the real difference between most $400 clubs and most $99 clubs, marketing and endorsements.
The ugly truth and well-kept secret is that the parts that go into a set of clubs are dirt cheap. Even the parts that go into superexpensive clubs are mostly dirt cheap. What the manufacturers sell is the hype, the illusion of superiority and the dishonest endorsement of a pro who "claims" he's using a club. The typical $400 proshop driver is well less than $100 worth of parts. It's a titanium head that costs $40-$75 sitting on a $6-$10 shaft capped with a $1 grip. That's it folks. That shiny new $400 miracle club is as little as $60 worth of parts. Where does the money go? The manufacturer makes over $100 profit, the dealer makes over $100 profit and $100 goes towards marketing and supporting the tour program. It's expensive to buy endorsements. In a carnival it might cost 50 cents to throw a baseball and attempt to knock over a bottle to win a prize. The prize itself costs the carnival 17-25 cents, so even if you win, they win. Golf equipment is a lot like that. If you buy your equipment on closeout when it's being replaced by the next shiny miracle club, you're getting a better deal, but you're still getting hosed. That driver that was $400 2 months ago but has been replaced by the new $400 driver, is now down to only $200. What a deal! You're getting the privilege of spending $200 for a $60 club and sadly, many people think they're actually coming out ahead in the bargain. In a way they are, they got less money stolen from them than the schmuck who payed $400 for it. On the component club route, a $50 head paired to a $25 shaft produces an EXCELLENT driver that would be a great performer for many people. I've been testing out a new prototype shaft from Accuflex and have it matched to a $30 titanium head that is easily as long as solid as the head in any $400 driver on the market.
The manufacturers like to maintain the illusion that more expensive is better and will artificially inflate prices accordingly, even if the part prices don't justify it. Look at the prices for drivers or irons with graphite shafts versus those with steel. Normally, for a driver it'll be $299 with steel and $399 for graphite or for irons $699 with steel and $899 with graphite. Newsflash here, the stock graphite shafts are in many cases CHEAPER than the stock steel shafts. It's not unusual for a driver to come with an $8 Dynamic Gold steel shaft, but to have a $4-$5 generic graphite shaft as on option. There will still be a $100 markup to get the graphite. With irons it's even worse. It could cost the manufacturer $50-$100 less to build a set with cheapo graphite shafts that those with decent steel, but they'll still upcharge you $200 to get the graphite just to make people believe that it's a superior set. There's as much as $300 MORE PROFIT in a set with graphite shafts, so it pays to foster that belief.
One of the keys of golf economics is that you need to have endorsements. There's an old adage in all sports that what wins on Sunday sells on Monday and nowhere is that more true than in golf. Despite the fact that Tiger is a +8 handicap with a 125mph swing speed, Joe Moron 36 handicap with an 84mph swing speed will still think he can and should play what Tiger plays. So he'll buy ill-fitting equipment that he doesn't have a prayer of hitting well in the belief that it's step one towards getting on tour. The manufacturers know this, so they want to be winning on Sunday. They need to get their logo on as many bags and visors as necessary and they'll pay for the privilege. A journeyman no-name pro or a guy fresh out of Q school will have an equipment deal worth $500,000 a year for clubs, balls, shoes, etc. A big name will have a deal in the millions and a real top player will be $5 million+ a year just to be a walking billboard. Tiger is closer to $10 million a year for clothes and equipment from Nike, not counting what he makes from Buick, American Express, etc etc. That's cool, but does a pro really play what he endorses and tells you to buy? NO!!!
Even if a pro actually uses the brand he says, he is not using what you can buy in a pro shop. In many cases, the equipment that goes to the tour is a completely different model than what's available to the public. Even if not a different model, the pros are using specially selected equipment hand built to their specs by teams of experts who follow the tour from stop to stop in tractor trailers that are rolling clubmaking shops. A pro needs a loft adjusted it's done. He needs reshafts, no problem. He needs 40 new sets of clubs built to different specs so he can try them all and pick the one he likes best the clubs will be delivered to him in a week. What are the pros using? COMPONENTS!! Custom clubs, just like what they're telling you NOT TO BUY. They don't use off-the-rack stuff, every club in the back is extensively fitted, customized and adapted to their swing with special shafts, funky grips, different grinds, non-standard weights or varying lengths. If that wasn't bad enough, they often start with equipment that you and I can't obtain at any price. Mike Weir won the Masters with a hand-built, one of a kind set of Taylormade irons that isn't available. But he tells you to buy Taylormades from a proshop because they're good enough for him. They're not good enough for him, HE ISN'T PLAYING THEM!!! Tiger was playing a Nike ball that was specially made just for him and not for sale until they got caught at it and were forced to market his version too. Tom Watson, Nick Price and Justin Leonard were using a Precept ball for half the year that was a prototype not for sale, others are using special clubheads or shafts that can't be bought. What's wrong with the equation when a guy tells you to buy a product because it's so good that he uses it, but doesn't actually use it? Even worse, club and ball contracts are pretty loose. They allow a player to change equipment that doesn't work, even if they change to a different manufacturer. Most club contracts are for 10-11 clubs while a golfer can carry 14. He's got wiggle room to get rid of junk and replace it, so a guy that endorses Nike drivers can be hitting a Titleist driver while still endorsing Nike. Tiger isn't the only guy to have dumped some equipment to change to a competitors while still endorsing the junk he can't hit. Duval is another notable who dumped his Nike in a search for something better. Right now Sergio Garcia is featured prominently in ads for Maxfli's M3 ball which he is payed big bucks to push. The problem? Sergio tried that ball for half a season and couldn't hit it worth a lick, he dumped it and is now hitting a ProV1x while telling you to buy an M3. Hmmmmm.
It's also important for manufacturers to win the Darrell Survey, that's a weekly poll of who's using what equipment and it's conducted on the first tee, the bags are checked and the number of Taylormade drivers, Ping putters, etc, are tabulated. The manufacturers use that in their ads, like "#1 driver at the US Open" or "Most played putter on tour..." right there in bold print. How do they get there? By paying weekly bounties. You want to be #1, just offer $5,000 to $10,000 to every pro that tees up your driver on Thursday. You'll win the survey and can use that in your ads. Meanwhile the pros got the money from using your crap and went back to what works the very next day, but by then it's too late, you bought yourself a place as the #1 driver on tour. There are stories about pros who enter tournaments just to collect bounties. If they hear Callaway is introducing a new driver model and needs to be #1 for the marketing push, they'll enter a tournament, collect $10,000 for helping Callaway win and withdraw after 9 holes. $10,000 isn't bad for 2 hours work, eh? There's a rumor (likely true) that Taylormade offered Kenny Perry $25,000 to use their new Monza putter in the recent tournament where he was up 6 shots heading to Sunday. They figured he'd get all the TV time with such a huge lead and that $25,000 for one round of golf was a great investment. He declined, but the next time you walk into a pro shop and spend $400 on a Taylormade driver, THAT is what you're paying for, bribes to PGA players, NOT the club itself.
Section 4: MANUFACTURING, TOLERANCES AND QUALITY CONTROL
Due to high costs, major manufacturers do not build their own club heads. Only Ping maintains their own foundry, all the other manufacturers outsource their clubs to foundries in Asia where the heads are cast or forged. The heads are then shipped back to the manufacturer where they're glued to a shaft bought from a shaftmaker and a grip from a gripmaker. That's the role of major OEMs these days, they buy pieces and glue them together, then sell them to you. It's the same role that a clubmaker/clubfitter does, only the manufacturers don't do it nearly as well. Here's why: All the heads are made in the same foundries. The component companies are outsourcing their work to the same foundries as the OEM and getting back a product of similar quality and design. In any manufacturing process, there are variations in the work. A part might be heavier or lighter, have more or less loft or a different lie angle than the specs called for. It's theoretically possible to get only perfect parts, but the cost is huge. You need to reject any head that doesn't meet spec and that costs more, so some leeway has to be allowed. Each manufacturer sets their own limits on how far a part can be out of spec and still be accepted. For clubheads, tight tolerances are around plus/minus 2 grams of weight, 1 degree of loft and 1 degree of lie angle. Some allowances will be as high as plus/minus 4 grams of weight, 2 or even 3 degrees of loft and 2 degrees of lie angle. Setting such lax tolerances allows you to reject fewer heads for being out of spec which keeps costs low. EVERYONE does the same thing, major manufacturers and components alike all have parts out of spec. That's normal. The difference arises in that component and custom club makers measure tolerances and either fix or work around them while the major manufacturers DO NOT.
If I (or any competent clubmaker) buys a set of heads to make a set for a customer, the first thing we do is to check the parts. We'll weigh and measure all parts to insure proper weight, lie and loft gapping. Parts out of spec will be adjusted as necessary. We'll bend for loft and lie so that all heads are the same. We'll add or subtract weight to maintain a consistent swing and static weight through the set. If there's supposed to be 4 degrees of loft difference between a 5 iron and 6 iron, you damn well will get 4 degrees of loft difference, if you need clubs that are all 1* upright in lie, every club will be 1* upright in lie. All shafts will be flex tested to make sure that they feel and play the same way. In short, all manufacturing tolerances will have been eliminated by the time the clubs get to you.
For OEMs the process is different. All parts are pass/fail and all passed parts are considered to be the same. With 3* of loft tolerance and 2* of lie tolerance there can and will be a huge difference. A 9 iron that should have 44* of loft can be either 41* or 47*. A club that should be 1* upright can be either 1* flat or 3* upright. One that should weight 220 grams can weigh 224 grams or only 216. All are the same in their eyes because all are within allowable tolerances. The heads are then mated to shafts that likely are weight sorted, but not flex tested. That's pretty common, a shaft that weighs 126 grams should be stiffer than one that weighs 117 grams and that's stiffer than one that weighs 109. This creates a problem because the shafts themselves have tolerances. One that is supposed to weight 125 can in fact weigh 116, yet flex the same as one weighing 125. By weight sorting that winds up in the wrong batch and will be marked regular rather than stiff.
Since all parts are the same as long as they meet spec, nothing actually mates to any other club within a set, each is deemed a separate entity. A 9 iron is a 9 iron is a 9 iron and an 8 iron is an 8 iron is an 8 iron and a stiff shaft is a stiff shaft is a stiff shaft. Let's do a little math here folks. Let's build 3 clubs, a 7 iron, 8 iron and 9 iron with regular shafts from that "all passed parts are equal" bin. The true specs say the 7 iron "should" be 36*, the 8 40* and the 9 should have 44* of loft. Cool, if all parts match it's a nice set with perfect 4* gapping. But let's assemble that set with a perfect 40* 8 iron, a 9 iron that is 3* strong (still within spec, so it's okay) and a 7 iron 3* weak (also okay). Instead of 36-40-44 you get 39-40-41 and instead of a normal 12-15 yard gap between how far you hit each club you have clubs that differ by 3 yards in difference potential. Whoops, that won't work too well, so let's toss that 9 and 7 iron away and keep the 8 because that one is perfect. Time to grab 2 new heads only this time we get a 7 iron that's 3* strong and a 9 that's 3* weak. Instead of 36-40-44 you get 33-40-47, suddenly 7* of gap between clubs and a 12 yard difference it's an unmanageable 20 yards. Makes it really hard to pick a club for the approaches, huh? Let's take it a step farther and have the 7 iron use a head that's 1 degree flat and a stiff shaft while the 9 is 1* upright with an A flex shaft. You wind up with 33*(S) 1* flat - 40*(R) normal lie - 47*(A) 1* upright lie. To an OEM manufacturer, that's a perfectly valid set of club as every part used is within tolerances. To a clubmaker that set is a piece of junk that would never ever get sold. This might seem like an exaggeration, but it's not. I've never, repeat NEVER tested a set of OEM irons that were right directly from the box. Every single set had major problems with loft, lie, shaft flexes or all of those things at once. Price is not a determining factor, a $1200 set of graphite shafted Callaway X-16 isn't any better at matching spec than a $200 set of Northwesterns from K-Mart.
Section 5: ASSORTED RAMBLINGS
When considering a set of clubs, you should always go by fit. Ignore brand, cost, status and what pro is playing which model. A set of clubs that fits you well will work well no matter who makes it or what it costs. A $200 set from K-Mart will easily outperform a $2000 top of the line set if the cheap set fits you and the expensive set doesn't. After fit comes shaft performance. The shaft is the engine of the club and it has the greatest impact on how it feels and hits. Think of the shaft as the speakers of a stereo or the CPU/motherboard of a computer. An expensive head on a cheapo shaft will not work as well as a cheap head on a quality shaft. Don't let your ego get in the way, if you want to be using extra-stiff shafts but the fitter thinks you need regular flex, believe the fitter and don't cater to your threatened manhood. Likewise, don't buy clubs as a status symbol. Nobody cares if you're got the newest hot irons or the driver that won last Sunday. You want to impress people, do it with your game, not shiny toys. If you've got $2000 worth of clubs and a 2 bit swing, you're going to get laughed at, if you've $200 worth of clubs and can hit the hell out of them, that will impress people. Consider getting rid of some long irons and adding more lofted woods. That goes back to the ego thing, most guys refuse to believe that they can't hit a 3 iron well, but most guys truly can't. If you're one of them, dump the 3 and 4 irons and pick up a 7 wood. Nobody laughs at good results and knocking a 7 wood onto the green is much better than knocking a 3 iron into the woods.
Accept the fact that there are no magic wands. You can't buy a game, you can only buy the tools necessary to build one. Good clubs that fit are the foundation, not the sole answer. When you walk into a pro shop, keep it in your mind that the path towards improving your game leads to the guy giving lessons, not the racks of clubs or stacks of balls. Don't try to buy your way out of swing flaws, a new driver is not going to fix your slice and new irons will not keep you from hitting ground balls. This takes work and if you think you can write a check and have skill delivered to your door, save yourself the time and frustration. Just send the money to me and I'll spend it on beer, you'll get the same results and I'll be drunk and happy, so at least one of us will be better off.
Spend your money where it counts and where it'll do the most good. Get an oversized titanium driver with a graphite shaft that suits your game and swing speed, they really are a major breakthrough. Don't spend $400 on one though, that's insane. You can get one far superior to that for $150 or less. That's money well spent. And don't be afraid to get one with plenty of loft. The pros might be playing drivers with 8-10* loft, you should be 11-12* and perhaps even more. Be honest with yourself, the slower you swing the more you'll benefit from added loft. Unless you're a single digit handicapper or less, you should not be paying more than $22 for a dozen balls. There are plenty of excellent balls in the $15-$22 range. You need to be a really good player to get the true performance out of a ProV1 or Nike One and if you're not highly skilled you won't be any better with a $45 ball than you could be with a $15 ball. Go for low compression, for swing speeds under 105MPH (that's almost everyone) you can hit a Maxfli Noodle or Dunlop LoCo farther than a ProV1x. Fight against the inclination to spend more.
That's about it. I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I post this, so I'll add and edit as necessary.
