Quality Golf Equipment: High Octane or Diesel

Like about 90% of the hackers in the world, I have spent thousands of dollars on the illustrious search for the perfect set of golf clubs.  And like this same group of rabid golfer, it did not take long to figure out that it wasn’t going to happen.   And I am almost convenience that it is by design by the golf manufacturers to never happen.  

What I was told from the very beginning of my search for my very first set of clubs, by every golf professional who I asked what golf clubs I should purchase, was ‘to get the best clubs I cannot afford and I will come out better in the long run.’  Man, I wish I had taken them up on that advice 10 years ago.  But, us hackers, we are a stubborn bunch and are determined to find a set of clubs for nothing if all possible.  It is just the way everyone is.  It is the same mentality people use in buying a car or groceries.  But, purchasing golf equipment is different.

Buying golf equipment is more like buying gas…yes, you are going to pay for the high grade that keeps you engine cleaner, running at lower RPM, produces less pollution.  Or you can buy the lower grade bargain basement fuel that is usually what was literally scrapped off the bottom of refiner’s storage tanks which clogs up you fuel injector’s makes you really have to hammer the accelerator and belches out more pollutants than a coal mine.

Yew, that is kinda of a political analogy, but I am sure it has painted a picture of the variance of quality amongst golf clubs and what poor quality clubs can do to you learning the game and enjoying the game.   

There are the hand forged irons that are hand forged for a reason…to produce a very high quality metal that does not have as many air bubbles in the metal making it very solid.  You have new graphite shafts made from composites material that is used in spacecrafts that produce preciously calibrated shafts that will flex at a specific point in the shaft and produces very little torque or twist in the shaft when swung.   And can be made so light that exact measurements of their weight have to be made on the atomic level. 

Then there are the lower quality case-iron clubs made quickly and by the thousands at a time…with a variance of weight between any two club heads measuring in +/- 4 grams… put on a shaft that was mass produced offshore like bullet casing (and was probably made in the same factory as bullet casings), glued to the clubhead with Elmer’s glue.

The difference is clear to me now.  What was happening every time I bought a cheap-o set of irons was I was buying them in hopes of getting a club that would fix my golf swing…the worst thing to do.

Quality fitted clubs are quality fitted for a reason.  First the uniformed weigh of each club produces the same swing correctly and feels correctly.  When it swings correctly and feels correctly it produces a pure shot.  Then the by-product of that is that it builds your confidence so you relax and advance your learning of the game and your skill level making the experience pleasurable...aaaahhhh.

Then as many of you can contest who buy clubs off the shelf because they felt so good in the show room or because Annika is hitting them or Phil told you would be a schmuck if you don’t swing his clubs.  You usually are buying clubs that were put together in three minutes on an assembly line and if you ever get the chance to be at the store to get a fresh shipment of the clubs, they usually got to the store from the manufacturer so quick you could grab the head of some of the clubs and twist off the head from the shaft because the glue has not dried yet…  What these lower quality massed produced clubs produce is the person swinging the club never getting the feel of what the correct swing feels like and when they hit the ball they usually hit the first one of two pretty purely with one club and never hit it the same with another club.  What happens then, since the clubs are not truly fitting the swing, the golfer starts to develop an abnormality in their swing to try to overcome the flaw that is inherent to the quality of he club.  That is the reason you can smoke your five iron and can’t get the ball off the ground with your four iron.  You think, there is only ¾ of inch difference in these clubs, why can’t I hit the four like the five, or the seven or the wedge?  Well, quality is the issue here.  Most, if not all, of the time these clubs do not match in either weight, or flex of shaft or exact length.  All of this produces you to adjust your swing to be able to hit the ball.  Then what happens you get into situations of uncertainty where you ask yourself…’OK, last time I hit this puppy to the right, so I need to strengthen up my grip a little and …’ What happens is you just changed your swing to match that one club instead of you having the same swing for every club… This is the NUMBER one problem hackers who go the cheap-o way develop because of the lack of quality in their clubs.

Now, you should be asking, why do club manufacturers do this?  Why can’t club manufactures build clubs of high quality at cheap prices? These are very good questions and since I am not a golf manufacturer I can do what you are as good as I am doing and guess it is because they want to make a lot of money.  And in this industry where there are billions of dollars spent on golf clubs some are probably making clubs just to make money and have not thought on the quality…hum ya think?

What I suggest is to keep your golf bag full of the High Octane clubs from the very beginning of starting to play the game.  If you have been playing for a while go get a brand new game that uses high octane quality fuel.  Go to a golf school or to a series of lessons with the goal to find the best high octane brand of clubs to drive your new game.   And to make sure the High Octane clubs are not mixed with diesel fuel to improve the profit margins, get your golf clubs custom made from a full service golf professional.  I am not saying to not shop around and try a tank full of one manufacturer’s high octane before chosen, just make sure you are getting your equipment from one of the major refiners and not from the local truck stop where they buy the cheapest clubs by large volumes so they can offer those huge discounts to golfers who think they are driving away with a tank of high octane for a real deal.

Every golfer should strive to want to enjoy the game of golf like making a drive through the scenic Big Bend area of Texas, or down HWY 101 close to Bandon Dunes, Oregon.  Your game should be enjoyable and relaxing as the scenery.  You can’t do that if you are broke down on the side of the road in Badlands New Mexico at 2am using a bad set of cheap-o clubs…. 

This is what getting cheap-o golf clubs are going to get you…believe me; I can’t tell you how many sunrises I have seen from the side of the road in Badlands with the golf clubs that I have bought over the years.    Thank goodness I made the jump to high octane where I am not hitting greens in regulation and enjoying my ‘point and shoot’ way of playing golf…

Think about buying your golf clubs like you would when making an investment.  Don’t just let the demo days fool you into thinking that this is the club for me.  Yaw, looks are important because there is nothing worst than looking down at a club head that looks like an ashtray someone glued to a stick…  Just do your homework, look at the top three club makers line of clubs and then look at which of them is doing more advertising on TV and stay the hell away from them..  More than likely the more advertising these big boys are using is due to them trying to shove a load of crap out on the market to pay the endorsement contracts of all of those pros and advertisements.

Look at quality and buy quality and you will not be wasting your money…

 

Scot Duke

President

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com

 

‘My Blog’ http://businessgolf.blogspot.com 

http://businessgolf.wordpress.com 

 

Author of: ‘How To Play Business Golf’, From The Boardroom To The Fairways…

The best investment you can make for your business…

http://www.innovativebusinessgolf.com/business_golf/cb_order.html