Buying Discount Golf Clubs
Discount golf clubs are certainly a temptation for many golfers since the price of a complete new name brand set can be in the $1,500 or higher range these days. This article will discuss various ways of procuring discount golf clubs, and the pros and cons of doing so.
Know Yourself- Get Fitted Properly
Before laying down a chunk of cash on golf clubs, it is imperative that you know what clubs to look for. I suggest a club fitting be a certified professional club maker. That is an investment every serious golfer should make, but less than 10% actually do this. And by the way, trying out a couple of different clubs at a Demo-Day does not constitute a proper club fitting. If you purchase discount golf clubs and think you have saved a bundle, what good is it if the clubs are wrong for you? Thus, if you are looking for a discounted driver, for example, you should know exactly what kind of clubhead, loft angle, shaft, club length and grip are right for you. If you know all of this, then and only then does it behoove you to purchase any clubs, be they new, used, or discount golf clubs.
Ebay Auctions
I have heard that Ebay is the largest seller of used cars in the U.S. right now. I don&’t know if that is a fact for certain, but they sell a lot of golf clubs as well. A search today for &’golf clubs&’ yielded over 15,000 active auctions. So you have a lot to choose from on Ebay. You must know exactly what you are looking for, as discussed above. If you find just the right club or clubs, be sure to check out the rating of the seller. If the seller has good ratings from past auctions, it is probably safe to assume he or she is honest and you can send them money without much worry. If there is any doubt, forget it. You must be as confident as possible that the seller is honest. Of course this goes for any Ebay auction, not just for discount golf clubs. For your convenience, some Ebay auctions are listed on this web page and several others on this site. If you click an Ebay ad on our site and then make a purchase, we do make a small commission (full disclosure). This helps offset some of the costs to run the site and doesn&’t affect your purchase price in any way.
Golfsmith
I&’ve always liked Golfsmith and have built a good number of clubs using components purchased from them. They have an excellent web site with tons of information. You can certainly save money buying components from Golfsmith and building the clubs, if you are up for that. Golfsmith has a lot of good instructional information as well regarding club building. If you have had a proper club fitting and know what to purchase, this is a good option. It&’s really not that difficult. Golfsmith also has a trade-in service, and you can get a discount on a new set of clubs by trading in your old ones. This also means they have lots of pre-owned clubs for sale. Check out the pre-owned section of their site, and you can find some pretty good deals. You can pinpoint what you want by using the search box on the site. You have two levels of protection here, the established integrity of Golfsmith and the brand of the clubs your are buying.
Discount Golf Clubs at Pro Shops
I recently was in a local pro shop and they had a new Cleveland hybrid for sale for half price. The reason it was half price was because it was last year&’s model. Golf pro shops have outdated equipment on sale all the time because they want to get rid of old inventory. The company, Cleveland Golf in this case, surely made a few tweaks to the clubs from one year to the next, but there probably isn&’t anything close to revolutionary (unless you believe the marketing pitch), and last year&’s model will work just fine. But, as always, that&’s only the case if the clubs fit you.
Discount Web Sites
Watch out here. Many discount clone or knockoff clubs look good, but if you don&’t know better they were probably made in a low quality factory in China using inferior materials and workmanship. Unless you can be certain the clubs were made in a factory with high quality materials and manufacturing processes, it&’s best to pass on the deal. What we are looking for here are discount golf clubs, not garbage golf clubs.
And remember, get yourself a serious club fitting by a certified clubmaker. You&’ll get more out of your game whether you are buying the most expensive set of brand name clubs or a set of discount golf clubs. He can also probably get you into an excellent set of custom made clubs along with the fitting for about the price of just buying a brand name set without any club fitting. I also recommend reading Tom Wishon&’s excellent book &’The Search for the Perfect Golf Club&’.
