Selling Golf Clubs

[frankbmd]

No I don't have any golf clubs for sale, but merely a comment or two about golf club marketing.

Obsolescence - The major manufacturers produce a new line of golf clubs every year and sometimes more than one. They try to convince you each year that the clubs you bought 1-3 years ago are obsolete. Clubs that sold for $500 2-3 years ago can usually be purchased new for less than half of that if you can find them and have the patience to wait.

Performance - Distance is the chief selling point in new drivers. Each year the new driver is at least 10 yards longer than last year's model. In 1995 my average drive was 220 yards. For the last twenty years I have faithfully purchased the "new" driver. Now in 2015 my average drive is 420 yards.
My 420 yard drives unfortunately have caused my handicap to increase, because now I am able to hit the ball deeper into the woods.
Actually I prefer to use a demo driver for several weeks (or months) each year and with an adequate trial on the course have been generally convinced that it is no better than my old one.

Gimmicks - This is what I call the selling point "shift". Each year the "new" club features revolutionary new technology that addresses some aspect of ball flight. Each year it is a different argument without reference to the selling point of last year's club. One year it's all about optimizing your "launch angle", the next year your club face has to have a better "coefficient of restitution" (and still be legal), the next year it's all about controlling the "spin" that club imparts on the ball, and then you need a larger "sweet spot" and so forth and so on.

Demo Days - Go to your driving range on demo days to try out the "new" clubs. Invariably, if you stay long enough, you will find a club that seemingly works for you. You hit 20 shots in a row more consistently than you ever have in your life and you order the club. Once your payment has been made and the club is in your bag, it will never perform that well again.

Doesn't it make sense that if the revolutionary new advance in a golf club's design is truly revolutionary, that that club would serve you well for far more than one year?

Actually I do have some golf clubs for sale. I bought a new putter on Ebay last year for $9 (with a few Ebay bucks thrown in) and I am putting better than ever. A friend of mine bought a new driver last year at one of those demo days. Six weeks later he didn't like it and bought the previous year's model. He gave me the current year's model. It really isn't any better than my 6 year old model, but I now have a larger sweet spot, better launch angle and my coefficient of restitution is almost illegal, and I know that when my ball is headed over the "out of bounds" stake that it is not spinning as much as it used to.