Golf Confessions

The golf club business has grown tremendously over the past 15 years.  In the years prior to this explosion the golf industry was dominated by the likes of Wilson, Macgregor, Spalding and Hogan.  When you go into the huge golf discount stores these names are hard to find.  They have been replaced with Mizuno, Callaway, Taylormade, Ping, Bridgestone.  These club manufacturers have also gotten into the ball business and shoes. 

The golf industry has grown world wide.  China may be one of the new frontiers with the likes of Russia.  These countries were slow to get into the golf course business, but they are coming on strong.  With their huge populations there is a lot of room for growth.

There are several places that one can find great values on excellent used golf equipment.  Several golf stores in all areas usually take trade-ins on golf equipment.  This offers shoppers the oportunity to pick up good deals on used equipment.  I have a friend that will buy the latest set of irons, drivers, putters, fairway woods, or anything he thinks will help his game several times a year.  He always buys new equipment and invariably will trade it for something else within a few months if not days.  This constant buying and trading will offer some other golfer the opportunity to pick up a good deal on used golf equipment.  This used golf equipment so many times has hardly been used and is just like new.

Callaway golf also is a great source for used golf equipment.  Callaway will certify their used clubs before offering them for sell.  This will give the customer a feeling of security that he or she is getting a good peice of equipment.

Some golf businesses will offer a program to first time buyers and or junior golfers that the business will help the player trade up as the player matures or developes into a better player.  One of the most important things for a beginner is to have proper fitting equipment.  The better the fit, such as length and weight of the clubs  the better control the player will have.  This control of the club will help to develp better swings because the player will not be laboring with a club that is usually too heavy.  So many youngsters start off with clubs that have been cut down from their dad or mom’s sets and they are too heavy and this usually promotes an over the top move that may stick with the beginning player for a life time.

So there are a lot of places that you may find good deals on used golf equipment and you owe it to yourself or someone else that you are helping start in a game for life get some proper fitting equipment.

Callaway Golf is one of the top researchers and developers of golf equipment in the industry.  The founder of Callaway, Eli Callaway was very devoted to developing the best equipment for the amateur and professional.  I was caddying for a friend on the Senior Tour the year that Callaway made it’s debut on the tour.  Callaway,during the off season had gotten with several of the top players and introduced them to their clubs and encouraged them to try the new and innovative golf clubs.  A couple of these players were Bob Murphy and Jim Colbert.  These golf clubs reminded me of the first time I had seen Ping golf clubs several years prior.  They were certainly different if you were use to looking at the likes of the typical clubs on tour, such as Wilson Staff blades.

These modern clubs began to catch on very fast and a lot of the pros that had some skepticism at first really started to take note when they saw what kind of results these players were having.

Tom Wargo’s career was definetely influenced by the Callaway driver.  Tom was an average driver of the ball with the then conventional drivers.  But when Tom tried the more forgiving Callaway driver he gained a lot of confidence and was able to pursue a successful career on the senior tour.