By Dennis Burkey

My partner Dan says I’m a tightwad. I prefer the term ‘thrifty’, it sounds better. But you should see Dan – he gets more for his money than just about anybody I know. But it is good that both of us are so tight.

Did you ever wonder why a set of pro line clubs is so shockingly expensive?

Here is a quick story that really ticked off Dan and me.

Every year we go to Orlando in January for the big Golf Expo. It is only for those in the business. We scour the floor looking for great club designs that work to improve your game. We also spend about 10% of our time at the big high dollar club companies’ exhibits to see their new lines.

The expo is colossal! Covers literally acres in the Orlando Convention Center! Thousands of exhibitors big and small who have anything to sell to golfers pay for display booths. Those of us in the golf business can see what the vendors have. Believe me; the expo has everything from clubs, clothing, carts and tees to anything you could imagine.

The big high dollar club makers do not have display booths – they have display regions. The display areas they have are mega-size. That is OK so far. Big companies need lots of display area.

Their displays themselves are beyond what you would ever dream! They could buy a house – a pretty big house at that – for the money they put into their displays! They have two story displays with walk-up stairs built in. They have custom made hardwood display cabinets throughout. I remarked to one of their sales reps that the display must have set them back $100,000.00.

She replied, “Just a bit more than double that!!” I think she was trying to impress us. She did!

All for a THREE DAY expo!

“Gee, that’s a lot of money for a three day expo,” I said to the rep. Dan and I walk away trying very hard not to show what we really felt. They could cut the display by three fourths, not have a two story extravaganza and still be every bit as effective in showing their new line!

But, believe me; ‘thrifty’ is not in their vocabulary!

Who pays for that extravagance? Who picks up the tab for this lavish lifestyle? You do, every time you buy one of their clubs, you pay for it!

Don’t believe the hogwash

We walked into the display area of a major high dollar club manufacturer. Dan picked up the five iron off one of the racks. Here comes the sales rep. “Did you notice the tungsten inserts on the sole?” he asked.

“What do they do?” asked Dan. “They lower the center of gravity,” the sales rep told Dan.

“How?” Here we go; Dan is going to ask him to actually explain this.

“The head has three holes drilled out and tungsten inserts are put in. That lowers the center of gravity.” Now, that didn’t really answer Dan’s question, did it.

Again, “But how does that lower the center of gravity?”

He told Dan, “Tungsten is heavier than steel; replace a bit of steel with tungsten and the result is a lower CG (center of gravity)”.

Here comes Dan’s very logical question. “How much heavier is tungsten because you take out the weight of the steel to put in the tungsten and wouldn’t you get exactly the same results anyway just by making the sole about a half a millimeter wider to add weight even making it with 100% steel?”

The sales rep’s reply tells exactly how the high dollar club companies think, “But then what would we advertise? Come on guys, if we don’t change it, we can’t sell last year’s model as this year’s ‘new and improved’ model.”

What he means is, “We’ve got to sell the saps something to keep up this lifestyle.”

We are firm believers in advancing club technology. But when the high dollar club companies make changes just for the sake of being able to advertise something as new, that’s just plain hogwash!

But they do it so they can try to talk you into a new set of clubs.

You save money because we are so tight with our money

It is exactly that, “We got to sell them something,” attitude that gets to us! Why not be honest. Why make changes just for the sake of selling you something you don’t need and won’t help your game one bit!

When we buy a club or club components, they are 100% right on. They are weighted correctly to improve your game and be easier to hit. That’s the bottom line. If a new improvement is discovered, you will have it. But we promise – it will be a genuine improvement, not just something new to sell.

We do not ever spend money freely. We make a nickel work!
That way you always get, not just a good deal, from us – you get a great deal on clubs!