$160 Clubs and bag. See what you think.

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craigstardis1976

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Hi People,

In another thread that I was going to post photos of my first round in the desert on (did not happen, only had time to go to the range) I mentioned I had put together a set of clubs for under $200. Someone said they were interested in pictures so here they are (clubs are a bit different than the ones in my previous thread.)

Driver: Cleveland HiBore 16 Degrees R Flex. Fujikura Graphite. Very nice with my 85-90 mph clubhead speed. $25.00
7 Wood: Adams GT3. 21 Degrees R Flex Aldila Graphite. $10.00
4H and 5-PW Adams Idea R Flex Aldila Graphite. $59.00
52 Degree Vokey Raw Steel $8.00
58 Degree Cleveland 691 $8.00
Macgregor Muirfield Jack Nicklaus Blade Putter. $25.00
Ping Hoofer 2 $25.00

Total: $160.00

The driver was purchased from PGA Tour Superstore, the rest from a used spots gear chain called Play It Again Sports here in Phoenix, Az. I doubt I could have got better quality clubs at such a bargain elsewhere.

Craig.

PS I cant work out how to add photos...sorry!
 
Not bad at all.

I have thought it would be a good thing, given the perceived expense of starting golf, if GM did a (regular) feature on good second hand gear or even a challenge to give 3-4 staff members various budgets to get themselves a full set of gear (clubs, bag and shoes) just to show what can be done on a limited budget. Would make a change from stuff on the latest £400 driver.
 
I'd say you have got yourself a pretty good set of clubs there, see you have gone for lots of loft with the driver which is good. Adams Idea are good irons too.
 
MashieNiblick said:
Not bad at all.

I have thought it would be a good thing, given the perceived expense of starting golf, if GM did a (regular) feature on good second hand gear or even a challenge to give 3-4 staff members various budgets to get themselves a full set of gear (clubs, bag and shoes) just to show what can be done on a limited budget. Would make a change from stuff on the latest £400 driver.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea IMO. While I enjoy reading about and drooling over the latest tech, I'm not going to be interested in buying any of it in the near future. A top gear style challenge to get a set on a budget with accompanying reviews would be fantastic.
 
thesheriff said:
This is a great idea IMO. While I enjoy reading about and drooling over the latest tech, I'm not going to be interested in buying any of it in the near future. A top gear style challenge to get a set on a budget with accompanying reviews would be fantastic.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the club manufacturers trying to sell their latest models and paying handsomely for advertising space in GM would welcome that....
 
either todays golfer or golf world did this exact challenge in one of their last two issues...

really wasn't all that interesting... didn't really tell you anything that you couldn't learn from a 10 min browse on ebay
 
I cannot comment on whether GM would lose advertising revenue by such an experiment but it is a double sided coin.

Major manufacturers charge a premium for their product and tout it as the latest and greatest with often dubious claims about a clubs performance. Many of their business models are centered around paying large amounts of money to touring professionals to use their latest products. Someone has to ultimately foot the bill and in large part that is the average golfer and that has to be acknowledged by anyone reviewing equipment.

Benross, a brand I had never heard of until I came here seem to perennially win the best value or suchlike named reward for their equipment but never the best of the best. Though I am sure their equipment is as well made and the same quality as the likes of TM, Titleist and Callaway, the fact they do not pay huge amounts of cash to put their gear in the hands of tour players is symptomatic to me of the fact the image a golf brand has as being "as used on tour" is alive and well in club golfers who seem happy to foot the bill...or reviews in golf magazines are just rigged to always feature and compliment those who pay the largest advertising fees....which is it and where is journalistic integrity if the latter is the case?

A different angle to this is the fact it is the golf manufacturers themselves who have caused such a glut of used clubs to be available at cheap prices by shortening product cycles and having to heavily discount existing lines to move stock. When that stock doesn't move (and you see this all the time in the USA) the price of used equipment falls further as golf stores struggle to sell anything but because of their contracts with the big companies have to buy the latest products to keep their accounts open.

The fact remains it is very possible to get high quality used equipment very cheaply and this has to be good at growing a game on a grassroots level. It also gives major manufacturers a free way of getting their gear in the hands of someone new (I will now look out, for example, at Cleveland Drivers and wedges) who can be sold up should they wish to go the new equipment route.

I do think there is a whole market out there in equipment to cater for the club golfer, be it used or new who is not especially interested in using the clubs that so and so on tour plays. But who is addressing that need in the market place?

And can someone please explain to me the attraction of scotty cameron putters to me? It seems like they are high end boutique putters who people have a semi religious belief in their apparent superior qualities despite the fact they seem to copy the design of every other putter ever created and charge an arm and a leg for it?
 
craigstardis1976 said:
And can someone please explain to me the attraction of scotty cameron putters to me? It seems like they are high end boutique putters who people have a semi religious belief in their apparent superior qualities despite the fact they seem to copy the design of every other putter ever created and charge an arm and a leg for it?
Click to expand...

I can only speak for myself but my Scotty looks nice, feels nice and I putt well with it. I bought it new a few years back from our club pro for about half the price of the latest driver using some windfall money. Being a bit of a Mizuno fanboy I did think about getting a Bettinardi, but I just liked the Scotty fractionally more.

For me it was as much about indulging myself with a bit of affordable luxury in relation to my hobby for a relatively small sum. I'm never going to own a Rolex or a Jaguar but I can have a Scotty.

Everything else in my bag was either heavily reduced new old stock or second hand.
 
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