How much does it cost to make a golf club ?

[sydney greenstreet]

Anyone any idea how much it costs to make a club ? Is it similar to football tops where they are made for 3 or 4 pounds but sell for about £40.
My query does a £299 driver cost £50 to make ?

 

[Alex1975]

R&D is where the cost is at...

 

[fundy]

if you mean the basic cost of materials/labour then yes it probably does, however if you include r&d, player sponsorship, advertising costs, logistics etc then the figure gets an awful lot bigger

 

[la_lucha]

I think the cost may be in the development and not the production.

 

[slicer79]

I've heard before from a club pro that the stock shafts in the R11 driver are only somewhere around £6 to manufacture. Not sure how accurate or genuine that information is.

 

[duncan mackie]

Anyone any idea how much it costs to make a club ? Is it similar to football tops where they are made for 3 or 4 pounds but sell for about £40.

yes it's similar - it's not a commodity item at £299, it's branded merchandise and has a shelf life.

however, whilst in principle a significant proportion of the costs are common to all clubs, there are also differences in materials and process costs. R&D is generally spread across the product line so isn't a huge factor at the higher end.

you when have the costs of bought in grips and shafts.

but the biggest costs will be marketing and distribution, the latter incorporating the after sales support costs.

 

[drawboy]

When you are buying in other manufacturers parts eg grips shafts hosels and adhesive the costs are purely in the head. Shafts are less than a dollar each in bulk, grips probably less, hosels will be a few cents and assembly costs probably a couple of dollars at most in a Chinese factory. R&D...Hmmmmmn, nothing new under the sun it's all smoke and mirrors.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

You may have to view this in scale.
In the mid 1960's a £5.9/6 club cost 7/6d to make.

 

[moogie]

I have it on good info, ( from friend of a friend ) , that the R11s driver costs about £17 to produce

As stated previously, the R&D, the marketing, and the TOUR Sponsorship player deals, is where all the Cash goes, and why WE pay the price we do

 

[daymond]

We pay what the market will bear without reference to the life cost of the item divided by the number of units sold. More fool us I say.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

It is market forces and if you don't want to pay the price you don't buy it/them. I guess a lot is down to R&D and marketing costs but manufacturers still have to be wary of over egging the pudding and pricing themself out of the market

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

Top of the range non adjustable driver ie. Ping G20 - retail price £200+

MD Superstrong non adjustable driver - retail price £100

Both are good quality drivers that always come out well in group tests, the difference is Ping spend £M's sponsoring tour players whereas MD don't.

 

[Evesdad]

Which is why I buy 2nd hand or when a club has been preceded and going cheap. My irons I buy new but know I'll keep hold of them for along time, my x18s still going good and plenty of life left in them. I plan on changing in the next couple of years cash permitting!

 

[HawkeyeMS]

All this stuff about needing to cover R&D and marketing costs is nonsense, they sell drivers at £300 because people buy them, nothing more, nothing less. If they sold them at £150 they would make a healthy profit but if they can sell them for more then why not?

 

[Doon frae Troon]

R&D is where the cost is at...

Not so sure about that.
More marketing, advertising and promotion methinks.

 

[dufferman]

The new Ping g20 driver is £250ish?

The new Ping Special edition Bubba Pink G20 is £350+

They can charge that extra £100+ because they know people will buy it because they want the association with Bubba. Just like people want the association with the brand Ping & their sponsored players. Hence MD being cheaper (as the previous example states)

R&D does bump the cost up a bit, but not enough to go from £17 cost of build to £250 RRP, surely?

 

[chris661]

The new Ping g20 driver is £250ish?

The new Ping Special edition Bubba Pink G20 is £350+

They can charge that extra £150+ because they know people will buy it because they want the association with Bubba. Just like people want the association with the brand Ping & their sponsored players. Hence MD being cheaper (as the previous example states)

R&D does bump the cost up a bit, but not enough to go from £17 cost of build to £250 RRP, surely?

I think the Bubba thing is to do with the charity angle.

 

[Fader]

The Bubba Pink is for charity, the additional price goes to the charity and the reason they only released a limited edition of them so as not to flood the market.

Plus £250 for a G20 is a bit steep where you getting that price from, I paid £180 for mine brand new at my local range,

 

[dufferman]

Didn't know about the WHOLE extra amount going to charity, my bad.

My costs are from American Golf - however, I look (dream) at so many clubs maybe I'm getting my prices in a twist!!