Tech Tuesday: Let’s Talk About Expensive Golf Clubs!
In this video, Rick and I look at the recent surge in super-expensive golf clubs and the premium golf ball market.
This past Monday, I played in the U.S. Amateur local qualifier at Rock Creek Country Club in Portland, Oregon. A full tee sheet from 7:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., the top 11 scores would make it to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying.
I teed off at 10:48 a.m.. With the 7:30 am tee time, you can get a feel for the leaders’ pace, and they were off and running on the challenging setup at Rock Creek.
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Getting to the highlight of the round on the par five 17th, a drive up the left side and 212 yards left to the front hole location. I took out a 5-iron with plans of middle of the green. The ball ended up 8 feet left of the hole, pin high. A slight downhill putt dropped in for an eagle 3 on the 17th. With the cut line looking to be anywhere from -2 to even par. This was the boost I had been waiting for all day.
With making par from the trees on 18, it was time to wait for a potential playoff with a posted score of one under par 71.
Three hours later, it was playoff time. 8 players for 6 spots. I made par on the playoff hole, which was good enough to advance to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying in July. USGA qualifiers sure deliver on all of the emotions in golf!
Club Junkie
Building my 2026 gamer WITB: Ranking the contenders and new putter projects – Club Junkie Podcast
The annual What’s In The Bag build is underway, and on this episode of Club Junkie, Brian breaks down the clubs currently leading the race for a spot in his 2026 gamer setup. From drivers and fairway woods to irons, wedges, and shafts, he ranks the equipment that’s performing best and explains what’s separating the front runners from the rest of the field.
Brian also heads into the workshop to discuss several putter projects currently on the bench. From head options and shaft choices to build ideas and testing plans, he shares what he’s working on and which putters could become serious contenders for the bag this season.
If you’re a gear junkie who loves equipment testing, club building, and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect setup, this episode is for you.
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Club Junkie
Tour Edge Exotics mini driver review + TaylorMade Spider ZT Max first look – Club Junkie
On this episode of Club Junkie, I put the new Tour Edge Exotics Mini Driver to the test and break down the performance, forgiveness, distance, and where it fits compared to a traditional driver or strong fairway wood. If you have been curious about adding a mini driver to the bag, this one is worth a look.
I also dive into the new TaylorMade Spider ZT Max putter that was recently spotted and discuss the growing zero torque putter trend. Plus, there is a closer look at the new Project X Titan Yellow shaft showing up on the PGA Tour and what makes it different from other profiles currently out there.
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CBC
Jun 12, 2017 at 7:29 pm
I havent posted a full review on the epic club yet, but i did get to hit a sample on GC2 in a local golf galaxy.
I’ll let the results speak for them selves, I took 4 swings a piece with a stock Epic (non pro version) and 4 swings with a stock Apex, both were the stock stiff shaft, standard specs.
Here’s the photo I took of the screen…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rd5gxjlyd3mgtaa/IMG_3528.JPG?dl=0
Can you guess which ones are with the Epic and which ones are with the Apex? I doubt it. Also keep in mind, if the distances seem a lil high for the “clubhead speed”, which was calculated cause the unit did not have HMT, its probably because I live at altitude and the store probably had the GC2 set up to acct for that.
Granted this is a really small sample, but in my limited testing there was no noticeable difference in ball flight performance. But if you feel like shelling out 2x-3x more for a set and it makes you happy go for it…but if it were my choice i’d get the apex set or whatever other pretty premium set you want and spend the extra 1500-2000 dollars on lessons or on a bucket list golf course weekend.
Tom54
Jun 7, 2017 at 10:11 am
Loved the video. With the new fad of 2-3 thousand dollar sets of clubs I’m afraid the $100 dz premium golf ball is not far behind. There will always be a niche in the market for ultra priced golf stuff. Build it, price it high, and they will come
Kenn
Jun 7, 2017 at 4:35 pm
There are more suckers per acre/hectare on a golf course than anywhere else in the world.
Jack Nash
Jun 7, 2017 at 9:27 am
“Tech Tuesday: Let’s Talk About Expensive Golf Clubs”.
Let’s not, and say we did. You wonder why the sport is fizzeling out along with club manufacturers?
The Price Tag!
Matt
Jun 7, 2017 at 5:01 am
A good comparable with golf is racing bicycles. Once you get to a certain level of equipment, say a $1500-$2000 Giant or Trek road bike featuring a manufactured in Taiwan carbon fibre frame, carbon wheels and Shimano 105 or Ultegra components, the weight and performance will be effectively as good as a pro level bike costing $10,000 USD more. So, what do you see middle aged men who’ve never competitively raced a bicycle, buying and showing off down at the cafe? You guessed it, the mega pricey pro bike.
Joe
Jun 7, 2017 at 5:30 pm
The bicycle example is a good one. But the more expensive bike is still objectively better, even if just infinitesimally so (probably 100 grams lighter or whatever). I’ve yet to see any objective evidence that (insert expensive brand here) irons are better than (insert mainstream brand here) irons.
How about diamonds? A diamond from a guy on 47th street in Manhattan is going to cost a lot less than the identical diamond from Tiffany’s. They can be objectively identical in terms of karats, color, clarity, etc. But the Tiffany one comes in that nice turquoise colored packaging with that giant Tiffany’s logo on it.
Tiffany’s makes a lot of money selling diamonds….
Mark
Jun 6, 2017 at 7:45 pm
I’ve always thought that a guy who wears a hat while driving a car rather misses the point!
Desmond
Jun 9, 2017 at 6:31 am
Hat hair is not pretty