Equipment
Online golf equipment shopping is up 50 percent year-over-year, says Golf Datatech
Golf Datatech’s Serious Golfer Shopping & Purchasing Habits Study, published roughly every two years, is one of the industry’s most significant indicators of what’s going on at the heart of golf retail.
“Like most consumer shopping preferences in the United States, serious golfers’ choices about shopping for golf equipment or apparel have changed significantly over the past few years,” says John Krzynowek, a Partner in Golf Datatech LLC.
“The retail environment is rapidly evolving across all consumer products in the USA, and the purchasing of golf products is no exception. In fact, shopping for, and buying golf products is frequently a multi-step process. Gone are the days when golfers would buy without shopping for product features, as well as comparing prices. Today’s golfer is savvier about product life cycles and price/value relationships.”
Golf Datatech tapped over 2,500 golfers from its database, surveying multiple demographics, including: golf handicap, gender, facility played, geographic region, alpha consumers (those that buy products most frequently) and price points, along with a special investigation of online shopping habits.
The survey found online shopping for golf equipment is up more than 50 percent year-over-year. Just last year, a GPAU study found participants were most likely to make their next equipment purchase online just 13 percent of the time.
Interestingly, buying more equipment online hasn’t made consumers more impulsive: The average respondent said it takes him/her three months to pull the trigger on a new piece of equipment.
Also worth remembering in evaluating the increase in online sales: More than 100 brick and mortar golf shops have closed in the U.S. in the past year.
Krzynowek also says, “Purchase cycles in clubs have shortened slightly over the past few years, but still remain elongated from an historical point of view.”
Another tidbit: Here’s what Golf Datatech found with respect to average equipment purchase cycles.
- Drivers: 4 years
- Irons: 5 years
- Wedges: 4 years
- Putters: 6 years
Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D LS (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 TX
Irons: TaylorMade P770 (3), TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 10 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold X100
Wedges: TaylorMade Prototype (50-SB09), TaylorMade MG5 (56-HB12, 60-LV07)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400
Putter: TaylorMade TP Juno
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Christiaan Maas’ clubs here.
TaylorMade Golf’s MySpider program underwent a substantial overhaul over the last month. Firstly, the company launched the option to customize the Spider ZT model, and now the program has returned with the MySpider Tour and MySpider Tour X.
The revamped page now gives golfers complete control over every visual and functional detail of their putter on the popular Tour and Tour X head, with every cosmetic idea thought of. In MySpider Tour, golfers can choose from four head finishes, 16 paint fill colors, nine Surlyn face insert colors, three aluminum insert options, six sightline configurations, and four hosel options — L-neck, small slant, double bend, center shaft. Six sightline options are available in MySpider Tour, including the optically engineered True Path alignment system. MySpider Tour X gives builders the option of four head finishes, four hosel configurations, and five sightline options, also including True Path alignment.
One of the more interesting features of the new MySpider program is the availability of three distinct face insert options. Along with the usual Surlyn Pure Roll insert trusted by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, which can be customized from nine colors, golfers can now also select firmer options. Two are offered with the black aluminum Pure Roll insert, slightly firmer than the traditional insert, or for the firmest feel, golfers can choose from two colors of milled aluminum inserts.
Another fun addition to the MySpider Tour is the ability to use the “Tommy Sightline.” The custom alignment aid design, which was first drawn onto Tommy Fleetwood’s putter by PGA Tour Rep James Holley, is based on the milled sightline on his Spider ZT head. There are five shorter lines on the left and right of a longer central line serving as the traditional short line alignment aid.
See below for the full specifications sheet for MySpider Tour and Tour X:
MySpider Tour
MySpider Tour X
Equipment
Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory
In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.
McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.
So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?
Driver
2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)
McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.
What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)
The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.
Fairway woods
2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X
The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.
The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.
Irons
2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.
With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.
Wedges
2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)
Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.
Putter
2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X
Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.
Ball
2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)
As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.
Grips
2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC
Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.
What’s the story behind Webb Simpson’s custom-stamped irons?
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Mad-Mex
Oct 29, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Yet on another article online shopping and K-Sigs get bashed,,,,
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Oct 11, 2017 at 1:09 am
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moses
Sep 22, 2017 at 12:03 pm
Buying last year’s model or buying used = big’money savings.
I got a used 917D2 from Globalgolf for $230. No way in heck I’m paying $450 for a new club that’s worth $250 after I play a few rounds.
Justin
Sep 20, 2017 at 6:12 pm
M2 driver AND 3 wood, new in plastic, globalgolf.com for $299… what would that retail for? $649!!! you tell me who’s the asinine one
JCC
Sep 20, 2017 at 7:40 pm
Um no – not the 2017 model you moron. It’s $650 at global. My local shop sells that for $600. If you’re talking about the 2016 model then you’re trying to deceive people.
Justin
Sep 20, 2017 at 8:19 pm
I’m deceiving people or the manufacturers are deceiving people?????
JCC
Sep 20, 2017 at 11:01 pm
Show us where globalgolf is selling the 2017 M2 driver and fairway for $299. Prove it.
Justin
Sep 21, 2017 at 5:07 pm
ok i’m sorry i combined two arguments and you didn’t comprehend, 1. shop online 2. buy previous year models 3. SAVE MONEY
birdie
Sep 21, 2017 at 3:04 pm
lol blaming the manufacturer for you stupidity it seems
Mark
Sep 20, 2017 at 12:09 pm
Ok, with a sampling of 2500 from a population of 26,000,000 what is the confidece level and margin of error in the statistics?
Johnnythunders
Sep 19, 2017 at 8:50 pm
For all of you uniformed people saying all golf equipment sold on EBay is fake, get real. You have no idea the current state of how a very large portion of golf clubs are sold in the United States. And by the very manufacturers that also sell to brick and mortar. Callaway has a great preowned site, best trade-in prices, authentic certificates and there “like new clubs” are in a large number of cases, new. They have the number one selling driver now on there, Epic. And the prices are good but get really great when they have sales like ever other week. And guest were Callaway also sells clubs, right now they have 66,667 clubs listed on EBAY.. Mizuno is different they don’t have a preowned site but they sell clubs to lots of small internet dealers or brick and morter who sell on eBay, you place your order, it’s built by Mizuno and shipp d by them to you at a lower cost.
Now if you play Pings or Titelest they are still trying to control pricing especially Ping. So you have to pay way more to get your shiny new clubs.
And that’s the key lower cost, authentic clubs, faster. Retail stores are dead. The golf store is dead.
Internet has enabled a new retail model. Get on board.
SoloGolfer
Sep 20, 2017 at 6:08 pm
Only idjits buy a set of clubs online and just to brag about WITB. That’s why golf is the game for goofballs and gearheads.
JCC
Sep 20, 2017 at 7:46 pm
how do you know what lie angle you need? what shaft you need? what loft you need on drivers? keep acting in ways that will result in not being able to test clubs out. “the internet” isn’t selling clubs at 1/2 the price of a brick and mortar. that’s just not logical. most brick and mortars will price match if you give them the chance.
birdie
Sep 21, 2017 at 3:07 pm
anyone can go to a reputable fitter, get fit, and then buy the clubs online new or used.
no, we don’t need to go beat balls with random clubs at the closet golf galaxy to figure out what to buy. this is actually probably more detrimental as their launch monitors aren’t all that accurate to begin with.
Bert
Sep 19, 2017 at 7:39 pm
Why is it when eBay is mentioned I immediately think counterfeit? Maybe it’s because when the price of a set of irons is $1300 and you can get a new set on eBay for $600, something doesn’t seem correct. Some mfr’s are listing their authorized eBay Sellers. That’s a good thing for the buyer.
birdie
Sep 20, 2017 at 9:09 am
can’t help but laugh at those who think everything on ebay is fake. the joke is on you for paying retail prices when same clubs can be bought at a steep discount. your example is an exaggeration of course.
Boobsy McKiss
Sep 19, 2017 at 6:50 pm
Seems some people here are still in denial about the future of brick and mortar stores. Do we really need stats to tell us this? Amazon and other online retailers are growing quickly and so are the number of people buying from them. Sure it’s nice to support local from buying local, but it’s dumb to believe this is somehow going to stem the tide permanently. And a lot of people seem to believe they can stop the train.
Like it or not, the future is a lot of empty retail stores (not just in golf) and almost everything you buy will be from online retailers. Toys R Us just became the next victim of Amazon. Who is next? Best Buy is on the brink. And it will take some time (10-15yrs) but eventually the sporting goods stores will go too and that will be that for the in-store golf buying experience. Send all thank you cards to Amazon and Walmart.
Justin
Sep 19, 2017 at 4:25 pm
If you don’t buy online, you probably enjoy wasting money
JCC
Sep 19, 2017 at 7:26 pm
asinine comment
birdie
Sep 20, 2017 at 9:11 am
sorry, but he’s right. if you walk into a store and pay retail you are over paying. its that simple
surewin73
Sep 19, 2017 at 3:59 pm
If I know my specs I would be comfortable purchasing equipment at one of the larger sites (TGW, PGA Superstore, etc.). But I rather purchase from a local shop.
Thomas A
Sep 19, 2017 at 2:50 pm
I bought a set of brand new Wilson Staff v4 irons 4-GW on ebay for $330. Brand new, in the Wilson box with all the plastic head wrap and everything. Why the heck would I pay $900 in a store? Or even $650 when they get marked down after a product cycle?
JCC
Sep 19, 2017 at 8:09 pm
because they are probably fake or stolen. how do you logic out that you can buy clubs for 1/3 or even 1/2 the price online? do you honestly think there is that much margin in golf clubs? if you do then you’re a moron.
birdie
Sep 20, 2017 at 9:13 am
you couldn’t be more wrong. hope you enjoy wasting your money. yes, for a set of clubs that are one to two years old, the margin between online discounts and retail prices is huge. sometimes more than half.
I can walk into a retail store today, see the 716 ap2 irons still near their original price. online, i’d pay hundreds less for the same set.
continue assuming anything online is fake. its your money your wasting
birdie
Sep 20, 2017 at 9:15 am
lol you couldn’t be more wrong. enjoy wasting your money
JCC
Sep 20, 2017 at 7:48 pm
enjoy double posting like an idiot
BIG STU
Sep 21, 2017 at 3:23 am
SERIOUSLY??? Just had to say that and who in the hell would want to counterfit Wilson clubs to begin with?
RonMcD
Sep 19, 2017 at 2:25 pm
I suspect a majority of the online purchases is for balls and other such golf accessories. Buying club equipment online is moronic.
LaBraeGolfer
Sep 19, 2017 at 7:12 pm
This could very well be possible. I have made over 100 online purchases in the last 3 years buying used clubs, through various sites. I have been a club fitter so I know what my specs are and it is fun to try new equipment just to have something new in the bag. It doesn’t effect my scoring at all and I still go to lessons like any serious golfer.
Mark
Sep 19, 2017 at 2:21 pm
This is based off a sampling of 2,500 golfers from over 26 million golfers in the US. Real convincing.
JDR
Sep 19, 2017 at 2:30 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)
Boobsy McKiss
Sep 19, 2017 at 6:41 pm
+1 for your reply to Mr. Mark. LMAO
birdie
Sep 20, 2017 at 9:14 am
apparently you have no idea how poll sampling works.