Tom, > OR, a club that they sell for such a cheap > price that it virtually carries a 'label' that says to the customer and > any other golfer who sees the set, "I am a cheap piece of junk that my > owner bought because he was too cheap to really pay for a GOOD set".
Sorry, but I can't agree with your condescending remarks about "cheap prices" equating to cheap clubs...if that's what you meant. There are some of us who build clubs for fun and charge a token price for our efforts. I do all you say a good clubmaker should do, and though I don't have a lot of expensive equipment to fit my customers, I do have a lot of experience doing it for my friends and those I play with on our 3 community courses. It does help to know a customer's game. I may have 150 customers (men and women) and keep adding a few every year by word of mouth only. I'll stack the performance of any club that I build against any OEM any time, though mine may not be as graphically co-ordinated, or the ferrules polished quite as well. However, they're better fit to the customer's needs, better aligned and better matched. And, I can instruct my long driver customers how to adapt their swing to the length successfully...if they'll do it. As I said in another post, I don't care if the components are over $100 or more, my charge to put together a single club is $15, and maybe a bit less when I have to put together a set and can get some more time efficiency. I keep records, but I don't want to make a profit, I don't want the hassle of state taxes, business licenses, etc. I want to remain a hobbyist only, even though I enjoy making a lot of clubs for a lot of old friends and new friends. In fact, I find my kind of clubmaking a way to make a lot of new friends. And, having the stable of customers that I do have, allows me to experiment in directions few other clubmaker would risk or have time to do. > Personally, the main reason I have always campaigned against clones and > clubmakers who sell sets for cost + 10% is because that tears down the > real essence of what component clubmaking COULD be. When you think about > it at its most base form, component clubmaking has always held the > promise of the very BEST set a golfer could buy. Think about it - a one > on one fitting session between the clubmaker and golfer - what OEM can > offer that? Getting to choose from a big variety of heads, shafts and > grips - what OEM can offer that? And being there with the clubmaker to > tweak, adjust and fine tune when the set is built - what OEM can offer > that? I do all of that and am a fairly good instructor for my senior customers. I do it for fun, certainly don't charge enough to cover my time and sometimes do it for free. I agree completely with your assertion that custom clubmaking holds "the promise of the very BEST set a golfer could buy." I don't agree that a "cheap" club is necessarily a poor club, nor that it tears down the "essence of what clubmaking could be." Clubmaking is everything you suggest it could be for me...and I'm cheap. :-) Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
