ShopTalk: Real Clones from China

[Harry F. Schiestel]

I'm hearing a lot of business travellers going to China are coming back with a full 14+ piece set of either Callaway or TM's with matching OEM golf bags.  As the story goes, apparently they have duplicated the tooling and sent to other casting houses, so it doesn't even look like a clone, but rather the real deal.  They are paying around $200 USD for full sets with golf bag.  Today, I sold a custom set for $1,600 CDN, and his boss just came back from China with his $200 Callaway set with extra Two Ball putters.  Other executives have similar stories to tell.  I hope the buying public don't think this is the new price point for a full set of clubs with bag.  Hopefully the OEM's will jump all over this, but it might be hard to do legal battles in China. Thanks Harry S