Ed Mitchell, PGA
Editor The January 2007 issue of Golf Magazine makes the claim on the cover “You can buy a better game, we guarantee it!” It further states, “Lower scores without changing your swing.” Now that may sound like a tall order for anyone. I’m sure the thousands of teaching professionals in the PGA are cringing at such statements. They have every right to be skeptical. They make their living teaching this great game of ours, so how can anyone claim you can buy a better game.

Needless to say, golfers are always trying to buy improvement with the latest and greatest golf clubs. The club manufacturers spend millions convincing golfers that their newest designs have innovations designed to cure their bad swing habits. How many times have we heard that the newest clubs will hit the ball farther and straighter? When you multiply the many generations of these claims, I am surprised that someone hasn’t shot an eighteen-hole score of 50 or less. Yes, I know there have been several competitive scores in the high 50’s. But if you add up the 10 to 20 yards you are suppose to gain every time you change drivers, you should be driving every hole. If you one putt a few of those you could shoot 30. Now that would take all the fun out of the game.

When you enter the magazine you find the substantiation for these claims starting on page 105. Golf Magazine reports on five golfers who participated in exclusive tests that proved custom fitted clubs improved their scores. They claim that in more than 90 percent of their tests, improved performance was reported with custom fit clubs.

I can personally see where these tests prove to be factual. There is no question that proper loft, lie, and face angles improve shot making. It is also true that clubs that match for flex, length, grip, swing weight, etc. will perform more consistently.

What Golf Magazine has reported confirms what a lot of golf industry professionals already know. I believe their mission was to take this message to the golfers. That message is that club performance does matter. Buying clubs “off the rack” is not the best way to approach game improvement.

The entire golf industry is embracing club performance upgrades. Consumers are demanding the same opportunity for improved club performance like the tour professionals get every week on tour from the club manufacturer’s tour repair vans.

Most retailers and some golf professionals are offering club performance upgrades. PGA Tour Super Stores offer extensive club performance upgrades. Dick’s Sporting Goods stores are now offering the same. Edwin Watts, Golf USA and Pro Golf stores offer complete performance upgrades. Yes, there are other retailers who offer it too along with club makers and as I mentioned some golf professionals.

With such a demand for this service who better than a PGA Professional to offer it? They are viewed by the golfing public as the authority on golf equipment. So why not employ PGA members for these services. Well, you guessed it; Dick’s is the largest employer of PGA Professionals. PGA Tour Super Store and Edwin Watts also employ PGA members.

What about the club professional? There are many professionals who now offer club performance upgrades and it has revived their golf club sales, not to mention the profit generated from the upgrades. They have seen the trends and are pursuing it.

If any professional today claims he cannot compete for club sales, it is simply because he is not providing the service that golfers want. They want the same service that the tour pros get. They want someone to give them some attention about how their golf club performance can be improved. They are not buying clubs on price alone. They are buying clubs for better performance.

We live in the greatest time of opportunity for PGA Professionals to reclaim golf club sales at their respective clubs. Golf retailers are no longer perceived by golfers as “discount stores.” The reason most golf clubs are sold at off-course stores is because of selection and service. Golf professionals have the same opportunity. It is now a level playing field. Play the same game and win your customers over with club performance service. Or you can go to work for a retailer. Either way, there is a great opportunity in golf club sales through club performance upgrades.

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