The Average Serious Golfer Spends Nearly $900 A Year On Golf Clubs

[BHoover]

My wife has her sports and leisure account for running, spinning, gym memberships, yoga, booze, and more recently, ping pong. I have my sports and leisure account for golf, guitars, gym memberships, basketball, and booze. I can't see hers, and she can't see mine. It works wonderfully. Of course, we also have a joint booze account.

You also don't have children. My sports and leisure account is quickly turning into a children's sports and leisure account. I just hope their sports and leisure interests will include golf in the future.

[Jason Thurman]

You should get them golfboards!

[Josh Tarble]

And flatbilled hats!

[BHoover]

Way ahead of both of you. They will have GolfBoards, rangefinders, flat billed caps (in orange, of course), jogging pants, and high tops.

[Jason Thurman]

You're doing a great job. They're guaranteed to love the game.

[Dave McCollum]

This is like a golf confession session.  Mine would be books, not equipment.  Although last year, as my game continued it’s spiraling decent, I tried several remedies:

Quit for two weeks, then decide whether to quit altogether;
Lessons from the teaching pro I employ;
And finally, new clubs purchased at wholesale from the manufacturer.

The new clubs didn’t help except to revive my interest in seeing if they would.  However, letting others hit them sold several more sets.  Still, I doubt I spent the minimum.  I was amused to note that the new fairway woods replaced 2 that were 16 years old.  I agree with those that point out that spending $900 isn’t that difficult.  Some years ago, before a trip to Ireland, I hit up our reps for a raingear upgrade.    Nike sent a comp set, but Footjoy (Titleist) wanted $125 for their best.  When the gear arrived, the MSRP was, you guessed it, $900 for the Footjoy stuff!  $600 for the jacket alone.  It’s good stuff, but who the hell pays $900 for raingear?  Well, somebody must.  If you add in all the hats and stuff you buy with logos from top tier places that you give as gifts to your golf buddies, pretty easy to get there as well.

[Peter Pallotta]

Strange world, isn't it Dave?

Nicklaus won 14 majors not with a similar model of persimmon driver but with the exact same one .

Then drivers started costing $500 dollars, and a "new" one came out every six months.

And now rain gear -- rain gear for goodness sakes -- can cost $900!

On principle, do you know what I do when I play in the rain? I get wet...and after I finish playing I change into something dry

Peter
PS - I hope you keep playing golf. 

[Andrew Carr]

...If you add in all the hats and stuff you buy with logos from top tier places that you give as gifts to your golf buddies, pretty easy to get there as well.

[/size]
[/size]I easily blew through the $900 on logo gear from the places I was lucky enough to visit during 2015...  I hope I get the same invites in 2016 and I'll happily line those Head Pro's pockets again!

[Michael Graham]

I get that most "serious" golfers are likely to spend less than $900/£620 a year on new golf equipment but it is definitely becoming a lot easier to do so. Obviously you are likely to receive very different answers on GolfWRX than will on GCA.

Taylormade's (relatively) recent M1 driver sells for £400 in the U.K. A new Galvin Green waterproof suit will be around £600. More and more golfers regardless of ability are being custom fit for their new clubs. A new driver/fairway shaft alone from one of the high end manufacturers such as Oban, UST or Graphite Design can cost easily $500.

That's without trying to keep up with the Jones' and buying a new driver every six months when Callaway et al. release their latest and greatest.

[JLahrman]

Strange world, isn't it Dave?

Nicklaus won 14 majors not with a similar model of persimmon driver but with the exact same one .
pe you keep playing golf.

Between 1990 and 2002, Pete Sampras won 14 tennis Slams using one model of racquet, which dated to 1983.

Regarding my own spending on equipment, it's virtually zero. I bought a used driver back in 2007, some type of Titleist. I've got an Adams 3-wood and 5-wood that I bought in 2003. My irons are Titleists that I bought in 2006. My putter is a Ping Anser 4 that made its way into my bag in 1993; I forget how I even got it. No plans to change any of it.

I never buy golf balls.

I regrip my own clubs as needed, and get a new golf glove whenever the one I'm using falls apart. Unfortunately I don't play enough to need to replace either of those two items very often. Nor do I really qualify as a serious golfer.

[Dave McCollum]

Peter,

In Ireland, you just put on your raingear in the hotel and go play golf.  We played Lahinch in a 50 mph gale.  200 yards from the sea, the rain was salty.  We lasted 7 holes.  Guess what?  I was the only guy in our group that was dry under my $900 rainsuit.  If I lived there, I'd buy the best.  Here in the US high desert, it's just an amusing tale.  Both sets still work fine when I travel some four years later.  When it rains here, we head to the house to avoid the electricity.  There will be 300+ days a year when the sun shines.   

[John Kavanaugh]

Reason 21: He spends over $900 per year on golf equipment.


http://tinyurl.com/htskrp3

[Andy Stamm]

Nicklaus won 14 majors not with a similar model of persimmon driver but with the exact same one.

For what it's worth, Nicklaus did play the same 3 wood (a 693) for all his major wins (using it from around 1960 to 1996!!!). He did not however use the same driver. He frequently broke the necks and inserts. Of course he'd have them repaired and carry on, but he did change them as well using an SS1, an SS1 custom remake, a 693, and a 945 (all Macgregor from about 1950-1960) at various times.


He didn't change irons much either, and what did change was window dressing. The clubs, specs, etc. were essentially the same.

[Jay Mickle]

Does my, new to me, 1929 bulldog spoon count?

[Kalen Braley]

I think Phil started all this madness back in 2003... 

''He hates that I can fly it past him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment."

http://espn.go.com/golf/story?id=1503943

[JJShanley]

You should get them golfboards!

No he should have them caddy for them.  Call it The Hoover Scholarship. 

[Pete Lavallee]

Most golfers keep their iron sets and fairway woods an hybrids for several years. So even if you bought [size=78%]a new driver for $400 and 3 [/size][/size][size=78%]new wedges with fresh grooves for $360, you would still fall well short of $900? [/size]

[Keith OHalloran]

Didn't Parsons say he spent about 300k a year on clubs? Surely that would up the average even if everyone on GCA was truthful about their garage sale equipment.

[BHoover]

You should get them golfboards!

No he should have them caddy for them.  Call it The Hoover Scholarship.

That's not nearly hip enough. If you're wearing a flat billed cap, you need to be cruising the course on a GolfBoard, obviously.

[Jason Connor]

I probably haven't spent > $900 in one year since I bought my current irons in 2001.


But this may be a function of using the mean -- instead of the median.


I'm a statistics professor and I used to use the following example:  Ralph Sampson was a communications major at UVa.
In 1984, the Communications Department at UVa produced marketing materials that stated the average starting salaries of UVa communications dept was $160,000.


Of course that was a lot of $20k's plus Ralph Sampson.  The median would have been dramatically less.


I can't use that example any more because college students today have no idea who Ralph Sampson is (was).


Anyway, I still don't even believe the median is >900.  But the mean would be higher than you think since some people probably spend 5k+ per year.

[David Stamm]

No way in hell do I spend $900 a year in equipment.

[AChao]

I think this $900 number is reasonable but there are many other useful tidbits ...

1)  For example, someone may spend $5,000 in on year and not much for the next 5 ... two of my Dad's friends just spent $5,800 and $4,500 for clubs at Cool Clubs ... I doubt they will buy much in the future.

2)  The people who spend more than $900 probably spend quite a bit more than $900 per year.

3)  $900 is a pretty easy number to get to these days ... if you buy a $400 driver but want a premium shaft you are probably looking at $700 plus tax.

4)  If we had a histogram, the large majority would probably be in the $200 to $500 range or thereabouts, but I think there would be a lot of people in the $2k per year, 3k per year buckets as well.

5)  Also, with the more older people, more people may be buying multiple sets because of a second home or something like that.

[Tom_Doak]

I guess the $200 - $500 we each spend on golf balls every year would count against "equipment," which makes this number a bit more reasonable to me.  I'm still blown away by stories of people spending $5k on golf clubs.

[Michael Felton]

I guess the $200 - $500 we each spend on golf balls every year would count against "equipment," which makes this number a bit more reasonable to me.  I'm still blown away by stories of people spending $5k on golf clubs.

I had thought it would include sundries (gloves, balls, shoes etc), but it does say specifically golf clubs in the title.

[jeffwarne]

First of all..


We have never been able to identify what an "average" golfer is,
which would seem somewhat quantifiable,




and now we have to define what a "serious" golfer is-which could absolutely mean anything.
(especially if the manufacturers are defining it-they might consider someone who buys no equipment as not serious)


So defining the "average, serious" golfer seems impossible.


That said, $900 is definitely not the median, but certainly could be the mean-especially if the took the 5 million who bought the most equipment last year and counted them as the "serious"


The next year someone else who bought a set would be defined as serious
The ultimate self fulfilling premise