Costco Equipment(Driver)

[ward peyronnin]

I hope I am not violating any policy regarding endorsing on this site but I am putting together an alternative bag of clubs.Costco Kirkland brand stuff can be hi quality. What does anyone among you regarding whether the $200 price represents a fools errand or a valid alternative to premium priced equipment? I suppose I could always look at used mainstram brands but I am not good navigating online marketplaces.

[David_Tepper]

Recent thread on the new Costco irons:

https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,72494.0.html

More:

https://golfweek.usatoday.com/gallery/costco-driver-iron-set-photos-kirkland-golf/ 

https://financebuzz.com/costco-products-for-golfers

[Joe_Tucholski]

I've been looking at a new driver and always looking for value.  The PXG gen 5 drivers are at the same price point and offer customization (shafts, lengths, grips, lofts).

[Erik J. Barzeski]

What's this have to do with golf course architecture? Ward, I think you're looking for this site.

[ward peyronnin]

Ed i did my mea culpa in the opening remarks.I had hoped that this collection of folks included some who had actually hit the club and could be objective about it.File a grievance

[A.G._Crockett]

Ward,
I don’t know what you mean by “alternative”, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter anyway.  This gets to the age-old question in golf equipment of whether or not ANY expenditure is worth it.  And only Ward can answer that question for Ward; I just know A.G.’s answer.


If your question is whether or not your results with the Kirkland driver will be comparable to your results if you walked into a big box store and bought a driver by Ping, TM, Callaway, Titleist, or Cobra pot luck without hitting it, the answer is, a qualified “Yes, probably so.”  I have a LOT of confidence in Costco and the Kirkland brand name, and I can’t imagine that they’d put that name on something that was markedly worse than average, including golf clubs.


That said, the parallel question here is what you want out of a club purchase.  If cost is all that matters to you, that’s one thing.  But if your expectations for a golf club are higher than that, I don’t think it would be very difficult to find a lightly used driver in any big box store that would give you better results.


Maybe the Kirkland ball is instructive here?  Obviously, for per ball price, it’s unbeatable among urethane cover, 3 piece golf balls; it’s significantly cheaper than even the DTC balls like Snell and Vice, and it’s a perfectly serviceable ball if price is all that matters. 


The catch, of course, is that the Kirkland ball is one of the shortest, if not THE shortest, balls off the tee among urethane 3 piece balls, probably because it spins like a top compared to other premium balls.  So if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice.  It’s probably NOT a great choice if you want to play your best golf.


I’ve never seen a good player playing that ball, and I sort of expect it to be the same with the Kirkland clubs, including the driver.  I don’t mean that to sound elitist; I think I play with people who want more out of golf than the lowest cost equipment can provide. 

[Stewart Abramson]

 if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice. 

Save them for the 2028-30 roll back

[Stewart Abramson]

My Golf Spy article: https://mygolfspy.com/news-opinion/first-look/spotted-kirkland-signature-adjustable-driver/


PS - I think it is already out of stock at Costco and being re-sold by some on E-bay

[A.G._Crockett]

 if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice. 

Save them for the 2028-30 roll back

I thought about that while I was typing, and I’d guess that the Kirkland ball might be compliant with the new standards right now.  It’s the closest thing in performance to balata that I can think of.

[ward peyronnin]

Thanks A. G. .   Your response is measured and speaks a lot of sense.  I am a fan of a lot of Costco brands- servicable Chablis and small batch bourbons among a few.  I have also reached the age and injury profile where COR and high perf shafts are superfulous as well. Seem to be reverting to the formative years of my last century when I relied a lot on how a club felt to me and never was an equipment geek.  Now it is cerainly about how I hit a club and not so much how much distance( an increasingly narrow beta)   can I squeeze out of it.
The PXG option sounds like a very good one as I think they allow for some on line calibrating.However I could always just opt for a set of wonderwoods?

[DFarron]

Ward,
I don’t know what you mean by “alternative”, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter anyway.  This gets to the age-old question in golf equipment of whether or not ANY expenditure is worth it.  And only Ward can answer that question for Ward; I just know A.G.’s answer.


If your question is whether or not your results with the Kirkland driver will be comparable to your results if you walked into a big box store and bought a driver by Ping, TM, Callaway, Titleist, or Cobra pot luck without hitting it, the answer is, a qualified “Yes, probably so.”  I have a LOT of confidence in Costco and the Kirkland brand name, and I can’t imagine that they’d put that name on something that was markedly worse than average, including golf clubs.


That said, the parallel question here is what you want out of a club purchase.  If cost is all that matters to you, that’s one thing.  But if your expectations for a golf club are higher than that, I don’t think it would be very difficult to find a lightly used driver in any big box store that would give you better results.


Maybe the Kirkland ball is instructive here?  Obviously, for per ball price, it’s unbeatable among urethane cover, 3 piece golf balls; it’s significantly cheaper than even the DTC balls like Snell and Vice, and it’s a perfectly serviceable ball if price is all that matters. 


The catch, of course, is that the Kirkland ball is one of the shortest, if not THE shortest, balls off the tee among urethane 3 piece balls, probably because it spins like a top compared to other premium balls.  So if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice.  It’s probably NOT a great choice if you want to play your best golf.


I’ve never seen a good player playing that ball, and I sort of expect it to be the same with the Kirkland clubs, including the driver.  I don’t mean that to sound elitist; I think I play with people who want more out of golf than the lowest cost equipment can provide.

I’m a very good player and I’ve used Kirkland and it isn’t that much shorter than the Pro V1.

[Richard Hetzel]

I would purchase used on eBay, a local golf shop, 2nd Swing Golf online or Callaway preowned (they also sell other brands as well) before I added a second bag full of Costco clubs, but that's me. Their clubs might be good, who knows? In fact, I rarely purchase any golf clubs, except the driver, as new. Too much, barely used stuff out there!

[John Kavanaugh]

If you are a 5 masquerading as an 11 for an upcoming member/guest - Kirkland is a perfect fit.

[Pat Burke]

Ward,
I don’t know what you mean by “alternative”, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter anyway.  This gets to the age-old question in golf equipment of whether or not ANY expenditure is worth it.  And only Ward can answer that question for Ward; I just know A.G.’s answer.


If your question is whether or not your results with the Kirkland driver will be comparable to your results if you walked into a big box store and bought a driver by Ping, TM, Callaway, Titleist, or Cobra pot luck without hitting it, the answer is, a qualified “Yes, probably so.”  I have a LOT of confidence in Costco and the Kirkland brand name, and I can’t imagine that they’d put that name on something that was markedly worse than average, including golf clubs.


That said, the parallel question here is what you want out of a club purchase.  If cost is all that matters to you, that’s one thing.  But if your expectations for a golf club are higher than that, I don’t think it would be very difficult to find a lightly used driver in any big box store that would give you better results.


Maybe the Kirkland ball is instructive here?  Obviously, for per ball price, it’s unbeatable among urethane cover, 3 piece golf balls; it’s significantly cheaper than even the DTC balls like Snell and Vice, and it’s a perfectly serviceable ball if price is all that matters. 


The catch, of course, is that the Kirkland ball is one of the shortest, if not THE shortest, balls off the tee among urethane 3 piece balls, probably because it spins like a top compared to other premium balls.  So if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice.  It’s probably NOT a great choice if you want to play your best golf.


I’ve never seen a good player playing that ball, and I sort of expect it to be the same with the Kirkland clubs, including the driver.  I don’t mean that to sound elitist; I think I play with people who want more out of golf than the lowest cost equipment can provide.

I thought hitting it shorter was the goal now?

[Jim Sherma]

I thought about that while I was typing, and I’d guess that the Kirkland ball might be compliant with the new standards right now.  It’s the closest thing in performance to balata that I can think of.

AG - Agree completely. I use them when I break out my persimmons and blades and the work great. Seem to overspin off of my regular equipment but work very nicely with the retro stuff.

[A.G._Crockett]

Ward,
I don’t know what you mean by “alternative”, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter anyway.  This gets to the age-old question in golf equipment of whether or not ANY expenditure is worth it.  And only Ward can answer that question for Ward; I just know A.G.’s answer.


If your question is whether or not your results with the Kirkland driver will be comparable to your results if you walked into a big box store and bought a driver by Ping, TM, Callaway, Titleist, or Cobra pot luck without hitting it, the answer is, a qualified “Yes, probably so.”  I have a LOT of confidence in Costco and the Kirkland brand name, and I can’t imagine that they’d put that name on something that was markedly worse than average, including golf clubs.


That said, the parallel question here is what you want out of a club purchase.  If cost is all that matters to you, that’s one thing.  But if your expectations for a golf club are higher than that, I don’t think it would be very difficult to find a lightly used driver in any big box store that would give you better results.


Maybe the Kirkland ball is instructive here?  Obviously, for per ball price, it’s unbeatable among urethane cover, 3 piece golf balls; it’s significantly cheaper than even the DTC balls like Snell and Vice, and it’s a perfectly serviceable ball if price is all that matters. 


The catch, of course, is that the Kirkland ball is one of the shortest, if not THE shortest, balls off the tee among urethane 3 piece balls, probably because it spins like a top compared to other premium balls.  So if you want to pay $1 a ball, but give up 7-10 yds off the driver, with proportional yardage losses on other clubs, it’s a great choice.  It’s probably NOT a great choice if you want to play your best golf.


I’ve never seen a good player playing that ball, and I sort of expect it to be the same with the Kirkland clubs, including the driver.  I don’t mean that to sound elitist; I think I play with people who want more out of golf than the lowest cost equipment can provide.

I’m a very good player and I’ve used Kirkland and it isn’t that much shorter than the Pro V1.

I think this is all about what you mean by "that much shorter".  I'm 71 and trying to play as much competitive golf as I can (20 senior tournaments in 2023, plus 7 club tournaments)  I'd kill for extra yards; I work hard on my swing, my equipment, and my body chasing all the yards I can get.  TO ME, 5 yards is a VERY big deal, and 10 yards is absolute gold, but I realize that isn't true for very many people.

There is really extensive ball testing done by MyGolfSpy and Today's Golfer; both test at three different swing speeds, and both test driver, mid iron, and wedge distances and spin. 
Today's Golfer's testing has the Kirkland ball as the second shortest ball of all the balls they tested at slow swing speeds, THE shortest at mid speeds, and 7th shortest at high speeds. The differences aren't big, but they are there.  By contrast, the Kirkland ball has THE highest spin rate off the driver.

The MyGolfSpy testing is at least a bit more dramatic in the difference between the two ProV1s vs the Kirkland; the Kirkland ball is about 9 yards shorter on an average of the three swing speeds. 

The Kirkland golf ball, like anything that Costco puts that name on, is NOT a bad golf ball at all, especially if you are chasing per ball price, which was kind of the point of my first post.  But it IS a very short ball for a three piece urethane cover, and it has an extremely high spin rate. 
I'd suspect the Kirkland driver will be similar; a great dollar value, but far from the best performance you can get by very intentional spending and a good fitting process. 

So it just comes down to what's more important to a particular individual; price, or performance.

[Cal Seifert]

I remember the Kirkland ball getting a lot of hype when the first iteration was released and rumored to have been made in the same factory as the TM or Titleist balls. Can’t remember. Haven’t heard or seen many use them since.

[A.G._Crockett]

I remember the Kirkland ball getting a lot of hype when the first iteration was released and rumored to have been made in the same factory as the TM or Titleist balls. Can’t remember. Haven’t heard or seen many use them since.

I think the current ball is version 3 for Costco.  The first one was rumored to be the same ball as the TM Tp5, and it sold out FAST.  The second version was a full 15 yards shorter than other premium balls; this version isn’t that short, but still shorter than most.

[Jim Sherma]

The spin rate is what works well with the retro equipment.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

I remember the Kirkland ball getting a lot of hype when the first iteration was released and rumored to have been made in the same factory as the TM or Titleist balls. Can’t remember. Haven’t heard or seen many use them since.

Titleist doesn't make their golf balls overseas.

[Ben Hollerbach]

I remember the Kirkland ball getting a lot of hype when the first iteration was released and rumored to have been made in the same factory as the TM or Titleist balls. Can’t remember. Haven’t heard or seen many use them since.

Titleist doesn't make their golf balls overseas.

You mean, beyond the balls they've made at their Plant 4 in Thailand over the past 13 years?

The Titleist lawsuit with Costco was over patent infringement.Titleist owns all of their own ball plants and to my knowledge does not contract build any balls for anyone else.

The Taylormade rumor was about the first Costco ball being made using leftover cores from the TP Red, as both balls were made in the Nassau factory in Korea.

[Mark McKeever]

would be great to get my hands on a set of these irons.  The reviews sound promising.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

You mean, beyond the balls they've made at their Plant 4 in Thailand over the past 13 years?

Yep, beyond those.    Generally, ball plant 4 supplies the Asian markets (and occasionally end up at GolfGalaxy.com, etc.).

It would have been more accurate of me to say that Titleist operates their own ball facilities. The Kirkland/Costco balls were out of a general ball factory, like the ones that make balls for VICE or Snell, etc. (AFAIK) I think you can buy "urethane golf balls" on alibaba.

The Titleist lawsuit with Costco was over patent infringement. Titleist owns all of their own ball plants and to my knowledge does not contract build any balls for anyone else.

Yep.

The Taylormade rumor was about the first Costco ball being made using leftover cores from the TP Red, as both balls were made in the Nassau factory in Korea.

And yep.

[Rob Marshall]

Never noticed before but each dozen has the plant number stamped on it.