Effects on golf of tariffs (not a political thread)

[Sean_A]

The bottom line is no one knows what is going to happen. For better or worse an economically isolationist America has global markets panicked in the short term. Not only that, but interest rates aren’t low and Americans are, as always, in debt. This makes for problems on a global scale historically. It will be worth a study on whether a short term pinch by America’s middle and lower class will catalyze into an actual recession or just a short term market adjustment while US manufacturing and commodities production ramps up to meet demand for non-tariffed goods and services (as the administration hopes).


As it applies to our interests on this site I hope we don’t get into another Wicked Pony scenario.

Agreed on the bottom line.  But a recession or even a short-term downturn cannot be good for anyone, golf included.  I don't see US manufacturing being able to ramp up anytime soon, and if it does, what are the wages going to be and what will that mean for the US workers and consumers?  Just a question that I cannot answer.

The only way manufacturing can ramp up quickly (ie during Trump’s term and possibly even mid term) and in a meaningful amount is if huge amounts of government subsidies, loans and incentives are on offer. Wealthy entrepreneurs are not going to foot the bill and take on the risk of manufacturing with their own money. I am doubtful Trump will be successful, but I must admit he is asking the right questions and possibly opening doors for future success. We shall see. Trump is rolling the dice which he can afford to do given his lame duck position and his “he can do know wrong” supporters willing to spin and lie on a nearly daily basis.

Ciao

[Chris Hughes]

Profligate spending on unnecessary/ill-advised "amenities" could be stopped in its tracks...


...that would be a good thing. 

[Chris Hughes]

.

[Chris Hughes]

Trump is rolling the dice which he can afford to do given his lame duck position and his “he can do know wrong” supporters willing to spin and lie on a nearly daily basis.

Ciao

Who are these "supporters" and what specific "lies" are they propagating?

[MCirba]

There's a great reason some of us use the "block" feature here, i suspect.

[Rob Marshall]

I have to believe that mowers have a fair number of foreign parts just as auto's do.

Glad we got our new maintenance equipment last year.

[Chris Hughes]

I "suspect" an echo chamber brings real comfort to "some of us"....safe space if you will.

[Greg Hohman]

Chris, the smug scare quotes don’t scare. You had seemed to be finding your footing here. The DG is too smart for political baiting-and-switching.

[Craig Sweet]

Where is Takomo located?




[size=inherit]We are based in Finland. The club components are made in Taiwan, Japan and China. We complete the final assembly in China and ship from Hong Kong.[/size][/color][/font]
[size=inherit]$500 set of irons will not be $500 any longer.[/size]

[Chris Hughes]

Greg, the point of your post is?

[Chris Hughes]

Where is Takomo located?

We are based in Finland. The club components are made in Taiwan, Japan and China. We complete the final assembly in China and ship from Hong Kong.

$500 set of irons will not be $500 any longer.

I have my doubts about this as well.  However, the fact that every "shipment" is a single paid-order and below the purported $800 threshold is worth considering...

[Greg Hohman]

Chris, can’t lose the smugness, eh. Surprise me by sticking around for five years and I will treat you—too often a Trumpet troll—to a round at Desert Willow.

[Chris Hughes]

Chris, can’t lose the smugness, eh. Surprise me by sticking around for five years and I will treat you—too often a Trumpet troll—to a round at Desert Willow.

I've not "trumpeted" anything.  Simply inquired about a small handful of vague/outlandish assertions...

Again, the point of your post/s are?

https://golfclubatlas.com/contributions/

I will go ahead and get my 2025 check in the mail so I can take you up on your offer sooner rather than later... 

Thank you!

[Bryan Izatt]

Where is Takomo located?

We are based in Finland. The club components are made in Taiwan, Japan and China. We complete the final assembly in China and ship from Hong Kong.

$500 set of irons will not be $500 any longer.

I have my doubts about this as well.  However, the fact that every "shipment" is a single paid-order and below the purported $800 threshold is worth considering...

Quote from the White House site:


"Following the Secretary of Commerce’s notification that adequate systems are in place to collect tariff revenue, President Trump is ending duty-free de minimis treatment for covered goods from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Hong Kong starting May 2, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. EDT."

[Tom_Doak]

Where is Takomo located?

We are based in Finland. The club components are made in Taiwan, Japan and China. We complete the final assembly in China and ship from Hong Kong.

I suspect that the tariffs will have severe ramifications that we haven't really even considered yet.


However, do we care if a Finnish company that assembles golf clubs in China continues to sell their product in America without restraint?  I know if would be a long time before any of those components are made in USA, but surely we have some people here who would want to assemble them and sell them.  I think that is the whole point of the tariffs.  But every company that has got used to doing as little as possible in America is going to object, and that is nearly all of them.


P.S.  Easy for me to say, I know, I'm a service business.

[Tim Martin]

I saw online this morning that one of the area’s bigger car dealerships is advertising “tariff free” vehicles both new and used.

[Wayne_Kozun]

I have to believe that mowers have a fair number of foreign parts just as auto's do.

Including steel and aluminum that just had large tariffs applied.

[Kalen Braley]

The bottom line is no one knows what is going to happen. For better or worse an economically isolationist America has global markets panicked in the short term. Not only that, but interest rates aren’t low and Americans are, as always, in debt. This makes for problems on a global scale historically. It will be worth a study on whether a short term pinch by America’s middle and lower class will catalyze into an actual recession or just a short term market adjustment while US manufacturing and commodities production ramps up to meet demand for non-tariffed goods and services (as the administration hopes).


As it applies to our interests on this site I hope we don’t get into another Wicked Pony scenario.

Agreed on the bottom line.  But a recession or even a short-term downturn cannot be good for anyone, golf included.  I don't see US manufacturing being able to ramp up anytime soon, and if it does, what are the wages going to be and what will that mean for the US workers and consumers?  Just a question that I cannot answer.

 Trump is rolling the dice which he can afford to do given his lame duck position and his “he can do know wrong” supporters willing to spin and lie on a nearly daily basis.

Ciao

If you think Trump considers himself a lame duck, you've been missing out on the day to say stuff DOGE has been doing and the rhetoric his team has been pumping out even long before he took office.  The future of our democracy is in a very fragile position at the moment

[Pierre_C]

Chris,

    The $800 USD or less exemption on imports is closing, May 2.


https://www.npr.org/2025/04/04/nx-s1-5350588/temu-shein-tariff-shopping

Takomo Golf (club maker) has gotten some traction recently with their signing of some youTube influencers, one of whom happens to play the PGA Tour (Wesley Bryan).

They make some pretty darn good looking forged irons at a price-point about 50% of where Titleist is...but, they are effectively a component company with no proprietary R&D or real assets -- a virtual company if you will.

I asked them about the tariff issue and this was their response: 

"...and as we have a warehouse in the U.S also, the tariffs will not apply for orders shipped from our U.S warehouse. If the order is shipped from our HK warehouse there should not be any tariffs also as the "De minimis" was activated again meaning that parcels valued 800$ or less will not be taxed."

Takomo has no retail presence and EVERY order is an individual order, and immediately paid in-full.  I don't know if they have it right but that's a direct quote.

I seem to remember the Brora operating model hinging on outside play from Americans, won't just be Turnberry.

IMO now is a good time to invest in Elon, if you get my drift... 

[Carl Johnson]

Planning to build a new clubhouse?  The New York Times today included an article estimating the increased cost of building a house under the Trump tariff and anti-immigrant (think labor) agenda at a little over 18%.  Obviously this is not a certainty or even a prediction, but it would be something for the club to think about.  Page 8 of the Business section in the print edition -- apparently not yet online.

[Chris Hughes]

The bottom line is no one knows what is going to happen. For better or worse an economically isolationist America has global markets panicked in the short term. Not only that, but interest rates aren’t low and Americans are, as always, in debt. This makes for problems on a global scale historically. It will be worth a study on whether a short term pinch by America’s middle and lower class will catalyze into an actual recession or just a short term market adjustment while US manufacturing and commodities production ramps up to meet demand for non-tariffed goods and services (as the administration hopes).


As it applies to our interests on this site I hope we don’t get into another Wicked Pony scenario.

Agreed on the bottom line.  But a recession or even a short-term downturn cannot be good for anyone, golf included.  I don't see US manufacturing being able to ramp up anytime soon, and if it does, what are the wages going to be and what will that mean for the US workers and consumers?  Just a question that I cannot answer.

 Trump is rolling the dice which he can afford to do given his lame duck position and his “he can do know wrong” supporters willing to spin and lie on a nearly daily basis.

Ciao

If you think Trump considers himself a lame duck, you've been missing out on the day to say stuff DOGE has been doing and the rhetoric his team has been pumping out even long before he took office.  The future of our democracy is in a very fragile position at the moment

Four years of Stumblin' Fumblin' did in fact take the democracy right up to the precipice but fortunately that era has closed.  The right team is now in place to rebuild America on the basis of common sense and good values.  91 days isn't enough time to repair all the damage but the future is bright.

Fascinating to compare/contrast Bernie Sanders comments in 2015 with what actually took place at the borders:  https://x.com/i/status/1908576954930126997

In the interest of a bit of levity, this one is quite funny!  https://x.com/i/status/1595305491156111361

[Chris Hughes]

Chris,

    The $800 USD or less exemption on imports is closing, May 2.


https://www.npr.org/2025/04/04/nx-s1-5350588/temu-shein-tariff-shopping

Takomo Golf (club maker) has gotten some traction recently with their signing of some youTube influencers, one of whom happens to play the PGA Tour (Wesley Bryan).

They make some pretty darn good looking forged irons at a price-point about 50% of where Titleist is...but, they are effectively a component company with no proprietary R&D or real assets -- a virtual company if you will.

I asked them about the tariff issue and this was their response: 

"...and as we have a warehouse in the U.S also, the tariffs will not apply for orders shipped from our U.S warehouse. If the order is shipped from our HK warehouse there should not be any tariffs also as the "De minimis" was activated again meaning that parcels valued 800$ or less will not be taxed."

Takomo has no retail presence and EVERY order is an individual order, and immediately paid in-full.  I don't know if they have it right but that's a direct quote.

I seem to remember the Brora operating model hinging on outside play from Americans, won't just be Turnberry.

IMO now is a good time to invest in Elon, if you get my drift... 

Good information, thank you.

Will be interesting to see if/how they acknowledge this on their website.

Cheers.

[Tim Martin]

Chris,

    The $800 USD or less exemption on imports is closing, May 2.


https://www.npr.org/2025/04/04/nx-s1-5350588/temu-shein-tariff-shopping

Takomo Golf (club maker) has gotten some traction recently with their signing of some youTube influencers, one of whom happens to play the PGA Tour (Wesley Bryan).

They make some pretty darn good looking forged irons at a price-point about 50% of where Titleist is...but, they are effectively a component company with no proprietary R&D or real assets -- a virtual company if you will.

I asked them about the tariff issue and this was their response: 

"...and as we have a warehouse in the U.S also, the tariffs will not apply for orders shipped from our U.S warehouse. If the order is shipped from our HK warehouse there should not be any tariffs also as the "De minimis" was activated again meaning that parcels valued 800$ or less will not be taxed."

Takomo has no retail presence and EVERY order is an individual order, and immediately paid in-full.  I don't know if they have it right but that's a direct quote.

I seem to remember the Brora operating model hinging on outside play from Americans, won't just be Turnberry.

IMO now is a good time to invest in Elon, if you get my drift... 

Good information, thank you.

Will be interesting to see if/how they acknowledge this on their website.

Cheers.

You can bet they will acknowledge it as the reason for increased pricing.

[Andrew Harvie]

All,


Just a reminder not to make this a politics thread. I know it’s difficult given the premise of the thread, but IMO it’s a fair question and as long as it stays bipartisan, I’m happy to see it through.


Please do your best to avoid inflammatory statements or anything that can instigate an argument or we will have to remove the discussion / ban or remove accounts.


Thanks!

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Just a reminder not to make this a politics thread.

Too late. Whole topic should probably just be nuked at this point.

[Tags:]

Tags: