Will we ever be able to buy just heads?

Just wondering will we ever be able to walk into a shop and buy a head only not a whole club? So many of us have our shafts and grips we use but always end up having to buy a whole club to either sell the shaft or add it to the cupboard.

How long do you think it will be until wood heads will be sold in a small nice box with a tool and cover?

Very good question. Hopefully soon.

Probably never. Golf retail seems dicey enough as it is without adding component contracts to the mix. But if you really just want the head, they’d certainly pull the shaft for an extra fee.

That would be ideal. I've used the same shaft for years, but have switched the head multiple times. I'd prefer to buy iron heads this way too

Not in this lifetime. For every person that has their own shafts, there’s thousands who don’t.

Japan yahoo japamart jdm goodness......

Yes... on WRX at a reduced price!

> @Macklessdaddy said:

> Not in this lifetime. For every person that has their own shafts, there’s thousands who don’t.

I'm not saying this is the only way. Im saying this

In Aus a M6 for example is around $700

Grip cost $15

Shaft cost $100

Cover tool and head $585

I know it sounds silly but surely even a special order option or the big golf retailers could stock heads in boxes ready.

I personally feel they would sell alot of head only items as even getting fit at a shop then going to a shaft that is non upcharge available again you have to buy a whole club then pull it all apart then build it back up again? So some times can be over 1K for a driver with a new shaft.

It's not so much the cost but the storage of it all. I have worked in the golf industry for over half of my life and head only is never going to fly. I've worked in big box retail, I've worked in fitting studios. The wholesale cost for head-only components is about $15-20 less than buying components that are shafted. Is maybe $40 in savings going to be enough to make "head-only" retail a dominant force? Absolutely not. Putting that aside, where do you store everything? You have a display case of heads, you have a display case of shafts. That's double the amount of retail floor space. Further, I foresee problems where you are going to sell unequal amounts of heads and shafts so there will be invariably some sort of excess stock that needs to be sold off at the end of the year. "Head only" prices past production year tend to be worth less than fully shafted products, "stock" shafts are worth pennies and you're lucky to sell shaft, grip, and tip for $50 a lot of the time. Lastly, this has been done. Remember the Callaway I-Mix program? It was a horrific flop. Taylormade also briefly tried it in the R7 days with the R7 CGB (I think) and it too was basically a failure. What about component companies or JDM products? They've been doing this forever.

Just be a savvy consumer. Learn how to reshaft your own clubs (it's not hard) so you don't have to pay someone to do it for you. Order clubs with the best no/charge upgraded shafts you can get and turn around sell those to recoup. I've been doing this since adjustable drivers and irons have been available with free upgrades. It's a quick and easy way to save $100+ off the hop on a brand new club. I have an F9 now, I ordered it with an Even Flow White. I tried it at the range just to see, and predictably, as with all PX, it felt like p**p, so off to eBay it went where it sold for $100. Irons I play upgraded graphite so I typically order them with a popular shaft of the month, like Project X LZ, KBS C-Taper/Lite, or Modus of some variety, uncut, ungripped (so I have a free set of grips later on to again to sell or re-use as needed and not pay) and turn around and sell 1-time pull, uncut, unsued steel shafts for $250+ all day long on eBay.

Golf is expensive, but if you learn to game the system you can come out half-way on top/not out too much if you do it the right way.

I don’t think it would be a significantly reduced priced for heads only at a big box store anyway. Most of the shafts for off the rack clubs are mass produced and cost the manufacturer a fraction of even the $120 retail price.

You might save 50 bucks. Now I’m only speculating about all this. That said I just stick the shaft on eBay and recover some of the cost or pull the adapter and make an alignment stick out of it.

No

Take a look at component shops like hireko. Golfsmith has been lost but there are others.

I like the sound of that. However I think the people who would that is such a small portion.

A few companies do, but that’s to their retailers and the mark ups make it hard to make sense unless $ is not a issue

Buy used.You dont get to have the latest gear but you can have fantastic as new Cool Gear that works for a lot less!

My approach for years has been buy good shape quality used oem clubs and, reshaft, regrip, etc.

And I very much enjoy building clubs with Wishon club heads.

Won’t happen from the big boys. Small companies probably already do. I am not aware of any, but I’m sure there are some

Hireko and GolfWorks already offer this option.

Also, some well certified custom shops can get sets of irons with heads and butt-capped shafts from OEMs. They will grip as customers want, or remove the shafts and put in shafts the customer wants. The price falls somewhere between off the rack and Club Champion.

As others have said, GolfWRX classified and eBay sometimes offer heads only. Or, you can buy a set of clubs, reshaft and tweak, and sell the pullouts.

One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

> @Nessism said:

> One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

Several years back the old PCS was negotiating with several OEM's about a select groups of PCS Members would become an Authorized SO and SO Club Repair Shop thus allowed to get OEM components. Most of the OEM's were afraid that this could cause their products to fall in the hands of "crap" clubmakers thus tarnishing their image. The talks went nowhere.

Callaway tried having Golfsmith sell Callaway shafts which were purposely priced high because as a Callaway person said, so the riff raff clubmaker cannot afford them. The deal ended after about a year due to lack of sales.

Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

> @JCAG said:

>

> Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

>

I think there is but I don't recall the details. I say this because there was a thread about it some time back.

> @JCAG said:

> > @Nessism said:

> > One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

>

> Several years back the old PCS was negotiating with several OEM's about a select groups of PCS Members would become an Authorized SO and SO Club Repair Shop thus allowed to get OEM components. Most of the OEM's were afraid that this could cause their products to fall in the hands of "crap" clubmakers thus tarnishing their image. The talks went nowhere.

>

> Callaway tried having Golfsmith sell Callaway shafts which were purposely priced high because as a Callaway person said, so the riff raff clubmaker cannot afford them. The deal ended after about a year due to lack of sales.

>

> Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

>

>

>

I know Dana Upshaw had a deal with several OEM's but he sold his shop 3-4 years ago and I don't know if the new owners kept up the relationships.

> @Nessism said:

> > @JCAG said:

> >

> > Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

> >

>

> I think there is but I don't recall the details. I say this because there was a thread about it some time back.

>

>

Yes, most OEM’s now have component account options. The problem is, the margins are no better than an assembled club account when you do the math on the entire club plus the labor for assembly. In some cases, they are worse.

> @trhode said:

> > @Nessism said:

> > > @JCAG said:

> > >

> > > Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

> > >

> >

> > I think there is but I don't recall the details. I say this because there was a thread about it some time back.

> >

> >

> Yes, most OEM’s now have component account options. The problem is, the margins are no better than an assembled club account when you do the math on the entire club plus the labor for assembly. In some cases, they are worse.

>

>

But I would way rather get just a head even for only $50 less then have to deal with selling of the stock shaft lol. Stock shafts are getting more and more worthless as everyone is chasing after market I feel.

> @rkelso184 said:

> > @trhode said:

> > > @Nessism said:

> > > > @JCAG said:

> > > >

> > > > Being retired I have not kept up with the business. Are there not some clubmakers with access to components from OEM's?

> > > >

> > >

> > > I think there is but I don't recall the details. I say this because there was a thread about it some time back.

> > >

> > >

> > Yes, most OEM’s now have component account options. The problem is, the margins are no better than an assembled club account when you do the math on the entire club plus the labor for assembly. In some cases, they are worse.

> >

> >

>

> But I would way rather get just a head even for only $50 less then have to deal with selling of the stock shaft lol. Stock shafts are getting more and more worthless as everyone is chasing after market I feel.

With their volume pricing, selling a head for $50 less likely a less profitable/break even venture, so really zero incentive for them to offer components while complicating their inventory/logistics

JMO, but I think a lot of people are missing the direction the OP is after. I'm guessing he's really only talking about drivers, woods, hybrids where a given MFG has settled on their adjustable hosel design. Now, with that said, I think that if a given MFG chose to do this it's not as if we would see anywhere close to a 1/1 ratio in retail price reduction based on the absence of the shaft. A $500 driver that allows you to pick from 3 different stock $250 shafts would NOT be sold as a head only for $250. It would probably be closer to $400 for the head only

> @webwarmiller said:

> JMO, but I think a lot of people are missing the direction the OP is after. I'm guessing he's really only talking about drivers, woods, hybrids where a given MFG has settled on their adjustable hosel design. Now, with that said, I think that if a given MFG chose to do this it's not as if we would see anywhere close to a 1/1 ratio in retail price reduction based on the absence of the shaft. A $500 driver that allows you to pick from 3 different stock $250 shafts would NOT be sold as a head only for $250. It would probably be closer to $400 for the head only

And this to me is fair as I would rather save my $100 than end up having to settle for a shaft that isn't THE ONE. I would rather buy a driver and then add my shaft then play with a driver that has even a $500 shaft if it isn't the exact shaft for my game.

> @Nessism said:

> One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

But how is this any different to us all pulling clubs apart, changing hosel positions, cutting shafts or moving weights etc? Even changing a grip can affect SW. moving the position of the shaft to change loft or lie changes the spine location of the shaft etc. There are so many factors that change a clubs characteristics. However simply seeling a head with a tool, instructions on how to use it and a disclaimer saying "please ensure genuine hosel is used to avoid warranty" with swing weight details and even a QR code in the lid of the box showing how to install etc.

If anything this would actually make the manufactures have LESS to account for. No grip or shaft to warrant for example.

> @rkelso184 said:

> > @Nessism said:

> > One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

>

> But how is this any different to us all pulling clubs apart, changing hosel positions, cutting shafts or moving weights etc? Even changing a grip can affect SW. moving the position of the shaft to change loft or lie changes the spine location of the shaft etc. There are so many factors that change a clubs characteristics. However simply seeling a head with a tool, instructions on how to use it and a disclaimer saying "please ensure genuine hosel is used to avoid warranty" with swing weight details and even a QR code in the lid of the box showing how to install etc.

>

> If anything this would actually make the manufactures have LESS to account for. No grip or shaft to warrant for example.

Just to clarify im only talking about woods. I dont feel there will ever be a market for irons or wedges.

> @rkelso184 said:

> > @Nessism said:

> > One additional reason this won't happen is that the OEM's don't want their reputation tarnished by shoddily assembled clubs in the field with their names on them. Some people seem perfectly happy to buy a set of pulls from who knows what clubs and then slamming them straight into a set of heads without measuring either length or swingweight. Ferrules not turned and assembled with gorilla epoxy. You think Mizuno, Titleist, Ping, etc, want clubs like these in the secondary channel after the original owner/builder dumps them?

>

> But how is this any different to us all pulling clubs apart, changing hosel positions, cutting shafts or moving weights etc? Even changing a grip can affect SW. moving the position of the shaft to change loft or lie changes the spine location of the shaft etc. There are so many factors that change a clubs characteristics. However simply seeling a head with a tool, instructions on how to use it and a disclaimer saying "please ensure genuine hosel is used to avoid warranty" with swing weight details and even a QR code in the lid of the box showing how to install etc.

>

> If anything this would actually make the manufactures have LESS to account for. No grip or shaft to warrant for example.

Some massive % of people wouldn't dream of changing a shaft or altering a club in any substantial way after purchase.