Thinking of giving up on my one man's boycott of Ping and Titleist

Nothing wrong with their clubs but in my world any company that doesn't allow retailers to list prices on web sites deserves to be boycotted. This policy seems to be an Australian thing so while some retailers say it's set by the manufacturer my guess would be that it's actually set by the distributor. The same policy applies to FootJoy and Scotty Cameron.

Temptations, my one weakness, are calling and I will on Wed go for a driver fitting to replace the old R11S and if I want something that is long and straight - the less workable the better, the ball tends to mostly work itself to hazards if given half a chance. I might be doing myself a disservice if I did not at least look at G400 and TS2. Apparently my principles are senior flex rather than tour stiff and seem to bend a fair bit when it suits me. In fact, I have already slipped a bit as I do have a Ping putter which is pretty good. I would make a great vegan!

Why deny yourself some quality equipment?

You can obviously do what you want but this seems like a little bit of a strange thing to boycott.

Get yourself a cheeseburger, a Cameron putter and a TS2 driver.

You’ll enjoy all of it ??

It's not that bad if you do give in. At least your boycott was for a broad policy, not a bad personal experience. I still won't even pick up a Taylormade club after my last experience with them, and I do not see that ending anytime soon.

Well, it seems my boycott is not exactly forcing the companies to change their ways. There are a few parts of life in Australia that really suck, the archaic technology adoption being one of them. Another one is how we are fleeced off by retailers - even the foreign ones. Just looked at a certain shaft at an American online retailer. If shipping to US, the price is USD169.99. And as they do you a great service by shipping to Australia and charging in Australian dollars, for the same shaft they are asking for AUD426.57. That's an equivalent of USD293.62. Not even double.

I don’t have strong feelings about this but so no argument from me - do as you choose.

That said, those problems seem to be beyond the golf companies - and can you really fault them for maxing their earnings? They’re not a charity...

The fundamental issues you raised are worth considering/working to change - but I wouldn’t rake Titleist over the coals because of your system...

Luckily there aren't many leftie Scotty Camerons out there so the temptation is on a lower end of the scale. Then again, I putt equally poorly both handed so a rightie putter in an otherwise leftie bag would be great way to confuse playing partners.

Actually, if we take this to a general level beyong specific golf clubs, there are lots of retailers going down as they fail to adapt to the Internet era and insist on sticking to their old ways while people are moving online. And it's not that Internet shopping is exactly a new thing. I have worked all over the planet and one thing I really admire about American businesses is how quick they are to adapt and change instead of waiting for the change to be forced on them.

A few years ago when USD and AUD were in parity, it was often cheaper to fly to the USA and buy a suitcase full of stuff there rather than buy locally. And the big retailers who had been overcharging Aussies for decades didn't get much sympathy for calling stronger protections by the government. In some areas the price differences got ridiculous, like some sports cars which could be had for about USD80k in USA were over AUD200k here.

Joe,

Australia is a very minute market compared to the USA and there’s added costs of shipping, customs clearance etc. which also inflate the prices then there’s exchange rate.

The new Mavrik driver is USD 499 at TGW which at a 69c exchange rate is AUD 723, Golfbox have them for AUD 799 and you won’t get a 69c exchange rate from a PayPal or any credit card.

BTW, I have no affiliation with any distributor or retailer and also live in Australia.

In all fairness, I agree that the Mavrik price isn't too bad in comparison to the US price. Drummond also has it for AUD799. The golf industry is - if the figures I find are anywhere near realistic - about 3.5B AUD (figures from 2017) with the population of about 25 Million vs. 84.1B USD in the USA with the population of 327.2 Million. Even if golf may be popular in Australia and the economy has been booming for a long time, not least because of the massive immigration of fairly high networth individuals, USA still manages to generate 23.5 times the golf revenue with 13 times the population. I agree that this straightforward comparison may not be very accurate but gives an idea of the differences in the sizes of the markets. But yet, in absolute terms Australia is not an insignificant island of the day before and the distance and custom duties shouldn't make a huge different - as in the case of Mavrik they don't seem to do.

But that is still beyond the point that I don't get not allowing retailers to list the prices of gear at the web sites. I fail to see what purpose it can possibly serve and also very archaic.

Probably the two best brands out there!

come back to the dark side!

Ping set the prices in the USA and no retailer is allowed to sell below that, if you get caught you can lose your account.

They are protecting the smaller retailers and club pro shops, they are a private company so nobody can force them to change this policy.

Ping Australia is a distributor not owned by the parent but will have to follow HQ policies.

Not sure 100% about Titleist.

As a long time avoider of Ping clubs, purely because i liked the look of shinnier clubs, i recently got a set of ping g series irons, and i fell in love with them, especially the stock Nippon AWT 2.0 shafts, i got the r flex and they play more like a firm flex. They are much easier to hit than anything else i've hit.

Then for christmas, i got a g400 lst, with Hzrdous yellow 76g shaft. i've never felt so in love with a driver before, mine was an ex demo that had hit about a dozen balls in its life. its 44.75" long and stiff flex. The only thing to be careful of is that the g410 uses a new type of adaptor for the shafts over the g400, which i didn't know, but again its only an adaptor and the g410 can adjust for lie as well as loft like the g400 can. I lofted up which i thought would be a good idea in my 10* head but i've gone back to standard now as i just like the trajectory and look.

Don’t give up... stay strong.

While your intent is noble, you kind of have to be in a position to not miss out on something that might add 5 yards to your drive or give you an additional 100 rpm’s with your approach. Titleist and Ping make some pretty good stuff nowadays.

Got to admit I held the same negative vibe toward Taylormade because of buying the latest model, only to have it rendered obsolete the following week. I’ve become more open minded now and consider everything when looking at clubs, which is all the time.

Keep the boycott going Joe! A glut of irons will mean lower prices for me!

Well you're half right lol

Mate, anything for an extra five yards! Was just that much short of a truly evil FW bunker today on a Par 5 hole #7 at The Dunes Golf Links. What wouldn't I pay to reach that. Want to hear about the awesome 5wood shot I played from the edge of that bunker? Great sound and trajectory, hit it a good 230-240 yards and didn't miss the green by much, maybe only 40 yards to the right (which is of course where the dragons live, left would have been fairly safe). Hard to tell how much exactly as the ball was never found. This clearly is a game of distance, not of accuracy. Maybe I need to be fitted for some fw woods as well.

I don’t like their price locks

Ping I don't really have any philosophical differences with. Titleist, however, I will never patronize. There are too many high-performing brands out there to give money to a company whose business practices you take exception to.

I'll join in the "don't give up the fight" collective voice, at least as far as Titleist is concerned. I have no problem with Ping, myself, but Titleist are a definite no-go in my world.

Hold the line!!

Your boycott will impact not a soul but you.

The only clubs in my bag are Ping and Titleist.

Ping are the bomb.

That's true. I am not expecting the brands to change their policies just because some average joe who changes clubs every ten years doesn't buy them. Titleist should be concerned of their ball sales, though. That's where my consumption is fairly substantial.

Anyway, looks like I have a lot of easy boycotting to do in the future. Turns out where I went had lefties of none of the drivers I was interested in. Grmpfh!

This is a true statement.

Mate, I understand your point and I complained to both as their prices are easy to find in overseas shops but here in Oz, none of the shops are allowed to publish the prices. It’s stupid in these days but it happens.

I like Ping and I had a few clubs I got from the bargain barrel but since I got my G400 driver, my game had improved heaps. I only will support you on Titleist clubs although I have to admit that I have FJ apparel and a few Scottys ?

And yes, we do pay more than anyone anywhere. Yes, we have the GST added to the price while in the USA sales tax is not included but the weak Aussie Dollar and craziness of some distributors is insane.

I read in a previous post about Drummond and Golfbox selling the Mavrik in $799, however Golf World has it in $829.99 and it was announced originally in $889. They still have a massive stock of Nike clubs with pricing that rivals PXG! Who wants to pay $1700 for a set of Nike 2016 irons?

At least the Pro Shop of my home club offer great deals that helps me to be a good Golfwrxer ?

The whole economy seems to be a bit of a merry go round of everybody paying each other too much. This, together with excessive regulation, probably functioned fine while the traditional shopping was the way to go but exposure to the foreign markets is killing it.

I am worried that my G.WRX account might be suspended now that it's in the public that I haven't bought new clubs for years and years. Need to fix that! I am waiting for the leftie club heads to be gathered so I can go and try them out.

I have issues with most of the main manufacturers, callaway and TM- hocus pocus marketing, ping- everytime big box stores have a “sale” ping is always excluded. I tend to be fans of the smaller companies like mizuno and srixon/cleveland. That being said i still game some taylor made and titleist stuff because they do make some really good stuff. They all do really, there are some great options in this day in age!

Ping and Titleist are my two favorite brands, along with Mizuno for irons.

I always have, and always will, avoid Taylor Made. No legit reason though, just strictly a personal preference thing. In reality all the big names make great clubs nowadays.

I've only ever boycotted one company - Titleist. I have not partaken of new equipment from a manufacturer due to release cycles, but I would still play their equipment used. Never had an issue with Ping. Even though I am playing TM, Ping, and Cleveland right now I have tended to go with smaller companies over the years. Bridgestone, Cobra, and Srixon/Cleveland in particular. Haven't played a Callaway club for longer than a month since the FT-3 and before that the Steelhead and S2H2 3 wood before that. Tried the Apex irons and never fell in love. I do have an old set of X-Tours I plan on re-shafting and playing around with again at some point.

I have you beat! I wont buy Ping or Callaway because they sued the USGA and as a member I felt insulted. I dislike TM because of the endless gimmicks and their attempts to flood the market.

I dislike Nike because of its glorification of individual athletes over teams and it’s insulting ads for TW and Crappernick.

i stopped buying Adidas when they began requiring golfers to all wear the same outfits in an individual sport like golf.

im not that fond of DSG either but they are the only store within 50 miles that sells golf balls.