golf galaxy

[youjoon]

Hi. everyone,

 

I went a golf galaxy in my my town and I had really bad experience today. So, I just wanted to share what I had today. I asked a "PGA professional" whether he can set up TSi3 with IZ 6 shaft for me for testing. He set it up for me withe TRACKMAN. I hit few balls and a monitor showed distance and where balls landed and it did not show launch angle and back spin. I asked him whether I could checked them and he said I have to pay fitting fee to check them. so, i went away from the store.

 

My question is whether it is new normal practice at golf store after the pandemic. As long as I remember I could check new golf equipments at any golf store with no cost in good old day. I am just so sad and I will probably not going to go to any golf store for surfing and testing new items. I am just so sad.

Edited September 24, 2021 by youjoon

[Davidv]

I have to agree with the Pro and policy at Golf Galaxy. You received good basic service free with the setup you requested. Then your request drifted into a fitting session which there is a charge for and in many cases the fee is applied towards your purchase if you choose to do so.

[Abh159]

Like @Davidv said... They provided you with a free service, and now it seems you are upset that they didn't do "enough" for you during the free service. If you're buying a new car do you get mad when they only let you test drive it around the dealership instead of taking it on a 2-day road trip?!?!

 

If you want to be fit for a driver then pay for a fitting... Otherwise just be happy they even put together a club for you and let you hit it for free.

[PixlPutterman]

7 hours ago, youjoon said:

 

I am just so sad.

 

Where is the "but did you die" .gif when I need it.....

[MattM97]

1 hour ago, PixlPutterman said:

 

Where is the "but did you die" .gif when I need it.....

 

[rkillian]

My local golf galaxy is set up this way. They will put anything together for you to let you test for no charge. At mine, if its slow you could pretty much hit as much stuff for as long as you want. You get a limited number of metrics from the Trackman. If you want more numbers you pay for a fitting. I see no problem with this. 

[RoyalMustang]

Don't trust those numbers anyways; I am pretty sure they are juiced when trying to sell you a club. 

 

I had a "fitting" for $50 at the PGATSS. I had a mis-hit and the guy said "wow, you mis-hit that and still carried 290..."  

 

I am pretty sure he added a 20mph tailwind to that one. His trackman was giving me a 114SS, whereas I had a local fitter fit me last week and I was 104-107.  

[MaineMariner]

Here's how it works:

 

- You can "test" stuff before you buy, which is basically you whacking a ball or two or 20 into a screen with no supervision. At my local GG, they have two QC Quads set up for this purpose, though I don't know how well they are calibrated. You should be mindful if it's busy and other people want to try stuff out, too, so you're not hogging the hitting bay. This is free of charge.

 

- You can schedule a fitting with an employee, which means you get a dedicated block of time with the employee where you hit with a launch monitor (Trackman or GC Quad). They'll give you a bunch of clubs and shafts to try, review your data, and make recommendations. This will either cost money OR will be free if you end up buying a club from them (I think you have 30 days to make the purchase, or something). 

[jah7838]

With Trackman going into Golf Galaxy stores, they're going to make sure people get charged for using them.  A lot of tire kickers will come in there and just bang balls in the bays without paying for use of the old CG2 monitors.  They don't want the same thing to happen with the Trackman.

[ducky50]

Golf galaxy is the absolute worst I had a similar experience here in Pittsburgh.  Booked a time the guy said get warmed up so I did and he never came back so I walked out done with Golf Galaxy

[third-times-a-charm]

Fitting is stupid as hell anyway.

 

Buying random shafts and testing them on the range and guessing whats best for you is way more fun.

 

As a side note, when COVID started my local GG started doing 'signups only' for the fitting bays and now I believe it's like $20 just to go hit a club or something like that. Ever since they instated this policy I have not set foot in the store at all - Edwin Watts and PGATSS get my business instead.

Edited September 24, 2021 by third-times-a-charm

[A-A-RonCCC]

My local Golf Galaxy has new Trackman bays with all data available at all times.  It seems like an absurd practice to charge to show spin and launch angle information when it is already there.  I imagine they could sell more clubs giving more information and charging to show available information is just going to rub people the wrong way.  The employees should be able to use discretion if it appears people are trying to use their bays as free practice time.  Even if people were coming in to do that they'd still probably end up buying something.

 

[MountainKing]

It's amazing how much people want for free and then have to complain when they don't get it.....

[riehlg]

1 hour ago, RoyalMustang said:

Don't trust those numbers anyways; I am pretty sure they are juiced when trying to sell you a club. 

 

I had a "fitting" for $50 at the PGATSS. I had a mis-hit and the guy said "wow, you mis-hit that and still carried 290..."  

 

I am pretty sure he added a 20mph tailwind to that one. His trackman was giving me a 114SS, whereas I had a local fitter fit me last week and I was 104-107.  

 

When I was testing out my Cobra AMP Forged irons before I bought them at GolfGalaxy I just wanted to get a feel for how they felt and what the mishits looked like. I saw the distance on the 7 iron that I was testing and was just like there's no way that's how far I'm hitting it. When I got the print out of my shots on the AMP Forged vs Titleist AP2 I looked at the smash factor and saw they had it hardset at 1.45 which would be more akin to a like 3iron-fairway. Not sure what year it's from but the PGA tour average smash factor on a 7 iron is 1.33.

Edited September 24, 2021 by riehlg

[MattM97]

53 minutes ago, ducky50 said:

Golf galaxy is the absolute worst I had a similar experience here in Pittsburgh.  Booked a time the guy said get warmed up so I did and he never came back so I walked out done with Golf Galaxy

 

Probably went to get a pack of smokes. He'll be back any day now. 

[TLUBulldogGolf]

I was shocked when I went into my local GG recently and they had put in Trackmans. It was showing all of the data though, including launch/spin/path/etc.

[Red4282]

4 hours ago, RoyalMustang said:

Don't trust those numbers anyways; I am pretty sure they are juiced when trying to sell you a club. 

 

I had a "fitting" for $50 at the PGATSS. I had a mis-hit and the guy said "wow, you mis-hit that and still carried 290..."  

 

I am pretty sure he added a 20mph tailwind to that one. His trackman was giving me a 114SS, whereas I had a local fitter fit me last week and I was 104-107.  

Lmao, this…. I was in the store today and some older gentleman was hitting a driver in the trackman bay as i was walking by, and i see 168 ball speed and 308 carry. I of course stopped and had to see his swing…. NO WAY. Im a 165 ball speed guy and theres no way that guy hits it by me…

[Red4282]

My local gg wont let you hit on the trackmans unless you make a fitting appointment. They have a couple old gc2s that they will let you hit anything on them for free… with nerfed balls i may add

[halliedog]

6 hours ago, MattM97 said:

 

Probably went to get a pack of smokes. He'll be back any day now. 

I did ORIGINALLY step out for a pack, but the more I thought about it I realized this was a no-win situation with this D-Bag demanding a free full bag fitting, so I decided to call it a day and went to Pig Pen #4 @ Bottoms Up instead.

[jdowning111]

Golf Galaxy is owned by Dicks Sporting Goods so a chain that has one interest..sales…other day I was playing the base course here got paired with a couple gents one of whom was a club fitter for GG…I mentioned that I went to a local business for equipment because I trust the place. Independently owned voted the best in Omaha several years running. Well this guy I’m playing with boasts how he’s one of the best fitters in the state…great…so I said that’s cool but I’ll stick with the guy I know I prefer to support a local business over a chain store. This seemed to upset him and a bit later I said well I went into GG once..this guys cuts me off and said you know you are a f$&@ing a$&@?e and got all belligerent with me and I was like uh ok you are really showing me why you wouldn’t go to your store.

 

I asked if he was affiliated with the military being he’s on a base course and he said I’m a guest to which I responded ok well then act like one. I said you had no idea what I was even going to say and blew up at me. I said are you just used to people saying negative things about GG? Fortunately I was on my last hole just playing nine and he comes up and apoligizes. I pointed out that he was making the very store he worked at look bad by assuming I would say something negative and some people might call the store and tell them how he acted..I didn’t I got better things to do…point being if you can find an independent fitter go that route I’m with the masses on this. I’ve had a couple chain stores tell me how far I was hitting something and it was way more than I could do but I’ve been playing long enough to know my distances…they do often juice their data. Why? To make the sale of course!

Edited September 25, 2021 by jdowning111

[Tanner25]

Well, in the Raleigh area, we have a bit of a golf retail desert. GG is the only game in town. Good or bad, I am glad it's here. We have one store that is a combo Dick's and GG, which is pretty cool.

[tannyhoban]

While these may be national retail stores I like to remind myself it’s local people running the store.

 

Having the opportunity to hit a few combinations just to get the feel is a pretty nice option.

Edited September 25, 2021 by tannyhoban

[snagy2000]

21 hours ago, Abh159 said:

Like @Davidv said... They provided you with a free service, and now it seems you are upset that they didn't do "enough" for you during the free service. If you're buying a new car do you get mad when they only let you test drive it around the dealership instead of taking it on a 2-day road trip?!?!

 

If you want to be fit for a driver then pay for a fitting... Otherwise just be happy they even put together a club for you and let you hit it for free.

SMH! Do you not test the engine, radio, windows, etc during your test drives? OP just asked to see how the shaft performed, not demo it for a round, no different than testing the engine to see how the vehicle performs. After all, they're one in the same. 

 

Dicks is a just retail company who services multiple sporting goods segments and were considering closing GG prior to the last surge in interest. Now as a public company, they need revenue generators to keep up with their investors expectations. They just don't have a very good management team who truly understands the core golfer or industry and it shows when you enter their store and talk to most of their employees. 

 

Their fate eventually will be the same as Golfsmith's. For those who remember, you can the similarities/issues in the two. Glad there are other options like PGASS, Worldwide golf brands (Edwin Watts etc.), the few remaining local shops and internet based options. Not as convenient, I agree. But if you're willing to hustle and work the systems, you'll find the info you're interested in. 

 

[RobotDoctor]

18 hours ago, MountainKing said:

It's amazing how much people want for free and then have to complain when they don't get it.....

Totally agree.  Too many people are used to getting free entitlements these days.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate receiving things gratis but I have no issue for paying for services.  To me the Golf Galaxy policy is more than fair. 

[bomberman]

I get the policy absolutely.

 

But I also want to get the data, that being said most big box stores do not fit very well. Generally they see the average golfer in the store who is just out killing time or kicking tires unlikely to buy. I have paid for sessions at Golf town which is Canada's version of GG, and left very disappointed especially after seeing awesome youtube fitting sessions from 2nd Swing or TXG. 

 

So all in all I am back to self fitting, next big purchases I will likely drive the 4 hours and pay the premium and get fit by TXG.

[larrybud]

20 hours ago, RoyalMustang said:

Don't trust those numbers anyways; I am pretty sure they are juiced when trying to sell you a club. 

 

I had a "fitting" for $50 at the PGATSS. I had a mis-hit and the guy said "wow, you mis-hit that and still carried 290..."  

 

I am pretty sure he added a 20mph tailwind to that one. His trackman was giving me a 114SS, whereas I had a local fitter fit me last week and I was 104-107.  

 

Any Trackman owners here know if it's possible to manually add swing speed to the values? I know you can set elevation and other weather info which would juice the total distance, but swing speed?

[uglande]

Honestly, I am happy to pay -- and to give at least half of my golf-buying business -- to places like Golf Galaxy just to help ensure they stick around. I am sure GG is working on pretty slim margins and it would really suck if they disappeared.

[Jeff58]

7:51 AM youjoon has changed the post title to - “Click here to bash the OP”.

[third-times-a-charm]

Ok so I'm usually a person that agrees and loves ripping OPs when theyre being unreasonable, but IMO theres two sides to this one.

 

Golf is an EXTREMELY individual spot when it comes to equipment - I mean thats why we're on this very forum, right?

 

I dont think it's outlandish or unreasonable to expect to be able to hit golf clubs for 'free' in a store before you buy them and expect good and factual data. A basketball player is not going to demo a basketball, or a soccer player a soccer ball, before buying it. When you need one of those you just go choose one. You dont need to know the exact RPM and angle of your baseball or soccer ball.

 

With golf you need to hit the club and then theres like 27 things to consider about the club that are all personal preference.

 

Not to mention the precedence has been set with like 80% of stores never traditionally charging for using these monitors, and now all of a sudden they are. I wouldnt mind if this was built into pricing of golf clubs at the profit level of retail stores - I'm sure they could do this at the accounting level and realize theyll get more sales with open bays full of data then by charging $20 as a barrier to test.

 

I'm willing to bet hitting something in a bay for free has led to more spontaneous sales than someone premeditatedly paying $20 does. Just IMO.

[snagy2000]

1 hour ago, Jeff58 said:

7:51 AM youjoon has changed the post title to - “Click here to bash the OP”.

LOL, people are turds especially when they get righteous about something... It's not like the OP said he asked for a full-fledged fitting for free...