Demo'ing Clubs

[ricva]

How's it done?

I'll start this post as I start most of mine here...I'm a relatively new golfer, high handicap, although I am improving, took lessons last year and hopefully more this year. Anyway....

How do most of you demo your new clubs? I'm interested in a new driver. I missed the demo day at my club, not sure when the next one will be. Do you simply go to the local stores and ask to hit them in the launch monitor? How many balls do you hit with each club? I'm not an overly aggressive person by nature and being a not-so-great golfer, wouldn't feel entirely comfortable occupying the monitor for 30 minutes while switching out drivers. Is this something that most big name golf stores tolerate? Or do they get upset with people trying too many things. I would buy there eventually, just probably not the first day. I know it can vary by store and employees, but in general, how much before you wear out your welcome at these stores?

Thanks.

[jscw]

Most of the time I will know the driver is for me or not by hitting less than 5 balls. Just like women ( I assume you are a man), you can know she is your type or not after one or two dates (or nights ), IMHO.

An easy way is to do some homework first, and ask to demo those forgiveness-type drivers with the price inside your budget.

[TheBUNKY]

Two ways this can be done.....

 

One, one of our local shops has a deal where you can go get whatever you want to hit as long as you bring it back to them by close of business and they kinda know you.

 

Two, my local club has demo clubs available however I think all they have are Callys.

 

What I like to do on drivers is go get one and play a round with it to see how I like it. That's how I did it with my R7 460.

 

There are other courses out there that do this too. Sometimes they will make you leave your drivers license or something like that.

 

It's a fairly easy process.

[wedgetoafoot]

I would say that getting results from a launch monitor would be difficult is you aren't able to get consistent strikes from each swing. I don't want to turn you off from testing clubs indoors because it is fun to hit in the simulator (most stores charge a few dollars for launch monitor use), but an outdoor demo session is going to give you far and away better results. This link is going to be really useful for you. It is a list of direct links to almost every manufacturs demo schedule. Check out their offerings, narrow your search down and demo away. Good luck.

 

 

http://www.golfdigest.com/equipment/index....daylocator.html

[lysaght68]

IMO your best bet might be to grab the phone book and call all nearby retailers. Just tell the sales person you really want to try a number of different drivers and ask him/her the store policy on demo'ing clubs. I think you'll be able to tell by the reply whether the store is customer service oriented. I've had better experiences with smaller/local shops because I prefer to hit balls outside with a demo club, I've found one locally that has an outdoor range behind the store and 2 others that will allow customers to take demo sticks to nearby driving ranges if you leave a credit card with them as collateral. In my experience the big retailers like Golfsmith will only let you hit their demo's inside and my indoor swing is not the same as my outdoor swing. You can also go to the major OEM websites and find any locally scheduled public demo days.

[ricva]

Thank you all for the replies. I'll make some calls to local stores, as well as check the link provided by wedgetoafoot and the internet for vaious demo days.

[schlebrock]

One more thing. You may want to try a club several times (if you can) before purchasing.

 

Unfortunately, I'm the King of it worked once, then I buy it and it doesn't perform like it did at demo day.

 

My rule of thumb.......one's an accident, two's a trend and three's a solution!

[TheBUNKY]

Not sure if you've had any luck demoing clubs or not so I thought I would share this tidbit that I just stumbled across.....

 

http://www.golfclubdemo.com/howitworks.asp

[Golf_Beauty]

One of the golf shops near me lets you try any driver you want. They have a driving range and they even give you a small bucket of balls with each club. All you have to do is give them your driver's license while you're outside trying the clubs. There's no limit on how many clubs or how long. See if anyone around you does that.