Golf industry dealing with counterfeit clubs

By David Uchiyama July 25, 2012 6 min read

Of the four drivers pictured, two are counterfeit and two are real. From the left, a counterfeit Taylormade Superquad r7, a counterfeit Callaway Big Bertha 460, a real Cobra S3, and a real Nike V. Jon Williams, owner of Golf Headquarters, estimates that his store sees between five and six hundred counterfeit clubs annually, and that over 65 percent of the online golf market is counterfeit.

Anti-Counterfeit Tips

• Buy from a reputable dealer either online or in the store• Research the product on the manufacturer’s website• Avoid too good to be true sales online because they are too good to be true• Look at the shipper and know most fakes come from Asia• If you have bought a fake club, inform the Internet Crime Compliance Center

Caleb Henderson, left, and Reid Smith, both on the golf team at Boyd-Buchanan High School, listen to Jon Williams, owner of Golf Headquarters, explain various ways to differentiate between a counterfeit golf club and a real one at the Hamilton Place Boulevard store in Chattanooga on Monday. Williams estimates that his store sees between five and six hundred counterfeit clubs annually, and that over 65 percent of the online golf market is counterfeit.

It’s estimated that there are more than enough counterfeit golf clubs in the United States that if they were laid end to end they would stretch from Winged Foot in New York to Torrey Pines in San Diego.

Employees at Golfsmith and Golf Headquarters in the Hamilton Place area see several counterfeit clubs each week when customers want to trade or sell clubs they own.

And most of the time, the customer doesn’t even know he or she has been duped because the imitations are almost impossible to identify.

“People trade in counterfeit clubs not knowing they have them,” said Jon Williams, who has owned Golf Headquarters for 22 years. “A lot of times they don’t know it’s fake unless it breaks. It’s typically something very small like a color just a little off or a font size. You really need to have the imitation and the real one side by side to see the difference.