Today’s search for new clubs usually begins on the Internet, where
you may come across sites advertising brand-name drivers at headcover prices.
Caveat emptor: Bargain Central is treacherous with cloned Callaways and
knock-off Nikes. These forgeries seem like the genuine article—at prices that
quicken the heart.
“A complete top-of-the-line set of fakes will cost about $200
complete with matching bag,” says Shih Yann Loo, a Hong Kong-based lawyer
leading a global campaign against the illicit trade. “Very often, fakes of a
popular new club will be available no more than a couple of weeks after the
genuine item is launched.”
In the U.S., the faux clubs are distributed mainly through the Web
and unauthorized dealers. A few sets slip into legitimate channels as trade-ins
or when, as Loo delicately puts it, a “dealer is tempted by items priced too
good to be real.”
This crime affected the entire industry, so in 2002, Acushnet
(Cobra, Titleist), Callaway, Cleveland, Nike, Ping and TaylorMade put aside
rivalries and pooled resources to hire Loo.
Seventy percent of legitimate U.S.-brand clubs—and 90 percent of
counterfeits—are made in China, where labor is both skilled and cheap; a worker
at a foundry that casts clubheads earns less in a month than the retail price of
a wedge. China is also infamous for its casual attitude toward copyrights and
patents: A passable Rolex copy only sets you back $50; the DVD of a
just-released Hollywood movie costs $2.
Loo shut down retail shops in Shanghai and Beijing selling fake
clubs to tourists. Now he is targeting foundries that churn out counterfeits.
“There are many mold makers in China and it’s relatively easy to copy a
clubhead,” he says. Piraters also pay for stolen molds.
While counterfeits look good from afar, they are easier to spot up close.
Look for poor-quality materials—plastic instead of carbon, steel instead of
titanium (magnets don’t stick to titanium), inaccurate alignment, poor
cosmetics. “A lot of technology goes into a genuine club and it’s not easy to
replicate that,” Loo says. “We have yet to find a fake that plays like the
genuine.”
