BERNIE: The nature of the beast when it comes to the professionalism of component clubmaking is in the treatment of the customer, from the time spent with them to the educating you do for them, to the quality of the component selection and fitting to meet their needs and desires. If that is done, then in no way is the customer walking away from the experience with the feeling that they bought something cheap, even if the price is lower than what some of the other clubmakers and OEMs charge. What I have called the "tailor experience" is what I have always hoped clubmaking should be all about - when we all walk past the tailor's shop why do we know that would be the best suit we could ever buy? The tailor has no "brand name" on his cloth, thread or buttons, but we still think that suit would be better than anything we could buy off the rack in the department store. Because of the FIT and the one on one nature of the buying experience. It sounds very much like you do that for all your customers, so that means they all walk away with the most positive experience they could get, and then after that, feel like they got a deal when you don't charge them a high price. FIT vs off-the-rack is the most important part of the component clubmaking process for sure. IF you do that, which it sounds like you do, then good for you and better for your customers. But I still think that in a case where there is minimal to no care and passion offered, the majority of customers would look at a low price as being an indication of product quality. But then that's not you after hearing what you say about your clubmaking, so there is no reason for you to take any offense from my comment.
As I envision starting out with my own name on some of the components we will sell here, I look forward to thinking about my components being custom fit, or heck, even standard assembled by clubmakers who first of all, treat the process with passion and with a sense of craftsmanship, regardless of what they choose to charge. In the end, whether we are on the component end or the clubmaking end, this business, craft or hobby, whatever you want to call it, should carry a sense of pride of creation from all of us. And to Al's request for our individual definition of a 'cut and gluer', that's pretty much at the top of my description. 'Course I guess there has to be some education in there too, because I will never forget the time way, way back in my work in this field when a guy who was interested in club repair came up to me holding a club with a grip all crooked beaming that he had successfully put on his first grip. . . . without any tape or solvent!! TOM W -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Bernie Baymiller Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 11:27 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Selling it Tom, > OR, a club that they sell for such a cheap > price that it virtually carries a 'label' that says to the customer and > any other golfer who sees the set, "I am a cheap piece of junk that my > owner bought because he was too cheap to really pay for a GOOD set". Sorry, but I can't agree with your condescending remarks about "cheap prices" equating to cheap clubs...if that's what you meant. There are some of us who build clubs for fun and charge a token price for our efforts. I do all you say a good clubmaker should do, and though I don't have a lot of expensive equipment to fit my customers, I do have a lot of experience doing it for my friends and those I play with on our 3 community courses. It does help to know a customer's game. I may have 150 customers (men and women) and keep adding a few every year by word of mouth only. I'll stack the performance of any club that I build against any OEM any time, though mine may not be as graphically co-ordinated, or the ferrules polished quite as well. However, they're better fit to the customer's needs, better aligned and better matched. And, I can instruct my long driver customers how to adapt their swing to the length successfully...if they'll do it. As I said in another post, I don't care if the components are over $100 or more, my charge to put together a single club is $15, and maybe a bit less when I have to put together a set and can get some more time efficiency. I keep records, but I don't want to make a profit, I don't want the hassle of state taxes, business licenses, etc. I want to remain a hobbyist only, even though I enjoy making a lot of clubs for a lot of old friends and new friends. In fact, I find my kind of clubmaking a way to make a lot of new friends. And, having the stable of customers that I do have, allows me to experiment in directions few other clubmaker would risk or have time to do. > Personally, the main reason I have always campaigned against clones and > clubmakers who sell sets for cost + 10% is because that tears down the > real essence of what component clubmaking COULD be. When you think about > it at its most base form, component clubmaking has always held the > promise of the very BEST set a golfer could buy. Think about it - a one > on one fitting session between the clubmaker and golfer - what OEM can > offer that? Getting to choose from a big variety of heads, shafts and > grips - what OEM can offer that? And being there with the clubmaker to > tweak, adjust and fine tune when the set is built - what OEM can offer > that? I do all of that and am a fairly good instructor for my senior customers. I do it for fun, certainly don't charge enough to cover my time and sometimes do it for free. I agree completely with your assertion that custom clubmaking holds "the promise of the very BEST set a golfer could buy." I don't agree that a "cheap" club is necessarily a poor club, nor that it tears down the "essence of what clubmaking could be." Clubmaking is everything you suggest it could be for me...and I'm cheap. :-) Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
