Counterfeit clubs have been the scourge of the golf industry for more than 20 years. The largest club manufacturers banded together in 2004 to form The Golf Group, which fights the costly practice that is typically perpetrated in China, where most genuine clubs are produced. The ultimate goal to reduce and, hopefully, eliminate the production, sale and distribution of counterfeit clubs.
The Group’s official name is the U.S. Golf Manufacturers Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group (KeepGolfReal.com) and consists of six major manufacturers — Acushnet Company, whose brands are Titleist, FootJoy and Scotty Cameron; Callaway / Odyssey; Srixon / Cleveland Golf / XXIO; Ping; PXG; TaylorMade and Adams Golf.
The Group has produced 300 raids and is responsible for nearly 3 million counterfeit products seized by law enforcement. But even all that effort hasn’t put golf club counterfeiters out of business. And the practice has spread to other areas of golf retail.
Counterfeit and “dupe” golf soft goods are in abundance on Temu, the Chinese-based online retailer of inexpensive products. Temu ran ads during the Super Bowl, in which the company offered $15 million in giveaways.
On Temu, consumers can buy a variety of items ranging from Masters hoodies and T-shirts to Golf Pride grips to Tiger Woods’ Sun Day Red merchandise — all selling for a fraction of the retail price of the real thing.
The difference between counterfeit and dupe merchandise is: counterfeits are made to look exactly like the genuine article and often purport themselves to be real; dupes are near look-alikes without any branding. Simply put, counterfeits use the real companies’ logos and dupes do not.
Counterfeit Masters hoodies can be had from Temu for around $11 and are available in assorted colors. A handful of fake Masters T-shirt designs can be bought for around $7. Some of the Masters merch looks authentic, even if the fabric is a lesser quality than the real thing. Other items, like hats, which can be bought for about $5-6, use cheap screen printing instead of embroidery for the Masters logo.
A counterfeit Scotty Cameron Circle T putter cover, embroidered with “For Tour Use Only” was purchased for about $9. The real Circle T headcovers can sell for $500 or more on Ebay. Head covers and putter covers with a counterfeit logo from Pebble Beach Golf Links are also available.
Woods’ Sun Day Red brand has been out only a few months, but counterfeit logo headcovers, towels and even a putter stamped with the Sun Day Red logo with an accompanying putter cover was available for as low as $52.
Some consumers might not care if the merchandise is real or fake; they just like the price. However, in most cases, it pays to look beyond the surface. The Golf Group’s website offers a “Spotting The Fake Quiz” that tests a consumers knowledge.
For instance, counterfeit Golf Pride Multi-Compound grips are regularly available on Temu for $28 to $32 for 13 grips. The genuine grips retail for about $12 each. To the untrained eye, the fakes look and even feel just like the real thing.
But club repair professionals can spot the counterfeit grips almost immediately. The first thing that gives the fakes away is that the grips often arrive smelling like gasoline. They also note that counterfeit grips are likely to be thinner than real ones, which means they are subject to tear when installed and at best, don’t last nearly as long.
Counterfeits of a broad selection of Golf Pride grips are available on Temu as well as fakes from Winn, Iomic and Lamkin. Counterfeit putter grips that look like ones from Odyssey, Bettinardi and Evnroll are also available on the site.
A dupe of a Bushnell Tour V4 rangefinder with slope — the real thing sells for about $300 on Amazon — was available on Temu for about $52. It came with a carrying case that looks like the Bushnell but with a different badge attached to the outside. The problem was its accuracy — off by at least 10% from a distance of 150 yards.
While buying counterfeits and dupes might seem like harmless purchases, the cost of protecting a company’s intellectual property rights and its place in the market is not inexpensive. And that price is eventually passed on to consumers. Sometimes, it’s cheaper in the long run to buy the genuine article.
