Market and Investment

I picked up one of those ‘Golfing for Women’ type magazines the other week and got to asking myself where these women actually live, who buy the golf apparel shown in women’s golfing magazines? I have never seen women, not even the pros, dressed in such expensive and flamboyant clothes.

It’s easy to spend lots of money kitting yourself out for golf. What with hats, sunglasses, gloves, shirts, shorts, socks, windbreakers and shoes, the costs add up very quickly, even if you do your shopping at the sales. Then factor in the cost of clubs, balls, bag, cart and fees and you have to play very often to keep the “CPU” (cost per use) down to a reasonable level.

One half-page advertisement showed a beautiful young ‘golfing lady’ in very tiny shorts (like that’s allowed on golf courses!) that cost nearly $300, a golf shirt at almost $600, a jacket by Ralph Lauren at almost $200 and two-toned Utuser shoes costing $400 plus.

That comes to just about $1,500! I know that it would be impossible for me to get the CPU on that outfit down to anywhere near a normal level in my entire golfing life! Please don’t get me wrong - I do love clothes and I do really, really love shoes, but I could never afford, nor even want, golf shoes or pants that cost as much as most people’s weekly wages.

OK, you need comfy golfing shoes that don’t look like a pair of clogs, but really, you can find cheaper and still fantastic golf shoes.

I have bought a couple of very stylish golfing outfits, even though none of them are famous brand names. If I were to total up the cost of all of those articles of clothing, it would not come to the cost of a Tse golf shirt. Personally, I would rather have a few nice outfits than one that is priced way too much.

If I were to wear a $1,500 set of golfing apparel to play golf in, I would just be too worried about getting it grubby or perspiring in it to enjoy a decent game of golf.