Your worst golf bargain

[bkuehn1952]

@paininthenuts asked a good question concerning our best bargain or deal related to golf.  Let's look at the flip side.  What seemed like a good deal or bargain but turned sour rather quickly?  That $500 driver that was going to change your life but got retired after 3 rounds.  The 1/2 price round at the best venue in the State that you had to play in the rain, shot 126 and that took 6 hours.

Mine is pretty easy.  I wanted a "2-Ball Putter."  After carefully watching eBay I placed my sights on the putter I needed.  Using recommended strategies I successfully bid upon the putter & won the auction.  When the putter arrived, the seller's online name "LASouthpaw" suddenly made sense.  

[Patch]

My worst bargains have been "golf get aways". There have been a few times my wife and I have gone to golf resorts based on their advertisements, only to find their advertisements were not accurate. 

I am sure I have purchased equipment that turned out to be a waste of money. Probably a purtter or two. 

[9wood]

Worst was a doz Volvik DS77 balls. They feel like rocks and they cost too much

[Groucho Valentine]

I think new drivers in general are the worst investments golfers make. 

[Fairway_CY]

I don't buy many clubs because I tend to stick with something and 'make' it work for me after I've done research, so I don't have any sour stories there.  I'd say that the Callaway uPro GPS I had was probably the worst bargain.  I won it at a year-end awards banquet after paying $1800+ throughout the season to play with the club.  

I was excited about it, but it only worked for 2 years before Callaway stopped supporting it and I could no longer download courses.  

Beyond that... I don't have too many golf related purchases or investments that have gone wrong on me.

CY

[DrvFrShow]

A $300 putter I bought.... While the alignment aid on it really helped, my back still hurt after about 5 minutes of putting practice. When my back got sore, my stroke went to hell. 

It's $60 replacement is working out just fine.

[SavvySwede]

A cheap Acuity stand bag, the bottom piece busted open in just a few months.

[Rainmaker]

P3ProSwing! 

I bought it about 5 years ago thinking it would help me practice indoors.  It's really more of a toy than anything else and I stopped using it pretty quickly.  Not before I bent the shaft of one of my irons with a super fat shot that hit the base of the machine, though, lol.  

I'm kinda stingy, though.  I haven't really bought that much golf stuff - so the P3ProSwing was the worst out of not that many purchases.     

[The Slapper]

Golf can be an obsession in terms of equipment, so my worse bargain this past offseason was stock piling several boxes of Golf Balls.  I over did it ten fold...duh.

 

[boogielicious]

I bought a golf hitting net that wasn't pain to set up. I rarely have ever bought clubs new and research the heck out of things before I buy. I guess I'm OCD that way! ?

[Papa Steve 55]

The Alien wedge.

That was the last gimmick "As Seen On TV" thing I ever got.

[paininthenuts]

I have had many bargains, but alas a few mistakes have been made on the way. I needed a five wood, so I went on ebay. There was a Callaway Fti nearly new, in immaculate condition with head cover. There was less than a minute to go, and it was only £33. I didn't have time to do any research on the club, but guessed it was probably worth over £100. I quickly put in a bid of £35 and won it. Only then did I have time to read about what I had bought. I wanted an 18* club with a reg flex shaft, and bought the pro version, which was 14* with a stiff flex. I attempted to strike the ball 3 times with it, and never managed to get the it off of the ground. Fortunately I managed to sell it without a loss. 

I then replaced with an older Callaway FT with the correct specification, but still couldn't use it. Again, I sold it at no loss. I ended up spending £2 on a Dunlop club from a bricabrac sale, and I strike the ball wonderfully with it

[Pete F]

5 Unique golf clubs on E bay

Chipper, E-club, Wedge, Putter and Pure Spin driving iron

I keep them around as reminders

 

[newtogolf]

When I first became really serious about golf I started to get heavy into buying equipment on eBay.   I had read about how great Mizuno irons are (which they are) so I outbid everyone ($525) for a set of MP-57 irons.  I couldn't wait to hit get my hands on them and when they finally arrived I went right to the range to test them out.  

They were obviously too much iron for my crappy golf swing and the feedback (pain) from poor shots would just shoot through my arms.  I went through a large bucket of 80 balls trying to love them the way everyone said I should but it wasn't meant to be.  I tried them a few more times after that first day but the results weren't much different.  I ended up trading them in and lost about $300 on the golf life lesson.  

[ASUslacker14]

The first driver I bought was a $200 dollar Callaway Hyper X. The bad part was the guy at the store had me hit balls in the back and my swing speed was around 93 mph. He said I was in between a stiff and regular flex so I picked the stiff thinking that of course my speed would be 100 in a few months. Lesson learned, I struggled with that thing for 4 years until I saved and replaced it with an r7 in regular flex that I hit way better.

[Valleygolfer]

Really had to scrounge to think of something...  I bought a Taylormade driver that was an "X-out". Apparently one that didn't pass the QC at TM. I don't recall that it was stated on the ebay auction either. Obviously it's defect was that it overly sliced the ball...