I just got an email about free premium club rentals when you play golf at Aliente Golf Club in Vegas. It seems they are trying to get you to fly in and play golf with free club rental instead of paying the airlines for transporting you own bag of clubs. Sounds like a great marketing idea, and I'd be surprised if more vacation spots don't do the same thing once the word gets out. This would save you the money shipping your clubs on the flight, and save the hassle as well. And you get a great chance to DEMO a new set of clubs at the same time. Sounds like a win win deal to me.

Interesting idea....but I still like to play with my clubs so I can try to score my best. I understand the attraction to being able to demo clubs and probably, there wont be too much difference but mentally it would bother me I think. the one time I did demo clubs, they turned out to be the wrong shafts and it was a long day.....

But i bet you're right...more clubs in resort areas will probably do similar things to help offset the costs of people traveling and playing golf. Because for me, if I have to pay $50+ to take my clubs, I probably wind up not playing....

Some airline charge more than the $25 each way for a second bag, they charge for an OVERSIZE bag, which can be twice as much. If you have 2 golfers, you're looking at at least $100 to take your clubs, maybe $200. This is where I think the free rentals will allow more golfers to traval and play without the airlines sticking to them. Time will tell if this takes off. The premium rentals in the add said you got your choice of Cleveland or Callaway clubs.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm! If a person is tweaked about paying to transport their clubs or the cost of rental clubs, they should forget traveling, stay home and watch golf on TV.

Fortunately for me, I have not yet had my golf bag classified as oversized. Maybe it's just the airlines I've used but if they did, I'd revolt.

But I agree with you Don, if that becomes common practice, then definately it's an incentive courses can make for folks.

As of now, it'll cost me at least an extra $25 to bring my clubs to the GGR this year (whereever it happens to be) because I have to check those...Augh!@

OK, so I just left Best Buy and checked the cost of TV's and so maybe watching golf on TV is not that great an idea, so maybe what Don is talking about might be a good idea and if Scott goes along with it then it's possible I might think it's ok too.

Scott, That $25 to bring your clubs is ONE WAY. So unless you plan to leave your club behind, figure on spending at least $50 to transport your clubs both ways. While I agree with you about playing with your own clubs is better, for a lot of average golfers with less than great clubs, using a high end rental might be a step up in equipment, and worth it.

Great Point Don. Now, to add to this, I'm seeing hotels that are offering gas cards and gas credits to get people to travel. I guess the travel industry is seeing the effect of the rising gas prices and trying to incentivise people into traveling. Good idea.

Well so I'm headed to Tampa tomorrow for a few days. Might have 1 full day to play golf. So if I wanna take my clubs, that's at least $30 round trip, more if they consider them "oversized". I can probably rent clubs for about that but I never play as well with someone else's clubs.

I probably will not take them and just rent if I decide to play and hope I get a good set. Plus then I have another round of club reviews to make, right????

Frustration is setting in. I have called numerous courses this morning here in Tampa and it's crazy. Yes they rent clubs but the clubs are "not good, we'll give 'em to you free" or "they're just off-the-wall, $15 rentals".

In this economy, where it costs money to take your clubs, I'm shocked you can't rent anything close to name brand clubs for courses that don't cost $140 to play. There's one course I can play tomorrow that might be sub-$100 that says it carries name brand rentals.

With people having to pay $40+ to bring their clubs, you'd think more courses would have decent (not even top tier) rentals as an option. I know a lot of people (me included) like to take their own clubs but for short trips it almost doesn't make sense now. But if what I'm seeing is the norm, then there's no reason to try and rent.

Rushing if you ever come in the Savannah Ga area you may want to play at Henderson Golf Club.It's at I95 and 204 exit.
The rates are under 50 on weekends but don't let that fool you.The fairways are nice and plush and greens are ussually fast.
I don't know if they offer rentals.
They have a web site

http://hendersongolfclub.com/golf/proto/hendersongolfclub/index.htm

Henderson Golf Club - Course Details

Henderson Golf Club is an 18-hole championship course located in Savannah, Georgia playing up to 6,700 yards. The par 71 layout has all the characteristics of an old southern golf course. Golfers will be treated with breathtaking views of centuries old live oaks, artistically draped with Spanish moss, pristine wetlands, towering pines and magnolia trees. Players will find the front nine holes open and rolling like a traditional links course, while the back nine offers tree-lined fairways in a natural setting.

Henderson Golf Club is a course where accuracy and finesse are paramount over length. Significant undulations combined with generous collars require a delicate touch at each green. Five sets of tees are available to accommodate golfers of all skill levels, and ensure that they have an enjoyable playing experience.


Call today or Book your Tee Time online
Phone: 912-920-4653


This came off the web site.Hope ya'll don't mind the copy and paste.

Jr., have you played this course? Mind submitting a review if you haven't already? This and one equipment review would get you in the running for this months giveaway as I see you're already in the top posters list..... just a thought...

Sounds like a guy needs to check the availabllity of decent set of clubs as well as the price of playing a round at a course. It is surprising that more courses don't have decent sets of rental cluss, with the cost of shippng clubs with the airlines. Might have to call a few courses and but a bug under the guys in charge and see if it helps.

I found one course that's sub $50 that has some Nicklaus sets for rental. So that's what I did today. it was one of those complete sets so I'm headed to do a club review now.

This would also be a huge opportunity for the local manufacturer reps I would think.

Personally, I really like the idea of renting clubs or of course playing with a free set at a destination course. Not only do I get to try a new set, perhaps at the cost of a few strokes due to the adjustment factor (which doesn't make that big of a difference with my game anyway), but I'm all into low-stress travel so I try and keep it as light as possible anyway. I'm surprised more places weren't doing this sooner.

A couple years ago I played at a place in Phoenix called the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass resort / Whirlwind golf course - a Troon course. I was at a conference and rented a really nice set of Callaways for for the round. I actually played a couple strokes better than normal that day for some reason, could have been the clubs, haha. Speaking of, I knew there was a course I forgot to plug in a review for... haha.. be back soon...

I also think this oould be a great way to all the OEM's to get a set of their clubs out in the hands of a lot of golfers. I don't see how it could hurt the sale of new clubs, since it would allow a lot of golfer a good chance to demo a set of their clubs for a full round, if not a few rounds. Most golfers don't like to buy new clubs without a change to hit them first, and this would be a perfect way to allow them the chance to do exactly that. And the golf course would be able to charge a fair price for the chance, so that should cover the cost of the clubs after not that many rounds of golf. Seems like a no brainer to me. I think I'll contact my Titleist rep and see what he thinks about this. Can't hurt to ask.

I agree Don. It was amazing to me how hard it was to find any place with even remotely decent clubs. I went to Hawaii once and played out there and the clubs I rented were horrible. And let's don't even talk about shaft flex, about all they had was senior flex.

The other thing I looked at was the club rental places, but they charge a lot plus they have shipping costs. So it's really not cost effective NOT to bring your clubs unfortunately.

Chris, I agree. I enjoyed the fact I got to try a new set of clubs for a whole round. yeah, it cost me some strokes but thats ok. I learned something about my game and my clubs through that experience too. But I did miss not having MY putter.

They already supply clubs to resort courses in all shaft flexes (most are R). Cabo Real in San Lucas gets 75 full sets per year from Taylor Made. Cabo San Lucas country club gets 100 sets a year from Cobra. Palmilla gets 100 sets each year from Taylor Made. They're all top grade sets and bags. At the end of each year, the courses sell the full sets for a couple hundred each.

I'd like to see that happening at a lot of courses in this country, not just in Cabo. Going by Scotts experence this past week, it doesn't seem to be happening here. I wouldn't mind a bit if the OEM's did something like this with last year's model of clubs. It would be a great way to get rid of overstocked items when the new models come out. They do this every year, so it wouldn't be a problem sending a fair number os sets to a bunch of nice golf courses to use as demo sets during a round.

The golf courses don't want to give away free rental sets. It's revenue for the course. The only ones giving free rental sets are courses that are down in revenue and want to attract more players. The OEMs don't have a problem getting rid of inventory. Discount houses, on line sales entrepreneurs, and overseas buy them all up.
What golf club manufacturers should do, is go to busy golf courses with a truck loads of clubs and check them out to the people playing. The player would leave their clubs and drivers license and play with a brand new set of Calloways that day. After the round they could check them back in, get their clubs and put the new ones on their wish list (or go in the shop and buy some new clubs).

Maybe courses don't make that much money off rentals. Our maybe people aren't willing to pay a lot. Or maybe most of the people who rent are the 'play once a year while on vacation' types that don't care what quality of clubs they rent. I'm sure it's some of all those things, but I would have thought with airlines charging to check bags that more golfers would be willing to rent. Maybe though it's one of those things that takes time for supply to meet up to demand??

But given my experience, even renting a new good quality set, I'm sure most people would prefer to play with their own set. Case in point the putter: If I was really trying to watch the score I shot, I'd be frustrated because of changing gear; to any brand. because I wouldn't play as well. Maybe people worry about that too. I did, but in the end, I looked at my low-mid 80's round and said:

1) I left some shots out there from my swings

and

2) I left some shots out there from the new gear.

But I had fun.

I see two major advantages with renting a set of clubs at the course. One, you don't have to bring your own clubs on the plane, and pay the airlines for the hassle. Two. you get to DEMO a set of clubs for a round or two out on the course. And while it's true, you may not score as well as you might with your own clubs, you can say the same thing anytime you play with a new set of clubs, be they rentals or the set you just spent $1000 or more on just because you wanted new clubs.

About this thing of not playing as well with rental clubs.
Who cares?
It's just a game.

So, great point Bill. I think we (or maybe I???) sometimes really forget that to a point. When I'm not playing as good as I know I can, or maybe WANT TO, I let it become more important than it is. But it is a game, not real life.