My Draft...

Hi People: Apologies for not being at class on Thursday. I am having some fmaily difficulties back in the UK at present..Craig. I will bring my responses to class on Tuesday.

Golf Equipment Aficionado’s (www.4gea.com) is an online golf community primarily concerned with golf club equipment testing, fitting and repair. It has over ten thousand active members, including some very big names in the golf business. However, it is also very welcoming to newcomers and amateur clubmakers/players, who make up the majority of the membership.

There are Three levels of membership. Regular Membership is free and allows the member full posting privileges. Titanium Membership is $30 a year and entitles members to enter into competition drawings and allows very generous discounts on golf equipment and clubmaking supplies purchased from the sponsors of the site. The Third level of membership is by invitation only. You have to be a Titanium Member in good standing and have two recommends from people who have met you in person. This allows you access to the Swop-Shop where golf and clubmaking equipment is sold and traded often at prices far below the wholesale price of the golf clubs. There is also another “hidden” part of the forum dealing with politics. Anyone is free to go there but as it is primarily a golf equipment forum, it is kept hidden from view of visitors.

Although it is hard to profile a typical GEA’r, there are certainly a few common denominators among the majority of posters. Ninety-five percent of GEA membership is male – though many have spouses that play golf. They are overwhelmingly white, (As a moderator there, I know of three African-Americans, a couple of Asians and perhaps a few dozen Euro’s) and claim to be from the middle to upper classes of society. Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity seems to be embraced by many members and from the tens of thousands of posts on the subject(s), the majority appear to be Pro-Life, fiscally and politically conservative (but paradoxically many of those seem to have an obsession with materialism) and Pro NRA.

The forum is split into various sections, Golf, Golf Equipment, Clubmaking and Repair, Reviews, Swing Instruction, Non-Golf and the aptly named Exercise in Futility, which is the political folder. The golf equipment folder is good for showing how gullible the golfing public can be. Whenever, an equipment company brings out a new piece of gear, it of course always says “It will transform your game.” “#1 On Tour”, etc. A promise of an extra five yards on your drive will bring out droves of people posting it is true. Perhaps the longest lasting argument in this folder is called: “Cast Vs. Forged.”

Tech Note: (Promise to keep it brief) A set of irons are either made of cast stainless steel or are made of forged steel. Today, 99% of irons are made of cast stainless steel as it is cheaper and the heads can be made larger and more forgiving than using the forged method…

Double-Blind tests have always proven the golfer can never predictably feel the difference between a cast head and a forged head of the same design. However, seemingly every GEA’r will tell you they can see and feel the difference. I think there are differences, but they are entirely psychological, I prefer the compact forged head look, but many GEAr’s will seemingly create reasons which often have no scientific reasoning behind them whatsoever.

Strangely, the two sides of the GEA is often shown at its most obvious in the Non-Golf Folder.
I own a Rolex. It was a gift from my Grandfather. I seldom wear it and consider it a piece of jewelry. I will wear it for TV, broadcasting if I am going somewhere it may be noticed. I am not really a flashy person, though. Recently, I noticed its timekeeping was not as accurate as it had been and I posted a thread asking to recommend a good Rolex Cleaner with an idea of cost as I have not had it oiled or serviced for nearly ten years. The first response was from someone who has recently sent theirs to Rolex and it cost $600.00 to be cleaned, oiled, serviced, etc.

Three of the next four responses were:
“Someone might observe that $600 would buy a lot of Timexes at Walmart which should last until you die.”

“I just looked down at my Casio watch and realized how for four years now it has kept perfect time. Cost me all of $40.”

“Rolex = Overrated”

A few posters tried to explain that Rolex is a piece of jewelry and some people enjoy the way it makes them feel, in an effort to get the thread back on track. This was met by responses such as:

“I've had a Rolex knockoff for over ten years and it has kept perfect time. Wonder what it would cost to have IT cleaned?”

“Maybe its just me. But people who need to wear a Rolex to let people know they can afford to wear a Rolex are compensating for something.”

Later in the thread, someone brings up a website where you can but the finest “exact replicas” read: Knockoffs.

In total there are one hundred and thirty three posts on this thread. Most of which were of the above sort. Maybe ten of them were helpful and handy, including an interesting discussion of watch movements. And of course, it included someone who has a more expensive watch than a Rolex and their claim they have just spent $22,000 on an ebony case for it!

I like my Rolex because Rolex is associated with quality, its marketing has made it the King. I can admire the kind of people who Rolex choose to associate their product with like Arnold Palmer. If they own one, I am not sure I would be comfortable wearing my Rolex if Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were featured in Rolex marketing campaigns. But if it is good enough for Arnold Palmer, it represents the values Arnold has and those are values I would like to aspire too.