The New Chinese Golf Clubs Could End America's Biggest Golf Brands - Here's How It Began
American Fairways
3,754 views
#AmericanFairways #golf #documentary
Chinese golf clubs are cheaper than ever, and the heads inside most clubs from America's biggest golf brands already come from the same factories. But how did golf club manufacturing leave America in the first place? Real archive photos and documents, no AI footage.
From a shoe-last lathe in Dayton, Ohio (1897) to Spalding's Chicopee plant, Ben Hogan's Fort Worth factory, Karsten Solheim's cast irons in Phoenix, Taiwan's Fu Sheng, and Coastcast, the last independent golf clubhead maker in the U.S., this is the story of how America built the world's golf clubs, taught others to make them, and what it means for the club in your bag today.
Did you or your family work in a golf club factory? Where was the oldest club in your garage made? Tell us the club, the year and the place stamped on it in the comments.
CHAPTERS
00:00 A $120 set and an $8 million sale
00:47 What is happening right now
02:08 Where was your club really made?
04:25 Dayton, 1897: a machine built to make copies
05:54 Persimmon: "American Ebony"
06:40 Spalding in Chicopee
08:01 Wilson, Burke and Kenneth Smith
09:45 Ben Hogan's factory in Fort Worth
10:34 MacGregor signs Jack Nicklaus
11:11 The first crack: Karsten Solheim's garage
12:33 The "ugly" cast irons of 1969
13:15 How investment casting works
15:10 Taiwan and Fu Sheng
15:59 "We taught them how to do it"
17:43 May 24, 1983: Spalding stops making club parts
18:47 Metal woods and the 1986 Masters
20:07 Hitchiner goes to Mexico, Hogan is sold
21:19 Big Bertha and where it was poured
22:30 Coastcast at its peak
23:15 Clones, knock-offs and Project Teed Off
25:22 Across the strait: Zhongshan
26:50 Coastcast collapses
28:21 What happened to the last American caster
29:16 Inside Worldmark
30:22 $38.50 against $499
31:58 Ping: the company that stayed
33:45 Albany, Georgia: a sandwich on a desk
34:57 Nike's Oven and Artisan Golf
36:16 The cheap Chinese club, seen clearly
36:58 Tariffs, and the golf balls that never left
38:41 Counterfeits in 2026
39:13 Could they really end the big brands?
40:52 Clone or counterfeit?
41:31 My honest answer
42:38 Back to Dayton: who controls the copy
43:47 Where was your oldest club made?
The New Chinese Golf Clubs Could End America's Biggest Golf Brands - Here's How It Began
American Fairways
3,754 views
#AmericanFairways #golf #documentary
Chinese golf clubs are cheaper than ever, and the heads inside most clubs from America's biggest golf brands already come from the same factories. But how did golf club manufacturing leave America in the first place? Real archive photos and documents, no AI footage.
From a shoe-last lathe in Dayton, Ohio (1897) to Spalding's Chicopee plant, Ben Hogan's Fort Worth factory, Karsten Solheim's cast irons in Phoenix, Taiwan's Fu Sheng, and Coastcast, the last independent golf clubhead maker in the U.S., this is the story of how America built the world's golf clubs, taught others to make them, and what it means for the club in your bag today.
Did you or your family work in a golf club factory? Where was the oldest club in your garage made? Tell us the club, the year and the place stamped on it in the comments.
CHAPTERS
00:00 A $120 set and an $8 million sale
00:47 What is happening right now
02:08 Where was your club really made?
04:25 Dayton, 1897: a machine built to make copies
05:54 Persimmon: "American Ebony"
06:40 Spalding in Chicopee
08:01 Wilson, Burke and Kenneth Smith
09:45 Ben Hogan's factory in Fort Worth
10:34 MacGregor signs Jack Nicklaus
11:11 The first crack: Karsten Solheim's garage
12:33 The "ugly" cast irons of 1969
13:15 How investment casting works
15:10 Taiwan and Fu Sheng
15:59 "We taught them how to do it"
17:43 May 24, 1983: Spalding stops making club parts
18:47 Metal woods and the 1986 Masters
20:07 Hitchiner goes to Mexico, Hogan is sold
21:19 Big Bertha and where it was poured
22:30 Coastcast at its peak
23:15 Clones, knock-offs and Project Teed Off
25:22 Across the strait: Zhongshan
26:50 Coastcast collapses
28:21 What happened to the last American caster
29:16 Inside Worldmark
30:22 $38.50 against $499
31:58 Ping: the company that stayed
33:45 Albany, Georgia: a sandwich on a desk
34:57 Nike's Oven and Artisan Golf
36:16 The cheap Chinese club, seen clearly
36:58 Tariffs, and the golf balls that never left
38:41 Counterfeits in 2026
39:13 Could they really end the big brands?
40:52 Clone or counterfeit?
41:31 My honest answer
42:38 Back to Dayton: who controls the copy
43:47 Where was your oldest club made?