I just moved to a new (small) city and there are 3 excellent courses around here. Several of my clients are enthusiastic golfers and I've played a few rounds with some of them. I would love to have my own set 'coz frankly, renting a set for 3-400 a round is gonna be expensive in the long run. Has anyone bought a set here in China and want to share their experiences? Sure I'd love a real set of Callaways but splashing out 15.000 might be pushing it and if my wife found out she'd kill me and I've heard graveyards aren't the best place for driving. Counterfeits? Copies? Clones? Taobao or real shops? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

@danmairen
I bought a set of ping knockoffs in beijing near the Lido hotel a few years back - cost ¥1k for a full set - irons, drivers, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and I think it even came with a putter - AND one of those huge gigantic faux leather golf cart bags - haven't played with them a lot but nothing bad's happened - good for hitting balls, although they don't make the famous "ping" when I strike the ball - but they play well - at least at the range.

I think I got them to throw in a nice set of golf shoes for an additional ¥100-200.

Now that Taobao's more mature - it's a good deal to buy the knockoffs online. I stuck with the irons (metal aka steel shafts) as I'm suspicious of the graphite shafts. They weren't durable under the original mfg's, so I shudder to ponder the explosive results of fake graphite shafts.

Good luck - hope you nail that elusive hole-in-one.

I'm definitely a steel man. My dad has a set of graphites and I really don't like how they seem to wiggle and bend, and no, I wouldn't like to play with fake graphs either. Taobao has Callaways and Titleist fakes for 1500-2000 so I'm definitely considering that. Does anyone have experience with Chinese clones? Any recommendable brands?

@Danmairen
The shop laotou refers to is still open and going strong. I have bought countless sets from them and they express them to Kunming for me in a day or two. They do most popular brands. They have two price levels, RMB1500 for the cheap fakes, these are like christmas crackers, you never know what you will get.. Then the RMB3000 ones are supposedly real clubs, made and assembled in China. These are the sets i usually buy and i have never ever had an issue with them. Do suggest going for steel shafts on the irons though. They will throw in bag, shoe bag, travel cover, umbrella, tees, golf shirt, balls, glove, driver, woods, irons and putter or 2. You can exchange the 2nd putter for a 58 degree wedge or a rescue club depending on what you want. I would go with Ping/ Callaway/ Taylor Made if buying copies.

Guessing you are in Dali/ Tenchong?

Tengchong it is. You don't happen to have the shop's name, phone number or website do you? If they are reputable I don't mind paying a little bit more than cheapest-price-off-Taobao. Can you recommend a named set to ask for? R15, Razr or something?