So basically things haven’t gotten any better, especially in regards to steel shafts and grips. I would have hoped the events over the last two years would have been a wake up call for most manufacturers to change their supply-chain methodology, but it doesn’t look like that will be the case this year (see graph, which just baffles me as I’m sure 2021 USA steel production is now even lower). Steel iron shafts will continue to be an issue this year, especially stepless steel shafts. Basically there are only a handful of large scale foundries around the world that actually produce steel shafts for pretty much all golf manufacturers (and of course most of them are overseas). I was told from a good source that, due to stepless steel shafts being more expensive and more time consuming to produce, quantities of those will be substantially limited. We are already receiving notifications from various manufacturers to pull those shafts from our fitting systems, due to these constraints.

On a good note, as we have the capabilities of building up the custom sets ourselves out of our tour trailer, we will still be able to offer these shafts in our lineup (as we are authorized dealers with most of the steel iron shaft manufacturers, which allows us to buy directly from them). The only drawback is that these shafts will be offered from Hodson Golf at an upcharge, which unfortunately seems to be the theme for 2022, with on-going rising prices and/or inflation applied to everything it seems these days.

Another issue for 2022 will be that most manufacturers will only be focusing on the newest 2022 club release offerings. In other words, most manufacturers would normally continue to offer the previous club line releases (typically at a discount once the new lines are released) but that model is history. You will see that once the old lines are basically sold out (which most currently are) then the only clubs offered will be the latest 2022 offerings and no others. On a good note, with the huge spike in golf demand across all aspects of golf, most manufacturers have significantly ramped up their individual supplies of heads, so that shouldn’t be a problem this year, but I guess we won’t know until later this fall.

Another issue this year will be limited golf grip availability due to supply (rubber) shortages, in which case most of the rubber supplies are being directed to more important things like tires and such, which is understandable. Once we have a clearer picture on what to expect this year regarding grips, we will let everyone know.