INSIGHT
Will Trump’s tariffs drive up the price of golf gear?
Adele McLean, managing director of TGI Golf, says the industry will need to deal with the threat of rising prices as it arises
Should golf fear spiralling equipment prices if the full force of US president Donald Trump’s tariffs come into play? A leading industry figure says the sport can only “control the controllables”.
Adele McLean, managing director of TGI Golf, says tariffs obviously have the potential to affect pricing, but says the retail industry can only work to mitigate the impact.
President Trump has stunned countries across the world by unveiling huge tariffs against imported goods. While a 90-day pause is still in effect, and dealmaking is going on around the clock, China were initially hit with 145% duties, Japan originally faced a 24% surcharge, while a blanket 10% rise is in place in many areas while the halt remains.
US tariffs already had significant impacts on world trade with Apple signalling it should shift production of iPhones to be sold in the US market away from China to India.
And the far east is a mecca for golf club manufacturing with Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Thailand all major centres.
With golf equipment prices having already soared in recent years in the wake of Covid, cost of living and inflation, tariffs threaten to keep the increases coming.
“Obviously pricing is going to be affected,” said McLean, whose TGI Golf is one of the game’s leading retail services group and partners with hundreds of PGA Professionals. “Somebody’s got to pay for it somewhere, don’t they?
“It’s not just golf it affects, it’s everybody. The price of equipment has risen and risen over the last few years and you wonder where the ceiling is with it ”
“Our partners need to make sure they pass that onto the consumer, because we can’t pick that up. The margins that we work with in golf are already quite tight.”
She added: “It’s not just golf it affects, it’s everybody. The price of equipment has risen and risen over the last few years and you wonder where the ceiling is with it.
“Obviously these tariffs will affect that as well. We’ll need to deal with it as it comes along. There is nothing we can do about it – just control the controllables, and the uncontrollables you can’t do anything about it. We’ll just need to try and work with it.”
With profit for PGA Professionals on expensive equipment on the leaner side, McLean said TGI Golf would be on hand to help their partners and were always talking with brands and manufacturers.
She explained: “On the hardware and the higher ticket prices the margins are very, very, tight. We can’t afford to lose more – especially with the amount of money pros are investing in technology for swing studios and equipment.
“They’re investing that money and it’s costing them more and more to open the door every day with minimum wages, pensions, National Insurance and so on.
“There isn’t a huge margin for us to absorb that cost, so it will need to be passed on to consumers.
“Maybe brands will look at moving production to places that might not be affected. Who knows? We’ll just need to see what happens.”
And she continued: “We’re speaking to the brands and the manufacturers about that all the time and we’ll continually keep trying to educate and help our partners in any way we can.”