That $600 driver might be a $20 fix.

Before replacing another club, visit your local golf shop. Arizona’s independent shops might save your equipment, your money and maybe your game.

Golf clothes don’t have to look like golf clothes.

That’s one reason I’ve been a fan of Devereux Golf. Born in Arizona, the brand brings a different attitude to golf apparel. Less country club uniform, more something you’d actually want to wear when you leave the course.

Ready to upgrade the rotation? Shop Devereux and use my code TERENCE20 at checkout for 20% off your order.

A golfer has a dangerous place for a credit card: your couch. It usually starts innocently enough. You hit a few bad drives Saturday morning, get home, open Instagram, and see someone hitting a new driver.

Then YouTube serves you a review. Then another. Pretty soon, you’ve learned that your current driver spins 300 RPM too much, launches 1.7 degrees too low, and is apparently the only thing standing between you and hitting bombs. By Sunday night, there’s a $600 driver sitting in your cart.

We’ve all been there. Golf equipment has never been easier to research or buy, and in many ways, that’s great for golfers. I can compare drivers, watch launch-monitor tests, research shafts, and order almost anything without leaving my apartment.

I’m starting to wonder whether having access to more equipment information has actually made us better at buying golf equipment. Some of the best equipment decisions I’ve made didn’t start with an algorithm or a launch video.

They started with a conversation, and that’s why I think the independent golf shop still has an important place in the game.

When was the last time you walked into a golf shop carrying the club you already own and asked, “What’s actually wrong with this?” Not, “What new drivers do you have?” Not, “What's the hottest shaft right now?”

And definitely not, “What’s Rory playing?” I mean actually putting your current club in front of someone and asking, “What would you change about this club before I replace it?”

That’s a very different conversation from the one most of us have when we’re shopping for equipment. It starts with the problem, not the product.

Maybe your driver is five generations old, and you’re leaving legitimate performance on the table. Maybe the head is perfectly fine, and the shaft isn’t a great fit. Maybe your specs have changed. Maybe the grip is cooked.

Or maybe nothing is wrong with the club. You just hit three bad drives.

That conversation might save you hundreds of dollars. More importantly, it might lead you to a better golf club.

The Cactus Club has never interested me as simply another place to tell people where to play golf. I’m interested in the entire Arizona golf ecosystem: the courses, instructors, events, indoor studios, brands, club builders, and small businesses that make golf here interesting.

Independent golf shops belong in that conversation because they’re more than retailers. Often, they’re repositories of decades of golf knowledge.

Think about how many clubs pass through a good repair shop over the years. Thousands of grips and shafts. Broken clubs. Bad fittings. Great fittings. Bizarre equipment experiments. Twenty-year-old irons that still work perfectly.

Brand-new drivers that aren’t remotely right for the person swinging them. The people working in these shops see things the average golfer never will, and that experience has value you can’t easily replicate by reading another spec sheet online.

It also makes me think that supporting local golf should mean more than playing local courses. If we want a healthy golf community in Arizona, the businesses surrounding those courses matter too.

The local fitter matters. The person repairing clubs matters. The independent retailer matters. They’re all part of the same ecosystem.

So I’m creating a little challenge for my readers. The next time you’re convinced you need a new driver, don’t buy it right away. Take your current driver to an independent golf shop first, hand it to someone who works with golf equipment every day and ask one question: “What would you change about this club before you replaced it?”

I’m calling it The $600 Test.

Maybe they tell you exactly what you expected: it’s time. Your equipment doesn’t fit anymore, technology has moved forward, and you should get properly fit for something new. Great.

Go hit drivers and find the right one.

Maybe the answer is a $15 grip. Maybe it’s a shaft. Maybe it’s an adjustment. Maybe you discover your equipment is completely fine, and you’ve just saved yourself $600. Well, at least until you walk past the used putters.

Over the next few months, I want to find and visit more independent golf shops around Arizona and meet the people behind them.

Not chains or giant online retailers. I mean the local club builders, fitters, repair shops, and small retailers Arizona golfers have quietly relied on for years. I want to dig through their used racks, find interesting equipment, learn their stories, and introduce readers to places they’ve driven past a hundred times without walking inside.

We’re starting in Tempe. If you’re thinking about replacing something in your bag, visit a local shop like All About Golf for Arizona Golf Works, bring the club with you, and try the $600 Test. Then tell me what happened.

Did you repair it, refit it, or replace it?

2026 Overseed Schedule is officially live, giving you one place to see which courses are scheduled to overseed, when they’ll close, and when they’re expected to reopen.

Grass League today announced that the Boulders Resort & Spa Scottsdale and Indian Wells Golf Resort (two Troon-managed properties) will host the semifinals and finals of the Grass League Match Series powered by Blue Tees.

For one day, JGAA staff and supporters will walk 100 holes, roughly 15 miles, to raise money that stays entirely in Arizona, supporting Youth on Course Arizona and the juniors who play through it.

The Cactus Games are back. Game 8 hits Encanto October 16 with new sponsors, bigger prizes and bragging rights. Grab your spot before the field fills.

Whether you want something traditional and timeless, sleek and athletic, or just a little different from everything else sitting on the first tee, there’s a little bit of everything here.

Which putters are best this season? The putter is arguably the most important club in the bag, so here is a guide to the top models on the market right now.

COMMUNITY

The Cactus Club turns one membership into a full year of better golf. Join and receive an exclusive player gift package featuring premium gear from Devereux Golf, Bangarang and Imperiel.

Then keep the value coming with an official USGA handicap index, the Valley Golf Pass, 50% off The Cactus Club events and products, and access to member-only golf trips.

Blades Golf Lounge is offering your first session free. Test Foresight Falcon tech, dial in your game, and experience indoor golf like never before.