Buyer Beware

Despite less-than-ideal conditions, working in a counterfeit factory can sometimes bring a higher salary. Photo: Courtesy of Acushnet

"I was pretty ticked off," Castellani says. "I contacted the seller right away, and he refunded my money and even gave me a $20 credit on the shipping. But when I put negative feedback on his profile, he put negative feedback on me as a buyer. It was a month-long runaround to try and fix that."

Rogan sympathizes with Castellani. "I monitor website auctions every single day," says Rogan, who estimates she has shut down more than 8,000 eBay auctions. "If I see a high-volume seller, I open an investigation. We have a reporting tool on our website that gets hits every single day -- up to 10 a day -- from people reporting this kind of activity." Counterfeits also keep Herrington, a former colonel in the U.S. Army who worked in the counter-intelligence department, busy as well. "Counterfeit issues cross my desk 25 times a day," he says of what has become, for him, a bit of a "Groundhog Day" scenario. "It's coffee and counterfeits for me. I begin my day with counterfeits and end it with counterfeits."

Technology not only has made it easier for counterfeiters to sell their wares, but also has made the fight against fakes tougher. When the bulk of golf-club manufacturing transferred to China in the mid-1990s, an infrastructure of people who suddenly knew how to engineer golf equipment with three-dimensional scanners and CAD (computer-assisted design) machines emerged. As pirate foundries blossomed, they simply employed engineers who previously worked at legitimate operations.

"It's a highly skilled labor force," says Herrington. "We saw counterfeiters in a videotape bragging to undercover U.S. Customs officers that from the day they got a clubhead until the time they could begin full production was one week. Anyone who underestimates the ability of the Chinese to make good-looking fakes and make them fast and at a reasonable cost is a fool."

At a typical counterfeit operation in China, it is not unusual to see young women sifting through castings while other individuals constantly work on grinding wheels, moving through the heads at a rapid rate. Another floor might contain those doing the cosmetic work, including paint filling, shaft painting and packaging. According to Golf Digest, the typical worker has five years experience and makes about $250 a month -- a better wage than at a legitimate foundry. The owners of such shops, some a front for organized crime, others no more than a mom-and-pop operation, can make upwards of $750 a week selling the counterfeits -- a much better life than grinding the toe and heel of the latest batch of 100-to-a-tray sand wedges for 10 hours a day. Although it would be easy to label China as an ever-expanding pit of deceit where no good brand is safe, the sad fact is counterfeiting offers a better way of life for those involved -- especially when the threat of being caught or prosecuted is minimal.

In an effort to stem the supply of phony golf products, the Golf Manufacturers Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group -- consisting of Acushnet, Callaway, Cleveland, Nike, Ping and TaylorMade -- was established in 2004. That golf's largest companies and fiercest competitors would come together speaks to the industry-wide dilemma. According to Rob Duncanson, moderator for the coalition, the group was formed to petition governmental authorities in the U.S., China and other countries jointly to enforce laws against counterfeiting of golf products. Some headway has been made, including several raids and criminal prosecutions, but it is a case of winning some battles while the war still is being lost.

"You cannot raid yourself out of this problem," Herrington contends. "Attacking the supply side is necessary, but you have to control the demand and educate the public. Without that, you can't win the fight. Unfortunately, the more effort we put into it, the bigger the beast seems to get."

Part of the reason is enforcement is highly dependent on the cooperation of the Chinese, and some of the law-enforcement agencies in China are corrupt. "There have been instances when we have done raids, and there is absolutely nothing in the building because they have been tipped off," says Rogan. That said, the Chinese government has taken small steps in recent years, acting in concert with U.S. officials to produce a number of arrests, although some in the industry feel the Chinese government is only making a token effort to quiet critics.

Challenges also abound domestically. Customs can't possibly inspect all goods coming into the U.S. (Rogan says U.S. Customs inspects from 4 to 7 percent of all import packages). And when it comes to counterfeiting, the primary concern is fake goods with health and safety implications such as baby food and pharmaceuticals.