Bad Financial Decisions
The price of Cleeks Golf Club's new signature duffel bag will make you spit out your beer
How much would you spend to rep your beloved teams? That’s a question franchises have been asking since the advent of the forward pass, and time and time again fans have given the same answer:
A lot.
Hats, shirts, jerseys, koozies, key chains, Christmas ornaments, wine, wine glasses, wine stoppers, bumper stickers and, of course, bobbleheads. You name it, and fans will gobble it up, especially if the product on the field is inspiring. But that’s the trick, to sell lots and lots of things to fans, you must first have fans. That’s where Cleeks Golf Club’s latest venture—a Cleeks-emblazoned lweekend bag designed by bespoke leather craftsman Martin Key—stumbles. The price is where it falls flat on its face.
Holy bankruptcy, Batman. Now we should say, this looks like a very nice bag. It’s handcrafted in Italy from genuine bovine leather. The zippers are actual 18K gold. It sports a brown twill lining with orange leather accents, in keeping with the Cleeks’ recent (and VERY serious) rebrand. You might even be able to convince us that $4,800 is the appropriate amount to pay for a bag like this, at least for the clientele its aimed at. But nothing you could ever say or do could ever convince us that $4,800 is the appropriate amount to pay for Cleeks merch. Especially considering all of this is coming from a league that markets itself as the down-to-earth alternative to professional golf and whose first big star cited "obnoxious greed" as his main reason for leaving the PGA Tour
But forget the optics for a moment, and just focus on the laws of supply and demand. As has been widely reported, the opening round of LIV Golf’s 2025 season, live under the lights on the networks of Fox, pulled in just 12,000 viewers. The Cleeks themselves have a little over 3,200 followers on X. For reference, Max Homa—one dude—has over 690,000 followers. Would you buy a $4,800 Max Homa duffel bag? No? Then what chance do the Cleeks have?
It is your money, though. Do what you want with it. If you’re one of the four Cleeks diehards (Cleekies? Cleekites? Cleekers?) on earth, by all means celebrate Adrian Meronk’s big win in Riyadh by treating yourself to golf's most ridiculous piece of merchandise. If you’re a normal, sane, well-balanced individual with people who love and care about you, however, we suggest you save that money to eat, because lord knows eggs aren’t getting cheaper anytime soon.