Are there too many golf club options?

Have golf equipment manufacturers unknowingly confused customers because of providing too many choices? Earlier today Callaway Golf announced the release of two new iron series upgrades to their popular Apex and X-Forged models. This brings their total current iron offerings to double digits, which caused a bit of a ruckus among equipment junkies on social.

On one hand, having too many options from which to choose could paralyze the potential buyer. On the other, having too few options limits the versatility of a brand. It's a wonder how marketing departments and R&D balance this dynamic.

So where is the middle ground? Is there one?

Limiting choice is not the answer

Believe it or not folks: the golf OEMs know what they're doing in this case.

While I do not agree with the way rapid release cycles are handled by some, offering a menu of golf clubs allows us, the consumers, a sense of control. We aren't pigeonholed into buckets or a corner of binary options. Instead, we are shown opportunities of being better without taking a giant leap into the unknown. We crave familiarity.

Golf is a sport that excells not on greens but in areas of grey.

This is why custom fitting is so important

Yeah, I'm still beating this dead horse.

Chances are out of the 10 iron models offered by Callaway, you are able to successfully play two or three. Some will be too "game improvementy" for you. Others will be geared toward players better than you.

Throw in shaft combinations and iron spec adjustments and you're facing dozens, if not hundreds, of club options among those two or three models.

Having more options available increases the chances of a custom fitter finding you the best club combination possible. The alternative is choosing among unleaded, premium, or that weird corn stuff.

That may seem like an easy choice to make, but there is a difference between choosing and settling.