Faux Woods

Originaly published on Sports Illustrated's website.

As the old adage goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In this case the "too good" is really cheap high-end golf equipment that shows up for sale on the Internet.

Everyone knows that the right equipment is a big part of any golfer's experience. Whether a club has the right feel or makes a ball fly farther or straighter, every golfer wants to have confidence in his equipment. But if you want to feel good about what's in your bag, you had better feel good about where you buy your clubs because there are counterfeiters out there looking to take advantage.

It is estimated that as many as two million counterfeit golf clubs are produced each year. To put that number in perspective, if you laid every fake club end to end, they would stretch from Augusta National to roughly Denver. The reach of the problem is enormous, and the financial impact is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.