President Donald Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” in international trade have set off unsettling shock waves through Wall Street and the world’s economies. But in a practical sense, the nation’s First Golfer may have levied a critical blow to the golf boom that’s been on a record pace since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As in nearly every industry, the tariffs on imported golf goods could fundamentally recalibrate prices for everything from drivers to golf shoes, green fees and quarter-zips. No one is entirely certain when and to what degree the proposed tariffs could directly impact prices at retail, and it’s also clear that the tariff situation is exceedingly fluid. A simple phone call between one nation’s leader and the President might dramatically recast or eliminate that surcharge on that country’s imports to the U.S.

But right now, the simple math of the tariff process is that it could cost 30 to 50 percent more to import a driver made in certain Asian countries than that same driver cost last month.

The tariff math is not entirely clear when it comes to how much of an impact there will be on sticker prices, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that drivers that cost $600 now might routinely cost $800 or $900 should the tariffs remain in place, as announced by the President. Meanwhile, a $1,200 set of irons might cost $1,500 to $1,700.

While an NPR report estimates the Trump tariffs might raise some prices by at least 20 percent, other reports suggest an item like a new iPhone might go from $1,600 to nearly $2,300. When similar tariffs were enacted in the first Trump administration, a Princeton study showed that “the U.S. import tariffs were almost completely passed through into U.S. domestic prices.”

The vast majority of golf clubs, apparel, shoes and a significant number of balls are not manufactured in the United States. Look at the “Made in” stickers on many new golf products and you are much more likely to see countries such as China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea than “U.S.A.” Those four countries were tagged with some of the largest reciprocal tariffs in Trump’s April 2 announcement, with China at 104 percent, Taiwan 32 percent, Vietnam 46 percent and Korea 25 percent. Those numbers would come on top of a baseline 10-percent tariff levied on nearly all countries.

Generally speaking, and according to most economists, a tariff would affect consumer prices beyond the country of origin because it’s a fee the importing company would have to pay when the goods it has imported arrive in the U.S. Effectively, that would raise the cost of manufacturing or producing anything overseas. If those costs rose in line with the respective reciprocal tariffs, among other things, eventually a company would either have to eat those costs or pass them on to the consumer in the form of higher prices at the checkout counter.

The intent of President Trump’s plan, largely, is to rebalance the U.S.’s trade deficit with every country and ultimately bring more manufacturing and jobs back to the U.S. That may be theoretically possible in the cases where factories and manufacturing capabilities exist or could be holistically ramped up. But the golf equipment manufacturing industry is a well-established, mature sector in countries such as China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Those operations no longer or never have existed in the U.S. There are practical hurdles in trying to bring that kind of manufacturing to the U.S., and at the same time, U.S. golf companies would incur dramatic start-up costs and a development timeline that could significantly impinge the bottom line. It is slightly different, but just like there are not places in the U.S. where coffee and bananas could be grown (rather than imported), golf clubs are not suddenly going to grow on American trees.

Moreover, the uncertainty over investing in new facility development in the U.S. for golf companies can be a little paralyzing. Said one executive, “Do you open a factory when there’s a risk that the tariffs go away all of a sudden sometime in the middle of your construction plans?”

Golf companies contacted by Golf Digest were taking a wait-and-see approach to the issue of tariffs, but it’s understandable that, in particular, publicly traded companies such as Acushnet (parent company of Titleist and FootJoy, among others) and Callaway (which includes Odyssey and Travis Mathew) might face serious concerns from investors about how profits could be significantly impacted or even erased in the wake of the tariffs. Since the announcement, Acushnet’s share prices have dropped nearly 18 percent, with Callaway falling by 17 percent.

The effect of the tariffs on current products is especially interesting. While most new clubs are introduced at the start of the year and find their ways into golf shops by February, it’s not the case that an entire year’s supply of new clubs already has been delivered to company warehouses. What’s more likely is that a large percentage is in (and thus not affected by the increased tariffs), but a not-insignificant percentage (maybe a third or more) of the year’s supply could be readying for delivery in late spring or early summer.

With tariffs in place and being levied, a manufacturer could find itself in the position of considering a price increase mid-season—typically the opposite of what happens with golf clubs later in their product cycles. Failing that, the company would have to navigate arrangements with retailers or cut costs in other ways to get around the increased cost. That could mean less spent on current development plans, for example.

What seems more likely, if the tariffs stay as they are for the long term, is that prices for most golf gear would change with the next round of major introductions. That means a fall line of clothing or new clubs launched in the second half of the year. It might even be the case that clubs don’t see any notable price changes until new models are widely launched in early 2026. Even then, industry insiders acknowledge that asking golf consumers to start paying 30 percent more for new drivers and irons—when those selling prices already have increased more than 20 percent in the preceding five years—borders on a bridge too far.

Moreover, the fundamental impact of the tariffs might ultimately mean fewer new clubs purchased and, thus, fewer clubs imported. That’s not great news for golf manufacturers used to doing record-setting business since the pandemic.

On an investor call late last year, Acushnet CFO Sean Sullivan said that even an incremental 10-percent tariff will likely result in a roughly $7 million headwind for the company. “We are actively exploring actions to mitigate this impact, including leveraging our supply chain and potential pricing actions,” he said.

Still, there’s no question that a fundamental shift in pricing changes the momentum of a golf business that has been booming since mid-2020. Indeed, repeating a refrain we’ve heard often since the pandemic, Golf Datatech’s numbers for 2025 showed increases in unit sales for bags, balls, shoes, irons, putters, wedges and woods compared to a year ago. Even if that sales volume were maintained in an era of exorbitant tariffs, though, it’s still not good news for the bottom line. Said one industry watcher, “If this becomes a real thing, long term, it’s going to be like just taking a big chunk of your earnings and tossing them out the window, just gone.”

Meanwhile, smaller companies that have found a more comfortable place in the market’s current price structure won’t be able to hit affordable price points if they are hit with a 40-percent tariff. A $200 driver very quickly becomes $300, for example. On top of that, these smaller companies don’t have the resources to just eat a sudden 30- or 40-percent increase in costs. Said one small company executive, “If you’ve got an order for $10 million into Costco, chances are they’re not going to let you pull the price up 40 percent after the fact. That’s an immediate charge; you’ve got to pay it 20 days after the end of the month. I’m sure if you go to a bank and say, ‘I’ve got this $20 million order from Costco, and I was going to be making $2 million, but instead I’m now losing $4 million, so could you lend me $4 million so I can pay the tariffs?’ the answer is probably ‘No.’ So I don’t think anybody likes the confusion.”

One potential bright spot for consumers could be renewed interest in the used club market. Instead of choosing to not upgrade to the latest driver (and its exorbitant new price tag), a pretty spiffy used-club alternative could be had for less than the tariff-laden full price of a new model. That said, as the prices of new models increase, so too will the pricing on used versions.

But across the board, the sense is there’s still much to be negotiated before we get to a world of $900 drivers and $75 for a dozen golf balls. It’s worth remembering that in the first Trump administration, proposed tariffs caused immediate concern in the golf industry, but none of those immediate price hikes fully materialized. Certain products were exempted from tariffs, and the President already is noting that dozens of countries such as Vietnam already are working to reduce tariffs “to zero.” Of course, the biggest asset working in golf’s favor may be what Trump brought with him to the job, said one small manufacturer:

“I keep thinking he’s a golfing President, so that’s the one thing you have to hope because when he did the tariffs before, the actual impact on golf clubs wasn’t so bad.”

Main Image: Andriy Onufriyenko