Recap
So I got curious and wanted to see if I could score a bargain golf net on eBay, and ended up paying $99 for a net which looked like our Kaizen Golf Net. See Part 1 and Part 2 where I documented the buying process and my first impressions of the net when it arrived. In summary it did arrive after a 2 week wait and looked pretty solid when I put it up. There was quite a noticeable difference in the quality of the netting though when compared to our product.
In this Final Part I will go through how the net fared over the last couple of weeks and my final thoughts.
Durability Test
Over the last 2 weeks, I did what I could to put the eBay net through its paces. In total I had 5 practice sessions with the net and hit irons, hybrids as well as the driver in each session. Each session was roughly around 1hr.
This exercise definitely also brought back memories of the early days of testing our own golf net - but it took months of hitting before we finally brought our product to market.
This exercise also reminded me how easy it was to work on my golf swing at home. My commute to the "range" consisted of the 10 seconds it took me to walk to the backyard, and it costed me nothing to hit as many balls as time allowed me to. This is exactly why Kaizen Golf exists.
I also intentionally left it in the backyard to be exposed to the elements, and we did get a couple of rainy days so that was good from a testing standpoint.
So was I able to make some holes to the net?....Nope.
The net actually stayed in tact.
Am I surprised? Yes and No. To be honest I was a bit nervous at the start given that the meshes were a lot bigger compared to our net, however as I progressed through the clubs I realised that it was going to be a tall order for me to make a hole on the net over 2 weeks. The Nylon netting material did do a good job.
But when taking a closer look at the area of the net which took the most brunt, I did notice some minor signs of wear where some fine fibres on the netting are starting to come apart, see photos below. This is not something I observed with our net after months of abuse (just went to check again to make sure...).
Does that make me think that the net will fall apart next month? Not likely.
But do I think it will still be in tact in 6 months? Not confident.
Final Thoughts
Here are my final thoughts on getting a cheap(ish) golf practice net on eBay. I hope this will help those who are also considering this option:
- A cheap net is better than no net. Having something to hit into in your backyard or garage is fantastic, full stop. If you are limited on budget, then you could consider an eBay option. But I would suggest the following:
- I wouldn't get anything much cheaper than $50.
- Check what material the netting is made from - I would recommend Nylon.
- If you are not confident with the quality of the net, either place something behind the net or stick to irons only if you want to hit real balls.
- I am now more confident with my own product. Now I've seen what's out there, I can say with confidence that we offer a much better product and I'm definitely going to keep our products at that level of quality.
As to what I'm going to do with the net? As there's still quite a bit of life left - it will probably be going back on eBay to find a new home.