Par 3 Gear exists to help golfers buy equipment that fits their game and budget. That only works if you can see how we know what we say. This page describes how we work.
In short: Par 3 Gear compares what makers publish, checks prices at retailers, and shows the source and date behind every value.
How products are researched
Every product starts from its maker’s own product page. We record what the maker publishes: specifications, list price where one is shown, and how the maker describes who the product is for.
Each recorded value is tied to the page it came from and the date we read it. You can see those sources in the evidence ledger at the bottom of every product page.
Every value comes from the maker’s page for that exact model. Where a maker does not publish a figure, the page says Not published. Where the maker may publish it but we have not captured it yet, the page says Not recorded. Golf ball compression is the common example: some makers publish a number and many do not.
When we describe what a product is meant to do, we attribute it to the maker: “Ping describes the G440 K as its most forgiving model.”
Evidence levels
Individual claims carry one of five levels.
- Evidence: Tested
- Measured under documented conditions, with who ran the test, when, the method and its limits published alongside the result.
- Evidence: Verified
- Confirmed by a manufacturer or other authoritative primary source.
- Evidence: Researched
- Supported by documented information from reputable sources.
- Evidence: Community signal
- Useful evidence from golfers and communities, clearly labeled as such.
- Evidence: Unverified
- Not sufficiently established. Never used as the basis of a recommendation.
A product as a whole is labeled Research-based: what we know about it comes from published sources and our own price checks.
Two of these levels need a note about how we use them today:
- Verified means we matched the recorded value against the text of the maker’s page.
- Researched is currently used where the value was read from the maker’s own page through a page-fetching tool, so it could not be matched character for character.
What “Tested” means
Tested is the level for measured results with a full record behind them: who ran the test, when, under what conditions, by what method, what was measured, and what the test could not show. A Tested label appears only with that record attached. No product on the site carries it yet.
How prices are checked
A price on Par 3 Gear is the price we saw on a named retailer’s own page. We check every store weekly, and each store’s latest check is its price until the next check replaces it. Prices change, so the store’s page always has the final word; the button under each price takes you there.
- If we cannot read a store’s price for a month, usually because the page moved or the product was discontinued, that store’s price comes off the site until we can read it again.
- Each product’s Price checks section keeps the full, dated history of every check.
- If a product was out of stock when we checked, we say so and show no price for it.
- Prices for different conditions (new, used, refurbished, open box) are kept separate.
- For most of the clubs we cover, we also record used prices from two retailers, 2nd Swing Golf and Global Golf. Each used price is shown with the condition grade the retailer states, and each retailer defines its grades in its own way.
Typical price and deals. We state a typical price for a product once we have at least 8 price observations from the last 90 days, spread over at least 60 days and from at least 2 retailers. The typical price is the median of those 90 days of observations. We call a price a deal when it is at least 10% below that 90-day median. Until a product has enough history, it shows no typical price and no deal flag.
The short version. Where a category has a finder, a product page opens with who the product is for, who should skip it and what to look at instead. Each line is the finder’s own rule applied to what the maker publishes, plus the prices on the page. It is not a test result or a score.
Alternatives. Where a category has a finder, product pages first list the products whose makers describe them for the same golfer: the ones whose published descriptors meet the same finder answer, nearest in price first. Then they list the other products we have researched in the same category as “spend less”, “similar price” (within 10%) or “spend more”, grouped by the prices we last saw.
Recommendations
The six finders, for drivers, irons, wedges, putters, golf balls and rangefinders, share one method. Each asks a few questions, such as your budget and where you usually miss, and gives each product one of three answers: “yes, likely fit”, “maybe, depends on your priorities” or “look elsewhere”, with the reasons and the gaps shown.
Each answer is built from three things: your answers, the maker’s own published specifications and descriptions, and the price we last saw. Makers describe things like feel, spin and forgiveness in their own words and on their own scales, so the finders reduce those words to broad levels and compare a product only against your answer, not against another maker’s wording. The rules each finder uses are versioned, so a result can be reproduced.
A product with no current price is listed separately, with the reason. Results are ordered by answer, then by price from low to high. On product pages, retailers are listed in-stock first, then lowest price first.
Community evidence
Community signal is the level for owner reviews, forum posts and other community sources. Where it appears, it is labeled as such and kept separate from published specifications and from our price checks.
Owner ratings at a store. Some product pages show a line under the price such as “TGW customer reviews: 4.8 out of 5 from 112 reviews”. That is the store’s own customer rating and review count, read from its product page when we check its price and written as the store shows it.
- It is the store’s figure, not ours. We do not combine ratings from different stores, and a store may include reviews it shares with the maker.
- We show it only when the store has at least 10 reviews and we read it in the last few weeks.
- It never changes which products a finder suggests or the order products are listed in.
- TGW is the only store whose pages we can read this from at the moment.
Retailer links
Links to retailers pass through a redirect on our own site so that a broken or changed link can be fixed in one place. Amazon links are the exception: Amazon requires them to go straight to amazon.com. Some links to retailers are affiliate links, and each one is labeled “Affiliate link” where it appears. Each product page also states the link type next to the price. See the affiliate disclosure.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong or out of date, we want to know. Tell us which page and what is wrong, and include a source if you have one. Contact details are on the contact page.
When we correct a fact, we update the recorded value, its source and its date. A page’s date changes only when the page does.