Golf Club Rentals: Find One That Fits to a Tee

It was, in many ways, a dream job: a beautiful setting, summers off (Augusta closes in the hottest season and doesn't reopen until early fall) and playing privileges on a coveted course.

But a few years later, another opportunity knocked. Tedesco signed on as a sales manager with Exchange Boulevard, a company that builds tools for running online auctions.

What he lacked in formal business training Tedesco made up for with his people skills and enthusiasm for closing deals. He rocketed through the company ranks, and in two years, he took over as CEO.

Exchange Boulevard has several golf-focused sites under its umbrella, including GolfExhange.com and GolfBlueBook.com, which does for golf equipment what the Blue Book does for cars. Two years ago, Tedesco came up with the idea for GolfClubDemo.com. Fittingly, it was his father, the man who taught him the game, who provided inspiration.

"One day he was complaining about how he'd missed the Callaway demo day in his hometown, and now he couldn't find the clubs he wanted to try out," Tedesco says. "And I thought, 'Boy, this is crazy. With all these new clubs, and all the players who want to demo them, there's got to be a better way.'"

While his techies built the site, Tedesco made a deal with GolfGalaxy, the country's largest golf retailer, to supply equipment.

It wasn't long before demo clubs were swinging through the online world.

The site gives users access to top-of-the-line equipment from major manufacturers such as Callaway (ELY Quote), TaylorMade and Nike (NKE Quote). Titleist and Ping are the only two big names that have yet to sign on.

The service is currently available in the U.S. and Canada, but Tedesco is eyeing other opportunities overseas.

Tony Jusick, for his part, is always eyeing new clubs online. It costs him $29.99 per trial, a relative bargain, Jusick says, when you consider the time and hassle of traveling to traditional demo days.

In recent months, he's tinkered with two drivers: a flat-headed Callaway FT-5 (verdict: not for him) and a Nike Sasquatch (upshot: he liked it well enough to purchase one), but given how simple testing has become, Jusick has no plans to stop there.

Just like every other golfer, Jusick says, "I'm always looking for the magic cure."

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