Exactly. My son (31 years old) is a mechanical engineer and loves to play golf. He designs railway cranes for s company that makes one-off custom cranes. In his spare time he just pulled the engine from a Saturn and replaced the timing chains. He has ZERO interest in golf club repair or assembly. I don't get it - he seems like the type that would be all over it. The hard part of clubmaking is not the benchwork - anyone can trim a shaft and mix epoxy or fire up a heat gun or turn a ferrule. It's clubfitting that is the science.
Do you know any twenty-somethings that build clubs?
FerruleLace I Might actually be generous in my assessment of my generation and God help the next wave, they will all be useless.
I will share more details later, but I'm teaching 6-8 graders to build clubs at school.
potbunker
Sweet!
Spuzz I agree. And, they're still too young. I didn't begin "tinkering" around with anything whilst in my 20's (except for women). Don't have unrealistic expectations of our "youths". LOL
I'm 32 and I love "tinkering". Just ask Bob (Bankshot) and good ol' @potbunker. I'm also an engineer by schooling, so maybe that helps. But I know of all my friends my age that are avid golfers, I'm the only one who builds, so...
I'm a 30-something and I'm PCS Class A certified. Have been since my mid-20's. Unfortunately, there isn't enough to make it a regular job. I don't think the majority of golfers (at any age) really give a crap. They just buy a brand name off the shelf and hack away.
They also don't bother to take lessons.
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It's a generation thing.
No one I know change the engine oil of their vehicles themselves, and no one I know still do the handy works around the house like repairing fence, small appliances change seals for the commode water tank.....
Most golf shops around here will change golf grips for free if you buy the grips from them. But club repair is very expensive, which promote throw away behavior with the low price point of OEM new "old stock "
Pike and Release, yeah, No lessons, instant gratification.... just buy it and hack away. Doesn't work right, don't take a lesson, don't say to yourself," I like the head let me try a different shaft"... no, just dump the whole thing and spend another $500 for a new driver. I was just talking to a person at a local golf store about it...she brought it up saying how she was amazed by it all.
DC, you are a throwback and there are probably not many like you. 20 and 30 year olds like hands on stuff, but not to fix, or improve...just to use... the latest and greatest gadget. My kid that is in his 20's can shred the crap out of a guitar with the likes of all the big metal bands yet when there is a snow storm my wife has to start the snowblower for him. The Lawn tractor...it puzzles him. He is a master at facebook.
Typhoon DC, you are a throwback and there are probably not many like you. 20 and 30 year olds like hands on stuff, but not to fix, or improve...just to use... the latest and greatest gadget. My kid that is in his 20's can shred the crap out of a guitar with the likes of all the big metal bands yet when there is a snow storm my wife has to start the snowblower for him. The Lawn tractor...it puzzles him. He is a master at facebook.
That is the unfortunate truth these days, I know 2 guys in my age bracket that can actually do anything, the rest of them look like ballers on Facebook and think I'm boring for not. I'll live, but if their computers fail them, they may not.
a month later
I am still in my 30's (barely) and have been assembling clubs for 8 years now. I enjoy building things and working with my hands. I also like wood working but don't do much anymore. Not sure about the next generation. I have a guy at work in his early 30's and he just paid a guy $75 to assemble a baby crib and rocker. Only a screw driver and maybe an allen wrench to put those together.
It comes down to this: (And I hate to say this) The worst thing that ever happened to the fitter and fittings is the L/M. It allowed the the big box stores to have the latest L/M with a minimal amount of time to get the numbers to so-called 'fit' the consumer with essentially off the rack golf clubs. If it looks like a fitting and smells like a fitting and seems like fitting.......the consumer will buy into it. The sales clerks, for the most part, are well versed in the use of L/M's to sell and move product. To the consumer a qualified (whatever that means) fitter just looks and seems to be overpriced. The big box stores L/M set up looks very professional today. And worse, which I have been preaching for years, is selection by the large retailers. That is a big edge.
Yep, 6th-8th graders at my school.
When I have time and figure out how to post pictures, I will start a thread.
6 months later
I believe it. Been working on my clubs for...(Holy Smokes) 35 years...But as a kid I caddied and worked at a golf store when I was in Junior High. Club building allowed you to try something for less. Thats not so much the case anymore IMO.
I still build, reshaft, tinker and repair but only as a hobby and for local buddies. I act like an adolescent, but my body is 64. I kinda remember being 20-something.
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I'm 37 and I have been a full time club fitter/builder for 13 years now. I started out when golf was in its modern day prime at the peak of Tiger's career, and have ridden the wave down to where it is now - fairly stagnant, but still able to survive doing it...thanks largely to a pretty good size repeat customer base. 
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First-time poster here.....a refugee from GEA and FGI. I have been a club tinkerer since my late 20's when I got a summer job working in a green grass pro shop. The pro didn't want to mess with changing grips, so he taught me how to do it. A new hobby was born!! That's been 45 years ago, and I'm still tinkering around....I only build for myself. Just built a Maltby KE4 ST-H hybrid over the weekend, in fact.
As far as 20-somethings being clubmakers, I don't know ANY as a matter of fact. Most of the people who work behind the counter at pro shops and golf stores I frequent are retirees like myself. Maybe that speaks more to the nature of the golf business these days as to the desire of younger guys to get their hands dirty. Except for the head pro, many of the guys working in golf now are just old guys like myself looking for a part time job and some free golf.....Intriguing question though.