I thought the same....for a while. After competing in several tournaments and noticing that there was no apparel bonus allowed, I figured, what is the point. So I stopped using all the apparel and just went with basic clothing. To my surprise, my game did not change. I was using a piece of apparel that added 35 yards to my driver which hits around 282 yards. It now still hits around 282 yards. I think the apparel bonus is a scam to get you to spend coins for continuous upgrades.