What's new on the West Coast

Behind the Ropes at the PGA Fall Merchandise Show

By Leith Anderson

The fall presentation of the PGA Merchandise Show was held in Las Vegas from September 11-13, 2006.  Here is a report from behind the ropes.  One of the great features of Golf Today Magazine is the very tight publishing deadline that puts the story in your hands less than two weeks after the event.

I’ll dispense with the usual “up or down?” commentary.  Refer to previous articles archived on www.calgolftech.com and www.golftodaymagazine.com for the history of the PGA Shows and the economics of the golf industry.  That hasn’t changed.  Neither has my view.  All industries need trade shows.  The golf industry is in a precarious position because the traditional show dates don’t line up with the most logical product sales cycle.

Manufacturers in all industries like to be first to market with their new lines.  That gives them an advantage to win early sales and jump start momentum in the market.  By October, you can’t buy a new 2006 car – they’ve all been closed out and the 2007 models are on the lots.  Last year, Nike beat the market by shipping its Sasquatch driver in October.  They got all of the golfers who wanted a new driver but who were afraid of buying last year’s model.  Nike turned a winner by delivering its product early. 

By September, most manufacturers know what their 2007 models will look like.  What they don’t know is how they will sell.  So, the companies put their sales reps on the road to book business for 2007.  By the beginning of December, companies know their winners and losers.  They need to place their production orders by December because most of the product that comes from China has a two or three month lead time. 

That’s why the big PGA Merchandise Show and Convention at the end of January is not important to the largest manufacturers.  It’s too late.  Most of their business is booked and deliveries scheduled.  It’s only the little guys who look forward to January.  The Big Guys (Titleist, Taylor Made, Ping and Cleveland) can’t afford to wait that long.  The million dollar cost for staging a booth at the show in January is an unnecessary business expense.  Putting up a booth for image alone is stupid – and stockholders penalize stupidity.  That’s the crux of the problem.

Callaway has continued to support the January show and has announced that they will do so in 2007.  But then, Callaway isn’t the industry leader any more.  Eli’s company is a wounded elephant.  After Callaway, the January PGA Merchandise show is still largely patronized by the apparel, accessory, and smaller manufacturers that don’t have sales reps in all territories that need to exhibit their products any time they can.  Only major manufacturers can keep a complete sales force in the field.

If the PGA Show took place in October or November it would be important for companies to book business.  It would save money if they could see their customers at a show and cut down travel expenses.  That’s why trade shows exist.  But it’s a big political battle.  The PGA is controlled by the East Coast establishment that likes to spend winters in the south and summers in the north.  The January dates are fine for them.  In most of the country, full-price retail business is over by May.  By summertime, everyone who plans to buy new clubs has already bought and the closeout cycle has started.  My prediction?  More companies will try to get a jump on sales by shipping their new products in the fall to take advantage of the affluent markets in Southern Florida, Palm Springs and Scottsdale.  Eventually business requirements will rule.  Sooner or later, the PGA and Reed Expositions will move their show to October or November and everyone will come back.  Until they do that, everyone is going to continue to argue and complain.

Golf Equipment Companies at Las Vegas

For the most part, golf equipment companies rejected the fall PGA show.  Nike, Bridgestone, MacGregor, Wilson, Yonex, Tour Edge, Nakashima, Feel, Scratch and a few smaller companies were part of the demonstration area that allowed buyers to hit full shots about twenty five yards indoors off of mats.  Each of those companies also participated in the golf tournament, offering prizes to any player who would try their products on the course.

Senior management was absent.  Most companies were represented by local or regional sales reps.  The presentation was similar to most demo days.

Winners in Las Vegas

Balance-Certified Golf’s John and Michael Cranston (a father and son team) were at the Bali Hai tournament and at the show conducting putter fittings.  John is a veteran of the PGA Tour, having spent several years proselytizing the Balance-Certified line of removable weights for putters and other clubs.  B-C has figured out a method for testing various putter weights to find the right one for any player.  The test consists of hitting a few puts with a putter with each weight installed.  Results are charted and the best combination stands out.  The father-son team was busy the entire time and reported that the Las Vegas show was one of their best ever.  They deserve the success.  The booth was presented in high tech fashion with four video screens continually running videos about the product.  As a testimony of their success, Winn emerged as a new copycat to join Golf Pride, Wilson and others who are beginning to realize that balancing a golf club is an important step in custom fitting.  The B-C designed and UST produced frequency filtered shaft is also coming into its own.  Look for several manufacturers to offer the new shaft with their putters in 2007.  Remember, you heard it from the Golf Equipment Chronicles that this was a technology that really worked – and that was five years ago.  Go to www.balance-certified.com.

Tour Edge was busy at their show floor booth.  In 2006, Tour Edge introduced the most expensive fairway metal in the market – the $399 “Exotic.”  That was an enormous step for a company that made its mark with high handicap Muni golfers.  But the Exotic sold well and motivated Tour Edge to come back with a driver to match.  For 2007, they are introducing a forged blade.  They don’t expect the higher end line to be a huge percentage of their sales – but offering a forged iron makes a statement that they’re trying to earn recognition from better players.

Why is Tour Edge successful?  It may be that the company is private so shareholders are not thumping the drums for unnatural sales increases.  Consequently, they have been able to ship a line in quantities that don’t load their channel up to the point that eBay gets the excess.  As a result, Tour Edge products are not as prevalent at discount prices as are many other lines.  Tour Edge dealers make money on the line.  That’s quite a bit different from most of the major OEM’s that are driven by quarterly requirements to report record sales and stuff the channel to make their number.  More information at www.touredge.com.

Scratch Golf was the smallest of the equipment companies.  They’re on a mission to sell their Japanese forged, custom grind wedges.  As specialty and custom clubs continue to draw interest from golfers who are looking for an edge, companies like Scratch are destined to become more important.  I think that players have more to gain by focusing on their wedge game than by buying a new driver.  But then, we all love the Big Dog.  www.sgolfclubs.com.

New Equipment Finds in Las Vegas

There were very few new equipment finds at the fall PGA Show.  Even companies with new products – Nike and the new “Sumo” – did not show them.  One that stood out was the Tour Edge driver that is shipping with a 2* open face angle.  Many good players complain incessantly about the “closed” look on their drivers.  Here are the facts:  if you want a driver that looks square, you need a head that actually has a 2* open face angle.  That’s a very rare item.  Most manufacturers build their drivers making assumptions about golfers.  They assume that most of their buyers will throw a little cut into their swing – the higher the handicap, the more the cut.  As a result, manufacturers design their drivers with zero degree face angle (square) for the lowest loft, usually 8*.  Then, the 9* driver is one degree closed and the 10* two degrees closed and so forth.  If you’re looking for a driver that looks square, you might as well look for a needle in a haystack.  You can find “needles”.  Since the manufacturing tolerance of most drivers is plus or minus two degrees, it’s not impossible to imagine finding a 10* driver with a 1* open face angle.  If you want one, you should be prepared for a long hunt.  Big manufacturers never label their drivers with the true lofts and lies.

Manufacturers are behind the times in their thinking, assuming that only low-loft drivers should come with square or open face angles.  With the trend toward high launch and low spin for maximum distance, even low index players are going to want high loft heads with square face angles.  Vijay Singh was reported using a 10.5* loft driver with a wide open face angle.  High loft drivers are not only for hacks any more.  MacGregor’s High Launch driver with an open face angle is further evidence that Tour Edge might be at the leading edge of a trend that will be followed by other manufacturers.

Open face angles are the lure of Tour driver heads.  All Tour players and most low-index amateurs are obsessed about “taking the left side out of play.”  That’s the reason that Tour heads sell for high prices.  Searching for a Tour head is unnecessary.  Most component suppliers measure the true loft and face angle on the driver heads that they sell.  If you want a 10* loft and a 2* open face angle, you can probably find it without much work.  And how about quality?  Keep in mind that the component driver business grew to support Long Drive competitions.  Component drivers exist because long drivers break most commercial driver heads with a few hundred swings.  Component heads, built for long drivers are guaranteed against breakage, most of them for life.  What does that say about quality?

The Sleeping Giant of the golf industry is arguably Bridgestone – the 28 billion dollar Japanese conglomerate.  Over the years, Bridgestone has continually misfired trying to enter the US market.  They introduced and retracted Bridgestone, Precept, Tour Stage and now they’re back to Bridgestone.  Their J-33 forged iron is one of the best in the business – I’ve been using them for my iron shaft testing most of the summer and they even made it into the competition bag.  The driver is good; the “Boom-Boom” advertising is starting to be noticeable.  They’re also wasting enough money sponsoring Tour events to get noticed.  Players are trying the new Bridgestone balls.  At the show, they introduced a couple of new cavity back iron models.  Will they make it this time?  Given the disinclination of most golfers to change brands, Bridgestone is going to need a breakthrough product or an aggressive distribution and pricing strategy – both very difficult to get through the bureaucracy-laden decision making process if a big Japanese company.  Meantime, if you’re looking for a great set of irons for a cheap price, grab a set of the forged J-33’s off of eBay.  They’ll set you back about $400 – way less than dealer cost.  www.bridgestonegolf.com.

Picks and Pans

You’re standing in the middle of the fairway.  You’ve got a six iron into the green.  The wind is head-on, or is it quartering?  Is it swirling?  Where is the wind?  One club or two clubs?  We’ve all been there.  You reach down, grab a fingerfull of grass and toss it into the air.  Which way is it going?  You toss another.  Which way?  Which club?  Got the picture?

That sets the stage for the most controversial product at the show.  “Windage” is a golf ball-sized plastic container filled with a fine natural powder.  If you’re wondering which way the wind is blowing you give it a little squirt and the puff of talcum powder lets you see. 

Practically every golf pro that looked at the product thought it was the stupidest thing they had ever seen.  If I hadn’t had a hard time picking up a fingerfull of grass that afternoon at Bali Hai, I might have just gone away laughing.

I asked the inventor how he ever thought of packing powder in a pill to put a puff into the air for players.  He explained that he was a bow hunter and that bow hunters were way more interested in the way the wind was blowing than golfers.  That made sense.  When he applied for USGA approval, it was denied, reverting to the “outside agency” rule.  Now we have a persecuted underdog situation.  He hired lawyer to argue that a pinch of powder isn’t as powerful an outside agent as radar yardage measurement devices or global positioning systems.  How much do dreamers spend to get into the golf business?  It took about $100K to get the tooling and manufacturing lined up.  That doesn’t count the legal fight with the USGA.  In the end, the plastic golf balls full of powder are going to sell for $5.  My take?  One of these days Stevie Williams will blow a puff of powder for Tiger and the Windage dreamers will get all their money back.  Check out www.playthewind.com.

Tees, Tees and More Tees

The back rows of the PGA Shows are always interesting.  That’s where you find the dreamers.  They’re the guys betting their life savings that they can launch a new product in the golf industry.  In the past, there was a preponderance of putter producers.  But with the life expectancy of new putter companies down to about eighteen months, the dreamers at the fall show were selling golf tees.

Talk about lowered expectations!  Most of us who have been playing golf for many years aren’t afraid to walk out on the first tee with just a ball in our pocket.  We take a quick look around, pick a tee up from the ground and we’re good to go.  If I were looking for a way to make my million, it surely wouldn’t be on a product that is normally given away for free.  I still have a hard time believing that tees will make a big difference in my golf game but that’s why I’m not a dreamer.  Each invention had its story.  Here’s my Top Ten Tee List.

In order of reasonableness.

The one I actually bought was the Eco-Tee.  www.ecogolf.com.  To start, they are incredibly cheap, a few pennies each.  You can have them printed with your name.  I’m planning to walk around town and leave a trail of tees like breadcrumbs in a cave, all leading to the Golf Lab.  One form of advertising that I actually believe in is printed golf tees.  When I pick one up, I invariably look at the name.  It’s usually some insurance guy.   

The compelling story of the Eco Tee is that it’s manufactured from a slurry of biodegradable corn paste.  Within a few months, the microbes in the ground will eat it up.  If you play the Munis like I do where no one ever picks up a broken tee, the Eco Tee is a nice touch.  Eventually, they will disappear.  That’s important in environment-friendly California.

If you’re as strong as Iron Byron and want your tee as high as legally possible, go for the Way, Way Huge Ripstixx.  At 4”, you can’t get any longer and be legal.  If you pull these babies out, you’ll look like a stud on the tee.  Just don’t pop it up and ruin your reputation.  www.golfcool.com.

Beyond Reasonable

Now if your tee expense is getting too oppressive you can buy a tee that is “guaranteed to outlast thousands” of wooden tees.  Pick up a bag of Tee Right golf tees.  They are manufactured with a soft rubber top and a hard plastic tip.  The benefits are listed as “no club damage” (rare on titanium heads), economy and tidiness.  Out of those, I go for the tidiness line the best.  Is a bag of ten a lifetime supply?  www.teerightgolftee.com.  Tee Right tees cost about a buck each.

If you really like your wooden tees but you’ve been breaking too many lately and busting your budget, you can invest in a TeeGuard.  That’s a sleeve that covers your wooden tee.  You jam it in the ground like usual, but the TeeGuard, made of “modern composites” will prevent you from breaking your tee.  So, for an investment of only $1, you can save a lot of penny tees.  In a season, it will surely pay for itself, but that’s only if you buy your tees. 

Hedging their bets, the TeeGuard Company also invented the “Launcher” tee.  The Launcher is also made of modern composites.  It looks like a normal tee, with a slightly smaller head.  The benefits of this tee was said to be 2-3 MPH of additional ball speed.  The natural question when you hear a claim like that is “Do you have any proof?”  The Launchers have supposedly been tested by Golf Labs (in Southern California) with documented results.  At press time, I had not received the test results from Tee Guard.  When they come in and if they really prove the claims, I will find a billionaire investor and convince him to buy the company and I’ll never have to work again.  Check out www.teegard.com or www.launchertee.com.  The TeeGuard will cost you $1.50 and Launcher Tees are $2.00 each in packs of 4.

For everyone who has a problem sticking his tee into the ground the right distance, there is the CertainTee.  This one is molded plastic with three steps.  You stick it into the ground up to the right step and you will never have your tee at the wrong height.  The thing that I couldn’t figure out is how they compensate for grass height but I’m just a simple golfer, I look at the ball and hit it.  If tee height is your problem, check out www.certaintee.net.  They cost about a buck each.

If you’re trying to break a smoking habit and think that sucking on golf tees will help, you can order up a pack of Tasty Golf Tees to “add some flavor to your game”.  I sucked on a mint flavored tee and it tasted a lot like a mint toothpick.  I was about to suggest a product improvement – sharpening the tip so it could double as a toothpick.  I stuck it in the ground and realized that these tees are to be sucked on, not used and then sucked on.  You can order at www.tastygolftees.com.  Tasty golf tees aren’t for sale yet.  When they are for sale, they’ll cost less than a dime a piece.  Stop by the Golf Lab for a taste.

One of the first “high performance” tees in the business was the Brush Tee.  It’s been around for a couple of years but now comes in four sizes.  It also is sold with a nifty belt holster so you can always have your brush tee ready for a quick draw, no more fumbling in your pockets, trying to find the tee that you don’t mind breaking.  Beware, some of the other tee vendors were claiming that the Brush Tee put a lot of spin on the ball (compared to theirs).  Details at www.brusht.com.   Brush Tee claims 2.3 to 7 yards increased distance along with a more natural feel.  We’ll try to verify that claim on our launch monitors with their free samples.  They cost a few dollars each, depending on whether you take conventional white or stylish colors.

There’s intrigue in the Brush Tee business.  They’re being copied and mimicked.  If you like your Brush Tee but want a built in divot repair tool and ball marker, you can buy from Teego.  The website is www.teego.com.  They cost two or three dollars each.

If you’re having a hard time telling the length of your tees apart so you’ll have the perfect tee height for every shot, you can use Professional Tee Systems at www.pridegolftee.com.  They offer color coded tees in various lengths so you will always know exactly the tee length you’re using.  Pride Tee Company is pretty big so you can get all kinds of tees from them.

One of the most stylish tees is from Rocket Tee.  It’s a black plastic tube with a ring to remind you how far to push it into the ground.  Rocket Tee has big plans.  They plan to replace wooden tees just like Titanium replaced persimmon.  www.rockettee.com.

And the Winner Is . . .

Leith Anderson is a Partner in the Golf Lab, Palo Alto, CA.
He will answer any and all questions relating to club fitting and club making. Contact:  Leith@calgolftech.com.