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Golf Equipment Chronicles 2006 (Part 5)

2006 PGA Merchandise Show -- Behind the Ropes

In the golf industry, the end of January is the start of the season. That’s when the PGA Merchandise Show brings the faithful to Orlando. It used to be a celebration. During the go-go 1990s when everyone was making money, the venture capitalists came home early from Christmas vacation to buy and sell golf companies.

That all ended in 2000. Since then, the perennial question has been: What’s wrong with the golf industry? I’m lucky. I never knew the good times so I’m not disappointed with the way things are now. My first PGA Show was 2002, just after the trauma of 9/11. Except for Christmas when families gather, PGA Show week is my best week of the year. It’s only my opinion, but compared to 2002 the mood was more upbeat for most exhibitors.

You might be interested in a little history to help understand the climate in Orlando. The PGA Merchandise Show has been going on in Florida for 53 years, since the days when a few peddlers gathered in a motel parking lot and sold their goods out of their car trunks. In time, the PGA owned and produced the show. When the PGA was in charge, PGA member professionals demonstrated their loyalty by planning their year around the annual migration to Florida. In a rare example of a professional association making a timely and profitable decision, the PGA sold the show at the top of the market. Reed Exhibitions paid almost $200 million to buy the PGA Show as part of their global expansion strategy in 1998. Pretty cool for the PGA Pension Fund.

In an effort to make back their money, Reed tightened operations. Some of the major exhibitors felt a little too squeezed and quit the show. Titleist, Taylor Made, Ping and Cleveland no longer rent booth space. Many smaller manufacturers do business from hotel rooms across the street. The scuttlebutt on the floor speculates on the viability of the PGA Show without key major manufacturers. Some observers think that the show would do better in the fall. But Reed signed a 25 year contract with the Orlando Convention Center that is tough to break. This year they sold booth space to 1200 exhibitors so they haven’t run out of customers. My prediction? The PGA Merchandise Show will be back in 2007 and for many years to come. Every industry needs a trade show. Sooner or later the brothers will come back into the fold, however meekly. If you’re in the golf business, you might as well plan on coming to Orlando at the end of January.

The Major Theme -- Technology for Teaching, Fitting and Playing

I spent almost twenty five years in the computer industry that was driven by Moore’s Law which, loosely translated, says computer power will double every eighteen months. The result is ever lower prices for electronic equipment, including computers, launch monitors and a host of electronic gizmos to help us understand how to propel a golf ball faster and more consistently.

The dominant theme of the 2006 PGA Show for me was the incredible expansion of very sophisticated diagnostic technology offered at affordable prices. Many of the inventions came out of University sponsored research and were developed by hard core scientists. For golfers, the result is that fitting services that used to be unavailable to amateurs or cost thousands of dollars are entering the mainstream. You will find it easier to understand your swing and find a better set of clubs.

The Minor Theme -- Growing the Game

In every sales presentation, news conference and executive interview during the show, the marketing message echoed a commitment to “grow the game” by making it easier to play. The reason? There are 25 million golfers, more or less, in the United States. The good news is that 2 million new players pick up the game every year. The bad news is that 2 million golfers quit the game every year. In America, we like markets that are growing and we lose patience with markets that are stagnant.

With all of the available technology, I wonder if we’re trying to solve the right problem the wrong way. Those of us who learned golf a long time ago as kids, did so by hitting balls for endless hours in back yards and playing fields. We got to play on caddy days when the club was closed for members. It didn’t take technology to help us love the game. Rather it took a shag bag, a pitching wedge, time and space. It’s not obvious to me that hooking a beginner up to a launch monitor or 3-D swing vest is going to help him learn or love the game. Pressing a button to let a computer program tell you what club to buy might be efficient, but it isn’t better than playing that club on your course. Technology offers a shortcut to understanding your swing and equipment -- no doubt. But it is also intimidating and, unfortunately, pretty useless for most beginners.

I love technology and I’ve seen our electronic gizmos help players improve quickly. But not all players. Especially, not beginners. Beginners need time, space and someone to play with. With that caveat, here are my totally subjective picks for the niftiest new products at the show. Some are scientific and some are just plain effective. Some are expensive and some are cheap. Let me know what works for you. Leith@calgolftech.com.

The Vector Pro Launch Monitor with Video -- $2995

A few years ago, launch monitors appeared to help clubfitters measure and compare the performance of golf clubs. The leading model at the time, Swing Dynamics, based on high speed photography, cost $16,000. Apparently, that wasn’t enough. Swing Dynamics went out of business in 2005. The AccuSport Company, marketer of the original Vector launch monitor, announced their new model on the first day of the PGA Show. It is an upgraded two camera system. It comes with an integrated video program to support teaching pros. At $2995, the price is just about half of the original model that came out three years ago, without video. Any teaching pro can buy a Vector Pro on an easy lease at under $200 per month. About three lessons will pay that bill. With the new Vector Pro, launch monitor technology is extremely affordable and about to get downright cheap.

In a follow-up interview with the CEO of AccuSport, Randall Tuttle, he detailed their product timeline and marketing strategy. Having “saturated” the top of the market, OEM’s, clubfitters and specialty shops, the next growth area was clearly teaching professionals. After that, look for AccuSport to produce a “personal launch monitor” perhaps by the end of the year at a price under $1000. Will the day arrive when players monitor their practice sessions with their personal launch monitor? Maybe. But, how much do you need to know about every shot you hit?

Strike and Swipe

On the other end of the technology spectrum was a product that was brilliant in its simplicity. The Strike and Swipe is reusable impact tape. You put the label on your club and hit a shot. The impression is more precise than standard impact tape, offering a sharp eye an indication of “shot purity” in addition to location of the hit. After the shot, you just wipe your thumb across the label and the impression disappears. It works just like the old “etch a sketch.”

The putter labels were intriguing. A close look at the impression tells you how you contacted the ball. A little faint on one side or the other indicates a cut or a pull. A little darker on top indicates you’re rolling the ball by trying to impart topspin. The company said that the putter labels take a long time to wear out. For drivers, the labels last about fifty shots, plenty of time to finish a range session.

The Strike and Swipe is a product that is useful for golfers of all skill levels. Advanced players can dial in their ball striking. Beginners can develop feel and understand the importance of solid contact. This is truly affordable technology. The labels cost a buck or two each. www.strikeandswipe.com.

The Balance-Certified (UST) Frequency Filtered Putter Shaft

Here’s another nonelectronic technology story. Just after the PGA Show I saw a Stan Utley segment on the Golf Channel. He emphasized that “sound equals feel.” I had been practicing with the Frequency Filtered shaft, invented by one of our favorite rocket scientists, Jeff Lindner of Balance-Certified and manufactured by UST. This shaft is designed to help a player understand how, and when, he hits the sweet spot. I mounted one on a Max Out Mickey Finn T-Bar putter. My experience was extraordinary. Part of the result might have been the putter head itself. The T-Bar sounded like a tuning fork. Here’s the takeaway: there is a significant difference in the sound with the Balance-Certified Frequency Filtered shaft. Depending on the putter head it’s mounted on, you will hear different things. With the T-Bar, I got a shrill “ping” on perfect impact. I got a “thunk” when I hit it on the toe. Will it train me to hit the sweet spot all the time? I hope so. www.balance-certified.com.

Smart Swing

Smart Swing has been around for a couple of years. A sensor is mounted in the grip of any golf club. A player takes a swing. The motion of the golf club is recorded in 3-D and color, showing a player’s swing path. The Smart Swing also records swing tempo and acceleration data.

At the Golf Lab, we record launch angle and spin rate with our Launch Max launch monitor based on high speed photography. We use the Shaft Max -- an instrumented club that measures shaft deflection in two planes and plots deflection against a timeline to produce a “fingerprint” of your swing. The efficiency of a player’s swing is reflected in the way he loads that shaft and is a major factor in fitting for flex. We use sophisticated Dartfish video to record a player’s swing to help understand the mechanics. The Max Out fitting system employs the best technology we have found to date.

The Smart Swing is an interesting gizmo to help a player visualize his swing. It was originally invented as a training aid to help a player understand his swing plane. The Smart Swing shows you in brilliant color graphics whether you “stay on plane.” Video can track swing plane, but it is sometimes tedious for a player to analyze video. The Smart Swing offers a short cut.

Enhancements to Smart Swing added acceleration and tempo data. Efficient swings reach maximum speed at the moment of impact. The Smart Swing tells you exactly how many microseconds before impact that happens. The Smart Swing also records precisely backswing and downswing time. With the current focus on “Tour Tempo” a diagnostic and training aid that can help a player achieve the perfect ratio between his backswing and downswing. Fair warning: you have to be able to think in microseconds.

We’re adding the Smart Swing to our stable of electronic diagnostic equipment at the Golf Lab. Although much of the information is available through other methods, a different view will make sense to some players. www.smartswing.com.

The Achiever

Not all players want to spend two or three hours in a fitting session. Players who have been through a detailed fitting and understand their swing sometimes want a “quick and dirty” way to compare the performance of two golf clubs. If you’re thinking about buying a new set of clubs, there is no reason to buy a “pig in a poke.” You can test the performance of the clubs you are thinking of buying against your current clubs. There is nothing more disappointing than buying a new set of clubs, taking them to your course and finding that your old set works better. That is an expensive and embarrassing mistake.

We’ve been using the Achiever launch monitor at the Golf Lab for three years. It is a laser-based system that gives very accurate ball speed and launch angle data. As dyed-in-the-wool equipment geeks, we can’t resist buying launch monitors because each one does something a little different, offering insight to our passion for club fitting. At the PGA Show, the Focaltron Corporation unveiled new software for the Achiever. If you are comparing the performance of two golf clubs and want to know which one works the best without a lot of grief, the Achiever is a great solution. But be warned: the Achiever only makes an “educated guess” about spin rates. If you are comparing drivers, launch monitors based on high speed photography, like the Launch Max, are much more reliable. The new Achiever club comparison software is top notch. The new software shows lie angle at impact which is a huge breakthrough. We bought the upgrade immediately.

The Achiever saga points out the need for specialized electronics if you want the right data to compare the performance of golf clubs. The Achiever is great for “quick and dirty” analysis. To optimize drivers, we want high speed photography. Outdoors, we utilize the Flightscope launch monitor which employs radar-based technology to track the flight of the ball downrange. The Flightscope is the right equipment if you want to know exactly how far your shots carry. When it comes to launch monitors, one size does not fit all.

Science and Motion Launch Monitor for Your Putter

What do Germans know about putting? The answer is more than we Americans might want to admit. There has been a lot of attention paid to understanding what the ball does the few microseconds after it leaves the putter. The American method is to focus video cameras on the ball and try to figure out what is going on. At last count, the state-of-the-art Hot Stix video system in Scottsdale focuses twenty eight video cameras on a player, his club and the ball in an effort to figure out why he missed a three foot putt.

The Germans use wireless technology to try to understand what a player is doing with his putter. The Science and Motion (SAM) system focuses on swing path, tempo and contact point. At the PGA Show, SAM was back with some enhancements. They have an aiming device which shows you if you’re getting started in the right direction. They’ve got a head band which tells you if you’re steady over the putt. They have a laser-based aiming system. But more important, they have a system that can tell exactly what a player is doing with his putter.

The Golf Lab owns a SAM system. It will be on-board the Golf Lab Tour Van this season, bringing the latest technology to a course or practice facility in convenient locations. Check out the Golf Lab Tour Van schedule.

3-D Modeling Gizmos

There were two very sophisticated 3-D modeling systems exhibited at the show. One came out of an MIT program. The other has been around for a while. My takeaway was that showing the skeletal view of my golf swing was a little more detail than I was interested in. On the other hand, if you have a particularly detailed instructor, you might find him fitting you for an electronic vest. Don’t worry, it’s not toxic. You might be asked to adjust your spine angle half a degree. We may buy one of these some day, but this is one technology that needs to come down a few bucks in price. Check out: www.iclub.com and www.bentleykinetics.com for more details. These vests that model the movement of your body are definitely on the exotic bleeding edge of the technology spectrum.

One More Low-Tech Recommendation

When I first decided to use a golf glove, it was all about very thin leather to transmit feel to my hands but give me a firm hold. I’ve tried them all, from the thinnest Kangaroo to my current favorite, the Foot Joy leather gloves. I used to seek out pro shops that sold black and brown leather gloves because they wear better. It’s hard to find dark colors today. Alas, last year I gave up and bought a year’s supply of the white ones on eBay so cheap it didn’t matter if they wore out quickly.

When I first noticed of Bionic Gloves, I thought they must be a gimmick that wasn’t worth mentioning. Then, I passed by the booth at the PGA Show while several customers walked up to say how much they liked the Bionic Gloves. One guy said he wore the same glove for an entire season -- and he was a pro. The technical story is that Bionic gloves are built up to fill in gaps in a player’s grip. You can use them off the course to drive your Porsche. It’s almost like wearing a catcher’s mitt to play golf. They seem very thick. But, I couldn’t say that they hurt my feel that much. You get a strong hold. Check out www.bionicgloves.com.

Marketing Methods -- The Celebrity Power & the “Buzz”

There was only one company that tried to make a marketing impact at the PGA Show. That company was MacGregor. They hosted a breakfast for PGA professionals at the Demo Day. They presented a launch event for their 2006 line with Greg Norman as company spokesman. Their booth was a visible presence on the show floor. And, they introduced some new products that had both a technology and performance story.

A perplexing question to me has been “What’s the matter with MacGregor?” MacGregor is undeniably one of the proudest name brands in golf. It is the company of Hogan, Nicklaus and Crenshaw. In the sixties, when I came into the game, the dominant companies were Wilson, MacGregor and Hogan. Maybe the answer is hidden in that list. Proud brands can be killed by MBA’s that put their name on low quality products and shove them into mass distribution channels. That’s what happened to MacGregor. At one time, MacGregor was the house brand of K-Mart. Not too many country club members buy their clubs at K-Mart.

When Barry Schneider bought MacGregor in 1998, he changed the distribution strategy. He pulled back from K-Mart and all volume channels -- taking a hit on sales in the process. He vowed to return the MacGregor brand to its former glory by conducting business the right way. But there were problems. The first pass at creating a “brand within a brand” resulted in the “V-Foil.” I still don’t know what that meant. They did a great job with their forged blades, but that’s just a small slice of the market. Mizuno is the current darling of the forged iron business -- offering several styles for a range of player levels. There’s no money in forged blades, even for a proud old name.

MacGregor turned to the east for inspiration. MacGregor’s Japanese subsidiary was enjoying success in Asia. In time, Schneider re-acquired the Japanese MacGregor subsidiary and installed the Japanese designers in the lead product development role. There were hits and misses. In 2005, MacGregor drivers were well-received in Asia but were too loud for American tastes. The first pass at game improvement clubs was clunky, but they came up with a winner with the model 685 in 2005.

America believes in the “Rocky” saga. We love the guy who gets pounded bloody, takes a fall and then gets back up to fight again. That’s Barry Schneider. There’s no blood on his nose, he’s polished and pressed. Maybe he should have hired Sylvester Stallone as the company spokesman instead of Greg Norman. I went to all of the MacGregor events at the PGA Show, including an early-morning performance for the Clubfitting Technology Group. It was all Barry, all the time.

I hope that Barry Schneider proves that you can rehabilitate a proud old brand name. I’m not objective on that subject. I want to see it happen. But there are also some “challenges.”

Successful golf companies are defined by their drivers. The Taylor Made R7, the Titleist 983 and 905 series and the Ping G series were all successful. The new MacGregor NVG2 has a technology story that plays in that arena. It is “360 degree cup face technology” -- you’ll hear that a lot this season if you watch golf tournaments on TV. The cup face is a single piece of formed titanium. No weld lines. The face wraps around the body of the driver. The touted benefit is that you lose less distance from off center hits. The sound has been muted, not quiet, but maybe quiet enough. MacGregor ships the driver with a proprietary Fujikura shaft that they describe as “quadra action.” Shaft designers have the ability to place zones of varying flexibility in a golf shaft. The MacGregor shaft is a design that purports to “load, store and release” appropriately for golfers.

We’re bringing the MacGregor drivers into the Golf Lab to give them a thorough test. We’ll tell you if the promise of “more swing speed for the same swing” can be proven. We’ll do the same for the “360 cup face” and find out if the whole face is a sweet spot. If you live in the Bay Area and would like to participate in player testing, get in touch with the Golf Lab and you can help prove, or disprove, the claims. We will combine launch monitor testing with on-course player testing. We won’t rig the results, but I would like to see MacGregor come out well in this testing sequence. We’ll have at least preliminary results in the April issue of Golf Today.

On the question of “challenges” there are a few. MacGregor claims that they distribute the head weight perfectly. The little tungsten weights are permanent. That theory goes against the conventional wisdom that a player should customize his driver by moving the head weight. In the same vein, MacGregor is one of the last companies to supply their driver with a “one size fits all” proprietary shaft, albeit manufactured by Fujikura. There are no driver companies that I know of that do not allow a player to choose his shaft.

Finally, there is the issue of style. MacGregor has adopted the Japanese style of fussy little screws and attachments. The American style tends toward smooth surfaces. In years past, American golfers have shown an affinity for Japanese styling. If that trend continues under the new “MacTec” branding, there is significant upside for MacGregor. Wouldn’t it be the ultimate irony if the proud old American brand is rejuvenated by Japanese styling and technology? Stay tuned for the next chapter of the MacGregor saga.

Greg Norman on Stage

There is such a thing as star power, and Greg Norman has it. He radiates. He is a compelling presence on stage. He did a cameo at the MacGregor launch event. I came away with a tip that Golf Today readers should contemplate. Greg Norman plays a 44” driver. As a matter of fact, he’s not even sure that it’s 44” because he’s not sure how to measure it. It may be 43-3/4.” For many months, I have been railing against drivers that are too long. Off the rack drivers are all 45” to 46” inches today. Mark my words, if you’re playing a driver that’s 45” or longer, you can probably improve both your distance and accuracy by cutting it down and placing more weight on the head. If you really want more distance, ramp up to 47” or the legal limit of 48.” That extra length might actually get you more distance. You can test that theory for sure on a launch monitor. You might want to add another couple of yards of distance by rebalancing the club with a Balance-Certified counter weight under the grip. Ask yourself if Greg Norman plays a 44” driver, why should yours be 45”? At least, test for results.

It’s well known that Greg Norman is an astute businessman. One evening at the show, we attended a reception for Annika Sorenstam at the Cutter and Buck booth. We then moseyed down the aisle to Nancy Haley’s Tehama show with an Elvis impersonator. Across the aisle was the Greg Norman booth. There were two live sharks in a salt water tank behind the reception desk. A saltwater fish tank with live sharks at a trade show. That’s a touch of class.

You probably know that Greg Norman also has a winery. After we saw the sharks, we ordered nothing but Greg Norman wine for the rest of the trip. After you cut your driver down and your handicap drops two strokes, buy a case of Greg Norman Pinot Noir to show your appreciation. It’s all about the sharks.

Marketing Methods -- the Power of the Infomercial

In past PGA Show wrap-ups, I’ve focused on putters and putter training aids. They were all back this year. If you want to know what was in Orlando, you can go back a couple of years to the Golf Today Magazine archives. This year, there was no “new” news. Except for the Two-Ball that Callaway turned into the Three-Ball (an upgrade?). You can’t fault Callaway for trying to create a next generation for their all time blockbuster. This time they added a ball and a “Saturn Ring” to get the moment of inertia up. The net effect looked like Callaway was chasing the Ping Pie Plate model. The takeaway: if you’re doing a couple of hundred of million with one model, you might as well try to stretch the life of whatever you’re doing. Meantime, all of the other putter manufacturers were hoping that the Two-Ball phenomenon had finally run its course and that there would be an opening for someone else to make a hit in 2006 -- maybe even have a chance to get the “Putter of the Year Prize.” Maybe that’s too much to wish for. But there are plenty of successors waiting in the wings.

Heavy Putter -- Steve Boccieri is one of the rock stars of the golf industry. All it takes to get that title is to invent a new putter that holds it’s own against the Two-Ball. In 2005, the Heavy Putter put its (heavy) footprint on putting greens around North America. That’s saying something when you’ve got a high quality, fully milled putter that has to sell for $250 to make a dealer happy.

I called attention to the Heavy Putter as a putter that was marketed “upside down.” Rather than break the bank to get a few Tour players to endorse the product, Boccieri was content to let his invention sell itself. The Heavy Putter was discovered by a lot of average players who used it to smooth out their erratic strokes and sink more putts. It still took a lot of money to make sure they didn’t slip back off the mountain.

For 2006, the Heavy Putter Company has revamped their manufacturing process. Rather than milling a solid block of metal, they’re casting the body and milling the final shape. They toned down the color, and they toned down the price. They also bought a hefty contract on the Golf Channel to buy infomercials. Next month, you’ll pick up the Heavy Putter on the Golf Channel. You will have a chance to buy one for $199 complete with the customizing weight kit. You can also find the Heavy Putter at their network of distributors, including the Golf Lab, for the same price and save the shipping. www.heavyputter.com.

New Materials -- Scandium & Nano Tubes

E21 -- The only “new materials story” at the PGA Show was the E-21 Golf Company an upstart that is trying to do things right. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt since E-21 was around a year ago, but their studded tires slipped on the ice. I reported my preliminary testing of Scandium shafts with surprisingly positive results. This year they brought in established design talent in Howard Miller. The shafts are now married up with proprietary iron heads. But the big news was the scandium driver head with the corrugated crown. Howard Miller put everything he knows into the design so if this one doesn’t work he’s a consultant that’s going to have a red face for a while. I’ll have a detailed follow-up on E-21 next month, including our testing of the unexplained distance from the Scandium iron shafts. More info: www.e21golf.com.

Aldila -- is the company that started the graphite revolution. They were at the table when Eli Callaway insisted that they put an “S” designation on an “R” shaft flex to prove that Eli understood golfer psychology before we even knew that was important.

A year or so ago, when the Nanotechnology buzz was just starting, I called John Oldenburg, the chief rocket scientist at Aldila and asked him his opinion. He was the guy who debunked nanotubes early on -- referring to the famous “pickle jar” on his bookshelf that contained the company’s supply of the precious high tech voodoo dust. As John put it, the voodoo dust is fantastic stuff, but you can’t just pour it into the shaft resin and expect it to do anything. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what a few shaft companies did. They poured it in, made up fancy names, fed the public marketing hype and the nano technology revolution in shafts had begun. I reported that the nano technology story was highly questionable -- with little proof that it meant anything in terms of performance. I thanked John for that insight and hopefully, Chronicles readers didn’t get taken in by the marketing story that was largely baloney in those days.

Fast forward to the PGA Show. John Oldenburg was there with some of his new shaft designs. He has figured out how do deal with nanotubes. After several years of experimentation, Aldila found that simply sprinkling nanotubes into the resin didn’t really do anything. The tubes tended to clump together and cause voids in the resin, and they really formed no mechanical bond with the rest of the structure. Rather than contribute to strength, they detracted from it. Aldila’s research lead to a partnership with a company that specializes in carbon nanotube creation and processing. Today instead of a pickle jar full of very expensive, but ultimately useless, mummy dust, Aldila receives a specially formulated solution that contains carbon nanotubes that are coated to allow complete dispersion throughout the resin matrix. Without the coating nanotubes just like to stick to each other and nothing else. Aldila has a resin with nanotubes evenly distributed and mechanically interwoven within the composite structure.

In testing, Aldila has found that incorporating nanotubes into the resin increases the compression strength of the graphite material, while also improving tensile strength, tensile modulus, bending strength, shear strength and reduce weight. How’s that for a scientific breakthrough laundry list? As a result of the strength increase, Aldila can use higher quality, stiffer, but more brittle graphite fibers that couldn’t be used in with conventional resin systems. The design goal is lightweight shaft with very low torque that still delivers excellent feel. At presstime, there were just a few of the shaft in circulation, none at the Golf Lab so our own evaluation will be forthcoming. However, the online buzz is overall positive. The day of the nanotube might have finally arrived.

Marketing Methods -- The Hospitality Suite

When it comes to traditional marketing methods, there are two competing styles. One is to hire sweet young girls, dress them in clingy, revealing garments and post them in your booth. That method doesn’t work as well as it used to -- the politically correct environment of today eschewing blatant sexism. At least a dozen companies bought gauze short shorts for their booth staff. For the record, I covered my eyes and walked quickly past those booths. You would too (I am sure).

The other time-honored way to attract customers is to offer free booze. Luckily, there is no line of protesters against that. The list of companies that trolled a couple of drinks to get their customers back would fill the Congressional Record. I’ve discovered that if you want to avoid the embarrassment of looking too much like a lush, you can always order white wine and say you’re from California. No one, ever, faults you for that. (If you’re really self conscious, you can downgrade your order to a “white wine spritzer.”)

The Nicklaus Hospitality Suite

The Nicklaus Hospitality Suite offered a full bar and the vodka sold out early -- that tells you something about Nicklaus customers -- Jack should be proud. They kept a good stock of white wine spritzers for their California customers. There were no “Arnold Palmers.”

Clay Long has been associated with Jack Nicklaus for decades. He was in the booth, discussing his design principles. The Nicklaus folks even let him hawk his new putter line. I bought one. I’m going to jerk the shaft and put in a Balance-Certified Frequency Filtered high tech putter shaft. That’s another attraction of the PGA Show. You get to meet your heroes.

Christmas Only Comes Once a Year

When I was a kid, I always cried on Christmas night. The next one is so far away. That’s the way I feel about the PGA Show. I shed a tear on the plane ride home, and drowned my sorrows in a white wine spritzer.

Meantime, there’s a long trail ahead. I look forward to meeting Golf Today readers at Golf Lab Tour Van stops around the Bay Area. Have a look at our schedule and plan to see us on the road if you can’t make it all the way to Palo Alto.

Leith Anderson is a partner in the Golf Lab in Palo Alto. He will answer all questions related to clubmaking and clubfitting personally. Contact Leith Anderson by email: Leith@calgolftech.com. Cell phone 650-743-2816.