Dick's Sporting Goods Open

6/27/10

Mike had a good week at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open in NY. We have been conducting player testing on a new “prototype” graphite shaft design from Penley. This shaft has been design exclusively for Solus and our new FC-10 wedge. We are testing and looking for a possible composite shaft alternative for both the tour and retail. Thus far the testing that we have conducted on both the PGA and Champions Tours has been pretty consistent. This first sample is to “soft” for what we are looking for. The tip section is very unstable and the overall weight is light. Penley is working on another sample and we should have it for testing in the next few weeks. We will keep you posted.

 

Mike continues to put clubs out for play. Javier Sanchez picked up a 56*. Javier has been a solid supporter of Solus on tour for the past several years. Gene Jones took to liking the new 52 and put one in his arsenal! Mike is still working with Keith Fergus on getting a 52* in play while Denis Watson took a 60 and adjusted it to 62* for slightly more bounce. His was looking for around 10* of bounce and our 60 comes standard with 8*. Lu Chien Soon picked up a 60 as well. We have had quite a few Asian players looking and testing the new wedge.


Now on to the continuing saga of my recent travels, I finally got the truck back in running condition and loaded for my trip to PA and the AT&T National. Although guarded in regards to the truck I was still ready to get back on the road. I pulled out Friday morning and all seemed back to normal! The truck was running great and rightfully so everything had been replaced on it but the engine block! I am just rolling along have a good time, I started my turn towards St Louis once again and heading east down I-70. I had planned on running around 600 miles before stopping for the night, at this point I was close to 400 miles in. I got past St Peters, MO about four miles and thought to myself I have made it, I am beyond the Bermuda Triangle! This is where I had had truck difficulties the week prior. I drove past the dealership that had tried to assist me the week before. I had traveled 421 miles last week and I hit 426 mile mark when once again the “check engine” light came on and I went into “reduced power” mode! I will not bore you with the details because it is getting somewhat redundant and quite frankly I am as tired of writing it as you are of reading it! Naturally it was 5:00pm on Friday afternoon and I was stranded. I contacted everyone but Obama and I might get a hold of him PDQ if this thing doesn’t get fixed!


I pulled into the dealership in St Peters and everyone ran! Can you imagine? I wanted to run myself! Too fat to run unless something is chasing me, and then I will have to take my chances! I called Onstar, your star, GM, Schofield GMC and BLT not to mention IOU. The decision was made by me to turn around and try to get as far as I could back towards home. GM has already filed all of the case numbers on this truck repair history so it made sense to head that way. I went into an AutoZone Parts store and used their diagnostic tool to check the engine code that cause the malfunction and once again it was the same code as the past 1,728 warning lights that have come on. I cleared the code and hit the road! I made it finally back to Wichita without another glitch! Long story short I have raised hell with GM and they are going to pick up my airfare and rental car for my trip up to the AT&T National in PA. While I am gone GM Tech Services and the dealer are going to once again “chase the internal demon” out of the truck if possible. I will return home next Thursday and have one day before departing to Moline, ILL for the John Deere Classic. If the truck isn’t finally fixed we will start the daunting task of forcing GM's hand to make this situation right or replace the truck. It is costing Solus time and money not being out on tour.


Ok my travel is set and I headed to the airport this morning for an 11:30am departure. I arrived at the airport at 9:30am this morning and got checked in early only to be called back to the gate. It seems the first leg of my journey had been cancelled! I was re-booked for a later flight which departed Wichita headed to Memphis at 1:30pm. I no sooner got my paperwork squared away the announcement was made that this flight was now cancelled! I must be getting a message from above, ya think? I am now sitting here in the airport writing this until my next flight (NFO) which is scheduled to depart at 4:30pm. There is good news though, I will make a connection in Memphis with no problem which will put me into PA at 1:00am! Oh not bad for trying to get the hell out of Dodge! I joke about it all the time but trying to get back and forth from Wichita is a crap shoot at best. I think I would have an easier time trying to get to the moon! HIHIHI….


Well lets all hope I get in to PA in time to work this week on wedges and players, not the vehicle (TAV)! At this point I hope I have nothing but positive news to report this week! I have now been put on the payroll at the GMC dealership and now I am going on the Wichita Airport Authority’s payroll! Everybody seems to know my name!! HIHIHI………. Hey I’m not cheap!