8/25/10
Well Wednesday turned out to be a miserable work day! I tried to take a few shots of just how miserable it was but the rain doesn't show up. It poured pretty much all day and the temp around 65*. Nothing happening other than Phil going off on #10 and Mr. Woods off on #1 first groups off both nines for the pro-am.
Titleist introduced their new fairway woods and hybrids this week but the weather did not yield very good testing conditions.
The whole morning was about Jim Furyk's late arrival. I first reported to you as it happened! Tour Eye Dawg on task!
Although hard to believe some of these guys just don't believe the Solus sole design will work for them due to the bounce. It's not traditional looking! The wedge is the only club in the bag that really hasn't changed with the times. These guys love the looks, but a majority of them will not even see if it would work for them! It is really frustrating and stressful. Granted there isn't a club out here that will fit every player! But at least the player will test it to see if it might be a fit or improvement for them. The same old thought process lingers out here and it has to do with the size of the company. If you are a small company then you don't have the R&D dollars to test and prove your clubs performance. We don't have the engineers, robots and tour departments to support the integrity of the designs. Well I say that is BS! If it were me I would be open and give every new design a test, hell you never know until you try it! Test the product and see, at least take a look! Well not out here! It is almost an insult to approach a player especially as long as I have been out here. Granted the money and brand loyalty play a big part, but why not at least test everything. Obviously we have product in play or we wouldn't be here. This is why I keep preaching to all, that one of the giants should take the Solus design and take it to the next level! The wedge segment has been stagnant for quite some time. I look around every week and I have yet to see a persimmon wood? But I can promise you if this wedge had Titleist on the back they would all be testing it and several would be going right in the bag. Hey it now has the "big" company support and designers, it has to be good? Does it really? Some of the best designers in the world have put out some of the worst looking and performing clubs! Has that stopped the players from taking the money, hell no! Sorry I got off on another dirt road! I was traveling pretty well down the Interstate until I hit that patch of sand. It was a hard left!
I really think that most of these guys don't want to admit how good the FC-10 really is! They don't want to believe it! How can it be that good? How can they support the product? Who does that fat guy think he is? What the hell does he know? Why aren't they advertising? Most still don't or won't understand "HOW THE SOLUS SOLE DESIGN WORKS"! I can grind the bounce necessary to meet the player’s needs. We can set the wedges up for steep swingers as well as sweepers! Hey boys give little ol Solus another look! You’re all leaving money on the ground by not having the utility that this design provides! Hey it's your choice! I am here for you!!! The ol fat boy knows more than you think!! HIHIHI............
Enough of my rambling! That's why we all like going over to the Nationwide Tour, those players are hungry and fighting week to week! That tour is a real battle so these players are trying everything out there looking for an edge. If they like it they will test not only on the range but on the course. If it works and they like what it does for them they put it in play! If not, they return it and explain why it didn't work for them. But wait.... That's only if they can due to the watchful eye of their "Big" boys. Believe me there are new players every week coming onto that tour so there are plenty of opportunities for Solus!
Well enough of my BS, you've read it all! L.P.I.U. boys!!! On to Boston and the next stage of the playoffs! Oh I guess you need me to cipher the L.P.I.U. thing? OK here it is, "Let's Pack It Up" time to move to the next town and set up the midway! I'm on the roller coaster next week!
Have a great weekend!
8/24/10
Congratulations to our friends at Fourteen Golf for their win last week at the Wyndham Championship. The winner had two of their wedges in the bag! Wish it had been Solus though!
The weather here is a pleasant surprise from what we have been working in for the past several weeks. It rained us out on Monday and today it rain on and off pretty much all day. The temp has been running in the high 60's low 70's, nice!!
This event is the start of the "Playoffs"! There is only 125 players in the field this week. After this week the field will be cut to I believe the top 90 for the Boston event. The cut next week will be to take the field to the top 60 and then the field will be cut at the BMW Championship to the top 30 which will then head to the Tour Championship.
With that said these guys are not changing anything. I have approached four players today and once again tried to get KJ Choi's attention. I will try him again tomorrow if possible before the pro-ams head out. Everybody is a little tender right now!
Sabo asked me if I could get him new wedges with a more aggressive face milling. I had to tell him no, without breaking the rules! The USGA will not pass anything that is more aggressive than our current milling. This area is very sensitive to me. Over the past several weeks I have seen evidence of the inconsistencies of the USGA approval process in regards to the face milling. I know firsthand since we have been rejected with some of our first submission samples. We now have face millings that are hardly noticeable without really inspecting the face closely. While on the other hand I have seen wedges over the past several weeks on the Nationwide Tour that are unbelievable when it comes to the residual mill marks on the face. Something isn't right and in fact I think a few of the big companies are getting away what I call aggressive milling. Hell they look more aggressive than our flagship model Series 4.1! All I know there are some inconsistencies out here that are really suspect. I chose to take the high road and not cross the lines of what is approved. Even to the level of possibly losing a player like Rory. Oh don't get me wrong, we could make him a wedge just the way he wants it! Do we want to risk that? No!
Well this was the month for Cobra to make the split with Titleist since the sale to Puma. Cobra is now on our trailer for the balance of the year. Puma will keep the "Cobra" brand name and have retained three staff players.
I was approached by Matrix Shaft Co to test their new graphite wedge shaft. Here a look at them before installation. These companies are developing some really good wedge shafts. They are searching for the extra spin shaft dynamics while developing a more aggressive launch angle. The UST shaft is really good in its second configuration. We will test this shaft over the next two events.
Tomorrow is another day!
8/23/10
Well, I am finally headed back out on the road and started making my way back to the PGA Tour. I will be working the next three events which include the Barclay's in NJ, Deutsche Bank in Boston and the BMW Championship in Lemont outside of Chicago. It should be fun!
Well I won't bore you with all of the details but things went off without a glitch, so I thought! Megan is sharing a room with one of her high school classmates and she was heading up on Friday to spend the night and be ready to move on Saturday. Well long story short the "Mother of the Year" or wait the "Mother from Hell" assaulted the area, took charge and started pushing, shoving and changing everything! I have always taught my daughter to always take the high road, in the end this posturing will always play into her favor. Well in good faith she took all of the undesirable locations in the room to possibly make things a little more workable with her new situation, like being away from home and having a roommate! She took the top bunk, the bottom drawers in the dresser and the corner closet. This should show that she has compromised for the betterment of her roommate, right? Wrong, the Mother of the year didn't care one bit. She had been through this drill before and by golly she will bring this situation to closure! Well, that didn't sit too well with the "Dad of the Year", me! This wasn't the first room I would have to fill with uppercuts and probably won't be the last! This woman managed to piss off just about everyone she looked at! With my daughter in the middle and the high road insight I thought it best to retreat and let the dust settle. Well it ended here and I made a few strategic moves of my own and the word "compromise" finally came into the equation! Enough said, I could go on but select not to which you should thank me since this has absolutely nothing to do with golf! She is in, happy and all is good, NOW! Perfect, yes!
During all of this havoc and hysteria GM Customer Service gave me another one of their courtesy calls! This call is for the determination they made with my case. Well guess what they did! Nothing! That's right, NOTHING!! The warranty on the truck has been cancelled and the $2000.00 Customer Appreciation Voucher was it, period! No explanation, no nothing! They backed out the big load all over me and kick us to the curb, that simple! So here we sit with a truck with no warranty and no solution to the problem! They know it and this was an easy way out for them. They know damn good and well I wouldn't pursuit the big giant GM! Well I was in the mode to dump a little of my own BS on the person at the other end, which I did! It felt good but fell on deaf ears! You know, me and my family have been customers of GM our entire life, which by the way is a long time! They have always built quality cars. This just so happens to be the model they are struggling with and we aren't the only ones that have been treated this way. Regardless, I was really surprised hearing that GM has paid back all of the government loans and is in the process of offering a new IPO! I know most of you know what "IPO" stands for, but let me clarify it from my house. IPO stands for "I'M PISSED OFF" and does it make any difference to them, hell no! Sure they paid the loans back! How, you ask? By screwing their customer, that’s how! I am not finished but have to put the issue on the back burner and go to work.
With that said take a look at what we have been reduced to for this next tour swing! Yes, we had to rent a vehicle. I practice what I preach, I took the high road and elected to take the smaller SUV because it saved us quite a bit of money for the 22 day trip. Although a little tight and I somewhat feel like everyone can see all of my business up my skirt, it will work! But wait! Not without a little hassle known as the A/C defalcation. I got all loaded and started down the road and the A/C decided "I'm not going to make this trip"! So I had to return to the car to the rental company for a replacement but not after driving about 96 miles up the road. Ok got reloaded and back on the road! This journey will be about 3400 mile turnaround, so away I went. Not yet, there's more! I got to Effingham, Il and the A/C on this truck said no, but then decided to give me a couple of shots of cool air every once an while. At this point I am tired and really don't care! Once I got up into West Virginia and PA it cooled off, now the windows can go down.
I called and made arrangements to have the A/C fixed and made it into NJ around 10:00am this morning. The course is shut down and it is pouring rain, perfect! Nothing going on! I decided to check into my motel and catch up on a few phone calls. I understand now the range will close down around 2:00pm. Hell, why not!
You know I quit looking at my horoscope but have decided to take another look today. It said I am finally heading downhill and things will start going in the right direction! One can only hope! My luck has been running around a 1 on the 1-10 scale as you know!
I am going to get my ass to work! Everybody have a great week! Until tomorrow................
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