BMW Championship

9/10/10

I almost forgot a couple of things from this week's blog! Check this out! I scored one of the new Golf Pride putter grips. If I'm not mistaken these were made up for the uhhhh???? Ryder cup team! Pretty cool!

I made a new friend this week! I think it speaks for itself!

I returned the "Tour Pod" to the rental car agency and will move back into the "TAV"! Hey the pod was OK but I really missed the "Big Unit"! I am taking it this morning to a shop other than GM. This mechanic was an engineer for Isuzu and knows the Duramax diesel engine first hand since he was one of the engineers that developed this motor. Once GM bought the motor from Isuzu they let the engineers go leaving the design unattended by the experts. Of course the boys at GM know it all! Guess when all of this happened? 2008! This engineer says he can fix the truck and make equipment recommendations to fix this damn thing once and for all! Yea!!!!

That's all folks!

9/9/10

Well the weather was beautiful for today's pro-ams! There was just a little breeze, sunny with a high of 70! Perfect!

Not a whole lot going on today with the pro-ams. The players were hitting a few balls and on to the course. Let's face it there wasn't much of a chance of these players changing anything this week. Maybe a grip or two or lie angle adjusted but that was about it!

I have a few more new targets to look at. Since Puma acquired Cobra Golf there will be a few opportunities to get a few new players. Cobra really doesn't have any wedges and really didn't need to since they were owned by Titleist. Naturally the staff players all played Vokey's! this will soon change and leave a few more doors open. I started to approach these players today. I will keep you updated as to the progress I make along the way. I am sure the player contract running through the end of this year, however the players are looking to next year's possibilities and are currently negotiating new contracts. Hey you never know?

Although the photographer was a little shaky focus your vision balls on the Dawg Hoisting up the cup! How do I look? It fits pretty well don't ya think? Come on now! This cup has a lot of history tied to it and it felt pretty good to hoist the ol cup up!

I have been looking at this putter for a couple of weeks. It's called the Clearview Putter. It is made of a unique material that reduces skid off of the face during impact. Additionally, it has a unique set of alignment scorings or cross hairs that need to be aligned in the address position, this sets the hands in the proper position for a consistent stroke each and every time! I love a mallet putter head anyway and our new friends at Clearview Putter fixed me right up! I introduced myself to the designer and we spent the next hour discussing our technologies, designs and the PGA Tour no less. This sort of product really intrigues me! The reason being is that it flies in the face of traditional design, it's different like the Solus. The design and technology make sense and it works! Here are a few photos to give you a sneak peak of this unique putter. I cannot wait to test this putter next week! I will keep you updated!

Nationwide/mini tour player Alex Carper called for a back up set of wedges to get him through the end of the season. I will get him fixed up as soon as he provides me with the new specs. He has been working with Oban and Nippon shaft companies and has made a change in length and flex. He had a few clubs damaged and needed to get new shafts so I have everything he needs. We should get everything to him this next week.

Sorry I don't have more to report today! I think the last two days have drained me trying to get my point across. I will continue to elaborate on our design over the next several events. It's time that everyone understand how this club will shave strokes off a players round guaranteed!


Well it time to shut this computer down for the day! I will have a few more things tomorrow to share with you which I will post once I get home. I have a few days off before heading to Midland, TX for the Nationwide Tour. Have a great weekend!

9/8/10

Well I hope you all recovered from my dissertation yesterday of the history of wedges from my perspective. Long story short I wanted to make the point that the Solus Utility wedge is different and has been designed to improve wedge play at all levels of expertise! It is the first real breakthrough in wedge design for quite some time! These players know what Solus is and for the most part thought they had an idea of how it worked and how it fit their particular swings or techniques.

Our design has had phenomenal results from some of the best players in the world! Each player fell into the one of the three swing categories that we identified yesterday. If there was nothing to it and it was a gimmick first of all we wouldn't be out here on the PGA Tour! Secondly, if it didn't have some creditability why would all of the "big" companies try to emulate its design? I can tell you why because they are all trying to figure out how it performs as good as it does regardless of swing plane or path! Well my friends that is why I have been out here for the past several years, to explain and demonstrate how this new technology works! But most of the time I still get the ol "Heisman" move put on me or the player seems to get too busy for me! Well there will come a day that the world will finally understand this new sole design and discover the many advantages it has to offer! I hope I am still standing! I can promise you one thing if I had a check book in my back pocket there is no telling what could be accomplished!


Hang in there I will continue this saga until the end of the season, maybe by then these guys will finally catch on to what has been happening on the Champions, Nationwide and various mini tours around the country, Solus!


Well although the temperature was very nice today the wind blew around 30-45mph all day. The player count came close to 28-30 for the day! I think these guys could have hit a wedge around 80-290 yards since the range is set up from the west to the east and the wind was blowing out of the south west most of the day! Not a god day to work on anything!


I continued to access as many players as possible. Ryder Cup Captain, Cory Pavin announced his captain's picks for the 2010 Ryder Cup. Tiger, Zach, Rickey and Cink were all selected to play this year's Ryder Cup matches.


Anyway, let me share a few of the comments that I received today in my survey.


* Hey it's the Playoffs! I am not looking or touching anything but what's in my bag!

* Would like to test one in the off season! Yea right that's a kind way of telling me to move on! Sorry!

* I like what I have and have no reason to try anything else right now! Really?

* I didn't realize that that is the way that sole functions? Really?

* Will that fit my swing path in need more bounce?

* You don't have the bounce I want or the loft. The loft I can believe but the bounce? How do you know?


You know the transition to this wedge is a very narrow window and if committed the player can get adjusted in just a few balls! This same attitude was taken when the hybrids came out. There was still adjustment/transition time.


The biggest puzzle to me is watching a player hit the Solus and then go hit their gamer. There was a difference! I am not being paranoid but the majority of the players loved the wedge and what it did for them. What is the holdup then? You know I could go on and on and on! I will spare you this time! Hey it's the Playoffs and I am trying to get as many clubs in play as possible, short of being a Fuller Brush man! This whole splatter of ramble on my part is just frustration coming out! Fighting these battles week to week can really wear on you mentally if you let it! Can you see it in me? Ya think?

 No matter when it is I am trying to get in front of KJ he seems to grow new friends! I looked over once and started to make my way over to him, in the next minute he was surrounded by Taylormade reps and swing coaches. We will survive! I am still holding true to my mission! Y.E Yang and KJ Choi are going to see me one way or the other! KJ has been feeling around since the John Deere. Patience will prevail in the end!

I could not leave the Chicago area without having a pizza. I had been told this place has the best pie around, so I thought in serving my readers with a little culinary knowledge and foresight I must tell you this pie is the best I have had! Fat Ricky's Old World Style Pizza is awesome! I got one to go and brought it back to my room. Take a look, I naturally had to have pretty much everything on it so a 9" pizza weighed about 20lbs after my applications! If you are ever in this area of Chicago you must stop by and try one. This location is in Tinley Park on la Grange Rd. I have added this stop to my list!

9/7/10

Well guess what? I won the damn Chicago lottery on Saturday night so I'm moving to Tinley Park, ILL. Take a look at my new digs, pretty sweet uhh? Yea that's right! Hey it doesn’t make me bad to dream a little along the way, does it? After all this is the PGA Tour and anything is possible! HIHI....... Had you going for a minute though! Oh yes I did!

811/812-Friday I decided to go visit a few friends over at Bettinardi Golf. This is my first visit to their plant. What a first class operation! I had a great visit! Quite a place!

Well, Mike did not get on the plane bound for Korea for the next Champions Tour event. If you remember the sponsor chartered a 747 and invited players, wives, caddies and reps. Mike didn't find out until late Saturday that there wasn't enough accommodations (hotel rooms) in Korea to hold everyone. So he was out of the rotation. One thing still gets me somewhat, there was enough rooms available to accommodate a rep from Callaway and Titleist! I am sure I'm just paranoid? Whatever!


Solus and I have to send out a "BIG" congratulations to real close friends for their victory in Pittsburg over the weekend. Kevin Kinser with "Dewey" or as I call him "Heavy D", Duane Bock on the loop won the Mylan Classic! Good for a weekend paycheck of $108,000! Great win! The beer and wings will be on those boys in Midland, TX that's when I will see them both next! Man I will have to starve myself between now and then!


Well as you know there was much going on here at Cog Hill today since the boys are finishing up in Boston. I am glad that big "E" didn't hit as hard as expected. Earl could have pushed that event back a day and this week would have been a wash! With the grace of GOD they will finish and the weather is beautiful up there. Since it was quite and most of the other reps chose to play golf or rest, Don and I opened up as usual and went to work. I got enough stock built to get me through the Nationwide Midland event and back to Mississippi for the Viking Classic. The week after that I go back to the Nationwide in Chattanooga followed by the two Texas events on the Champions Tour finishing up at Disney on the PGA Tour. Boy this season has flown buy it's hard to believe we have yet another season under our belts.


I will continue my player interviews and follow ups this week only this time we have just the top 70 players. The one good thing about this week is if you made the top 70 you are guaranty a paycheck this week since there is no cut. All 70 play all four days with the top 30 heading to the Tour Championship in Atlanta.


I really think the reluctance of some players to try the Solus wedge is the lack of understanding of how the Solus "Crescent Cut Sole Contour" is designed to work. On tour or for that matter at the consumer level the lack of understanding the function of the sole is lacking, this is more so at retail. The wedge has been left untouched so to speak in design since the 50's. Just take a look at all of the wedges next time you go to a retail store. The basic designs are pretty much all the same, right? The only difference is the fact now you have so many clubs, bounces and lofts to choose from. As I grew up in the golf business "back in the day" there wasn't anything beyond the PW until Sarazen designed the SW. Now there was one more weapon to choose from but this time we had an instrument design specifically for the sand. Once you mastered it uses in the sand you could lay it open and create all kinds of shots elsewhere. This is why a lot of the Champions Tour players to this day play sand wedges of 56 degrees or less. Just within the last five to six years have the players dared to go outside that box to the 58's, 60's and now 64. They learned to play the 56 in all sorts of situations! They gave it a chance and learned to use it! It wasn't discarded after the first off-center hit or bad shot.


I will stop there just to make my point here. The SW was unexplored territory back then until the players got used to it and made the transition. It took trust and practice, but in the end if you didn't have a 56 SW in the bag you were giving your competitors and edge. Soon after several players started having success with the new SW almost every player put one in the bag. As things progressed with the uses of the SW it didn't take long for pros like my Dad discovered he could grind on the sole to give the wedge more utility. Pretty quick my Dad was selling SW wedges and grinding away, every member wanted one just like his. My Dad played a limited schedule on the PGA Tour and mini circuits, but had to hold his full time club pro job to make ends meet. They all listened to Dad since he was an accomplished player and was who they look to for the answers. Who else but your local PGA Professional!


I guess what I am saying is this is where it all started for me! The understanding of the wedge and how it works and what sole works best for each player. On tour you will hear a lot of the different evaluations of the golf swing as it relates to the wedge bounce and sole contour. There are such terms as "digger", "sweeper" and "slider". These all correlate to a particular swing plane and path.

During my Dad's tenure I learned that there were pretty much three swing paths steep, neutral and flat or what was considered around. Each were capable of producing the same result but from a different angle of attack. The mass majority of the players fell in the neutral category. Which brings me back to the Solus sole design.

Just like any other club design that is being played today, what fits one player may not fit another, no matter what is done. The Solus sole contour was designed with one thing in mind, "utility". This doesn't mean it replaces every wedge in the bag or fits every player. However the design does lend itself to swings of all types be it diggers, sliders, drivers or sweepers in which each will benefit in a different way. It will give each swing type an advantage to exercise the players imagination.

This is another weapon that has numerous possibilities within its design. The grind of the sole was designed to fit every situation a player might encounter during a round of golf. However the design will yield results regardless of the swing plane or swing style. The results will vary from player to player. Solus came to the tour with hopes of opening eyes and turning heads, which we did. We were the first to come out with a 100% milled face and grooves! Secondly, we were out to open the minds of players that were stuck in the rut of wedge design. The Solus is a lot like a hybrid wood, just another weapon. Granted it’s not for all but works for the majority of them.

I could go on and on but little Solus has a unique design that will save shots per round for players of all levels including tour pros. We've proved that! We are not killing the tour with the number of clubs in play and will never do so as long as there are contracts and money involved. In the beginning we felt like we could own a little segment of the wedge business and we succeeded to a point. It's hard to play the game with no money! Money talks as you know! With the money comes brand loyalty. To strong forces that the small companies out here cannot compete with. Your product has to be real and good, we have both which have been validated right here!


Long story short if the players kept an open mind and gave the Solus a try, give it chance and discover the benefits the heads would turn! I do think the shear fact the wedge is different and doesn't need to be ground to fit lends itself to a gimmick. But you let a player give it a good test in the heat of battle, they will not throw us to curb. The biggest problem is just getting to that point. Players are set with their wedges and let's face it nothing could be better than Vokey, Cleveland or Callaway! Could it? Well hell yes there are a lot of excellent products that will never dominate the tour but are very good! I still think if this wedge had one of the big names on the back you would see a completely different game. I am not just saying this, but I think every player should have one of these wedges in their bag regardless of loft. If given a chance the Solus will turn your head in one situation or another, it's just finding that niche it will fill within the bag! Enough of that preaching but this is the true reason I think more players don't look at Solus! I have watched several of the best players in the world test our wedge and all look at me like, wow! It's like they don't want to believe that there is something that actually works better in most cases.


I might find out differently tomorrow but I want to stay in front of them, you never know?