AT&T Championship

10/28/10

I got a little earlier start this morning in order to have breakfast with a couple of the players. It's dark thirty at around 6:45am! Like the ol Eveready battery it just keeps going and going!

The caddie shack is all Solus'd up! Looking good in the neighborhood!

I had a pretty good little session at breakfast with a few of the players. Naturally the talk of the round table was the grooves. The players think it's funny that the grooves did not make as much impact as first intended by the USGA. The players are testing new balls this week and guess what they are not getting softer! My topic was to pick this groups brain as to why or what could we be doing to get more players playing the club?


Not surprising to hear that the design is awesome and the club works beautifully. No bad vibes regarding the design and performance, but the lurking questioned remained unanswered, until my friend Billy Glasson spoke up! Billy said all of us are scared to try anything different unless it's for money or distance. He went to expand upon the Solus wedge, which is the only real change that has been made to a wedge is God knows how long. He continued on to say that there really isn't much difference from wedge to wedge and if fact the grooves have pretty much leveled the playing field. All of the wedges feel good, look good and now pretty much perform the same. Nothing really stands out. This is when I jumped in to say you are all wrong! Until you try the Solus design most of you will never know or have the advantage this wedge produces! They all looked stunned. Billy jumped back in and said Mark you must realize something about us players, we are all PSYCHO and in some cases just plain stupid! Being afraid to change is the biggest road block when it comes to wedges. Boy this was the answer that I had felt all along but needed to hear it from the horse's mouth!


We had another little argument regarding shafts, swing weight and perception of weight distribution within a wedge or for that matter any club. They ask me how I would swing weight a wedge for proper feel. I explained a lot of time players that are really good wedge players are swinging the wedge about 60% of their total speed therefore some like the wedge heavier and most want a little softer shaft. On the other hand there are players that want nothing but to match whatever is in their irons regardless of how the wedge feels. Rory Sabbatini is that kind of player but has the talent to pull off the shots regardless of the shaft. This is a natural born talent that not every player has. So I explained I usually start with player explaining to me what he is and isn't feeling and go from there. Every player has a different perception of weight, more times than not I will test a few shafts. If the player says the wedge feels to "heavy" I will start by going to a stiffer shaft. The question then becomes, why? Well if the shaft is stiffer it is usually heavier and doesn't flex naturally as much producing less feel back to the hands from the club head. Conversely if the player wants a little more head feel or swing weight I will go to a "softer" shaft. These players are a lot like Rory, they have excellent eye hand coordination and touch thus a softer shaft is heavier and produces the "heavier" feel since the shaft is flexing more. You see this is just a start! The only thing I heard from the group was "really"? Hey gives you all something to think about! I do know a thing or two and can really show you a few things if you give me a chance! I left them there in a steaming pile of knowledge! Stunned is a good word!


You know when my Dad was playing and in the business he was on the playing staff at Ben Hogan Golf Company. Back then the players such as Hogan were installing "R" flex in their wedges as did my Dad. The wedges always had a different shaft than the balance of the set and it was always a regular flex. Something to ponder.


I went back out to the tee and walked the tee line. It still blows my mind how many players that have bought the new conforming wedges. Most of these players are double digit handicappers! Still why would they change? Oh wait, because these guys(tour players) had to! I forgot? These guys are not having much fun and I can promise you they are wedging at least two times per hole. Why give up that advantage? I will never know?


I was informed that if a player plays the Srixon ball they have to play the Cleveland wedges, regardless.


Well all in all it was great to get back here and see ol friends on the Champions Tour. It's been a fun two weeks! It is still hard to believe the season is almost over! I have one more stop and that is Disney the second week of November. By the time I am done and at home the snow should just begin to hit the ground! Nice..................:-(


Have a great weekend!


 

10/27/10

Well today turned out to be pretty busy with the two pro-ams. It was very difficult to work in and around all of the teams. Oh well you can only do what you can do! It is a little frustrating to me so I can just imagine how the pros feel. The round will take six hours to complete and for some teams longer.

Hey these guys start in the dark and a little rain also. There was a heavy fog move in right around day break and it was just enough to keep you wet! It was all supposed to burn off around noon and then the temps were to get in the lower 90's possibly setting a new heat record for this date which is 91 degrees. I am not sure it got that hot but it sure felt like it around 2:00 this afternoon.

There were still a lot of players that hadn't shown up even today such as Freddy, Nick and Bernhard where just a few I noticed missing.

I guess Yes Golf will be going through a restructuring mode. We all wish them the best of luck for the future and hope they return to the tour soon! Such a good product!

I took a look at the scores from the morning pro-am and caught an eye of J.C.’s team score! Check it out! I have never seen a pro-am score this low! Well you know how my mind works and know right where I am going, yea the wedge we built him yesterday! I thought man that wedge really helped him and his team! Granted these teams are sometime loaded with high handicappers and his team would be no exception.

I decided to ask the Champions Scoring Official if I could take a look at their scorecard. He said sure. Well after I looked at it I discovered the team only used two of J.C.'s scores! Take a look at this card. I could not believe how these guys played, four net "1's"! Holy cow! These guys will not be liked at the after party! Like I said it was pretty wild to see a 48 and to think the next team that was even close was five shots back! Boy that will take a little air out of the ol balloon!

I heard this will be the last year for this event here at Oak Hill. The event will be moved to the new TPC course. This is the same course that hosted the Valero Texas this year. I guess it only makes since, but Oak Hill has a lot of history and a very loyal fan base.

Rich Beem returned to the tour since a layoff in April when he had undergone surgery for a herniated disk. He had played two Nationwide events and put in quite a bit of practice getting ready for Las Vegas, but he missed the cut shooting 72-76. I hope to see him in Orlando in two weeks. I was told the Solus wedge was still in the bag!

I had a couple of pro-am players asked me a few questions regarding wedges. They follow my blog and believe me they knew it frontwards and backwards inside out! Both of these players had Solus wedges in the bag. I know some of you are saying how can they play the non-conforming wedges in a PGA Tour Pro-Am event? You must remember the amateurs can continue to play in any event that is structured towards amateur play such as these pro-ams. These events are for "FUN" they are not qualifying for a PGA Tour event where the payout is money! Please keep in mind unless you are planning on qualifying for a US Open or attempting to Monday qualify for a PGA Tour sanctioned event you can continue to play the non-conforming grooves until 2024 according to big brother USGA. Have fun! Who is going to be policing this when 2024 comes around and "big brother" says stop playing them? How'd they or who selected the random number 2024? Hell the entire world and this game will have changed by then! I hope I am still standing to see how this all pans out come 2024 it should be interesting!

10/26/10

Well it was a pretty laid back Monday, oh wait this is Tuesday! Sorry I had a little crampage of the cranium! Naturally I have to bore you with the amount of pro-ams we are having this week! This morning to my surprise there was a pro-am off site! Not only that we are having two on Wednesday and two on Thursday! Ok now you are set for the week! I got that cleared up in a quick and painless fashion! Hey it's all part of the drill! Grit and bear it!!!

I heard today that Yes Golf closed their doors. I am really finding it hard to believe though? Jim Furyk just won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup with a Yes putter! It's true though! I confirmed it with Mark Wiebe. He carries the Yes staff bag and plays the putter out here on the Champions Tour. It's a sad day, they had an excellent product line and had several wins out here on tour. I am hoping that they get picked up by one of the bigger companies that don’t have a putter line, such as Adams Golf.

Here's a photo of Lee "Buck" Trevino holding court on the tee. Tommy Armour III, J.C. Snead and Gene Jones are all listening to his sermon and taking it all in! Lee is funny when they get him started!

Not having the other three lofts have just killed me out here. I had three more opportunities for clubs in play if I had only the 50 and 54 in stock. Several of these players were playing the 47 Series 4.1 and Tour 7.1 until the groove change. I am missing the boat with these players as well since we don't have a replacement loft. They liked the versatility and utility of the old 47 so it only makes since for them to want the new FC-10 in a 48! Oh well!

My ol buddy J.C. Snead came by and wanted to test one of the 56 FC-10's. Here he is putting it through a few maneuvers. He had discovered he had a wedge in his bag that wasn't conforming. He asked me to take a look and sure enough it doesn't conform. J.C. hasn't played much this year so he needed to get caught up on the new changes! As if he didn't know?

About two hours later J.C. came back to me and picked up the 56 again. He said if I would pull the leading edge back slightly, add 1/2" to the length and re-grip it he would put it in play. Away I went!

I wasn't sure if I had shown you the inside of the Champions Tour workshop, so I snapped a few shots while I was having J.C.'s club altered. Take a look.

           This is Brian grinding on J.C.'s wedge.                        This is Mike one of two techs that run the van.

I had to make a couple of trips out to J.C. until we got it right. I feel a little helpless out here since I am more of a hands-on kind of guy. Sometimes it is hard to let go and let the techs do their thing. Brian is very good. Here is a look of the first pass on "squaring" the leading edge.

The sole contour after the adjustments had to be reworked and finalized per my spec.

                    We got his wedge finished and here he is testing before taking it to the course.

Since I hadn't been out on the PGA Tour since Mississippi, I had to get brought up to speed on all the news from a fellow rep today. He said things have started to show change. When I say "change" I mean with contracts and endorsement deals. This time of year players and agents are jockeying for their positions for next year's tour contracts. I have been telling you this was going to happen for the last two years but it has finally happened! My friend said that players are being dropped and the multi club contracts are dwindling away by the day. He said so far the rumor was there are no more 6-7 figure contracts which should open the door of opportunity for a little company like us to finally get in. The trend so far seems to be each company selecting 5-6 top players for their stable and the rest are getting partial deals depending on their position on the money list, the balance are history. I will keep you posted as this situation develops. After all it drives what you the consumer buys, right? Give it some thought?


He went on to say that there seemed to be a few bag, hat, ball and driver deals being offered in place of the 13-14 clubs deals that have been so evident over these past few years. Please keep this mind I am getting this information second hand and have not heard this for myself firsthand. I will be able to find out in the next two weeks when I head back to the season ending event in Orlando. This rumor has been floating around though way before now. The contractual process usually starts in early September and ends by the end of November if not before. Finally you will start to see players resurface since they have disappeared due to equipment they could not play. Just look at who has come out of the back of the field of late, David Duval! Hey if they cannot play the equipment which is bigger the weekly purse or that multiyear contract. Oh by the way most contracts have protection over this kind of thing happening.