Tag: Golfsmith

2016 Year in Review

2016 was an interesting year in golf. As it does almost every year, the golf world started the year with great optimism and enthusiasm at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. However, it wasn’t all good news for the game of golf in 2016. Let’s take a look back at the highs and lows of the year in golf.

Major Pro Tours

Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson finally broke through and won majors, Jason Day had another great season and finished the year at #1 in the world, and Justin Rose won the first Olympic gold medal in golf since 1904.

The LPGA Tour continued to be dominated by countries other than the USA, with players from Asian countries winning 19/35 events, and other winners coming from New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Spain and Germany. Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn won 5 times, including a major and captured the money list, CME Globe and Player of the Year honors. South Korea’s Inbee Park won the gold medal for her country at the Olympics.

As far as records go, it’ll be hard to top Jim Furyk’s 58 he shot in the final round of the Travelers Championship, beating his record tying 59 from 2013 by a shot. He hit all 18 greens on his way to the lowest round in PGA Tour history, made all the more amazing considering he shot a very sloppy 74 the day before, hitting only 5 fairways.

Oh yeah, and some guy named Tiger showed up at a tournament in the Bahamas…

Golf Business

While some great new products hit the market in 2016, the biggest business story of the year was the uncertainty and failure of a couple of big names. After many years with un-Nike-like market share and quirky club design ideas, Nike decided to pull the plug on their golf equipment division, meaning (among other things) Nike staffers like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy & Michelle Wie will be highly sought after for equipment deals. Nike continues to be a major player in golf apparel and footwear however, recently signing Jason Day away to a multi year deal.

Well known golf & tennis retailer Golfsmith went into bankruptcy and was subsequently purchased by Dick’s Sporting Goods. Most Golfsmith stores will close, with only the most profitable locations staying open or being rebranded under the Golf Galaxy brand. Sports industry giant adidas has not-so-quietly been trying to sell off the Taylor-Made/Adams Golf brand, with no takers in sight. Cleveland Golf has been reduced to basically just a wedge company since parent company SRI Sports has focused on building their Srixon brand in the US market.

Golf Equipment & Accessories

Due to the limits the USGA has imposed on performance of golf clubs and balls, we probably won’t see many significant advances in club technology in the coming years, but some great new products surprised me nevertheless.

While not new in 2016, alternative golf transport like the Golf Skate Caddy and the Golfboard started to hit the mainstream. After one round I was hooked and made several trips to golf courses strictly because they had Golfboards.

Putter designer Guerin Rife has been quiet for a few years since his ugly separation from the company that bore his name – Rife Golf. He’s was back in 2016 with Evnroll, a new putter design that is among the best ever tested according to the folks at mygolfspy.com. While we haven’t tried them yet on the golf course (only indoors), I’m very eager to report on their effectiveness in the real world as well.

Perhaps the most impactful driver of 2016 was Knuth Golf’s High Heat driver. You may not have heard of it because they don’t have commercials on TV or PGA Tour pros playing with it, but that’s because it wasn’t designed for PGA Tour pros. It was designed to perform best for average amateur golfers, and that is one promise it lives up to.

The biggest “oopsie” of the year goes to Wilson Golf, who invested heavily in a reality show competition on the Golf Channel that pitted teams of designers against each other to come up with the company’s latest driver. Eventually a winner was chosen and the club was marketed as the Wilson Staff Triton and hit the market immediately after the final TV episode. Unfortunately, the USGA had not approved it yet. While the issue appears to have been related to the timing of the show and the desire to keep the results secret until the final episode, it was pie in the face for Wilson Golf and spoiled their product launch to a degree.

The King

Probably the biggest story in golf this past year was the passing of Arnold Palmer. There’s no need to go into all the reasons why he was so important to the game, because I could fill a page with that alone. The King seemed to touch everyone who plays the game in different ways, and other than maybe Jack Nicklaus, there isn’t anyone in golf that is more universally loved and respected than Arnold Palmer was. His memory and his legacy will live on forever,

Looking Forward

As always, we look ahead into 2017 with hope and optimism. I for one enter 2017 with renewed passion and commitment for the game, as I’ve joined a golf club for the first time ever. I intend to use the membership not only to enjoy the game I love more often, but to take advantage of the club’s unrestricted walking policy (Not an easy thing to find in Florida these days) to lose weight. Walking 9 holes early in the morning certainly beats marching on a treadmill!

The PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando is just around the corner, and I look forward to catching up with my industry friends again. What started as an annual display of all the cool new stuff has now become a yearly social gathering for me. I’m less excited about new products as I am about old friends.

Having taken part in the WAGC’s World Finals in Turkey in 2015, I joined the WAGT in the US and look forward to the challenge of qualifying for Team USA once again, this time in Malaysia!

January 3, 2017
MacGregor Golf 2010 Lineup – Farewell To An Old Friend

As you may or may not be aware, MacGregor golf was sold to Golfsmith about a year ago. The struggling club company was reborn this April, and I took a stroll through my local Golfsmith store earlier this week to check out the new lineup. As I expressed in my previous article about the new MacGregor line, I was worried that the once proud and prestigious MacGregor brand would become just another Golfsmith component brand like SnakeEyes and Lynx.

Golfsmith has officially re-launched the MacGregor brand, and I’m afraid to say that coming from the perspective of a scratch player like myself, the future doesn’t look to good for MacGregor fans in my opinion. The Golfsmith influence is immediately apparent in the new offerings, and that is exactly what I was afraid of. The typical MacGregor customer is looking for a fine forged club with traditional styling, but these new clubs reek of Golfsmith’s design team.

The new VIP iron would appear to measure up to the old standards - they are forged of 1025 carbon steel and feature top notch KBS Tour shafts, but upon closer inspection I can see that this isn't the MacGregor of old. The shape of the irons, while traditional, has been softened a bit. The top line has been thickened just a touch, and the offset is just a bit more than normal. Overall the VIP is a pretty club, but it lacks the classic MacGregor touches like the diamond face framing of the grooves, or the fancy multi piece ferrules that set MacGregor irons apart from the rest. I have not had a chance to hit the new VIP irons, but I suspect they will retain the long sought-after forged blade feel that MacGregor was famous for. The store price of $799 is a bit steep. If you want a set of these, wait for a few months until they drop the price, as they most surely will. The new MacGregor Tourney M85T Driver is in a word - disappointing. MacGregor has not had an impact on the driver market in years, and by the looks of it, this new offering is sure to maintain that level of mediocrity. To me the M85T looks way too much like a component Snake Eyes Viper Tour driver head. Sure, they don't look identical, but it doesn't seem to me that there was much thought put into the design. To make a splash in today's driver market you have to have a gimmick or a feature that stands out. Instead, they painted the M85T black, gave it the now cliche weight ports which are purely for looks, and the adjustable hosel feature that allows 3 positions. Closed, Neutral and Open. I'll give Golfsmith kudos for their selection of the premium UST Mamiya AXIVCore shaft but at the $299 price point they are going up against the Ping G15, TaylorMade Burner SuperFast and R9460, Cleveland Launcher DST, Cobra S2, Callaway Diablo Edge and several more. Good luck selling me on a MacGregor M85T when I can get any one of those for the same price. Perhaps the biggest surprise to me regarding the 2010 line up - both good and bad - were the new MacGregor putters. Called the ROTA series, after the British Open rota, each putter is named after a famous open course. There are three models so far: Hoylake, Prestwick and Lytham. Just like the courses they represent on the open rota, you could do better. Perhaps the designers were aiming low? After all, if they called the putters St.Andrews, Muirfield and Carnoustie, perhaps they would have had to measure up to a higher standard. It's too bad that they don't still have Clay Long designing their putters, as he did for the legendary Response putter that was used by Jack Nicklaus to win the '86 Masters. Instead, it looks like these designs were turned out in haste, with the "ARC face technology" being borrowed from the Snake Eyes component putters and the soft lines and over rounded corners leaving me with the feeling that these putters will be passed over in golf shop putter racks as cheap bargain offerings. Not so fast! They will carry a price tag of $129! Bargain putters they are not! [caption id="attachment_2187" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="MacGregor Prestwick (Left) & Snake Eyes Tour Platinum 7801 (Right)"][/caption] I must admit however that these putters have plenty of weight to them and feel good rolling the ball. They feel well made and solid, but again, in the $129 price point you have the Odyssey White Ice, Ping i-Series, and several others. Maybe I am the only one, but I don't see myself dropping $129 for a Golfsmith putter. Perhaps I'm missing the point, or maybe I'm allowing the fact that Golfsmith is now in charge of the MacGregor brand blind me into thinking they have become just another cheap knockoff, but Golfsmith has taken a few other once well respected names and driven them into obscurity. Snake Eyes once made the most sought after wedges in the game, and Lynx once made what are still one of the best iron sets ever designed in the Lynx Black Cat. Fred Couples won the Masters with Lynx clubs. Now, Snake Eyes and Lynx are just another cheap component you'll find in Golfsmith's catalog and discount club makers all over. I'm not a Golfsmith hater, but don't want to see my beloved MacGregor turned into another second rate component. I've proudly played with MacGregor irons since I started the game, from the old circa '53 Colokrom irons I had re-chromed in college to the 1025M V-Foils I still keep today as a backup set. I thought Golfsmith would throw us a bone and give us one last year of top notch forgings and classic designs, but it seems that they have already spilled the Golfsmith special sauce all over the MacGregor name. Gone forever is the MacGregor I knew and loved. Rest in Peace.
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April 14, 2010
MacGregor Golf Reborn – April 2010

Mystery MacGregor Box...

Last summer I wrote a guest post for another golf blog about the demise and eventual sale of MacGregor Golf. In May of 2009, MacGregor golf was sold to Golfsmith International Holdings for a pitiful $1.75 million, and with that one of the greatest, most storied golf companies in history was gone. Well, not entirely. Golfsmith vowed to restore the MacGregor name and re-launch the brand under their umbrella. MacGregor was to assume the flagship position in Golfsmith’s lineup of component clubs.

While Golfsmith isn’t usually associated with premium forged irons, most golfers that play MacGregor irons are discriminating low handicap players that are used to the soft feel and feedback of forged blades. MacGregor tried to accommodate the average golfer, but really they were always a player’s club company. After the sale of the company they also lost their master club maker Don White to Scratch Golf. So it doesn’t seem like a company known for cavity back, game improvement component clubs would be the best to re-launch the MacGregor brand, but that is what is going to happen.

Along with several of our friends and colleagues, we received an interesting package this week at Intothegrain.com world headquarters - it was simply a white box with the MacGregor logo on it. Inside was a plush carpet of plastic grass, a MacGregor VIP golf ball and Hat clip. A card attached to the package simply reads: "Mark it on your calendar and watch your mail. The new MacGregor launches this April - And your exclusive preview is on its way." I've had several sets of MacGregor irons over the years - the latest being the MT Pro-M blades. I also have a set of V-Foil 1025M blades that are still my backup set. In recent years leading up to the sale to Golfsmith, it is my opinion that the quality of MacGregor's forgings had suffered, but I can't prove that. They just didn't seem to be as solid or consistent as previous models. I'm cautiously optimistic about the re-launch of the brand. If Golfsmith relaunches the brand with forged clubs and the quality of the clubs is maintained, they should do fine. I'm just afraid Golfsmith will attempt to redefine MacGregor as a club for the everyman, which they are not. I'm also afraid that the historic MacGregor name will slowly sink into mediocrity like other once great brands that have been assimilated by Golfsmith such as Lynx and Snake Eyes...
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March 29, 2010
How To Regrip A Golf Club In Under 4 Minutes

Re-gripping your own clubs is one of the easiest do-it-yourself tasks as a golfer, and it saves you money and time over having someone else do it. Plus, when you do it yourself you are guaranteed that the job gets done the way you want. In this video, I’ll show you how to re-grip a club fast and provide a few tips that I’ve picked up along the way. I’ve re-gripped over 1000 golf clubs in my golf career, and there are many ways to do it and many tools for the job, but I like to keep things simple and cheap.

What you need: Work bench, Vice with Rubber Vise Clamp, New Grips, Double-Sided Grip Tape, Grip Solvent (I use mineral spirits), Knife (I prefer a hook blade to straight blades), Catch Pan for solvent (Optional), Towel or Rag and a few minutes of time!

Editors Note: Of course it would normally take a little longer to re-grip a club if I took time to remove the old grip tape, but in this case I used the existing tape to build it up the grip a bit. Normally, removing the old tape adds a few minutes to the job.

A few tips and tricks I didn't mention in the video: 1. I use my finger to plug the hole in the grip, and then allow the solvent to drain through that hole to coat the grip. It's the fastest way to do it in my opinion. 2. When sliding on the new grip, be careful not to get squirted by the extra solvent coming out of the hole at the end of the grip! Stand slightly to the side as I do, or wear an apron. 3. Beginner tip: While securing the club in the vice, align the clubface square, and when sliding on the grip you can align it while it's still in the vice. Once you get more proficient, you'll be able to line the grip up pretty well as you slip it on as I do. 4. I get most of my re-gripping supplies from Golfsmith. I'm not paid to say that or promoting them specifically, but it's just easier to get everything from the same place. They sell grip solvent, but I prefer to use mineral spirits, because it also serves as a cleaner for other tasks. Golfsmith even sells complete re-gripping kits with pre-measured, water-activated tape and grips, but I prefer to do it the old fashioned way. Enjoy the video!

It's not a very complicated task and doesn't take years of practice to master, but regripping your own clubs is fun and rewarding. It allows you to experiment without costing too much and you don't have to drop of your whole set at the local shop and wait a week to get them back. I'll follow this with more DIY videos on golf related topics in the future. If there is anything in particular you would like to see - DIY videos, golf swing tips and drills or whatever, send me some suggestions and we'll film it!

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February 22, 2010