Arnie:
Well since you asked
for opinions, you probably know my opinion on this already!! This was a
pretty interesting project to create and produce for GD. I have to say that
their equipment editor, Mike Stachura, fights tooth and nail to get decent
coverage in GD for equipment oriented articles, so the fact that he was able
to convince his higher ups to make this a cover story filling 11 pages in the
Nov issue was a pretty big commitment for the magazine to make, especially in
a year where their total editorial pages are down because of ad dollars being
down for the past 2-3 yrs. Normally they put all their major pages into
instructional pieces, because their reader surveys tell them that instruction
pieces are by far the most widely read articles. The add-on piece on A
of A came because when Gene at Golf Labs finished the robot testing and human
testing with our 915 drivers that we built with the different lofts for the
testing, I told Mike that there better be something on A of A because it is
the final determinant in the fitting for exactly what loft is going to
generate what launch angle and in turn, what carry distance. Mike agreed
to that when he asked Benoit Vincent from Taylor Made and Helmstetter from
Callaway who concurred.
I think that the most
important thing for clubmakers to do to be able to really make hay with driver
sales is to keep a copy of this article around where you talk to golfers – I
know that most golfers don’t want to believe that more driver loft can create
more distance, so if you put this article in their faces and highlight key
parts of it for them to register on clearly, like the info on what loft at
what swing speed is longest, it should help push them over the edge to not be
able to “argue with facts”. And since not very many avg players are
using drivers with more than 9-10.5 lofts, it should be a decent way to be
able to build a lot of drivers and in turn, both help your sales as well as
make you guys heroes from what will result.
Now my next project
with GD is to convince them they need to publish a booklet and side article on
top clubmakers just like they do for top teachers of the golf
swing every
year. The initial response on this idea from Mike is positive, but now
it has to go to the higher ups, which is always tough in the face of
remembering where their ad dollars come from. But I’ll keep plugging
because this side of the industry deserves a lot more respect and things like
that could help a lot.
Thanks,
TOM
W
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Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 10:11
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Subject: ShopTalk: Golf Digest Higher
loft articles
I read these articles with great
interest since this advice will be followed by many customers. Interesting
that in the charts an 11* driver with 115 MPH clubhead speed showed a carry of
259 yards. Of all my customers that have been fitted I have only found 3 who
could acheive this kind of clubhead speed and they all claim at least 280 yard
carry! Most have clubhead speeds in the 75-85 MPH range and claim carry
distances of 190-200 yards! I guess everyone is lying!
Most
interesting part of this subject article is the contribution by Tom Wishon
which discusses the angle of attach. This part was unfortunately the LAST page
of the entire article and had the most truth in it. This information will be
(IMHO) the most overlooked because no 90 MPH clubhead speed player would fess
up to needing a higher loft to acheive greater distance And a player with this
clubhead speed "certainly" gets way more than 208 to 212 yards carry!
My
conclusion is to fit "macho" players with "wuss" drivers...........now I need
to find 11-12* loft drivers with just the number "1" on the soles! This head
combination with shafts that do not have designations of L,A,R,S,XS will be
future of successful selling!
Your opions
please?
