RE: ShopTalk: Top Clubmakers / GD / Dr. Loft

[Tom Wishon]

Harry and Bernie: You guys are both aware that any magazine, regardless of its subject area is somewhat to sort of to very much handcuffed by its advertisers.  In the magazine business there is an old adage that is often tossed around that goes,  “does advertising breed editorial, or does editorial breed advertising”.   And the only industry in which I have seen magazines basically stick their noses up to their advertisers are some of the computer magazines, when I have seen reviews of computers or peripherals or software that make negative comments once in a while.   I can tell you that over the years in my career going back to the 80s I have written as a guest or regular contributor for Golf World, Golfweek, Golf Shop Operations, GOLF, Golf Digest, Golf Illustrated and others.  In every case except for Golf Digest, I have been either kicked out or told to tone it down, when something I wrote about the truth of golf equipment incurred the wrath of an advertiser.  The funniest one I remember was when I wrote an article on forgings for Golf World long before the Golf Digest people bought the magazine.  Something in the article upset the then president of Ben Hogan company and I was asked to fly down to Ft Worth where Hogan used to be HQ’d, to explain my piece to the president and their officers.  The meeting started with the president literally throwing the issue at me that had my article in it, using what I considered to be a very childish manner of letting me know what he thought about my writing.  Well, I got up to walk out because I don’t ever need to have to deal with people like that, but then he cooled down.  Net result is that there are a lot of people in the industry who believe that their ad dollars bring with it a right to tell a magazine what to write, and whether the magazine listens or not is simply a matter of how much they need the ad dollars.    In Golf Digest’s case, I have worked with them for now nine years, much in the capacity of what you, Bernie, mentioned about your father’s role.  Their equipment editors will call me for ideas, or run statements made by this or that golf equipment company by me to see what is fact or fiction, or ask me to write articles once in a while when their editors do not feel they want to or are qualified to do.  Each of the three equipment editors I have served under in the past 9 yrs with GD have been superb guys who desperately want to write the facts about equipment.  But they too have some handcuffs on in terms of putting pictures or comments of clubs in there that are a balance between those made by their bigger advertisers and some from companies who don’t advertise as much.  I think from what I have seen, they do that in a decent balance.  And they usually go to the OEMs for “quotes” because they believe that the readers would listen to a name from a big company – but then they have used my quotes a lot over the years too, so that does not say that they only go to OEM people for a comment.  Then too, the big equipment companies are calling these guys almost daily to keep up the pressure for more mentions of their equipment.  That part often really tires them out because it is so fraught with politics and pressure.    I can tell you that off the record, the equipment editors do respect the better clubmakers, but for them to really write about this side of the industry, they need some groundswell of interest so that they can justify the interest from their readers to the big cheese editors.  That was why I suggested to GD that since they know people do buy custom clubs, just like they know people take lessons, why not do a list of top custom clubmakers like they do a list of top swing teachers.  It made sense to the equipment editor so he and I are slowly starting to lobby the big cheeses there to consider it.  No doubt such a list would have to include pros or clubmakers who fit with OEM carts too, but anything that would publicize custom clubmaking would help.  And that is the approach that I am trying to take on this or always try to help, so you see in the end, I politic them too for my preferred side of the industry!!  Only not with as much ego as the OEMs are known to use when they do it.   But I do have to qualify that and say that some of the OEM equipment guys are decent people who don’t always think that they need to be first in line all the time.  To dream of a golf industry where everyone is a truly nice person is probably a little too unrealistic, but I can say that the majority of the equipment editors for the various magazines like Mike Stachura at GD, Mike Johnson at Golf World, Jim Achenbach at Golf Week, Laurie Dovey at Golf Illustrated – these are some of the best and most well rounded and open minded for sure.     TOM W   -----Original Message----- From: Harry F. Schiestel [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 10:06 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ShopTalk: Top Clubmakers / GD / Dr. Loft   Hi Tom   My son and I cancelled our 3 year subscription to GD, due to the conflicting instructional coverage, and some teachers are mere hacks. I do intend to purchase the Nov. 2003 issue, just to read your published article, unless its posted in full on the internet.   Regarding the Top Clubmaker List, great idea if you could ever get a major magazine to support your concept. "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."   What criteria and process would you recommend, to select clubmakers worthy of such honourable distinction? I get the feeling that 1 of the 2 awards processes now is based almost solely on how many dollars you spend with the parent company. How would Golf Digest / yourself make such a clubmaker list creditable, for our industry at large?  I do very much like this idea.   My swingspeed is 90 mph, and I'm playing a 14 degree 400 cc driver, Aldila One 65-R Mid Launch, 47 inches long, 307 grams total weight. With a low total weight, the extra 2 to 3 inches in length was very easy to swing.  I'm hitting more fairways than I did at 44 or 45 inches. After playing golf now for 7 years, I had personal long best drives on 4 of the the first 6 holes I used the driver.  After 2 months the honeymoon is still on.  On hole one, I would roll into the gully once a year.  Now I carry the gully almost every time I play.  I've worked on my balance a lot in the last 2 years as well.  Between the driver upgrade, and better swing mechanics, I've gained on average about 45 yards in 2 years.  Then I built new fairway woods (new heads, reused same shafts) and gained another 20 yards with the same loft.  On a par 5, that equates to approx. 60 to 70 yards.  I'm starting to get the opportunity to putt for a birdie.  Through clubmaking, the game is NOW getting a little easier to play!  WOW!   Thanks Bernie for the over length driver suggestions.  With anticipation Tom, I can hardly wait to get my hands on your recent GD article.   Thanks Harry S www.Golf54.com   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Tom Wishon Sent: October 14, 2003 3:59 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: ShopTalk: Golf Digest Higher loft articles SNIP / SNIP   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   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 10:11 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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?