Atlanta-area manufacturer Versus Golf has a dynamic CEO and a product line that appeals to high-end consumers with an interest in premium - not mass market - golf equipment.
But come January 1, 2008, Versus Golf may be in the driver's seat with their line of shaft exchange clubs. That's the date when the USGA may permit adjustable clubs to become legal for play, and Versus' new SX-1 driver would be poised to take full advantage of that rules change.
The SX-1 uses a proprietary titanium adapter system to fit the clubhead and shaft together. The adapter attaches to the shaft, which is then inserted into the bore-through hosel of the clubhead, making it easy to try a variety of shafts with the Versus Golf driver head. But such adjustable clubs are not legal for tournament play under USGA rules.
"Right now the USGA has (the SX-1) as only conforming if the head is epoxied on to the club. The adapter has to be epoxied inside the hosel itself in order to be conforming," said Versus Golf president and CEO Scott Son. "However, the timing has just been great because a couple months ago, the USGA sent a letter to all the club manufacturers that they're looking into making this conforming without epoxy. I've had a lot of conversations with the USGA regarding this."
In fitting the SX-1, PGA professionals and clubmakers can use launch monitors and other diagnostic tools to determine what loft and shaft are best suited to an individual golfer. They can try several different shafts and see what a favored shaft does with heads of different lofts. With the SX-1, clubfitters can add the proper weight to the bottom of each adapter - 5, 7, or coming soon, 9 grams - plus a weight ring at the hosel to customize flight trajectory and swing weight.
The adapter actually tightens as it's used in play, and is extremely durable. For years, the concern about adjustable clubs has been that they might change during a round, causing the club to have different characteristics.
"One of the USGA members said, 'Well, what happens on the 15th hole if that screw is not on that tightly and it gets loose?' And I said, it's actually the opposite - it tightens up even more," Son said.
Versus is not the only company using this concept. Callaway and TaylorMade, for example, use a similar idea for their fitting carts to permit the largest possible number of combinations to fit in a small area. Shafts screw into heads, enabling hundreds of different options. Once the customer chooses the right club, the clubfitter submits an order for a manufactured club that matches all the specifications. In a few days to a few weeks, the golfer has the custom-made club in his hands. But Versus doesn't go through this last step - with their system, a golfer can have the exact club that he or she tested right away.
"Of course they have got to epoxy it if they want to abide by USGA rules. The majority of golfers don't even mind that - they just play it out there," Son said, noting that most of the company's customers don't play in USGA events or worry about USGA handicaps, so they don't add the epoxy."
The golfer has the benefit of a correctly fit club without a lot of wait time - important for those impatient customers or those who don't quite understand the importance of custom fitting vs. taking a club off the shelf.
"What's happening in my experience is they go out to Demo Days and these people are hitting shafts they have no business hitting," Son said. "They see Tiger Woods hitting a certain shaft, or Adam Scott, and they try to emulate that. But they can't. So now you have something that's interchangeable so they can see it in real-world conditions, it works, and they will stick with that."
As with the Callaway and TaylorMade systems, there's a big benefit to the retailer who uses a component system to fit clubs. The components require much less room to store and even a small shop can make a variety of options available to fit all its customers.
"Here in Atlanta in the South, there's the PGA SuperStore. It's just like a candy store for golfers and they have literally 500 driver combinations out there, with all these different shafts from all the top manufacturers," Son said. "The beauty of our system for smaller stores can buy one loft of each of our heads - they just need four heads - and all they need to buy is the titanium adapter, which cuts down their inventory immensely. They have 40 to 100 shafts and they fit individuals with launch monitors. If you want to take it out to the golf course you can do that. There's a lot of combinations."
That's not to say that the larger manufacturers don't have component-based fitting systems waiting in the wings for a favorable USGA decision. But Versus is the only company making such a driver available now. Son said he's seen the industry move slowly toward the concept of selling components rather than completed clubs.
"I predicted about four or five years ago that it's going to be more about components than anything else. And you're starting to see that. All the top manufacturers are using after-market shafts as their OEM shafts now," Son said. "And you can't get around that because the demand from the consumer is there. That's why we concentrated ourselves as an OEM component company, where our heads are sold to pro shops, PGA professionals and qualified clubmakers. They each have a choice of whatever shaft they want."
Consumer choice is going to become more important as golfers understand the benefits of custom fitting and learn about options like the SX-1.
"I hope the USGA does change the ruling because that's what they're about," Son said. "For the average golfer out there this is good for the game."
Son said that Versus also plans to introduce fairway woods and hybrids in the shaft exchange line. Possibly, if consumer demand is high enough, the company will also introduce irons.
Plus, in the next year, Son plans to make Versus a better-known name in the industry. Right now, he said, the company can't compete with the marketing that a larger manufacturer has, but that will change with increased funding for advertising and the introduction of a tour representative on the Nationwide Tour next season.
"That would help us immensely because it really legitimizes the product," Son said. "If you have tour presence, the best players in the world play it, it is tour-quality grade."
Check out the company's full product line - both Shaft Exchange and regular clubs - at www.versusgolf.com.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Tour Van Notebook: Kerr Finds Off-the-Shelf Putter Meets Her Needs
Add Cristie Kerr to the list of players who have found success with putter they purchased.
Kerr had an excellent putting week at the Wegmans LPGA, taking the first-round lead with only 26 putts.
"I was putting pretty poorly actually the whole year," Kerr said. "I went over to Korea and had a really bad putting day the second day, and I just said I'm kind of fed up with it. I actually went and bought a putter in the pro shop there."
The putter she purchased: A Ping Craz-E putter. It's the same one, she explained, that Karrie Webb used to jolt her putting to life last season.
"I will buy every single putter I ever play with if I can putt like that," she said.
Kerr finished fourth for the tournament. She followed her stellar first round with a disappointing 75, then rebounded with 70-71 on the weekend.
THE NAME GAME: Most of the time, players don't have a hard time getting the equipment they request from manufacturers. But for Australian Michael Sim, who shot an opening-round 29 on the second nine at the Travelers Championship Thursday, his name can cause some confusion.
See, Sim has a name that's really, really close to a Nationwide Tour player, Michael Sims. (Sims, who was born in Bermuda, also had a good round Thursday, shooting a 68 in Knoxville.) And that got confusing for Titleist, the company that provides wedges to both players.
"I ordered some wedges from Titleist, and so did he. And I was sitting there back home and I'm just about to come over here. This box arrives and I thought, perfect, I'll go practice this afternoon," Sim said. "I looked at these wedges and it had 'Simsy' written on the back of the wedge. And it just wasn't what I ordered, the grip was wrong, the shaft was wrong, and the head was wrong. I thought, This can't be right. So I e-mailed Bob Vokey and he said, 'That's for Michael Sims.'
The two got to meet when Sim came to New Orleans for a Nationwide Tour event in March, shortly after the club mix-up.
SHAFT STORY: For the second time in three weeks, the ProLaunch Red shaft by Grafalloy was in the bag of a Nationwide Tour winner. Chez Reavie used the shaft in his prototype Titleist driver for his victory at the Knoxville Open.
The ProLaunch Red shaft is close to celebrating its one-year anniversary of winning, and has seen most of its success on the Nationwide, European and Champions Tours. At least 15 Nationwide Tour players used ProLaunch Red last week.
The shaft, which is designed to give better players a flatter trajectory, was developed from the original ProLaunch shaft and the Prolite 35, which has more wins on professional tours than any other shaft in the Grafalloy line. It uses the company's proprietary Micro-Mesh material in the tip to provide increased stability and a stiffer tip that also incorporates feel that better golfers require.
In other shaft news, Darrell listed Fujikura as the No. 1 driver shaft brand used at the Travelers, Wegmans LPGA, Bank of America Championship, Knoxville Open and PGA Club Professional Championship this week. And on the Japan Tour, Graphite Design's Tour AD Quattro Tech was in winner Lee Dong-hwan's bag for his win at the Mizuno Open.
WHEN EQUIPMENT ISN'T THE ANSWER: Travelers winner Hunter Mahan didn't have anything wrong with his clubs earlier this year. And he didn't make any swing changes en route to playing so well he could get his first PGA Tour victory.
So what was to blame for his missed cuts earlier this year?
"It was just all in my head," Mahan said. "My psychologist, Neal Smith, caddied for me at the Open qualifier in Dallas and I shot 73 the first round and was just -- not giving up, but just not thinking positive about the shots I'm hitting and waiting for bad things to happen. He was disgusted with the way I was acting out there and was like, just leave if you're going to play like this, and he was 100% right.
"It was nice for someone to say that to me since I needed to tell myself that. And turned around and shot 63 and qualified and the rest is history and I've played good ever since. That was definitely a stepping stone for this week for sure."
Kerr had an excellent putting week at the Wegmans LPGA, taking the first-round lead with only 26 putts.
"I was putting pretty poorly actually the whole year," Kerr said. "I went over to Korea and had a really bad putting day the second day, and I just said I'm kind of fed up with it. I actually went and bought a putter in the pro shop there."
The putter she purchased: A Ping Craz-E putter. It's the same one, she explained, that Karrie Webb used to jolt her putting to life last season.
"I will buy every single putter I ever play with if I can putt like that," she said.
Kerr finished fourth for the tournament. She followed her stellar first round with a disappointing 75, then rebounded with 70-71 on the weekend.
THE NAME GAME: Most of the time, players don't have a hard time getting the equipment they request from manufacturers. But for Australian Michael Sim, who shot an opening-round 29 on the second nine at the Travelers Championship Thursday, his name can cause some confusion.
See, Sim has a name that's really, really close to a Nationwide Tour player, Michael Sims. (Sims, who was born in Bermuda, also had a good round Thursday, shooting a 68 in Knoxville.) And that got confusing for Titleist, the company that provides wedges to both players.
"I ordered some wedges from Titleist, and so did he. And I was sitting there back home and I'm just about to come over here. This box arrives and I thought, perfect, I'll go practice this afternoon," Sim said. "I looked at these wedges and it had 'Simsy' written on the back of the wedge. And it just wasn't what I ordered, the grip was wrong, the shaft was wrong, and the head was wrong. I thought, This can't be right. So I e-mailed Bob Vokey and he said, 'That's for Michael Sims.'
The two got to meet when Sim came to New Orleans for a Nationwide Tour event in March, shortly after the club mix-up.
SHAFT STORY: For the second time in three weeks, the ProLaunch Red shaft by Grafalloy was in the bag of a Nationwide Tour winner. Chez Reavie used the shaft in his prototype Titleist driver for his victory at the Knoxville Open.
The ProLaunch Red shaft is close to celebrating its one-year anniversary of winning, and has seen most of its success on the Nationwide, European and Champions Tours. At least 15 Nationwide Tour players used ProLaunch Red last week.
The shaft, which is designed to give better players a flatter trajectory, was developed from the original ProLaunch shaft and the Prolite 35, which has more wins on professional tours than any other shaft in the Grafalloy line. It uses the company's proprietary Micro-Mesh material in the tip to provide increased stability and a stiffer tip that also incorporates feel that better golfers require.
In other shaft news, Darrell listed Fujikura as the No. 1 driver shaft brand used at the Travelers, Wegmans LPGA, Bank of America Championship, Knoxville Open and PGA Club Professional Championship this week. And on the Japan Tour, Graphite Design's Tour AD Quattro Tech was in winner Lee Dong-hwan's bag for his win at the Mizuno Open.
WHEN EQUIPMENT ISN'T THE ANSWER: Travelers winner Hunter Mahan didn't have anything wrong with his clubs earlier this year. And he didn't make any swing changes en route to playing so well he could get his first PGA Tour victory.
So what was to blame for his missed cuts earlier this year?
"It was just all in my head," Mahan said. "My psychologist, Neal Smith, caddied for me at the Open qualifier in Dallas and I shot 73 the first round and was just -- not giving up, but just not thinking positive about the shots I'm hitting and waiting for bad things to happen. He was disgusted with the way I was acting out there and was like, just leave if you're going to play like this, and he was 100% right.
"It was nice for someone to say that to me since I needed to tell myself that. And turned around and shot 63 and qualified and the rest is history and I've played good ever since. That was definitely a stepping stone for this week for sure."
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Behind the Scenes at Odyssey: Growing a Successful Brand
Odyssey Golf might be best known for its White Hot putter insert technology and its uniquely shaped 2-Ball putter, a flat stick that features two round, golf ball-sized circles behind the face to help with alignment.
So it might come as a surprise that, these days, Odyssey is seeing much of its growth from sales of traditional blade and mallet models. Even though these putters - part of the White Hot XG line - have been on the market since spring 2006, they continue to build momentum with more than 11 percent of the market.
"Out of the gate when you launch a product line-up, you see a big spike in market share and a lot of sell-through very quickly," explains Odyssey's Director of Brand Management, Rob Arluna. "There haven't been new models that have been launched into this, and it just continues to build month upon month."
The White Hot XG line was born from the company's original White Hot insert putters, which used a urethane material similar to the cover of the Callaway Rule 35 golf ball. White Hot putters were one of the first commercially successful insert putters.
"For the first time, somebody was feeling a really soft putter that actually felt good and got the ball to the hole," Arluna says. "One of our challenges to our designers was to go out and replace the White Hot line of blades and mallets, which is a hard thing to do because it was one of the best selling product lines of all time. It was actually in the market for six years, which is kind of unheard of."
Odyssey has used a few different tools to increase success with all their putter lines, and particularly with the White Hot XGs.
First, the product line is varied. Rather than just a couple of models, the White Hot XGs encompass 11 core models, identified by number and including the Rossie, and seven progressive models that include versions of the 2-Ball and the new Marxman. (Odyssey also offers different lines, such as the new Black Series with milled faces.)
"Traditionally we've been an insert putter company. We're starting to stretch into new performance categories," Arluna says. "If you come to Odyssey as a Tour player or as a consumer, you're going to find the widest range of products from head shapes to feel level across the face, to hosel types and alignment options. That's one area where we accel - variety."
Amateurs also see their favorite pros playing Odyssey putters. On six world tours - PGA, Champions, LPGA, Nationwide, European, and Japan - the putters account for 34 percent of usage in 2007 events. That's up 3.5 percent from last year. They're No. 1 on four of those tours, and No. 2 on the PGA and Nationwide Tours.
"You can measure it by talking to your customers the day after somebody wins. Especially after a visible win, you hear the stories about people coming in and asking for that particular model," Arluna says. "I can also tell you that Phil (Mickelson) plays a heel-shafted putter (the No. 9). Generally in our 15 years or so of doing business, we haven't sold a lot of heel-shafted putters. It's just not a putter that the general golfer has taken a huge liking to - until this year. We hadn't had a heel-shafted putter in our line for probably three or four years because we're big on replacing SKUs that aren't moving as quickly and making sure that the stuff people want is the stuff we're giving them.
"So we just decided to have one in our line and the visibility that Phil has brought to it is a testament to what a Tour player can do."
Arluna says that while "a handful" of Callaway pros, including Mickelson, Ernie Els and Charles Howell III on the PGA Tour and Morgan Pressel and Annika Sorenstam on the LPGA, have contracts that include the putter, most pros aren't paid to play Odyssey.
"Last year on the LPGA, specifically, a couple of smaller competitors were making a run at it and paying tee-up money for putters, and they've backed off that position," Arluna says. "I remember having conversations about 12 months ago where we were saying, 'Well, people are starting to pay now. Do we need to make a move?' I think we felt like, 'We don't, let's let our products stand on their own,' and sure enough, I think that strategy has (worked)."
With those reductions in how other companies pay players, Odyssey has seen some of its greatest gains on the LPGA Tour, moving from 23.6 percent usage in 2006 to 30.7 percent usage this year.
Then there's the visibility. Odyssey's deep pockets help the company spread the word about its putters out via television and print advertising. They also run promotions, backed with advertising, that encourage consumers to visit a golf shop and try the putters.
"From a standpoint of creating hype around a new product launch and getting people interested, I think we do a pretty good job with some of our teaser and pre-launch stuff," Arluna says. "In the case of our Marxman putters, we hosted a nationwide promotion called Phil's Drill, where we invited consumers to come to participating retail shops or green grass shops. We asked them to try and make 10 putts in a row from five feet, and if they did, they won a Marxman putter. And if they made eight of 10 they were put into a drawing to win a trip to Dave Pelz' Golf School.
"I think that's one way to get people interested in trying our putters, because I think trial breeds success. The more you can get putters in the hands of people the better off you are."
You'll find Odyssey putters in nearly every golf retail environment, which also makes it easier for golfers to test them. Nearly 100 percent of off-course retail, according to Golf Datatech, carry at least some Odyssey models. And roughly 10,000 green-grass shops have the brand in stock.
All of these marketing strategies came from a conscious decision Arluna and his team made about two years ago. With four distinct brands - Callaway Golf also owns Hogan and Top Flite - the company needed to differentiate Odyssey from other putter offerings.
"We did a lot of brand work and a big part of the brand work on Odyssey was making sure the brand was defined clearly, to making sure the R&D team had clear goals on what they needed to do, to the sales reps knowing how to sell Odyssey vs. Hogan vs. Top Flite. A big part of what we did on that side was to really say, look, we're going to overhaul the entire product line-up for Odyssey... to ensure we have a product with technological advantage in virtually all performance segments for all player types," Arluna explains.
How can Odyssey continue its record of success?
"Our goal in general is to create products and technologies that disrupt the marketplace (like 2-Ball)," Arluna says. "The only difficulty there is you can't build a business plan around that, you can't count on that until you really have it. It's really hard to consumer test for something like that until you see it happening. So that's our No. 1 goal to continue and try and build those innovations. In the meantime, until those innovations come along, we're going to continue expanding into new segments, like we did with Marxman in terms of a new alignment technology for us and Black Series in terms of going after a new consumer, someone who hasn't necessarily purchased an insert putter before.
"We'll continue innovating and we're taking a really close look at SKUs and what's selling, making sure the stuff that isn't moving as quickly comes out of the line. Trying new ideas and adding new, fresh head shapes into the marketplace more often is what you'll see from us. And there are new technologies on the horizon."
So it might come as a surprise that, these days, Odyssey is seeing much of its growth from sales of traditional blade and mallet models. Even though these putters - part of the White Hot XG line - have been on the market since spring 2006, they continue to build momentum with more than 11 percent of the market.
"Out of the gate when you launch a product line-up, you see a big spike in market share and a lot of sell-through very quickly," explains Odyssey's Director of Brand Management, Rob Arluna. "There haven't been new models that have been launched into this, and it just continues to build month upon month."
The White Hot XG line was born from the company's original White Hot insert putters, which used a urethane material similar to the cover of the Callaway Rule 35 golf ball. White Hot putters were one of the first commercially successful insert putters.
"For the first time, somebody was feeling a really soft putter that actually felt good and got the ball to the hole," Arluna says. "One of our challenges to our designers was to go out and replace the White Hot line of blades and mallets, which is a hard thing to do because it was one of the best selling product lines of all time. It was actually in the market for six years, which is kind of unheard of."
Odyssey has used a few different tools to increase success with all their putter lines, and particularly with the White Hot XGs.
First, the product line is varied. Rather than just a couple of models, the White Hot XGs encompass 11 core models, identified by number and including the Rossie, and seven progressive models that include versions of the 2-Ball and the new Marxman. (Odyssey also offers different lines, such as the new Black Series with milled faces.)
"Traditionally we've been an insert putter company. We're starting to stretch into new performance categories," Arluna says. "If you come to Odyssey as a Tour player or as a consumer, you're going to find the widest range of products from head shapes to feel level across the face, to hosel types and alignment options. That's one area where we accel - variety."
Amateurs also see their favorite pros playing Odyssey putters. On six world tours - PGA, Champions, LPGA, Nationwide, European, and Japan - the putters account for 34 percent of usage in 2007 events. That's up 3.5 percent from last year. They're No. 1 on four of those tours, and No. 2 on the PGA and Nationwide Tours.
"You can measure it by talking to your customers the day after somebody wins. Especially after a visible win, you hear the stories about people coming in and asking for that particular model," Arluna says. "I can also tell you that Phil (Mickelson) plays a heel-shafted putter (the No. 9). Generally in our 15 years or so of doing business, we haven't sold a lot of heel-shafted putters. It's just not a putter that the general golfer has taken a huge liking to - until this year. We hadn't had a heel-shafted putter in our line for probably three or four years because we're big on replacing SKUs that aren't moving as quickly and making sure that the stuff people want is the stuff we're giving them.
"So we just decided to have one in our line and the visibility that Phil has brought to it is a testament to what a Tour player can do."
Arluna says that while "a handful" of Callaway pros, including Mickelson, Ernie Els and Charles Howell III on the PGA Tour and Morgan Pressel and Annika Sorenstam on the LPGA, have contracts that include the putter, most pros aren't paid to play Odyssey.
"Last year on the LPGA, specifically, a couple of smaller competitors were making a run at it and paying tee-up money for putters, and they've backed off that position," Arluna says. "I remember having conversations about 12 months ago where we were saying, 'Well, people are starting to pay now. Do we need to make a move?' I think we felt like, 'We don't, let's let our products stand on their own,' and sure enough, I think that strategy has (worked)."
With those reductions in how other companies pay players, Odyssey has seen some of its greatest gains on the LPGA Tour, moving from 23.6 percent usage in 2006 to 30.7 percent usage this year.
Then there's the visibility. Odyssey's deep pockets help the company spread the word about its putters out via television and print advertising. They also run promotions, backed with advertising, that encourage consumers to visit a golf shop and try the putters.
"From a standpoint of creating hype around a new product launch and getting people interested, I think we do a pretty good job with some of our teaser and pre-launch stuff," Arluna says. "In the case of our Marxman putters, we hosted a nationwide promotion called Phil's Drill, where we invited consumers to come to participating retail shops or green grass shops. We asked them to try and make 10 putts in a row from five feet, and if they did, they won a Marxman putter. And if they made eight of 10 they were put into a drawing to win a trip to Dave Pelz' Golf School.
"I think that's one way to get people interested in trying our putters, because I think trial breeds success. The more you can get putters in the hands of people the better off you are."
You'll find Odyssey putters in nearly every golf retail environment, which also makes it easier for golfers to test them. Nearly 100 percent of off-course retail, according to Golf Datatech, carry at least some Odyssey models. And roughly 10,000 green-grass shops have the brand in stock.
All of these marketing strategies came from a conscious decision Arluna and his team made about two years ago. With four distinct brands - Callaway Golf also owns Hogan and Top Flite - the company needed to differentiate Odyssey from other putter offerings.
"We did a lot of brand work and a big part of the brand work on Odyssey was making sure the brand was defined clearly, to making sure the R&D team had clear goals on what they needed to do, to the sales reps knowing how to sell Odyssey vs. Hogan vs. Top Flite. A big part of what we did on that side was to really say, look, we're going to overhaul the entire product line-up for Odyssey... to ensure we have a product with technological advantage in virtually all performance segments for all player types," Arluna explains.
How can Odyssey continue its record of success?
"Our goal in general is to create products and technologies that disrupt the marketplace (like 2-Ball)," Arluna says. "The only difficulty there is you can't build a business plan around that, you can't count on that until you really have it. It's really hard to consumer test for something like that until you see it happening. So that's our No. 1 goal to continue and try and build those innovations. In the meantime, until those innovations come along, we're going to continue expanding into new segments, like we did with Marxman in terms of a new alignment technology for us and Black Series in terms of going after a new consumer, someone who hasn't necessarily purchased an insert putter before.
"We'll continue innovating and we're taking a really close look at SKUs and what's selling, making sure the stuff that isn't moving as quickly comes out of the line. Trying new ideas and adding new, fresh head shapes into the marketplace more often is what you'll see from us. And there are new technologies on the horizon."
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Tour Van Notebook: Different Approaches to 17th Hole
It's interesting to see how different players may make entirely different equipment choices from the same distance, on the same hole. Nowhere at Oakmont was that more apparent than the 17th hole.
The short par-4 ended up being the pivotal hole for the championship - give Jim Furyk or Tiger Woods a birdie there, and we'd have been watching a playoff Monday.
"I had to hit 3-wood," Woods said after finishing Sunday. Tiger's 3-wood is a Nike Sasquatch 2.
"I was trying to put the ball at the flag or to the right. They haven't watered that green at all and it's all baked out; it's the hardest hole on the golf course."
Furyk, on the other hand, hit his new TaylorMade SuperQuad driver. Despite going into the rough on the left side of the green, the World No. 3 defended his choice.
"The play I made was the play. Now if I went back, I wouldn't hit left of the green for damn sure. But, no, it was the play," Furyk said. "I would stick by that play through and through with the way the wind conditions were and the pin position was. In my mind, I made the right decision. I shouldn't have hit the ball so far left, but I'm surprised it went as far as it did."
Before the tournament began, players had various theories about how to play the hole.
"I hit a 2-iron," explained Masters champion Zach Johnson after playing a practice round. "2-iron was perfect... and I had about 90 yards. I heard that guys were hitting 3- and 4-irons getting it up on top. It's going to be anything from a 4-iron to a 2-iron, just try and position yourself with a wedge."
Other players with more muscle recommended driver on the hole, albeit with some strategy.
"You try to drive the green but you're not really trying to drive it," said the PGA Tour's longest driver, Bubba Watson. "You're trying to hit just to the front left. You're trying to hit to the front left so you can just get in that rough and you can hit the shot out of the rough up the green. You're trying to keep it just short of the green, but as close as you can because those bunkers, you're just playing for par once you get in those bunkers."
Watson's words proved to be true. Look again at how the runners-up finished - Furyk hit to the left and blamed his chip out of the rough rather than his placement off the tee. And Woods went into the bunker, and did indeed end up playing for par.
CHANGES OVER 13 YEARS: Ernie Els noted that the USGA's changes to the course really did serve to return Oakmont to the same challenge it was when he won in 1994. Then, for example, some pros were still using persimmon woods.
"With the length they have put into the course, with new technology, you know, we are going to basically play the same shots from the tees and same irons into the greens," Els said.
"So I think that they have done a hell of a job, a very good job putting the length in where they need it. They didn't lengthen every hole."
BRAND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK: Titleist was the golf ball of choice at the U.S. Open with 107 (69 percent) players relying upon the Pro V1 or Pro V1x, more than six times the nearest competitor with 16. ... Fujikura was the No. 1 driver shaft brand at the 2007 U.S. Open Championship. ... True Temper Sports notes this was the third U.S. Open win in the past four years with Rifle branded shafts. ... Adams Golf led the hybrid category on the Nationwide Tour last week having 73 of its hybrids played by the pros at the Showdown at Somerby.
The short par-4 ended up being the pivotal hole for the championship - give Jim Furyk or Tiger Woods a birdie there, and we'd have been watching a playoff Monday.
"I had to hit 3-wood," Woods said after finishing Sunday. Tiger's 3-wood is a Nike Sasquatch 2.
"I was trying to put the ball at the flag or to the right. They haven't watered that green at all and it's all baked out; it's the hardest hole on the golf course."
Furyk, on the other hand, hit his new TaylorMade SuperQuad driver. Despite going into the rough on the left side of the green, the World No. 3 defended his choice.
"The play I made was the play. Now if I went back, I wouldn't hit left of the green for damn sure. But, no, it was the play," Furyk said. "I would stick by that play through and through with the way the wind conditions were and the pin position was. In my mind, I made the right decision. I shouldn't have hit the ball so far left, but I'm surprised it went as far as it did."
Before the tournament began, players had various theories about how to play the hole.
"I hit a 2-iron," explained Masters champion Zach Johnson after playing a practice round. "2-iron was perfect... and I had about 90 yards. I heard that guys were hitting 3- and 4-irons getting it up on top. It's going to be anything from a 4-iron to a 2-iron, just try and position yourself with a wedge."
Other players with more muscle recommended driver on the hole, albeit with some strategy.
"You try to drive the green but you're not really trying to drive it," said the PGA Tour's longest driver, Bubba Watson. "You're trying to hit just to the front left. You're trying to hit to the front left so you can just get in that rough and you can hit the shot out of the rough up the green. You're trying to keep it just short of the green, but as close as you can because those bunkers, you're just playing for par once you get in those bunkers."
Watson's words proved to be true. Look again at how the runners-up finished - Furyk hit to the left and blamed his chip out of the rough rather than his placement off the tee. And Woods went into the bunker, and did indeed end up playing for par.
CHANGES OVER 13 YEARS: Ernie Els noted that the USGA's changes to the course really did serve to return Oakmont to the same challenge it was when he won in 1994. Then, for example, some pros were still using persimmon woods.
"With the length they have put into the course, with new technology, you know, we are going to basically play the same shots from the tees and same irons into the greens," Els said.
"So I think that they have done a hell of a job, a very good job putting the length in where they need it. They didn't lengthen every hole."
BRAND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK: Titleist was the golf ball of choice at the U.S. Open with 107 (69 percent) players relying upon the Pro V1 or Pro V1x, more than six times the nearest competitor with 16. ... Fujikura was the No. 1 driver shaft brand at the 2007 U.S. Open Championship. ... True Temper Sports notes this was the third U.S. Open win in the past four years with Rifle branded shafts. ... Adams Golf led the hybrid category on the Nationwide Tour last week having 73 of its hybrids played by the pros at the Showdown at Somerby.
Tour Van: Finding the Right Clubs for Oakmont
For the U.S. Open - or any major, for that matter - the pros take even more time and effort to get just the right combination of clubs in the bag.
Perhaps, for example, a player will pull out a fairway wood and substitute a long iron. That was the case with Tiger Woods, who put a 2-iron into the bag.
Or maybe, the player will add another wedge and drop a longer club.
At Oakmont, players were looking for a couple of things. Tour van staffers reported that players wanted more control, even at the expense of distance. So that meant pros went looking for shorter fairway clubs with more loft.
For example, TaylorMade's Tour Blog reported that the company's pros requested:
Then, if the players did hit the dreaded rough, they needed high-lofted clubs and wedges with a sharper leading edge to extract their golf balls.
"Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen each came by the trailer Monday morning to grind all new wedges for themselves, as both wanted fresh grooves to ensure maximum spin and control," TaylorMade staff wrote on the blog.
Finally, the driver was vitally important - players had to feel comfortable with their No. 1 wood.
Jim Furyk, for example, cracked the face of his favorite Srixon driver last year, and he's apparently never found the perfect replacement. He spent the early part of the week tinkering with different Srixon and TaylorMade clubs before settling on a SuperQuad. Furyk is one of a handful of top players who does not have a driver contract, so he's free to play what he likes any given week.
Perhaps, for example, a player will pull out a fairway wood and substitute a long iron. That was the case with Tiger Woods, who put a 2-iron into the bag.
Or maybe, the player will add another wedge and drop a longer club.
At Oakmont, players were looking for a couple of things. Tour van staffers reported that players wanted more control, even at the expense of distance. So that meant pros went looking for shorter fairway clubs with more loft.
For example, TaylorMade's Tour Blog reported that the company's pros requested:
- Retief Goosen requested a shorter, 41-inch, 15-degree Burner 3-wood.
- Todd Hamilton experimented with a shorter and more lofted 3-wood.
- Jeff Brehaut switched out his 3-wood for a newly built 4-wood.
- David Toms and Mike Weir both took 7-woods with them during their Tuesday practice rounds.
Then, if the players did hit the dreaded rough, they needed high-lofted clubs and wedges with a sharper leading edge to extract their golf balls.
"Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen each came by the trailer Monday morning to grind all new wedges for themselves, as both wanted fresh grooves to ensure maximum spin and control," TaylorMade staff wrote on the blog.
Finally, the driver was vitally important - players had to feel comfortable with their No. 1 wood.
Jim Furyk, for example, cracked the face of his favorite Srixon driver last year, and he's apparently never found the perfect replacement. He spent the early part of the week tinkering with different Srixon and TaylorMade clubs before settling on a SuperQuad. Furyk is one of a handful of top players who does not have a driver contract, so he's free to play what he likes any given week.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Titleist Works to Get it Right
At Titleist, clubfitting isn't just a way to get golfers hitting their clubs. It's one of the company's main endeavors as they work to get the right products into consumers' hands.
"We started fitting long before it was popular - back in 1992," says Brett Porath, the Director of Titleist's FittingWorks program. "It's really an all-encompassing thing as fitting is so central to our club plan."
Some manufacturers center their fitting efforts around hardware - a great fitting cart, a variety of clubs, even clubs with interchangeable shafts so a golfer can try literally hundreds of different club combinations. That's not the emphasis with Titleist, which looks at the process of fitting and concentrates on educating their fitting staff, and, in turn, consumers.
"Part of our goal is to share information and education," Porath explains. "We have various ways we conduct training. (We'll have) over 125 hands-on fitting workshops this year where we get a fitting expert to come in and work with local fitters, present information and fitting scenarios - what would you do if this happens, or that happens? We have an online training aspect where fitters can get that information where and when they want, not only when we have someone in town. Then we have regular communications with fitters, an email update where we share best practices, maybe success stories from a fitter in one area."
Titleist's fitting philosophies start with their professional staff and work down to recreational golfers, although their emphasis really is on better players - those who can break 80. (Another Acushnet Company brand, Cobra, focuses more on the average or higher-handicap players, although there can be a lot of overlap between the two.) Tour representatives develop their methodologies through working with the tour pros and finding what works best for them, then creating a system that also works for different skill levels.
A good example: Masters champion Zach Johnson. Shortly before the Masters, Johnson worked with Titleist wedge expert Bob Vokey to get new wedges, ones that were a little crisper and gave him more spin. The process that Johnson went through is similar to what you would do when being fit for a Vokey wedge.
"For instance, you hit shots out of various lies that the player would encounter in their home course. Is the turf tight or more buoyant - that would affect what bounce angle we would prescribe," Porath says. "It's interesting that the correlation applies to people of all different abilities, that they should go through those steps of evaluating what club will work best off of their home course and what fits the style with which they play."
Better players seek out more information about equipment and how to improve their games, so they might be an easier audience to target than a less-experienced golfer.
"They seem to have a voracious appetite for information," Porath says. "We use our web site and go into some pretty good detail about the specifications of our clubs and about our fitting methodologies. Ultimately, we then refer people to a local fitter who can offer those services that they want.
They're also much more influenced by other good players than by advertising, which presents its own set of challenges.
"We find a lot of the players who are our typical consumer don't necessarily play a club because of an ad they saw. They tend to be more performance-focused," Porath says. "They're looking more at who's winning the county amateur, or the state amateur. They're still pretty in tune to Zach (Johnson) but are less influenced by a player endorsement and are more focused on their personal performance."
Porath says that in recent years, golfers of all abilities have come to realize that clubfitting is important to get the best results from equipment. Where just a few years ago, fitting was limited to whether the golfer thought he should get a regular or stiff shaft, these days a lot of information can be compiled to help the golfer get clubs that will improve his play.
"I think now, fortunately, we're at the point where we don't have to convince people to get fit. It's more about where to get fit, where will you get the service that you want. The market has been transformed - the message is out there a little bit more than it's ever been," he says.
And Titleist's FittingWorks program is driven by what the consumers are requesting - better service and help from an experienced fitter.
"We asked consumers about what's important to them. Is it a broad assortment of clubs? Is it what launch monitor gets used?" Porath says. "Time and time again, they come back and say 'The most important thing to me is to find a knowledgable clubfitter who is really good at their business.' That's why we focus so much on education.
To learn more about FittingWorks or to find a fitter near you, see www.fittingworks.com.
"We started fitting long before it was popular - back in 1992," says Brett Porath, the Director of Titleist's FittingWorks program. "It's really an all-encompassing thing as fitting is so central to our club plan."
Some manufacturers center their fitting efforts around hardware - a great fitting cart, a variety of clubs, even clubs with interchangeable shafts so a golfer can try literally hundreds of different club combinations. That's not the emphasis with Titleist, which looks at the process of fitting and concentrates on educating their fitting staff, and, in turn, consumers.
"Part of our goal is to share information and education," Porath explains. "We have various ways we conduct training. (We'll have) over 125 hands-on fitting workshops this year where we get a fitting expert to come in and work with local fitters, present information and fitting scenarios - what would you do if this happens, or that happens? We have an online training aspect where fitters can get that information where and when they want, not only when we have someone in town. Then we have regular communications with fitters, an email update where we share best practices, maybe success stories from a fitter in one area."
Titleist's fitting philosophies start with their professional staff and work down to recreational golfers, although their emphasis really is on better players - those who can break 80. (Another Acushnet Company brand, Cobra, focuses more on the average or higher-handicap players, although there can be a lot of overlap between the two.) Tour representatives develop their methodologies through working with the tour pros and finding what works best for them, then creating a system that also works for different skill levels.
A good example: Masters champion Zach Johnson. Shortly before the Masters, Johnson worked with Titleist wedge expert Bob Vokey to get new wedges, ones that were a little crisper and gave him more spin. The process that Johnson went through is similar to what you would do when being fit for a Vokey wedge.
"For instance, you hit shots out of various lies that the player would encounter in their home course. Is the turf tight or more buoyant - that would affect what bounce angle we would prescribe," Porath says. "It's interesting that the correlation applies to people of all different abilities, that they should go through those steps of evaluating what club will work best off of their home course and what fits the style with which they play."
Better players seek out more information about equipment and how to improve their games, so they might be an easier audience to target than a less-experienced golfer.
"They seem to have a voracious appetite for information," Porath says. "We use our web site and go into some pretty good detail about the specifications of our clubs and about our fitting methodologies. Ultimately, we then refer people to a local fitter who can offer those services that they want.
They're also much more influenced by other good players than by advertising, which presents its own set of challenges.
"We find a lot of the players who are our typical consumer don't necessarily play a club because of an ad they saw. They tend to be more performance-focused," Porath says. "They're looking more at who's winning the county amateur, or the state amateur. They're still pretty in tune to Zach (Johnson) but are less influenced by a player endorsement and are more focused on their personal performance."
Porath says that in recent years, golfers of all abilities have come to realize that clubfitting is important to get the best results from equipment. Where just a few years ago, fitting was limited to whether the golfer thought he should get a regular or stiff shaft, these days a lot of information can be compiled to help the golfer get clubs that will improve his play.
"I think now, fortunately, we're at the point where we don't have to convince people to get fit. It's more about where to get fit, where will you get the service that you want. The market has been transformed - the message is out there a little bit more than it's ever been," he says.
And Titleist's FittingWorks program is driven by what the consumers are requesting - better service and help from an experienced fitter.
"We asked consumers about what's important to them. Is it a broad assortment of clubs? Is it what launch monitor gets used?" Porath says. "Time and time again, they come back and say 'The most important thing to me is to find a knowledgable clubfitter who is really good at their business.' That's why we focus so much on education.
To learn more about FittingWorks or to find a fitter near you, see www.fittingworks.com.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tour Van Notebook: Austin Goes Putter-less to Improve on the Greens
St. Jude winner Woody Austin isn't always known for his convential ways and positive outlook. So when he qualified for the U.S. Open next week sans putter, it wasn't a complete surprise.
Austin was one of 24 players who advanced from last Monday's 36-hole qualifier at Ohio State's Scarlet Golf Club and the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Most of those who earned their way in were PGA Tour players.
"I went out and played Scarlet Golf Course the first round and played -- I played 17 absolutely flawless holes and I shot -- I was 3-over," Austin said. "It was just extremely frustrating."
After he three-putted the 11th on the Scioto course, Austin said he decided the putter wasn't working for him.
"I went a little overboard and kind of walked to the side and said, well, you know, my chances are pretty much over and I pretty much just kind of got rid of the putter at that point and I proceeded to knock in about a 6, 7 footer for birdie and a wedge in on the next hole," he explained.
"I proceeded two holes after that to hole about a 40-footer for eagle with my sand wedge and next thing you know I played the last three holes right down the middle, right on the green and two-putted and I made it by a shot."
Perhaps pulling out your wedge the next time you're putting bad won't work for you, but it seems to have put Austin in good position. He took 24 putts in his final round in Memphis en route to a 62 and a five-shot victory.
NO DRIVER FOR WIE: With her lingering wrist injury, Michelle Wie kept the driver in the bag - well, mostly - at the LPGA Championship.
For the first two rounds, Wie didn't bring out the driver once.
"I was very proud of myself that I didn't pull out the driver once over 36 holes and that is a world record for me," she said. "I pull a driver out every three holes at least."
Wie said she focused on hitting fairways and greens, and being gentle on her wrist, which was injured earlier this year during a fall.
It wasn't until her 47th hole, when she was well on her way to a disappointing third-round 83, that she brought out the driver.
"I cranked one on 11," the 17-year-old said. "It was very therapeutic actually for me."
Although, she said, she hit into the rough.
IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD FIT: LPGA player Kim Saiki-Maloney has only had six rounds under par this season. Part of the reason, she learned, was poorly fit equipment.
"In March, I had put a new set of irons in my bag, and I just couldn't -- didn't realize that the specs weren't right on where they should have been. So I was having a tough time controlling my irons," she said.
Her old set of irons, she explained, were too upright - so she went to the opposite end of the spectrum and began playing with clubs that were too flat.
"Then the shaft actually was not comparable to what I was hitting before, and I didn't find that out until like a month later," she said. "As a result, I'm typically a pretty straight ball hitter, and I noticed that I didn't have control over the shape of my shots."
But it's getting better. Saiki-Maloney has a brand-new set of Callaway irons, built just for her, and she's feeling good with those. She shot a 67 in the first round of the LPGA Championship after putting the new irons in her bag. Though she wasn't as consistent through the weekend, Saiki-Maloney finished in a tie for 25th, her best of the year.
ANNIKA PULLS OUT OLD FAVORITE: It's been two weeks since Annika Sorenstam came back from a nasty back injury, and the former World No. 1 said she's lacking in the strength she once had.
"I'm not going to hit the same shots that I did last year; I just don't have the strength," she said last week. "But I'm hoping to hit some fairways, hit some greens, I've got my 4-iron and I've got a 9-wood in the bag and it's working pretty nicely."
The 9-wood hasn't been in her bag for, she figured, five or six years.
ODDS AND ENDS: Titleist was the golf ball of choice at the Stanford St. Jude Championship with 120 (77 percent) players relying upon the Pro V1 or Pro V1x; at the McDonald's LPGA Championship with 109 (73 percent) players; at the Principal Charity Classic with 57 (75 percent) players; and at the Bangkok Airways Open with 117 (81 percent) players. ... At the Nationwide Tour's Rex Hospital Open, 137 out of 156 (87.8 percent) players used Golf Pride grips on the majority of clubs in their bag. ... Etonic announced it has signed Brittany Lincicome to wear the new women's line of Etonic ST-GT and G>SOK golf shoes.
Austin was one of 24 players who advanced from last Monday's 36-hole qualifier at Ohio State's Scarlet Golf Club and the Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. Most of those who earned their way in were PGA Tour players.
"I went out and played Scarlet Golf Course the first round and played -- I played 17 absolutely flawless holes and I shot -- I was 3-over," Austin said. "It was just extremely frustrating."
After he three-putted the 11th on the Scioto course, Austin said he decided the putter wasn't working for him.
"I went a little overboard and kind of walked to the side and said, well, you know, my chances are pretty much over and I pretty much just kind of got rid of the putter at that point and I proceeded to knock in about a 6, 7 footer for birdie and a wedge in on the next hole," he explained.
"I proceeded two holes after that to hole about a 40-footer for eagle with my sand wedge and next thing you know I played the last three holes right down the middle, right on the green and two-putted and I made it by a shot."
Perhaps pulling out your wedge the next time you're putting bad won't work for you, but it seems to have put Austin in good position. He took 24 putts in his final round in Memphis en route to a 62 and a five-shot victory.
NO DRIVER FOR WIE: With her lingering wrist injury, Michelle Wie kept the driver in the bag - well, mostly - at the LPGA Championship.
For the first two rounds, Wie didn't bring out the driver once.
"I was very proud of myself that I didn't pull out the driver once over 36 holes and that is a world record for me," she said. "I pull a driver out every three holes at least."
Wie said she focused on hitting fairways and greens, and being gentle on her wrist, which was injured earlier this year during a fall.
It wasn't until her 47th hole, when she was well on her way to a disappointing third-round 83, that she brought out the driver.
"I cranked one on 11," the 17-year-old said. "It was very therapeutic actually for me."
Although, she said, she hit into the rough.
IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD FIT: LPGA player Kim Saiki-Maloney has only had six rounds under par this season. Part of the reason, she learned, was poorly fit equipment.
"In March, I had put a new set of irons in my bag, and I just couldn't -- didn't realize that the specs weren't right on where they should have been. So I was having a tough time controlling my irons," she said.
Her old set of irons, she explained, were too upright - so she went to the opposite end of the spectrum and began playing with clubs that were too flat.
"Then the shaft actually was not comparable to what I was hitting before, and I didn't find that out until like a month later," she said. "As a result, I'm typically a pretty straight ball hitter, and I noticed that I didn't have control over the shape of my shots."
But it's getting better. Saiki-Maloney has a brand-new set of Callaway irons, built just for her, and she's feeling good with those. She shot a 67 in the first round of the LPGA Championship after putting the new irons in her bag. Though she wasn't as consistent through the weekend, Saiki-Maloney finished in a tie for 25th, her best of the year.
ANNIKA PULLS OUT OLD FAVORITE: It's been two weeks since Annika Sorenstam came back from a nasty back injury, and the former World No. 1 said she's lacking in the strength she once had.
"I'm not going to hit the same shots that I did last year; I just don't have the strength," she said last week. "But I'm hoping to hit some fairways, hit some greens, I've got my 4-iron and I've got a 9-wood in the bag and it's working pretty nicely."
The 9-wood hasn't been in her bag for, she figured, five or six years.
ODDS AND ENDS: Titleist was the golf ball of choice at the Stanford St. Jude Championship with 120 (77 percent) players relying upon the Pro V1 or Pro V1x; at the McDonald's LPGA Championship with 109 (73 percent) players; at the Principal Charity Classic with 57 (75 percent) players; and at the Bangkok Airways Open with 117 (81 percent) players. ... At the Nationwide Tour's Rex Hospital Open, 137 out of 156 (87.8 percent) players used Golf Pride grips on the majority of clubs in their bag. ... Etonic announced it has signed Brittany Lincicome to wear the new women's line of Etonic ST-GT and G>SOK golf shoes.
Tour Van: Ping Putter Just Feels Right for Pettersen
Sometimes the best equipment switches are born out of desperation.
That's what made LPGA Championship winner Suzann Pettersen seek out a new putter earlier this week.
"For me, it was -- it couldn't get much worse," she said about her putting.
Her Tuesday pro-am partner, Tom Elliot, had a suggestion in the form of his Ping Udrainium Series Doc 15 putter.
"I looked at it and I was like, wow, this is doing exactly what I want it to do, and it's so simple, so I'll just take it," Pettersen said.
The results: An average of 28.5 putts per round and a major trophy.
"I've just been really feeling good with the putter this week," she explained. "So I mean, I could kind of see all the lines and it was just a matter of if you got the right pace or not."
Ping's line of Udrainium putters includes six different models - all of them fairly large. The bigger heads reduce twisting to help keep putts on line - plus, they're well marked to help with alignment. Each Udranium putter - including Pettersen's favorite, the Doc 15 - is machined aluminum with perimeter weighting. The putters were introduced to the market in 2005.
In her hands, Pettersen said, the Ping putter just felt good.
"I hardly change my equipment during the season. But I mean, if you feel good with something, you should go with the guts, so that's what I did," she said.
And as for Elliot, now without a putter?
"I did get him a new one," Pettersen promised, "because this one, it's so special."
That's what made LPGA Championship winner Suzann Pettersen seek out a new putter earlier this week.
"For me, it was -- it couldn't get much worse," she said about her putting.
Her Tuesday pro-am partner, Tom Elliot, had a suggestion in the form of his Ping Udrainium Series Doc 15 putter.
"I looked at it and I was like, wow, this is doing exactly what I want it to do, and it's so simple, so I'll just take it," Pettersen said.
The results: An average of 28.5 putts per round and a major trophy.
"I've just been really feeling good with the putter this week," she explained. "So I mean, I could kind of see all the lines and it was just a matter of if you got the right pace or not."
Ping's line of Udrainium putters includes six different models - all of them fairly large. The bigger heads reduce twisting to help keep putts on line - plus, they're well marked to help with alignment. Each Udranium putter - including Pettersen's favorite, the Doc 15 - is machined aluminum with perimeter weighting. The putters were introduced to the market in 2005.
In her hands, Pettersen said, the Ping putter just felt good.
"I hardly change my equipment during the season. But I mean, if you feel good with something, you should go with the guts, so that's what I did," she said.
And as for Elliot, now without a putter?
"I did get him a new one," Pettersen promised, "because this one, it's so special."
Monday, June 4, 2007
Tour Van: MacGregor Driver Helps Baddeley with Accuracy
A pair of 71s on the weekend at the Memorial Tournament kept Aaron Baddeley from seriously contending for the title, but the Australian seemed to have his driver figured out.
"I drove the ball beautiful today," he said after an opening round in which he averaged 306.5 yards and 86 percent driving accuracy. "I mean, my misses of fairways didn't even total six inches. I was like right off the edge of the fairway."
Badds, who is contracted to play MacGregor irons, switched this year to a MacGregor MacTech Tour driver. He played a TaylorMade r7 425 driver as recently as his FBR Open win in February. At that event, he led the field with an average of 26 putts per round -- but his driving accuracy, at 60.7 percent, was a mediocre T53.
"I've been at both ends of the spectrum now, I've been like where you can't find the planet, and now it's like I feel like driving is nearly one of my strengths," Baddeley said. "It's definitely so much easier in the fairway. Your shoes are cleaner, you hit the ball closer to the hole."
The MacGregor MacTec Tour driver that's on the shelves is designed for golfers with swing speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. It has got a really lightweight titanium crown insert -- 0.4 mm instead of a more standard 1.0 mm -- that lets MacGregor's engineers distribute more weight in the sole of the club. That weight shift helps lower the center of gravity by more than 12 percent, imparting less spin to the ball and keeping an optimal launch angle for the "grip it and rip it" crowd.
As with many drivers on the market these days, the MacGregor MacTec Tour uses tungsten weights in the heel and toe to minimize twisting at the moment of inertia. Two more, slightly heavier weights in the sole are positioned to promote a slight draw bias for better control.
There are no face welds on the MacTec Tour. Instead, the company uses plasma-welding 360 degrees around the edge to attach the face to the club body. The face has the maximum legal rebounding effect for added distance and minimizes loss of distance when the club is mis-hit. The feel is better on off-center hits, too.
While Baddeley managed no better than a tie for ninth at Memorial, he's optimistic about the way he's hitting the ball.
"It was encouraging to hit it that straight and drive it that well," he said. "I felt like I had good command of my irons, too. I hit a lot of nice iron shots, very straight, where I wanted to hit them. I feel like everything I'm doing is just -- I feel like my game is constantly improving."
"I drove the ball beautiful today," he said after an opening round in which he averaged 306.5 yards and 86 percent driving accuracy. "I mean, my misses of fairways didn't even total six inches. I was like right off the edge of the fairway."
Badds, who is contracted to play MacGregor irons, switched this year to a MacGregor MacTech Tour driver. He played a TaylorMade r7 425 driver as recently as his FBR Open win in February. At that event, he led the field with an average of 26 putts per round -- but his driving accuracy, at 60.7 percent, was a mediocre T53.
"I've been at both ends of the spectrum now, I've been like where you can't find the planet, and now it's like I feel like driving is nearly one of my strengths," Baddeley said. "It's definitely so much easier in the fairway. Your shoes are cleaner, you hit the ball closer to the hole."
The MacGregor MacTec Tour driver that's on the shelves is designed for golfers with swing speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. It has got a really lightweight titanium crown insert -- 0.4 mm instead of a more standard 1.0 mm -- that lets MacGregor's engineers distribute more weight in the sole of the club. That weight shift helps lower the center of gravity by more than 12 percent, imparting less spin to the ball and keeping an optimal launch angle for the "grip it and rip it" crowd.
As with many drivers on the market these days, the MacGregor MacTec Tour uses tungsten weights in the heel and toe to minimize twisting at the moment of inertia. Two more, slightly heavier weights in the sole are positioned to promote a slight draw bias for better control.
There are no face welds on the MacTec Tour. Instead, the company uses plasma-welding 360 degrees around the edge to attach the face to the club body. The face has the maximum legal rebounding effect for added distance and minimizes loss of distance when the club is mis-hit. The feel is better on off-center hits, too.
While Baddeley managed no better than a tie for ninth at Memorial, he's optimistic about the way he's hitting the ball.
"It was encouraging to hit it that straight and drive it that well," he said. "I felt like I had good command of my irons, too. I hit a lot of nice iron shots, very straight, where I wanted to hit them. I feel like everything I'm doing is just -- I feel like my game is constantly improving."
Tour Van Notebook: Nicklaus Says Grooves Matter but Ball is Vital
Jack Nicklaus is on his soapbox, again.
The Golden Bear rarely misses an opportunity to discuss changes in the game, and he took time before players teed off at the Memorial Tournament to talk about U-grooves and the U.S. Golf Aassociation's recent proposal to limit their play in competition.
"I think that the grooves are an issue, they've always been an issue," Nicklaus said. "I mean, I see television and I watch the guys playing out of rough like this and I see the ball go, shooooom. I say, 'God, there's no way in the world we could ever do that.'"
But, he continued, he prefers to use traditional V-grooves.
"I play with V grooves and I have all my life just because I like the flight of a golf ball," he said. "I personally have never liked the flight of what a U-groove does because it's square grooves or whatever you want to call them. Out of the rough I like to be able to take the ball and play my trajectory and throw it up softly."
However, Nicklaus said he doesn't think that grooves don't play as much of a role in the changed game of today as the golf ball does. Nicklaus advocates use of a professional ball that doesn't fly as far.
"(The USGA) felt that it was probably 80 percent grooves and head and a small part ball," he said. "They do far more research than I do. I don't do research, but I've played the game and seen it played for too many years, and I see what's happened. That's my feeling."
LUMPY'S NEW OLD DRIVER: Sometimes, you just have to return to what works.
Tim Herron did just that this week by putting his older, shorter TaylorMade r7 driver back in his bag. Because it's a little shorter, he said he thinks it helped him hit straighter.
"I worked hard, put my old driver back in the bag and just putted really well," he said after shooting an opening-round 66. "I've just got to keep working hard on my driver and getting the ball in play. I was looking for distance. I just needed to change and try something different."
SOUND OF SUCCESS: K.J. Choi is one of the few professionals to put a square-shaped driver in play. Choi, who has has the Nike SasQuatch Sumo 2 in his bag for two wins, doesn't seem to mind the odd sound the club makes when hit.
"It's pretty loud," said playing partner Rod Pampling. "The sad thing is you're getting used to it. The first time he hit it, wow, you could hear it across the whole golf course.
"Yeah, it's definitely loud, that's for sure. You know when he's teed off."
Choi tied for second in driving accuracy for the tournament with an 84 percent average.
CRAZY NEW PUTTER: Cristie Kerr decided it was time for a new putter. Despite putting well during the 2006 season, she didn't feel comfortable during a recent trip to Korea.
"I actually putted so poorly with the putter I putted so well with last year, I basically said 'I'm taking that out' and I bought a putter in the pro shop there, a Ping Craz-E putter, and I have just absolutely putted crazy with it. It's funny how things work out," she said.
"I've made little improvements over the last several weeks, finished second in Korea when I went there. Had I had the Ping Craz-E putter there the second day I probably would have done better."
JAPANESE ODYSSEY: It was another big Odyssey putter count this week on the Japanese Tour, with almost 69 percent of the players in the field putting them in play.
SHAFT AND GRIP WATCH: K.J. Choi used a Fujikura ZCom Six shaft in his Nike Sumo2 square driver to win the Memorial. ... Seventeen of the top 20 finishers who played in the Memorial used Golf Pride grips. ... Celtic Manor Wales Open Champion Richard Sterne used Grafalloy's ProLaunch Blue shaft in his driver. ... With Graphite Design's YS-6 shaft model in his driver, YS-7 in his 3-wood and YS-Hybrid 85 in his hybrid club, John Riegger won the Nationwide Tour's LaSalle Bank Open. ... Loren Roberts won the Boeing Championship at Sandestin on the Champions Tour with Graphite Design's YS-8.1 in his driver.
The Golden Bear rarely misses an opportunity to discuss changes in the game, and he took time before players teed off at the Memorial Tournament to talk about U-grooves and the U.S. Golf Aassociation's recent proposal to limit their play in competition.
"I think that the grooves are an issue, they've always been an issue," Nicklaus said. "I mean, I see television and I watch the guys playing out of rough like this and I see the ball go, shooooom. I say, 'God, there's no way in the world we could ever do that.'"
But, he continued, he prefers to use traditional V-grooves.
"I play with V grooves and I have all my life just because I like the flight of a golf ball," he said. "I personally have never liked the flight of what a U-groove does because it's square grooves or whatever you want to call them. Out of the rough I like to be able to take the ball and play my trajectory and throw it up softly."
However, Nicklaus said he doesn't think that grooves don't play as much of a role in the changed game of today as the golf ball does. Nicklaus advocates use of a professional ball that doesn't fly as far.
"(The USGA) felt that it was probably 80 percent grooves and head and a small part ball," he said. "They do far more research than I do. I don't do research, but I've played the game and seen it played for too many years, and I see what's happened. That's my feeling."
LUMPY'S NEW OLD DRIVER: Sometimes, you just have to return to what works.
Tim Herron did just that this week by putting his older, shorter TaylorMade r7 driver back in his bag. Because it's a little shorter, he said he thinks it helped him hit straighter.
"I worked hard, put my old driver back in the bag and just putted really well," he said after shooting an opening-round 66. "I've just got to keep working hard on my driver and getting the ball in play. I was looking for distance. I just needed to change and try something different."
SOUND OF SUCCESS: K.J. Choi is one of the few professionals to put a square-shaped driver in play. Choi, who has has the Nike SasQuatch Sumo 2 in his bag for two wins, doesn't seem to mind the odd sound the club makes when hit.
"It's pretty loud," said playing partner Rod Pampling. "The sad thing is you're getting used to it. The first time he hit it, wow, you could hear it across the whole golf course.
"Yeah, it's definitely loud, that's for sure. You know when he's teed off."
Choi tied for second in driving accuracy for the tournament with an 84 percent average.
CRAZY NEW PUTTER: Cristie Kerr decided it was time for a new putter. Despite putting well during the 2006 season, she didn't feel comfortable during a recent trip to Korea.
"I actually putted so poorly with the putter I putted so well with last year, I basically said 'I'm taking that out' and I bought a putter in the pro shop there, a Ping Craz-E putter, and I have just absolutely putted crazy with it. It's funny how things work out," she said.
"I've made little improvements over the last several weeks, finished second in Korea when I went there. Had I had the Ping Craz-E putter there the second day I probably would have done better."
JAPANESE ODYSSEY: It was another big Odyssey putter count this week on the Japanese Tour, with almost 69 percent of the players in the field putting them in play.
SHAFT AND GRIP WATCH: K.J. Choi used a Fujikura ZCom Six shaft in his Nike Sumo2 square driver to win the Memorial. ... Seventeen of the top 20 finishers who played in the Memorial used Golf Pride grips. ... Celtic Manor Wales Open Champion Richard Sterne used Grafalloy's ProLaunch Blue shaft in his driver. ... With Graphite Design's YS-6 shaft model in his driver, YS-7 in his 3-wood and YS-Hybrid 85 in his hybrid club, John Riegger won the Nationwide Tour's LaSalle Bank Open. ... Loren Roberts won the Boeing Championship at Sandestin on the Champions Tour with Graphite Design's YS-8.1 in his driver.
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