The PGA Show's Latest Mood Swing

By: Tony Dear


The soundtrack (unofficial) to the PGA Merchandise Show has changed a lot in recent years. Beginning in 2009 and continuing through 2012, the mood was so grim you could almost imagine B.B. King sitting in a corner of the Orange County Convention Center playing his guitar while dolefully singing a medley of Blues numbers - "Why I Sing the Blues," "How Blue Can You Get?" and "Every Day I Have the Blues."

PGA officials gamely tried putting a positive spin on the situation, but B.B. just sat, smiled wistfully, and shook his head before breaking into a particularly melancholy version of "The Thrill is Gone."

In 2013, King made way for '80s synth-pop artist Howard Jones, who walked the aisles (not really, just in my head) insisting "Things Can Only Get Better." "Future dreams we have to realize," sang Jones, "A thousand skeptic hands won't keep us from the things we plan."

The chatter was considerably more upbeat as the golf industry folk who had survived the worst of the economic malaise seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief whilst happily acknowledging considerable labor and wisdom would still be needed to reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

So what tune accompanied exhibitors and attendees in 2015 as they manned their booths and strolled the exhibition floor? How about the Beatles's "Here Comes the Sun?"

No one, repeat no one, is making any assumptions about future growth and success in the golf industry. Apart from the fact you and I will three-putt at some point this year (if we haven't done so several times already), there are few guarantees in golf, just ask the 478 teaching pros shown the door by Dick's Sporting Goods in July last year - the unfortunate result, most likely, of rampant discounting on TaylorMade and Callaway clubs that were bright and new one day but old and apparently flawed the next.

That episode served as a great reminder that there simply isn't room for the sort of overindulgence, complacency and cavalier spending the industry "enjoyed" during the boom years earlier this century. And though we can't know for sure that the sun John Lennon spoke of (sang of?) will in fact appear, it was certainly evident in Orlando last week that the industry has a much sunnier disposition now than it has had in recent years.

The size of, and activity in, the Callaway/Odyssey booth is always a good indication of how things stand, and this year's 14,000-square-foot creation cut into two by one of the floor's main arteries was a thing of beauty. Seriously, who conceives, designs and builds these things? Meanwhile, Titleist, Ping, Cleveland, Bridgestone and Cobra pulled out all their usual stops.

Remember though, these companies have the resources to be present and build gigantic exhibits even when times are tough. Perhaps better clues as to the health of the business can be found in how many first-time exhibitors are there, the feedback they receive and the likelihood of their returning, plus the level of innovation.

The PGA of America can be satisfied on all accounts. Likewise it can feel justifiably pleased with the 1 percent growth in the number of attendees throughout the week, and the record numbers at both the PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit and Demo Day at Orange County National Golf Center where over 7,000 people came to see what's new.

Reed Exhibitions, which manages the show for the PGA, says 227 new exhibitors signed up in 2015, though that number could have risen with late commitments. The figure isn't dissimilar to those of other years, but consider the quality of some of those newbies; former USGA man Dean Knuth introduced his self-funded High Heat driver and had an amazing response. So taken with the club were they, 10 media figures actually purchased a High Heat of their own after giving it a whack on Demo Day. Golf writers shelling out significant money for golf equipment is a rare phenomenon anytime, 10 of them doing so on the spot after just a few swings surely has no precedence.

"Dean and I were obviously very pleased with the response to the High Heat," says Stephen Trattner, the USGA's intellectual property attorney at the time Knuth worked for the organization, and Knuth's business partner today. "The economy is gradually improving, so we feel the golf industry will have a better year this year. It's a good time for us to be launching a product we believe can have a very positive effect on amateurs' golf and even help grow the game."

Other first-timers that earned significant praise and media attention included ARX (Adapted Resistance Exercise) equipment, which was a big hit with golfers who regard themselves as athletes, especially after Long Drive champion Mike Dobbyn tried it out and said it was the best workout he'd ever had. 4D Motion's full-digital motion capture technology impressed everyone who tried it, and Blast Motion's data-capturing technology, which measures and sends all your swing metrics to your smart-phone via a device you attach to the end of your club, was similarly well-received.

Many people's favorite new product though was a warm-up club built by a former European Challenge Tour player from England. The DST (Delayed Strike Technology) Compressor Wedge, launched in the U.S., U.K. and Asia on the Tuesday of Show week, has a curved shaft that mimics shaft-bend at address, helping users instinctively know what proper impact and ball compression feels like. It was dreamt up by Robert Cordle (aka Bertie), who played on the Challenge Tour in 1997 but managed only a few events before an acute case of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) put him in bed for six months, indoors for 18 months, and out of competitive golf for good.

In 2011, Cordle began an intense study into the biomechanics of ball-striking and, after analyzing Ben Hogan, George Knudson, Lee Trevino and Moe Norman's impact positions, had what he calls a "light-bulb moment." In a very basic nutshell, he saw and wanted to emphasize the position of the left shoulder (for right-handed golfers) and hands being in front of the clubhead as it strikes the ball. He focused on a sketch by Anthony Ravielli showing Hogan at impact with his hands leading the clubhead and the shaft of the club curving slightly. The hands at impact, says Cordle, must be ahead of what he calls the "line of tension," which connects the left shoulder to the clubface, just like Hogan's were.

It took Cordle well over a year to figure out how to construct a club whose shaft was curved. "I explored every known way of bending metal," he says, "but nothing worked to consistently curve a tapered-steel tube. In the end I had to invent a machine myself, and it wasn't until my seventh try that I got it right."

It then took six months to design the clubhead and find an investment-casting factory that could bring this all together. Cordle applied for and was granted all the necessary patents and trademarks he needed to continue, and before he knew it, three years of study, experimentation and implementation were over.

Naturally, Cordle - who believes the DST is just as useful for the captain of the Presidents Cup team (he's not allowed to say Jay Haas, but I can) who recently requested some DST clubs, as the total beginner - met a few wags who said they had enough trouble with straight shafts so why would they benefit from something curved. "I've got a few of those in my garage," said others who had obviously taken clubs to a nearby tree following disappointing shots. "It looks like it's been run over by a car," said another.

Cordle took the comments in the spirit they were intended, suggested the naysayers give it a go, and smiled to himself when everyone that tried the club appeared to have a light-bulb moment of their own.

"One of the best testimonials I had was from a 21-handicapper who said that hitting the ball using the DST Compressor Wedge was like 'opening another world. I've never felt this position before,' " Cordle said.

Cordle sold all the Compressor Wedges he bought to the Show and met buyers not only from the U.S. and Canada but also Brazil, Japan, Korea, Australia, South Africa and the Czech Republic. "I'd been to the Show twice before but only as an observer," he says. "My first year as an exhibitor was unbelievable. The response to the product was amazing and the Show surpassed all my hopes and expectations."

Cordle is confident he is launching his company at just the right time as the industry rebounds from a few lean years and creates initiatives to increase participation. "Globally, golf is definitely on the up," he insists.

That's an opinion echoed by Tom Stine, founder and CEO of Florida-based market research company Golf Datatech, who feels the industry has most definitely turned the corner. "It was inevitable we would see a significant drop-off in sales (one report says consumer spending declined by 11.45 percent) and participation during a time when the real-estate market tanked," Stine says. "But as the national economy has slowly improved so too have golf's fortunes."

Last year, golf sales reached $2.5 billion, the third-highest total in the last six years - a generally positive return considering a roughly 2 percent drop in the amount of golf played nationally due largely to poor weather conditions and fluctuating foreign-exchange rates.

One company that outperformed the market was Callaway, which released its fourth quarter and yearly earnings report on Thursday afternoon (January 29th). The company's Q4 sales rose 6 percent while the yearly increase was 5 percent. "We are pleased with our results for 2014," said the company's president and CEO Chip Brewer. "Notwithstanding challenging market conditions for the golf industry as a whole, we were able to grow sales, increase our market share and return to profitability for the first time since 2008."

Another manufacturer bound to achieve similar, if not much better, numbers this year, in terms of percentage sales increase at least, is the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company, which is alive again following lifelong Hogan devotee and former employee Terry Koehler's purchase of the rights to the name last May. Koehler's Eidolon Brands actually entered into an agreement with the Perry Ellis company, which had bought the Hogan license from Callaway in 2012 (Callaway, which purchased Top-Flite and the Hogan name with it in 2003, stopped production of Hogan clubs altogether in 2008).

The company launched its highly anticipated Fort Worth 15 irons in Orlando and had onlookers and testers swooning at the cultured clubheads - a blade with a subtle perimeter-weighting design that, Koehler says, gives you "the best of both worlds," and with which Hogan himself would surely be pleased. "The Fort Worth 15 irons prove you can have the forgiveness of a game-improvement club without sacrificing traditional looks," adds Koehler.

Not surprisingly for a staunch traditionalist, Koehler is not a big advocate of growing golf's participation numbers through hokey, unconventional schemes like Footgolf or enlarged holes, but does firmly believe the game should be as enjoyable as possible for existing players. "We made some big mistakes when we tried opening a course a day back in the '80s and '90s," he says. "Too many of the courses tried to be big-time championship venues that were far too difficult and expensive for the defined entry-level golfer who just wanted somewhere nice and affordable to try out and learn to play the game."

Golf paid dearly for its incorrect assessment of what was needed, says Koehler, who adds the game is now in a cycle of correction. "We're slowly getting back to the point where we need to be," he says. "We have stopped building these 'monument' courses and begun to concentrate on making the game more welcoming and enjoyable. Today's golfers are savvy people who are constantly asking themselves 'what will help me enjoy the game more' "?

Blast Motion's director of marketing Donovan Prostrollo agrees entirely, saying it's very clear that if new technology or accessories are to work they have to be able to "improve the golfing experience." "There was a lot of impressive new technology on display at this year's Show," he says. "The best of it was fun and easy to use, not cumbersome or inaccurate."

Prostrollo works for one of the handful of companies making software apps that provide golfers all the pertinent stats related to the swing (swing speed, swing time, shaft plane, blast factor, etc.) but sees a future, not very distant, when those same applications provide both swing metrics and suggestions on how to improve. "Maybe it recommends you check your alignment or posture," he says. "This is what the wearable theme is likely to evolve into."

When that day comes, golf will surely be genuinely cool. Hordes of new golfers will be attracted to the game and, who knows, Pharrell Williams's "Happy" might become the soundtrack (unofficial) of the PGA Merchandise Show.

Tony Dear is an Englishman living in Bellingham, Wash. In the early 1990s he was a member of the Liverpool University golf team which played its home matches at Royal Liverpool GC. Easy access to Hoylake made it extremely difficult for him to focus on Politics, his chosen major. After leaving Liverpool, he worked as a golf instructor at a club just south of London where he also made a futile attempt at becoming a 'player.' He moved into writing when it became abundantly clear he had no business playing the game for a living. A one-time golf correspondent of the New York Sun, Tony is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, the Pacific Northwest Golf Media Association and the Golf Travel Writers Association. He is a multi-award winning journalist, and edits his own website at www.bellinghamgolfer.com.