EUROPEAN GOLF TEACHERS CUP ANNOUNCED
PECKELS WINS THE USGTF SPONSORED US PROFESSSIOANL HICKORY GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP
UNITED STATES GOLF TEACHERS CUP RETURNS TO VEGAS AREA
US GOLF MANAGERS HOME STUDY COURSE NOW AVAILABLE
Your Golf Course in an App
- A course overview with detailed hole-by-hole maps, with Google satellite images. You could provide a customised GPS rangefinder for those with GPS-enabled phones. Some apps provide audio descriptions to accompany the hole-by-hole maps
- A tee time booking facility within the app. Discounts and select offers could be provided to those who have downloaded the app.
- An interactive scorecard that keeps score for an individual or group. Players input their handicap and tee they are playing to provide both gross and net scores.
- Clubs can create daily, weekly or monthly leader boards from the individual scores entered in the player’s scorecard. You could even provide the option to create their own leader boards with their playing partners and create their own mini-tournaments.
- As previously mentioned you can provide details of the restaurant menu and reminders during a player’s round. Customers could then book a table via the app or you could provide restaurant contact details.
- An events calendar that would provide the facility for members and guests to book or reserve social and other club activities.
- Other features could include a latest news page, information on the latest weather conditions, and a text message delivery service for news alerts and club promotions that would be delivered to the user even if the app wasn’t running.
GREAT AMERICAN TOUR PLAYER – CRAIG WOOD
COMING SOON TO YOUR TABLET / IPHONE
NO BETTER SPORT THAN GOLF TO REVEAL A PERSON’S CHARACTER
On the 72nd hole of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Stanley had a 3-stroke lead when he put his third shot on the par-5 into the water. After a penalty and a 3-putt, Stanley found himself in a playoff with hardened veteran Brandt Snedeker, who won on the second playoff hole. The defeat was all the more crushing because Stanley earlier had a 7-stroke lead during the final round.
You might expect Stanley, being a young guy, to take weeks or even months to recover from such an event. Nope. Stanley promptly won the following week at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix by overtaking Spencer Levin, who ironically also held a 7-stroke lead at one point. (At the time of this article, written prior to Levin’s next event, it is unknown how Levin responded.)
What we can say about Stanley is that he reacted very well to his meltdown in San Diego. He could have let it affect him negatively in Phoenix, but he chose to put it behind him and put to use whatever lessons he learned from his previous week’s failure.
Many people say golf is a reflection of a person’s character, because how they operate on the golf course is how they operate off the course. Does a person cheat at golf? Likely he will cheat in business. Does a person throw clubs and curse when things go bad? Likely he will not handle adversity very well off the course. Stanley’s instant comeback was not likely forged over a week’s time. More probable is he has always reacted to adversity in a positive manner.
Golf has also been said to develop character, but more often, it reveals it. You can learn a lot about a person simply by observing how they conduct themselves on the golf course.
From the Teacher’s Desk….
One of the great life lessons may be that everything changes. Golf is no different than life. The days of the skilled custom clubmaker are slowly coming to an end. What once was a thriving sub-industry of the golf equipment business has taken a steady nosedive since 2005.
Although there is still a market for knowledgeable and skilled equipment professionals, the market is becoming very small. The demand today is more for adjusting or altering and reshafting name-brand equipment. Even in the day of very easy and affordable access to custom clubs from the big OEMs, golfers still buy ill-fitted clubs, so there will always some business for the custom shop. A small percentage of clubmakers saw the inevitable, and adjusted quickly enough to satisfy a changing market by offering more services and refined adjustments to equipment to help golfers.
There are several reasons for this gradual transition. One reason would be the industry foresight about consumer demand. Knowing that fitting was becoming more popular, the large equipment manufacturers responded reluctantly by adding custom club departments to their assembly facilities. Turnaround times became a priority, as well as more fitting options. Today, is not unusual to have six or seven shaft options and fitting specs for any OEM iron head and dozens for drivers. Another reason was the advent of the modern day fitting cart. The ability to swiftly switch shaft and head combinations for a better fit was something new for the large OEMs. The custom clubmaker initiated this technology as long ago as 1994, but having the money and name of a major corporation behind the idea proved to be the key factor for advancing this concept.
Golfsmith, the former giant of the custom industry, saw the inevitable coming. They changed CEOs and philosophy several years ago and now have become a massive retailer for the OEMs, their line of custom clubs almost nonexistent. The Golfsmith and Golfworks catalogs now mostly consist of shafts, grips, and supplies. There are still some custom suppliers like Wishon Golf, and there are still some golfers who seek out the personalized touch of the skilled clubmaker. But, the market share shrinks almost monthly, probably to the point of almost being nonexistent in three more years.
A few other reasons contributed to this situation, such as the OEMs having clubs assembled in Asia instead of importing the components and doing the assembly in the US. This has led to the offering of full sets of clubs – both woods and irons – with a golf bag for less than $300. To the trained eye, these are not high-quality clubs by any means, but it is a much less expensive way for someone to get started in the game. This entire market segment used to be satisfied by the custom clubmaker, except at a higher price. But, as we know about other products in our life, it is nearly impossible to compete with cheap labor from Asia. Another reason was the Internet. Mostly unqualified people started to glue together heads and shafts and sell them on eBay for very little markup. Since it was a cyberspace store with virtually no overhead, the key was volume, not quality.
The custom clubmaker has played a key role in the history of golf, going back to the origin of the game. Sadly to some, though, the obituary is beginning to be written today.