Speaker 1: The guys from paying.
Speaker 2: They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
Speaker 2: I just love that I can hit any shot. I
Speaker 2: kind of want.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 1: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
Speaker 2: That is Marty Jerts and Marty.
Speaker 3: It's a remote podcast and we recorded a few in
Speaker 3: person and uh, this is our first, our first run
Speaker 3: through remote. You're you're still dialed though, you're still in
Speaker 3: the putting lab.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm dialed here and I see you're you're
Speaker 1: in the You're in the man cave right there.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was just I was joking with my wife today
Speaker 3: she's been sick and then we have both kids are
Speaker 3: home today and she said, thank goodness, we have this
Speaker 3: man this cave down here that we can like get
Speaker 3: away for an hour or two and uh, basically my
Speaker 3: workstation at this point. But yeah, you know, it was interesting.
Speaker 3: I was kind of thinking about this time of year,
Speaker 3: you know, at school's kind of starting to wind down
Speaker 3: for most kids, and this is when parents, I would say,
Speaker 3: start to freak out a bit because the summer's long
Speaker 3: and you gotta a lot of time with your kids,
Speaker 3: and you start to plan out camps and programs and
Speaker 3: what you can do with your children. And it got
Speaker 3: me kind of thinking about PING and what you guys
Speaker 3: have done in terms of focusing on junior programs and kids, Marty,
Speaker 3: And it's an important program that PING has established and
Speaker 3: it's something that I know you guys are very proud of,
Speaker 3: and it focuses a lot on junior golf and getting
Speaker 3: children not just invested in the game, but kind of
Speaker 3: a personalized environment for them to really kind of hold
Speaker 3: in and take in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, growing the whole junior game is super
Speaker 1: important to the family, to the Solheim family here, Shane,
Speaker 1: And you know, I think you see it in so
Speaker 1: many of our staff players. They've grown up being PING players. Right.
Speaker 1: This is in our DNA, and it's in our fitting DNA.
Speaker 1: You know, we want to have product that's that we
Speaker 1: can custom fit to the junior golfer. That again, I
Speaker 1: think what we've talked about the essence of custom fit.
Speaker 1: Custom fitting is so that you the player, you don't
Speaker 1: have to make a just right And I think that's
Speaker 1: a core problem that we solve with our Prodigy product
Speaker 1: and that we believe in is that whole and I
Speaker 1: can certainly relate to it. I can relate to scheduling
Speaker 1: camps and my wife being a little stressed out right
Speaker 1: now setting the itinerary for the summer. But that whole,
Speaker 1: that whole issue of you're making a big investment in
Speaker 1: your in your kids clubs, so you kind of want
Speaker 1: to be like I want to. I want to I'll
Speaker 1: get it a little longer so they can grow into it, right, right,
Speaker 1: But then you have But but then that's not the
Speaker 1: best thing for the golfers. They're growing their swing and
Speaker 1: they're taking lessons, and they're at the junior camp, they're
Speaker 1: at the they're at the course every day, and they
Speaker 1: have clubs that are too long. That's that's a that's
Speaker 1: a big, big problem for their development.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I was thinking about myself as a
Speaker 3: as a kid, right like growing up playing golf, and
Speaker 3: things have obviously changed a lot in terms of technology
Speaker 3: and focus and obviously personalization in and around golf. What
Speaker 3: is okay, I'm a parent, I have you know, an
Speaker 3: eight Let's say I have an eight year old and
Speaker 3: a ten year old and they're starting to show interest
Speaker 3: in golf. What is the modern way about going about
Speaker 3: getting them golf clubs? Because the old way was you
Speaker 3: went and bought, like you said, longer clubs so they
Speaker 3: could play them themselves into them, they could use them
Speaker 3: for a few years. You obviously were making a one
Speaker 3: time purchase. How has that evolved, you know, not just
Speaker 3: in junior golf, but with Ping's involvement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that. I think the issue we're trying
Speaker 1: to solve there is that, you know, I think you
Speaker 1: and I we may have played Dad's cut down clubs.
Speaker 1: Of course they're heavy, they're too stiff, their lineals aren't right,
Speaker 1: and things of this nature. So we want to provide
Speaker 1: a solution there for exactly that age range. In our
Speaker 1: first four ray into this was kind of you know,
Speaker 1: the g A twelve driver, So well, why did you
Speaker 1: name it eight twelve? It's for roughly eight to twelve
Speaker 1: year olds, you know, is to get them in that product.
Speaker 1: The one big part of that, sane is we want
Speaker 1: to get them to the right length. We want to
Speaker 1: get them into the clubs to have the right weight
Speaker 1: and balance. That's like a really big deal the right
Speaker 1: head weight. You know, the clubs are this short. We
Speaker 1: don't necessarily care about building to a certain or designing
Speaker 1: to a certain swing weight. It's more about the head
Speaker 1: weight optimization. Right, you get that right weight and balance
Speaker 1: so they can swing it for their specific speed and
Speaker 1: strength levels. And then the other big piece is helping
Speaker 1: somebody with the right building, the right like mix of clubs.
Speaker 1: Like the younger you are, the shorter you hit it,
Speaker 1: you don't need fourteen clubs. And we're not even trying
Speaker 1: to recommend that with the prodigy, right, And that's I
Speaker 1: think that's very helpful to the parents. Like Mike, I
Speaker 1: have a six year old and a nine year old
Speaker 1: and my six and they both started with a set
Speaker 1: that was driver or five hybrid, nine iron sand wedge putter,
Speaker 1: you know. And even then maybe they don't need the
Speaker 1: sand wedge at the beginning, right, So you can start
Speaker 1: with like a you know, I don't know, a five
Speaker 1: piece set, or even even less than that. You can
Speaker 1: go driver, hybrid, iron hutter. You know. It kind of
Speaker 1: helped them as they evolved their skills, don't get maybe
Speaker 1: you don't give them that sandwich at the beginning, so
Speaker 1: they can learn how to manipulate the face and develop
Speaker 1: their skills. So that's a big part of what we
Speaker 1: thought through with the Prodigy, And we're not here to
Speaker 1: push on hey you need all these clubs for your
Speaker 1: kid who only hits hits their driver one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty yards.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So if a parent's coming to you guys and thinking
Speaker 3: about getting their kid involved, you know, in the Prodigy
Speaker 3: program and kind of getting them interested in getting their
Speaker 3: own set of golf clubs, but maybe they're nervous about pricing,
Speaker 3: or maybe they're nervous about the kid growing out of that.
Speaker 3: What have you guys done to maybe alleviate a bit
Speaker 3: of that stress.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a big investment. I mean, I know
Speaker 1: when I'm got my kids are playing, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's a mountain bike for them or they're into baseball.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's definitely a big investment. And so we
Speaker 1: can definitely empathize with like the parent in that regard,
Speaker 1: right because a lot of us here they're developing these programs,
Speaker 1: we are the parents. So yeah, we developed this program.
Speaker 1: It's called the Get Golf Growing Program, and it's really
Speaker 1: to solve that problem of hey, you got your ten
Speaker 1: year old eight year old golfer, and you the parent.
Speaker 1: The first thing in the head, Hey, man, this set's
Speaker 1: going to be expensive. I'm gonna buy them in my
Speaker 1: eight year old. I'm gonna buy them to last them
Speaker 1: through their eleven and then they're playing clubs that are
Speaker 1: too long there for two years. We're like, okay, let's
Speaker 1: solve this problem here. So the Get Golf Growing program
Speaker 1: is if you buy like just five pieces of the
Speaker 1: five piece set of the Prodigies, fit them to exactly
Speaker 1: their right length for that time, and then and then
Speaker 1: your kid after the Hey, this winter they go back
Speaker 1: to school, they sprouted up three or four inches or
Speaker 1: what have you. You send them back into us. We'll lengthen them,
Speaker 1: reweight them, regrip them, ship them right back to you.
Speaker 1: We usually get them back to you within a week.
Speaker 1: Now your golfer can have an optimally optimal fit set
Speaker 1: for that whole span of when they're playing that Prodigy product.
Speaker 1: And it's been an awesome program since we launched it.
Speaker 1: Tons of parents are taking advantage of it. We kind
Speaker 1: of launched it out there. Hey, I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: many parents are going to send their clothes back in,
Speaker 1: but it's a lot, and so it's definitely working, and
Speaker 1: it kind of takes the edge off. It solves two
Speaker 1: problems at once. Hey, the big stick sticker tag. It
Speaker 1: kind of takes the edge off that. And then your
Speaker 1: golfers playing more perfectly fit product for the span of
Speaker 1: when they're growing up and so they don't have to
Speaker 1: make those adjustments to their game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Marty, it almost sounds like what I know, I
Speaker 3: don't remember. Maybe it was an American Express program, but
Speaker 3: somebody did something with the NBA where if you bought
Speaker 3: a jersey from a player and they switch teams, you
Speaker 3: could send the jersey back in and they will replace
Speaker 3: it for almost no cost. And again you're thinking about
Speaker 3: how much movement we're seeing in professional sports now, that
Speaker 3: makes a lot of sense if you want to go
Speaker 3: out and buy a replica jersey and it's one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty or two hundred dollars, And this makes so
Speaker 3: much sense for a parent where when we think about
Speaker 3: things for our children, price comes up so often, cause
Speaker 3: again we're spending the money right, and we're putting them
Speaker 3: in something that maybe we don't know if they're going
Speaker 3: to last two years, three years, four years, or even
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks. And this allows you to take
Speaker 3: a bit of stress off of the parent and also
Speaker 3: it gets the kids interested because you have a set
Speaker 3: perfectly fit for you. This is what you should be
Speaker 3: playing in this moment, and if you grow three inches
Speaker 3: in the summer, good news. We can adjust your golf
Speaker 3: clubs to where they stay with you. And Marty, if
Speaker 3: if I'm right here, it's the same club, so you
Speaker 3: know you're looking down at the same club that you
Speaker 3: were looking at before.
Speaker 1: Exactly what I did. And it's a good example. I
Speaker 1: just did my nine year old. He started to hit
Speaker 1: the ball a little bit further, so he had that
Speaker 1: five club set and he started to establish a gap
Speaker 1: between his hybrid and his nine iron, so it's time
Speaker 1: to add the seven iron. So it's just easy. You
Speaker 1: don't need to go out and do the whole thing
Speaker 1: at once, right, and it's helped him with against shame
Speaker 1: with that skill development. And we put a lot of
Speaker 1: thought in that with our Prodigy set. Even when it
Speaker 1: came down to like the putter design, it was really cool.
Speaker 1: It's a putter we designed kind of with Louijus stays
Speaker 1: In at the time and actually Corey Bacon was the
Speaker 1: lead designer on this putter. We wanted to design and
Speaker 1: answer blade style putter that had like that focus to it,
Speaker 1: but still had some forgiveness. And so this putter is
Speaker 1: called the Voss putter. That's the town in Norway, so
Speaker 1: I had some hiss tied to our ping heritage there.
Speaker 1: And the cavity instead of an answer style is exactly
Speaker 1: ball with and that's the putter we chose to put
Speaker 1: in the Prodigy line because we wanted the kids growing
Speaker 1: up with a blade style putter slide are something not
Speaker 1: too big and that forced that focus to your eye,
Speaker 1: which was pretty important. So we even thought about like
Speaker 1: those level of details in terms of your skill development,
Speaker 1: you know, when we're in the when we're in the
Speaker 1: design phase of the prodgy product.
Speaker 3: So what's age? What's kind of the age focus? I
Speaker 3: know you mentioned eight to twelve, but what do you
Speaker 3: tell people that ask you? All right, my kids showing
Speaker 3: some interest, my kids showing some promise, When do I
Speaker 3: need to start this program for them?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think, you know, I think our height range
Speaker 1: is kind of the guide Okay, a like fifty two
Speaker 1: inches to sixty two inches, So anywhere in there. And
Speaker 1: obviously if you got a kid that's forty eight inches
Speaker 1: or forty nine to fifty, we can kind of hedge
Speaker 1: it a little bit on that end. And we have great,
Speaker 1: like really simple fitting information. And I think that the
Speaker 1: earlier on you are in starting your golf journey, the
Speaker 1: more you can kind of lean on just kind of
Speaker 1: how tall you are, how long your arms are. Just
Speaker 1: like our like men's mainline men's and women's adult color
Speaker 1: code chart, we actually had to establish we had to
Speaker 1: create our own color code chart. So when we developed
Speaker 1: the Prodigy product, we actually went out and we leverage
Speaker 1: all the Ping employees because, like the CDC, we went
Speaker 1: to go get data on like wingspan or how long
Speaker 1: your arms are, and there was no data out there.
Speaker 1: There was no like growth charts for that information. So
Speaker 1: we sent out this big survey to all of our
Speaker 1: accounts and had them go measure their kids, and we
Speaker 1: actually came up with the color code chart for juniors
Speaker 1: when we launched the Prodigy. But I think that's it.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of that eight to twelve range.
Speaker 1: But if you have a you know, six seven year old,
Speaker 1: that's a little on the bigger end, and it's close
Speaker 1: to that fifty two inch minimum threshold all the way
Speaker 1: up to that top end, which gets close to kind
Speaker 1: of five foot or sixty two inches is kind of
Speaker 1: the sweet spot, which is generally kind of eight to twelve,
Speaker 1: but really seven to thirteen.
Speaker 3: And how much time are you thinking if you're talking
Speaker 3: to a parent about, you know, going through this process,
Speaker 3: what's the time commitmant?
Speaker 2: You know, what do they need to do to get involved?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So I mean a you could go see your
Speaker 1: local ping fitting account and they have all the the
Speaker 1: charts and fitting information. They might even have a demo
Speaker 1: there of the Prodigy product for you you to try.
Speaker 1: And we have even have a couple different shaft flexes
Speaker 1: and again that's going to be driven by kind of
Speaker 1: your speed and your height range and strength levels. So
Speaker 1: we even have a couple different shaft flexes in there.
Speaker 1: Or you could go to our website, Shane. We have
Speaker 1: a really cool fitting charts called Junior Webfit, and you
Speaker 1: just punch in okay, you punch in the heighthier your
Speaker 1: kid you put in, You put in their wrist of floor,
Speaker 1: which is kind of that measurement how long their arms are,
Speaker 1: and even if you don't. You don't have to measure
Speaker 1: that if you you can kind of hey, set it
Speaker 1: for me and it'll pick kind of the average there
Speaker 1: and then you just put in approximately how far they
Speaker 1: hit their driver, right, and that's carry plus roll. And
Speaker 1: if they hit their driver one hundred twenty yards or less,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna recommend less pieces like a five
Speaker 1: piece set or six piece set in there. And if
Speaker 1: they start if they hit their driver like you know,
Speaker 1: two hundred and two hundred and twenty yards or further,
Speaker 1: that's when we start to fill out the whole bag.
Speaker 1: And may you that to that gap testing. We do
Speaker 1: a lot of testing with the juniors on gaping. And
Speaker 1: so it's that easy. You can go see your authorized
Speaker 1: ping retailer, maybe at your club or your local you know,
Speaker 1: retail store, or go right on our website and click
Speaker 1: on Junior Webfit and just use use that really easy
Speaker 1: calculator right there.
Speaker 3: And how do you tell people in terms of mixing,
Speaker 3: you know, interest in the game for young person because
Speaker 3: you know, there's so many outlets now, there's so many
Speaker 3: places you can go clinics obviously, there's camps out there,
Speaker 3: you know, ping junior league. What do you tell people
Speaker 3: in terms of that process. You know, once now they've
Speaker 3: got the golf clubs. Now they're very interested in potentially
Speaker 3: playing golf. What's that next step to tell parents?
Speaker 1: Man, I think the number one thing, Shane, I think
Speaker 1: you could probably speak to this yourself is like have fun,
Speaker 1: Like make the game fun, like you gotta gamify it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, I'm like bringing my kids on
Speaker 1: the golf course late in the evenings. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think a big thing my wife and I do with
Speaker 1: the our two kids is we play alternate shot. So
Speaker 1: we'll play nine holes alternate shot. This is really fun
Speaker 1: and we can pay play at the same pace of play,
Speaker 1: like is the regular you know kind of members tea times,
Speaker 1: which is pretty quick. Like if you're not keeping up,
Speaker 1: they're not happy about it. So number one thing is
Speaker 1: keep it fun. But there are tons of junior programs
Speaker 1: going on out there. I think you've named a few.
Speaker 1: PGA Junior League is super fun because that scramble style format.
Speaker 1: And I know they have really cool commercials. Obviously see
Speaker 1: Steph Curry and all these Right, my kids love basketball
Speaker 1: the most, so when they see Steph Curry on those commercials.
Speaker 1: They're like, okay, I'm getting in the junior league and
Speaker 1: it's that team atmosphere. Any play a scramble, so it
Speaker 1: takes like the pressure off of you know, it's like
Speaker 1: a good entry point whether a kid is more skill
Speaker 1: playing individual tournaments or not. Keep it fun. Tons of
Speaker 1: programs out there either either at your local course. I
Speaker 1: just think at least here in Arizona, junior golf has
Speaker 1: really been flourishing, and you see a lot of opportunities
Speaker 1: where through your local PGA Section tournaments, PGA Junior League,
Speaker 1: other initiatives. I would say the big thing is keep
Speaker 1: it fun and try to keep get your kids out
Speaker 1: there with other buddies and friends they can have contests with.
Speaker 3: And when does a junior transition to more of an
Speaker 3: adult set. I mean, at what point are you saying, Okay,
Speaker 3: you've gone through you know, our Prodigy program, You've gone
Speaker 3: through the Get Golf Growing program. Now we're getting to
Speaker 3: a full set of adult golf clubs. What do you
Speaker 3: feel like that age range is and maybe skill set is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I think the
Speaker 1: number one thing is kind of their height. If they're
Speaker 1: kind of getting close to that five foot level. That's
Speaker 1: kind of that transition point. So that's the first thing
Speaker 1: to look at, and then beyond that's kind of the
Speaker 1: speed factor. Like our Prodigy driver, for example, And we
Speaker 1: know this because we're using all the same engineering tools
Speaker 1: we're using to optimize our mainline product and our ladies product.
Speaker 1: We're throwing those engineering resources at the Prodigy, right, So
Speaker 1: it's got a lighter headweight, and then it has our
Speaker 1: driver has fifteen degrees of loft on it, so that
Speaker 1: may seem crazy, like why do you have a driver
Speaker 1: that much loft? Well, slower speeds, like you need more
Speaker 1: launch and more spin to optimize your distance. So if
Speaker 1: your junior players starting to pick up some speed and
Speaker 1: you just kind of know they're spinning their driver too much,
Speaker 1: or maybe you get them on a launch monitor, you
Speaker 1: can actually use our driver Optimal launch and spin chart
Speaker 1: and start taking a look at Hey, you know, my
Speaker 1: juniors get a little bigger, they get a little more speed. Hey,
Speaker 1: on this chart, their spin is a little too high.
Speaker 1: That's a good time to take a look in that
Speaker 1: transition point of getting to a mainline product. The fun
Speaker 1: part is now Shane with the G four thirty we
Speaker 1: have this build called the HL build in the G
Speaker 1: four thirty, which stands for high launch, and it's a
Speaker 1: lighter headweight build. And this is the perfect marriage because
Speaker 1: there is this kind of gap. Hey, I got a
Speaker 1: fourteen year old, you know, maybe they're not swinging fast
Speaker 1: enough for clubs, are a little too heavy in the
Speaker 1: main line, they just graduate on Prodigy. What do you do?
Speaker 1: We have this HL build which is lighter headweights in there,
Speaker 1: which is kind of this perfect marriage. So you can
Speaker 1: go to a driver that's maybe we're in forty four
Speaker 1: inches or forty four and a half, keep the headweight appropriately,
Speaker 1: optimize a little lighter weight, and help them make that transition,
Speaker 1: which is a great solution there. And then you can
Speaker 1: use con of our our mainline fitting tools like our
Speaker 1: regular color code chart and other fitting tools start to
Speaker 1: really work well once you make that transition.
Speaker 3: Marty, when did you guys start to see these types
Speaker 3: of holes? You know, I mean not just in junior golf,
Speaker 3: but maybe in women's clubs and you know, a HL driver.
Speaker 3: I mean, it feels like what ping has done so
Speaker 3: well is solutions for potential gaps, if you will, And
Speaker 3: we talk so much about gut gaping in your own
Speaker 3: golf club, in your own golf bag, but gut gaping
Speaker 3: and golf in general. Because all of what you're saying
Speaker 3: makes sense, but I don't feel like it's been around forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're getting more Shane, You're exactly right, We're getting
Speaker 1: more and more nuanced. Is taking these certain segments of
Speaker 1: the market, and a lot of them have been underserved,
Speaker 1: like I don't know. I mean, hey, lefties, we'll start
Speaker 1: with lefties. They were the original underserved. We've been them forever.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's just doing things like cutting we did.
Speaker 1: We did a test shame where we cut down. Let's
Speaker 1: take dad's cut down driver and test it VERSU the Prodigy, right,
Speaker 1: and we just absolutely crush it with the Prodiect. It
Speaker 1: shows the value of having a lighter head, more law,
Speaker 1: custom engineered shaft, all those things, right, And so that
Speaker 1: just really validated the Hey, there's a gap there and
Speaker 1: we need a custom engineer or solution there. Same thing
Speaker 1: with the Ladies product. That's another really good example where
Speaker 1: it requires its own custom uh optimization. Right. There's speed ranges,
Speaker 1: there's line goal ranges, there's headweight optimizations. It's very specific
Speaker 1: for those segments, and so yeah, we've been going down
Speaker 1: a lot of these little rabbit holes, and I think
Speaker 1: we've you know, I think today we're having fun talking
Speaker 1: about juniors and ladies this HL build and how we've
Speaker 1: kind of targeted those and designed solutions for them. Marty.
Speaker 3: Do you ever have like an entire family come out
Speaker 3: to get fit? You know, I mean, I mean dad's
Speaker 3: getting fit, moms getting fit, and the kids are getting fit.
Speaker 2: Have you seen that, you know, on the proven grounds
Speaker 2: over the years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it is kind of fun. It is fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, definitely we see a lot of dads and
Speaker 1: kids here. I mean, I don't know we'd have let's say,
Speaker 1: I mean a good example is one of our ambassadors,
Speaker 1: Kerry Cosby, like the PGA professional year, playing the Senior
Speaker 1: PGA Championship. Whenever he comes in, he's always with the
Speaker 1: sun Banks, right, So there's I look at the calendar
Speaker 1: and there's tons of those scenarios. We definitely see some
Speaker 1: some A lot of couples come in and quite often
Speaker 1: they'll be there'll be a family four come on in
Speaker 1: and they're all getting optimized and it's really fun to see, Okay,
Speaker 1: mom maybe getting fit for our glee product. Kids are
Speaker 1: getting into prodigies and dad's getting in you know, maybe
Speaker 1: set of blueprints or something if he's a player. So
Speaker 1: it's fun to be able to service that whole spectrum
Speaker 1: of the marketplace, right and playing golf as a family
Speaker 1: is It's what I remember from my childhood. I mean,
Speaker 1: people ask me how I got into golf. Well, I
Speaker 1: went to play every Saturday with my dad. It was
Speaker 1: the thing, like, I don't remember a Saturday we didn't
Speaker 1: go play nine or eighteen holes. So it's such an
Speaker 1: important part of golf and one of the one of
Speaker 1: the funnest things about golf. And it's fun for us
Speaker 1: to have products and fitting solutions, you know, for the
Speaker 1: whole family.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the solution part again going back to
Speaker 3: this is you know, when you tour the facility and
Speaker 3: you really get a feel for what you guys are
Speaker 3: trying to accomplish, it really does feel like it's it's
Speaker 3: checking boxes. And when you go through checking those right boxes,
Speaker 3: where you know the women's clubs are perfectly designed to
Speaker 3: fit those swing speeds and the junior golf clubs are
Speaker 3: perfectly designed. And then maybe, like you said, maybe somebody's
Speaker 3: not swinging it at one hundred and fifteen miles an hour
Speaker 3: with their driver, but you know they want to get into,
Speaker 3: you know, the newest gear and you've got high launch
Speaker 3: for them. I just find it so fascinating that, you know,
Speaker 3: it's almost like there's not one leaf that's not been uncovered,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, it really does feel like every
Speaker 3: single day the team is working to make sure that
Speaker 3: everybody's served, so everybody has their best chance of playing
Speaker 3: the best golf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're yes, absolutely, Shane. I think we I think
Speaker 1: you know we we right now have the most complete
Speaker 1: solution for all those little segments of the market, and
Speaker 1: there there's more to be done. There, there's more to
Speaker 1: be done. I mean, I think we've all seen, Hey,
Speaker 1: somebody else better with a heavy headway driver. But you
Speaker 1: go hit it and it feels like a toothpick and
Speaker 1: your ball speed goes down. But the other person hits it, uh,
Speaker 1: and it works really well for them. So we're still
Speaker 1: going down and segmenting the market with even more precision
Speaker 1: than we ever have. I think our G four to
Speaker 1: thirty driver is a really good example. The headway we
Speaker 1: have on the s FT, which is our straight fly
Speaker 1: technology driver built to counter folks who deliver the face
Speaker 1: open path and put a lot of curve on it
Speaker 1: and just want to straight. Hey, just give me the
Speaker 1: club that straight exactly. Like not everyone's going to go
Speaker 1: out and and put a lot of time into working
Speaker 1: their game. But that's totally okay, Like we can we
Speaker 1: can fit you for that. We're getting more targeted, more
Speaker 1: surgical on our solutions and and and today we talked
Speaker 1: about some really fun examples that.
Speaker 3: Marty, when did you first beat your dad? I mean
Speaker 3: you talk about going out and playing golf with your dad.
Speaker 3: How old do you think you were when you first
Speaker 3: maybe got him on the golf course?
Speaker 1: Man, that's a good question, Shane. I want to say.
Speaker 1: I want to say probably like in the probably eleven
Speaker 1: or twelve years old. You know, it's always playing nine.
Speaker 1: I mean I think I always remember like Bogie, like
Speaker 1: Bogie is par you know, like so in my head
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, when was I shooting forty five?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: And I think that first time was probably in that
Speaker 1: like eleven or twelve years old, like true legit, like
Speaker 1: shooting shooting breaking you know, Bogie par breaking that forty
Speaker 1: five level and then I remember probably shooting like a
Speaker 1: forty one or two and then Pop shot forty three
Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, took you down. We're going
Speaker 1: for ice cream. Oh.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was trying to think back of, you know,
Speaker 3: like being competitive with my dad and on the golf course,
Speaker 3: and I'm you know, I have young kids, and I
Speaker 3: can't you know, it's hard to fathom that one of
Speaker 3: these days Henry's going to beat me in golf, you know,
Speaker 3: but I mean it's inevitable that at one point, if
Speaker 3: he's interested in the game and he gets dialed in it,
Speaker 3: he's going to beat me in golf. And to think that,
Speaker 3: you know, I was reading something there was some dad
Speaker 3: that said every year he fell on there on his
Speaker 3: kid's birthday, he does a film where he rases his
Speaker 3: kid because he said, at some point, the kid's gonna
Speaker 3: beat him. But right now, I mean, the kid's six
Speaker 3: and he's got kid's got no chance. But every single
Speaker 3: year they do a race, and you know, when did
Speaker 3: when did I finally actually beat dad? You know, it's
Speaker 3: like Dad's actually stressing over a couple of mounths on
Speaker 3: a nine to take down his kid.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's it's wild to think.
Speaker 3: And I mean obviously with what the club's pings are
Speaker 3: put things putting together, that opportunity is going to come
Speaker 3: around a little easier.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. Oh man, you got me thinking, I'm glad
Speaker 1: I don't film that race with my nine year old.
Speaker 1: He runs track and field. He's like a sprinter and
Speaker 1: he he can already smoke me. So I'm glad I'm
Speaker 1: not doing that.
Speaker 2: Smarty, That's that's right.
Speaker 1: Just gonna stick stick to the golf match.
Speaker 3: So you know, if if somebody is going to think
Speaker 3: about getting their kid into the game and into fitting,
Speaker 3: and you're really going to give him a time like
Speaker 3: ale like this might take you an hour, two hours,
Speaker 3: five hours, a couple of days a week, what do
Speaker 3: you tell people in terms of getting them involved in programs,
Speaker 3: getting them involved in new golf club fitting, all of that.
Speaker 3: I mean, how much time is a parent thinking about
Speaker 3: week to week?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question, Shane. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: go back to keep it fun for the kids, man,
Speaker 1: Keep it fun. Keep it like, get them in a
Speaker 1: fun camp with some friends, with somebodies. The more time
Speaker 1: on the golf course the better. It's hard to make
Speaker 1: it fun just hitting balls on the range. Oky, you
Speaker 1: can do it. You can have fun things on the range,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. But the more time you can
Speaker 1: do that, get them on the course playing you know,
Speaker 1: have some different formats. Play some scrambles, play some alternate shots,
Speaker 1: play some stableford. You know, have some different games. Kids
Speaker 1: just love playing games. Keep it competitive. And then when
Speaker 1: it comes to fitting, you know, just don't think you
Speaker 1: need to have a bag full of ten or twelve
Speaker 1: clubs for your kid. Get them, get them four or
Speaker 1: five clubs, highly engineered but custom fit. Don't go with
Speaker 1: cut down your old clubs, and and and that would
Speaker 1: be a problem, that would be a challenge for you.
Speaker 1: And don't don't be tempted by buying them for how
Speaker 1: big they're going to be in two years. So get
Speaker 1: them into that right length, right now. And and we've
Speaker 1: made some really tool simple tools to make that super
Speaker 1: easy for you. Go around our website, get in there
Speaker 1: and punch in their height, how long their arms are,
Speaker 1: and you'll get all that information instantly, which is really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's such a good idea. I mean,
Speaker 3: get golf growing makes so much sense. And I love
Speaker 3: the idea behind it, and really, I mean it's it's
Speaker 3: not necessarily as much science. That is just logic, right,
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a logical way to go about it.
Speaker 3: As your kid grows, allow us to do the dirty work,
Speaker 3: allow us to you know, you know, extend the clubs
Speaker 3: and add new grips. What's cool about it is I
Speaker 3: love the idea of the new grips. I mean, you
Speaker 3: think about getting new clubs. You're not necessarily getting quote
Speaker 3: unquote new clubs, but I feel like as a young person,
Speaker 3: when those show up in a box and they're cleaned
Speaker 3: up and they're refinished and the grips are new, it's
Speaker 3: gonna almost feel like you're get new golf clubs every
Speaker 3: year as a young person. And as you and I've
Speaker 3: talked about getting new golf club is one of the
Speaker 3: greatest parts about being a being a golfer is getting
Speaker 3: the box.
Speaker 1: At home exactly. I mean, Shane, I remember thosere some
Speaker 1: of my best Christmases as a kid. Man I got
Speaker 1: a new driver, you would go out there. I remember
Speaker 1: that was another memory childhood memory for me is we'd
Speaker 1: always go play golf on Christmas Day. Christmas Day we
Speaker 1: would do the same thing. I love that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: this get golf growing program. I think you're exactly right.
Speaker 1: You get your club, you get fresh, you get new shafts, longer,
Speaker 1: fresh grips, nice and TACKI and uh and and now
Speaker 1: they're they're going to be more fit to you if
Speaker 1: you if they've gotten a little too short for you,
Speaker 1: having to bend over too much, read too much, you know,
Speaker 1: things of that nature. You know that the fitting is
Speaker 1: so important, and you know that way you don't have
Speaker 1: to make those make those adjustments. And the UH for
Speaker 1: ill fitted equipment such a big deal, Marty.
Speaker 3: I know people probably can't see you if they're listening,
Speaker 3: but you're in the putting lab. When you go to
Speaker 3: the putting lab, do you roll a putt every time?
Speaker 3: Or is it one of those things like are you
Speaker 3: a a little bit a bit stricter.
Speaker 1: Shane, I think you nailed it. I actually do.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you can.
Speaker 1: I usually roll these ten putts in here.
Speaker 3: While I'm in here, I'm looking behind you, and all
Speaker 3: I could think is I would be rolling putts immediately
Speaker 3: after finishing this. I mean, it's so awesome to get
Speaker 3: a chance to kind of be involved in that area
Speaker 3: and to get a chance to really see what it's
Speaker 3: all about. But yes, that's like when you go to
Speaker 3: the like PGA Tour superstore and you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I gotta roll. I mean I do.
Speaker 3: Really a couple of Putts always, I got a wall,
Speaker 3: a couple of five fitters and see how it goes.
Speaker 2: Marty always appreciate the time. Thank you so much. This
Speaker 2: is the Being Proving Grounds podcast.