Speaker 1: The guys from paying They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters.
Speaker 2: I just love that I can hit any shot. I
Speaker 2: kind of want we're gonna be able to tell some
Speaker 2: fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers
Speaker 2: play better golf. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Pinging
Speaker 2: Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Baker. This is either gonna
Speaker 2: be the best episode we've ever done or the worst
Speaker 2: episode we've ever done, and there's no middle ground. We
Speaker 2: are on the Pinging Tour truck with two of the
Speaker 2: men that run the show throughout the year, Adam and Jack. Jack.
Speaker 2: I want to start with you because I think people
Speaker 2: come to golf tournaments they see these trucks, you know,
Speaker 2: across the range, by the driving range wee get in
Speaker 2: week out. I don't think they totally understand the process
Speaker 2: of what goes on. So can you give us an
Speaker 2: idea of like weeks on the road is what does
Speaker 2: the week look like day in day out? How does
Speaker 2: the truck process work when you're kind of in charge
Speaker 2: of this whole thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think most weeks over the years they kind
Speaker 3: of run together a lot of times, but over the
Speaker 3: years you get to know kind of each place, each setup.
Speaker 3: You're very familiar as time goes on and his experience, right,
Speaker 3: so you get more comfortable and you kind of know
Speaker 3: what to expect. Sometimes you can prepare weeks ahead of time,
Speaker 3: but for us, we function. I kind of always describe
Speaker 3: it as like a NASCAR pit crew for a PGA
Speaker 3: tour player or whatever tour or college that we might
Speaker 3: be at with our truck.
Speaker 2: And are you showing up, Like are you driving in
Speaker 2: on Sunday of a tournament Sunday before and then you
Speaker 2: guys normally exit on Wednesday mornings. Is that kind of
Speaker 2: the plan.
Speaker 3: Yes, So typically we'll roll in on a Sunday. Every
Speaker 3: truck from every manufacturer has a similar setup like we do,
Speaker 3: and our jobs are to support ping staff players or
Speaker 3: any non staff player that might use our equipment whatever
Speaker 3: they need. Monday Tuesday Wednesday the practice round days, usually Sundays,
Speaker 3: we're setting up. If a player happens to be on
Speaker 3: site Sunday afternoon, which is rare. It usually happens more
Speaker 3: at major championships that players might need a little tweak
Speaker 3: here there on a Sunday, But typically we're setting up
Speaker 3: Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon, and then we'll tear down
Speaker 3: Wednesday afternoon before the tournament starts Thursday. Then hopefully we've
Speaker 3: done our job, whether that's regripping their clubs, checking off
Speaker 3: and lies, building fourteen brand new golf clubs, and getting
Speaker 3: them a staff bag and hats if their clubs got
Speaker 3: lost in transit, or if they just want to start
Speaker 3: all over. So we do anything and everything, and it's
Speaker 3: sometimes it's kind of unpredictable. You kind of never know
Speaker 3: what's going to happen once the door opens, or who
Speaker 3: might walk in the door. You might hear some clubs
Speaker 3: rattling outside. A few clubs got broken and transit UF
Speaker 3: had that happened a few times, and you kind of.
Speaker 4: Poke your head out the door. You're like, what the
Speaker 4: heck is going on?
Speaker 3: Then you see a caddie pulling about four or five
Speaker 3: six broken clubs out. Well, we got work to do
Speaker 3: some events. Let us set up early, which is great.
Speaker 3: In between we can kind of go home and then
Speaker 3: come back on a Sunday and get ready to go.
Speaker 3: But typically it's mostly a Sunday setup and then a
Speaker 3: Wednesday tear down, and then there's a couple of reasons
Speaker 3: that we leave Wednesdays. A lot of people ask us
Speaker 3: why were not what do you do? Why are the
Speaker 3: whole turn why we're not there.
Speaker 4: The whole time?
Speaker 3: Well, for example, like at bay Hill, we used to
Speaker 3: in the parking lot there, and these trucks there might
Speaker 3: be ten to fourteen of them on a given week.
Speaker 3: We take up a lot of space. Most trailers are
Speaker 3: forty two feet long, they're sixteen feet wide once you
Speaker 3: pop them all out, so they take up a lot
Speaker 3: of room. So they want us out of there because
Speaker 3: they can use that space that we take up for
Speaker 3: parking for the rest of the week for family or
Speaker 3: whoever else might be coming to watch the tournament.
Speaker 4: And then the.
Speaker 3: Best reason is we only have one trailer, so we
Speaker 3: have to get from wherever it may be to the
Speaker 3: next event in time to set up and be ready
Speaker 3: to go Monday morning. So some of the drives are shorter,
Speaker 3: some are longer. But those are the two main reasons
Speaker 3: why we leave Wednesdays.
Speaker 2: Adam, are you guys driving the truck? I mean you guys.
Speaker 2: Are you guys are the ones in charge of the equipment?
Speaker 2: I mean you guys, I know you guys are a
Speaker 2: couple more people involved in the truck on a weekend
Speaker 2: and week out, but you're driving the truck as well,
Speaker 2: so you've got to fit in an iron for Victor Hovlin, right,
Speaker 2: and you've also got to be able to kind of
Speaker 2: like man this thing down the ninety five.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we anyone who drivess has to have a Class
Speaker 1: A CDL.
Speaker 5: This is sixty five thousand pounds they do. Yeah about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's quite a challenge, let me tell you. But no,
Speaker 1: it's eventually, like anything, the more you do it, the
Speaker 1: more you get comfortable.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: We do say forty to fifty thousand miles on this
Speaker 1: a year, which actually isn't a lot for an over
Speaker 1: the road type truck.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is a full eighteen wheeler.
Speaker 1: We have to follow all the regulations for hours driving
Speaker 1: also working.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's it's a full on eighteen wheelers.
Speaker 1: So we do drive it, but then also have to
Speaker 1: build and like Jack was saying, you know, as we
Speaker 1: go and we do a week in and week out,
Speaker 1: a lot of times we go to the same venues
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's super challenging.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: We'll be say Detroit, we have to get them literally
Speaker 1: within a couple inches of each.
Speaker 5: Other, Like every one will be in a row.
Speaker 1: Within a few inches. That's the only way we can
Speaker 1: fit in that parking lot. Other Times it's single file.
Speaker 1: Other times it's an open field, and it's really easy
Speaker 1: to get in and out. So you have to really
Speaker 1: be able to do all those different places because most
Speaker 1: of these country clubs aren't built to hold twelve to
Speaker 1: thirteen eighteen wheelers. So that's part of the logistics of
Speaker 1: getting this week in week out.
Speaker 2: Are you guys both Like if you're driving from Vinue
Speaker 2: to venue, so you'll leave in Wednesday, obviously you got
Speaker 2: to get it to where if you need to get
Speaker 2: it too. Sometime, as you mentioned Jack, sometimes you're going
Speaker 2: Texas the Texas. Sometimes you might be going, you know,
Speaker 2: over a few states. Are you guys both in the truck.
Speaker 2: Are you guys both involved in that? Or do you
Speaker 2: guys take time I'm gonna I'm gonna drive after riv
Speaker 2: and you're gonna take it after Pebble. Is that kind
Speaker 2: of how it goes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we took turns there was we usually
Speaker 1: take turns. We'll kind of do a leap frog if
Speaker 1: you will. I think when the PJA was Okill, we
Speaker 1: had the Byron Nelson in Dallas, the PGA at o'kill,
Speaker 1: and the week after was in Fort Worth. So those
Speaker 1: golf courses are maybe thirty miles apart, and we drove
Speaker 1: whatever it was, three thousand or so miles.
Speaker 4: For three events.
Speaker 2: Yeah, is everybody good with their clubs at Rochester. I
Speaker 2: don't think we want to get it all the way.
Speaker 1: Up there, and so the nice thing is like I
Speaker 1: took it there work the event, and Jack took.
Speaker 5: It down to Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: I was able to get home. And that's typically how
Speaker 1: it works with our team. We do that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: There was one time though, that we tandem drove, which
Speaker 1: is when two people drive at the same time, and
Speaker 1: that was we had to do PGA pedals and he
Speaker 1: was wheel or yeah, right, yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was actually twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: It was the PGA, which was at Harding Park that
Speaker 3: year in August. COVID schedule kind of got adjusted right
Speaker 3: due to COVID. But I took it up to Harding
Speaker 3: Park from Phoenix and then I drove to Flagstaff after
Speaker 3: working Harding Park, picked up Adam and Flagstaff. Then we
Speaker 3: high tailed it together. To Greensboro to get it there
Speaker 3: in time for with the window. So yeah, ironically, we
Speaker 3: were actually the first truck there and we had to
Speaker 3: travel the farthest distance because we were the only one
Speaker 3: that went from Harding Park to Greensboro. So that's definitely
Speaker 3: one of the longest drives, so that one we had
Speaker 3: to do together together.
Speaker 2: That's do you guys like have seniority on who gets
Speaker 2: to pick the music or the podcast or do you
Speaker 2: guys kind of one of you naps in one of
Speaker 2: your drives.
Speaker 5: If it was up to me, I'd be napping the
Speaker 5: whole time.
Speaker 2: It's hard to nap and drive.
Speaker 1: But yes, yeah, true, No, usually it's the guy who's driving.
Speaker 5: Like if you're driving, you're on the radio.
Speaker 1: And you can do the pods. We talked a lot too,
Speaker 1: and we've known each other for a really long time,
Speaker 1: so you know, we get along well, I think, and
Speaker 1: sometimes we so yeah, it's usually the guy who's driving,
Speaker 1: But that doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 5: That's pretty rare, and it's because of the hours.
Speaker 1: Like I was telling you, we have federal hours that
Speaker 1: mandate how long we can drive when there's two of
Speaker 1: us in the car and in the truck. Now we
Speaker 1: can go much further because we can take turns.
Speaker 2: Jack, you were talking a little bit about scheduling and
Speaker 2: you mentioned there's just one Ping Tour truck, so you
Speaker 2: could be at the Solheim Cup. You might have to
Speaker 2: go to PJ Tour events. How do you lay the
Speaker 2: schedule out and if you're let's say you're not at
Speaker 2: a pg Tour event for a week because there's something
Speaker 2: else going on, what do those players do if the
Speaker 2: ping truck's not there?
Speaker 3: Typically, if the truck isn't most typically our trailer goes
Speaker 3: to most PGA Tour events and at least all the
Speaker 3: ones that we can feasibly get to. If there are
Speaker 3: the things that are come up in the schedule, it's
Speaker 3: kind of our job to figure out how to get
Speaker 3: it there between the two of us, and then we
Speaker 3: kind of manage, you know, who's going to work the
Speaker 3: event and what rep's going to be on site as well,
Speaker 3: because typically with this trailer, we have five people that
Speaker 3: travel with it every week. So I always describe, say
Speaker 3: Adam and my role we were like the pharmacists in
Speaker 3: the trailer. Then you have Kenton, Spencer Dylan, they're like
Speaker 3: the doctor so they go, they spend more time on
Speaker 3: the range or on the course with the players, and
Speaker 3: then they write a prescription whether it's an order for
Speaker 3: a new club, and we fill it out. That'd be
Speaker 3: a good analogy to use kind of how we do
Speaker 3: our roles. But we've all known each other for a
Speaker 3: really long time. We all started it paying around the
Speaker 3: same time and then worked our way through customer service,
Speaker 3: went to the fitting apartment, so we all have fitting knowledge,
Speaker 3: so we can wear many hats if we need to,
Speaker 3: which is nice. Some weeks not everybody's there. You ask
Speaker 3: specifically if there's a week where the truck's not there,
Speaker 3: say Kent or Spencer or Dylan has to go to
Speaker 3: an event on their own, then they take a club
Speaker 3: love of stuff. And then we're also very friendly with
Speaker 3: the other manufacturers out here as well, So even though
Speaker 3: people might consider us competing brands, and it does get
Speaker 3: competitive at times, we see each other every week, so
Speaker 3: we are in a sense cowork, so we show up
Speaker 3: at the events at the same time. Especially from the
Speaker 3: text standpoint, we play tetris parking these trailers every week,
Speaker 3: right getting them, you know, within inches of each other.
Speaker 3: So if we need to say, pack a club love
Speaker 3: of stuff. We know the truck's not going to be
Speaker 3: at a certain event, we can throw it on, go.
Speaker 2: To another truck and see if they'll take it for us.
Speaker 4: And then they might let us work off of their
Speaker 4: van for that week. Help our players.
Speaker 2: Adam, I'm sure a question you guys get a lot
Speaker 2: is what happens to a player's club after Wednesday? So
Speaker 2: let's say the truck leaves. And there have been plenty
Speaker 2: of instances over the years. I mean, you think about
Speaker 2: Tiger back of the day at the Masters. You know
Speaker 2: he hits that four and against the tree and the
Speaker 2: fore iron snaps. I believe that's the third round. I mean,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, he's gonna need that thing repaired.
Speaker 2: What a players do when something's tweaked within a tournament
Speaker 2: round or they just want something to look different and
Speaker 2: the truck has left Wednesday afternoon, Because it's not just
Speaker 2: the pink truck that leaves. All the trucks. Everything's gone
Speaker 2: on Wednesday. So what does a player do within a
Speaker 2: tournament to get something fixed or tweaked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of them have backups for some of
Speaker 1: those clubs that tend to break. You know a driver
Speaker 1: because of how hard they swimm, putters, sometimes wedges, sometimes
Speaker 1: out of anger.
Speaker 2: So they might travel with twenty clubs in the bag.
Speaker 5: You will have a.
Speaker 1: Backup of some of those, but occasionally that doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: and they sometimes we've had guys have to go to
Speaker 1: like if we'll have a club area where they'll do
Speaker 1: an adjustment, or if it's Thursday or Friday, we can
Speaker 1: actually build a club in Phoenix, have it overnighted and
Speaker 1: here and there on time, but if it's Saturday Sunday,
Speaker 1: there's really not a whole lot of options. We have
Speaker 1: had a few situations where we've had to actually pop
Speaker 1: the trailer out wherever we were and fix something for
Speaker 1: them so that they can do it if we were
Speaker 1: close by.
Speaker 2: I mean this is literally like pulling over on the
Speaker 2: side of the road in theory, pop the side out,
Speaker 2: regrip a club, ship it. However, you can ship it
Speaker 2: close to the shipping center. I mean, it's really kind
Speaker 2: of that adaptive if you will.
Speaker 1: Basically, yeah, if we're close by, it's possible. Like Jack said,
Speaker 1: sometimes the drives two days away, or like I just
Speaker 1: was telling you with PGA, you know, it could be
Speaker 1: in Ohio. By the time a club breaks, that's kind
Speaker 1: of impossible. But we've had a few scenarios where we've
Speaker 1: been close enough, and one where even Jack I think,
Speaker 1: drove back to the venue to get a club for
Speaker 1: the player because they were in contention and we definitely
Speaker 1: wanted them to have their club.
Speaker 2: So that does happen, yes, Jack, I want to transition
Speaker 2: to kind of some of the stuff you've built and
Speaker 2: some of the strange things you've seen over the years.
Speaker 2: What event do you see players coming in needing tweaks
Speaker 2: to their equipment the most? Because obviously this truck is
Speaker 2: not going to be an Open championship. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: not flying this thing across the pond. But in terms
Speaker 2: of kind of domesticated you know, US venue golf courses,
Speaker 2: is there one that stands out versus some of the
Speaker 2: other ones in terms of players coming in early in
Speaker 2: the week knowing I need new edges, I need you know,
Speaker 2: something grinded down differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think again, over the years, you kind
Speaker 3: of learn what those events are, so a lot of
Speaker 3: times we can prepare in advance for that. I would
Speaker 3: say the tournament where we get the most tweaks is
Speaker 3: probably the US Open, just because they do play it
Speaker 3: one of the events that's at a different venue every year,
Speaker 3: and the US Open is always one of the toughest
Speaker 3: tests in golf, or at least considered that way. So
Speaker 3: there's a lot of times where the course might be
Speaker 3: you're trying to figure it out, but trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what might help them on a certain place. For example,
Speaker 3: like Wingfoot, you have had a lot of high loft
Speaker 3: of fairy woods request that week. Tory Pine is the
Speaker 3: same thing that year, so we actually built some nine
Speaker 3: woods that got requested. Oakmont was another one that comes
Speaker 3: to memory. I had a couple of players want to
Speaker 3: try not a high loft affair with that week as
Speaker 3: well British Open. We do have a European Tour vent
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 3: There are weeks where you can anticipate certain things. So
Speaker 3: sometimes we'll build ahead of time and then other times
Speaker 3: the golf course dictates a lot, so once the players
Speaker 3: actually see it, then maybe on Tuesday Wednesday they'll come
Speaker 3: and ask like, hey, actually I think I might need
Speaker 3: this for this week, whether that's a higher loft of
Speaker 3: fairywood or a stronger driving iron type club, a little
Speaker 3: extra distance, so try to build a longer link driver
Speaker 3: with lower lofts something like that. So we do a
Speaker 3: lot of that kind of thing. But i'd say US
Speaker 3: Open or PGA just because those are your high profile
Speaker 3: events that change venues quite.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the golf course gens. I mean you go to
Speaker 2: riv you kind of know what your prayer prayer for
Speaker 2: risk era to Augusta. You know, you said something interesting
Speaker 2: about the like the lofted woods and preparing or getting
Speaker 2: yourself set up. How many clubs travel in the truck
Speaker 2: because let's say twenty players come in and want nine woods.
Speaker 2: I mean you have to have twenty nine wood heads.
Speaker 2: So what are we talking in terms of volume of
Speaker 2: golf clubs within the truck?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I could probably give a ballpark number.
Speaker 1: Maybe I know our inventory, it's probably about our online inventory.
Speaker 5: We have nineteen hundred close to two.
Speaker 2: Thousand, almost two thousand clubs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, club that's just heads and that's okay, irons, and
Speaker 1: that actually does include.
Speaker 5: Putters so drivers through loboage. So we have nineteen hundred.
Speaker 2: Two thousand clubs. I mean, I mean travel around in
Speaker 2: this truck, and I mean, you know, we've talked about
Speaker 2: it before. You know, you've got to have lefty clubs
Speaker 2: for you know, certain players, right, come in, not just
Speaker 2: ping players, by the way, I think that's something maybe
Speaker 2: people don't quite understand, is you'll build clubs for any
Speaker 2: pro that comes in and asks us help, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: this isn't just ping staffers that come in and get built,
Speaker 2: that's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we we've seen our drivers, who especially drive specifically,
Speaker 1: do really really well with the people that.
Speaker 5: Are non staff players.
Speaker 1: So for example, most weeks this year, it feels like
Speaker 1: we would have twelve to fourteen staff players in the field,
Speaker 1: but we would have thirty drivers in play, So that
Speaker 1: means more people are playing our driver that are non
Speaker 1: staff And we'll do if you're in the field, we're
Speaker 1: going to work with you. And there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a you know, an ecosystem, if you will, out
Speaker 1: here where if a staff player from another manufacturer is
Speaker 1: coming to us, like there's a little it can get
Speaker 1: a little you know, hectic there because there's some personalities,
Speaker 1: but also there's some contracts involved, and so you have
Speaker 1: to be careful when that happens. But with those non staffers,
Speaker 1: like if you're here, we're here to help you, and
Speaker 1: we want you to get in our clubs.
Speaker 2: All right, Adam, let's get in the weeds. Which player
Speaker 2: kind of currently on tour and you can go across
Speaker 2: both tours if you want. Is the let's say, easiest
Speaker 2: to build clubs for. They don't necessarily care too hardy
Speaker 2: on like the specs and things like that. And let's say,
Speaker 2: who is the most particular about their golf clubs being built? Wow?
Speaker 5: Right now, easiest?
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard with not to say Saw I
Speaker 1: mean Sahit Thigala. He's just so easy going out there
Speaker 1: when we work with him. Obviously just an incredible player.
Speaker 5: He's in a great place with his game.
Speaker 1: And when when you see that, those guys are very
Speaker 1: very easy to work with. And nice thing is about
Speaker 1: when you're fitting or watching these guys play guys and girls,
Speaker 1: you'll see you make these small changes, and those changes
Speaker 1: you can see right away, Like if you guys like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm hitting a little bit too low, we had a
Speaker 1: little half to reel off. Bang, it starts hitting their
Speaker 1: window And that just makes it your life so much
Speaker 1: easier because how consistent they are as far as the
Speaker 1: most particular, I don't know, Jack, you might have to
Speaker 1: jump in on this one.
Speaker 5: Well, I think about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, somebody that's i mean really you know that
Speaker 2: really knows the specs.
Speaker 5: Like well a team Bubba Watson is that way.
Speaker 1: So with his lob wedge and his driver, he's most particular, okay,
Speaker 1: and because he has his all the raps he has
Speaker 1: under under his club. So it's it's fifteen thirteen driver, right,
Speaker 1: fifteen thirteen under every other club except loboys is eleven
Speaker 1: and thirteen. What that means is, yeah, fifteen under under
Speaker 1: his bottom hand, fifteen extra wraps of tape under his
Speaker 1: bottom hand, fifteen thirteen under the top.
Speaker 2: Now, most tour players are doing a rap or two.
Speaker 5: One maybe plus one, maybe plus two.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure I'd be surprised if there's somebody
Speaker 2: else on tour that does four raps. Yeah, under a grip.
Speaker 1: Feno does four and three, but he has big hands
Speaker 1: and all that. Fifteen, but fifteen and thirteen on a
Speaker 1: midsized grip, and he wants it a certain way so
Speaker 1: that the rib actually goes through his hand in a
Speaker 1: certain position. And a lot of people will tell you, like,
Speaker 1: there's no chance that he knows that that if that
Speaker 1: that's wrong, or they're like, when you do a driver him,
Speaker 1: you have to you have to mark down when you're
Speaker 1: doing fifteen raps, so I literally have to tally it because.
Speaker 5: You'll do eight raps. So come and ask you a question.
Speaker 5: You're like, oh, man, where am I?
Speaker 2: I don't want to start again?
Speaker 1: No, And so if you miss a rap, and he'll
Speaker 1: tell you every single time. And because we have calipers,
Speaker 1: like I get a little stubborn, and when a player
Speaker 1: says something, you know, like they'll say this is wrong,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I know I built that right. And
Speaker 1: with Bubba though, if you go in there you get
Speaker 1: the calibers, he's right every time. Like you cannot pull
Speaker 1: a fast one on him. His feel is unmatched to
Speaker 1: anybody that we've ever worked with that I've ever worked with.
Speaker 2: What does he do with the lob wedge? You said,
Speaker 2: particularly with the driver of the lobotch? What's the loboardge do.
Speaker 5: The same with its? Same for the grip.
Speaker 1: He likes it in a certain orientation and he also
Speaker 1: just likes it. We a lot of times we have
Speaker 1: to build it, built three or four of them. Then
Speaker 1: he'll find one that he really, really likes and hits
Speaker 1: were Jack, you work with a lot more than I have,
Speaker 1: but those are the two that he's very, very very
Speaker 1: particular about.
Speaker 3: So let's say Bubba is one of the players that
Speaker 3: kind of likes to watch you and what you're doing,
Speaker 3: can make sure kind of looks over your shoulder. So
Speaker 3: the first time, you know, it's very nerve wracking as well.
Speaker 3: So oh yeah, then you kind of get used to it.
Speaker 3: And there's some players that like to know what's going
Speaker 3: on and other players kind of just you know, you
Speaker 3: earn that trust over time as well, hopefully that they
Speaker 3: can kind of drop their bag off. We'll check it
Speaker 3: off on lies, we'll break up your clubs and send
Speaker 3: you on your way.
Speaker 2: You know, Ping has this very big family environment feel
Speaker 2: to it, and I think about you guys a lot
Speaker 2: and the whole team that travels a week to week
Speaker 2: because you think about a player and they talk a
Speaker 2: lot about their team, and you know, you know, I
Speaker 2: think if you're at home you're watching, you're like, okay, caddy, manager, coach,
Speaker 2: whatever the case may be. But on a week to
Speaker 2: week basis, I mean, you guys are as involved in
Speaker 2: terms of what's going on in the bag and the
Speaker 2: dependence they have to have on you guys as well.
Speaker 2: Is that does those relationships grow? I mean if the
Speaker 2: players understand who you guys are and how important y'all
Speaker 2: are to what they're doing out on the golf course.
Speaker 2: I mean, is that something that you find very cool
Speaker 2: within the job?
Speaker 3: Oh, without a doubt, And that's one of the I
Speaker 3: think the coolest, most special parts about the job is
Speaker 3: that you know, obviously we're not the ones out there
Speaker 3: hitting the golf shots they are, but you do feel
Speaker 3: like you have a small part in somebody's success. And
Speaker 3: when they're in contention on a Sunday, you may have
Speaker 3: built say the driver that they're using that week, or
Speaker 3: the new way edge or new iron or new high
Speaker 3: lofted would and they hit a great shot with it.
Speaker 3: You know, that's a very rewarding feeling. And we are
Speaker 3: very much a family oriented company, and I think one
Speaker 3: thing is that one of the things that sets separates
Speaker 3: Peing from everybody else, no matter who you are, like,
Speaker 3: genuinely to the core, whether that's an engineer to out
Speaker 3: here on tour, to our sales team, we genuinely want
Speaker 3: to help you play better golf. And that speaks through
Speaker 3: our product and through our people, and we love to
Speaker 3: see you have success and enjoy golf.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so from us, from our.
Speaker 3: Standpoint, see somebody win hoist a trophy on Sunday. That's
Speaker 3: as good as it can get.
Speaker 2: And I'm assuming players will come in at them and say, yo,
Speaker 2: I love this nine wood or man, you know, either
Speaker 2: the tweak of the driver's been great, Like the feedback
Speaker 2: from them has got to be rewarding as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Like like he said, seeing you know, Victor
Speaker 1: Hoven go out and hoist a trophy back to back weeks,
Speaker 1: FedEx Cup all that, Like it's just nothing better than
Speaker 1: the feeling. And obviously yeah they're hitting the shots, but
Speaker 1: we do, you know, get to build them. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the clubs that we built went on to win the
Speaker 1: FedEx Cup. Like and we're grinding over it, like we're
Speaker 1: not the type that leaves on Wednesday.
Speaker 4: We don't have.
Speaker 1: Golf on Like we are golf nuts, all of them.
Speaker 1: We have a group text with everyone in our on
Speaker 1: our team, with our boss Christian and I remember specifically
Speaker 1: one of our I remember what tournament was, but there
Speaker 1: was a guy in contention and I was driving to
Speaker 1: the venue, and you can't text and drive, especially in
Speaker 1: this thing, which I don't do. Just what everyone knows.
Speaker 2: Everybody at home, do not text and drive. Don't text
Speaker 2: him when he's driving.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 5: Take the pledge, don't text and drive.
Speaker 1: I don't do that. So I got to arrest stop,
Speaker 1: went to go to the bathroom. I look at my phone.
Speaker 1: I have two hundred text messages and I'm like, what
Speaker 1: is going on here? And I saw it was one
Speaker 1: of our guys in contention. That just shows like we
Speaker 1: very much care, Like we are watching all of our
Speaker 1: guys and girls and we are just grinding over their
Speaker 1: success because that's why we do what we do. We
Speaker 1: obviously we get paid to do it, but we love
Speaker 1: doing it. It is so great getting to watch all
Speaker 1: the success we have out there.
Speaker 2: It's just such a so rewarding Adam, I know you are.
Speaker 2: You're a great player. I mean, you can go out
Speaker 2: there and win golf tournaments, something we've talked a lot
Speaker 2: about before the podcast. Going on a recent play at Papago,
Speaker 2: No big deal, big winners broke seventy. You had a
Speaker 2: moment at the PGA. I believe it was either this
Speaker 2: year or come to here. You don't always get to
Speaker 2: hit golf shots at a golf tournament, but there was
Speaker 2: an opportunity for you to hit a drive at the
Speaker 2: PGA Championship. How did that go? Did that go? Well?
Speaker 5: Look, I was I worked all day, I mean just
Speaker 5: backbreaking work. So we're gonna start with excuse yeah, that's right,
Speaker 5: that's right. That's how it works. We were building clubs.
Speaker 1: Is o kill a lot of a lot of demand
Speaker 1: for our product because it's so good, obviously.
Speaker 5: And so I'm tired, I'm sore. It's late in the day.
Speaker 1: I go out to see player Seamus is out there,
Speaker 1: great friend of the of the tour trailer Seamus and
Speaker 1: as caddie Simon. But we I had a driver that
Speaker 1: we were testing with another player similar to my spec
Speaker 1: and Seamus is like, you should tee one up here
Speaker 1: right now, and.
Speaker 5: Like, ah, I can't do I can't do that.
Speaker 1: And one of the volunteers is behind me. He goes
Speaker 1: and he's a PGA guy.
Speaker 5: I'll give you fifty bucks to to hit a t shot.
Speaker 5: You know what I would do?
Speaker 6: Fifty bucks. It's a free fifty bucks. I mean, come
Speaker 6: on one on a range at a major fine big deal.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: So I peg it and uh took a swing and
Speaker 1: it went all of about twenty yards right into the
Speaker 1: tall grass and probably rolled out to about twenty three yards.
Speaker 2: So didn't get the like the nod for maybe the
Speaker 2: marker that week, not the PGA. They were not to
Speaker 2: bite you in there.
Speaker 5: They were not.
Speaker 1: And that volunteer you know who you are, did not
Speaker 1: pay me the fifty dollars. So if you're out there,
Speaker 1: I'm still waiting for it.
Speaker 2: We'll throw his Venmo in the notes. Yeah, show and
Speaker 2: please so people can get a can get a feel
Speaker 2: for that. What's the what's the strangest club you've built
Speaker 2: over your years of deal with tour players? Is there
Speaker 2: a club that comes to mind that you mentioned nine Woods?
Speaker 2: And I feel like maybe two years ago to hear
Speaker 2: nine Wood on the podcast might have been a bit shocking.
Speaker 2: I feel like they're more in play now you're seeing one.
Speaker 2: I just got a nine Wood bill built me one,
Speaker 2: loving it. I'm loving the lofted Woods by the way.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry into that right now. But is there a
Speaker 2: club that stands out that was weird, strange, unique, different
Speaker 2: than what you typically build for tour players?
Speaker 3: Um, it should be an easy question, but there's been
Speaker 3: several over the years.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of one that's really stuck out.
Speaker 3: I kind of always go back to my first year
Speaker 3: on the van when you were that the US Open
Speaker 3: at Chambers Bay.
Speaker 4: So it's two fifteen, Yeah.
Speaker 3: And we had a player come in on Monday morning
Speaker 3: and decided that this is Monday of the US Open.
Speaker 3: They wanted fourteen new golf clubs an inch shorter than
Speaker 3: what they currently played. Okay, so that's a little off
Speaker 3: the wall. I kind of not what you would typically expect,
Speaker 3: especially in a major championship. And ended up playing very
Speaker 3: very well that week. But that was kind of when
Speaker 3: we were a whole it's a whole new bag, and
Speaker 3: it's a whole, completely different setup than what he had.
Speaker 2: How many iterations of that did you have to go
Speaker 2: through un till he was comfortable playing those? I mean,
Speaker 2: was that build it? Give it to him he went
Speaker 2: out there and was happy or was that he was
Speaker 2: good to go?
Speaker 3: It was one of those things that he had an
Speaker 3: idea in his mind. It was done the research, He
Speaker 3: researched it himself. He's like committed before he even showed
Speaker 3: up and this is what I want to do. And
Speaker 3: it literally driver through plutter an inch shorter than what
Speaker 3: he currently was playing and went out and played great.
Speaker 2: Crazy. I mean, Adam, do you have one? Do you
Speaker 2: have one that comes to mind in terms of a
Speaker 2: weird club you've kind of takered with or weird questions
Speaker 2: from a player.
Speaker 1: That was similar Louis's nine wood I think we built
Speaker 1: for him was like thirty nine inches maybe, like I
Speaker 1: called it, this little baby nine wood. The other one,
Speaker 1: it's not for a pink player, but it was for Hideki.
Speaker 1: It was a swing trainer.
Speaker 5: This guy came in.
Speaker 1: He's got a guy who does all his clubs, and
Speaker 1: he had like a steel shaft with a grip on it,
Speaker 1: and we and he was their trailer wasn't here, so
Speaker 1: we needed help building this swing trainer. It was like
Speaker 1: a ball, like a key chain ball kind of thing
Speaker 1: you put on your keys, attached to a large like
Speaker 1: screw and we had to basically we had to epoxy
Speaker 1: it into the tip of the shaft and let it cure.
Speaker 1: And he was doing some drill with this ball and
Speaker 1: this steel shaft, and I was like, I mean it's Hideki.
Speaker 5: I mean he Master champion.
Speaker 2: One of the Sure, let's do it.
Speaker 5: How am I? Who am I to say?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Is that a right? Is that a priority thing? Though?
Speaker 2: I mean if somebody comes in that's not a ping
Speaker 2: staffer and they ask for something off the wall, like
Speaker 2: can you get a can you do a trainer? Golf club? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean is that sure? Go down the priority list
Speaker 2: in terms of what you need to build or do
Speaker 2: you kind of just like take the request and run
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it depends on how we're doing that day,
Speaker 1: you know, if we have a big cue.
Speaker 5: But yeah, in general, we'll we'll do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, like I said, we're here to help them play,
Speaker 1: and if they need a swing trainer or some sort
Speaker 1: of device. We put putter grips on seven irons for players,
Speaker 1: not not small ones, you know, big like those big
Speaker 1: flat cats we've had, put them on there.
Speaker 5: We'll do it. Yeah, whatever they need.
Speaker 2: Jack, if the entire crew that runs the tour truck
Speaker 2: played a seventy two hole golf tournament, who's who's running
Speaker 2: out victorious? Oh, who's the who's the betting favorite? Let's
Speaker 2: say that?
Speaker 5: Oh boy, tread here.
Speaker 4: I think we're all pretty competitive bunch some more.
Speaker 2: You can say, you if you want to okay with it.
Speaker 3: Some more hourly than others. I would say, but uh.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I think you've talked about his win twelve.
Speaker 2: That's true, and Adams the most, the most vocal about it.
Speaker 3: I think, honestly, it would be you put us all
Speaker 3: on a tee, we had to play seventy two holes,
Speaker 3: it would be very close at the end.
Speaker 2: You guys ever do it?
Speaker 1: No, we we played like nine after work on occasion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Jack's being very modest. And I've said this a
Speaker 1: million times. Jack played Division one golf. If we were
Speaker 1: all playing, because like I've been playing a lot, that's
Speaker 1: the only reason.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm right decent, were aware.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, But Jack played Division one golf. He
Speaker 1: Jack is the most naturally talented golfer of all of us.
Speaker 1: And I think everyone on the trailer will will say that.
Speaker 1: I remember when we, like he said, we've known each
Speaker 1: other for twelve years when we worked in fitting, we
Speaker 1: had little money games on Saturdays we'd go out and play,
Speaker 1: and I remember the first time I played with Jack
Speaker 1: literally shooting the most casual sixty six I've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and it was just like it could have been sixty
Speaker 1: two easy, and I was just like, this guy can play.
Speaker 2: So Jack would be probably the paper favorite. That's what
Speaker 2: you're saying.
Speaker 1: If we were all playing like let's say too much
Speaker 1: an hour, all gonna play in Jack.
Speaker 5: He had a new baby.
Speaker 1: He's got it, you know, not even to life in
Speaker 1: a way, not a lot of play as much. I
Speaker 1: just have two cats, So very easy for me to play.
Speaker 2: Uh not on the truck.
Speaker 5: That's right now on the truck.
Speaker 1: And so if you put on the calendar, my money's
Speaker 1: on Jack.
Speaker 4: Does that feel good?
Speaker 5: Jack?
Speaker 4: It's very nice to me to say.
Speaker 3: But yeah, those sixty six is were a long long
Speaker 3: time ago.
Speaker 4: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know, dude, you I mean, do you guys
Speaker 2: play much on the road? I mean we've talked kind
Speaker 2: of about the system and the process and in the
Speaker 2: in the time range you have, you also got to
Speaker 2: go home at some point, see the family and all that.
Speaker 2: Do you get to play much golf on the road
Speaker 2: doing this?
Speaker 3: Uh in the summer months? Yeah, there's there's definitely tournaments.
Speaker 3: You kind of have spots where some courses are very
Speaker 3: friendly and they'll let you come out after work play
Speaker 3: nine holes. Obviously when we go kind of in the
Speaker 3: northern part of the country, it stays light later, so
Speaker 3: we can sneak out play maybe sneak in eighteen after work,
Speaker 3: depending what's going on. There's a spot where a lot
Speaker 3: of the trucks would go in Pennsylvania and is a
Speaker 3: very fun golf course talk about a kind of a
Speaker 3: fun experiences in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, But we haven't been up there,
Speaker 3: I don't think in a while. But usually if the
Speaker 3: events were in the northeast, there was a good chance
Speaker 3: in the Hazelton area you would see about fourteen trucks parked, yeah,
Speaker 3: and tour trailers parked in the parking lot of the
Speaker 3: spring Hill suits.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And Haileton, Pennsylvania a.
Speaker 3: Golf course like NASCAR, yeah, oh yeah, and then yeah,
Speaker 3: we'd have a big match, you know with all the
Speaker 3: manufacturer texts amongst ourselves and the head pro Valley Country
Speaker 3: Club was always very very gracious to us. So there's
Speaker 3: a few spots around like that around the country. But
Speaker 3: to be honest, uh, it's not a ton no. But
Speaker 3: occasionally one of the questions we always get asked to
Speaker 3: is you get to play the courses.
Speaker 4: That you work at.
Speaker 2: People always ask ask that question.
Speaker 4: I wish is the answer.
Speaker 3: We wish, we wish, but we get to see a
Speaker 3: lot of awfully beautiful places.
Speaker 2: So yeah, adam uh as we kind of wind down,
Speaker 2: you've got to drive this thing. This is not small,
Speaker 2: it's not easy to drive. I'm assuming you guys feel
Speaker 2: comfortable at this point driving it around. Do you get
Speaker 2: recognized on the road? Do people honk, wave, do weird
Speaker 2: stuff like that? I mean it says being pretty loudly
Speaker 2: along the side, as most of them do. And what's
Speaker 2: maybe your scariest moment with the truck? Have you had
Speaker 2: anything that's been if he's scary, whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: Yes, it happens. I mean when you're on the road
Speaker 1: as much as you have, you see some ugly accidents.
Speaker 1: You see Amazon trucks turned over with packages everywhere.
Speaker 5: And I wonder what any of my packages that? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 5: so you see that, I've seen it.
Speaker 1: I had a couple in going down from Donner Pass
Speaker 1: down from the Reno area down into Sacramento. Actually two
Speaker 1: truck accidents. I didn't see them, but the aftermath of
Speaker 1: them within about a five mile stretch and both of
Speaker 1: those times, I was on the highway for at least
Speaker 1: another hour. The second one happened minutes before we got there,
Speaker 1: and they closed the whole road, and I just had
Speaker 1: to basically set the brakes, roll away windows down, and
Speaker 1: just watch golf because I wasn't going anywhere for a
Speaker 1: few hours. And so thankfully, when I got past it,
Speaker 1: the driver was okay in that situation. But you see
Speaker 1: that more often than not. And I think the thing
Speaker 1: that people that shocked me the most is how little
Speaker 1: cars respect the size of this trailer. When you're going
Speaker 1: down the road, you get cut off a lot, you
Speaker 1: get pulled out in front of the lot. And so
Speaker 1: I say, if you see any semi, or especially our semi, just.
Speaker 2: Give us a little room, slightly more room.
Speaker 5: We are professionals.
Speaker 1: We can we can maneuver it, we can stop it.
Speaker 1: But you'd be surprised that some of the things you
Speaker 1: see out on the road.
Speaker 5: It's shocking.
Speaker 3: And do you get noticed, do you get that? Do
Speaker 3: you get waves? Do you get your waves? Do you
Speaker 3: get people kind of sticking their driver out the windows?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Way, that happened a few times.
Speaker 3: Usually if we're passing a golf course, I always try
Speaker 3: to make it a habit.
Speaker 4: Blow air.
Speaker 3: Yeah, usually when nobody's swinging that Instagram guy with exactly
Speaker 3: waving or yelling at the pink truck, So.
Speaker 5: I do I wait right for the swing.
Speaker 2: You're looking at that like a ping. No, give this
Speaker 2: ale loud one. As well as this has been great,
Speaker 2: I did one. I had one more question. I wanted
Speaker 2: to ask time, how long does it take you to
Speaker 2: regrip a club build a club? Like, are we talking
Speaker 2: you could regrip a club in a minute or less.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously you want it to be efficient, you
Speaker 2: want do a good job, But I mean you guys
Speaker 2: are pros, Like, what's the time it takes you to
Speaker 2: to clean up a golf club and put a new
Speaker 2: grip on it?
Speaker 3: I think I would start the answer to that question
Speaker 3: by saying, there's a lot of really smart people in
Speaker 3: Phoenix that make our job very, very easy. So to
Speaker 3: build a complete set of golf clubs, for example, if
Speaker 3: we had to do that, we had nothing else going on,
Speaker 3: the two of us could probably knock out Driver through
Speaker 3: plutter if we had to in forty five minutes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thirty forty.
Speaker 2: Full set of club, forty five minutes. That shaft, that's yeah,
Speaker 2: that's head, that's grip everything.
Speaker 1: We were challenged to get a set of irons out
Speaker 1: in less.
Speaker 5: Than thirty and we got it done on like twenty five,
Speaker 5: the two of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's because, like you said, we have some
Speaker 1: machinery here that helps us really speed those builds up.
Speaker 1: And that that's been really and our process is very
Speaker 1: much around quality but also getting.
Speaker 5: Things out quickly.
Speaker 2: Have we done that? That feels like a video we
Speaker 2: should shoot like like kind of like a like we
Speaker 2: need to see how fast we can grip one. Let's
Speaker 2: see who can build a club the fastest. Let's see
Speaker 2: how how quick you can get one out to the range.
Speaker 2: It's like, I feel like this could be kind of
Speaker 2: like the Olympics for the truck. And I mean to
Speaker 2: get Olympics be tough man, yeah, really good shape. I
Speaker 2: mean he'd be out there pretty quick.
Speaker 3: He'd be the sprinter from the truck to the range.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Or or we challenge like the other manufacturers.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: You're like, all right, we're starting here with the grip.
Speaker 2: Then you got to do the club. Then you got
Speaker 2: to get in the back. Then you got to get
Speaker 2: to the range and see you win.
Speaker 5: Keo would run the anchor leg, that's for sure.
Speaker 6: I'm not running that. We all know that you're a
Speaker 6: truck guy exactly. You know, you're you're you're giving us chemistry,
Speaker 6: getting people excited.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 2: Awesome fellas. Great chatting with you obviously. I mean, I
Speaker 2: feel like the truck is such a part of golf
Speaker 2: and such a part of pro golf specifically. But nice
Speaker 2: to get a little bit of insight because I'm not
Speaker 2: sure he will totally understand it. So thank you guys
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 4: Thanks thanks for having us on.
Speaker 2: Thank you. This is the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast
Speaker 1: M HM.