WEBVTT - Episode 11: Golf Ball Fitting 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:01.240 The guys from paying. 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:03.880 They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.000 I just love that I can hit any shot I 0:00:06.080 --> 0:00:06.600 kind of want. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:08.520 We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:10.640 what goes on here to help golfers play better golf. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.560 Welcome back to the Pining Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon. 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:20.080 That is Marty Jertsen. Marty is escaping the Arizona summer heat, 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.800 staying in Arizona, but not at the proving grounds right now? 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.079 Is can we call this like the remote proving grounds 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.160 when you when you get get away from Phoenix. 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:31.440 Yeah, I mean not joking. If me and a few 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.000 co workers were playing a little research around at seven 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.640 five hundred feet this afternoon and we're gonna be testing 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:43.000 the impact of altitude and it's windy outside, on on 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.600 on on ball flight, see what happens. 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.120 Do you when you play golf? Can you check away 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.880 from it? Like I mean, you know, you're you're talking about, 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.400 you know, thinking about altitude, or it's a windy day, 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:56.760 or you have a shot in the rough. Are you 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.840 able to kind of separate that type of stuff from 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.760 your brain always thinking and churning out ideas around what 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.520 could come from this shot or that shot. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:08.640 Yeah, it's a good question, shit, because as you know, 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:10.880 and I think all the all the listeners out there 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:13.840 are getting some insight into you know, I can be 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:18.640 pretty analytical about my decision making and preparedness. But the 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.000 framework that I like to have, which is the answer 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.039 to your question, is very much. You know, I was 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.839 a big fan of p and Len and Vision fifty 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:31.120 four in their concept and they're amazing ping ambassadors for 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.959 us now and have really helped us bring in some 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.679 different thinking when it comes to our club fitting process. 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:40.800 They have this concept called the think box in the playbox, 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.600 and it's part of your preshot routine. And so I 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.640 do all my analytical work, my math, my calculations, my flyers, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.840 my wind green reading in what I call the what 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:52.520 they would refer to and what I kind of think 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.880 of as the think box, and then in my routine, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.160 I have a method of breathing based and all this 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.480 visualization based where I flip that switch and I go 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.559 to what they called the playbox. And so I feel 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.040 like it's literally I feel like I'm flipping a light switch, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:10.560 like I'm going from analytical mode to athlete mode. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:11.880 I feel like we need to have them on the 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:16.000 pod soon because I'm fascinated by what they do and 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:19.040 I kick myself a lot for not maybe taking more 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.440 advantage of them being out in Arizona when I live there, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.600 because what you're talking about that stepping over the line 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.280 and getting into the golf shot, and it's something I 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.519 struggle with, Marty. I mean, I have times playing tournament 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.120 golf or competitive golf where I'm getting into my shot 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.840 still kind of thinking about how I either want to 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.600 play the shot or is this the right shot? When 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.280 you're over the ball or when you're in the what 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.000 is it the think box or the playbox, it's like 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:45.800 you that's all done, Like we're done with that part. 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.160 Now it's time to execute the golf shot. 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:49.600 Yeah you're going to reaction mode. 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.480 Yeah, we got to have them on because they have 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.480 some great ways to frame and think about it. Regardless 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.000 of how much experience you have as a tournament golfer, right, 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.320 everyone's going to get a little inside out of their methodologies, 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.760 their research, which are time tested. I mean you just 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.120 look at the players they've worked with and how good 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.840 they play. That's the ultimate judge of a coach in 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.480 my opinion, you know, do they coach players and do 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:14.160 they play good? And they got the ultimate record? They're 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:15.480 them and butch, I guess. 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.200 Yeah, does that Marry? Are you? Are you benefitting from 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.080 what we're telling you? Then it's a success and this 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:24.040 partnership works. Uh. Interesting topic today because when you think 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.640 about Ping. Now, if you're an old school Ping you know, fan, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.200 or someone that's been involved with the brand for decades, 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:33.679 you probably remember the Ping golf balls. We've discussed it 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:37.600 a couple of times on the podcast. Not in manufacturing anymore, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:39.680 the Ping golf balls not a thing. We're going to 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.120 talk about golf balls today, but more specifically ball fitting. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.360 And again, very interesting to talk about that about Ping 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.880 podcasts because when you think about golf balls, you're going 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.800 to think about other golf brands out there. How much 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:56.280 time do you guys spend on the golf ball, even 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.520 with Ping not manufacturing golf balls. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.840 Yeah, no, it is a great question, Shane, And a 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:02.920 lot of what we do goes back to our founder 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.480 Carson Soolheim. He had this famous quote that the golf 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:10.160 ball is the tuning fork for club design. Okay, right, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.080 and man, that statement was very profound and ahead of 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:18.480 its time, because as the golf ball has evolved, if 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.479 we're not in the business of making balls right and 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.400 selling balls, if we aren't paying attention to what they're doing, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.520 we're flying blind into what is optimal in our driver design, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.800 what is optimal in our iron design. So we've always 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.040 had to test balls. Obviously, back in the days, we 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.200 used to make balls and do R and D on them, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:41.479 but we've always tested them, and the main motivation is 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.640 to stay in touch with what is the golf ball 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.960 kind of on average doing so that we could optimize 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.680 our clubs. Now, what's been very interesting is over the 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.720 last like ten years or so, we noticed that golf 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:01.520 balls started to have very diverse and unique performance characteristics. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.520 Okay, so is this like brand a brand? I mean, 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.839 if you're thinking about a Titleist versus a Taylor Made, 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.160 or is it even within brands, like a prov one 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.240 X versus a prov one Exactly. 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.360 Yeah, So you got a you know, I think that's 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.320 a good example. You got the pro v one X, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.560 which now they kind of reverse the X and the 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.479 V one and the V one there. But now the 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.400 pro v one X is the highest flying then you 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.200 got the V one and the AVX that are low flying. 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.719 Then you got the left dash in the middle right. 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:30.640 So uh, the question for the everyday golfer is, you know, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.000 what is the right ball for them? And what are 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:33.680 these things do? 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:34.520 Uh? 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:38.839 And for us on the equipment side, and I started 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.919 taking a look at this scenario seeing how much golf 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.520 balls varied in performance. And then again Shane under that 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.040 on that that kind of motivation that we want to 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.839 pass tools that are available for the tour player to 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.280 the everyday golfer. That's kind of like our motivation. We 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.280 saw our tour players when we were fitting and this 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.719 kind of started for me. That aha moment was when 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.360 we were working with Tony fe Now on the G 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:09.200 four hundred Max driver and he loved this driver. Everything 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.919 was perfect, but it was spinning a couple hundred RPMs 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.120 too much and his ball speed. That's a big deal 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:18.240 because for sure we got our optimal launching spin chart. 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.240 He's a couple hundred. He's like two hundred and fifty 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.760 three hundred RPMs too high. He sees it kind of 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:26.320 having that little rise in the flight that he doesn't 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.880 like if it gets wind he's gonna make him nervous, right. 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.359 And Marty, real quick, when you're talking to somebody like 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.280 Tony fen now and you're talking two hundred RPMs different, 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:37.440 what is that equate to in terms of maybe distance 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.960 for him, even outside of it spinning or the look 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.960 of it. What's that distance loss for somebody like Tony 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.520 with that minimal variation. 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:47.640 If there's no wind, it could only be like five 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.080 yards on the driver. Oka, But I think it's really 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.560 when you for him, when you get that puff a wind, right, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.039 you get that breeze, you get that cross wind, you 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.360 want the flight to be stable, and it could affect 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.360 not only your distance, but also then your dispersion. Right, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.000 Let's say you got that little rise in your flight 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.640 that crossed when then it starts to bleed offline a 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.680 little bit in that pain we've all kind of seen 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.280 and felt in our ball flight. So what Tony did, 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:14.960 working with our tour reps was he didn't. He was like, okay, 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:17.040 let's not change the driver. And one of our tour 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.480 reps went in and got this new ball. You know, 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.960 it goes lower at might work, and he pulled out 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.960 the pro V one left dot ball. He hit that 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.600 thing and actually we looked this was the most interesting 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.680 part Shaine. He hit it and he was like, WHOA, 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.640 that's amazing. And it flew lower, it took the rise 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:37.600 out of the fly. He's like, this thing's perfect. Then 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.320 he worked it around the greens. It spun a lot 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.760 around the greens, which he liked, so he wanted that combination. 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.960 But on the track man, the spin rate of that 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.520 ball was almost identical to what he'd been playing. I 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:51.200 think he might have been playing the Ax at the time, 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.320 and so we're like, why is that, Like the spin 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.320 is the same, but they're flying different. And then we 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.160 started diving into some other test data that we did 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:04.920 on our ping man robot, and we found that balls 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:10.040 could have very similar initial spin but fly aero dynamically 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.520 very different. And there was actually another ball in the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.280 market that was coming out, and this is kind of 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.040 when tour players are all popping the fore side down 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:19.960 yep and measuring everything, as we've seen on TV. As 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.880 we've seen on tour, they're measuring every shot. And another 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.080 ball came out that was super high spin, but they 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:28.239 go play it on the course and it fly really 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.720 really low, and that really confused the tour players. They 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.240 start to ask us about it, and we go, holy moly, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.720 the aerodynamics is a really big deal. It's not just 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.080 the initial spin. So I think as golfers we all say, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.600 and as fitters we all say, oh, this ball spins 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.360 a lot, This ball spins a little spin, drives height. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.360 That's kind of okay to say in slang. But that's 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.840 only half the equation. There's the initial what's happening. Then 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.160 there's the down range aero dynamics, and that is a 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.280 really big deal. So this whole Tony fen Now thing, 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.040 you know, we we were kind of perplexed, like. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:04.720 What should we do? What? What? 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.320 What ball should we design our clubs for? And we 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:10.840 kind of turned that question on its head and said, hey, 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.120 let's instead figure out how to deliver club fitting like 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:20.040 Tony got with club ball, fitting synergistically to the everyday golfer. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.160 And that's that was kind of the you know, the 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.440 genesiss of where we got this idea to to to 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.840 turn our ball testing that we do into a product 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.920 and being able to fit club and ball together synergistically. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:35.839 Marty, I'm starting to get the sense that you like 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.960 solutions in golf I'm starting to kind of feel like 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.280 that's one of your favorite things. I almost feel like 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.800 when a problem pops up like something like this with Tony, 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.480 you're going, oh, yeah, no, I'm in on this project. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:51.320 Oh yeah, So is this is this Ballnamic? Is this 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.040 where ball Namic started at Ping? 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:55.079 Yeah? 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.400 Yeah, I'm We've We've always done a lot of testing 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.480 on balls. We even built this, you know, you've seen 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.040 it there at the proving grounds. We have ping Man. 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.640 Then we have another machine. We call it sling Man. Yes, yes, 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.680 and we built that machine to sling golf balls out 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.960 at any combination of ball speed, launch, and spin. We 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.079 can send out knuckleballs but no spin at two hundred 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:17.760 and fifty miles an hour if we wanted to. We 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.960 don't do that, but that allowed us in My colleague, 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:25.560 doctor Paul Wood, who is literally a solar physicist. He's 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.520 the VP of Engineering at Ping, who went to the 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.320 University of Saint Andrews and as a solar physicist. His 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.480 first job when we hired him from Saint Andrews was 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.520 to develop a ball model which is hey be able 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:43.800 to predict the flight using you know, lift and drag coefficients. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.040 And they done a bunch of research on bounce and roll, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.360 and the physics of that is quite tough. So that 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.640 was his kind of first project, and we've continued to 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.959 evolve and make that better and better and leverage our 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:56.840 test data that we've done on golf balls. 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.600 You mentioned ping Man, I just want to tell people, 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:01.520 and hopeful we have video we can lay over this, 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.080 but there's literally like a sprit seen mechanism now that 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.800 can sprits the golf ball with water if you guys want, 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:12.559 obviously the ball to react like that. To see those 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:18.240 processes through the technology, to see how much available variability 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.040 there is in terms of just simply testing a golf 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.000 ball or a swing or wind. What time you guys 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.520 go out there and test balls, I mean normally it's 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.320 in the middle of the night, which is just so wild. 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:31.240 I think it's like two or three in the morning, 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.360 because obviously that's the least amount of a variable in 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.800 terms of wind or temperature or whatever. It is so 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.480 wild to see. Can you dive a little deeper in 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.360 how balnamic works in terms of a player like myself? Right, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:46.840 I played the Provy one X. I've played it basically 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.280 since the Provy one X became a golf ball I mean, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.320 I remember I was in I was in high school. 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.800 I would play and you'll probably appreciate this. I either 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.520 played the professional from titleist or I would dabble occasionally 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.040 in the Royal MAXFI. Do you remember that same Royal 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.800 Same No way, that golf ball is so cool. We 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.120 found them at Sam's once and talked our and talked 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.360 our coaching to buy at them. But I was always 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:11.959 like more of a titleist golf ball guy. And when 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.240 the prov one popped up and then obviously moved into 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.320 the X, I've been an ex guy. So I come 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.400 to you, Marty, and I say, this is the golf 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.520 ball I typically play. How does this golf ball work 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:24.960 for the pink clubs that I'm being fit for? Or 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:26.000 is it the other way around? 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:26.680 Yeah? 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.480 I think the way we look at golf ball is 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.480 we we want to do it synergistically with your club fitting. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.480 So if you've already had your clubs kind of dialed, 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.720 you can go into Balnamic and the process flow for 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:43.079 Balnamic A. It has this underlying database of our ball testing, 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.440 which we kind of touched on. This is where we 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:47.240 test in the middle of the night. We use a 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.760 radar that can measure lift and drag. We do things 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.960 like sprits them with water because balls can have very 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.000 big differences in being more prone to flyers, so if 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.640 that's important for you, we can take that into consideration. 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:05.760 We test them on short wedges, full wedges, putting feel. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.160 You know, balls can fly high on the driver and 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.360 low on the irons and vice versa, so we take 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.079 all that into consideration. So that's kind of the underlying 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.440 database or engine that drives Balnamic, and then the process 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.880 when you go through Balnamic, which is at ballfitting dot com, 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.400 we created a kind of an interview in a fitting 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.320 flow that we literally modeled after the way tour players 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:35.199 think about golf ball. So it's an educational experience if 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.280 nothing else. Go through it and you'll be educated on 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.200 things you as a golfer should probably be thinking about 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.319 in your golf ball performance. And you can weigh in 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:46.640 on the results and say, ah, that's really not that 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.160 important to me. This is kind of overkill for me. 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:53.120 That's totally fine, but that's kind of the process flow. 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.640 So Shane, when you get started through Balnamic, you can 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.120 tell it which golf ball you're currently using if you want, 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.720 or a lot of folks out there are like whatever 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:05.520 my wife got me for Father's Day, Christmas, right, whatever 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:07.960 whatever I find on the course. So you don't have 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:09.840 to put that in, but if you do, you'll get 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.880 comparisons on your best football to your current ball. And 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:15.600 then what we do is we have you go in 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.080 and you talk about your driver, what you want or 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.720 need on your driver, and it's really cool. You can 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.760 either put in your launch monitor numbers, but you don't 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.200 have to. So if you just got a fitting or 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.440 if we're using it live in a fitting environment, we 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.280 put in your ball speed, launch and spin. And here's 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.840 where that Tony going back to that Tony Feno example 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:38.280 comes in when we put his launch condition numbers in 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:40.480 there and he was spinning his driver at twenty eight 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.640 hundred rpm, and we could put that into the app. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.200 And we have a button that says, well, figure out 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:49.840 for me if I should be playing a ball that 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.400 flies higher lower, and you click that and it's like 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.440 you should be playing a ball that flies lower, and 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.840 that's what he would get recommended. Right, So it's reverse 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.280 engineered what the tour player can already do, right, And 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.000 being able to do those things. So you kind of 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.880 go through the driver. Is performance in the wind important 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.920 to you or not? Do you need to hit it 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.480 kind of high? Medium, low? And then you tell the 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.720 same thing with your irons. And so this is where 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.000 it gets really cool to marry club fitting and ball 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.120 fitting together. So it kind of talked about on the driver. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.520 Those are a few good examples, like let's say you 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.640 really like the MAX driver like Tony did, or the 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.880 opposite scenario where you really like the LST driver, right, 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:32.640 like what I'm playing, right, you really like the LST driver, 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.800 but maybe the spins a little low. Actually, right, you 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.160 can pick a ball that actually spins a little bit more, Shane, 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.480 I know you like to hit that little cut, like 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:43.640 you want to see that ball move a little bit 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.240 off the tee. You can say, you know, I want 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.160 to see a little bit of that with a little 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.600 bit more height, and you'll get a ball recommendation specifically 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.920 for you. So we kind of have the driver side. 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:57.640 Then you progress to irons. What do you need in 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.440 the irons, And again you can either put in your 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.040 launch num or just kind of describe how you hit them, 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.280 say hey, I hit them this far launch it kind 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.000 of high spin, it kind of low. Now that's really 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:10.640 important in the modern day because irons have such big 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.600 differences to how much they spin. You know, both us 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.240 and you know the rest of the market. There's low 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.080 spinning irons, there's high spinning irons. This gets really cool 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.720 on irons when you can marry ball together because we 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:24.960 have this iron landing angle chart when we talk about 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.680 iron fitting. Hey, I really like the I five twenty 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.400 five irons. Everything about them. I like them. 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.320 I'm hitting them far, but I'm not quite landing. 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.680 Him steep enough. Maybe you don't even change the irons, 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.560 you can switch. Golf Ball is your final little lever 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.240 to kind of tune in your overall performance. 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:47.040 It feels like the kind of balnamic golf ball portion 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.560 of this is like the dessert to an amazing dinner, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.400 right where perfect you know you've got, you know you're 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.520 you're fitting if you will is probably the apps. And 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.280 then you start to get your clubs and you're set 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.680 built for you, and that's the entree. And in the 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.640 back end of it, you say, Okay, what's the final 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.679 tweak to make sure all of this stuff plays together? 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.680 Because again, like for you Marty, you go to your 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.360 boss or you start to look up, you know, funding 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.600 for ball Namic and some of these you know, some 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.120 of these tools you're working on, and somebody might say 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:17.800 to you, we don't even sell ball as a ping 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.639 and you're going, yeah, but this is helpful for our 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:24.480 equipment because it makes the average golfer's entire experience better 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.199 because now we're making that dessert, that final portion of 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.040 the dinner fit and kind of it's almost like going 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.320 to the French laundry, right, like the yeah thing is 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.600 going to march together, so you know that what you're 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:39.920 tasting after this is meant to taste like this versus 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.560 what you just had that was maybe a little bit 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.600 more salty, or maybe it was it was not as sweet. 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:45.320 Oh Man, Shane. 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.800 That's the perfect analogy, and that's how our fitters at 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.280 the proving grounds do it. So when they do their 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:54.160 club fitting for a player, they're aware of the golf 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.040 ball changes, but they're not necessarily recommending it live in 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.640 real time, right right, we do that at the end. 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.560 It is like the dessert, and in fact, we go 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.439 into that cool locker room where you change and shoes, relaxing, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.240 getting in from the heat a little bit, using the 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:11.880 massage gun if you need to, and on the big screen, well, well, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.600 the fit our fitters at the proving grounds, our master 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:16.919 fitters will have ball namic and walk you through it 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.119 while you're cooling down. Absolutely, like the dessert of the fitting. 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.320 Just amazing. You know, It's been interesting to kind of 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.200 watch the golf ball landscape change over the last few 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.920 years because I feel like there were three or four 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.240 brands that were always the major golf ball brands, and 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.280 there's a lot more brands popping up even over the 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:37.240 last year or two. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:37.840 Yeah. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.440 Are you guys always introducing the new balls and even 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.320 kind of the random companies that make golf balls into 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.880 what you guys are doing, so you're aware of everything 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:47.479 on the market. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:48.200 Yeah. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.879 Absolutely, We have a criteria. It's all documented when you 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:52.639 go to ball fitting. I't com a witch balls. We 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.360 test okay, so they're the premium kind of eurethane balls 0:18:56.440 --> 0:18:59.080 over twenty dollars and that's a lot. We have to 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.480 do a lot of testing to make sure the database 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.760 is up to date. We update the database at least 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:06.920 twice a year, but in practice we do it about 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.840 four times a year. The tricky part, Shane is getting 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.480 a zero wind weather conditions that actually is quite challenging 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.840 for us. It's the hardest part of doing our ball testing. 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.000 So yeah, we are, we are. I think one of 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.240 the funnest things about balnamic and a lot of people 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.199