ACCRA Golf and the PGA Show – January in Florida!
My better half and I spent last week in Florida. We are hoping to make this an annual trip, which would be wonderful since we can hopefully coordinate it with future ACCRA Golf outings and with the annual PGA Merchandise Show. In getting to participate in these two events, I think I learned quite a few things that can help me provide better service and results for my golf customers.
ACCRA Golf Outing. I believe this is the 6th annual outing that this company has been hosting. About 100 excellent clubfitters spent a day of eating, golfing, and learning about ACCRA golf products. The two products of most interest to me are the ACCRA wood shaft line and the KBS Tour steel shafts. The wood shafts are designed so that if you fit a player in a specific shaft in his driver, you can use a slightly higher weight shaft with similar flex characteristics for the his fairway woods. I have not used many of these shafts in the past but plan to make them one of my top line shafts for future fittings.
The KBS Tour iron shafts are already in my test shaft group – but now there will be more options with these shafts. In the past the KBS Tour 90 (approx. 90 gram weights) were in taper tip only, but now the Tour 90 shafts will come in parallel tip versions – meaning it will be possible to control the flex of these by tip trimming them.
A wonderful added benefit of attending this event was getting to see Jamie Sadlowski – two time World Long Drive Champion – hit some balls. Like 220 yard 7 irons, and drives over 300 yards with a 30 inch long (yep!) driver, and absolutely nuking his 47 inch gamer driver. It was an awesome show of bombing the ball!
2010 PGA Merchandise Show. This was my first opportunity to spend time at one of these, and it was well worth the effort. I believe there were something like 60 aisles of companies showing clothing, golf equipment – you name it related to golf. For me it was a chance to visit some equipment companies and learn some things to help my business. Some of the things of most value to me were…..
1. I visited the Fujikura golf shaft booth. A big win for me was to learn that I can purchase these shafts – top quality – through M.L. Wilson Company, an AGCP sponsor. I now have access to the full line of Fujikura shafts, and I will consider recommending them – along with Aldila, ACCRA, and SK Fiber shafts – in future driver and fairway wood fittings.
2. There were a LOT of booths where putters and putting improvement aids were featured. Two of the best are the Rife putters and the Contour putters. Both are great custom putter options for players.
3. I visited the Nippon steel shaft booth. Though I have not used these in the past, they have some very light 75 and 85 gram steel shafts that can be good alternatives for players desiring to continue to play steel shafts but want lighter weights.
4. In the grip world, Winn, Lamkin, and Golf Pride showed some excellent new products. Pure Grips and Global Tour Golf – which market Star Grips – are additional options for excellent rubber composite grips.
5. Hireko Golf makes a great driver fitting product that I plan to start using when it is available (April). They have a test driver head and shaft insert system that allows you to vary driver face angle – something that is an important variable in driver fitting.
6. Finally, I visited the Zelocity launch monitor booth and purchased the most recent upgrade to my Zelocity Pure Launch software.
All in all I visited about 50 different golf equipment booths during my day at the Show. It was in the end a tiring but productive day that should help me provide better service to my fitting clients!!
Tony
