Seasons End

Posted by scratch on 13-1-2010 8:44 pm - 0 comments

Hello again, Scratch golfers!

The Nationwide Tour has played the final three events of the regular season since the last blog and I’ve gone coast to coast and coast to coast in those three weeks. (That would be California to Florida and Florida to Cleveland.) It is little wonder that I’m so enamored with my couch at this very moment!

The home stretch started with the newest event on the Nationwide Tour schedule, the Soboba Classic in San Jacinto, California. This new event boasted a $1 million purse, almost guaranteeing the winner a place on the PGA Tour for 2010.

I left the house mid-afternoon on Saturday. For some reason flights were way, way cheaper on Saturday than they were on either Sunday or Monday. And indeed the airport was a virtual ghost-town when I got there. Maybe that had something to do with it. The flights ended up being tolerable and without baggage, not too hard to handle, either. I got in late on Saturday night, was the last customer at the rental car counter and found my way to my exceptionally nice Days Inn in San Diego.

Not needing to be on-site until Monday, I spent my time at the San Diego Zoo on Sunday during the day and wandered down to Dog Beach in the Ocean Beach area in the early evening. I’ve never been one to just sit around. This country has lots to offer if you look for it and I’m all for looking for it. The zoo was, of course, great and Dog Beach is a wonderful place full of joyous dogs free to run around an play. Just the kind of place I’m going to enjoy.

Early Monday, I headed two hours inland to the course. The event itself was a very course-centric one. With this being a new event, the majority of the players’ time was being spent on the course rather than on the range. Really, players were only spending time at the range if they had issues that needed to be addressed or simply to warm up. I only ended up building a couple of clubs that week and spent the rest of the time double-checking specs on the clubs that had been built, doing inventory and making sure that the players that are already playing our stuff were happy and had all they needed. Pretty much, they did. Some weeks are busy, some weeks aren’t. California was not a busy week.

The week after California was spent in Chattanooga, which is now home to the Scratch Tour and Custom Department. This was a big, long, busy week. Along with the normal at-course duties of working an event, we also did a total of 10 full fittings with players. Some of the fittings were with guys we already have playing our clubs, some were with players we look forward to working with in 2010, including three players who will have PGA Tour cards next season.

It is always encouraging when we put players through fittings. To get the whole picture of what exactly it is that we do and what we do so well, you really have to go through the entire fitting process. Telling a player that what he has MAY fit him and that we likely have something BETTER will sometimes make a player interested to see what we have. And sometimes it generates no reaction at all. But players have a chance to come in for a win-win proposition. If they find that they already have what works for them, then there is no need for them to change unless they want to play a comparable product that we offer. That is completely their choice. But if they go through a fitting and find that what they have is okay, but we offer something that allows them to hit another shot or another group of shots, they can then get that club so that they can become an even better player. Ultimately, we’re here to help players. We want guys to play their best. We think we offer more of the equipment to help them than any other company (because we do), but if our products aren’t going to really make a player that much better, then that’s fine. We’ll identify that fact and the player can go on about his/her business knowing they have just what they need.

All the fittings went well and it was really good to work with these players. A couple of guys were a bit off on what they really needed to be playing, but most were close. A couple actually had basically exactly what they needed, though we’re going to get a shot at them as they have to go to new wedges for the 2010 conforming groove rule anyway. It was a good week and while I can only speak for myself, I’m pretty sure both Paul and I slept very well and very hard each night.

The final regular season event of the 2009 Nationwide Tour was held last week in Miami. It is a pressure-packed crunch time of a week for a lot of players. Not so much for reps, I have to admit. I had a couple of guys to build and work on stuff for, but nothing real pressing. As it was the last event of the season, I didn’t have to build up stock for the next week, so I just got organized and ready to pull everything off the trailer to bring back to the shop. With the temperatures in the low to mid 90s, most guys were staying in the shade or in the clubhouse. There really wasn’t much going on at all. It wasn’t a week guys wanted to be standing on the range beating balls, either. Too hot, too humid. I spent my time as usual working the range and talking to all the guys I know so well out there. I know it will be a bit weird not having a new venue to go to each week, but it doesn’t mean I won’t be on the road.

Next week will begin another new adventure. I’ll be spending every other week in Chattanooga building clubs. Club building is something I have wanted to learn to do for a long time. Until this year, I had always trusted myself to do re-gripping. That’s it. I added loft and lie adjustment this year on the trailer and I can do some re-shafting already (had to, we got some bad epoxy and one of my heads flew off this summer). But I haven’t done anything like this on a consistent basis, so I’m looking forward to learning all the processes necessary to build for a club company and it is a skill that I’ll be able to use going forward. Plus, it’ll give me a chance to get out of what will no doubt be some miserable Cleveland weather this winter!

The next event I’ll be working will be the finals of the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in West Palm Beach, Florida in December. I mentioned that Miami was pressure-packed. Q-School is the ultimate in pressure. I’m glad I’ll be on this side of the ball when it comes to Q-School. I wish all those guys the best and I’m glad I’m not with them!

Until next time, play well, stay warm and work on that short game!