After some disappointing golf in Florida, it was off to the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. The Show, as it is called, is the largest golf-related exhibition that I know of in the world. It takes up the entire Orange County Convention Center, with anything and everything that could be related to golf and some things that are not.

There was not much buzz this going into The Show as there has been in the past other than a few new drivers were debuting and Titleist’s revamped ProV1 golf balls.

The Show starts out with an outdoor demo day at Orange County National Golf course. Every major manufacturer was there except for Taylor Made, which has one of the hottest drivers on the market now with the R9. The entire course’s practice facility was being used, and if you have ever been to OC, then you know how large it is.

All the manufacturers large and small had their equipment there to demo. We walked around and looked at all the major companies and spent a little more time talking to our good friends at Bridgestone. They had their ball-fitting challenge equipment there and were slammed with people getting fitted for the right golf ball. They don’t have any new clubs coming out this year, but some of their staff players are using some prototype drivers from Japan.

If you have not been through this ball fitting, it is well worth the time to see if you are playing the right ball. As a matter of fact, we will be trained by Bridgestone to do this on our equipment we have here at Brickyard Crossing. Check our Web site in the future for dates when we will conduct ball fittings and more this season.

Back to The Show.

So demo day was quiet but interesting. A few Tour professionals were there, including Trevor Immelman and Suzanne Petersen for Nike Golf. Both put on a little clinic promoting Nike’s new clubs the Victory Red and the new Dymo driver, which is adjustable. It allows you to change both the loft of the club and the face angle. In other words, the shaft can be inserted at three different angles to change the playability of the club. The Taylor Made R9 does the same thing.

A few more Tour pros made appearances, the biggest being Boo Weekley, who was promoting his new Boo line. The Boo line, as you might expect, features camouflage. Just think camouflage shirts so you can hide after you a terrible shot.

The opening day of The Show was pretty quiet. No hoopla like in past years, just a lot talk among industry folks about the economy and how it has affected golf. I would say that attendance overall for the show was down somewhat, and some companies participated in demo day but did not have floor space at the convention.

On the last day of The Show, I spent most of my time in the teaching aids and what I call gadget area checking out the latest products. The teaching aids are truly the fun part of The Show since you see something that definitely helps your students.

One of the items that will help me is a putting aid called Putt Easy (www.easy-waygolf.com). The next product is a little more complicated, the Golf Achiever. The Golf Achiever has multiple functions. It can be a club-and ball-fitting tool along with swing analysis, and most importantly, it also can be a simulator at a reasonable price. It would be pretty cool to have the Brickyard as a simulator course.

On the clothing side of The Show, not much new out there. Materials are about the same: Every company has tech wear (polyester).

That’s it for this week. Next time, we will talk about getting ready for golf here in Indiana and talk about what’s happening on the PGA Tour.

Jeff Schroeder

PGA Head Professional

Brickyard Crossing