Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is blogging from the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He is playing in the tournament with friend and former Champions Tour standout Larry Ziegler.
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Now that the PGA Merchandise Show is over, one of the nice things that the PGA does is to offer a series of winter tournaments for us to play. They are called the PGA Winter Championships sponsored by Taylor Made-Adidas. The tournaments are held at the PGA Village complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
I am fortunate enough that the Brickyard allows me to stay down and play in one of these events this week. The event I am playing in is the Senior Junior Team Championship. I am playing this year with my good friend Larry Ziegler. Larry is a past Champions Tour member and a huge racing fan. Larry played all the Senior Tour events at Brickyard Crossing and now only plays in a few events during the year.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder attended the 55th PGA Merchandise Show from Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla., a huge gathering of PGA Golf Professionals to preview new merchandise for the upcoming season. This is the final installment of Schroeder’s blogs sharing his impressions of “The Show.”
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The 2008 Show is in its last day, and, as usual, a lot of the attendees come early and then try and sneak out and play some golf if their schedules allow. Today the aisles are not as crowded, so moving around is a lot easier. I’m going to head down to the new product display area and see what’s new.
The new product section is always kind of fun because you see some good new products, and you also see some products that make you wonder, “What are they thinking?”
In the new product area, you see everything from teaching devices to facial masks for skin care. Some of the more innovative products come from the teaching aid area.
Editor’s Note: Brickyard Crossing PGA Head Professional Jeff Schroeder is attending the 55th PGA Merchandise Show from Jan. 17-19 in Orlando, Fla., a huge gathering of PGA Golf Professionals to preview new merchandise for the upcoming season. Schroeder will share his impressions through this series of blogs.
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Day 2 (Friday, Jan. 18) here at the show is a little more subdued and quiet, which is normal after the opening day. Today we are going to spend some time just walking around and looking at some different items.
The big buzz in equipment is adjustable shafts. Club manufacturers now make woods so that shafts are interchangeable. It has been approved by the USGA and is conforming to the Rules of Golf. This will allow golfers to have multiple shafts and be able to remove them and put in a different one to fit their game without having to send it away to be reshafted. Most of the major companies offer this, including Callaway, Nike and Taylor Made.
At the show, the busiest place seems to be the Equipment Test Center. This is a 180-foot deep indoor hitting area that allows the show attendees to try the new clubs being offered this year. There are 45 hitting bays, and more than 400,000 golf balls have been hit into the nets.