June 22, 2023 • 26 mins
Shane and Marty dive into youth golf, covering topics like evolution of junior products and fitting, the Get Golf Growing program, the right time to transition to adult clubs, and their joint fear for the day their kids beat them on the course.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The guys from paying.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
I just love that I can hit any shot. I
kind of want.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
That is Marty Jerts and Marty.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's a remote podcast and we recorded a few in
person and uh, this is our first, our first run
through remote. You're you're still dialed though, you're still in
the putting lab.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Oh yeah, I'm dialed here and I see you're you're
in the You're in the man cave right there.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I was.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I was just I was joking with my wife today
she's been sick and then we have both kids are
home today and she said, thank goodness, we have this
man this cave down here that we can like get
away for an hour or two and uh, basically my
workstation at this point. But yeah, you know, it was interesting.
I was kind of thinking about this time of year,
you know, at school's kind of starting to wind down
(00:52):
for most kids, and this is when parents, I would say,
start to freak out a bit because the summer's long
and you gotta a lot of time with your kids,
and you start to plan out camps and programs and
what you can do with your children. And it got
me kind of thinking about PING and what you guys
have done in terms of focusing on junior programs and kids, Marty,
(01:13):
And it's an important program that PING has established and
it's something that I know you guys are very proud of,
and it focuses a lot on junior golf and getting
children not just invested in the game, but kind of
a personalized environment for them to really kind of hold
in and take in.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, I mean, growing the whole junior game is super
important to the family, to the Solheim family here, Shane,
And you know, I think you see it in so
many of our staff players. They've grown up being PING players. Right.
This is in our DNA, and it's in our fitting DNA.
You know, we want to have product that's that we
(01:51):
can custom fit to the junior golfer. That again, I
think what we've talked about the essence of custom fit.
Custom fitting is so that you the player, you don't
have to make a just right And I think that's
a core problem that we solve with our Prodigy product
and that we believe in is that whole and I
can certainly relate to it. I can relate to scheduling
camps and my wife being a little stressed out right
(02:12):
now setting the itinerary for the summer. But that whole,
that whole issue of you're making a big investment in
your in your kids clubs, so you kind of want
to be like I want to. I want to I'll
get it a little longer so they can grow into it, right, right,
But then you have But but then that's not the
best thing for the golfers. They're growing their swing and
they're taking lessons, and they're at the junior camp, they're
(02:34):
at the they're at the course every day, and they
have clubs that are too long. That's that's a that's
a big, big problem for their development.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I mean I was thinking about myself as a
as a kid, right like growing up playing golf, and
things have obviously changed a lot in terms of technology
and focus and obviously personalization in and around golf. What
is okay, I'm a parent, I have you know, an
eight Let's say I have an eight year old and
a ten year old and they're starting to show interest
in golf. What is the modern way about going about
(03:03):
getting them golf clubs? Because the old way was you
went and bought, like you said, longer clubs so they
could play them themselves into them, they could use them
for a few years. You obviously were making a one
time purchase. How has that evolved, you know, not just
in junior golf, but with Ping's involvement.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, I think that. I think the issue we're trying
to solve there is that, you know, I think you
and I we may have played Dad's cut down clubs.
Of course they're heavy, they're too stiff, their lineals aren't right,
and things of this nature. So we want to provide
a solution there for exactly that age range. In our
first four ray into this was kind of you know,
the g A twelve driver, So well, why did you
(03:39):
name it eight twelve? It's for roughly eight to twelve
year olds, you know, is to get them in that product.
The one big part of that, sane is we want
to get them to the right length. We want to
get them into the clubs to have the right weight
and balance. That's like a really big deal the right
head weight. You know, the clubs are this short. We
don't necessarily care about building to a certain or designing
to a certain swing weight. It's more about the head
(04:00):
weight optimization. Right, you get that right weight and balance
so they can swing it for their specific speed and
strength levels. And then the other big piece is helping
somebody with the right building, the right like mix of clubs.
Like the younger you are, the shorter you hit it,
you don't need fourteen clubs. And we're not even trying
to recommend that with the prodigy, right, And that's I
(04:20):
think that's very helpful to the parents. Like Mike, I
have a six year old and a nine year old
and my six and they both started with a set
that was driver or five hybrid, nine iron sand wedge putter,
you know. And even then maybe they don't need the
sand wedge at the beginning, right, So you can start
with like a you know, I don't know, a five
piece set, or even even less than that. You can
(04:40):
go driver, hybrid, iron hutter. You know. It kind of
helped them as they evolved their skills, don't get maybe
you don't give them that sandwich at the beginning, so
they can learn how to manipulate the face and develop
their skills. So that's a big part of what we
thought through with the Prodigy, And we're not here to
push on hey you need all these clubs for your
kid who only hits hits their driver one hundred and
twenty yards.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So if a parent's coming to you guys and thinking
about getting their kid involved, you know, in the Prodigy
program and kind of getting them interested in getting their
own set of golf clubs, but maybe they're nervous about pricing,
or maybe they're nervous about the kid growing out of that.
What have you guys done to maybe alleviate a bit
of that stress.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, it's definitely a big investment. I mean, I know
when I'm got my kids are playing, you know, whether
it's a mountain bike for them or they're into baseball.
I mean, it's definitely a big investment. And so we
can definitely empathize with like the parent in that regard,
right because a lot of us here they're developing these programs,
we are the parents. So yeah, we developed this program.
It's called the Get Golf Growing Program, and it's really
(05:39):
to solve that problem of hey, you got your ten
year old eight year old golfer, and you the parent.
The first thing in the head, Hey, man, this set's
going to be expensive. I'm gonna buy them in my
eight year old. I'm gonna buy them to last them
through their eleven and then they're playing clubs that are
too long there for two years. We're like, okay, let's
solve this problem here. So the Get Golf Growing program
is if you buy like just five pieces of the
(06:01):
five piece set of the Prodigies, fit them to exactly
their right length for that time, and then and then
your kid after the Hey, this winter they go back
to school, they sprouted up three or four inches or
what have you. You send them back into us. We'll lengthen them,
reweight them, regrip them, ship them right back to you.
We usually get them back to you within a week.
(06:23):
Now your golfer can have an optimally optimal fit set
for that whole span of when they're playing that Prodigy product.
And it's been an awesome program since we launched it.
Tons of parents are taking advantage of it. We kind
of launched it out there. Hey, I'm not sure how
many parents are going to send their clothes back in,
but it's a lot, and so it's definitely working, and
(06:44):
it kind of takes the edge off. It solves two
problems at once. Hey, the big stick sticker tag. It
kind of takes the edge off that. And then your
golfers playing more perfectly fit product for the span of
when they're growing up and so they don't have to
make those adjustments to their game.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, Marty, it almost sounds like what I know, I
don't remember. Maybe it was an American Express program, but
somebody did something with the NBA where if you bought
a jersey from a player and they switch teams, you
could send the jersey back in and they will replace
it for almost no cost. And again you're thinking about
how much movement we're seeing in professional sports now, that
makes a lot of sense if you want to go
(07:18):
out and buy a replica jersey and it's one hundred
and fifty or two hundred dollars, And this makes so
much sense for a parent where when we think about
things for our children, price comes up so often, cause
again we're spending the money right, and we're putting them
in something that maybe we don't know if they're going
to last two years, three years, four years, or even
a couple of weeks. And this allows you to take
(07:38):
a bit of stress off of the parent and also
it gets the kids interested because you have a set
perfectly fit for you. This is what you should be
playing in this moment, and if you grow three inches
in the summer, good news. We can adjust your golf
clubs to where they stay with you. And Marty, if
if I'm right here, it's the same club, so you
know you're looking down at the same club that you
were looking at before.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Exactly what I did. And it's a good example. I
just did my nine year old. He started to hit
the ball a little bit further, so he had that
five club set and he started to establish a gap
between his hybrid and his nine iron, so it's time
to add the seven iron. So it's just easy. You
don't need to go out and do the whole thing
at once, right, and it's helped him with against shame
with that skill development. And we put a lot of
(08:21):
thought in that with our Prodigy set. Even when it
came down to like the putter design, it was really cool.
It's a putter we designed kind of with Louijus stays
In at the time and actually Corey Bacon was the
lead designer on this putter. We wanted to design and
answer blade style putter that had like that focus to it,
(08:41):
but still had some forgiveness. And so this putter is
called the Voss putter. That's the town in Norway, so
I had some hiss tied to our ping heritage there.
And the cavity instead of an answer style is exactly
ball with and that's the putter we chose to put
in the Prodigy line because we wanted the kids growing
up with a blade style putter slide are something not
too big and that forced that focus to your eye,
(09:03):
which was pretty important. So we even thought about like
those level of details in terms of your skill development,
you know, when we're in the when we're in the
design phase of the prodgy product.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So what's age? What's kind of the age focus? I
know you mentioned eight to twelve, but what do you
tell people that ask you? All right, my kids showing
some interest, my kids showing some promise, When do I
need to start this program for them?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah? I think, you know, I think our height range
is kind of the guide Okay, a like fifty two
inches to sixty two inches, So anywhere in there. And
obviously if you got a kid that's forty eight inches
or forty nine to fifty, we can kind of hedge
it a little bit on that end. And we have great,
like really simple fitting information. And I think that the
earlier on you are in starting your golf journey, the
(09:45):
more you can kind of lean on just kind of
how tall you are, how long your arms are. Just
like our like men's mainline men's and women's adult color
code chart, we actually had to establish we had to
create our own color code chart. So when we developed
the Prodigy product, we actually went out and we leverage
all the Ping employees because, like the CDC, we went
(10:07):
to go get data on like wingspan or how long
your arms are, and there was no data out there.
There was no like growth charts for that information. So
we sent out this big survey to all of our
accounts and had them go measure their kids, and we
actually came up with the color code chart for juniors
when we launched the Prodigy. But I think that's it.
I think it's kind of that eight to twelve range.
(10:28):
But if you have a you know, six seven year old,
that's a little on the bigger end, and it's close
to that fifty two inch minimum threshold all the way
up to that top end, which gets close to kind
of five foot or sixty two inches is kind of
the sweet spot, which is generally kind of eight to twelve,
but really seven to thirteen.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And how much time are you thinking if you're talking
to a parent about, you know, going through this process,
what's the time commitmant?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You know, what do they need to do to get involved?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah? So I mean a you could go see your
local ping fitting account and they have all the the
charts and fitting information. They might even have a demo
there of the Prodigy product for you you to try.
And we have even have a couple different shaft flexes
and again that's going to be driven by kind of
your speed and your height range and strength levels. So
(11:14):
we even have a couple different shaft flexes in there.
Or you could go to our website, Shane. We have
a really cool fitting charts called Junior Webfit, and you
just punch in okay, you punch in the heighthier your
kid you put in, You put in their wrist of floor,
which is kind of that measurement how long their arms are,
and even if you don't. You don't have to measure
(11:34):
that if you you can kind of hey, set it
for me and it'll pick kind of the average there
and then you just put in approximately how far they
hit their driver, right, and that's carry plus roll. And
if they hit their driver one hundred twenty yards or less,
we're gonna we're gonna recommend less pieces like a five
piece set or six piece set in there. And if
they start if they hit their driver like you know,
two hundred and two hundred and twenty yards or further,
(11:57):
that's when we start to fill out the whole bag.
And may you that to that gap testing. We do
a lot of testing with the juniors on gaping. And
so it's that easy. You can go see your authorized
ping retailer, maybe at your club or your local you know,
retail store, or go right on our website and click
on Junior Webfit and just use use that really easy
(12:18):
calculator right there.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And how do you tell people in terms of mixing,
you know, interest in the game for young person because
you know, there's so many outlets now, there's so many
places you can go clinics obviously, there's camps out there,
you know, ping junior league. What do you tell people
in terms of that process. You know, once now they've
got the golf clubs. Now they're very interested in potentially
playing golf. What's that next step to tell parents?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Man, I think the number one thing, Shane, I think
you could probably speak to this yourself is like have fun,
Like make the game fun, like you gotta gamify it.
I mean, I know, I'm like bringing my kids on
the golf course late in the evenings. I mean, I
think a big thing my wife and I do with
the our two kids is we play alternate shot. So
we'll play nine holes alternate shot. This is really fun
and we can pay play at the same pace of play,
(13:05):
like is the regular you know kind of members tea times,
which is pretty quick. Like if you're not keeping up,
they're not happy about it. So number one thing is
keep it fun. But there are tons of junior programs
going on out there. I think you've named a few.
PGA Junior League is super fun because that scramble style format.
And I know they have really cool commercials. Obviously see
Steph Curry and all these Right, my kids love basketball
(13:27):
the most, so when they see Steph Curry on those commercials.
They're like, okay, I'm getting in the junior league and
it's that team atmosphere. Any play a scramble, so it
takes like the pressure off of you know, it's like
a good entry point whether a kid is more skill
playing individual tournaments or not. Keep it fun. Tons of
programs out there either either at your local course. I
(13:48):
just think at least here in Arizona, junior golf has
really been flourishing, and you see a lot of opportunities
where through your local PGA Section tournaments, PGA Junior League,
other initiatives. I would say the big thing is keep
it fun and try to keep get your kids out
there with other buddies and friends they can have contests with.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And when does a junior transition to more of an
adult set. I mean, at what point are you saying, Okay,
you've gone through you know, our Prodigy program, You've gone
through the Get Golf Growing program. Now we're getting to
a full set of adult golf clubs. What do you
feel like that age range is and maybe skill set is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I think the
number one thing is kind of their height. If they're
kind of getting close to that five foot level. That's
kind of that transition point. So that's the first thing
to look at, and then beyond that's kind of the
speed factor. Like our Prodigy driver, for example, And we
know this because we're using all the same engineering tools
we're using to optimize our mainline product and our ladies product.
(14:48):
We're throwing those engineering resources at the Prodigy, right, So
it's got a lighter headweight, and then it has our
driver has fifteen degrees of loft on it, so that
may seem crazy, like why do you have a driver
that much loft? Well, slower speeds, like you need more
launch and more spin to optimize your distance. So if
your junior players starting to pick up some speed and
(15:08):
you just kind of know they're spinning their driver too much,
or maybe you get them on a launch monitor, you
can actually use our driver Optimal launch and spin chart
and start taking a look at Hey, you know, my
juniors get a little bigger, they get a little more speed. Hey,
on this chart, their spin is a little too high.
That's a good time to take a look in that
transition point of getting to a mainline product. The fun
(15:30):
part is now Shane with the G four thirty we
have this build called the HL build in the G
four thirty, which stands for high launch, and it's a
lighter headweight build. And this is the perfect marriage because
there is this kind of gap. Hey, I got a
fourteen year old, you know, maybe they're not swinging fast
enough for clubs, are a little too heavy in the
main line, they just graduate on Prodigy. What do you do?
(15:52):
We have this HL build which is lighter headweights in there,
which is kind of this perfect marriage. So you can
go to a driver that's maybe we're in forty four
inches or forty four and a half, keep the headweight appropriately,
optimize a little lighter weight, and help them make that transition,
which is a great solution there. And then you can
use con of our our mainline fitting tools like our
(16:13):
regular color code chart and other fitting tools start to
really work well once you make that transition.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Marty, when did you guys start to see these types
of holes? You know, I mean not just in junior golf,
but maybe in women's clubs and you know, a HL driver.
I mean, it feels like what ping has done so
well is solutions for potential gaps, if you will, And
we talk so much about gut gaping in your own
golf club, in your own golf bag, but gut gaping
(16:39):
and golf in general. Because all of what you're saying
makes sense, but I don't feel like it's been around forever.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, we're getting more Shane, You're exactly right, We're getting
more and more nuanced. Is taking these certain segments of
the market, and a lot of them have been underserved,
like I don't know. I mean, hey, lefties, we'll start
with lefties. They were the original underserved. We've been them forever.
But you know, it's just doing things like cutting we did.
We did a test shame where we cut down. Let's
(17:07):
take dad's cut down driver and test it VERSU the Prodigy, right,
and we just absolutely crush it with the Prodiect. It
shows the value of having a lighter head, more law,
custom engineered shaft, all those things, right, And so that
just really validated the Hey, there's a gap there and
we need a custom engineer or solution there. Same thing
with the Ladies product. That's another really good example where
(17:27):
it requires its own custom uh optimization. Right. There's speed ranges,
there's line goal ranges, there's headweight optimizations. It's very specific
for those segments, and so yeah, we've been going down
a lot of these little rabbit holes, and I think
we've you know, I think today we're having fun talking
about juniors and ladies this HL build and how we've
(17:48):
kind of targeted those and designed solutions for them. Marty.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Do you ever have like an entire family come out
to get fit? You know, I mean, I mean dad's
getting fit, moms getting fit, and the kids are getting fit.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Have you seen that, you know, on the proven grounds
over the years.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, Yeah, it is kind of fun. It is fun.
I mean, definitely we see a lot of dads and
kids here. I mean, I don't know we'd have let's say,
I mean a good example is one of our ambassadors,
Kerry Cosby, like the PGA professional year, playing the Senior
PGA Championship. Whenever he comes in, he's always with the
sun Banks, right, So there's I look at the calendar
and there's tons of those scenarios. We definitely see some
(18:24):
some A lot of couples come in and quite often
they'll be there'll be a family four come on in
and they're all getting optimized and it's really fun to see, Okay,
mom maybe getting fit for our glee product. Kids are
getting into prodigies and dad's getting in you know, maybe
set of blueprints or something if he's a player. So
it's fun to be able to service that whole spectrum
(18:46):
of the marketplace, right and playing golf as a family
is It's what I remember from my childhood. I mean,
people ask me how I got into golf. Well, I
went to play every Saturday with my dad. It was
the thing, like, I don't remember a Saturday we didn't
go play nine or eighteen holes. So it's such an
important part of golf and one of the one of
the funnest things about golf. And it's fun for us
(19:06):
to have products and fitting solutions, you know, for the
whole family.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, I mean the solution part again going back to
this is you know, when you tour the facility and
you really get a feel for what you guys are
trying to accomplish, it really does feel like it's it's
checking boxes. And when you go through checking those right boxes,
where you know the women's clubs are perfectly designed to
fit those swing speeds and the junior golf clubs are
(19:31):
perfectly designed. And then maybe, like you said, maybe somebody's
not swinging it at one hundred and fifteen miles an hour
with their driver, but you know they want to get into,
you know, the newest gear and you've got high launch
for them. I just find it so fascinating that, you know,
it's almost like there's not one leaf that's not been uncovered,
you know. I mean, it really does feel like every
single day the team is working to make sure that
(19:52):
everybody's served, so everybody has their best chance of playing
the best golf.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, we're yes, absolutely, Shane. I think we I think
you know we we right now have the most complete
solution for all those little segments of the market, and
there there's more to be done. There, there's more to
be done. I mean, I think we've all seen, Hey,
somebody else better with a heavy headway driver. But you
go hit it and it feels like a toothpick and
(20:16):
your ball speed goes down. But the other person hits it, uh,
and it works really well for them. So we're still
going down and segmenting the market with even more precision
than we ever have. I think our G four to
thirty driver is a really good example. The headway we
have on the s FT, which is our straight fly
technology driver built to counter folks who deliver the face
(20:37):
open path and put a lot of curve on it
and just want to straight. Hey, just give me the
club that straight exactly. Like not everyone's going to go
out and and put a lot of time into working
their game. But that's totally okay, Like we can we
can fit you for that. We're getting more targeted, more
surgical on our solutions and and and today we talked
(20:58):
about some really fun examples that.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Marty, when did you first beat your dad? I mean
you talk about going out and playing golf with your dad.
How old do you think you were when you first
maybe got him on the golf course?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Man, that's a good question, Shane. I want to say.
I want to say probably like in the probably eleven
or twelve years old. You know, it's always playing nine.
I mean I think I always remember like Bogie, like
Bogie is par you know, like so in my head
it's like, okay, when was I shooting forty five?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And I think that first time was probably in that
like eleven or twelve years old, like true legit, like
shooting shooting breaking you know, Bogie par breaking that forty
five level and then I remember probably shooting like a
forty one or two and then Pop shot forty three
and I was like, okay, took you down. We're going
for ice cream. Oh.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I mean, I was trying to think back of, you know,
like being competitive with my dad and on the golf course,
and I'm you know, I have young kids, and I
can't you know, it's hard to fathom that one of
these days Henry's going to beat me in golf, you know,
but I mean it's inevitable that at one point, if
he's interested in the game and he gets dialed in it,
he's going to beat me in golf. And to think that,
(22:04):
you know, I was reading something there was some dad
that said every year he fell on there on his
kid's birthday, he does a film where he rases his
kid because he said, at some point, the kid's gonna
beat him. But right now, I mean, the kid's six
and he's got kid's got no chance. But every single
year they do a race, and you know, when did
when did I finally actually beat dad? You know, it's
like Dad's actually stressing over a couple of mounths on
(22:26):
a nine to take down his kid.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Uh, it's it's wild to think.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And I mean obviously with what the club's pings are
put things putting together, that opportunity is going to come
around a little easier.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yep, yep. Oh man, you got me thinking, I'm glad
I don't film that race with my nine year old.
He runs track and field. He's like a sprinter and
he he can already smoke me. So I'm glad I'm
not doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Smarty, That's that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Just gonna stick stick to the golf match.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So you know, if if somebody is going to think
about getting their kid into the game and into fitting,
and you're really going to give him a time like
ale like this might take you an hour, two hours,
five hours, a couple of days a week, what do
you tell people in terms of getting them involved in programs,
getting them involved in new golf club fitting, all of that.
(23:12):
I mean, how much time is a parent thinking about
week to week?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, that's a good question, Shane. I mean, I just
go back to keep it fun for the kids, man,
Keep it fun. Keep it like, get them in a
fun camp with some friends, with somebodies. The more time
on the golf course the better. It's hard to make
it fun just hitting balls on the range. Oky, you
can do it. You can have fun things on the range,
don't get me wrong. But the more time you can
do that, get them on the course playing you know,
(23:36):
have some different formats. Play some scrambles, play some alternate shots,
play some stableford. You know, have some different games. Kids
just love playing games. Keep it competitive. And then when
it comes to fitting, you know, just don't think you
need to have a bag full of ten or twelve
clubs for your kid. Get them, get them four or
five clubs, highly engineered but custom fit. Don't go with
(24:00):
cut down your old clubs, and and and that would
be a problem, that would be a challenge for you.
And don't don't be tempted by buying them for how
big they're going to be in two years. So get
them into that right length, right now. And and we've
made some really tool simple tools to make that super
easy for you. Go around our website, get in there
(24:21):
and punch in their height, how long their arms are,
and you'll get all that information instantly, which is really cool.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah, I mean, it's such a good idea. I mean,
get golf growing makes so much sense. And I love
the idea behind it, and really, I mean it's it's
not necessarily as much science. That is just logic, right,
I mean, it's a logical way to go about it.
As your kid grows, allow us to do the dirty work,
allow us to you know, you know, extend the clubs
and add new grips. What's cool about it is I
love the idea of the new grips. I mean, you
(24:48):
think about getting new clubs. You're not necessarily getting quote
unquote new clubs, but I feel like as a young person,
when those show up in a box and they're cleaned
up and they're refinished and the grips are new, it's
gonna almost feel like you're get new golf clubs every
year as a young person. And as you and I've
talked about getting new golf club is one of the
greatest parts about being a being a golfer is getting
the box.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
At home exactly. I mean, Shane, I remember thosere some
of my best Christmases as a kid. Man I got
a new driver, you would go out there. I remember
that was another memory childhood memory for me is we'd
always go play golf on Christmas Day. Christmas Day we
would do the same thing. I love that. So yeah,
this get golf growing program. I think you're exactly right.
(25:27):
You get your club, you get fresh, you get new shafts, longer,
fresh grips, nice and TACKI and uh and and now
they're they're going to be more fit to you if
you if they've gotten a little too short for you,
having to bend over too much, read too much, you know,
things of that nature. You know that the fitting is
so important, and you know that way you don't have
to make those make those adjustments. And the UH for
(25:49):
ill fitted equipment such a big deal, Marty.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I know people probably can't see you if they're listening,
but you're in the putting lab. When you go to
the putting lab, do you roll a putt every time?
Or is it one of those things like are you
a a little bit a bit stricter.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Shane, I think you nailed it. I actually do.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I don't know how you can.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I usually roll these ten putts in here.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
While I'm in here, I'm looking behind you, and all
I could think is I would be rolling putts immediately
after finishing this. I mean, it's so awesome to get
a chance to kind of be involved in that area
and to get a chance to really see what it's
all about. But yes, that's like when you go to
the like PGA Tour superstore and you go.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I gotta roll. I mean I do.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Really a couple of Putts always, I got a wall,
a couple of five fitters and see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Marty always appreciate the time. Thank you so much. This
is the Being Proving Grounds podcast.
The guys from paying.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
I just love that I can hit any shot. I
kind of want.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
That is Marty Jerts and Marty.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's a remote podcast and we recorded a few in
person and uh, this is our first, our first run
through remote. You're you're still dialed though, you're still in
the putting lab.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Oh yeah, I'm dialed here and I see you're you're
in the You're in the man cave right there.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I was.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I was just I was joking with my wife today
she's been sick and then we have both kids are
home today and she said, thank goodness, we have this
man this cave down here that we can like get
away for an hour or two and uh, basically my
workstation at this point. But yeah, you know, it was interesting.
I was kind of thinking about this time of year,
you know, at school's kind of starting to wind down
(00:52):
for most kids, and this is when parents, I would say,
start to freak out a bit because the summer's long
and you gotta a lot of time with your kids,
and you start to plan out camps and programs and
what you can do with your children. And it got
me kind of thinking about PING and what you guys
have done in terms of focusing on junior programs and kids, Marty,
(01:13):
And it's an important program that PING has established and
it's something that I know you guys are very proud of,
and it focuses a lot on junior golf and getting
children not just invested in the game, but kind of
a personalized environment for them to really kind of hold
in and take in.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, I mean, growing the whole junior game is super
important to the family, to the Solheim family here, Shane,
And you know, I think you see it in so
many of our staff players. They've grown up being PING players. Right.
This is in our DNA, and it's in our fitting DNA.
You know, we want to have product that's that we
(01:51):
can custom fit to the junior golfer. That again, I
think what we've talked about the essence of custom fit.
Custom fitting is so that you the player, you don't
have to make a just right And I think that's
a core problem that we solve with our Prodigy product
and that we believe in is that whole and I
can certainly relate to it. I can relate to scheduling
camps and my wife being a little stressed out right
(02:12):
now setting the itinerary for the summer. But that whole,
that whole issue of you're making a big investment in
your in your kids clubs, so you kind of want
to be like I want to. I want to I'll
get it a little longer so they can grow into it, right, right,
But then you have But but then that's not the
best thing for the golfers. They're growing their swing and
they're taking lessons, and they're at the junior camp, they're
(02:34):
at the they're at the course every day, and they
have clubs that are too long. That's that's a that's
a big, big problem for their development.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, I mean I was thinking about myself as a
as a kid, right like growing up playing golf, and
things have obviously changed a lot in terms of technology
and focus and obviously personalization in and around golf. What
is okay, I'm a parent, I have you know, an
eight Let's say I have an eight year old and
a ten year old and they're starting to show interest
in golf. What is the modern way about going about
(03:03):
getting them golf clubs? Because the old way was you
went and bought, like you said, longer clubs so they
could play them themselves into them, they could use them
for a few years. You obviously were making a one
time purchase. How has that evolved, you know, not just
in junior golf, but with Ping's involvement.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yeah, I think that. I think the issue we're trying
to solve there is that, you know, I think you
and I we may have played Dad's cut down clubs.
Of course they're heavy, they're too stiff, their lineals aren't right,
and things of this nature. So we want to provide
a solution there for exactly that age range. In our
first four ray into this was kind of you know,
the g A twelve driver, So well, why did you
(03:39):
name it eight twelve? It's for roughly eight to twelve
year olds, you know, is to get them in that product.
The one big part of that, sane is we want
to get them to the right length. We want to
get them into the clubs to have the right weight
and balance. That's like a really big deal the right
head weight. You know, the clubs are this short. We
don't necessarily care about building to a certain or designing
to a certain swing weight. It's more about the head
(04:00):
weight optimization. Right, you get that right weight and balance
so they can swing it for their specific speed and
strength levels. And then the other big piece is helping
somebody with the right building, the right like mix of clubs.
Like the younger you are, the shorter you hit it,
you don't need fourteen clubs. And we're not even trying
to recommend that with the prodigy, right, And that's I
(04:20):
think that's very helpful to the parents. Like Mike, I
have a six year old and a nine year old
and my six and they both started with a set
that was driver or five hybrid, nine iron sand wedge putter,
you know. And even then maybe they don't need the
sand wedge at the beginning, right, So you can start
with like a you know, I don't know, a five
piece set, or even even less than that. You can
(04:40):
go driver, hybrid, iron hutter. You know. It kind of
helped them as they evolved their skills, don't get maybe
you don't give them that sandwich at the beginning, so
they can learn how to manipulate the face and develop
their skills. So that's a big part of what we
thought through with the Prodigy, And we're not here to
push on hey you need all these clubs for your
kid who only hits hits their driver one hundred and
twenty yards.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So if a parent's coming to you guys and thinking
about getting their kid involved, you know, in the Prodigy
program and kind of getting them interested in getting their
own set of golf clubs, but maybe they're nervous about pricing,
or maybe they're nervous about the kid growing out of that.
What have you guys done to maybe alleviate a bit
of that stress.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, it's definitely a big investment. I mean, I know
when I'm got my kids are playing, you know, whether
it's a mountain bike for them or they're into baseball.
I mean, it's definitely a big investment. And so we
can definitely empathize with like the parent in that regard,
right because a lot of us here they're developing these programs,
we are the parents. So yeah, we developed this program.
It's called the Get Golf Growing Program, and it's really
(05:39):
to solve that problem of hey, you got your ten
year old eight year old golfer, and you the parent.
The first thing in the head, Hey, man, this set's
going to be expensive. I'm gonna buy them in my
eight year old. I'm gonna buy them to last them
through their eleven and then they're playing clubs that are
too long there for two years. We're like, okay, let's
solve this problem here. So the Get Golf Growing program
is if you buy like just five pieces of the
(06:01):
five piece set of the Prodigies, fit them to exactly
their right length for that time, and then and then
your kid after the Hey, this winter they go back
to school, they sprouted up three or four inches or
what have you. You send them back into us. We'll lengthen them,
reweight them, regrip them, ship them right back to you.
We usually get them back to you within a week.
(06:23):
Now your golfer can have an optimally optimal fit set
for that whole span of when they're playing that Prodigy product.
And it's been an awesome program since we launched it.
Tons of parents are taking advantage of it. We kind
of launched it out there. Hey, I'm not sure how
many parents are going to send their clothes back in,
but it's a lot, and so it's definitely working, and
(06:44):
it kind of takes the edge off. It solves two
problems at once. Hey, the big stick sticker tag. It
kind of takes the edge off that. And then your
golfers playing more perfectly fit product for the span of
when they're growing up and so they don't have to
make those adjustments to their game.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, Marty, it almost sounds like what I know, I
don't remember. Maybe it was an American Express program, but
somebody did something with the NBA where if you bought
a jersey from a player and they switch teams, you
could send the jersey back in and they will replace
it for almost no cost. And again you're thinking about
how much movement we're seeing in professional sports now, that
makes a lot of sense if you want to go
(07:18):
out and buy a replica jersey and it's one hundred
and fifty or two hundred dollars, And this makes so
much sense for a parent where when we think about
things for our children, price comes up so often, cause
again we're spending the money right, and we're putting them
in something that maybe we don't know if they're going
to last two years, three years, four years, or even
a couple of weeks. And this allows you to take
(07:38):
a bit of stress off of the parent and also
it gets the kids interested because you have a set
perfectly fit for you. This is what you should be
playing in this moment, and if you grow three inches
in the summer, good news. We can adjust your golf
clubs to where they stay with you. And Marty, if
if I'm right here, it's the same club, so you
know you're looking down at the same club that you
were looking at before.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Exactly what I did. And it's a good example. I
just did my nine year old. He started to hit
the ball a little bit further, so he had that
five club set and he started to establish a gap
between his hybrid and his nine iron, so it's time
to add the seven iron. So it's just easy. You
don't need to go out and do the whole thing
at once, right, and it's helped him with against shame
with that skill development. And we put a lot of
(08:21):
thought in that with our Prodigy set. Even when it
came down to like the putter design, it was really cool.
It's a putter we designed kind of with Louijus stays
In at the time and actually Corey Bacon was the
lead designer on this putter. We wanted to design and
answer blade style putter that had like that focus to it,
(08:41):
but still had some forgiveness. And so this putter is
called the Voss putter. That's the town in Norway, so
I had some hiss tied to our ping heritage there.
And the cavity instead of an answer style is exactly
ball with and that's the putter we chose to put
in the Prodigy line because we wanted the kids growing
up with a blade style putter slide are something not
too big and that forced that focus to your eye,
(09:03):
which was pretty important. So we even thought about like
those level of details in terms of your skill development,
you know, when we're in the when we're in the
design phase of the prodgy product.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
So what's age? What's kind of the age focus? I
know you mentioned eight to twelve, but what do you
tell people that ask you? All right, my kids showing
some interest, my kids showing some promise, When do I
need to start this program for them?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah? I think, you know, I think our height range
is kind of the guide Okay, a like fifty two
inches to sixty two inches, So anywhere in there. And
obviously if you got a kid that's forty eight inches
or forty nine to fifty, we can kind of hedge
it a little bit on that end. And we have great,
like really simple fitting information. And I think that the
earlier on you are in starting your golf journey, the
(09:45):
more you can kind of lean on just kind of
how tall you are, how long your arms are. Just
like our like men's mainline men's and women's adult color
code chart, we actually had to establish we had to
create our own color code chart. So when we developed
the Prodigy product, we actually went out and we leverage
all the Ping employees because, like the CDC, we went
(10:07):
to go get data on like wingspan or how long
your arms are, and there was no data out there.
There was no like growth charts for that information. So
we sent out this big survey to all of our
accounts and had them go measure their kids, and we
actually came up with the color code chart for juniors
when we launched the Prodigy. But I think that's it.
I think it's kind of that eight to twelve range.
(10:28):
But if you have a you know, six seven year old,
that's a little on the bigger end, and it's close
to that fifty two inch minimum threshold all the way
up to that top end, which gets close to kind
of five foot or sixty two inches is kind of
the sweet spot, which is generally kind of eight to twelve,
but really seven to thirteen.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And how much time are you thinking if you're talking
to a parent about, you know, going through this process,
what's the time commitmant?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
You know, what do they need to do to get involved?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah? So I mean a you could go see your
local ping fitting account and they have all the the
charts and fitting information. They might even have a demo
there of the Prodigy product for you you to try.
And we have even have a couple different shaft flexes
and again that's going to be driven by kind of
your speed and your height range and strength levels. So
(11:14):
we even have a couple different shaft flexes in there.
Or you could go to our website, Shane. We have
a really cool fitting charts called Junior Webfit, and you
just punch in okay, you punch in the heighthier your
kid you put in, You put in their wrist of floor,
which is kind of that measurement how long their arms are,
and even if you don't. You don't have to measure
(11:34):
that if you you can kind of hey, set it
for me and it'll pick kind of the average there
and then you just put in approximately how far they
hit their driver, right, and that's carry plus roll. And
if they hit their driver one hundred twenty yards or less,
we're gonna we're gonna recommend less pieces like a five
piece set or six piece set in there. And if
they start if they hit their driver like you know,
two hundred and two hundred and twenty yards or further,
(11:57):
that's when we start to fill out the whole bag.
And may you that to that gap testing. We do
a lot of testing with the juniors on gaping. And
so it's that easy. You can go see your authorized
ping retailer, maybe at your club or your local you know,
retail store, or go right on our website and click
on Junior Webfit and just use use that really easy
(12:18):
calculator right there.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And how do you tell people in terms of mixing,
you know, interest in the game for young person because
you know, there's so many outlets now, there's so many
places you can go clinics obviously, there's camps out there,
you know, ping junior league. What do you tell people
in terms of that process. You know, once now they've
got the golf clubs. Now they're very interested in potentially
playing golf. What's that next step to tell parents?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Man, I think the number one thing, Shane, I think
you could probably speak to this yourself is like have fun,
Like make the game fun, like you gotta gamify it.
I mean, I know, I'm like bringing my kids on
the golf course late in the evenings. I mean, I
think a big thing my wife and I do with
the our two kids is we play alternate shot. So
we'll play nine holes alternate shot. This is really fun
and we can pay play at the same pace of play,
(13:05):
like is the regular you know kind of members tea times,
which is pretty quick. Like if you're not keeping up,
they're not happy about it. So number one thing is
keep it fun. But there are tons of junior programs
going on out there. I think you've named a few.
PGA Junior League is super fun because that scramble style format.
And I know they have really cool commercials. Obviously see
Steph Curry and all these Right, my kids love basketball
(13:27):
the most, so when they see Steph Curry on those commercials.
They're like, okay, I'm getting in the junior league and
it's that team atmosphere. Any play a scramble, so it
takes like the pressure off of you know, it's like
a good entry point whether a kid is more skill
playing individual tournaments or not. Keep it fun. Tons of
programs out there either either at your local course. I
(13:48):
just think at least here in Arizona, junior golf has
really been flourishing, and you see a lot of opportunities
where through your local PGA Section tournaments, PGA Junior League,
other initiatives. I would say the big thing is keep
it fun and try to keep get your kids out
there with other buddies and friends they can have contests with.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And when does a junior transition to more of an
adult set. I mean, at what point are you saying, Okay,
you've gone through you know, our Prodigy program, You've gone
through the Get Golf Growing program. Now we're getting to
a full set of adult golf clubs. What do you
feel like that age range is and maybe skill set is.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean I think the
number one thing is kind of their height. If they're
kind of getting close to that five foot level. That's
kind of that transition point. So that's the first thing
to look at, and then beyond that's kind of the
speed factor. Like our Prodigy driver, for example, And we
know this because we're using all the same engineering tools
we're using to optimize our mainline product and our ladies product.
(14:48):
We're throwing those engineering resources at the Prodigy, right, So
it's got a lighter headweight, and then it has our
driver has fifteen degrees of loft on it, so that
may seem crazy, like why do you have a driver
that much loft? Well, slower speeds, like you need more
launch and more spin to optimize your distance. So if
your junior players starting to pick up some speed and
(15:08):
you just kind of know they're spinning their driver too much,
or maybe you get them on a launch monitor, you
can actually use our driver Optimal launch and spin chart
and start taking a look at Hey, you know, my
juniors get a little bigger, they get a little more speed. Hey,
on this chart, their spin is a little too high.
That's a good time to take a look in that
transition point of getting to a mainline product. The fun
(15:30):
part is now Shane with the G four thirty we
have this build called the HL build in the G
four thirty, which stands for high launch, and it's a
lighter headweight build. And this is the perfect marriage because
there is this kind of gap. Hey, I got a
fourteen year old, you know, maybe they're not swinging fast
enough for clubs, are a little too heavy in the
main line, they just graduate on Prodigy. What do you do?
(15:52):
We have this HL build which is lighter headweights in there,
which is kind of this perfect marriage. So you can
go to a driver that's maybe we're in forty four
inches or forty four and a half, keep the headweight appropriately,
optimize a little lighter weight, and help them make that transition,
which is a great solution there. And then you can
use con of our our mainline fitting tools like our
(16:13):
regular color code chart and other fitting tools start to
really work well once you make that transition.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Marty, when did you guys start to see these types
of holes? You know, I mean not just in junior golf,
but maybe in women's clubs and you know, a HL driver.
I mean, it feels like what ping has done so
well is solutions for potential gaps, if you will, And
we talk so much about gut gaping in your own
golf club, in your own golf bag, but gut gaping
(16:39):
and golf in general. Because all of what you're saying
makes sense, but I don't feel like it's been around forever.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Yeah, we're getting more Shane, You're exactly right, We're getting
more and more nuanced. Is taking these certain segments of
the market, and a lot of them have been underserved,
like I don't know. I mean, hey, lefties, we'll start
with lefties. They were the original underserved. We've been them forever.
But you know, it's just doing things like cutting we did.
We did a test shame where we cut down. Let's
(17:07):
take dad's cut down driver and test it VERSU the Prodigy, right,
and we just absolutely crush it with the Prodiect. It
shows the value of having a lighter head, more law,
custom engineered shaft, all those things, right, And so that
just really validated the Hey, there's a gap there and
we need a custom engineer or solution there. Same thing
with the Ladies product. That's another really good example where
(17:27):
it requires its own custom uh optimization. Right. There's speed ranges,
there's line goal ranges, there's headweight optimizations. It's very specific
for those segments, and so yeah, we've been going down
a lot of these little rabbit holes, and I think
we've you know, I think today we're having fun talking
about juniors and ladies this HL build and how we've
(17:48):
kind of targeted those and designed solutions for them. Marty.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Do you ever have like an entire family come out
to get fit? You know, I mean, I mean dad's
getting fit, moms getting fit, and the kids are getting fit.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Have you seen that, you know, on the proven grounds
over the years.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, Yeah, it is kind of fun. It is fun.
I mean, definitely we see a lot of dads and
kids here. I mean, I don't know we'd have let's say,
I mean a good example is one of our ambassadors,
Kerry Cosby, like the PGA professional year, playing the Senior
PGA Championship. Whenever he comes in, he's always with the
sun Banks, right, So there's I look at the calendar
and there's tons of those scenarios. We definitely see some
(18:24):
some A lot of couples come in and quite often
they'll be there'll be a family four come on in
and they're all getting optimized and it's really fun to see, Okay,
mom maybe getting fit for our glee product. Kids are
getting into prodigies and dad's getting in you know, maybe
set of blueprints or something if he's a player. So
it's fun to be able to service that whole spectrum
(18:46):
of the marketplace, right and playing golf as a family
is It's what I remember from my childhood. I mean,
people ask me how I got into golf. Well, I
went to play every Saturday with my dad. It was
the thing, like, I don't remember a Saturday we didn't
go play nine or eighteen holes. So it's such an
important part of golf and one of the one of
the funnest things about golf. And it's fun for us
(19:06):
to have products and fitting solutions, you know, for the
whole family.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Yeah, I mean the solution part again going back to
this is you know, when you tour the facility and
you really get a feel for what you guys are
trying to accomplish, it really does feel like it's it's
checking boxes. And when you go through checking those right boxes,
where you know the women's clubs are perfectly designed to
fit those swing speeds and the junior golf clubs are
(19:31):
perfectly designed. And then maybe, like you said, maybe somebody's
not swinging it at one hundred and fifteen miles an hour
with their driver, but you know they want to get into,
you know, the newest gear and you've got high launch
for them. I just find it so fascinating that, you know,
it's almost like there's not one leaf that's not been uncovered,
you know. I mean, it really does feel like every
single day the team is working to make sure that
(19:52):
everybody's served, so everybody has their best chance of playing
the best golf.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, we're yes, absolutely, Shane. I think we I think
you know we we right now have the most complete
solution for all those little segments of the market, and
there there's more to be done. There, there's more to
be done. I mean, I think we've all seen, Hey,
somebody else better with a heavy headway driver. But you
go hit it and it feels like a toothpick and
(20:16):
your ball speed goes down. But the other person hits it, uh,
and it works really well for them. So we're still
going down and segmenting the market with even more precision
than we ever have. I think our G four to
thirty driver is a really good example. The headway we
have on the s FT, which is our straight fly
technology driver built to counter folks who deliver the face
(20:37):
open path and put a lot of curve on it
and just want to straight. Hey, just give me the
club that straight exactly. Like not everyone's going to go
out and and put a lot of time into working
their game. But that's totally okay, Like we can we
can fit you for that. We're getting more targeted, more
surgical on our solutions and and and today we talked
(20:58):
about some really fun examples that.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Marty, when did you first beat your dad? I mean
you talk about going out and playing golf with your dad.
How old do you think you were when you first
maybe got him on the golf course?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Man, that's a good question, Shane. I want to say.
I want to say probably like in the probably eleven
or twelve years old. You know, it's always playing nine.
I mean I think I always remember like Bogie, like
Bogie is par you know, like so in my head
it's like, okay, when was I shooting forty five?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
And I think that first time was probably in that
like eleven or twelve years old, like true legit, like
shooting shooting breaking you know, Bogie par breaking that forty
five level and then I remember probably shooting like a
forty one or two and then Pop shot forty three
and I was like, okay, took you down. We're going
for ice cream. Oh.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
I mean, I was trying to think back of, you know,
like being competitive with my dad and on the golf course,
and I'm you know, I have young kids, and I
can't you know, it's hard to fathom that one of
these days Henry's going to beat me in golf, you know,
but I mean it's inevitable that at one point, if
he's interested in the game and he gets dialed in it,
he's going to beat me in golf. And to think that,
(22:04):
you know, I was reading something there was some dad
that said every year he fell on there on his
kid's birthday, he does a film where he rases his
kid because he said, at some point, the kid's gonna
beat him. But right now, I mean, the kid's six
and he's got kid's got no chance. But every single
year they do a race, and you know, when did
when did I finally actually beat dad? You know, it's
like Dad's actually stressing over a couple of mounths on
(22:26):
a nine to take down his kid.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Uh, it's it's wild to think.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And I mean obviously with what the club's pings are
put things putting together, that opportunity is going to come
around a little easier.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yep, yep. Oh man, you got me thinking, I'm glad
I don't film that race with my nine year old.
He runs track and field. He's like a sprinter and
he he can already smoke me. So I'm glad I'm
not doing that.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Smarty, That's that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Just gonna stick stick to the golf match.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
So you know, if if somebody is going to think
about getting their kid into the game and into fitting,
and you're really going to give him a time like
ale like this might take you an hour, two hours,
five hours, a couple of days a week, what do
you tell people in terms of getting them involved in programs,
getting them involved in new golf club fitting, all of that.
(23:12):
I mean, how much time is a parent thinking about
week to week?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Yeah, that's a good question, Shane. I mean, I just
go back to keep it fun for the kids, man,
Keep it fun. Keep it like, get them in a
fun camp with some friends, with somebodies. The more time
on the golf course the better. It's hard to make
it fun just hitting balls on the range. Oky, you
can do it. You can have fun things on the range,
don't get me wrong. But the more time you can
do that, get them on the course playing you know,
(23:36):
have some different formats. Play some scrambles, play some alternate shots,
play some stableford. You know, have some different games. Kids
just love playing games. Keep it competitive. And then when
it comes to fitting, you know, just don't think you
need to have a bag full of ten or twelve
clubs for your kid. Get them, get them four or
five clubs, highly engineered but custom fit. Don't go with
(24:00):
cut down your old clubs, and and and that would
be a problem, that would be a challenge for you.
And don't don't be tempted by buying them for how
big they're going to be in two years. So get
them into that right length, right now. And and we've
made some really tool simple tools to make that super
easy for you. Go around our website, get in there
(24:21):
and punch in their height, how long their arms are,
and you'll get all that information instantly, which is really cool.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah, I mean, it's such a good idea. I mean,
get golf growing makes so much sense. And I love
the idea behind it, and really, I mean it's it's
not necessarily as much science. That is just logic, right,
I mean, it's a logical way to go about it.
As your kid grows, allow us to do the dirty work,
allow us to you know, you know, extend the clubs
and add new grips. What's cool about it is I
love the idea of the new grips. I mean, you
(24:48):
think about getting new clubs. You're not necessarily getting quote
unquote new clubs, but I feel like as a young person,
when those show up in a box and they're cleaned
up and they're refinished and the grips are new, it's
gonna almost feel like you're get new golf clubs every
year as a young person. And as you and I've
talked about getting new golf club is one of the
greatest parts about being a being a golfer is getting
the box.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
At home exactly. I mean, Shane, I remember thosere some
of my best Christmases as a kid. Man I got
a new driver, you would go out there. I remember
that was another memory childhood memory for me is we'd
always go play golf on Christmas Day. Christmas Day we
would do the same thing. I love that. So yeah,
this get golf growing program. I think you're exactly right.
(25:27):
You get your club, you get fresh, you get new shafts, longer,
fresh grips, nice and TACKI and uh and and now
they're they're going to be more fit to you if
you if they've gotten a little too short for you,
having to bend over too much, read too much, you know,
things of that nature. You know that the fitting is
so important, and you know that way you don't have
to make those make those adjustments. And the UH for
(25:49):
ill fitted equipment such a big deal, Marty.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I know people probably can't see you if they're listening,
but you're in the putting lab. When you go to
the putting lab, do you roll a putt every time?
Or is it one of those things like are you
a a little bit a bit stricter.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Shane, I think you nailed it. I actually do.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
I don't know how you can.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I usually roll these ten putts in here.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
While I'm in here, I'm looking behind you, and all
I could think is I would be rolling putts immediately
after finishing this. I mean, it's so awesome to get
a chance to kind of be involved in that area
and to get a chance to really see what it's
all about. But yes, that's like when you go to
the like PGA Tour superstore and you go.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I gotta roll. I mean I do.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Really a couple of Putts always, I got a wall,
a couple of five fitters and see how it goes.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Marty always appreciate the time. Thank you so much. This
is the Being Proving Grounds podcast.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.