It's Coming...

Oh boy... the time is drawing ever so closer. Almost time to start filling a big bag full of goodies and take to the skies. Now, one would think that with the Christmas/Holiday season upon us this automatically means that I'm referring to "Ole Santa". But I'm not! This time I am referring to myself. It's almost time to jump on a Southwest Airlines flight at Buffalo International Airport and fly down to Orlando, Florida for the 2017 installment of the PGA Merchandise Show. Four days of exploring all that is new, old and exciting in golf.

Photo Credit: trasemiller.com

At the time of writing I have appointments that are starting to line up in advance of the show. I'm looking forward to chatting with contacts I already have and contacts I have yet to make. Appointments to discuss products for testing and review. So what am I looking forward to? Well, first there is TaylorMade Golf. I am absolutely dying to see how the M range stacks up in comparison to the 2016 edition. Last year at the demo day I was blown away by the M2. The performance all-around in my eyes made the M1 (which I already had) look inferior.

Photo Credit: TaylorMade Golf

This past Friday, I found myself at a store that I have wanted to see for a long time. Located about 2.5 hours away in St. Thomas, Ontario sits a golf store and the golf products inside were the thing of legend. Old and new. While there, I happened to run into the regional representative of Callaway Golf and we know each other through the golfing circles. Golf shows and so on. He happened to have the new Epic range with him. The new Epic and Epic Sub Zero look amazing and I cannot wait to swing them. I saw the insides of them to see what makes them "tick" and my urge to swing those sticks became stronger. Due to an "embargo" currently in place I could not take any pictures. But they are sharp, look great at address and they also offer the Project X HZRDUS as a stock shaft. By the way, the new Steelhead XR irons are no slouch either.

Photo Credit: vertgolf.com

I am really looking forward to trying to set something up with Cobra Golf. I WILL be swinging the KING F7 ONE Length irons. I stumbled upon this notion many years back by accident when I screwed up my own re-shaft (I never knew it was a thing). But I love the principle behind it. There is definitely something about it that I like and really it does make a lot of sense. Last night on Twitter I was talking to Vertical Groove Golf and they will be having a presence at the show. They are a new company that is bringing out a new driver... this particular driver has vertical lines as opposed to the usual horizontal ones we usually see on drivers and such. As much as that intrigues me the crown does as well. It's sort of "dimpled" for what I figure equates to better aerodynamics. If you are familiar with aerospace or physics think "Bernoulli's Principle" and how it relates to air foils. Last year, I made friends with a gent named Greg from Reno, Nevada. He told me to visit a booth last year but I ran out of time. Ironically, this company started following me on Twitter and I look forward to having an in-depth look at Directed Force Putters. Other companies I cannot wait to see include the likes of Skechers Golf, CHASE 54 (#TEAM54), Longball, KenRick Golf and countless others.

Photo Credit: golfchannel.com

There is another company that I cannot wait to visit on the range and that is Wilson Golf. If my curiosity wasn't stoked before with the reality show Driver vs Driver it is now seeing that the design was deemed non-conforming by the USGA. The reason has to do with the sole plate on the retail on the 10.5* and 12* versions. The 9* version is conforming. Wilson Golf was quick to address this issue to customers who had already purchased this driver following the show but a few things come to mind. Before I begin please remember that I am a huge Wilson Golf fan. In a statement (which I will paraphrase) Wilson stated that due to the nature of the show and it's resulting confidentiality they had no time to send it away to the USGA for testing. Something about this really bugs me. That may well be true but there has to be some sort of tape delay from production, to the airing and on to the driver going to retail. Maybe I'm mistaken. The ensuing scramble by Wilson might be good "smoke and mirrors" to cover the faux pas. But for a company that struggles to sell drivers or have their own staff put their drivers into play this could be extremely hurtful and a very bad omen. Wilson has come a long way over the last several years. A company that had a stigma for years with golfers thinking that the brand had become a "box store brand". Something like this could sway golfers to lean another way when thinking about buying a new driver. Granted, as I stated in my post-show re-cap I think Wilson went out of their lane on the price point. Sure, Triton might be worth it but sitting on racks next to M2 or Epic in the same vicinity puts the Wilson product at a disadvantage.

Some readers might find my comments unfair and some are almost certainly to disagree with me. But I'm okay with that because I have no issue sharing my opinions. My mission statement for my blog and reviews was and always will be to speak my mind (and the total truth) on my views of golf products. It who I am and it is who I will be. Unbiased.

Until The Next Tee!