2008 GRIP Wedges & Hybrids

Here they are folks...some early pictures of our 2008 GRIP Hybrids & Wedges

Road Show

It is that time of year - Road Show! We arrived late last night in Fairifax, VA for the Greater Washington Golf Show. It was about 7.5 hours from our offices in Northborough, MA but we had to stop in Hartford to pick up more clubs from our warehouse and to ship out several orders from our surprisingly successful dead of winter/post holiday driver sale.

A lot of people came up very big for us with this show including:

• Irene (GRIP Marketing and PR) for organizing, planning, and getting us ready for the shows. Irene planned this show with amazing detail right down to the amount of extension cord we need by inches.


• Ken from Pin Hi golf Crafters in West Boylston, MA for building 12 sets of irons and a ton of drivers in 40 hours.


• Steve, our club builder in Hartford for doing the same as Ken (he actually beat Ken by 26 drivers but we are not counting)


• Maureen from GRIP for bringing a GPS and keeping me company for 9 hours of travel and packing boxes in the freezing cold outside the Hartford Warehouse.


• John W from Ryder in Auburn, MA for a great deal on a truck for all the shows. It wasn't the most comortable truck but we got here.


• My wife for taking care of the kids, house, and cats while I sel golf clubs every weekend until late March. Additionally she provides a ton of support for me!


• Paul from East Coast Golf (where our office are) for always helping out when we need it.


• The Hyatt Fair Lakes in Fairfax for providing a great place to stay at an amazing rate thanks to Hotwire.com


• Mike Blair for hooking us up with an amazing Driving range 10'x10'x10' for our booth and Dancin' Dogg for setting us up with a top notch indoor golf simulator for the range.

I thing that covers it. If you are in the Washington DC are we hope to see you at the golf expo.

We have to unload the truck around 9:00 AM in the rain - I hope we get into the garage. I will be posting more pictures and notes from the show...stay tuned.

Driving range

Paul From East Coast Golf cut the PVC pipe that we need to build our driving range. He used the spare pieces , an extra scrap of net and the corners that we will need to build the driving range at the Greater Washington Golf Show to build a small model of what it should look like. The little action figure represents me standing around selling Wide Sole iron sets.

Charlie Mandel

I had a great lunch with Charlie Mandel from Rankmark. We are looking forward to participationg in the 2008 Rankmark Club Testing

Escalade golf cart

Now I am being seen in one. I wonder how many people actually drive around in an Escalade golf cart. I am sure it is cool if you are famous to be seen in something like this. What about the average person living in a gated community in Palm Beach or Miami?

On the subject of Cadillacs, I parked next to a brand new Cadillac CTS today. I am know that Cadillac is targeting the "30 Something" market with these new vehicles. If by any chance some marketing genuis from General Motors is reading this, you should probably consider having me drive around in one for free. I am the young him thirty-something entrepreneurial type that you are targeting. When the world sees the President of GRIP golf in this car it will positively affect your sales. I have an IPOD and look how many other people got them too.

I absolutely love the CTS. Much cooler than a Lexus, BMW or any other comparable mid-sized Yuppie sled in the same class. The car is pure cool.

Fancy carts

These carts at the pga show seem like something i should be seen in

2008 PGA Expo Orlando

2008 PGA Show

I arrived at the 2008 PGA Expo yesterday at 4:00 PM via Jet Blue from Boston. Thank you Jet Blue for your fine television services. I did spend most of the time listening to the CNBC and watching what is left of my money disappear in the markets and sending panicky emails to my staff about the 1000 little things that I am worried about (how many wood ferrules do we have left?).

My new friend Dave Frem, the owner of one of my favorite golf courses, Cyprian Keyes in Boylston, MA was on the plane with me. I have traveled extensively for business. Standard & Poor's had me living in NY 2-3 nights a week at one point and my prior job had me on the road 4 days a week. I learned many things including when to let a person relax and spend some time alone with their Ipod and maybe a movie. Dave is a very nice guy with a young family like me - he is probably looking forward to a little R&R during his trip. R&R does not include a guy like me swapping seats to sit next to him and rambling about the golf business for 2.5 hours. He got on the plane wearing the Ipod - when someone does that it means you should say hello and then treat them as if they are invisible until they take off the Ipod and approach you. It is the proper protocol. Dave and I caught up in the airport it was good to see him. We are hosting a tournament at his course this spring.

I felt good arriving in Orlando. I got my bossy emails to my staff over with and I feel ready to stomp around the PGA Expo for a few days. We do not have a booth at the show. We are still sticking to our guns and selling our fine golf clubs directly to our customers. The show is very important for The Savvy Golfer, because we find our new vendors at the show and set up new relationships.

I have several meetings for GRIP including a few media conversations, and a meeting with our new shaft supplier, Swing Science . Mike Blair arrives tonight and leaves tomorrow evening. He schedules a bunch of meetings over a short period of time and jets right back to Hartford. Hopefully he has the final 2008 Hybrid and Wedge samples on him. We are a little behind schedule as always.
We both have full schedules for the show.
Thrifty rent a car upgraded me from a compact to a Chrysler 300C. As cool of a car as it is, I bet it will go through a bit more gas than the little Hyundai I was supposed to get. I have Check out the snap of the "Fly" car.
The Wyndham Hotel in Orlando is fine for $75 per night. Originally they also upgraded me for free to a "Lagoon View Room" but they forgot to mention that it was a smoking room. I was moved to a room with a view of the parking lot, the highway and a liquor store. The room is adequate and it has 2 double beds so Mike can crash here. I have no idea how Expedia gave it 3 stars but it is close to the convention center and fairly comfortable.
Once I settled in, called home and checked email. I ventured out to Subway for a 6" ham and turkey. I finished the night by finally figuring out how to sync my new Verizon Wireless SMT 5800 "Smart Phone" so I can check email at the show today. I am also using the 2 Mexapixel camera on the phone to take my pictures this week.

After a 30 minute workout and a coffee I am headed out the door to the show now. More later...