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...

Returns and Refunds

Fortunately we are in a nice position where we do not get too many returns/refunds. Maybe it is that the clubs are as good as advertised, maybe people give them to friends if they don't like them. I like to think it is the former rather than the latter. Anyhow, with our online business, we do not retain any customer credit card information. This assures that if anyone ever hacked into our database they would get some information that is slightly less useful than what you would find in the white pages except you might get someones preferred lie angle details.

I bring up this point because when we do receive a return or exchange we contact our customer immediately to let them know that we need their credit card information to process the refund.

I received a voice mail this morning from a customer that we tried to reach several times so that we could arrange a refund. Rather than calling us back, he waited 60 days and called his credit card company instead of calling us back. After he called his credit card company he finally got in touch with us. Rather than following up on the refund he told me that we were "reported" to the credit card company. I asked why he did not just call us first to get the refund. I did not get a response. I promptly refunded the order - no questions asked per our policy. Now I have a packet on my desk from the credit card company that will require a ton of paperwork and phone calls to resolve. I have to say, it is a frustrating start to the week.

I would be elated if I found out that the online merchants I deal with discard my credit card information. I always shake my head when someone unloads on us because we don't keep their private financial information in a database.

If you need a good reason to get upset with us here are the top 5 (not that any of these EVER happen):

1. club missing from order
2. UPS Tracking Number not showing any detail
3. you forgot my free ______
4. forgot to ship a head cover
5. Bought something that went on sale shortly after

New Product Development 2008 - Test Process

Mike Blair (Director of Club Development) and I are finalizing the GRIP new products for 2008. We have had a lot of debate about our new "rusty" wedge. We settled on a nice oil can finish and Mike was very vocal that we allow the finish to rust thereby creating natural spin while maintaining a conforming club.

A lunch meeting to discuss the wedge design

I am always concerned about durability and customer perception. I read about a lot of golf companies that use robots to hit golf balls and can simulate all sorts of scenarios. I don't have robots. What I do have is an office that overlooks an 80 bay driving range at the East Coast Golf Academy in Northborough, MA and I have New England Weather. Believe me, all you need is amateur golfers and changing weather conditions to really test a golf club.

Our process starts by making up a dozen or so wedges and letting customers try them out and getting their feedback. We were fairly confident about the design, aesthetics, and playability of the wedges and the feedback from the testers was great. It reminded me of the Fairway Wood trials which went really well last year. People wanted to buy the prototype fairway woods on the spot. Since we could not sell them, we had a few stolen.

The second part of the process is putting the wedges in the "free rental" bin at the driving range. They are mixed in with old wooden woods, damaged knock-offs and other junk clubs. Most of the people that use them come to the driving range with no clubs of their own and really beat the free rentals up. If our clubs survive a month "in the bin" we know they are durable. This assures that in the absolute worse usage circumstances that the finis is strong and they will not chip, dent or damage easily. It is our golf version of a vehicle head-on collision test for safety.

The oil can finish passed the test as did the quality of the carbon steel - which we knew because our CNC Milled Wedges use the same steel.

The final test is to put one club head on my deck for one month to endure the rain, sun and whatever else comes out of the sky. I was actually concerned after the test that the club had too much rust and that the finish was not rusting on the surface but it was decomposing. Mike proved me wrong by lightly wiping the wedge down with steel wool for 10 seconds. The finish and integrity of the club were in great shape. We placed a factory order shortly after the meeting.

My only open concern is whether our customers will like the rust. I certainly do. I carried a rusty Vokey for many years.