The High Heat Driver - Taking on the Big Boys

                                             

It takes brave souls in any business to take on the industry leaders, but in the golf business many would say you have to be certifiable. Well, crazy or not, two gentlemen, Dean Knuth and Steve Trattner decided to take on the behemoths of Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist and launch a very cool and effective new driver. It's called High Heat and it is already making waves in the business. I'm told their first production run is already sold out and more drivers are on the way. And that's because it performs even better than advertised.

Both Dean and Steve have a long history in the game of golf. Dean is the "Pope of Slope" and if you have a USGA approved handicap you know his work, if not his name. He's the math whiz from the USGA who came up with the rating and slope system used in modern handicapping. His resume contains many extraordinary accomplishments (you can read it here) and suffice to say it was just a matter of when, not if, he created a great driver. His business partner is Steve Trattner and for full disclosure Steve is a family friend. He and Dean worked together for many years at the USGA where Steve was the intellectual property attorney (imagine the fascinating documents that came across his desk during that time). So, you know the patents and intellectual property for High Heat were in the best of hands.

Dean at a demo day

I have worked with golf club manufacturers for many years, so I try not to get too caught up in the invented buzz words and marketing speak which invariably come with new clubs. For me, it's much more about understanding the tech without getting too wrapped up in the terminology. Look and feel mean more to me and these are tough concepts to sell, but are the most important factors to me when testing a club. So, let's get the tech bit out of the way. Thankfully and rather wisely High Heat has kept the marketing speak to a minimum  - they focus on High Heat having a deeper and lower center of gravity and a higher MOI than the major brands. 

That's all I need to know, as I understand both concepts. So that should lead to improved trajectory and longer distance, right? Well, in my tests both indoors on a launch monitor and outdoors where I was simply watching ball flight, the High Heat beat my existing Callaway RAZR Fit driver by a solid 10-15 yards and the flight dispersion with the Fujikura Pro 63 shaft straightened me up too!

The other really cool element is the no groove, shiny face that allows you to see where you actually strike the ball on the club face. It had the effect on me of focusing on a pure strike, rather than simply just trying to smash it - a strange calm took over and I started swinging instead of simply hitting, with very positive results! (See below - hard to shoot a great picture, but you get the idea!) I asked Dean about the smooth face for clarification and here's what he had to say,

"Another benefit of the mirror face is that it helps to lower backspin rates. Too much backspin causes distance loss. Lastly, there are seven zones of internal thinness behind the face for increasing the size of the sweet spot zone and putting grooves over this area would have created variability in performance."

If you would like to buy this great driver, go to the High Heat site where Dean and Steve have a MacDuff Golf special. In the "How did you hear about us?" section check the "MacDuff Golf" box and you'll get a $50 discount reducing the price from $399 to $349. You will love this driver! Read more about High Heat here.

The 2015 U.S. Open Poster by Lee Wybranski

The U.S. Open is almost upon us again and this year will be a fascinating test at Chambers Bay in the Pacific Northwest. This is the first time for the national championship in that part of the country and the USGA should be congratulated for their bold choice. The players, naturally, are already moaning and groaning about the golf course - most notably, those who haven't visited the site! Listen, I represented professional golfers for over a decade and have literally never been to a golf course where one of them wasn't complaining about something! Once they get there and see the Robert Trent Jones II golf course, which resembles, but isn't, a links golf course, all will be forgotten. These guys are so good that they can play anywhere, in any conditions and once again a champion will be crowned. I do know it's a tough walk for the crowd, so I'll be enjoying my Father's Day watching on television.

So, all of that brings me to the magnificent official poster for the event created by my friend, artist Lee Wybranski. Lee is based in the delightful town of Flagstaff, Arizona and this is his eighth poster celebrating the USGA' s premier event. Lee has always said that "the poster is an advertisement" and uses iconic imagery, as well as using strong copy lines to tell the story of the course and area. This year's story features the 16th hole and captures the Sounder train running along Puget Sound with the iconic "Lone Fir" tree in the distance. Look even closer and you will see a Seahawk in the clouds above the golf course and the snow capped Olympic Mountains in the distance. The poster is wonderfully observed and beautifully executed.

For the last couple of months we have been working with Lee to re-design his website and you can now see many originals, posters, prints, as well as his extraordinary brand and logo work on his new site here. The talent of Lee and his team knows no bounds and the depth of his work in the golf business is amazing. You may also be surprised to see his non-golf and special commission work that includes many special events and bold contemporary work.

You can visit Lee's new site here and buy the 2015 U.S. Open poster here.

The USGA Needs to Stay on Message (and Find Some Actors Who are Golfers!)

Any political pundit worth their salt will tell you that running a campaign is all about staying on message. Having sat through countless PSAs by the USGA during the U.S. Open telecasts, someone needs to remind the American governing body of the game this fact. With the game of golf losing players hand over fist over the last ten years, they (along with a number of the other alphabet soup governing bodies in golf, namely The PGA, PGA Tour, RandA) have seen fit to spend tens of millions of dollars on consultants who continue to massage their egos by convincing them that golf and growth should be in the same sentence.
During the NBC broadcast we were pummeled with three campaigns - Tee it Forward, Get Golf Ready and While We're Young. There were too many confusing messages and one of these blue blood consultants should stop hanging out at the Merion clubhouse, earn their pay and tell the USGA that one of these campaigns is enough. So, let's take a look at the campaigns and their effectiveness - or not!

Tee it Forward.

Featuring Jack Nicklaus, the concept is that all of us should move forward one set of tees and make the game more enjoyable. No argument here and something we do in our group regularly.

Outcome - Good ad, good execution, clear message.

Get Golf Ready

Featuring Tom Watson, this one encourages new players to pay $99 for a series of five lessons and have fun, fun fun! There is no mention really of how it all works and the feedback from many clubs is average at best. The program is often managed by the assistant pro, players come for one or two lessons and then what do they do? Where do they play?

Outcome - Poor ad, average execution, unclear message.

While We're Young

Who doesn't love CaddyShack and the thought of the blue blazers actually watching the movie is hilarious enough. But, and it's a huge but, on the week that the USGA rolled out the ads to everyone to encourage us to get moving on the golf course, their own tournament rounds averaged 5 hours and 15 minutes. And this in two and three balls...no slow play penalties, just the odd warning thrown around for affect.
And the ads themselves featuring Golf's "A" List throw up many questions.
1. Why do agencies continue to employ actors, not golfers? Just watch the actors (not the celebs) - they don't know how to hold a club, address a ball, even walk like a golfer. One would think that the USGA would do authenticity well....wrong! Clearly, they were led up the garden path by an ad agency that knew nothing about golf.
2. Ah, Clint Eastwood and Arnie. This one will be good! Nope, they are never in frame together and it's no wonder that Clint is playing slowly, he is using a Tour Pro's bag at Pebble - where you can't actually carry your own bag. Again, just appalling in its lack of details and credibility.
3. Annika does a great acting job in hers but be honest, the first time you saw it did you know what she was doing with her hand? It's not until the Butch and Paula ad, which has a sub title explaining the Rodney Dangerfield "move" that you can understand what Annika is doing. Only then can you go back to Annika and say, oh I see!
4. The other Arnie ad features the (non golfer) actors pretending to be golfers...badly! The guy is thirsty and looking for refreshments? Who says that on a golf course? And, once again it's blindingly obvious that Arnie's piece to camera was shot with no other actors present. Having been told by Arnie "While we're young" the actor walks onto the tee holding his club only as non-golfers do. I know, I'm a nit picking, pedantic, old sod - but credibility and authenticity are key here and these ad fails on both counts.

Outcome - Poor ads, awful execution, mixed message.

Let's hope the USGA can decide which message is most important to them and focus on that in the coming months and leave the others on the shelf. And when making golf ads, use real golfers, will ya!

"It's just a bit of a mess,” said Rory McIlroy.

A very accurate quote by the world number one. The mess he is talking about is putter anchoring - the hottest topic in golf right now. Following the decision, a couple of months ago, by the USGA and R&A to ban anchoring the putter in 2016, every golfer on the planet seems to have an opinion. The governors of the rules strangely allowed a 90-day window to hear opinions from professional tours, amateur bodies and anyone who could type or write. It's almost as if they didn't have the strength of their own convictions and this hesitancy has opened a huge can of worms.

With only a few days to go before the 90-day window expired, the politically trained Commish, Tim Finchem came forward with the views of the PGA Tour. There has been much discussion on the pro tours amongst the players, including those guys like Tim Clark and Carl Petersson who have used anchored long putters for years. Some are opposed and some are for it, but is seems the majority are against the ban. Cue The Tim!

And when did The Commish choose to announce the defection - yes, that's right on the NBC telecast during the final of the Accenture World Matchplay. Oh, the sponsor must have been thrilled at that decision, but clearly Finchem was making a big statement and on live TV. He knew what he was doing and the coming days and weeks are tantamount to a stand off between the organizations. The governing bodies on one side, perhaps joined by The European Tour, Augusta National and on the other side The PGA Tour and the PGA Of America who are supporting the Commish. Could this really be the start of bifurcation? But not as anticipated - this would be bifurcation between tournaments!

So, potentially a player couldn't use an anchored putter in the Masters, then back to the Tour with a different anchored stroke, over to The Open Championship and no anchored stroke, onto the PGA Championship and anchoring again....if he couldn't putt well before, this will really get in his kitchen! Clearly, some kind of solution will emerge, but I don't see the Commish backing down any time soon, so this is the first real test of Mike Davis' leadership at the USGA. Watch this space!

Slow Play - Keep It Moving People!

The USGA's new President, Glen Nager has been vocal recently about the curse of the game in America, namely slow play. It was the main topic in his recent speech at the USGA annual soiree and he was quoted as saying:

"Slow play has now become one of the most significant threats to the game's health" and "six hour rounds threaten to drive players away from the game"

Well, let's ignore the fact that new players are not coming to the game, so presumably he is talking about existing golfers leaving the game. But his point is well made, that slow play in America is an epidemic within club golfers. A recent experience highlights this fact - A group of us were at a wonderful golf course in the Pinehurst area, Tobacco Road. Now, we are all reasonable players and in front of us were two groups who literally could not hit the ball and despite our protestations with the clueless marshalls no one was asked to leave, no one was let through, no action whatsoever. And so after 5 1/2 hours for 13 holes we walked off. We raced to the airport, likely never to return.

This is fascinating on many levels.

1. How does a golf course not kick off players who can't actually play?
2. How does a golf course allow guys making $0 manage the golf course?
3. How does the Pro not know what is going on when his 0730 is still not in the clubhouse at 130?

Growing up playing golf in England and Scotland, it was the norm to walk the golf course comfortably in 3 hours. During tournaments (in the days when I could actually play!) rounds would creep up to 3 1/2 hours. This is still the case in the UK, the land of fewer carts, cheaper golf and less GPS devices.

So, the question is what happened and when did times start creeping up and up and is anyone to blame? And what can be done about it? Well, here are some random musings on these questions.

There's no doubt the professional tours are in part to blame - Tour players continue to take an age and the Oxford shirts at PVB just will not discipline anyone, even though everyone knows who the culprits are. Can you believe the last guy to get fined a shot was Glen Day (also known as All Day!) in 1995. Twenty years and no one has been out of position, not one...amazing!

I didn't grow up playing in a cart and for me it is THE worst possible way to play the game. I get it - they generate revenue and some people do need them. But if you have 2 good legs, get off your xxxx and walk - it's quicker and healthier. More and more clubs are giving players the option to walk or take a pull cart. And don't tell me carts are quicker than walking - they aren't!

I would posit that US golfers have considerably less knowledge of the etiquette of the game than those in other countries and this impacts the speed of play dramatically. No one is questioning your manhood if you let some one who is playing faster - everyone wins and yet is really happens here.

Maybe the "clubs for profit" model is to blame? Squeezing more tee times into an hour just to drive incremental revenue. Again, that model doesn't exist at most clubs in the UK as they are private member clubs without tee sheets and designed to end the year with $1 in the bank. They will gladly accept outside play, even at the very best, such as Muirfield, but you better keep up with the group in front or you really will be politely asked to leave.

Some organizations in golf have been trying for many years to address the problem addressed by Mr. Nager. Namely the American Junior Golf Association who have a strict tournament policy of ready golf, move onto the next tee when finished, tee off when you are ready regardless of who won the hole - all of which have contributed to them cutting 30-45 minutes from playing times and made for a more enjoyable game. I wish clubs would adopt a similar model - maybe the AJGA should rollout their tournament model in conjunction with the USGA to clubs across the country?

I think we all know there is no silver bullet here - it is going to take a concerted effort from everyone to speed up play and to make the game more enjoyable for playing partners and those behind you! It's great that Mr. Nager has chosen to highlight this huge problem during his tenure and use some of the USGA's considerable resources to create greater awareness and hopefully some practical solutions.

I have been vocal on this subject before - You can read my slow play blog from April of last year - The Curse of the Game and 5 Culprits here)

US Amateur at Chambers Bay

...and very fine it looks too. I'm not a huge RTJ2 fan but he does look to have created a terrific looking golf course in Washington state. I'm sure the USGA will learn a tremendous amount prior to the U.S. Open being played there in 2015, albeit at a different time of the year. The course is playing firm and fast and with "brown being the new green" golf course looking great. It's wonderful to watch the amateurs playing quickly, for the most part. Just a shame that the geniuses at the Golf Channel saw fit to show the beginning of the quarterfinal matches and not show the end. Now why would we want to see the end of those matches when we could watch Phil miss the cut in The Barclays. Are you kidding? who is in charge of scheduling in O town? A 5 year old? Remember a few weeks back they cut away from the French Open playoff to show Tiger play the front 9 when not in contention. What's up (The) Golf Channel?