thinking of golf
By Ed Gilbert, Head Thinker ed@absolutethinking.us
PING Is It:
“Patriotism and Club Fitting” Did you know
that Ping offers discounts on clubs to our troops? These are special people who put their life on the line to preserve our freedom on a daily basis. How cool is that? And rumor has it that Ping offers a free set of clubs to these courageous men and women who lose an appendage and are treated at a Veterans Administration Hospital in Arizona. This is a corporation who gets it. Corporate responsibility at its finest. Kudos Ping. Today I went down to the Edwin Watts shop in Casselberry and had Tom Murphy (a PGA Pro by the way) fit me with a set of golf clubs. Something I have not done in 40 years. As a matter of fact the first set of golf clubs I had fitted was at Edwin Watts in Ft. Walton Beach (where they started) out of this wooden shack. Yes Edwin was wearing his white belt back then. Another success story unto itself. I should wear a white belt. Man, have times have changed. Getting clubs fitted today involve computers, simulation of ball flight, club head speed, lie, shaft, flex and “a damn partridge in a pair tree.” So with steel shafts I felt like a loser. 18 yard loss on a 7 iron and everything left. I was like screw this, I’m quitting. Off to retirement home drooling in between meals. Then
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came graphite shafts! Oh yeah. 2-10 yards longer and straighter with the 7 iron and I’m cancelling my reservation. Tom Murphy you saved me. You don’t find PGA pros at the other competitors. They are just sales people moving merchandise. If there was one good and bad moment it was I am part of the 85% that need standard lies in their clubs (I hate not being special). The good news was that I could have them right then and there. Remember,
if you are like me; I am club trader because it has to be the arrow not the Indian. Right? If that were true I would be a scratch golfer. So if you trade in clubs, 85% of the buyers are just like you. I am such a good customer of Edwin Watts; my buddies are convinced that if a new club came out while I was playing, Edwin Watts would fly a helicopter to my country club and deliver it. I think Tom Murphy would do that. If not, I will become an off-site Edwin Watts re-seller out of my garage. Interesting, the only golf company in the stores today that has PRINTED literature about their products are Ping. What a concept! Something you can actually touch and read without having to download it using your own ink. People still do read printed material and some age groups actually talk to each other instead of texting!!!! Finally, I think Ping is it in the custom club fitting market. They really get it and everyone else has followed. The printed material, the color chart for which dot you are, in-store customfitting displays and not to forget “being good to our troops”. Everything else being equal, wouldn’t it be nice to support a company who gives back to our men and women in the military the way Ping does. Florida Golf Central • Volume 12, Issue 7