PGA Tour Pro Robert Garrigus taking the TaylorMade R9 SuperTri out for a test drive. According to PGATour.com, his average driving distance is 289.5 and in the video he was cranking it over 300 yards.

I’m a pretty big fan of the company, they make quality golf products. Currently in my bag I have the 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons and the TaylorMade Penta TP Golf Ball. A new TaylorMade Driver sure would round out the golf bag nicely!

This driver looks pretty sweet, see below press release for more info.

TaylorMade Introduces R9 SuperTri and R9® SuperTri TP Drivers

First Drivers to Incorporate Movable Weight Technology and Flight Control Technology in a 460cc Club head

Carlsbad, Calif. (January 13, 2010) – First came the R9 driver, which combined Flight Control Technolog (FCT) and Movable Weight Technology™ (MWT®) with three movable weights in a 420cc head. Next came the R9 460 driver with FCT alone, only in a larger and more forgiving 460cc head. “Those two drivers were created because TaylorMade didn’t yet have the ability to combine both FCT and MWT in a 460cc head,” said Todd Beach, TaylorMade’s senior director of metalwood development. “A year later, we do.”

Introducing the R9 SuperTri driver, which combines FCT and MWT with three movable weights in a 460cc head, marking the ultimate unification of TaylorMade’s major driver technologies with maximum size to deliver massive distance and forgiveness.

The R9 SuperTri was made possible by two crucial developments by TaylorMade engineers that saved enough weight to allow FCT and MWT to coexist in a 460cc head. The first is better, more widespread use of TaylorMade’s Ultra-Thin Wall technology throughout the clubhead. The second is a new, lighter FCT sleeve that does everything the former one did while weighing three grams less.

FCT + MWT + 460cc = Supreme Adjustability, Distance and Forgiveness

The impact of incorporating FCT and MWT into a 460cc head is enormous. The larger head is more forgiving, and its CG is two millimeters farther back in the head than the R9 driver, making it easier to launch the ball higher and with more spin, helping players gain more distance. At the same time, the inclusion of MWT with three weights promotes a side-to-side trajectory change of up to 75 yards.

Inverted Cone Technology (ICT) is also a crucial piece of the R9 SuperTri’s makeup. Though it’s milled onto the back of the clubface where it’s out of sight, ICT plays a critical role by dramatically increasing the area of the clubface that delivers fast ball speed, promoting more distance on off-center hits.

R9 SuperTri Features Reshaped Crown, Lighter Shaft

The R9 SuperTri’s clubhead is sleeker than previous R9 driver heads, thanks to a reshaped crown that reduces wind resistance. Though the shape is more aerodynamic, the face is the deepest (62mm) TaylorMade has ever incorporated into a driver with MWT, and is deeper than most other competitive drivers currently on the market. Visually, the R9 SuperTri clubhead is a killer, thanks to its new shape and its black-on-black color scheme, including a black PVD clubface last seen in the r7 SuperQuad.

The R9 SuperTri is equipped with a Fujikura Motore 60-gram shaft, which is five grams lighter than the Motore 65 used in the R9 driver. In addition to being lighter, the Motore 60 makes it easier to launch the ball on a higher launch angle and at a higher spin-rate, which helps many players achieve longer carry for increased distance.

R9 SuperTri: The Most Advanced TaylorMade Driver Ever

The R9 SuperTri unites four viable performance technologies: FCT, MWT, UTW and ICT. Never before have four such impactful, performance-enhancing technologies been combined so effectively in a single driver. Plus, there’s the superior aerodynamics of the new crown shape.

The R9 SuperTri and R9 SuperTri TP are the most advanced, highest-performing drivers TaylorMade has ever developed. The distance-producing power and shot-straightening abilities created by their combined clubhead size, clubhead design, performance technologies and shaft specifications make them clubs that no golfer should be without.

The R9 SuperTri includes three weights – 16-gram, 1-gram, 1-gram – and an FCT torque wrench. It’s available in four lofts — 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, 11.5 – and five shaft flexes — L, M, R, S, X. Street price is $399. The R9 SuperTri TP features the same head as the R9 SuperTri but with a choice of ten premium shafts including the Aldila Voodoo, Mitsubishi Fubuki and Matrix Ozik. Choosing a custom TP shaft adds an additional $100 to the cost of the club. It becomes available starting on February 19, 2010.

At the 2010 PGA Merchandise show, Golf Gators,  unveiled their 2010 Spackler Line of Golf Flip Flops.

Golf Gators Improves Comfort and Ergonomics with 2010 Spackler Line of Golf Flip Flops

“World’s First Golf Flop” more comfortable than ever

Golf Gators’ Spackler flip flops are the comfortable, durable and affordable golf sandals that are as fun to

wear as they are to play in. Ergonomically designed from space age anti-microbial materials, the 2010 Spackler line-up from Golf Gators offers the support, stability, and traction required to get around even the toughest course with ease, style and laid-back swagger.

The Spackler is a super comfortable flip flop that features a unique toe bumper and the exclusive Golf Gators Steady Outsole designed provide lateral support and stability for even the biggest hitter. Since golfers tend to play their best when their relaxed, the 2010 Spackler features:

o An updated footbed that improves ergonomics, stability and comfort

o New colors combinations including hot pink and checkered

o A new spike design that integrates Champs Stinger spikes for better control and grip on the course.

The 2010 Spackler still has the patented Golf Tee Rocket Launcher in the heel. Soft nylon straps are comfortable and add to that “laid-back” look. Available in both men’s and women’s sizes, the Spackler comes in a variety of color schemes, including, Hot Pink, Black and White Checkered, Medium Brown, and Midnight Black.

These must-have shoes come with a one-year unconditional replacement guarantee and an MSRP of $49.99

“While we may be the ultra-causal golf shoe company, we’re extremely serious when it comes to building quality, comfortable and stylish shoes.” said Michael Ray, managing partner of Golf Gators, LLC. “The innovations to the 2010 Spackler line were a direct result of feedback we received from the legion of passionate Golf Gators fans.”

I’ve request a pair of the brown golf gators to review and I should have them soon. To be completely honest, I’m not  sold on the idea of golf flip flops or golf sandals for that matter, but I’m willing to step outside of my comfort zone and give them a shot.

Geographically, they’d be a perfect fit, because Orlando golf in the summer can be brutal and there’s nothing worse than hot, sweaty, stinky(not mine ofcourse.. ),  wrinkly feet after a round. What concerns me most about wearing golf flip flops is stability and support. I’m no expert, so perhaps one of you footwear studs could chime in, but seems to me that a soft nylon strap in place of a solid piece of sturdy material, could have some negative effects.

I would love to hear your comments on this!

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-Dave

What began as a friendly round of golf between two twitter rivals, has blown up into the twitter event of the CENTURY (echoing voice). Coming soon to a tweet near you,

CKJR ‘10 Golf Tournament

features two highly skilled combatants!

In the Red Corner, weighing at a slimming ### pounds of pure talent, skill and tenacity, @TheChristinaKim!!

In the Blue Corner weight in at a heafty 299 lbs of pure golf awesomeness!! @JohnRaser

The event is going down at an undisclosed time at an undisclosed location with the winner gaining bragging rights and having the loser caddy for them during one of their upcoming golf tournaments!

Vote on who you think will win!! Poll will close Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 10:00am!

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Those who vote for the winner will have Ice Cream Sundays purchased for them by the tournaments loser….

Follow all the updates at #CKJR

I thought the days of discrimination were over…

Recently, there’s been a lot of buzz going on about the 2010 Bridgestone J38 Irons. I spoke to quite a few folks who had hit them out at demo day during the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, and not a single person was disappointed. Most said they were probably one of the best sets of 2010.  They released two sets in the J38 series. Both are designed for mid handicap to professional golfers.

Bridgestone J38 Cavity Back Irons

• Midsize premium forged 1020 carbon steel

• Magnesium composite enhances perimiter weighting for more forgiveness on off-center hits and dampens vibration for better feel

• Tapered sole design for versatility in shot making

• Trailing and Leading edge relief for better performance from a variety of lies

• Project X™ flighted shaft

• Golf Pride® Tour Velvet® Grip

• Available Right Hand Only: 3, 4-PW

I was extremely interested in trying out the dual cavity backs, they’re a bit more forgiving than the standard cavity backs, but they still retain that forged workability & shot shaping.

Bridgestone J38 Dual Cavity Back Irons

• Midsize premium forged 1020 carbon steel

• Dual Pocket cavity benefits:

• Removes discretionary weight to the perimeter for more forgiveness

• Provides more mass directly behind the hitting area for better feel

• Tapered sole design for versatility in shot making

• Trailing and Leading edge relief for better performance from a variety of lies

• Project X™ flighted shaft

• Golf Pride® Tour Velvet® Grip

• Available Right Hand Only: 3, 4-PW

Imagine my disappointment when I went to Bridgestone’s website to learn more about the J38’s only to find that they’re right handed only! Really? Can you believe that?

Left handed golfers (like myself) only make up a small percentage (modified due to lack of specific %’s) of the total golf market. It seems to me that although it’s not the majority, it is still a good chunk of potential consumers. To alienate them all by refusing to make clubs they can hit seems dumb.

Now, I know I’m slightly biased, in that I’m in the offended party, but I would think that if I were a club manufacturer like Bridgestone, meaning that I’m not one of the top dog club makers out there, I would want to do everything possible to get new and recurring customers, including making clubs for both sides of the ball.

It’s not only the irons, they did an all around F-you Lefties, the Bridgestone J38 Drivers and the Bridgestone J38 Fairway Woods are also right hand only…

Ah well.. That’s enough of my ranting, me and my fellow lefties need to need to catch a ride sitting in the back of the bus and drink from our segregated water fountains…..

There’s still plenty of other companies who “swing” both ways, I still love the 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons!

Have a great weekend!

-Dave

I picked up a Spotless Swing Golf Towel at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show and used it during the 2010 Battle of the Golf Blogs out at Falcon’s Fire.

This is a very cool product. It is a multipurpose golf towel that’s three functions in one. The outside of the towel is used to wipe your face, hands, grips, ice off your beer, etc..

The inside is used to clean your grooves and clean your clubs. There’s a pocket on the inside of the towel that has two different textures. There’s an abrasive microbrush surface that serves as a replacement for your grooves brush and then a second surface to wipe the club clean. The microbrush surface is like a synthetic steel wool that does a great job of cleaning the grooves. I’m still mystified at how they were able to incorporate the grooves brush into the towel. At first I thought it was two pieces of cloth sewn together, but it’s not. Somehow, they were able to stitch the abrasive surface into the inside of the towel and still leave the outside for wiping your face or whatever..

One of my biggest complaints about having a towel and a groove brush on the bag is that all the time, the steel side of the groove brush catches the towel and creates an annoying tangle that usually results in a rip in my golf towel, usually on the “clean” area reserved for my face. The Spotless Swing towel eliminates that problem as well as the need for a “clean” area of a towel.. the entire outside is now reserved for that! Also, the grooves brushes suck because after a couple of uses, the steel gets all tangled together and you end up trying to clean your grooves with a block of metal with a couple of stray strands that typically prick your fingers when you’re not paying attention.

Something else I really liked about the towel is the size.  You ever experience playing golf after a big rain and when you go to wipe your clubs, you find that the tires from the cart have splashed mud and water all over your newly laundered towel? Happens to me all the time and it’s one of the most infuriating experiences. The Spotless Swing is long enough to serve it’s purpose while being short enough to stay in the “splash free” zone.

Back to the Microbrush surface, it does a thorough job of cleaning the grooves and unlike a wire brush, it doesn’t scratch up your clubs. I’m hitting the 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons and they have a beautiful sleek gun metal finish and about three weeks ago, I was idly scrubbing the grooves on my six iron with a wire brush and when I looked down at the club face, I had ruined the finish by adding a billion or so scratches.. I was relieved to find out that the towel didn’t do the same.

The towel will run you about $19.95, it comes in graphite black or classic red and they’re going to be releasing other colors down the road. The towel is machine washable, although they recommend you don’t wash it with fabric softener. There’s also a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if the towel doesn’t meet your expectations, they’ll gladly give you a full refund.

Check it out, I’m certain you won’t be disappointed.

I found a really cool golf fitness product while at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, it’s called a FIT for Golf training ball.  It’s a six pound medicine ball with eight different exercises illustrated on the ball. The FIT stands for “Fitness Illustrated Training.”

During my visit, I met and spoke with co-creator of the FIT for Golf training ball, Mr. John Ondrush. John’s been in the golf fitness business for over 15 years and has trained professional and amateur golfers alike. Last year he was the official trainer and physical therapist for the 2009 US. Open. In other words, John knows his stuff. Here’s what he had to say about the FIT training ball.

“…bottom line is that from a pro golfer to an amateur golfer we all need to make the same movements and get into the same positions. We wanted to come up with a simple fitness product that is going to be able to get everybody to exercise golf specific muscles. Not only are the exercises for golf fitness, they have a direct correlation to the top eight common  swing flaws.

The number one swing flaw is loss of posture. 75% of amateurs lose their posture, so an example of an exercise to use to correct this would be the five iron drill. The five iron drill is setting up in address position, staying in that  position and slamming the medicine ball up and down using your muscles and maintaining that spine angle, where most golfers are lifting up and moving.

There are three physical components relative to the golf swing to make the golfer better. Whether your Tiger, Ernie, or Phil, the three components are stability, balance and flexibility. The FIT for golf ball and these exercises are going to incorporate all three of those components into your workout program in eight exercises. No poster, no video, no illustrations that you have to look at and follow, it’s all right here on the ball in front of you and you can take it anywhere.

Every Exercise is going to help every component of your swing and it’s also going to get you into shape. If you’re not in shape, your game is going to suffer because when you physically fatigue, you mentally fatigue and we all know that golf is 90% mental. So, we’ve come up with a product that’s really going to help every area that the golfer needs to physically play the game better.

Golf pros are putting this in their shop and they’re actually using it as a training aid. So if there’s an instructor that can’t get a guy to load into his right side, he will tell the golfer to do the step and load drill which is stepping into your right side and loading. That golfer never knew what it felt like before to get to that right side and load and now they’re saying “wow” holding the ball, it’s accentuating the movement and they gain a better understanding of what that feels like. They do the exercise enough times, muscle memory will step in when there’s a club in the golfers hand.

So after 15 years of training golfers I took my eight most popular exercises and my eight most common swing faults and integrated the exercises with the swing faults and made a stupid simple program that anyone can follow.

If you happen to have one of these swing faults we tell you to concentrate on that exercises and do that one three times more than you do the other exercises on the ball. That’s what the pros are doing and they’re realizing that a lot of swing faults are due to a physical restriction in the golfers body.

With these exercises, just doing these simple exercises will help strengthen, stretching out the right muscles and giving the golfer the balance they need to be more physically capable to play the game and this is the direction the game is going.

Equipment and instruction can take you so far, but as Tiger says “the most important piece of equipment is your body and if your body doesn’t work, nothing else is going to happen.” There’s where we’re moving with this whole thing. Whether you’re a 30 handicap or a 2, whether you’re 90 or 19 you can take this ball and get through the work out program and it’s not that difficult and it’s ten to 15 minutes.

If I do this exercise Program, how soon will I notice improvement?

Depends on how often you do the exercises. If you do it one day a week it’s going to be two months, two days a week a month & half. My suggestion is a three day a week program and you’re going to start seeing considerable results within a month to six weeks, because your body is going to start remembering what muscles it needs to turn your back swing, what muscles it needs to shift your weight and what muscles it uses to stay and maintain posture.

With every exercise we’re working on the three components, strength & stability, flexibility and balance.”

Yeah, I’m pretty psyched about this product.

John gave me one at the show to try and review. I’m on a 30 plan, working the exercises five days a week and after working with it for three days, I have some good expectations.

Stay tuned for more 2010 PGA Merchandise Show and Golf Fitness posts!

While at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, I visited the Bettinardi booth and had the awesome opportunity to have a chat with Bob Bettinardi to discuss the company and their new 2010 series putters. Prior to the show, they sent me one of their 2010 Bettinardi BB1 Putters to try out and review. You can read the review here…

2010 Bettinardi BB1 Putter Review

On with the Interview!

OGB: Tell us about the company.
BB: Bettinardi first opened 1999 and in 2001 we signed a deal with Ben Hogan to make putters for them under the Bettinardi/Ben Hogan name. The contract ended when Spalding (who owned Ben Hogan) went into a Chapter 11 in 2004. In 2005, we signed a contract with Mizuno, dual branding  with Bettinardi/Mizuno. In 2009 our contract was up for renewal and I decided to opt out and go out on my own again. That’s how Bettinardi got to where it is now.

It’s been a great six months since I’ve been on my own and I’m very excited about it. Overwhelmingly, it’s been a huge success for Bettinardi because I’m able to do the things I want to do, being that it’s my own company again. We have a great distribution channel in the overseas markets and domestic, we just hired 15-18 sales reps, so it’s going very very well.

OGB: What was your motivation for getting into designing putters?
BB: Well, probably  just like you, I’m an avid golfer. I saw something, an opportunity,  I already had the machines at my disposal, I own a manufacturing machine shop. One of the things that you’re going to find different about Bettinardi that no other putter manufacturer can claim, is the fact that I do own my own shop. Most, if not all the other putter manufacturers have to go outside to another company to get their product made. Bettinardi owns their own shop, my office is 20 feet from the manufacturing floor, it’s very important. It helps with quality control because everything is made onsight, not six thousand miles away.

OGB: Are there any putter designers that influenced you as you were getting into the business?
BB: I don’t think there has been any one designer that influenced me, there’s been some designs, such as the Karsten Solheim design with the Ping answer, I think that’s affected almost every designer. The thing that separates Bettinardi from all the putter designers is the way our product is made. We designed and patented the one piece technology, where by, you start out with a block of steel and everything is milled. There is no welding, no investment castings, everything in the way we make our product is what separates us from all the rest.

OGB: What’s your philosophy behind designing putters?
BB: My philosophy behind designing putters? I go to the PGA Tour, go to where the best putters in the world are playing. I work with the tour players, listen to the tour players and then go back and design, construct, mill, shape and grind what they want. From there I end up getting my production series lines that I then sign to the general public.

OGB: What are the attributes to a good putter?
BB: Aesthetics, flat face, heel toe weighting, balance, feel. The feel is unsurpassed in a Bettinardi because of the way it’s made. Processes that other manufacturers use, can cause air pockets (porosity) hard spots, chill spots, etc… When you have a Bettinardi in your hand, we’re talking about a truly custom made, milled from one piece of metal, which is going to give you the best feel because there’s no disconnect.

OGB: How important are the aesthetics of a putter?
BB: Aesthetics are the most important part for Bob Bettinardi, because aesthetics is something that I want the golfer to be able to look down at that putter and think that I can make a putt with it. That’s how I want golfers to perceive my product. I’m not sure this is one of your questions, but when the general public picks up a putter, he should be looking at a putter that looks good to his eye and not everyone’s eye is the same. There are golfers who like putters that are over-sized, the MOI putters, there are golfers who play the little blade, the 8802 style putter, it’s all a matter of personal preference and we’ve tried to accommodate for that.

OGB: Now the putter face, tell me about that, the honeycomb design?
BB: It came out of a need to make the face flatter, in my old ways of machining, I used to just mill horizontally across the face with a skim mill and I found that it left a little concaveness in the face. So, we developed a vertical mill, and we come down almost like a sewing machine and use a small jewelers bit to come down flat on the face. I was able to measure that and the face had no more concaveness and was perfectly flat.

OGB: I read somewhere that the actual honeycomb was not the intent of the milling, it was an aftereffect that became sort of a trademark for you, is that true?
BB: Are you talking about the honeycomb? Yeah, absolutely, like I just said it was more a need to say, lets try something new to get this face flatter.

OGB: I was talking to some guys and I was saying that I didn’t understand the reasoning that it makes it flatter, but they brought up a good point about the dimples in the ball fit to the honeycomb face better, any truth to that?
BB: Well, I don’t think there’s any…. well, you know what? I’m not going to deny somebody for saying that, but I don’t see any of that in my testing, that has an effect on the ball, even with grooves, I don’t personally feel that the grooves gets the ball rolling faster. I think if there’s anything to get the ball rolling faster, it’s the perfect loft on a putter, whether it’s 2-3-4 degrees. Again, it’s all personal how you hold the putter. It’s not necessarily the face of the club, the face of the club needs to be flat, the honeycomb, for me at least, produces a very flat face.

OGB: Why did you decide to go green grass and selected club fitters?
BB: I think the reasoning behind that is that it’s a high end product. I think we have a better chance for the assistant or the head pro to show the product to their members. I also think the club fitters are going to be selective on who they show the putters to and explain to them that this product is made the right way, this product is made in America, this product is awesome and these are the reasons why. I think we’ll have more traction than going mass retail.

OGB: What’s your favorite putter out of the 2010 series?
BB: The BB8, the same putter that Brian Gay is using this year.

OGB: Tell me why you selected Brian Gay to sponsor?
BB: Very simple, he won twice last year with my putter. He’s fourth in putting last year in total stats, he’s a great guy, a great putter and most importantly, he loves our product.

OGB: Tell me a little bit about the Bettinardi Belt Buckles
BB: The buckles were started about two years ago. When I would go to tour events, I saw a lot of customization on the buckles and I started thinking to myself, maybe we should be doing some belt buckles because really a belt buckle is made out of steel. I started coming up with a concept and about two years ago, we designed it and the buckles are really going crazy now because we’re able to customize it for green grass establishments and corporations.

OGB: Any prominent players currently wearing a Bettinardi Buckle?
BB: Angel Cabrera, last year, won the masters wearing a Bettinardi Buckle.

OGB: Are you still an avid golfer?
BB: Absolutely.

OGB: Whats your handicap?
BB: I’m a seven.

OGB: If you could pick a foursome to play golf with out of anybody in the world, who would you pick?
BB: That’s a good question, I would probably pick the general who’s running the whole war in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m a real big military guy, I love the fact that the guys do what they do, while receiving little or no credit. Even though my nationality is Italian, I was born in America and I’m supporter of the military. I would also choose one of the top business leaders, maybe a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs and the third would be a guy like Billy Graham. So you have a prominent Religious guy, a military guy and a business leader. I think being able to talk to those guys about their expertises would be an invaluable experience.

OGB: Awesome! Bob, thanks very much for your time today.
BB: Anytime.

Battle of the Golf Blogs is an epic struggle where golf bloggers go head to head in a life or death contest that can have only one victor. The battlegrounds for the contest are agreed upon by all involved and the prize is an undisclosed amount of money, bragging rights for a year and a single dollar bill autographed in blood (ok, not really..). The format is net match play.

It began last year in 2009 between Tony Korologos from Hooked on Golf Blog and myself and it took place at Disney’s Lake Buena Vista Golf Course. Tony kicked my butt up and down the front and back nine and I left the course with my wallet a little lighter and my ego severely damaged.

BOGB 2010 took place out at Falcon’s Fire Golf Course on 01/31/10 and we included a third golf blogger, Mr. John Duval from Into the Grain.

As you can see by the evidence below, this years victory goes to the writer of Orlando’s best golf blog! (that’s me, if you didn’t know…)

For those of you who are having trouble reading it, the dollar above states the following;

“Humbly Submitted to OGB (Orlando Golf Blogger) from mediaguru @ HOG (Hooked On Golf Blog). 2011 is the tie breaker”

If you can’t tell, on the bottom left of the dollar are the tear stains Tony left whilst signing the trophy.

This one is from John, and it states “Dave, enjoy it while you can!” On the back of the dollar, you can almost make it out, it says “PS: I always knew you were the better golfer -JFD”

Seriously, though, it was a great time yesterday and neither of those two were playing very well, and they had a HUGE amount of strokes to overcome. I tell you, being a high handicapper playing against a low handicapper sucks, because if you win, it an empty victory because your opponents had to give you 25 strokes and if they win, it’s an especially big deal, because not only did they beat you, but they beat you by A LOT!

Perhaps next year we can add a couple other golf bloggers into the mix?

Now, to deflate my ego a bit, on the 16th hole, John bet me a dollar that he could win the hole, using my clubs, playing left handed… Check out the epic struggle..

Many thanks to Tony for putting the video together!

Day two of the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show was just as action packed as Day One. As I sit here reflecting on my two days at the show, it blows my mind how fast the time went and how many companies and people I didn’t have time to see.

I spent a solid 16 hours at the show and I can name at least ten companies off the top of my head that I had on the “to visit” list and never made it.

Ah well… no use crying over a spilled Arnold Palmer… Same deal as before, I’m going to be writing up some in depth posts over the next two weeks about the products I covered, but here’s a quick rundown of what’s on tap.

FIT For Golf – Fitness Illustrated Training

I picked up a product for the Golf Fitness Series, it’s the FIT for Golf medicine ball.

STX ProFit 5 Putter

While still drooling over my awesome 2010 BB1 Bettinardi Putter, I stumbled upon the STX (pronounced S T X not sticks ) ProFit Puttter with an interchangeable face plate.

Met DURHAMED Futures Tour Pro Lindsey Bergeon at the LPGA Booth

Had the very cool opportunity to meet an up and coming player who’s going to be playing in the Future Star Foundation Pro-Am on February 20th.

Odyssey Backstryke Marxman

New for 2010, I spend a good bit of time knocking around the new Odyssey Backstryke.

Met LPGA Pro Paula Creamer

… Awesome, need I say more? She was over at the Sundog booth, I’m sure they have great sunglasses… but I wouldn’t know..

Sumi-G Headcovers, Belt Buckles & More…

Spent some time with Tony K aka MediaGuru from HOG and The Golf Space and he gave me a good rundown of the Sumi-G Product Line. Pretty Awesome..

Flair Hair

If they were selling these at the show, I’d have a whole new line of headwear! There’s something totally awesome about donning a Flair Hair helm..

Met PGA Pro Brian Gay at the Bettinardi Booth

Brian Gay signed a sponsorship deal with Bettinardi and was at the booth signing autographs. I almost had an interview for all you awesome readers.. but he was gone by the time I came back to the booth.

FINALLY met LPGA Pro, twitterholic and Lidgurt aficionado Christina Kim

Call me crazy, but I was more exited about meeting CK than I was meeting Paula. Yeah, it was totally cool..

Also on tap, but yet to be photographed;

• Winn Lite Grips
• Cleatskins Golf
• Spotless Swing Golf Towel
• Cleveland Classic & Classic BRZ Putters
• Srixon Z-Star X Tour Yellow Golf Ball

I’m pretty certain there’s some I’ve missed, but as you can see.. I’ve got my work cut out for me over the next few weeks!

I wish there was a PGA Merchandise show every week…

-Dave

Wooooooowwwww… What an awesome day! I’m pretty whooped, I never thought that a day walking back and forth all over a convention center could be so tiring!

Day one at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show was awesome! Well, day one for me, I wasn’t able to attend the demo day yesterday. The show is the Disneyland for golfers, the excitement you feel as you’re checking in and walking through the foyer is reminiscent of the feelings I felt when I was a kid visiting Mickey’s home for the first time.

There’s actually a few similarities between the two places, you’ve got a bunch of strangers from all over the globe attending, parking was $11.00 for the day, unless you’re extremely lucky, you have to take a shuttle to get to the building and a pulled pork sandwich with a Pepsi will run you $13.00.

I’ll be writing more in depth posts next week, but today, I met a ton of great folks, started out visiting Bettinardi, then headed over to the range and took a couple swings with the Cleveland Launcher DST, which felt really good. After that, I stopped by the Full Swing Golf booth and watched long drive hitters Brooks Brady & Mike Dobbyn go head to head on the simulator.

Mike Dobbyn is the current World’s Longest Drive record holder, cranking it a lengthy 551 yards. After getting my photo taken with the world’s largest man, I ventured over to the first ever PGA Merchandise show tweetup where I met a bunch of fellow golf bloggers.

After that I ventured over to the Littlest Golfer booth and watched a fashion show with a bunch of little golfers

Spent a little time perusing the show, hit a couple more balls and then stopped by another simulator and watched golf trick shot artist David Edwards hit a golf ball out of a Korean Gentleman’s mouth..

A little more time on the floor and caught a sneak preview of the new David Leadbetter “My Personal Golf Trainer” Wii game.

The old adage “time flies when you’re having fun” has never been more truer than it was today. I couldn’t believe it, I received a phone call from Mrs. OGB and checked the time, was almost 6pm! Insane!  I did one more circuit and then packed it in for the day.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!