Rick talks about the state of golf in the State of Florida this week with “The Golf Father,” Bill Cuebas.
Bill is a resident of the State of Florida and has been out golfing. Golf was deemed essential in Florida by the Governor. How have golfers reacted to new restrictions, what are the golf courses and manufacturers doing in times of a pandemic?
Rick and Bill discuss many topics. Bill is Director of Communication at Golfballed.com, a product tester and reviewer. He is a co-host on BiGGs Golf Talk Radio
Bill’s quotes:
“I Love the game of golf and all it has given me mentally and physically.”
“Love The Folds of Honor and all that they do to support our Military families.”
“I STAND WITH THE FOLDS OF HONOR!”
In the time of COVID-19 golf, these companies have products that come in handy.
Rick and Steve talk about how these companies offer great products in these days of social distancing on the golf course – push carts and lightweight golf bags by Sun Mountain and the personal golf machine that is Finn Cycle.
Snyders has represented many golf communities and companies including Sun Mountain Sports and its affiliates for 20+ years.
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Steve Snyders Sublime Public Relations
Rick is joined this week by Brad Payne, one of the founders of Walker Trolleys.
Walker Trolleys is an Austin, Texas-based, golf startup with a story began in the entrepreneurial hotbed of San Francisco in 2018. Payne didn’t own his own push cart for tackling the crushing hills of the Presidio Golf Course.
He was able to test drive several models available from the course’s bag room. Some were better than others, but time and time again, they came up short on design, performance and especially storage.
Brad then traveled to Scotland, playing the classics like Royal Dornoch, the Old Course at St. Andrews, Prestwick Golf Club and North Berwick Golf Club. He was blown away by the history and tradition of golf in Scotland, where walking the links was a way of life and an opportunity to bond with kindred souls.
He used a push cart at many of these storied courses and clubs, but by the end of his pilgrimage, he was convinced none of the offerings were consistent with the ethos of the “royal and ancient” game as played in Scotland.
It was on an airplane, over a neat Scotch, en route home to U.S. that the idea for the first Walker Trolley was born. A clean, elegant push cart marrying modern and classic design features, the Walker Trolley is lightweight, portable and eminently convenient.
The Walker Trolley is a push cart for the player, the purist, the aficionado who appreciates style, form and functionality, and who boldly chooses walking as a way to play golf.
Brad has extensive experience across a wide range of industries, working in finance, strategy and digital advertising for Fortune 1000 companies, including Apple, where he led business development and digital advertising for Apple News, and Morgan Stanley, where he focused on technology mergers and acquisitions. He earned his MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University in Finance. He is a passionate golfer with a fluctuating single digit handicap and has a passion for making cool golf products.
Listen to Brad’s and ideas and philosophy and the backstory to Walker Trolleys.
Rick is joined by LPGA veteran, Jane Park this week to talk about an LPGA major coming to her hometown in Atlanta in 2021. Actually the Atlanta area when the Atlanta Athletic Club hosts the 67th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, from June 22-27, 2021. This will mark the first KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to be played in the state of Georgia with one of the largest purses in women’s golf history: $4.3 million, including $645,000 to the champion.
Park plays on the LPGA Tour. Before turning professional, Park reached the finals of the 2003 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 2004 U.S. Girls’ Junior, and won the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She also tied for low amateur at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open. Since joining the LPGA in 2007, she has earned over $2.8 million and recorded 16 top-10 finishes.
Rick talks to Park about playing a major in her hometown, her schedule and technology she uses in her golf.
Rick talks to Jeff King this week on “Tech of Sports.”
Jeff King, Kingmade Founder, began his love for the game of golf at age 9, started his career as a professional caddie in 1998 and has worked with some of the world’s best players on the greatest stages in golf.
But he loved beef jerky.
Jeff moved full steam ahead creating and refining his own healthy jerky recipes. As a true competitor and diehard athlete who grew up playing five sports, Jeff never backed down from a challenge, and he worked tirelessly to get his recipe right. His first unofficial batch of Classic Recipe Kingmade Jerky was definitely worth all of the hard work. In 2012, he began creating jerky recipes in his home kitchen in McKinney, Texas and within a few weeks, he brought his beef jerky out to the course as a snack for himself. Several players tried it and said it was the best jerky they had ever tasted. Soon, other players began searching through Jeff’s players’ bags hunting for his legendary jerky. Long story short, word started flying around the tour. Demand soared, and players were searching for their own stash of Jeff’s jerky, and several even provided flavor suggestions! Finally, after unrelenting requests, Jeff started making and selling his jerky to the greatest golfers on earth, and within no time, no bag on tour was complete without Jeff’s jerky in it. Now it is the official jerky of the PGA Tour.
Rick is joined by PGA Tour winner and all around nice guy, Chip Beck at the 2020 PGA Show, where he was appearing again for Pitchfix.
Chip Beck is a three-time All-American at the University of Georgia. He has four victories on the PGA Tour and twenty runner-up finishes. He spent 40 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings between 1988 and 1989.
He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was the runner-up at the 1993 Masters Tournament, and was tied for runner-up at the 1986 and 1989 U.S. Open championships. He is also noted for his stellar play at the 1991 Ryder Cup held at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort and is a three-time Ryder Cup participant, also playing in 1989 and 1993 at The Belfry Golf & Country Club in Sutton Coldfield, England. He won the Vardon Trophy in 1988.
Beck shot a round of 59 in the third round of the 1991 Las Vegas Invitational on the Sunrise Golf Club (par 72) in Las Vegas, Nevada, one of only six players in the history of the PGA Tour ever to do so. His round included 5 pars and 13 birdies (a PGA Tour record for birdies in one round) including a three footer on the 18th hole. Beck finished tied for third in the tournament. He also shot a hole-in-one (also a double eagle) at the par-4 9th hole in the first round of the 2003 Omaha Classic, a Nationwide Tour event. It was the first in Nationwide Tour history and second recorded in the history of the PGA Tour umbrella combined. Chip also has played on the PGA Tour Champions.
Pitchfix’s new products will broaden the company’s product portfolio beyond divot tools. In addition to the Greenkeeper Pro divot repair tool, the PickCup, AquaBrush and AimPRO are going to be offered in 2020.
The Greenkeeper Pro is being reintroduced at the 2020 PGA Merchandise Show and now features a more flexible green maintenance solution for all playing surfaces. After significant on-course testing with professional greenkeepers around the world, Pitchfix has developed the Greenkeeper Pro to provide a simple but effective professional ball mark repair solution for all greens surfaces. Utilizing the company’s proprietary RepairTech pin technology, the Greenkeeper Pro is now the most complete repair tool available for professional greenkeepers and golfers alike.
The 33” Greenkeeper Pro is constructed of a rubberized handle, carbon fiber shaft and a spring loaded steel cast head with stainless steel ‘teardrop’ pins. With one push down on the handle into the ball mark, the stainless steel prongs in the head pull up, creating a level surface and a perfectly fixed ball mark without bending down.
The Greenkeeper Pro comes in a two-pack with each tool designed for varying degrees of green hardness.
PickCup is a device designed to improve the efficiency of removing golf balls from the cup while maintaining the integrity of the grass surrounding the hole.
The creation of PickCup is in large part a result of the new R&A and USGA rule that now allows flagsticks to remain in the hole while putting a ball from on the green. Many golfers, when removing the ball from the cup, will insert their hand or putter between the flag stick and the edge of the hole, creating damage to the hole edges. This causes the greenkeeper to move the hole around the green, creating extra repair and maintenance work.
The PickCup solution, easy to install and replace, has a soft edge to protect the grass around the hole and easily fits on any flagstick. PickCup helps improve speed of play, eliminates damage to the edge of the hole, reduces the need for new pin placements and eliminates the requirement to bend over to the retrieve balls.
AquaBrush is a new essential device for golf bags, fitted with interchangeable and replaceable brush-heads and a water reservoir used to clean club heads. Press the button on top of AquaBrush and a spray of water shoots out and on to the club face. Wipe it clean with a towel or the brush attached at the base of the grip.
Aquabrush is available in multiple colors and as with Pitchfix’ range of award winning divot tools, can be logo’s with a club crest, tournament brand or logo.
AimPRO is a compacts, circular ball marker with a mirror on top designed as a practice aid to help golfers learn and master the Aimpoint method of reading the break of a putt. The mirrored surface is placed upon the putting green and helps the golfer learn how to calculate the correct scale of any slope on the green and adjust their aim accordingly. The system promises to help users find the right line and improve the accuracy of their putting. AimPRO is designed to help golfers of any ability learn this relatively new method of reading the break that is proving increasingly popular with Tour Pros.
Founded in 2005, Pitchfix is the market leader for switchblade divot tools and other golf green related products in Europe and Asia and is renowned for its high standards in design and product quality. It aims to be the market leader in divot tools and other golf related products in the United States by designing, manufacturing and distributing an ever-growing line of high quality and innovative European designed products through selected distribution partners.
Pitchfix currently offers an array of diverse and innovative products for golfers worldwide: Twister 2.0 Divot Tool; Classic Divot Tool; Hybrid 2.0 Divot Tool; XL 3.0 Divot Tool; Alignmee Marker Alignment Tool, Hatclip Ball Marker, The Tour Edition and Tour Edition 2.5 Divot Tool, the Multi Marker Chip, Greenkeeper Pro, PickCup, AquaBrush and AimPRO.
The Pitchfix Fusion 2.5 was named “Best Divot Repair Tool” by Golf Digest in its 2019 Editors’ Choice Awards for the third consecutive year.
