If you're preparing to invest in lessons and you're using equipment that is just not
built for your swing, it's going to take you that much longer in more
of these sessions to achieve any type of goal. Another part of that is
what if I advance perfect, you're supposed to advance. We want you to
advance, right, So hey, let's see what happens in the next couple
of years, right, Because if you're working and you have a family,
there's only so much time that you can dedicate to sharpening your game. When
we're trying to become successful in golf, we're trying to bring the alarms down
mentally. If we can just reduce those alarms with the worrisome of I don't
know if my clubs are right for me, then get fit immediately so you
can set yourself up for success. Everybody wants to see success like that,
and it's just not going to happen if you're using equipment that's inferior for you.
Launching our nineteenth year of new weekly episodes, here's our newest Golf Smarter
Ambassador who plays at the same course where I got started. Stay tuned to
hear how you can receive a free gift for doing one of these. Hi,
this is David Lamb from Santrafel, California, and I play at McGinnis
Park Golf Center in Santrafel. This is Golf Smarter number nine twenty eight.
Getting Fit for clubs benefits every golfer at any level with Master Fitter JP.
This is Golf Smarter sharing stories, tips and insights from great golf minds to
help you lower your score and raise your golf IQ. Here's your host,
Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast JP. Hey Fred, how
are you, sir? I'm doing well. It's great to have you on
the show. I'm fascinated to talk to you because I like talking about club
fitting. I actually do like it, not that I go through it often,
but I do like talking about it. I think everybody needs to know.
Awesome. I'm very fortunate and thankful to be included in this today and
let's dive into it all right. Well, what makes your position unique in
talking to a club fitter is that you work for a company. You work
for PXG doing their fittings, as opposed to a club fitter who does custom
clubs. You know, builds, custom clubs or you know works it works
in retail and has everything available to them to find the right club for that
person. You know, what they feel most comfortable with, what looks best
to them as they're standing over the ball. But you have a product that
you're selling, but you're fitting people for it. Let's let's let's talk about
I want to talk about the process of getting fitted, but I also want
to talk about the importance of getting fitted. But let's start with the process
of what it is to be fitted by somebody who's working for a manufacturer.
Yeah, you know, specifically with PXG, part of the process is custom
club fitting. So when you're getting custom club fitting, you know, our
job is to make sure our equipment is tailored to you. It's a little
different than maybe back in the early two thousands and then even before that,
where you know, you could go to a local retail store specifically for golf
or sportings goods, right, and they had you know, you're set on
the wall and you just pick it up, purchase it, leave, and
then you'd end up having to create a golf swing to the golf clubs,
which we do the opposite. We're trying to build a golf club or custom
fit a golf club for your swing. You know, and before we dive
into that process, most consumers have developed a golf swing just based on that
they've either gotten hand me down golf equipment or they've bought something simply off the
rack that could potentially either be too long, too heavy, to light,
too stiff. So what they're going to do is they're going to go to
the range and they're going to try and create a golf swing, and they're
probably creating tons of flaws and it's going to be really difficult. Continue to
do that over the years, and you're working yourself into a hole, probably
creating a lot more frustration than enjoyable time on the golf course. So with
PXG, you know, our main focus is to make sure that when you
leave after you're fitting, you know exactly why you got fit into, what
the combination between shaft and head. You have a bunch of data to back
up any of the combinations we fit you in. So when you're a customer
that walks into one of our retail locations or what we call hub locations that
are kind of all over the country where we can offer fittings on a daily
basis, but strictly talking about our retail stores. Predominantly most are three base
stores. There are some two bays. They're all outfitted with track Man,
which is incredible. It's those state of the art technology. You're going to
be able to unwind all your data ranging from your club speed, your ball
speed, your distance, your spin rate, your land angle, your height.
Well, let me interrupt you for just a starting. I apologize,
but you you're a young man in my eyes because I only see dark hair,
nothing gray. Yes, but but have you been fitting since before track
Man as well? No? Okay, so your experience so because I got
to imagine that changed everything for fitters one thousand percent. I mean, you
know there's other great technology that's out there, Foresight. You know, there's
the cube that's out there as well, but with track Man, you know,
it really made its its its name through the PGA tour years ago,
where you would see these individuals walking up with a case and a handle and
pull out this you know, six by six orange box and it would sit
behind you and then they take swings and then you'd see them glance over at
an iPad that just had all these numbers. So for them what they're trying
to do is they're trying to dial in their distances. They're trying to understand
what their spin rates are, and that's something that we do too. But
it's really important for us to provide that data and back up why we're fitting
you into, whether it's a stiff shaft, regular flex shaft, different lengths,
because we really want to find what's going to optimize your game based on
what we're fitting you in. The other cool data is that you're being able
to come in with your current equipment, so we're going to really measure your
apples to apples. Right. If anybody walks in without their equipment. In
their mind they're hitting a seven iron one hundred and sixty yards, but they
don't have that seven iron, and they don't achieve one hundred and sixty yards
with potentially our seven iron, it's really hard to justify that today. Without
your equipment, how can we really know? How can you really be sure
that you are hitting that distance? So it's super important for any of our
customers to bring their current gamers in. All of them bring the whole bag
in, So let me walk you through that process. Right, So,
if you're Fred you're going to walk through. I'm currently right now in the
Philadelphia store, which is probably thirty minutes west of Philadelphia and King of Prussia
three based stores. So you're walking in, you've got your clubs. I'm
going to greet you at the door. Hey, Fred, welcome to p
XU Philadelphia. I see you've got a one o'clock fitting today for a full
bag. Let me check you in so we'll make sure that we properly check
you in through our systems and at that time our fitter, if it's me,
I'd greet you, introduce myself, and most likely give you a tour
of the store because PXG just isn't built on equipment, right, We've got
apparel, we've got merchandise, we've got accessory. Yeah, we'll talk a
lot more about later. Yeah, and so you know, the process would
from there, I'd walk you to the bay and just simply ask you to
either pull out a wedge or any comfortable any club that you're comfortable you know,
warming up in, and then after you're done, we'll basically have you
take out your seven iron. We strictly just fit with seven irons, right,
because we have a ton of shafts to offer. But if you're thinking
about a set of irons, whether it's four through pitching wedge, five through
gap wedge, seven irons the middle of the road. So once we really
narrow that down, it transcends to the other The other irons in your set
and wedges are just irons, wedges, irons, hybrids. Yeah. So
as far as like the fitting with the seven iron, yeah, yeah,
I mean it. You said how it translates to the other clubs, does
it also translate to the wedges. Yeah, well yeah, we have we
have wedges that we can fit you in as well that you know, the
component the head comes off during the fitting and we can change you're talking about
the main set, the four or five through correct, You're you're you know
the the fairway Yeah, clubs, yep, yep. So the seven iron
you're gonna hit, We're gonna ask you to hit yours right somewhere between five
to seven times because track Man has the capability of collecting an average based on
how many swings you've taken. So after you've taken let's just say seven swings,
we're gonna look, I'm going to ask you to come over to my
monitor and we're going to look at all the numbers. So the most important
numbers that we like to identify is how fast you swing in the club,
your ball speed, your spin rate, your carry distance, your total distance,
the apex or height, and then the landing angle, which is at
which degree is that golf all coming down. So the biggest thing that I
love looking at is called smash factor. Essentially, how you get smash factors
divide the ball speed by the club speed. So on track man a seven
iron PGA Tour average is one point three three. Essentially, it's the it's
the efficient, it's the efficiency number. It's telling me where you're hitting it
on the face. If we can get that number around that average one three
three, and a lot of people when they hear PGA Tour, you think
I'm not on the PGA Tour. I can't hit one point three three.
You can, without without a doubt, you can attain one point three three
and higher. So I mean typically the highest you're going to get is one
point four to one. Now the key with that is it really unfolds if
that customer has the right combination, whether the shaft, the lyngle, the
head, all of these factors will weigh into creating more consistency of you achieving
the golf ball meeting the center of that club phase. Obviously, well,
you know when you hit a solid, solid shot, it just feels different
than you hit it off the tower heel, right, You know that,
and it sounds different and sounds different and goes different. Right, So,
once we have that data with your current gamer, that'll give the master fitter
at that time a lot more evidence in their mind where they should start with
shaft. So we have the capabilities between steel and graphite, ranging from fifty
grams in graph heights all the way up to one hundred and thirty grams in
steel. So in their mind they're going to probably pick two to three different
shafts as are based on your swing speed, they're based on your swing speed,
they're based on your shot pattern. Two. So anybody that is a
you know, left to right miss, you know, if if you're right
handed, you know you're gonna want some more weight in that head. You're
gonna want some more flexibility in the middle of that shaft. You're gonna find
something that engineers for your that club face to break down faster and release faster
to minimize that shot left or right. If you're a right to left ball
striker, you're gonna want something a little bit more stout in the mid of
that in the mid section of that shaft all the way through uh to the
bottom to essentially where it meets the top of the iron head. So all
of this weighs into the factor of the master fitter who's highly experienced in what
he does. The cool part with us with PXG is that's all they have
to know, right, They have a wide variety of knowledge just based on
one product, which is PXG. Okay, now I'm gonna we're gonna take
a time out right now, and then we can come back. I want
to go a little bit deeper into the PXG product line as far as getting
that fit. We'll do that with JP, who is with PXG as a
master fitter, and we'll be back right after this. All right, JP,
I'm really curious when we talk about the variety, wide variety of shafts,
and I'm assuming those are not just PXG shafts. You have so many
manufacturers, so many different type of materials and weights, all those things,
But what about the heads itself. You're only using PXG heads, how many
do you have to choose from? And howney do you need to choose from?
Frankly, if it's mostly the shaft, yeah, well, you know
PXG doesn't manufacture shafts. We do hold you know, certain manufacturers like KBS,
Tree, Temper Project, Dex Aerotech, Acra, and there's a few
others to add to that mix. But when it comes to the head,
you know, our core mission is innovation, quality, performance with strictly p
XG. So all of those three characteristics will simply go into the technology that
we provide in our heads. And we're strictly talking about Irons right now.
So currently, right now, our flagship Iron is Gen six. We have
two different options for Gen six. We have the three eleven P or Player's
Head, and then we have the three eleven XP Extreme Performance. So between
those two, depending on your handicap, depending on if you're looking for just
all the distance, all the forgiveness and the world, We're going to have
all that information when we when we ask you, you know, what is
your handicap? Are you a ten? Have you lost distance in the past?
Are you looking to get more distance now? The biggest difference between the
P and the XP right. So the XP is is going to be a
little bit more offset, it's going to have a wider soul at the bottom.
You're looking at probably anywhere from ten to fifteen percent more material from that
P head to that XP head. So for somebody that is just needing all
the forgiveness and all the distance to basically maximize their potential at their golf game,
they're going to fit better in that XP head. Is that we're talking
about a blade versus a cavity back type of situation, not even anywhere near
that. We're nowhere near blades right now with with just the Gen six line.
We do have our own line, a separate line that's called three one
seven that has more of that blade muscle back cavity back in our tour models.
So yeah, we have an opportunity to separate, you know, depending
on anybody's capability, whether you're a highly experienced player, beginner, middle of
the road. That's the beauty of PXG. We want to provide the performance
in our technology for all skill sets, not just better players, but everybody.
And where at what point would you suggest to a player come in going
you know what you're ready for blades or yeah, you're not there yet.
Your game, you know, you're swinging your distance all our all our data
is indicating that you'd probably be better off with a more forgiving club, right,
yeah, do you It's it's really hard to justify besides the fact that
if you are a you know, single scratch handicapped player, somebody that has
a ton of control with their irons that consistent yes, oh yeah, I
mean listen, golf is very hard. Whether you are on the PGA Tour
or you know your local member daily nine hole hitting giggles, or if you're
just playing with your buddies on the weekend. Regardless of your capability with the
game of golf, it's hard no matter how good you are or you know,
how much of beginner you are. So the reality is is that no
matter what, you should be providing the most forgiveness possible. And that's the
cool part with our Gen six irons that we offer with the P and the
XP. I mean, the P is going to be kind of the middle
of the road, right, So anybody that is trending from an eight to
a fourteen handicap that really isn't needing a significant amount of distance they'll get it.
They're gonna get more distance with our product. But somebody that might like
that forgiveness and still have a little bit of workability, somebody that just needs
overall forgiveness. They need to create more consistency because the biggest thing with golf
is confidence, Right, how fast can you develop confidence? It's going to
be really difficult if you're using equipment that's inferior for you. So going back
to that blades, now, if you're a ten or fourteen, ten to
fourteen handicap and you want to play blades, by all means, go for
it. It's just going to take you much longer and create probably some more
frustration because it's just a hard it's a hard golf club to hit. In
general, the games should be easier, the game should be more enjoyable.
Let's put that product that's going to suit your game for that for those sole
reasons, so that you can be happy and enjoy yourself. And that's what
you're going to find in the Gen six P or the XP. Yeah,
we had a teacher recently saying golf's a simple game. It's really hard to
play, simply excellent, point simply right, exactly, So I'm curious people
who have swing analyzers are now, you know, affordable for the average consumer.
You can get anything from the rapsodo and many other products that you can
have a swing, you know, get the swing an alice and get those
numbers. Is for the average recreational golfer. I don't even know if that
means anything, but for the recreational golfer, is that something they should be
doing at home and trying to figure it out? Or is it just a
bit too much information that will be end up being a little more frustrating than
helpful for you. I think I think trying to figure it out on your
own is going to be extremely difficult. Mm hm. You know, there's
there's so much content out on there on there on YouTube, it's easy to
get down that rabbit hole, and some things that teachers might preach might not
it might not work for you. And it kind of goes back to the
beginning when you know you're buying equipment that is potentially inferior because it's just not
developed for your swing. It could be the same situation when you're, I
guess, trying to self assess your swing based on what somebody is telling you
from video. You know, the best, the best opportunity that you have
in golf, especially beginners, is to get fit. It's the same I
like the metaphor of if I'm going to go buy a nice suit, I'm
not just gonna buy it off the rack and leave. I'm going to get
a tailored to me. FREDI nice? What fred would you buy a suit
off the rack and leave without it getting too Yes, And then then I
would go get a okay okay, yeah, yeah, okay, So pretty
simple to fit. So that's that's the key with the fitting part, you
know, And yeah, why not start your golf career doesn't matter what age
you are. Why not start your golf career with equipment that's going to create
faster confidence for you. And that's the key of getting fit. Yeah.
Well that's something that I hear a lot from from beginners who I communicate with
a lot. A lot of people like, oh I discovered your podcast.
It was like, I'm really curious, and not just beginners. People have
been playing five, six, seven, eight, ten years to fifteen years.
They're like, yeah, once I get consistent with my swing, then
I'll go ahead and get fitted. But right now I'm just going to play
these clubs and it's like, I wait, isn't that ass backwards? You
know? I mean, shouldn't you? Because your swing is not going to
change radically because your body is your body, and your swing's not going to
change radically one but as you fine tune it and learn different things about it,
and if you get consistently better, then you can move up to a
different type of club. But let's address that concern that most people have that
I've come across, that are I'll get fitted later. Sure, yeah,
I agree with you. It shouldn't you should get fit now? Because here's
the thing is, if you're preparing to, if you're preparing to, if
you're preparing to invest in lessons right, and you're using equipment that is just
not built for your swing, it's going to take you that much longer and
more of these sessions to achieve any type of goal. If I were building
a house and I only had half of what I needed to build a house,
chances are I can build a house, but it'll probably fall down at
some point. So I want to make sure that the tools I have to
go get a lesson are equipped for me. And another part of that is,
well, what if I advance perfect, you're supposed to advance. We
want you to advance, right, So hey, let's see what happens in
the next couple of years, right, because you know, if you're working,
you know, and you have a family, there's only so much time
that you can dedicate to sharpening your game. Well, let's let's expedite that
process by getting you custom fit because when you show up that whole part of
your you know, the whole part of are my clubs right for me?
And I'm going to go get lessons, maybe five to ten lessons, and
it's going to still be in the back of your mind. When we're trying
to become successful in golf. We're trying to, you know, bring the
alarms down mentally. You know, golf will always be ninety percent mental and
ten percent physical in my mind, and so if we can just reduce those
alarms with the worrisome of I don't know if my clubs are right for me,
then get get fit immediately so you can set yourself up for success.
Everybody wants to see success like that, and it's just not going to happen
if you're using equipment that's inferior. For you. And then the other concern
I think that comes across to people is A, I'm not ready to get
fit because I'm not good enough wrong, And B you know, if I
go get fit, I'm just paying so much more for my clubs than if
I were just to going to the store and buy something that I kind of
like the look of. Are those myths, those arm myths, those arm
myths, but they're but they're also they're true, And that's a you know,
that's part of the education process for this whole you know, custom club
fitting. You're seeing it rapidly grow, and part of that is to understand
that golf is a game of it. It's an investment. Whether you're let's
say you're not investing in golf equipment, but you're going to be investing in
tea times and you're going to be investing in greens, fees and carts and
golf balls and gloves and hats and shoes. There's an investment that goes towards
everything in golf. So if you really break down how many rounds of golf
you're playing in a year to warrant the spend, depending on how much you're
looking to go in, you know currently right now we're looking at roughly thirty
five hundred for a full bag for PXG Gen six. That's top to bottom,
all fourteen clubs, chrome heads, stock shafts, right. And if
you really break that down to fifty rounds a year, you know it comes
out. I don't have the calculator with me right now, but you know
it. It warrants that type of investment for fifty rounds in a year to
enjoy the game that much more. And it's not necessary for you to buy
it every single year. But if you get fittgal clubs for you, you
got a good three to five year stretch that you can use that same equipment
because they're fit for you. Unless your game completely changes and your swing completely
changes, or you have surgery, or you have any type of ailments that
come up over those that course of time, you know you want to go
into that investment. If you can stretch it out for that long, it's
worth the investment. My eyes popped out of my head because you said three
to five years. Wait, so these clubs I've been playing for like eight
years, it's like they're expired. Yes, I'll put the expiration data on
it right now wow. Technology, Well, my mind's blown. I got
to go clean it up. We're gonna take another break. We'll be right
back. JP. This is all well and good, but who are you?
I mean, where's your credibility? How did did you get to being
a master club fitter for PXG? What was your route? My route has
always been involved with golf so ever since I was three years old. My
father's a PJ. Yeah. Oh, he was as a PG professional right
around fifty years now. Still, so I was born into the game of
golf. I was born knowing that daycare was the pro shop and learning how
to cut greens, cut fairways, change pin placements. At the age of
ten, folding shirts, cleaning up the shirts changing Oh yeah, oh really
yeah, well you know, let's not tell my mother this, but when
I was ten, changing grips. You know, we didn't have grip solvent
back then, we had lighter fluid. So yeah, we will smell you
smell like that today won't. So you know, for me, golf is
always kind of just there, and it was it was a primary love for
me. And just you know, Dad's always been my mentor. He's always
been someone I look up to. He was fortunate enough to chase the champions
Tour from two thousand to two thousand and five. Yep, in my late
teenage years, I had the ability to caddy for him in a few events
US Senior Rope and Pgacing Championship. The most credible one, I'd say,
is back in Massachusetts. So I'm in Boston and there was a tournament that
used to have called the Bank Boston Classic and it was hosted at Nashotah Country
Club in Conquered, Massachusetts. So Dad played not so great that first round,
and I'm caddying for him. The second round. He got paired with
Gary Player and Ronold Palmer, and that was my face for all eighteen holes.
So yeah, jaw was popping out of my head. I might misclubbed
him the whole day because I was just infatuated with you know, those two
legends, and they couldn't have been such better human beings to be around.
And you know, mister Palmer asked us to have lunch with them after.
It's just so cool. So mister Palmer, mister Gary and mister Palmer,
yes, sir, yes, sir, and I need to now I need
to break that one down. That's fascinating to me. This is the kind
of stories that I love to hear. So you're you're caddying in here.
You are in the shadow of these two legends. Are you picking their brains
the whole time? Are you just eavesdropping on everything they say? Are you
talking to them? You're talking to their caddies? What is that going on?
That day? It was such a blur. Fred I wouldn't be able
to provide all of those answers, but what I can tell you is,
you know, I didn't want to. I didn't want to impose so much
and just you know, be nagging throughout that they're still trying to compete.
I think Gary Player shot sixty nine or sixty shot his age that day or
something like that, sixty eight. It was insane. I was. I
was blown away, but yeah, you know it was it was just wholesome.
It was wholesome to be around those two. And then and the likes
of my father, who you know, he's in the New England PGA Hall
of Fame. You know, he's got a lot of credibility in the New
England area. So in my mind, a local legend with these global icons.
There was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that were following it was
just it was an incredible thing and I'll never forget it, and just you
know, having that ability to be surrounded around those two global icons was just
it's incredible. Are there any nuggets from that day that you remember of either
mister Palmer or Gary Players saying to you, It's like, hey, kid,
let me tell you about this. You'll never forget it, and you
don't remember a thing. I love that. Thank you. J Remember one
thing, if you really want to make this a career, you have to
eat, sleep, and everything else has to be pushed to the side for
golf. Like everything in your life gets pushed to the side. If you
want to make the professional career, you have to dedicate one hundred and fifty
percent of everything you do on a daily basis to golf. That was it.
That was one of them. And did that Did that encourage you or
terrify you? Both? It was motivation. But there's also a reason that
I'm working for PXG. So I did chase the professional career for nearly ten
years right after I got out of college, and you know, as various
mini tours stayed opens, lots of travel. You played in college. I
went to Yukon University, Connecticut, Go Husky, yep, and so I
had I had five collegiate wins, you know, and the confidence was really
high to bring that into a professional career and over you know, nine years,
five months spending in Boston predominantly during the summer seasons, and then seven
months in the Florida in Florida, so like West Palm, Palm Beach Gardens,
Jupiter area, back and forth, chasing the mini tours, you know,
playing on the NGA, the National Golfers Association Tour, which was formerly
known as the Hooters Tour, which is pretty much down the East Coast and
over you know, I know how they have like the Adams Tour, which
is I think Texas and Arizona. They've got a bunch of mini tours right
all throughout the country. But yeah, lots of travel, lots of competition,
and I had status the last two years of my professional career on the
Mackenzie Tour, the Canadian Tour. PGA had so much fun up there,
and yeah, it got to the point where I was just burnt out.
I was totally burnt out, you know, and that's when you start to
realize, oh wait, there is no one hundred and fifty percent of anything.
I can barely give one hundred percent and that's all I got without a
doubt, and I started to What I started to fight was am I going
to continue to do this? Or am I not? And if I continue
to do this and I hate it, am I ever going to play the
game of golf again? So that's where I got scared, because you know,
Golf's always going to be important to me in my life, whether I'm
a professional or not. And it's a it's a passion, it's a hobby.
But I made the decision in twenty sixteen to stop, and it took
me driving twelve hundred and fifteen, twelve hundred and fifty miles from Boston to
Jupiter to make that decision. As soon as I got out of the car,
it hit me like a ton of bricks and I was like, Yeah,
I'm done. I'm done. Were you debating back and forth a whole
way down or just like all of a sudden you're like, what am I
doing? No, it wasn't a debate that drive. The debate was the
whole year of twenty sixteen, and it was more like, let me force
myself down there, and when I get there, maybe just the sun,
you know, the hot weather, getting on the golf course consistently because he
can't in Boston, you know, the winter, Maybe that would strike some
more motivation for me to continue this. And it was the it was the
opposite. So at the time I moved in with a gentleman that was working
for PXG in South Florida. He was a fitter. He might have been
the fifth or sixth, you know, fitter in the country. Back in
twenty sixteen. It was just such a young company and he mentioned to me,
said, you know, we're looking for people in the New England market,
and I think you'd be a great fit. So I said, well,
what do I have to lose, you know, if I don't like
it, so be it. And fast forward almost seven years now with PXG.
It'll be March twenty twenty four as my seven year anniversary of the company.
I always thought my passion was playing golf, but I really found when
I started working for PXG that my passion was helping people play better golf.
So that's where I dove into the whole fitting operations. For about well,
yeah, you can have multiple passions, but what are you going to dedicate
your energy to, no doubt, and you know, I think anybody has
this feeling at least once or twice in their life where when you do something
really good, you know, you get the goosebumps, the hair raises on
your arm, and you kind of get that that surge of energy where it's
like, ah, I just love what I just did and that was that
was so much fun. And I would get that on a consistent basis when
I was helping fit a lot of these you know customers back in the day,
and and when we're seeing results like that, and for them, their
eyes are lighting up. You know, they're enthused, they're excited, they
can't wait to get their equipment to go and bring it on the golf course
and really see what, you know, what it's all about. So you
know, it's a natural high. Living off of that. I fully enjoy
it, you know. And I've been a regional a regional manager now for
you know, two three years and still having the capability of jumping back in
the bay to fit a customer. I mean, that's that's the foundation of
my passion. So it's a total enjoyment. I have zero regrets. And
I also got my my amateur status back in twenty twenty, so you can
still compete. Yeah. Yeah, we uh a friend of mine, his
name is Joe Harney. We actually qualified for the US four Ball a couple
months ago, which is actually being hosted at the Philly Cricket Club in May
in twenty twenty four, right down the street from where I am now so
excited about, you know, competing in the US Amateur, playing in some
member guests. You can still play in the US OAP and hey, listen,
I still have a shot at making the Masters if I win the US
Amateur. Okay, I can still dream. A guy can still dream.
Hey, we'll be rooting for you. Yeah. It's like there's JP So
I'm curious. You know, there's there's certain foods we call comfort foods.
Right, There's things that just bring you back to being at home and you
know Mom's taking care of you. Whether it's a grilled cheese sandwich with a
bowlet tomato soup on a cold, wet day, you know, it's it's
just things that bring you back. I'm curious when you started doing the club
fitting for p XG and you were being trained in there was that almost like
comfort food for you because it's like I grew up around this. Yes,
it was very uncomfortable in the beginning because I had no holue like you know,
being a professional and getting fit for equipment and being on that other side.
Right. So I'm on the other side. I'm swinging the golf club.
There's there's a gentleman behind me that's putting all these you know, shafts
and heads and li angles. And the one thing I said to him,
I go, I don't care what you're giving me, just give me the
right stuff, you know. And I didn't. I didn't at that time
have the desire to want to learn more about why are you giving me this?
And what are my numbers? And you know, what's the reasoning behind
this when you were playing, when you were playing and getting yeah okay,
And so once I started to learn more about the fitting process, I was
I was like over them, I'm like, this is a completely I'm not
used to this. You know, this is a totally new endeavor, something
that I could really sink my teeth in because you know, I found passion
in really helping people, but having a incredible product to provide, and then
seeing somebody that is over the moon with their combination, their distance, they're
tight dispersion. Now they're not missing that way left to right shot off the
tee because I've been able to manipulate some weight settings and put you in the
proper shaft that you need. And you know, I still have people that
contact me from you know, customers I fit six seven years ago and they're
asking, when new product comes out, can you fit me? Absolutely one
thousand percent. Wherever you are, I will go find you and we'll get
you fit. So yeah, that was so that was the passion that I
never thought I had. And boom, hurricane perfect. Oh that's so awesome.
All right, let's find out what's happening on Golf Smarter Mulligans this week,
and then we're going to come back and talk about PXG with JP after
this. As I've reported over the last couple of weeks, I'm battling right
now with tennis elbow and a pinch nerve and my neck and my back,
among other ailments. The demand I take a break from golf and limit my
time producing new content at the computer. So with that, I've decided to
put Golf Smarter Mulligans on hiatus until spring. I plan to continue creating new
content for Golf Smarter each week until it's just too difficult, but hopefully that
won't be necessary. So Golf Smarter Mulligans will return to kick off year number
six with ten consecutive weeks of our annual Tony Manzoni Marathon, and this year
we'll be adding a new episode to the mix, as I recently discovered a
conversation with Tony that hasn't been included in previous years. So thank you very
much for your cooperation and patients. As I and we I'll get a little
older each week, and here's to a happy and healthy new year to you
and your family. You know, I've always been a huge advocate since the
beginning of this show because I've talked to multiple tom with Sean was on the
show and he's a legend in the club fitting world, and he was on
the show multiple times and I learned so much from him, and it was
always been an advocate of getting fitted for clubs that it's like, you really
need to get fitted because blah blah blah blah blah. As we've already talked
about the first time I had to rent clubs on a golf trip because the
airline lost to my golf clubs. I got my only hole in one with
rented clubs. Like no, not, now, you know, after all
this advocation. And then there's been a time, I'm gonna be honest here,
there's been a time that I went to I was in Mexico and I
was playing at club that I was gonna have to rent. I didn't bring
my clubs, and they said, well, we have these callaways and we
have PXG's. I'm like, ah, perfect, I want to I've always
wanted to try the PXG's. Could not hit them. Everything went hard right,
pulled out the callaways, shot seventy eight right, It's like, okay,
PXG, I'm not so. And then one other element of PXG in
my mind's history. I was at the local golf shop, you know,
the worldwide golf shop here in the area, and I'm friends with their club
fitter there. I've known them for many years. I said, so,
what's to do with PXG? And he goes, there's more PXG and are
used bin than any other club, so you can figure out for yourself.
So with all that said, I apologize for throwing you under the bus on
this one. P XG's been a disruptor in the golf industry, right you
guys, kind of like the Marine Corps. Your owner has kind of like
marched in and said, we're taking over. We're going to do it our
way. What is it about p XG that is unique? Everything? Everything?
Okay, so three under the bus and then tossed to a softball.
All right, I'm glad you called us the disruptor that is, that is
what we are. You know, mister Parsons ten years ago came up with
a game plan to essentially hire the two best engineers he could at the time.
And the equipment that he wanted was because he wanted you know, he
wants a golf equipment that was going to better his game. And so so
it was all about him. It was at the beginning, it was all
about him, and rightfully so, you know, I mean, he had
the ability to do what he needed, and so he hired the two engineers
from paying and after a year they they were able to find you know,
forged metal. They mill out the inside of the iron and at the time
they were able to put an elastomer in there, which essentially was to create
higher distance, but tighter dispersion, more forgiveness. We wanted to be able
to disrupt the industry with maximizing distance but optimizing your dispersion. So from there
it went to mister Parsons hands. He fell in love with them immediately.
There really wasn't any idea to grow the brand to where I think it was
today immediately, but it went to the tour, and then from the tour
it went to the public and then it really boomed. And essentially it's because
we don't have any time constraints on building our equipment. We don't have to
put out equipment every single year. We want to put out equipment to make
sure that one it is going to beat the competitors, but it's also going
to beat what we currently have. We also, you know, we don't
have any constraints with you know, funding. We have an unbelievable R and
d UH program that takes care of creating you know, cutting edge technology and
the materials that we use in our equipment is superior to be able to provide
anybody a more enjoyable golf game. Because we're going to help you with maximizing
your forgiveness and also maximizing your distance, and that plays also into the whole
process of getting fit. Anybody has the ability to purchase our equipment online and
it's an unbelievable configurator that you can actually there's a series of questions you go
through and it'll put together, you know, different types of shafts based on
the questions or the answers that you provide, like what give me an example
if you I mean, like you know how tall you are, your the
length of your arms, how how far you currently hit your seven iron.
So it helps provide you know, variables so that they can give you options
of different shafts in different heads and it'll give you an actual, you know,
a full bag essentially of you know, a different shaft, the right
shaft, the right head, all the way through the putter, and you
can purchase it online too. But the key is you know, going and
actually seeing the results and seeing the data and being able to justify any type
of purchase because you're seeing a significant difference with your equipment compared to what we're
fitting you into. So that's the key element is essentially, you know,
to get fit and having the ability to have our own retail locations and have
our master fitters. You know, we put them through a series of training
before they are ready to rock and roll, and they're very well equipped with
track Man. They know our equipment inside and out and the shafts that we
have to offer to essentially optimize any of any skill set player to If you're
a scratch handicap player and you want to you want to get a little bit
more distance, we have that for you. If you are an average handicap
player and you're just looking to hit more greens, we we can do that
for you without a doubt. It's the key is to get fit properly and
test out the product. And essentially now we're offering twenty five dollars fittings,
So what better time to find a When you say now, define that,
I mean the thing about podcasts, especially these evergreen content podcasts, is people
can be listening to this in five years. So yeah, I mean,
you know our prices right now. We're recording this just before Christmas of twenty
twenty three. So when you say right now, yeah, twenty five dollars
for a f twenty five dollars fitting fees right now, that that can go
towards the purchase. And when I say right now, being that, you
know, PXG has the ability to change and shift, whether it's pricing,
you know, in product anything, you know, it's anything is subject to
change. But as of right now, in December eighteenth, twenty twenty three,
we are offering twenty five dollars fitting fees, whether it's a full bag,
whether it's an Irons fitting. And actually the twenty five dollars can go
towards the purchase if you purchase on that day. Yeah, you mentioned that,
And so what would be the normal cost of a fitting? Then there
isn't I wouldn't put it goes to the purchase of your equipment. No,
there is with PXG. Yeah, no, right now, it's that is
the normal twenty five. That is our normal. Our normal changes and it
has the capability of changing. Right but as of right now, it's twenty
five. But why you know, there's a lot of other brands. I
don't know if they're advertising or as aggressive in their advertising is p XG.
But there are a lot of other brands that get a lot more play because
they're seen on the tour. Blah blah blah about the you know, if
it's on the tour, then we must go out and play that as well.
Tell me why p XG should stand out to the consumer above the rest
of the big names. And I'm not even going to name them. It's
everyone's got one in their head right now. Yeah, No, No,
I mean, I think, I think the extension of where we can offer
our equipment compared to anybody else. You know, we're not in big box
stores. You know, we're not in a lot of golf shops, you
know, because we want to own our own customers. We want to know
our customers. It's really difficult for any other manufacturer that is in big box
stores to know their customer and that's really important for us. So we really
pride ourselves on owning and knowing our customers and all of their capabilities and needs.
And when p XG first got started, it was online. Was it
online only direct to consumer or has it always been available on a retail basis?
No. When we first started store, you know, the only ways
that you could purchase p XG and we're talking you know, seven seven,
six, seven years ago, was either a retail authorizer, which would have
been like a club champion at the time, or a Truce Beeck. You
could have called our player support line or you've had you would have had to
have contacted one of our mobile fitters that was in a specific location. You
know, I started covering basically every state in New England based out of you
know, Boston, Massachusetts. But I had the ability to jump in a
van and have every single thing that you can find in the store's and it's
in our vans as well, like all the shafts, all the heads,
and I'm a mobile fitter driving around the whole region, going where I was
needed. So that was the That was the capabilities of of getting our equipment
back then, where it's a lot different now. You know, we have
retail locations, we have mobile locations. You know, if we have an
account with a local green Grass, you know, a country club, we
are authorized to go to certain golf courses and fit membership there online and you
can also call our one eight four fourth playp x G. Well, we'll
let that one go. In hey plan, you mentioned big box stores and
a fascinating story that seems to be taking the world by storm, at least
here in the United States, as costcop is now putting their own name they're
putting Kirkland and they just came out with a driver last week and they have
now irons and wedges and their own balls that were disruptors. But again,
you're not getting fitted. You're getting a great price for a product that you
really don't know where it came from. But knowing you know, the Kirkland
brand, they don't put their name on crap. No, but still,
well, the beauty of Costco is like you can play them for a year
and go yeah, it's not helping. You can return them, and the
beauty of Costco you can't do that in most retail locations for golf. What
are your thoughts about a company like Costco trying to be a disruptor and playing,
you know, low balling the price and a you know, I'm not
going to say a mediocre or an average product. We don't know, but
it's not tailored to the golfer. No, it's not. I would hate
to put any type of price on performance. I think performance is going to
outweigh price all day long in the sense of if I'm am I paying for
what I'm getting out of it, or is it just an attractive number to
get more people to buy it, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
they're only offering one shaft in the irons, and I think it's the
d G one fifteen, So that's not going to cater to a lot of
consumers. It's a one hundred and fifteen gram shaft. And you know,
we're seeing more people trend to the graphight shaft because it's lighter and they can
swing faster. I'll tell you what, it's a sharp looking iron. It
is sharp. It's sharp. But I welcome any disruptor, come on in,
Come on in. I welcome all all disruptors because that's what's you know,
that's what makes this whole industry fun, you know, come on in.
And there was not a lot of people that thought p XG would be
around even to this day. Yeah, yeah, and I don't know,
it's a great logo, right, and you guys are more than just I
mean, because I know that the owner's wife does a lot of the fashion
and yep, so there's you know, cool, cool looking clothes and the
clubs are highly identifiable when someone's holding one. Yeah, which is pretty awesome.
So uh, quick, quick, just backstory when our first generation came
out, right, so everybody knows PXG when the first generator, if you
know, PXG the first generation and had all those individual tungsten weights on the
back and from when I remember, that was just a prototype until mister Parsons
saw it and he said, that's it. Leave it because it definitely sticks
out. And so, like you said, it is identifiable, it's noticeable.
Chances are at least one person at every golf course has something PXG in
their bag. And it's cool. It's cool to see it's it's it's such
a cool evolution of our product and our brand growing to where it is to
today. I mean, I think I was number one ten or something like
that in the employee log when I got hired, you know, and just
seeing how fast we've grown with our retail stores and sky's the limit, you
know. And I think with a sole owner and mister Parsons in his logics
of we want to be the disruptor and I want to be the best and
I want to be number one, we all share that same passion and that's
why we're here for the long haul. Well, they have to be very
proud, because you're clearly you're very very proud, and you like the product
and it comes across well. And I can see why they put me in
touch with you to let you do the talking. This has been really entertaining,
really educational. I appreciate your passion and your time and wish you a
very happy new year. Thanks so much for spending some time with us again.
PXG dot com can start there. You can start there, for sure.
It's a good spot to start there, all right, Thanks buddy.
It really appreciated bred. Thank you very much. I appreciate it too.
One of the big takeaways from that conversation was Pj's point that clubs don't last
forever. And honestly, I've been playing my irons for about seven to eight
years now, and you know, getting about fifty rounds a year with those,
and in twenty twenty three, I definitely was starting to notice that my
clubs were not achieving the distances or accuracy that I had grown accustomed to in
prior years, and I just couldn't figure it out, why is that happening.
I even went to my local retailer where I was fit for these clubs
ping I was playing ping G clubs. I am playing ping G clubs and
the same guy who fit me for them, and he thought that it would
improve things for me if he just added some weighted tape on a couple of
my irons. Still, I wasn't really thrilled with the results. So to
hear that clubs have an expiration date and I'm putting that in air quotes actually
explained a lot. So this spring and hopefully sooner when I start playing regularly
again, I'm going to go to my local PXG fitter with my camera and
a couple of microphones to get fitted for the full PXG setup so that I
can share it with you, So please stay tuned for that. If you
have any experience with PXG clubs, good or bad, I'd really love to
hear about what you went through. As I mentioned at the head of the
episode, this is the launch of our nineteenth year doing weekly episodes of Golf
Smarter, and I couldn't be more pleased to have one of our newest ambassadors
representing the course where I got my start. Thank you, David. I
invite you to become a Golf Smart our ambassador as well, with the incentive
getting a choice of three great gifts for your efforts of just telling us where
you're from and where you play. Here's what you have to choose from a
free link, Tony Manzoni's video of the Loss Fundamental, a glove and glove
storage compartment from redroostergolf dot com. And our new third option for you to
choose is an eight pack of the flight Path goolf tees from flightpathgolf dot com.
Just write directly to me and I'll send you some simple instructions on how
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