Speaker 1: For members only.
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter number three hundred and eighty one, published on
Speaker 2: April twenty three, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
Speaker 3: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Speaker 3: Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets Old. Our
Speaker 3: interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
Speaker 3: like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 4: To be honest, to preserve the integrity of the game,
Speaker 4: I totally understand limiting some of the distance measures.
Speaker 5: Some of the things that.
Speaker 4: We can do, we just don't do because it takes
Speaker 4: away the fun of the game of golf. If you
Speaker 4: have to hit it four hundred yards on a drive
Speaker 4: just to be competitive, then not many people are going
Speaker 4: to play golf. I like to go play golf now
Speaker 4: for fun, so I enjoy being outside, I enjoy the game,
Speaker 4: and I enjoy the people I'm with.
Speaker 5: And to me, that's what this game's all about.
Speaker 4: The industry as a whole is realizing that golf needs
Speaker 4: to be fun. If it's all about farther and bigger
Speaker 4: and more specialized, you're going to lose players, because we
Speaker 4: have a whole lot of other things we can do
Speaker 4: with our time. For golf to be successful and for
Speaker 4: it to be a long term physical activity that people
Speaker 4: enjoy in a fun game, it's got to be fun.
Speaker 4: And so there's going to be a lot more discussions
Speaker 4: about this anchoring. Putting is just the beginning of that rule.
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of different thoughts out there, and
Speaker 4: some I think are very very valid.
Speaker 2: Should the USGA roll back the distances on golf balls
Speaker 2: with William.
Speaker 5: Carry This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Golf Smarter for members only.
Speaker 5: William, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I am really glad that.
Speaker 2: You were able to have enough time to allow me
Speaker 2: to crash your offices here.
Speaker 4: Now we can get into the really fun stuff now
Speaker 4: for the members right exactly.
Speaker 2: Now, these are the people that are the diehard, dedicated who.
Speaker 1: I love so much. I love so much.
Speaker 2: Actually, now that I'm here, we're we're in Scottsdale, actually
Speaker 2: in Mace, Arizona where Arizona State University. We're in the
Speaker 2: shadow of the stadium right here, and you guys just
Speaker 2: moved into these new offices.
Speaker 4: Well we're in Tempe, and so like I said, right
Speaker 4: next to there's Arizona State Campus. We're actually in one
Speaker 4: of the greenest buildings in Arizona. It's a phenomenal place
Speaker 4: for us.
Speaker 5: And so how.
Speaker 2: Much obviously the peel you know again we talked earlier
Speaker 2: about walking the talk. Absolutely, that's great, But was there
Speaker 2: Is it difficult to get into this building?
Speaker 4: Was it? Because the funny thing is when we when
Speaker 4: we decided to move billions, it's the Tempee Transportation Center.
Speaker 5: You can look it up online.
Speaker 4: This was a major project of love by the city
Speaker 4: of Tempe when they put in the light rail system
Speaker 4: and when we were looking to find a headquarters for
Speaker 4: Dixon Golf once we'd outgrown the manufacturing facility area. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we went to the city and said, hey, we're looking
Speaker 4: for a place to go.
Speaker 5: We went to a number of cities.
Speaker 4: We went to Scottsdee, we went to Masa, we went
Speaker 4: to Tempe, and Tempe said, oh, we want an eco
Speaker 4: friendly tenant in this fabulous eco friendly building that we built,
Speaker 4: and they showed it to us and we're like, this
Speaker 4: is perfect for us, this is where we want to be.
Speaker 4: And so it was really a great match made in Tempe.
Speaker 5: I guess but the city's been great.
Speaker 4: So it's it's kind of a public private partnership that
Speaker 4: we've developed with them, and it's it's been fabulous.
Speaker 1: Great, Well, let's get to this because I have a
Speaker 1: round of golf.
Speaker 5: With a golf you need to go golf. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 5: that's why we play this game in the first place.
Speaker 2: Exactly, that's why we do these interviews so we can
Speaker 2: go play these games. Tell me about the manufacturing process
Speaker 2: of a golf ball. Did you guys have to hire
Speaker 2: your own designers or because you've been making golf balls
Speaker 2: for so many people, you knew what went You really
Speaker 2: didn't have to design anything you need.
Speaker 5: We actually went through a lot of.
Speaker 4: The goal was to make eco friendly golf ball, so
Speaker 4: we tried a lot of different items and things, and
Speaker 4: we looked into you know, biodegradable and to see the
Speaker 4: main thing we had to look at is it couldn't
Speaker 4: affect our performance, because we knew that if we made
Speaker 4: a ball that was eco friendly but only performed seventy
Speaker 4: five percent dead water, then it's a gimmick. No one cares, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, people will people will be eco friendly doing
Speaker 4: something else and not golfing. Yeah, I don't need to worry.
Speaker 4: I want to score, you know, I want I want
Speaker 4: to hit the ball further. I want to score. And
Speaker 4: so our guiding principle on that was we wanted to
Speaker 4: be eco friendly, but it couldn't be it couldn't lack
Speaker 4: anything in performance. In fact, we wanted to make it
Speaker 4: perform better. But that was the first one. We had
Speaker 4: to make it so it wasn't cost prohibitive, and we
Speaker 4: had to make it so it wasn't so difficult to
Speaker 4: be greener eco friendly when you used it. And so
Speaker 4: we went through a period of different materials and we
Speaker 4: worked with you know, companies like DuPont and things like
Speaker 4: that to really try to find the right materials, and
Speaker 4: we tried a number of things with golf balls. You know,
Speaker 4: you'd asked about materials inside of a golf ball. When
Speaker 4: I first got into the manufacturing process of golf balls,
Speaker 4: I was shocked at how labor intensive it was. The
Speaker 4: number of machines that a golf ball has to go
Speaker 4: through to become a golf ball is pretty amazing. And
Speaker 4: you're I mean, you can probably go to see some
Speaker 4: of those how things are built exactly, but essentially the
Speaker 4: modern day golf ball is a rubber cored rubber.
Speaker 5: A hard rubber core.
Speaker 4: That rubber will have fillers in it, and that's where
Speaker 4: a lot of the bad stuff is because people put
Speaker 4: fillers in there for weight purposes. And so you have
Speaker 4: a rubber core and for the layman a plastic cover
Speaker 4: and whether that's you know, you're athane or serlin, that's
Speaker 4: essentially what golf balls are now. Rubber core, maybe a
Speaker 4: plastic mantle, depending on how many layers you have, if
Speaker 4: you want five layers or ten layers, little layers, but
Speaker 4: essentially you're dealing with rubber, plastic and metal and metal
Speaker 4: for the weight, and that's that's.
Speaker 5: The inner living golf the metal part.
Speaker 4: We took out the metal and we we used, like
Speaker 4: you said, heavy salts that that provided the same weight
Speaker 4: salt is salts. Yeah, okay, absolutely, they provided the same weight,
Speaker 4: same consistency, but weren't harmful for the environment. And so
Speaker 4: and in doing that, we also realized we need to
Speaker 4: make something at the end. So that's the beginning, it's
Speaker 4: the end where we can recycle those and and do
Speaker 4: that too. So when when a golf ball is recycled,
Speaker 4: it ends up being plastic and rubber, so we can
Speaker 4: grind that up and use it to do things like
Speaker 4: playground equipment or field turf, thing that plastic and rubber
Speaker 4: can be used for. And so that's the route we
Speaker 4: ended up going. But it took quite a while to
Speaker 4: come up with that because our options were unlimited on
Speaker 4: how we wanted to do it.
Speaker 5: That's how we chose to do it.
Speaker 1: Fascinating.
Speaker 2: So when you mentioned earlier, the fire like a pro
Speaker 2: v is a multi piece ball?
Speaker 5: Correct?
Speaker 1: Okay, how many pieces?
Speaker 2: And how does that compare the fire compared to the
Speaker 2: earth on the amount of pieces and what makes it
Speaker 2: different other than the name.
Speaker 5: It's a three piece ball.
Speaker 4: And so you've got a core, you've got a mantle,
Speaker 4: and you've got a earthing cover around the outside. And
Speaker 4: so if you look at golf ball construction in general,
Speaker 4: the thing that makes a golf ball fly really is
Speaker 4: it's bounce that you get and that's where the rubber
Speaker 4: comes in and then you have a cover. If you
Speaker 4: just had a rubber golf ball, it would bounce really well,
Speaker 4: but it would tend to explode over time because rubber
Speaker 4: golf balls couldn't maintain just the hitting of the golf clubs,
Speaker 4: and you also have so the cover essentially keeps the
Speaker 4: rubber ball together and then you have the dimples that
Speaker 4: allow for aerodynamics and allows the ball to spin and
Speaker 4: get lyft and drag and all that fun stuff. And
Speaker 4: so when you look at the construction of golf ball,
Speaker 4: golf balls used to be constructed, I mean you've had
Speaker 4: there's golf balls out there with metal course, pure metal
Speaker 4: course that have no bounce, and it's all about a
Speaker 4: different concept. You have golf balls that are wound and
Speaker 4: that was with you know, the old the old ballata
Speaker 4: balls where it was just round rubber bands. The problem
Speaker 4: is they weren't consistent in their whining and so solid
Speaker 4: core golf ball technology is really what's changed over the
Speaker 4: over the last few decades to really make a consistent
Speaker 4: performing ball. And then the covers are more about the
Speaker 4: feel and the spin.
Speaker 2: Okay, and that that is really the different creator that
Speaker 2: the consumer would recognize.
Speaker 5: So if you look at the you know, so if
Speaker 5: you look at what.
Speaker 4: The prov one did, it was it was pretty amazing
Speaker 4: that you know, over and I don't know the exact date,
Speaker 4: but you know, from the late nineties to the early
Speaker 4: two thousands, the prov one came on the market and
Speaker 4: just made a huge splash because the problem that you
Speaker 4: had prior to is you could choose feel, and you
Speaker 4: could choose peel, or you could choose distance. Couldn't really
Speaker 4: choose or. And and also with phil you could not
Speaker 4: get durability. So you could get distance and durability or feel,
Speaker 4: which do you want. Well, the pro players they wanted
Speaker 4: feel absolutely, and so they didn't care about durability because
Speaker 4: they could replace their ball and they were getting paid
Speaker 4: to play those balls, so it didn't matter. But you
Speaker 4: go out and play a ballota the ball last one
Speaker 4: hole or one shot before, it's oblong, so you have
Speaker 4: no durability on that and you shred the cover and
Speaker 4: so and so what happened is you had a multipiece
Speaker 4: ball that gave you the durability of.
Speaker 5: A Serlin.
Speaker 4: So Serlin was how most play off balls were made before,
Speaker 4: and so you had to get it more. To get
Speaker 4: it a better feel, you'd have to make a softer serlin.
Speaker 4: So with the softer serlin, the softer got, the more
Speaker 4: it would get shredded with your iron shots. And so
Speaker 4: with that softer surlin, like I said, it's a question
Speaker 4: between feel and durability, and so what the multipiece balls
Speaker 4: gave us, they gave us the durability of a hard ball,
Speaker 4: yet the strong year thing cover that was also very
Speaker 4: pliable and it could it could last. And so that
Speaker 4: really changed the golf world. And the probably one was
Speaker 4: one of the first that came out and really marketed
Speaker 4: that and just that's where they shot to the market
Speaker 4: because they provided a pro type ball that wouldn't destroy
Speaker 4: in two seconds.
Speaker 1: And if we're lucky enough to.
Speaker 2: Play around without losing a ball and then go out
Speaker 2: and play another, hopefully another round without losing eat how
Speaker 2: planned obsolescence is critical in golf ball manufacturing.
Speaker 1: How long should a golf ball last?
Speaker 2: And I guess it's different for you know, for every
Speaker 2: every ball that you manufacture, right, And I know it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it depends on the player.
Speaker 4: Well, well, the only way to really find out is
Speaker 4: if you stick it in a cannon and hit the
Speaker 4: balls in a golf ball cannon. And that's just a
Speaker 4: machine that whacks golf balls into a wall all day long.
Speaker 4: Every golf ball eventually will split apart and break. I
Speaker 4: read a stat the other day that I believe a
Speaker 4: golf ball lasts The average golf.
Speaker 5: Ball lasts about three holes. Wow, till it's lost. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: So for the regular player, it's not ever an issue
Speaker 4: of how long the golf But it was so bad
Speaker 4: add previous to the late nineties that your golf balls
Speaker 4: would get out of sorts and you would shred it.
Speaker 4: So one good shot or one cart path, your ball's toast.
Speaker 4: Now golf balls are a lot stronger because of that technology,
Speaker 4: and so you can you can have the best of
Speaker 4: both worlds now. So that's more just on general golf
Speaker 4: ball construction. So we use those same those same principles
Speaker 4: of golf ball construction. We just use some different materials
Speaker 4: and maintain the integrity of a high performance golf ball
Speaker 4: while replacing some of those materials that are less harmful
Speaker 4: or that are more harmful. Wow, you asked, you asked
Speaker 4: technical questions. I don't technical answers.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, And I appreciate that. I appreciate it
Speaker 1: very much.
Speaker 4: So because I'm not an engineer, right right, I have
Speaker 4: So do you have partners that are that?
Speaker 1: Do you? And that's what a good manager does.
Speaker 2: So do you have a differences in your dimple pattern
Speaker 2: or anything else that would also differentiate your ball against them.
Speaker 4: All of our golf balls have different dimple patterns. If
Speaker 4: you look out there, a lot of the golf ball
Speaker 4: patents in the world are patented for their dimple patterns,
Speaker 4: and some you know, say, hey, they have this dimple
Speaker 4: pattern that allows it to fly further, or this dimple
Speaker 4: pattern that allows it to get less spin. Here's what
Speaker 4: you need on a golf ball. You need to need
Speaker 4: a form dimple pattern. And so I'm not so much
Speaker 4: a you know, some of the industry doesn't like me
Speaker 4: because most of the changes in your.
Speaker 5: Golf ball are in your head and so curses I know.
Speaker 4: But most golfers in your golf ball companies have been
Speaker 4: preaching for years that when they make it tweak to something,
Speaker 4: that it's new and improved, when in reality, what it
Speaker 4: means is I need to sell a new model next year,
Speaker 4: and so manufacturers. So there have been some significant changes
Speaker 4: in technology. The most significant in our in my industry experience,
Speaker 4: has been when we went to solid core technology and
Speaker 4: multi multi layer balls. But there's a lot of good
Speaker 4: golf balls out there and there's not a big difference
Speaker 4: between them.
Speaker 2: Let's let's be real, and price points are very competitive.
Speaker 5: So price coints are competitive. So if you look at
Speaker 5: all the brands, so you really have.
Speaker 2: A unique differentiator in the sense that it's not harmful
Speaker 2: and if you want to crying.
Speaker 4: But it's going to perform as well or better than
Speaker 4: anything else in their category. And that's because the technology
Speaker 4: is out there that most balls in that category are
Speaker 4: fairly similar in their performance.
Speaker 2: When you say uniform dimple pattern, does that mean that
Speaker 2: every dimple should be exactly the same because.
Speaker 5: It has to have a uniform pattern.
Speaker 4: So if it has a small, big, little, it's got
Speaker 4: to be a small, big, little all around in the
Speaker 4: same pattern. I mean, there's ball out there that has
Speaker 4: shallow dimples on one side and deep dimples on the other,
Speaker 4: and that it's non conforming because of that, and and
Speaker 4: they toubt that it that it will decrease your slice
Speaker 4: because of it actually true, but it's not conforming. And
Speaker 4: so that's the that's the thing that they fight, is
Speaker 4: they want people to play a non conforming ball. We
Speaker 4: decided that we wanted the balls to conform. And so
Speaker 4: you know things that non conforming golf ball companies have
Speaker 4: done is they've made their dimple pattern not uniform, or
Speaker 4: they've made their balls heavier, or they've made their balls smaller,
Speaker 4: all of which affect the performance of golf balls. Because
Speaker 4: if you if you were able to make somebody makes
Speaker 4: a smaller golf ball in the past, but they're not
Speaker 4: legal to play with the actual rules. You can make
Speaker 4: a golf ball as big as you want and it
Speaker 4: will conform. And so if you look at and we
Speaker 4: found this I think it was the top Flight XL
Speaker 4: three thousand, we were doing some printing and packaging on
Speaker 4: golf balls and they weren't fitting in the aftermarket packages
Speaker 4: that we were using, and we looked at them and
Speaker 4: compared them. They're actually a larger ball than your typical
Speaker 4: golf ball. I believe that's the I believe that's the brand.
Speaker 4: But you can look at that. Golf balls can actually
Speaker 4: be as big as you want them to be. They
Speaker 4: just can't be any smaller than I think it's one
Speaker 4: point six ' eight inches or something like that. And
Speaker 4: so that's so most golf balls are one size because
Speaker 4: that's as small as they can legally make them. But
Speaker 4: I remember in high school there were these cheaterballs. I
Speaker 4: think they were what was it. It was Caman Golf
Speaker 4: or someone. They made balls that were a little bit
Speaker 4: smaller so they could go further. You can make a
Speaker 4: golf ball, so if you make a smaller, heavier golf ball,
Speaker 4: it's going to.
Speaker 5: Fly a lot further.
Speaker 4: You just can't legally play with it.
Speaker 1: And that sposed to me exactly.
Speaker 5: So there's there's a big market out there.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, you look at golf, and golf
Speaker 4: as an industry is changing, and a lot of it
Speaker 4: is due to sports in general. I look, I look
Speaker 4: at sports nowadays. When I was growing up, we just
Speaker 4: played all the sports. We had fun time at it.
Speaker 4: We enjoyed it, and it was a fun thing. Now
Speaker 4: it seems like everything is just specialized. It's like you're
Speaker 4: going to be a golfer, so let's put you through
Speaker 4: this training regimen and you're going to beat balls since
Speaker 4: when you're five years old, and you're.
Speaker 2: Going to become When we were growing up, it was
Speaker 2: exactly what it was. The Soviet gymnastics team.
Speaker 4: Seriously, that's that's what almost every sport is like now.
Speaker 1: And yeah, they led better school for these twelve.
Speaker 4: Year olds exactly because they you know, I want to
Speaker 4: be a professional golfer and to do to actually succeed.
Speaker 4: Now you pretty much have to go. If you want
Speaker 4: to succeed at the top level, you pretty much have
Speaker 4: to be in that that system when you're young, simply
Speaker 4: because in any sport they're so specialized and you get
Speaker 4: so many hours of practice. Whereas when I grew up,
Speaker 4: I didn't have a chance because I just played everything
Speaker 4: and enjoyed it. And you know, but everyone wanted to
Speaker 4: be a professional athlete. And so now as you get
Speaker 4: older and you get past the professional athlete stage, you know,
Speaker 4: I gave that up.
Speaker 5: I gave up the dream of it. What five years ago.
Speaker 4: I recently heard it never happened, But I gave the
Speaker 4: dream up five years ago.
Speaker 2: So I have, like, I like to draw a line
Speaker 2: around my golf ball, right because I say, it gets
Speaker 2: me perpendicular when I'm teeing off and it allows me
Speaker 2: it gives me a line when I'm putting. So I
Speaker 2: use one of those go pro things that spins the
Speaker 2: ball real fast and I and I'm able to put
Speaker 2: the line on it. And supposedly it's a gyroscopic thing
Speaker 2: that gets the ball, so it's it's spinning, so it's
Speaker 2: on its core center? Right?
Speaker 1: Is that app I mean? Is that is that legit?
Speaker 1: I mean do ball? Are golf balls basically lopsided or
Speaker 1: something that.
Speaker 4: You know if you look at the injection molding process
Speaker 4: and so there's.
Speaker 1: We've never talked about what does that mean.
Speaker 4: So if you look at when you when so a
Speaker 4: standard two piece golf ball, that's a serling covered golf ball.
Speaker 4: The rubber, rubber core, plastic cover cover. So you take
Speaker 4: it's one process to make the core. Then you have
Speaker 4: to take that core, put it in an injection molding,
Speaker 4: and then you inject plastic around that core. And yes,
Speaker 4: if you cut a golf ball open there the equipment
Speaker 4: that's used is accurate to a point. But there are
Speaker 4: and this is where you can get in and I said,
Speaker 4: most golf balls are fairly well made. There's manufacturing facilities
Speaker 4: that just make cheap product out there. And so if
Speaker 4: you look at some of that cheap product, if you
Speaker 4: cut a golf ball in half, you will see that
Speaker 4: the thickness of a of the plastic is thicker on
Speaker 4: one side and thinner on the other. That just means
Speaker 4: it was off center when that plastic was molded around it,
Speaker 4: and so you have that out there. For the most part,
Speaker 4: it's pretty good. And that any name brand golf ball
Speaker 4: you're gonna get, you're gonna get pretty good.
Speaker 5: So can it be off center? Yeah? Is it gonna
Speaker 5: matter to your game?
Speaker 4: No, I'm telling you that, I'm sorry, I'm breaking all
Speaker 4: the rules that I've done and going home.
Speaker 1: I'm not playing with you anymore.
Speaker 4: Well, and you know, Tiger Woods might be able to
Speaker 4: figure that out if he hit a number of them.
Speaker 5: Right in a row. He's sensitive enough to that.
Speaker 4: You and I No, no, I mean, and that's that's
Speaker 4: the industry we live in. I won't destroy your industry
Speaker 4: anymore because I love it. But a lot of the
Speaker 4: marketing that we have is is has been fed to
Speaker 4: us by manufacturers of equipment.
Speaker 2: So this article in the Wall Street Journal, Yes, it
Speaker 2: talks about how Arnold Palmer is a longtime supporter of
Speaker 2: rolling back the distance on golf balls, and that Tiger
Speaker 2: Woods and other players Jack Nicholas was in there. Jack
Speaker 2: Nicholas was in there, and they've said, yes, the same thing,
Speaker 2: and mainly because they're saying that new courses.
Speaker 1: It's too expensive to build.
Speaker 2: A new course, that they need an extra forty to
Speaker 2: sixty acres of land to not only to build it,
Speaker 2: to maintain it. And golf courses, you know, we've talked
Speaker 2: about this on the show. They're just getting longer and longer,
Speaker 2: and frankly, that's playing into the hands of these pros.
Speaker 2: I mean, because they're hitting the ball far that you
Speaker 2: will make your short game tougher. Right, So one of
Speaker 2: the things that they're talking about is is like changing
Speaker 2: the ball making it less and uh, we're having bifurcation
Speaker 2: on forget on bifurcation and clubs bifrecational balls. That there
Speaker 2: should be a ball standard for the tour and then
Speaker 2: ball standard for everybody else.
Speaker 5: Thoughts, a lot of thoughts.
Speaker 4: Actually, as I just looked at the article, you look
Speaker 4: at the people that are mentioned in there that are
Speaker 4: for that, and notice that all great golfers, I believe
Speaker 4: they're all involved in golf course design and management. Now,
Speaker 4: so if you look at the there, uh between the lines,
Speaker 4: does he So if you look at their what they're
Speaker 4: thinking about, I mean, you have to consider what it
Speaker 4: takes to build a golf course. So those are very
Speaker 4: valid thoughts when you look at the management and the
Speaker 4: design of a golf course because and and quite frankly,
Speaker 4: the land it takes. And you know, you make these
Speaker 4: things longer and longer because as a as a society,
Speaker 4: our athletes are more physically fit, our equipment's better, and yes,
Speaker 4: we can hit it harder further now. And like you said,
Speaker 4: you know there's kids hitting at three hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: yards and it's crazy and a lot of it has
Speaker 4: to do with fitness, and a lot of it has
Speaker 4: to do with equipment improvements, and so rules can move
Speaker 4: it back and to be honest, to preserve the integt
Speaker 4: integrity of the game, I totally understand limiting some of
Speaker 4: the distance measures. Some of the things that we can do,
Speaker 4: we just don't do because it takes away the fun
Speaker 4: of the game of golf. If you have to hit
Speaker 4: it four hundred yards on a drive just to be competitive,
Speaker 4: then not many people are going to play golf. And
Speaker 4: I like to go play golf now for fun. As
Speaker 4: I told you, I gave up my aspirations of being
Speaker 4: a professional athlete. And those of you that can't see
Speaker 4: me realize that I should have given those up at birth.
Speaker 4: But you know, I was a kid, and so when
Speaker 4: I golf I golf purely, so I enjoy being outside,
Speaker 4: I enjoy the game, and I enjoy the people I'm with,
Speaker 4: And to me, that's what this game is all about.
Speaker 4: And the industry as a whole is realizing that golf
Speaker 4: needs to be fun.
Speaker 5: If it's all about.
Speaker 4: Farther and bigger and more specialized, you're going to lose
Speaker 4: players because we have a whole lot.
Speaker 5: Of other things we can do with our time.
Speaker 4: And for golf to be successful and for it to
Speaker 4: be a long term, not educational, but physical activity that
Speaker 4: people enjoy in a fun game, it's got to be fun.
Speaker 4: And so there's going to be a lot more discussions
Speaker 4: about this anchoring. Putting is just the beginning of that rule.
Speaker 4: And there's a lot of different thoughts out there, and
Speaker 4: some I think are very very valid because I want
Speaker 4: to go out and have fun and I'm not earning
Speaker 4: money when I golf.
Speaker 5: Most people aren't.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you know, I understand the integrity of
Speaker 2: the game stuff, but aren't we trying to open the
Speaker 2: game to a new generation and to grow the game.
Speaker 2: And when I understand grow the game to mean is
Speaker 2: you're getting more players to start the game than to
Speaker 2: leave the game, and I think over the last couple
Speaker 2: of years that more people are leaving than starting. I
Speaker 2: would agree with that, and so it's difficult to find
Speaker 2: ways to make that work. It's why I think your
Speaker 2: product speaks to the future of the game. I think
Speaker 2: that the game golf, which we've had on the show,
Speaker 2: I think that speaks to the future of the game.
Speaker 2: And I commend you guys for stepping out. And because
Speaker 2: the establishment, the USGA, they're all.
Speaker 1: Very stuck in their ways.
Speaker 2: They don't understand, you know, it seems like they don't
Speaker 2: move forward in progressing on expanding the game.
Speaker 1: It's just like they want to keep their will.
Speaker 5: Well, I think they understand.
Speaker 4: I think that they're a little bit conflicted because the
Speaker 4: USGA deals with competitive golf and growing the game may
Speaker 4: not be about competitive golf and may be about recreational golf.
Speaker 1: I think the PGA deals with competitive golf. I think
Speaker 1: the USGA is about.
Speaker 4: And you think they're not tied together. Well, yeah, I've
Speaker 4: got a bridge to sell, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Right, exactly. No, But to me, it's like.
Speaker 2: The USGA is an advocate for the golf course, not
Speaker 2: the golfer.
Speaker 1: In my mind, right, the.
Speaker 2: Rules are so the golf course can beat you, and
Speaker 2: yet we want to go out there and beat the
Speaker 2: golf course.
Speaker 5: Yeah we do, but they don't want.
Speaker 1: They don't want to listen to it. Anyway.
Speaker 5: That's an other discussion. I'll have that discussion with you
Speaker 5: off air.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly.
Speaker 2: So one of the things in this story that I
Speaker 2: found very interesting that John Paul wrote. He says, the
Speaker 2: USGA in two thousand and five requested and eventually received
Speaker 2: prototypes from eight or nine manufacturers and conducted tests with
Speaker 2: live players to see how balls would be that would
Speaker 2: reduce golf's environmental impact. They have declared, it says here
Speaker 2: the USGA declared a long term environmental sustainability to be
Speaker 2: one of.
Speaker 1: Its top policy issues. Have they knocked on your door?
Speaker 5: They have not.
Speaker 1: Did they know you exist?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Should you not be part of this conversation?
Speaker 5: As far as far as who are you talking about? Him? This?
Speaker 4: Arthur or the USGA knows we exist. We're conforming golf ball.
Speaker 4: We send our balls to them for testing every year.
Speaker 2: And you paid for your licensing, I'm sure absolutely Okay,
Speaker 2: so of course.
Speaker 1: They know you exist.
Speaker 2: You've had to be a licensee but if they're talking
Speaker 2: about long term sustainability, environmental impact, shouldn't you be a
Speaker 2: very high on their list? And shouldn't there other be companies.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't there be other companies knocking on your door going
Speaker 2: how do you do this? Because we want to get
Speaker 2: in that game?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, there should, but they're not follow the money. Yeah,
Speaker 5: a lot of fun.
Speaker 4: I'm no fun. It's the reality of my business. I
Speaker 4: recognize where we stand. There's a lot of great things
Speaker 4: that if they're not brought up by the right people,
Speaker 4: they don't become so great.
Speaker 2: So do you think these are just press notes that
Speaker 2: the USGA is actually saying there?
Speaker 4: Do you think that they're Golf in general has had
Speaker 4: a bad rap for being an environmental scourge on the
Speaker 4: land of whether they are or not, they've had a
Speaker 4: bad rap, and so they are looking they're looking to
Speaker 4: make golf more fun because they want to preserve their game.
Speaker 4: They're looking to make golf more environmentally friendly. A lot
Speaker 4: of it has to do with water usage on the
Speaker 4: course and land usage, but also in the equipment side,
Speaker 4: and so for self preservation, they have to look at
Speaker 4: these issues how they look at them. Obviously, I can't
Speaker 4: control that, but they have to if they want to
Speaker 4: preserve the game and their place in the game. Otherwise
Speaker 4: they'll get passed on because these issues don't go away.
Speaker 4: And we want to be at the forefront. And so
Speaker 4: we thought of this a long time ago, and we're trying.
Speaker 4: We figure the best thing that we can do is
Speaker 4: lead the pack and be successful. If we can do that,
Speaker 4: then they will be knocking our door and want our input, and.
Speaker 1: I hope they do.
Speaker 5: I hope so too.
Speaker 2: I think that would be awesome. It would be It
Speaker 2: would definitely be something that would get your name into
Speaker 2: you know, absolutely without having to pay.
Speaker 5: Then maybe we'll pay a player or two exactly.
Speaker 2: So what is the uh, let's let's let's wrap this
Speaker 2: up and look into the crystal ball. With the viability
Speaker 2: of the future for Dixon Golf very strong.
Speaker 5: We're having great success working with charities. We've grown.
Speaker 4: It took a few years we were toiling and deciding
Speaker 4: how to make a great product into a great business.
Speaker 4: We feel that we've figured that out, and so we've
Speaker 4: been growing tremendously over the last couple of years in general,
Speaker 4: and we'll.
Speaker 5: Probably do.
Speaker 4: Two or three times this year what we did last year,
Speaker 4: and we'll continue to grow and progress because once people
Speaker 4: get it and they like it, they stick with it,
Speaker 4: and so we're excited for the future, very excited.
Speaker 2: On your website, you have an ambassador program. We have
Speaker 2: a you get involved so I can get my name
Speaker 2: on there.
Speaker 4: We sponsor, Like I said, we sponsor a lot of
Speaker 4: charity golf tournaments and one of the things that we
Speaker 4: provide is is we sponsor one lucky player in some
Speaker 4: of those tournaments and they are able to become an
Speaker 4: amateur endorser, and so as an amateur endorser, they do
Speaker 4: get on our website as well as some other prizes
Speaker 4: they get and they can brag that they're and endorsed
Speaker 4: by a golf ball company. So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2: I've been bragging about this golf ball company for years
Speaker 2: and I don't.
Speaker 1: See my name on the list.
Speaker 5: I want to be.
Speaker 4: I know some guys, you're too good reckon no.
Speaker 2: Well, listen, William Carey, President Dixon goolf dixondolf dot com.
Speaker 2: We have the balls for sale on our website. If
Speaker 2: you have any questions, please click on the Hey Fred
Speaker 2: button and ask me. But the Spirit ball for women,
Speaker 2: the Wind for long drive and for long for distance hitters,
Speaker 2: we're focused.
Speaker 5: On that, or they want more distances, that want more distance.
Speaker 2: The earth ball for everybody, right, which is my ball
Speaker 2: of choice, and then the fire which is your high end,
Speaker 2: top of the marketplace. Probably don Cheatles's favorite ball.
Speaker 5: Absolutely I have.
Speaker 2: I've actually had a chance to play. Although I love
Speaker 2: the earth ball, I really like and play better when
Speaker 2: I play with the fire I can't afford.
Speaker 1: It, but I really like. But you know, I can't
Speaker 1: afford a provy one.
Speaker 4: I can't well, and when obviously when I when I
Speaker 4: go off, I golf with the fireball because but I
Speaker 4: know a guy and the reality is exactly the reality
Speaker 4: is my game is more suited to the earth ball.
Speaker 5: That's why we all want to golf with the best.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I wish you nothing but.
Speaker 2: Long, long term six us and you know I'm cheer leading,
Speaker 2: not because my name is green, but it.
Speaker 4: Kind of works out, it works well. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 4: We appreciate being on your podcast. Shout out to all
Speaker 4: the people that have supported this podcast for so long
Speaker 4: and it's growing. It's just very impressive that you've been
Speaker 4: able to build it and grow it so thanks for
Speaker 4: letting me be on the show.