Speaker 1: Hello. I'm Jack Smiley Jr.
Speaker 2: From San Juan Gista, California.
Speaker 1: I played golf at San Juan Oaks. Hi.
Speaker 2: This is Thomas Dallas from Bradenton, Florida, and I play
at IMG Golf Course. This is Golf Smarter episode number
one one five Insider Baseball thread. I may or may
not have asked Charlie when we played Tiger if I
could give him the closer signal when he's sitting in
the box and see if he would come out and
put against his dad. And we beat him, but he
didn't want to put his dad to shame on ESPN.
But I mean, you think about how amazing of a format,
like even what the Father Son PNC is. There's so
many of these type of events that Tgl's format and
the style of play could lend itself to. The shot
clock was fun like if you're in the stadium, everybody's chanting,
like in a basketball game when there was ten seconds left,
everybody's running around trying to get the crowd riled up.
It feels like the first he at the Ryder Cup
for almost two hours. I mean, you can be last.
There was no signs held up that says please be
quiet or we're t and off. When we played New York,
I swear they flew down Long Island into a fans
section and they had no problem bringing the Bethpage Black
noise to us at TGL. It riled our guys up
and made it so much fun.
Speaker 1: Expanding the future of indoor golf, home simulators and TGL
with Ben Helmraff. 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. Ben.
Speaker 2: Hey, Fred, how's it going.
Speaker 1: It's going great today, and this is going to be
a fun conversation because we're talking about something that kind
of happened a while ago, but we're waiting fingers crossed
in great anticipation for another season of TG and that's
part of what we're going to talk about with you
today because you have an important role in the retail world.
To introduce yourself in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I I work for PGA Tour Superstore, the
leading golf retailer. We are in almost thirty states and growing.
So for those not familiar with us, we are are
the kind of official retail partner of the PGA Tour.
So super excited that in that realm, I oversee our
hard goods, all things clubs, accessories, basically anything related to golf,
non apparel and footwear, and that includes a lot of
a lot of the growth categories I think we're going
to talk about, like simulation and you know, speaking of
TGL golf. So really excited and really excited to be
on today to talk about it.
Speaker 1: What does it mean exactly that your official partner of
the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have a licensee partnership with the tour.
So as you see on our our doors and on
everything we've we've got the PGA Tour name associated with us,
which really hope you know it. Ultimately it creates trust
for the customer. It showcases that were the primary spot
that the tour trust to carry any and all things
carried or played on tours. So that's what that's kind
of what I mean my term partnership.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand, Okay, which is pretty awesome to have
that association, but what does that How does that separate
you from like Worldwide Golf that has bought every retail
outlet of everything in golf all over the country. How
does it separate you as far as do you carry
products that are associated with a tour that you can't
find in other retailers.
Speaker 2: Not necessarily we have something that are specific to us,
but we actually kind of stay out of the call
it for lack of a better word, owned band. We
want to carry what is played on tour. We want
the best product in the store. There are some things
that we carry that others don't for whatever reason. That
may be some of that actually being in some of
the simulation space some of the other areas. You know,
our big differentiator you're asking for it is we have
a very large format store, whereas a lot of our
competition tends to be smaller. Our average store is probably
around thirty five thirty eight thousand square feet. Oh wow,
I would think more like a Dick Sporting Goods versus
some of the other golf retailers that are in the
specialty space are more like a you know, eight to
twelve thousand square foot smaller retail box. So it allows
us to carry the broadest assortment in golf and really
be able to capitalize on all segments.
Speaker 1: So interesting, So I'm in northern California. I've seen one
PGA superstore in an airport, huh, you know, and it
was like it was great because there was a bought
a great shut from there. It was on sale and
I still wear it and about it years ago. And
then the closest outlet or the closest store to me
in northern California is about an hour away. It's in
the East Bay and Dublin, California.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the retail and airport is actually not us
really license seed partner of the tour.
Speaker 1: That's a PGA store.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's PGA Tour Shop. So it's a partner.
But we are in Dublin. We're also in Cooper, Tino
and East Palo Alto, so hopefully any one of those
three and for all the things you might not want
to drive an hour for, we have a broader assortment online,
so promise we will fill any and all of your
golf needs. Frets.
Speaker 1: So ah, the Internet saved so many retailers and knock
so many out, so let's see your function. There is
everything other than retail hard good stuff. But we're going
to really talk about in homes simulators today, and it
seems with TGL and maybe I missed something before that,
but in home simulator and simulator golf, virtual golf, let's
call it golf. I still see it as golf. Virtual
golf is a video game, but golf simulators, and that
seems to really be growing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's been booming well before TG I
think it really took off. COVID helped a lot. Yeah,
but you know, over the last five years, the landscape
of golf has completely changed. We brought a lot of
new people into the game. I think with that, the
evolution of the format of golf kind of had to
or needed to change a bit as you bring more
non maybe traditional golfers into the game to play it.
And not only that, access has become harder, right, I
mean in late twenty and early twenty one, when most
other activities were shut down or golf courses it was
tough to get tea times. So you saw a push
into kind of the off course realm, whether it was
a top golf or a simulator company. And then quickly
I think people realized, you know, to get out on
a Saturday and play and leave your family or whatever
it might be, you have to drive to and from
your warm up session, maybe a nineteenth whole visit afterwards.
Next thing you know, you're out for seven hours to
get through the round. And in the simulator world, you
and I are playing eighteen holes at Pebble Beach in
whatever cold city we might be wishing we were at
Pebble Beach, and we're doing it in sixty to ninety minutes.
So and you're teeing off at eight pm, exactly right.
Speaker 1: And let's not forget that.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So I mean, any climate, anytime, anything,
you don't have to wait on the tea time, there's
nobody in front of you playing slow, So all of
that aspect. I love how you called it out. It's
not virtual golf, it's golf. It's just golf in a
different sense. And we're really bulow it. We're really hoping
that it continues to grow. It was crazy talking to
one of our vendor partners who helps with junior clubs
and kind of the growth of the game. And there
was actually a kid that played in one of the
tournaments that is now going on a D one scholarship
and had never played an off course round before he
got to one of the championship tournaments. So the whole
experience that this kid had in golf was in a
virtual world. So you know that whole evolution of the
game is only growing. It helps bring kids in. There's
an easier way to play. You don't have that, you know.
It's funny. Everybody's got the first t envy of wanting
the newest product and everything else. But there's also that
fear if you're new to the game and you don't
know that the rules of the game and all the
different ways it works. There's also that fear side of
it going to the first team of it. Am I
gonna do something wrong? Am I going to embarrass myself?
I really shouldn't be out here, I don't want to play.
All of that goes away when you're in your basement,
playing in the comfort of your own home. So we're
really bullish on and really excited to spanded.
Speaker 1: I need to back up about this kid who went
from off course golf as you call it, or simulator golf,
to playing where.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure I just totally but it's wait.
Speaker 1: He must have been shocked when he had to hit
a ball that was below his feet or even above
his feet or he had to putt I mean, wait what, Yeah,
it doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those parts are crazy to think about. But I
mean you got to also think how many the evolution
of how good those products are, you know, every in
and out of your swing, swing path, spin rates, all
those things that there are probably a fair number of
kids fifteen twenty years ago that played incredible D one
schools that maybe never even had access to those numbers.
It was all absolutely so like that aspect of it
is unbelievable fast we've evolved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, it's it's true that you can with
the proper tools, you can learn a lot about your
swing before you ever get to a golf course. But again,
hitting balls, and we reiterate this so often on this show.
Hitting golf balls and playing golf are two completely different things.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, yeah, he agrees.
Speaker 1: So let's talk a little bit more. I want to
go into more of your first reaction when you walked
into SOFI and saw the TGL setup.
Speaker 2: It was wild the day that I first so I'd
been a part of kind of the inner workings with
tglsins middle of twenty twenty two, and it had kind
of been a little bit of a dream come true.
So it was late twenty three. We were down at
Universal Studios. They had essentially a smaller format of the
screen where they were doing all the test runs and
figuring out the competition and the technology, and getting to
go down there already kind of blew your mind a
bit just seeing them. I think at the time that
screen was thirty feet by forty feet or something, right,
I mean it's still massive, but you didn't have anything
other than that. But still it just it blew your
mind to seek off plate in that kind of setting,
that kind of environment, and then transition. It was November
of twenty four and I actually went down the day
that we had Justin and Pat come in for the
first time. And and Thomas and Patrick can'tle a so
they were two players actually to walk in and hit
a ball in so far, so we were all there
the same same time. And you walk in, you turn
that corner and you just see a I mean a screen.
I think it's bigger than an Imax screen, and it
just I don't know, Fred, if you have the chance
to go down or not, but I mean it just
takes you away. It takes your breath away, you're it
just it was mind boggling to see.
Speaker 1: Well, if that's an invitation, I'm coming.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, but it it was unbelievable. So and then
even just over the progression from November until the first week,
and you just saw the stadium come together more time,
the guys got to have in their practicing the green
getting to stand on it and rotate on it. It
just the technological feat that happened to make that facility
come to life was are not one of the coolest
things to get to see and experience.
Speaker 1: And you got involved with the Atlanta team mainly because
well TGA Superstores PGA Superstores and the Atlanta TGL team,
the Atlanta Drive are owned both by the same person
who also is the co founder of Home Depot, Arthur Blank. Yes, right,
So I guess that's your connection to get to the
Atlanta team. Is the parent company owner owns everything. And
what was your involvement during TGL. Am I saying it right?
Or am I saying PGL TGL like blanking out here?
So your involvement with TGL and the Atlanta team, what
did you get to do? How close did you get
to the action?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So I mean starting back in twenty two. You know,
mister Blank is very bullish on the game of golf,
very bullish on the growth that exists within the game
of golf, and got excited by the opportunity to be
involved in this new age golf league. So we got
to work on just looking at was it right, was
it the right opportunity, what it was going to look like,
kind of on the investment side. Post investment, then it
really turned into starting to work through all the actual
creation of the team, what it would be called, everything
from like logos, colors, everything we kind of did to
design Atlanta Dry and then with that it was kind
of me for a while there as a point person,
if you will, between the team and the league, so
helping just kind of create the original rules, the cadence
of how everything happens. I mean, we were flying a
plane while building it. At the same time. We didn't
have wheels, we didn't have wings, Like we're just off
and and and hoping it works. And so it was fun.
I mean it was a startup, right, So.
Speaker 1: We have you ever been involved in anything like that
before as a startup?
Speaker 2: No, nothing like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Okay, soup you.
Speaker 2: Know, it was a wild ride. So we got to
experience kind of everything, I mean everything from the first
pass of how we were going to do rosters, to
then some of the inner workings of some of the
players leaving because they they went over to another tour
and then having to figure out what players were going
to backfill, and then the the issue with the generator
and the bubble going down, and the delay of the
league a year and just all the different stuff that
kind of happened was a while.
Speaker 1: Wait, what do you mean the bubble went down?
Speaker 2: So the original TGL structure was think it was actually
designed after the Miami Dolphins practice facilities, so it was
like they call those sports bubbles, more of a soft
top arena. And the league was supposed to actually launch
in January of twenty four, but November of twenty three,
there was a huge storm that went through and struck
two of the generators that were powering as they were
still doing construction, and part of the salt bubble, I guess,
for lack of a word, deflating on one of them
metal joys and popped it and the whole thing collapsed.
So that was why the league actually got delayed a year.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the same storm that wiped out the Tampa
Bay Rays.
Speaker 2: I think yeah, it might actually the same storm. I
don't remember the timing, but it was. Yeah, it was
in early November.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow Okay, And then during TGL itself on the broadcast,
you were right there with the Atlanta team.
Speaker 2: I was. I was on the I guess you'd call
it field to play with them.
Speaker 1: So on the course, yes, on the.
Speaker 2: The three of us, the three of the players and
myself were down there for each match.
Speaker 1: And what were you doing there with them?
Speaker 2: Specifically on match nights? I kind of helped orchestrate and
run more of the strategic side of how we're going
to approach things, So manage the actual physical screen for one,
So basically, you know, in the simulator world, you aim
where you want to go, you actually move the point
of aim. You're able to look at if they had
a question of how far is the carry to that
bunk or how far? So it was kind of like
we called it the digital caddy. So think kind of
in that mindset to be able to have a massive
Yardist book in the in the digital world. So running
that and then working with the guys on helping set
what order they were going to play, kind of mapped
out the holes of hey, Billy, we're not going to
hit driver here, We're going to play out to the right.
That sets justin up for a good seven iron, like
just almost like mapping out the strategy behind how we
were going to approach it. So works closely with them
and all that. So honestly, my goal was I just
wanted them to show up and focus on hitting the
best shots and not have to overthink any of that stuff.
Let that all be to me and we'll send it
all up.
Speaker 1: How familiar with were you with each of their games
on an en course play that you were able to
assist in what decisions are being made strategically. Yeah, you
were a caddy, right, Basically you were a caddy without
having to carry anything.
Speaker 2: Lucky you, thank you, But you had to deal with
three people and not one, so I don't know part
of me would argue carrying a bag might be they
were first off, these guys were the greatest. I couldn't
have wanted a better group of four guys on the
team because we did have four, but only three played
in a night. But yeah, I mean I think it
was a combination of thankfully for shot Link now and
getting access easily to kind of a data set of
how and in what ways they play, mirrored with just having
a good communication channel with what's their comfort level on
hitting a cut versus draw, what's their comfort level on
rough shots versus fair way. You know, if it tightened
up closer, do you want a ninety shot from the
rough or a one to fifty from short grass. Just
kind of having some of those notes when we practiced
early on just kind of help streamline the whole process,
if you will. So it's a little bit of a
combination of already just watching them and being huge fans
of them each and every week, plus working directly with
them to get a feel for what they like and
don't like.
Speaker 1: Right, who is the most difficult?
Speaker 2: None of them? They were all amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh come on. So and now that that season is
over and I felt like it was a big success.
I loved watching it. I know that there are a
lot of let's call them old school OG golfers right
that were like discounting it as if it was another
league that was just trying to dig into the PGA
Tour like live. But it really kind of supported what
PGA is doing as opposed to competing with it, and
you know, they complimented. I mean it was clear that
these were Monday and Tuesday nights because those were the
off days for these guys and they lived a lot
of them lived in the area where so far was
set up.
Speaker 2: Correct, that's right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So how how does everyone feel about season two?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I think everybody's bullish, kind of like
you were just hinting at, right. I mean, it is
one of those things where a lot of a lot
of the guys maybe the first match or the first
practice sessions, there was a little bit of it's new. Right.
The way I kind of equated it was, I if
you're playing at API at bay Hill and you had
to go out and play the next week at the
Scottish Open, you got to change the way you play golf.
You're not going to the same type of drive. You're
not going to hit the forty yard shots around the
greens the same. The lies are different, you have to
play the conditions, the wind, the temperature, everything. This was
the exact same situation, and I think maybe some of
the guys at first wanted to say it's the same,
but you have to realize you're indoors, so it's a
controlled environment. There's no wind. The ball flies differently because
the humidity is you know, set in an indoor environment
versus outdoor mornings and afternoon rounds. The humidity changes, so
there's all these different things. And yes, we hit off
a real grass into the screen, but it was hitting
off of turf around the greens, So some of the
guys maybe hit the same that low spinning webshot, but
if that ball lands in turf, it interacts differently than
if it lands on you know, bed grass or something.
So there was just an adoption that needed to happen
as they realized that it was technically a little bit
of a different game, a different format, And once that happened,
everybody started playing their best, and I think it really
I think after the first couple of weeks, everybody would
agree that competition got really, really tight, because now you're
just seeing the best players in the world have fun
and want to beat each other. And it was in person.
I got to tell you, like, you're standing with the
guys on the side, and I'll just say they were
very competitive and they definitely wanted to win. So I
think carrying that into season two is is only exciting
or super bullish on all of it.
Speaker 1: I have grand visions for TGL. I see co ed teams.
I see LPGA versus LPGA. I see LPGA versus PGA.
I would love to see PGA versus live, right, I
think that this doesn't have to be a once a year,
couple of week situation. But I'm not involved in the
decision making at all my senses. You're not involved in
the decision making, but you're on the inside hearing the conversations.
Speaker 2: I think that's that's probably fair.
Speaker 1: So what's going on in the conversations?
Speaker 2: But come on, man, I mean, I think I think
there's definitely an opportunity to expand. I you know, I
think everybody would love to see a way to incorporate
the female golfer into this environment. It's the LPGA is
doing nothing but growing. The women that play in that
are as good, if not better than a lot of
the guys, and unfortunately they just haven't always gotten the eyeballs.
And the more people are watching, you watch Nelly play golf,
and I don't care what I mean, She's just she's
absolutely unbelievable. We'd be crazy to say we wouldn't want
to see or compete in this kind of environment. So
I think we're I think there's definitely a likelihood of
seeing something in the in the future, whether it's you know, mixed,
whether it's just an LPGA league. But even to add
onto what you're saying, Fred, and who knows where this
would go and if it is, But I mean, you're
seeing the creator classics happening anymore now. On PGA Tour events,
you could see the number of celebrities that have grown
to love this game, that have actually invested also in
TGL like Steph Curry and some of these other folks
that have really strong presence in the game of golf.
How do you see that expansion. We've seen that match
format bring NFL players and other people from other sports
leagues to draw interest and grow the game. We had
any of people. There was one night Josh Allen's bachelor
party was down there during one of our matches, and
he and the guys all played after the match was over.
You know, the more you see that kind of interaction,
it makes you excited just to think about the possibilities
of where that format and that stadium can really elevate
the game across more than just the PGA Tour. So yeah,
I mean, I'll say that to me, there's endless opportunities
of where and how they can expand and take this
to help gar the game.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And there's the team aspect of it. You know,
we know how exciting the Ryder Cup is and the
energy of it, but the team aspect of this what
really sucked me in was these guys being miked so
you can hear them giving each other a hard time,
you know, dishing it out. But you could also hear
their strategy as they're playing, which I felt was so
exciting to hear that part. He's made it more fun.
You know. The other thing is like here, clearly Tiger,
who's never going to be able to walk seventy seventy
two holes competitively. Ever, again, we don't think he's always
got magic in his back pocket, but we don't know.
But in a situation like this where he doesn't have
to walk seventy two holes and he can play a
full round, that opens the door to more seniors coming in,
right the Champions Tour, the guys, the older guys coming
in and playing against each other because they don't have
to they don't have to walk that much anymore, less
taxing on him.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, By the way, anybody that thinks that man,
if he was allowed a cart, I would bet on
him to win again in a big tournament because he's
still I mean to see, I swear he is. He's
got magic in every pocket. To watch how he can
still hit the ball one hundred and eighty miles an hour,
he just blows it. He blows your mind to get
to see it in person. He's just you were right there, Yeah,
he's a bit.
Speaker 1: And you're looking at the numbers, hard numbers comparing to
these other guys, and here he is, and you're.
Speaker 2: Saying, these guys that are winning on the tour right now,
and he's doing it with you know, obviously maybe the
legs aren't as strong and parts of your body that
you need to generate speed, and he's still out there
just hitting fairways at very very fast speeds. That just
he's unbelievable, he really is. Can only hope he can
figure that magic sauce out that you were talking about
and we get to see him bring twenty nineteen augusta
back to life, because I think everybody in the world
would love to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly everybody. Well, and then in this conversation thinking about,
oh my gosh, Charlie his son, Oh, let's go teams.
Let's do college teams. Nil is going to allow this. Now,
let's see college teams, the top four college six college
teams compete or eight teams, whatever you have, you know,
compete against each other because they're used to team golf
as it is. Anyway, it's a whole another so you
can do this. All this can be done all year long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Insider Baseball thread. I may or may not
have asked Charlie when we played Tiger if I could
give him the closer signal when he's sitting in the
box and see if he would come out and put
against his dad. And we beat him. But he didn't
want to. He didn't want to put his dad to
shame on ESPN. But we But you're right, I mean nothing.
I mean, you think about how amazing of a format
like even what the father Son PNC is. Oh my god,
there's so many of these type of events that tgl's
format and the style of play could lend itself to
and it's two hours exactly. It's fast format. The shot
clock was fun, like if you're in the stadium, everybody's chanting,
like in a basketball game when there was ten seconds left,
you know our guys, everybody's running around trying to get
the crowd riled up. It feels like the first he
at the Ryder Cup for almost two hours. I mean,
you can be loud. None of the guys care. There
was no like signs held up. That's as please be
quiet when we're tea and off. You've got guys just chanting.
When we played New York, I swear they flew down
Long Island into a fan section and they had no
problem bringing the Bethpage Block noise to us at TGL,
and it was it made it. It riled our guys up.
It made it so much fun.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So technologically TGL again introduced the shot clock,
which was pretty great. The shot clock and the pressure
and if I remember, because I watched every single one,
the only shot clock violation I think was just once
or twice and it was both Tiger, right, it was
once and it was and it was Tiger. Yeah. Yeah.
He seemed to have more issues with the technology than
anybody and the old guy. But you know, like Waitte,
my my nine iron doesn't go that far. You know,
he kept doing a couple of those, but dude, you're
hitting off of phony gret well. But when they're hitting
those boxes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what about other introductions
of technology do you see in the future, because I
have a suggestion.
Speaker 2: I'm curious your suggestion before I say anything.
Speaker 1: Okay, have a.
Speaker 2: Better idea than I do.
Speaker 1: No, it's not better, it's just an idea, but I
think there it's hard on TV to follow the ball
once it's hit, especially when they take that weird angle
from the back left corner. But like you, you hear
the ball hit, You kind of hear a pop when
it hits the screen, but you don't see it, and
then all of a sudden, there's like a beat later
and the ball's fly. Now you see a virtual ball flying.
My suggestion would be to have like a sound effect
for when it goes from actual to virtual, like when
the ball hits the screen, to hear a type of
sound right, so that you know, okay, But also there's
a mark on the screen where it hit, because obviously
the driver gonna it's gonna be lower on the screen
and then when they hit a wedge. I mean, this
thing is sixty feet tall, and you know they're hitting
wedges that probably.
Speaker 2: Could hit the roof getting close.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know it's like where did it hit
on the screen? What angle are they taking? So I
have a better idea. I mean, I'm not saying to
have the tracker line the top tracer line follow the
ball from when it hits, but to have that moment
from actual to virtual I think would enhance it a bit. Yeah,
I think my two cents.
Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be a lot that they'll be
able to learn and grow from it. I think, you know,
multiple times throughout the season there were slight adjustments within
production and also kind of in venue activation and the
way it worked. I give a lot of credits over
down there at TGL. They've got a lot of really
bright minds that have a lot of opportunities. Jeff Newbarthur
runs production obviously in league for years and put on
all the matches throughout their creation and has a lot
of experience in that and excited to see kind of
what that team brings to life coming into season two.
Speaker 1: Well it maybe mine may not have been that good
of an idea because you didn't write it down.
Speaker 2: This is recorded, so I didn't have to write it down.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think we need to get back to our
own virtual setups now. That was really awesome, and congratulations
on being involved in all of that. It was fun
to see. And on the cover of this episode you'll
see a photo have been with a couple of the
players from a TGL event. Let's let's now talk more
about how we can play and press ACTE virtually with
our own in home setup. Where do you start when
someone's saying I want to do a simulator at my house,
how do you start that? Where's this conversation begin?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a couple of kind of parameters
that we just want to understand, right. It really comes
down to a few things. One the size of the room.
That sounds like it may be obvious, but certain simulators
and launch binder technologies require different depths to the screen
depth from where you make contact. So for at first glance,
knowing how big your room is, you eliminate X number
of options. So room sizes is really important.
Speaker 1: And I would suspect that most important is the height
of the ceiling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the heights nine feet minimum. But outside
of that, really any of the launch monitors work. If
you have that height. It really becomes more of the depth,
the amount of space from the launch monitor to the
screen and the hit location of the screen. So that
part of it's kind of an important factor. And then second,
what are you looking to get from it? I mean,
in our opinion kind of being an agnostic partner that
studies and looks at all the different technologies. Are you
looking to have it more of a social thing and
play games with friends. Are you looking to just practice
and you want as many ball metrics as possible to
be that kid who gets a D one scholarship never
playing outdoors, or are you looking to play the best
quality of pebble beach that you can like? It really
kind of depends on what your use cases because the
different technologies specialize in different things. And then third, ultimately
is price point. What budget do you have and how
do we create the best solution for you, your family, whatever
your situation is. So I think when we have those
kind of three, it's a really good starting point to
then put you in the right bundle at least to
start a conversation around and kind of work on it
from there.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be indoors.
Speaker 2: It doesn't. That's another question. You may bring that up. Fred.
It's a lot of these units. I mean, we see
every pro guy with one of these or gals on
the range when they're warming up. A lot of these
you could put behind you and hit into a net
in your backyard, you can play in your garage. I mean,
there's endless options when you really think about it. But again,
that'd be another thing to note because some of the
units maybe aren't as good outdoors versus indoors, et cetera.
So it really just depends on again what your use
case is ultimately.
Speaker 1: And when I walk in the door saying I want
to do in home simulator, and I'm thinking it's going
to be to help my swing mechanics, to help my swing,
but also for social I want to invite people over
and make a night of it. Things like that, Where
do we start do we start on? Okay, how much?
What's your budget?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really key key point. I mean, ultimately
it's kind of going to take you also to things
like quality, really quality of what shows up on the screen. Right.
I mean you can go into Best Buy tomorrow and
say I want a fifty five inch TV to watch movies,
and there's going to be a price range from you know,
two hundred and fifty dollars to three thousand dollars. So
ultimately just comes down to some of those things that
are important to you as the consumer. And then they're
small features, right. I mean some of them have built
in screens into the unit. That's a nice feature. Some
of them have better accessibility with iOS and iPad devices
if you did want to be more mobile. So it
starts getting a little bit more technical from there. But
I would say once we know those kind of things,
we've got a starting point for you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would think that the starting point is the
most important, because this guy's the limit on how far
you can go in price. You can just keep going
and going. But what should I have in my mind
as a base amount? I'm going to start with For
a room in my house, it's got nine foot ceilings
and the room is twenty by that's a big room.
Twelve twelve by eighteen room, kind of a standard sized room,
I guess, with a nine foot ceiling. So we need
to know what would be the base amount we're talking
about as opposed. You know, do I turn around and
walk out the store right now, or it's like, okay,
you got me, Now let's work from there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean base to get in with everything you
need to be able to play that Now. Granted we
don't sell your iPad or.
Speaker 1: They're my golf clubs. I don't need my golf clubs either.
Speaker 2: We do sell your golf club I'm sure you do.
Speaker 1: But let's just.
Speaker 2: Put out of it. If we get you the enclosure,
the screen, the turf, the projector the side net so
kids not hitting a hozzle into your window, the side net,
and then the actual launch monitor itself, we're starting at
about thirty five hundred bucks. Oh that's not bad, No, yeah,
I mean that. This is the exciting thing too. For
as we talked about this and where we're really trying
to get put our foot on the gas and be
bullish on it is the prices have massively come down
really over the last four or five years as mass
adoption has happened. More and more companies are entering this
space and therefore the competitive nature of it has created
a bit of a reduction in price. So it's I
think the mentality of a consumer probably thinks it's fifty
thousand dollars to put.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, that's where I thought.
Speaker 2: You go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you said thirty five about one hundred, it's
like thirty five thousand, I am makes sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thirty five hundred. You you can bet on
the low end and play golf courses and have fun
in your house, and that's hitting into a screen with
a projector everything.
Speaker 1: I've been a big fan here on Golf Smarter with
the Rahapsodo products. They're great people, and it's a great
product and the quality. I just happened to see a
video on YouTube recently a guy comparing the track man
versus a rap soda, and he's talking about you want
to spend five thousand or you want to spend seven
hundred and the accuracy. He tried multiple shots with three
different clubs and the accuracy was so close it was
unless you're teaching. If this is just a consumer product,
I want to get better. The Rap soda really held
up well at a very compelling price point.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The rhap Sodo MLM two, which is probably what
you're talking about, is I mean, it's a fantastic price
point a little under seven hundred dollars, unbelievable quality. It's
got a cameras you're able to kind of go back
and loop a little bit of video feed of how
your swing win and then yeah, the accuracies is fantastic.
I think again, when you're paying up, it's different functionality
and features that may or may not be important to
the consumer. So, for instance, some of the higher end
ones might have better quality graphic cards, so when you're
actually hitting into a screen, it's the difference in seeing
the tree blow in the wind and you know, making
a lot more realistic feeling maybe versus a little bit
lower quality graphic. There's small nuances like that that come
into play. There's some small additive ball in club metrics
that certain avid golfers might want to see, angle of attack,
some of these other metrics that are important to their
game that you don't always get with every unit. So
again that's what I'm going with it. There's options for everybody.
It really just comes down to which of those features
and benefits are most important to figure budget.
Speaker 1: My son has a putt and green out in front
of his house, fenced in, and he's got two kids,
four and six and a half years old, and just
last week he gave them each their own golf bag
that had a driver, a seven iron, and a putter,
right these small clubs, and immediately they pulled they each
pulled out the driver and the seven iron and wanted
to start swinging away with it. But it's like, no, no, no,
you're going to damage the You're going to damage the
putting green if you hit with that. You can't do that.
And they still don't know what they're doing. They just
like the big the heft of it, and we're trying
to get them to use the putter. So this is
the kind of thing for somebody who has kids, and
it's like, well, I've got kids now and I'm not
going to play be able to play golf anymore. Oh wait,
here's an opportunity. So the price point like that for
him to start and to have kids be able to
hit in the balls and have games with that, interactive games,
that's a pretty compelling argument.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. I mean, it's a there's there's different
technologies again in the launch bars that have different things
for kids. You know, if you've been to Top Golf Day,
that partnership with with Angry Birds. Some of the other
functionality and launch monitors have different cool partnerships to be
able to entice the kid to play. You can play
on top of a skyscraper, you can play out in
a desert hitting at dinosaurs, right, I mean, there's like
different gamify the driving range or make it fun for kids.
So that part's cool. They've they've definitely gotten better on putting,
so a lot of those different launch monitors have like
pup putt courses and things of that nature. So it's
really kind of becoming a family environment if that's again
what you're looking to do with it. And I'm just
to take a step back, I'm being remiss to not
call it out A screen, a projector sounds like a
home theater to me. So when you're not playing, you
can throw you know, whatever you want to watch, and
then you're sitting there, you're the cool house that kids
want to go to because now you basically have a
built in movie theater in your house. So to me,
there's there's so many cool opportunities for the whole family
to be able to get the opportunity or the benefits
of it. So it's not just it's a both a
Father's Day and Mother's Day and Christmas gift for the kids.
Speaker 1: Whoever is right, So tell me why I should be
calling PGA Superstore if I'm interested in putting an in
home simulator versus any other person that claims to be
doing golf simulated materials and setups.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, first and foremost kind of where we started, right,
the name on the door, the brand, the trust that
you have in us. It's a lot of the people
that are in this space. It's kind of more of
your one off shops that do just this. The way
I kind of equate it to is, would you rather
go to a car dealership, test drive the car, see
the car in person, open the doors, all that stuff,
or do you want to go online to carvon and
just have somebody come drop it off of your doorstep
and hopefully it's the exact car you wanted. I mean,
we are generally speaking talking at a reasonably higher end
price point for a product. Yeah, it starts at thirty
five hundred, but you know, as we said earlier, it's
easy that it could creep up and get a little
bit higher. So to have a trusted partner that you
can go to We're located in almost thirty states and
growing now, so hopefully it's located close enough to you
where you can actually go in person see the product,
feel the product. We're actually working right now by the
end of the year to be able to demo and
actually feel and see the end to end experience in
your home in our stores. So it gives you that
opportunity you talk to any of these players, including the
manufacturers of the Launch monitor. There's nowhere in the US
unless you've got a country club or something that might
have a build out where you're actually able to test
and demo like you do golf clubs in our store,
but for the simulator side of things. So we're really
excited about a lot what's coming. But I just start
first and foremost with the experience and service level in
our stores and the trusted partner on our doors. Hopefully
those two combined with there's no better place to go
for your high purchase needs like an inome zim.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Ben, this has really been fascinating. I love to
get your insights as you were at TGL and hear
what was going on there, but learning more about how
to set up an in home simulator has been really
fascinating as well. I appreciate your time and your insights awesome.
Speaker 2: Prey Well, thank you for the time today. It's been fun.