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| A Look Back: July 18 1957: Six-time major championship winner Nick Faldo is born in Welwyn Garden City, England. 1982: Tom Watson takes home his fourth British Open trophy, beating out Peter Oosterhuis and Nick Price by one stroke at Royal Troon. 1988: In a Monday finish, Seve Ballesteros wins his third British Open by besting Nick Price by two at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. 1993: Greg Norman shoots a record 13-under 267 to win the British Open at Royal St. Georges. 1999: Scotland's Paul Lawrie defeats France's Jean Van De Velde and American Justin Leonard in a four-hole playoff to win the British Open at Carnoustie. |
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Technology
Cybergolf announces that it has added a Stats Tracker to its Broadcast
Email Blast System.
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Pause
Golf Solutions installs Fore! Reservations Golf Course Management and Marketing
Software at Sky View Golf Course in Alliance, Neb., this week.
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Accessories
QLink wearers Rachel Teske, Stewart Ginn and Eduardo Romero were victorious
in three of this past weekend's professional tournaments -- the Jamie Farr Kroger
Classic, the Ford Senior Open Championship and the Barclay Scottish Open, respectively.
Five QLink wearers have won tournaments in the past two weeks.
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Courses
Golf course builder Duininck Brothers Golf completes grassing of holes on the
18-hole, par-71 Tripp Davis-designed Raven Nest Municipal Golf Course in
Huntsville, Texas, which will be the home course for Sam Houston State University.
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The
National Golf Foundation releases results of a survey that shows only 21
percent of golfers who play at public golf courses are loyal to that course. The
NGF's Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction Program provides individual facilities
with insight into what drives loyalty and how their facility measures up.
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People
Following a 45-day national search that attracted more than 80 applicants from
across the country, the John Deere Classic names Clair Peterson as its
new tournament director, effective immediately.
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The National
Sporting Goods Association Board of Directors elects Bruce Ullery, President
& CEO of MC Sports in Grand Rapids, Mich., as a Director-at-Large.
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Tournaments
Newly crowned 2002 Senior U.S. Open champion Don Pooley and defending champion
Hale Irwin will be among the pros playing in the $1.500 million Turtle Bay
Championship at the par-70, 7,088-yard Arnold Palmer Course at Turtle Bay
Resort Sept. 30-Oct. 5.
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more...
The Club
at Nine Bridges in South Korea announces it will host the inaugural World Club
Championship, a team competition featuring club champions and a partner from
the finest golf clubs around the world.
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more...
Business
Environmental Golf partners with environmental consultant and golf course
agronomist Ted Horton, C.G.C.S. of THC Consulting to share expertise on
environmental stewardship, indigenous landscaping, and habitat protection at Pelican
Hill and Oak Creek Golf Courses in California as well as strategic business planning
and project support.
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In direct
reaction to customer demand and focus group studies, Yamaha Golf-Car Company
introduces the Yamaha Certified Pre-Owned Program.
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Briefly
Tidewater Golf Club and Plantation in Myrtle Beach will re-open Aug. 6
after being closed since May 27 to change to TifEagle greens. ... Peter "Trick
ShotMaster" Johncke will perform at the PGA Golf Expo in Reno, Nev., Aug.
2-3.
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Reader's Forum The Masters uses a sudden death playoff format. The U.S. Open uses an 18-hole playoff. At the British Open and PGA Championships, three-hole aggregate playoffs break ties. Which of the three formats do you prefer and why -- or would you like to see another format implemented? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: playoff. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your email address. |
In Their Own Words
Byron Butler
Byron Butler got his start in golf repairing and making molds as well as making masters for golf club heads until he opened Butler Golf in 1985. His clubs have performed well in independent testing by Rankmark, Golfclub Review and Golf Test USA, and an infomercial about his products can be seen on The Golf Channel and sports cable stations around the United States.
Q: After 20 years of doing development for others, what drove you to start your own company? Why did you think you would have success in the market place today?
A: I had this idea of this sole shaft that is actually a mechanical thing. Rather than just making physical forms and having a good-looking club, there was something mechanical about this. It actually just came to me one day, the whole package, it doesn't usually come that way. Usually it comes through work and investigation. For 20 years I ate, drank and slept this stuff, always thinking of ways of improving other people's ideas. Trying to get the most out of their marketing program because what usually happens is they create a marketing program and kind of build a club to suit the marketing program. So my idea purely came out of a different area, it came out of a functional mechanical mechanism in a medal wood head and what I wanted to do with this was to build a club that was not just for better golfers or not just for high-end handicap golfers, but something that would do a wide range of things. If I was to give this to a professional golfer it would perform just as well as if I gave it to grandma who had a swing speed of 75 miles per hour and I could give it to a long drive guy and they can swing it at 155 mphs.
Q: Looking at the club it is clear that the one big thing is the patented sole shafting. Are these the only type of clubs that have this feature?
A: This is it, there are no other clubs like this. Because you have to think outside of the box or just don't think outside of the golf club head, but think inside the golf club head. What are the mechanics of the golf club head?
First you have to understand the fundamentals, what the metal wood head is doing. Everybody puts a lot of emphasis on shafts and everything was the engine, everything was the shaft, but I think what happened was that we could put whatever pleasing design we want on that shaft and we could basically get what were after, but they are married components, one has to work with another and how you shaft and connect the shaft to the head is a critical point. You capture so much of the shaft tip it affects more than just the tip of the shaft - it affects the kickpoint, it affects the way that the clubhead reacts. Different clubheads don't react the same way to one particular design of shaft.
Q: Would you say this would be the best time to start this new product with the current marketplace?
A: It isn't that I picked the moment, it's just that everything came together as far as not just the club head itself, getting it to the point that I felt I could reach a large number of golfers, but get there financially.
I had to mature the product to the highest level I could. Then I sent it off to independent testing companies like GolfTest USA, Rankmark, Golf Club Review and I got input back from them because it was a great way to do it. They don't charge companies like me, they just throw them in the mix with the other golf clubs they're testing. All the high end clubs, even low end clubs, all kinds of clubs and they just throw them in the test procedures and then you find out if you're really going to make it or not, if you're appealing to the masses.
Q: Looking at the most recent test in January you ranked the highest with the Taylor Made driver and the Nike 350, so you had to feel pretty good about that?
A: Oh absolutely. As other companies put their clubs in the pool they have them tested alongside my club and I am still coming out No. 1.
You could have a club that you can give to your friends and know that your friends really like it, but when you give it to strangers they're not just hitting balls at a golf range, but actually putting the club into play for a period of time and you're lasting there and I'm lasting more than months and months and months. So it's a very rewarding system.
Q: If you were going to project a year ahead where would you be and where would you like to be?
A: I think it is important that I end up in the retail store. It's extremely important for longevity. So my goal in two years is to be completely out of direct sales and into retail stores.
Q: Do you foresee that as something that is probable?
A: Yes. I also think that something that is going to support all this is the interest outside of the United States. The way we are right now we have customer service and things we need in the beginning, but we need to get a sales force and we're not ready yet. That's going to take another six months to a year to get that in place. That's why I think in about two years we should be out of the direct market sales and completely just in the stores and doing regular type of print advertisement.