Random Odds and Ends

Smaller blades, smaller driver heads and TaylorMade gets into the pre-owned club game.

Bag DropTime is short for me this week but Bag Drop is still here to provide some nuggets from the golf equipment/business field. So take a few minutes to ignore the Wall Street implosion and check out some interesting notes from the field.

Join me this week as we check out a sponsorship implosion, persimmon clubs, and an equipment giant jumps into the pre-owned club market.

Bye, Bye Wachovia
As you’ve watched your investments get pounded the last few days (still looking for my bailout, btw), there’s a bit of interesting sponsorship news with the announcement of a the sale of the banking operations of Wachovia to Citigroup (and the subsequent brouhaha with Wells Fargo wanting a piece of the action). What’s so interesting, you say?

How about the fact that Wachovia had extended their sponsorship out with the PGA tour until 2014. Perhaps they should have been checking to see what garbage they had on their books rather than extending their little tournament deal for the next six years. Sorry investors but thank goodness their CEO came out okay.

Continuing Craftsmanship
Louisville golf at one time made a ton of persimmon drivers and had revenues in excess of $5 million. While those have gone mostly extinct in this era of exotic materials, Louisville golf is still around and making some really interesting golf equipment.

Pre-Owned
Callaway is not the only equipment maker to have their own pre-owned site as now the folks at TaylorMade toss their hat into the used equipment arena. Considering they come out with new equipment weekly, perhaps we will see some impressive discounting. We can only dream.

Back To Small
In this day of oversized equipment, noted clubmaker Katsuhiro Miura is going against the tide and introducing alimited edition, small blade set and provides some nice quotes to go along with the release.

Back To Small, Part II
Could you gain more clubhead speed and distance by switching to a smaller-head driver? Yep, and it has to do with aerodynamic drag.

Final Thoughts
Other than losing the occasional shot buried in the leaves, I really enjoy the fall season for golf. Cooler temperatures, less golfers on the courses and some steep discounts on green’s fees make this a golfer’s dream.

Toss in some some nice discounts on 2008 equipment at the local golf shops as the 2009 equipment starts to trickle in for the holidays and I can almost forget that it’s probably going to be snowing soon. Almost.

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