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PGA Show Demo Day 2009- Orlando It’s the eve of the PGA merchandising show in Orlando Florida. An annual event, the show is an enormous gath...

PGA Show Demo Day 2009- Orlando

It’s the eve of the PGA merchandising show in Orlando Florida. An annual event, the show is an enormous gathering of the great and the good of the golf world pedalling every gadget gizmo and weapon you could possibly think of.

On the day before the main show kicks off, a “demo day” is held for PGA professionals and media members. Disguised as Rory McIlroy, I board the bus for the venue located about forty minutes out into the Florida wilderness. I must admit, having never been to this event before I am like an excited child. To me it’s like Disneyland for golfers. All the others around me are as serious as a heart attack, I guess they’ve seen this circus act many times before.

The bus drops us at the entrance to the world’s largest driving range. The layout is a circle 450 yards in diameter, which means patrons can hit balls from anywhere around the perimeter of the circle without fear of hitting anyone the other side. As a result all the worlds’ golf companies have set up their stalls around the entire circumference of the range which makes for a rather awesome site. Recession or no recession, golf is seriously big business.

What’s really interesting to note here is the pecking order of the big golf companies. One would think that in a circular set up, the position of every stall would be irrelevant but when you take into account the direction wind that all changes. The company that’s done its homework with the met and struck gold is Nike who have set the stall up with their back to the prevailing wind. It makes a serious difference to those people then trying Nike clubs. With the wind at their backs the ball flies further and the feelgood factor for Nike equipment rises accordingly. The poors sods across the other side of the range have the wind whipping into them and are left cursing their luck.

Like most of the major companies, the Nike set up includes a media marquee and about ten hitting bays facing into the circle. Directly behind the bays they have about fifty golf bags laden with every iron, driver and shaft combo you can dream of. There’s also a section where Nike are busy fitting out a line of enthusiastic PGA pros with their new interchangeable driver shaft system. The whole operation is manned by about 50 pristinely clad staff, who greet you with “Hello Sir, may I suggest I a club for you to try today”. After about 5 minutes of hitting balls, the staff clear the bays and Suzanne Petterson emerges from the shadows. I get a chance to get up close and personal with one of the world’s top female golfers. I wish! Er.....actually on second thoughts I don’t. Though obviously there on a paid marketing mission, there’s very little hint of any sort of enthusiasm or even a semblance of a smile on Petterson’s face; kind of like the Iraqi shoe throwing journo at the Bush press conference. Easily six foot with legs like wonder woman, Suzanne begins belting balls for the gathering crowd. She hits them with that impressive dull clicking sound that only the pro’s can produce whilst answering questions from the Nike guy with the mike. It's what golfers call "multi-tasking".

I break free of the Nike electromagnet and stroll further along the arc until I come across two rather forlorn looking Asian gents surrounded by clubs and a “trackman” swing measuring device. They’re from the Japanese company Maruman and speak little or no English. They invite me to have a go off their new driver, the convector. It’s an absolutely smashing club, technologically advanced beyond much of its competition but such is nature of the world of golf, that you may never see one in the shops in Ireland. There’s one master stroke these guys have pulled though and that’s to hand out handy little carry bags to everyone passing. There are the only company on the whole range to have thought of it and as a result the Maruman name is on everyone’s shoulders. The simplest marketing ideas are the best.

I move on to the Taylormade stand to try some of their weaponry. The hitting bay next to me is again set up for “trackman” and a steady stream of people are having their ball speed, stats and carry measured up. In truth they all measure up the same, more or less. The guy operating the trackman is bored out of his mind telling everyone they’ve carried it 266 yards. Next up however is a monster of man from Las Vegas. He proceeds to nail a drive out into the range, the like of which I have never seen before. The guy on the trackman looks up from his screen, stunned in amazement. He frantically beckons over his superiors and asks this guy his name. “Mike Dobbyn” answers this six foot eight inch beast who looks like a cross between Jonah Lomu and Frankenstein. The trackman team invite Mike to hit again and a crowd of about 30 people have suddenly gathered like wasps around fizzy orange. Mike tees up another ball, waggles and unleashes holy hell. There’s an audible gasp from the crowd as they watch the trajectory of the ball shoot out into the middle of the circular range. It’s still rising as it crosses the centre point and it continues all the way across to other side where you can see people diving for cover. The trackman results come back. “Carry: 344 yards, swing speed 183 miles per hour, total distance 440 yards”. He poses for a pic as he tells me his best drive ever was a 551 yard effort on a par-5 in Vegas. Thank God for putting.

It’s now evening time and the PGA show starts tomorrow. It took 6 hours to circumnavigate the range today which gives you some idea of the scale of the event. And that’s just clubs. I’m left in absolutely no doubt as to the enormity of the global golf industry. Some say it’s teetering on the brink of collapse as a result of the downturn in the global economy, but I bet not even Bloomberg would make that prediction having witnessed today’s events.