FORE MAGAZINE

Award-winning FORE Magazine is a bimonthly, four-color publication mailed to the home of each SCGA member as part of their membership. In addition to its six regular issues, FORE publishes travel supplements throughout the year covering such areas as Hawaii, Arizona and the Coachella Valley. In conjunction with the Southern California Section of the PGA, the SCGA also publishes the annual Southern California Directory of Golf -- Southern California's most complete golf reference book -- which is also mailed to SCGA members as part of their annual membership fee.

March/April 2002

Whither the PGA Merchandise Show?
Annual exhibition has many future questions to answer

For decades, the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, each winter has grown steadily into one of the largest sports trade shows in the world, with thousands of exhibitors and attendees crowding into the 700,00-square-foot Orange County Convention Center to see what's new and exciting in the golf industry. However, this year was different.

Oh, there were a number of new products launched at the show, headed by NIKE's long-awaited forged golf clubs at the company's 17,500-square-foot booth. Acushnet introduced its new Pro V1 Stars golf ball and relaunched its Cobra brand. Taylor Made made news with its new alliance with Maxfli and Callaway pumped lots of new products into an already crowded field.

One of the most talked-about introductions was Wilson's True golf ball, with the company using an aggressive campaign touting what it says is the only perfectly round ball (not surprisingly, other golf ball companies were less than thrilled with those claims).

But most of the buzz at the show was how many people would show up and what's in store for the show's future.

Depending on who's counting, attendance continued strong. Reed Exhibitions, the company that now runs the show, said more than 51,000 people registered for the show, about four percent less than last year. Given the uncertainty about flying and general economic malaise in early 2002, the figures seemed reasonable, although many people felt that the show attendance was down from last year, as well.

However, the announcement by PING Golf that it would cease exhibiting in the annual show had many people wondering if this was the beginning of a trend or an abbaration.

The first signs will probably come with the so-called PGA Fall Expo, which is shifting to Reno this year after several problematic years in Las Vegas (it's supposed to return to Vegas in two years). Last year's show was cancelled in the wake of the September 11 tragedy and it's anyone's guess as to how busy the 2002 show will be.

Regardless, several major manufacturers applauded PING's decision to focus on consumer shows instead of one gigantic trade show. Significantly, however, no one else has followed suit to this point, but Taylor Made's John Hoeflich was quoted in Golfweek magazine as saying, "Ten, 15 years from now I think people will look back and say this was 'The Last Great PGA Show.'" Stay tuned.

A peek at the Orlando show . . .
- One of the rapidly growing markets is golf club travel covers, but these aren't your father's golf bag. Begun by the Club Glove, several years ago, the travel bag industry has several new entrants.

The Golfins golf travel bag looks sort of like a giant fish but it attaches to standard automobile hitches, a real life-saver if you've got a trunk with small capacity. 800/GOLFINS; www.golfins.com.

The Sky Porter is another in the line of products that double as a golf bag and travel bag. Weighing less than 7.5 pounds (unloaded), it has several pockets to hold things from shoes to golf balls. 888-620-3400; www.porterline.com.

- The Car-Caddy is a device that fits in the trunk of a car and prevents the golf bag from sliding around. It tilts the bag up to prevent clubs from sliding out and can also be used to hang clubs on the wall of a garage. 818/365-5656/www.car-caddy.com.

- Bennett Golf Sales of Tustin took a different tack, introducing its Grip-Lok Golf Bags, which use a gripping device to keep clubs from banging together or falling out of the bag. To take the club out, you twist it and then remove; you can turn the bag upside down and the clubs will remain in place, if they were inserted correctly. 714/544-1711; www.griplok.com.

- In a novel attempt at protecting theft, several companies - including Stealth Club Covers - were offering non-branded head covers. "You pay a lot of money for your clubs," said one representative. "Why advertise what's in your bag and give someone a chance to rip you off?"

- Of course, if your clubs do get lost, you'll probably have a better chance of getting them back if you've put some Tracer Tags on them. The tags have a toll-free phone number with a code that you register to protect your privacy. 877/687-2237; http://tracertags.com.

- If you've lost one of your favorite clubs, give Clubfinders Golf a call. They claim to have more than 10,000 pro-line, single irons along with woods, putters and wedges. 888/234-6325; www.clubfinders.com.

And finally . . . there's always one or two products that catch the eye, and this year's was the PickUp Putter, which is both beautiful and functional. It's made from shiny exotic hardwoods with a cavity-backed design.

What makes the putter unique is that it has a hole in the sole with which you can reach down into the cup (the putter is small enough to fit), push down on the ball and pick it up. 800-242-8463/www.pickupputter.com.

- Robert D. Thomas