All right, last week I had the chance to walk around the PGA
Show with Jake from fullyequippedgolf.com.
Jake, how we doing today? Good still reeling.
I don't know about you, but PGA shows it's a long week and so we
got to get just get back on the horse.
Unfortunately, I, I landed at home for about 31 hours and now
I'm in San Diego. So we're still, we're reeling,
but we're recovering decently, I'll say.
Good OK so we got a lot to kind of breakdown and recap we've
done the the Instagram post then I put up a big YouTube thing and
plenty of people have done that but what we need is like just
kind of a chat about non hype like just normal people saying
normal things about products that's what we're going to have
here I. Love that.
I love that. OK, so let's talk about like
what is actually interesting because I think there's actually
a lot of new stuff. And I already saw a comment on
YouTube videos like, hey, nothing was new this year.
And I was like, no, there's actually new stuff this year
compared to years and past. Like this was an actually decent
year. It's like, what was this year a
new thing for you? That was like OK, this is worth
like my friend checking out and and looking at here in the
future. So I'm still like super hung up
on that chipped golf ball. It, it's the best.
It's not the first, they're not the first people to try to do
that, right? Like it's been around for a
little bit. There have been iterations.
There's one company who sends a mass e-mail every year that says
they're introducing the same thing and they haven't for like
6 years. But chipped is like basically
ready to go. And I just, I can't get over the
idea of being able to putt a golf ball and use that as like
fitting launch monitor data because for so many reasons,
honestly. And the biggest one that I think
wasn't talked about enough is that the ball knows its
orientation. So there's a it's a nice viewing
golf ball. Like obviously the core is the
technology, but there is a mantle layer, there's a real
cover. Like it feels like a real golf
ball, but you don't even have to take the extra step of aligning
it to a certain fixed position to use it.
It can just like wherever you set it down from the ball knows
its own orientation and allows you to just use it.
We also like the rumor was they hit it with a driver at 108
miles an hour and it was perfectly capable of
withstanding that. Now, I don't know how many times
they did that. If it was like a once and then
everybody wahooed and that was good enough.
But you can for sure chip it like without a problem right
now. I don't know that it will
recognize a chip yet. Like I think that's still part
of the pipeline. But yeah, that's my that's my
big one that I just cannot get out of my head right now is that
that is a thing. And if it's a thing in the
context that it is right now, it just means that it's going to
evolve into a big thing. I think relatively soon.
I think in in, you know, 2-3 years we might see a fully
developed launch monitor golf ball that actually gives
insightful data. A. 100% agree.
I think that I guess my little soapbox I've kind of been on
since this is like, I think, I don't know if it's three, 5 or
10 years, but every golf ball might have a chip in it.
And all of our like data and all of our like stuff about how we
played around a course and all that stuff is like just done
instantly. I think that's going to happen
in the future. I think every golf ball is a
chip. I just don't know when it
happens. I think though that this product
is chipped as it is. I guess the challenge is like, I
don't think any of my friends are going to buy it and use it
this summer. Like I don't know if that's a
thing yet. I think it's a little bit like
you're, you're going to get them, take them to the practice
green, putt with them. I don't know.
Yeah, I, I, I wonder if it's more of a, I guess, a sale for
fitters and coaches. I don't think that's what they
want because that limits their market pretty extensively.
But I would love to see those in the hands of like a Steven
Sweeney or a wedbetter or something like that and just see
what they can do with it. What intrigues me the most is
it's really hard to gather good data on certain types of wedge
shots specifically. Like if you're talking deep
breath or out of bunkers, it's a pain in the butt to put a launch
monitor in there. You get you don't get great data
half the time. Super wet conditions, like very
muddy conditions with a bunch of junk on the ball, for example.
Like I would be really interested in such a niche way
of that product getting specifically geared and
developed towards like really, really strong wedge data.
The other thing, you know, you bring up a good point of like a
chip being in the ball. The irony is like, I wonder if
that is a way to fulfill the requirements of the rollback.
Like if we put a chip in the ball, it has to do something to
the core. Yeah, I don't know.
That's such a random thought, but like there's something there
of like, maybe that's how we make the rollback really
interesting. I also think if you're a ball
manufacturer, like if I'm Titleist and I have chips in all
my golf balls, that you would imagine that that gives you
pretty useful data in the development of new Golf balls.
If you have just an army of connected golf balls out on
courses, similar to like how an air tag works, like whenever it
comes into connection with your phone or within proximity of
whatever, like it just sends its data and then throws that back
to like, I don't know, it's a dangerous AI world we're going
to live in, but I'm I'm here for it.
I think it'd be dope. I mean you never have to track
stats anymore. If that becomes a reality,
instantly know all of your everything right away because if
it has GPS in it, so it knows where the pin is because you
make the putt and then obviously from anyways.
So it's just like, OK, chipped. I think it's good.
If I was a big company, I would be buying all these little
companies to integrate it into my yeah.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like.
Like if they have a patent on that core and I'm, you know, I'm
Titleist Cowway Bridgestone. Like, I think I actually think
Bridgestone would be a really cool player to buy that out from
them of like, but I'm going to buy that technology and make
sure that I'm the one developing it, Which again, for people that
don't know, the PGA show is kind of for things like that.
Like that's, that's how those people will set up those
discussions and, and prove that they're worth the purchase or
whatever. They also won they won the the
the award right for their like little section.
Yeah, I did. Yeah.
Was that new product of the year or something like that?
Yeah. It was something like that,
yeah. I don't know what category it
was in because there's a couple of them, but yeah, they want
like whatever category they are in, they want it.
So people, I mean, people are paying attention, that's for
sure. Like everybody was, they knew it
was up. People were over at that booth
pretty much every time he walked by.
So it was really cool. OK, I've got the most practical
piece of gear that all of my friends can purchase and I think
would be good. It's this glove.
I this is this is developed by a friend of mine, Liam Mucklow.
He's an awesome coach. Golf Lab is his company and he's
been doing a bunch of stuff in baseball.
And so he's been working with Marucci.
I think it's how you say it, the baseball company and they have
club. So what they did is they took
lizard skin, which is like what they wrap bats with.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
And so they showed me the test they had like this test with
dragged thing across the the surface and it it's twice as
sticky as like your normal glove material and the whole concept.
And they did a study with with golfers.
They didn't go through a test, but that better grip because
there's more friction, because it's stickier, allows you to
grip it better. And it was improved the
centerness of strike, which meant ball speed went up and the
dispersion tightened because of and then also they're like, oh,
and hey, guess what too? Like doesn't like RIP super
quick on the thumb and on the palm?
On the palm, yeah, I get the really bad rips.
Or on this, it's this hand, but I get the really bad rips, like
right there. Yeah, it's crazy.
So anyways, I think this is super practical because grip is
good. You need to be able to grip,
grip the club really well. It's just a golf glove like we
all use these and it has a compelling story and I I like a
lot of things about products like this, which is like, why
didn't I think of this? This is fantastic.
So anyways, I I'm a fan of this. Yeah, Speaking of, why didn't I
think of this? You and I have a a video kind of
going nuts right now, and that is on a simulator T where they
cut a flat side on it. Could have done that a decade
ago, you know. Sure could have.
Yeah, you and I would be sitting on our money instead of, you
know, running around PGA Show with cameras like Mad Men.
For those of you that don't know what we're talking about, Pride
Sports is coming out with a simulator specific tea.
It's a play off of like the Dome or cage style teas.
They put one of their performance heads on it, so it's
the same head you would play outside.
But the whole point is that they have done studies and they're
still working on studies. I'm trying to be a part of that
actually. I think I think you and I both
are in person of that like that final study that they do.
But like it just makes a lot of sense that the surface area of a
driver specifically would 100% have the chance to impact the T
material before it impacts the ball, which will make the ball
pop up, which means that you're going to be high on the face
with low spin frequently on a launch monitor.
It makes sense to me, and that's not just coming from somebody
who has friends of Pride Sports that like just logically it
makes sense to me. I also, I'm starting to wonder
how many times I've noticed high strikes on simulators off of
those kinds of teas. So yeah, that's just a real easy
1. And I still think you and I both
said that they should be charging more because it's, you
get 7 different sizes of teas in one package with a little
carrying bag for under 20 bucks. I mean, so if you're a simulator
house or like somebody that hosts leagues and you have 8
bays for less than 200 bucks, you've got 7 sizes of teas in
every single one of your bays for league night.
Like that's, I don't know, it seems like a no brainer to me.
But we, we got, we got to be a part of that test and hold them
accountable for it, that's for sure.
Let's do it, OK? Speaking of launch monitors, I
think the one of the most hyped probably things of the show was
the new shot scope LM1, the $200 launch monitor.
It looks cool. It's got a nice screen.
It looks nice. Are we over hyped?
Are we under hyped? What?
What's your thought? How?
How candid do you want me to be about this?
No one will watch this. It's fine.
Here's here's what I think is I think it's likely some version
of a rehoused. What are those?
PRGRSPRPR one of those, it does not give you an accurate reading
of spin they like that is coming from them.
It's it's estimating spin values based on the speed and the club
that you tell it you're hitting. So.
Well, OK, let's explain why that's that's important.
So when you get to a shot of more than 150 yards, spin plays
a good factor and how far it goes.
Yeah, crucial factor. A7 iron spinning at 6800 is
going to fly a lot less than A7 iron with everything else the
same spinning at 5400 for example.
Well, depending on your launch actually.
But yeah, like, but right there like just that moment that we
just had for 15 seconds about those tooth like that being in
effect, that's enough for me to be like, look, I get it's 200
bucks. If if all you're looking for is
club head and ball speed, probably not so much club head,
but like just ball speed. There are things that you can
infer with ball speed. There are things that you can do
with ball speed. I think as far as like when I
buy that or a PRGR to like speed train with, you might as well
buy that thing because it's cool looking and I think it looks
much better. And like if you're on a range, I
think it's probably a little safer too, just the way that it
sets up and stuff. Like it just, I don't know, it
looked really good. Like it looked fantastic when
you when you got to hold it and sitting on the desk that they
had and stuff there. I worry that we're trying to
push the cheap launch monitor market a little bit too hard
because launch monitors to me are something that I think there
is a minimum threshold for usefulness.
And if you want to track speed or you want to track relative
difference between clubs in your bag, it's fine.
But if you want to go gap your bag or like bend for loft and
lie or like hardcore figure out your distances like that's not,
it's not going to do it. And you know, I think with the
the market of golfers that we have, especially in the last 5-6
years, a lot of them are going to go buy this thing and be
super disappointed in the results that they get.
What I can't wait for Cordy, is I'm going to start writing a
list of influencers who just happened to get a $200 shot
scope launch monitor and just happen to go out and get
perfectly accurate distances with their clubs and just happen
to make a what's in the bag video using their new shot scope
because it's going to happen. I'm going to go do that for you.
Please do it and tag me, yeah. Yeah, my my favorite videos back
in the day, we would go, we would take, we would do like the
voice caddies and stuff like that and we'd take them out and
we would, we would hit them and then laser where they'd land.
That was that was the best. Should probably do that again.
That was a good time. Yeah, there's a, there's a we
should, we should definitely do that with a large group of
tested machines, put it that way.
It's. A good idea.
It's a great idea, in fact. I get really bugged by people
that rig launch monitor testing because it's out there.
It's not even. It's very easy to do, and
depending on the launch monitor you're using in the company that
is running the test, it's pretty easy to make something work out.
Yeah, VGA show 2026 we, we. So let's just stay on launch
monitors for a minute, just kind of running down like new
updates, what we find interesting.
So we've got a Blue Tees launch monitor, which is like a $600.00
thing coming out, which is. Yeah, I didn't.
I didn't see it. Can you talk to me about that
one a little bit? Because I saw photos of it
afterwards and I was like son of a gun like I would have.
I missed it as well in person. We're both in the same boat.
So we're just talking from what we read.
That's a thing and it's out there that that is like, I think
the voice caddies were pretty nice.
I've had, I have all those kind of scattered about here.
They got better as time went on. Yeah, they seem like they they
leaned into what they were and just tried to keep making it
better for what it was, which is nice.
That's awesome. Like that's yeah.
Go voice caddy. Yeah Yep so that that the
Bluetooth one is interesting. I mean it's a it's a cool brand,
cool design again, probably good app, you know all that stuff
we've got what else we got coming here.
O rap Soto has a new ceiling mounted launch monitor coming,
which is actually exciting for a simulator folks because, like I
don't know, rap soda stuff is always great.
I they they're accurate and good products.
So I'm interested in that. What else?
The square golf on the. Square, I was going to say the
square one yeah, that was that was the one that like got me the
most of like OK quadruscopic screen on 1600 bucks no
subscription fees like yeah, I buy.
That. Yeah, like if you're a range rat
kind of person like that, to me that's perfect.
I don't, I don't know exactly that I'd throw one of those in
like a home SIM, but I don't think that's necessarily like
the target for that. I think that they want more
people that just like want the data and are going to go
actually use it and and you can use it outside, you can use it
off the graphs. There's no issues with that.
So yeah, that one was that was one of the cooler ones.
I mean you got to assume that, I mean that has to be accurate
based on the spec sheet like it, it has to.
Yeah, I would be really surprised if it if it wasn't.
I also tell people too like when you're working at launch
monitors, you know, again this is where I think there's a
minimum value. I think that hits the threshold
for that of like whether that perfectly says the exact yardage
and the exact spin number that you generated.
What is going to work is if it says something was lower spin
and something was higher spin on a quad or a trackman, that thing
is still going to be lower spin or higher spin.
It might not be the exact same number that reads off, but I
mean like hell, a trackman and a quad usually don't read off the
exact same number. So yeah, what are we really
arguing about? Correct, Correct.
OK. That's our launch monitor
segment. Did you see any?
Were there any other launch monitor updates from you?
Well, just Bushnell has the circle BE 1 and then Bushnell
had a ton of UI and app updates, which was cool not only for quad
users, but arguably actually it was more cool for GC3 Bushnell
launch Pro users, the LPI people that just had the indoor one
having I used it. I used it on Friday after the
show. Actually having a range feature
in the tablet app now without having to use the Pro software,
like it's just in the regular Foresight software is killer.
And then there was also some you mess around with some of the
coaching things, like there was the ladder drill, they've got
some putting stuff, they've got some other wedge stuff, they've
got some distance control stuff. So I think that team over there
is becoming really good at understanding consumer usability
of their products rather than just trying to sell quads to
fitters. Because the GC 3 unit and the
Bushnell unit are both really really good units that give you
the same foresight algorithms that the Quad does, but in a
might, in a much more realistic package that 95% of people would
probably rather be off buying than having to pay the money for
a Quad. Yeah, they've made huge gains in
the app and software over the last year.
It is very noticeable so. I would I would like a new
desktop app, I'll say that and they know that I would like a
new FSX studio, but for now the app is fantastic they're.
Making they're making progress there.
OK, oh, here's another launch. This is so nerdy but I'm just
going to say anyways because I think it was kind of cool and
maybe I'm missing something but OK.
So track man rolled out 3D. Yeah, yeah.
In in the track, man, here's why that's interesting.
There's tons of 3D, right? So like, why would I care is
they have the IO program, right? So it knows where you aim and
makes the aim really easy when you have that.
Now, when you combine that with the 3D, you can get all of these
interesting things about like how you're aimed, how your
body's lined up. And so like I just popped in
there with a buddy, Justin Craft crafty golf, great, great coach,
so fun to hang out with. And and we're just like looking
at setup and it's it's cool how it like breaks everything down
separately. And it's like, here's how this
is aimed. You're open on this, closed on
this, open on that, you know, and so like, I thought it was
really cool from a practical standpoint, if I could go like
if I was working on my technique, then I could work
with that and like quickly even look at my setup and see OK ball
position like oh God, it's changing every single time, you
know, and like see that and like stamped with it's like, I can I
keep this within half an inch of you know where I'm so like that.
That was, I actually see if, if I had a, you know, if Crafty's
studio was, was close to me and I was practicing there all the
time, I would use the heck out of that on set up and all that
kind of stuff all the time. So that was like a very like,
obviously no one is not many folks have a whole Trackman
studio in their house. So but if you're able to go
practice at one and your your coach has one or like you, you
remember at a studio with one, then that is going to be so
cool. My question when I saw that is
you, so you and I both have a lot of sky track experience.
How you just answered, I think actually, but like how much
different is it than optimotion? Like is it, would you say it's
it's it's night and day, like they're not really the same
thing. They just kind of look like it
like are they is, is it a step up?
Like what? Like what's the comparison
there? Because I think a lot of people
know what Opti Motion is either because they've been into a golf
tech or they just use the app or whatever the case may be.
They've seen it on TV now you see it.
But yeah, that was my first question is like, what's the
difference between the track man thing and Opti Motion?
Super similar. Opti motion will be very very
similar. They just wouldn't know your
exact aim like track man would. And they just, and that's the
benefit of the the top down. That's my understanding, yeah.
From the from the IO portion. Very cool.
Yeah. But yeah, it's measuring same
kind of stuff and, and doing the same kind of things with
Optimotion. Yeah.
I, I, I just think about sometimes with the stuff of the
practicalities, like being an actual user of the stuff, yeah.
And like, sometimes it's just like, if I can roll in and
everything's like ready. To go working, yeah.
It's, it's kind of killer. So I, I thought that was cool.
I, I, I know it's not for everybody, but like that was,
you know, when we popped in there and looked at that, I was
like, OK, interested. Like this is this is a good
update? Well, and again, like that's
another thing that isn't being shown at the show for
influencers or general consumer like that's being shown for PGA
pros because they're trying to get PGA pros to use track man's.
So they're trying to give them another benefit to why they
should buy a track man or put a track man in their studio,
whatever. But yeah, as we just go back to
the actual purpose of the show, it's it's for business.
It's not for us. Yahoo is to go around shoot
videos on. It is.
We stand in the middle of the hallways and we expect people to
walk around us. Yes, absolutely our only goal.
Yeah, as inconveniently as I can place myself is my rule when I'm
out there. I did have a friend offer to
come as security next year and just kind of block, block
traffic. So that offers on the table.
We'll see what happens. Just tell him to just bring 2
cones and he can walk around with the cones all show and then
as soon as we set up he just cones and that'll really get
people going. That'll rile them up.
OK I got another practical thing, the putt view app.
Did you ever try on their goggles when they had them?
I tried the goggles once I was outside somewhere actually.
Yes, I remember. It's very cool, right?
Like it's. It's fun.
To be yeah, it's all. But you never did it again and
no one has. Yeah, Yeah.
So they made it into an app. So all you got to do is you go
with your phone, you scan the ground, it does the LIDAR thing
and that it'll read the pup for you and it'll show you the line
you need to aim on with. Like, hey, put your little like
tease here and you can set up a practice station.
I mean, how I'm interpreting it, how I would use it is I would
reading greens with it, right? I would set up some training
stations and do that. You're not taking on the course.
Although people have been commenting that on some a post
that I did but. Screw that, I'm going to go map
out every hole in my home course and figure out all these stupid
putts that kick my butt when I play in my home course.
I'm going to go find them and I'm going to LIDAR.
That too. That's a great idea, actually.
That sounds like a scouting tool to me.
Like club championship really. Come.
Yeah. No.
So I did a little video on that. That was that was cool tech
because it was a practical application of those AR goggles
that everyone can use. So.
Is that how the goggles work? Is it Lidar?
I have no idea. Is Lidar the right word that I'm
Yeah. Yeah, because that's like, it
basically just projects like our IR sensors.
Yeah, until it finds the shape of the ground and then just
projects it back and then get, you know, there's a wonder math
and stuff. But like, interesting.
I always wondered, I was like, how the hell does this thing
work? Like doesn't know where I'm at,
what are we doing here? But it worked great here.
You go, we show a screen recording on my phone, Zoom
ahead. OK, so fine, there's a heck of a
podcast we're showing it's. Just making it a.
Recording on my phone. Wow.
So yeah, it's kind of reading. Come on, reading the grain, you
can see the slope and then the line where you're supposed to
aim it so. Yeah.
I wonder how that would handle grain like, you know, like in
Florida when you have some like really rough grain, like the
break in the grain can kind of offset each other sometimes.
I mean, there's no way it could. It could see that there can't
be. I wonder.
Let's break it. I like that idea.
Anyways, that's something I'm excited to like.
Go use. I'd like to go try that.
That'd. Be fun.
Seriously like I'm I want to get it and go map out all the holes
in my home course and just write them in my little book like hey
here's this putt it's going to screw you later but not anymore.
We've got a lot of those in my home course.
Like we have, there's some dicey putts on our course that
literally you go out there and you ask 8 guys who've been
members for a decade and you'll get 8 different answers and what
that putt's going to do It's wild.
So if there's a piece of technology that can give me a
leg up on that, I'm going to take it and I'm going to use it.
I love that. That's a good call out.
OK, And what else for you? What?
I'll give me another booth that
was interesting that you would you would tell us about when
they ask you what was cool. PRG is doing some really stuff,
but that's not super exciting like they're an accessories and
head cover company buddies is doing some fun stuff to you.
I like. Silly but crazy enamel like.
Yeah, like they can, like they can make cartoon characters into
divot tools with just about anything, pretty much including
like photos that you send. Like maybe there's going to be a
bunch of, maybe there's going to be a bunch of Jake Morrow and
Cory Walker Divot tools coming out.
Absolutely. Turn us into cartoons and throw
us on, throw us on some Divot tools, ballmark, ballmark repair
tools. The Mile C thing was cool
because I hadn't seen it before. I think it's, I don't think it's
like brand new news. The one thing, I don't know if
you saw it while we were there, did you see the speaker?
Because the speaker to me was actually more like of a cool
idea than the range Finder was. Tell us about it.
They have a speaker with a very, very strong magnet on the back,
probably the strongest magnet that I've felt in a golf
speaker. But then the front side of it
where your screen was like with the GPS distances, it was this,
it was almost like a like a remote and you just, you could
pull the whole thing off the speaker and you could bring the
GPS part with you. So for example, if it's cart
path only and you're rocking the tunes in the cart and you got to
go check your distance, you can keep the speaker where it is.
You can just take the GPS part off the speaker, go walk to your
ball and have your distance there right for you.
I thought that was just a really like, it wasn't an overly
complicated idea. I think it was just a nice
simple idea that somebody was like, hey, like we could do this
and they just did it. Like it was just one of those
kind of snap decisions of this just makes sense, so let's do
it. And then obviously their range
Finder was cool. The other one I don't know if I
can necessarily talk about it is I had a very interesting meeting
with Arcos to not get myself. They didn't have an official
booth, so I'm not sure what their stuff was that was like
publicly able to talk about. I will say that if you're
somebody who who has not taken the dive into game tracking
things because there are physical items on your clubs,
there will very soon be a solution for that.
Did I say that? Did I say that vaguely enough?
Non physical items on your club. Well, maybe they just, maybe it
just won't be anything on your club.
And there just there won't be any game tracking.
No, but there will be game tracking.
Oh, I see. OK, OK.
That was perfect. That was as vague as I wanted it
to be. So there we go.
But no Arco's really cool stuff coming.
I'll just say it that way. Breaking news, trying to think.
And then honestly for me, dude, like I got, we got to talk about
clubs a little bit. I know that's not like the sexy
part of PGA Show, but. Because you already, you already
released all that info. You've already, you've already
had it. It's already been out.
You've already. No, but like it's so cool.
Like the all the 2026 stuff is just so like set like it's, I
just really, really like it. So I I had to give it a shout.
The ping driver's really cool. Wilson's throwing some stuff at
us this week. Yeah, I covered some Gears of I,
I love the ping guys because they're a bunch of researchers.
So I, I go talk to Paul Wood. Did you see the white putter
with the the IQ tech on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah. Sick.
It's, it's the quiet eye research and I was in their lab.
We put the, I put the glasses on and it's great.
I do believe quiet eye is a thing.
And so that that was fun to see them come out with that.
I do too. It's a very cool.
Again, that's a it's a that's a very big ping thing, right?
Like those guys are going to research things to death.
They're engineers first that happen to make golf clubs.
I absolutely will have everybody over there.
No, I just think they're like, I don't know, just think.
What is your what's the most? Yeah, I oh, just you helped me
on this. Then I need to get a mini
driver. What mini driver should I go?
What is? What's your goal for the mini
driver? I would.
Like what do? You wanted to do.
Well, I just need to go shorter than a driver and I'd like to
not top it like I do my three would.
What's your driver going nowadays?
I mean about 3. I'd carry it like between 290 to
300. I think, I think you're hitting
it further than. That it may be Well, it's like
game like 115. If I'm cruising 1/15, 1:17 we're
chilling. OK, so you're like, let's call
it 300. So do you need a mini driver
that will go 260 or you want a mini driver that goes 280?
Probably like 2280 or shorter, no farther.
So my favorite two, I'll give you 2, my favorite 2 mini
drivers for bombers like guys that just they just want to take
a little bit of distance off, but they kind of want to hit it
like a driver is the new Cobra. It's very, very good for the
TaylorMade R7 quad. Those two are the ball comes out
as if you're hitting a driver and they are dedicated.
Just, you know, throw a heavier shaft in it, cut it a little
short, maybe put some weight in the back of those instead of the
front and just send it. If you're like me, I wanted to
take more distance off at home. I frequently run into there
being like a Creek at 265 and I, you know, I can't necessarily
hit it over that Creek reliably, but I can definitely hit it into
that Creek reliably. So hitting a ball, hitting a
ball 280 is probably still in that Creek or that river or that
hazard or whatever. But hitting a ball 250 and not
rolling into the Creek is a really, really cool skill.
So I built my mini driver with the Cowboy Elite mini because it
spins a little bit more, it floats a little bit more so it
doesn't roll out as much and I can work it a little bit better
than the other ones. But if my goal, you know, I, I
had a couple days last year where I just gave up on my
driver and I brought our 7 quad to just hit bombs at my home
course that were just laser beams, which was super, super
fun. And then the third person is the
person who still wants to be able to hit it off the deck.
The definitive answer for that one is the title is GT280.
It's less of a mini driver and more of a mega would I call it,
but that is the definitive answer.
If you want to be able to do kind of both, kind of good title
with GT280 is your go to. OK, very good, very good.
You also informed me at the show that you believe the Cobra Optum
LS more letters. No, that's it.
You got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK, OK. Is the most forgiving LS model
out there? Is that a fact or an opinion?
Cobra would tell you it's a fact.
OK. I would.
That's something that's something to really put your hat
on there. And just say, yeah, yeah, I
would. I would say that in my testing,
it is the most forgiving low spin head that I have ever hit.
Like I'm confident in saying that I've had a lot of really
good LS stuff like I had AQI 35 LS that I played for a while.
I've played a triple diamond driver, which is their low spin
equivalent for like a long time. But that Cobra Optum LS, their
POI story is real. I mean, it's, it's insane.
And if you put those weights in the right spot and you
prioritize as much forgiveness as you can out of that package,
it 100% is the most forgiving LS driver that I have ever tested.
And like by a wide margin too, like this isn't something where
I'm nitpicking data or going through fifty shots trying to
make it work like this is, you know, you take six shots with
that one and six shots with something else.
And I can't tell you what your performance differences are
going to be, but I can I can for sure tell you that you're going
to see way more forgiveness across the face on that Cobra LS
head than you can on pretty much anybody else's LS head right at
the moment. Just remarkably cool stuff from
that news story. I think it's unfortunate because
they're still not going to sell as many of them as they should.
But yeah, I was like blown away by the performance of that
driver. You got it.
I will, I'll check it out. Do you have a full video over on
fully equipped on all all the new Cobra stuff?
What can you? Direct.
I did a launch video on the technology explaining it.
We've got a bunch of testing stuff coming up.
I actually, I, I had an LPGA player like she was one swing
away from playing that Cobra driver and then she fell
absolutely in love with something else that I was still
will to this day say is a little bit inferior than the combo that
I had her in with the Cobra. But she's the she's the
superstar and I'm not. So she wins.
OK, I'm happy to let her win. Last gear question, let's say
you had a friend who just wanted the fastest ball speed possible.
Not naming any names and there's bring in, you know, let's say
with that that club they're singing 125 to 130.
Like what would you put them in? Fastest club on the market?
Yeah, everybody that I have seen that swings 110 or faster, every
single person that I've seen test multiple drivers, the
Cowaway Quantum is the fastest like.
The triple diamond. The triple diamond or the triple
diamond Max? I haven't seen much difference
in speed between the two of them.
The the difference between the triple diamond and the triple
diamond Max is more about fight bias than it is anything else.
And a lot of people it just gets really confusing.
Which is their fault because they're naming conventions are
not the best. But no, every single high speed
player that I have seen test all the gear, the cow away was the
fastest. It wasn't always the best for
everybody. But if you're just chasing ball
speed or you're somebody who has a lot of control over their
driver, the the quantum is it, I think right, like right now my
decision is coming down to personally, do I want the
quantum speed or do I want the cobra forgiveness?
Like I have essentially nailed it down to those two and I need,
I just need to do true on course testing with those to see, you
know, when it's come to when it comes time to actually aim down
a hole and and make a shot happen, which one of those is
going to do it for me? And that's going to be the one
that ends up in the bag for me. But.
I difference are we talking about between the two of them.
So I spent a week at the OEMs testing and at TaylorMade I was
at, I was swinging at like 116, just having a great day.
Ball speeds were like one 64165 Cobra.
I was at like 114 that day and ball speeds were like 160,
three, 164. And I was super happy.
I was like, man, this is going to be a closer race than I
thought. And we got to cow away the next
week. And I, I was only at like 1/11,
1:12 the day that I tested the cow way and I saw one 67168.
Like I was swinging a little bit slower and ball speeds were
still 2-3 miles an hour faster. And it has happened for me every
single time that I've tested since then as well.
Like it just, it just stays faster.
I've hit I got over 170 ball speed last time I tested the
Cowboy stuff, which was right before PGA show, right before I
came down, I was testing a ton of stuff.
The Cowboy is one of them and I got over 170 a couple times.
I'm like, you know, 115 one 116 swings.
I don't swing quite as fast as you do.
So I got to work a little harder to get my ball speed.
But yeah, it's it's it is really amazed me.
And I'm a little bit biased because I've played a cowboy
triple diamond or sub zero for the last like decade, basically.
And I was actively trying not to play it this year, Like I was
trying purposely to put something else in my bag.
And I think, I think I just went right back to him.
You just promised me an extra like 2 to 4 miles an hour ball
speed. So can you can you dig me up 1
where? I yeah of.
Course of. Course, yes, absolutely I can
help with that. We're we're at, we're, we're
just on the verge of 190. So that and we're looking for
any advantages right now. Anything.
What are you swing? What are you swinging at when
you're when you're trying to hit the 190?
Are you like 1/21/25? It depends on the launch
monitor. Like I was at with Eddie
Fernandez, he's a long drive guy in Orlando.
I stopped by day after show was on track man, and I was up at
like one 24125 got up TO1184185 ball speed at home here on the
sky track. If I'm doing my stuff, I've I've
gotten up to like I can get above 125.
I got 130 a couple times, got 188 ball speed so.
Yeah. It is so much work.
At 190, you need to be at least at 1:25 and you have to hit the
centre of the base. So no, it's not easy to swing at
1:25 in the 1st place. Like that's just makes my back
hurt. That's what that does.
I've been, I've been dying to get back to like cruising at
like 120 because I was, believe it or not, at one point in my
life, I was like 120 on the golf course.
And I'm not, I'm not a big guy. So I'm trying to get back there.
But there's a lot of we got to do a lot of work.
To get there you got to stop travelling, that's the main
thing. No kidding.
Yeah. Yeah.
I got to have two seconds to be able to swing a club fest.
OK. All right, well, I have a I've
got a goal now. What shaft?
What shafts are you using? Let's hold on.
Let's let's, let's like this is a perfect segue.
Let's talk about TPTA little bit.
Let's do it. I'm sure that's probably what's
in your driver. Yeah.
And we also saw some sick putter shafts.
Oh, look at this guy with his What are you, a NASCAR driver
sponsored over there? Ridiculous.
Yeah, no, I I play the 17 low 46 inch.
We got a we got a 16 high over here.
I know it's the 16 low cut down to 4045.
So yeah, no, it it's great. I mean, the Nitro range is
great. This is a you know, I I'm biased
here, would like to. Just for the record, Chef, but.
The new putter shafts are a cool story.
This is. I mean, it's right up your
alley. Super cool.
It's so. I have you ever heard of like
multiple putter shafts to change the feel of a putter before?
Because I haven't. This is the first time I've ever
heard. Feel yes.
Sound No. OK.
I think that was the big difference is like, you know, if
you take AD amount of 105 and AD amount of 130, they're going to
feel very different. But you're not going to get a
different sound off the face between those two.
It's just not going to happen. But it will change.
It'll change the feel in your hands and through the stroke and
stuff. But the, the, the audio, the
audible difference on the TPT stuff was insane.
I mean, this is in a a super crowded area where we're getting
literally crossed into by people, which you guys saw on
camera and 8 feet away you can hear the difference in striking
the same insert with A50 and A70.
Like I, I'm not kidding. I mean, I, I said it on that
video. I genuinely having the 70 would
actually make me think about playing a white hot insert
because the roll is amazing. The feel is amazing, but the
sound stinks. I don't like that it gets mushy
and dull and dead. I want the the little click off
the face like a milled putter. So no, I am, I'm I'm going to
get my hands on some and I'm going to test it more.
But like what a cool thing. I I thought it was awesome.
Yeah, well, I mean, it's like John Sinclair.
So he's top 50. Coach is the legend.
Everybody goes to him in like 3D and he's just kind of like he
can't help but figure stuff out. It's it's what he does love
that. And so he, he figured out with
these shafts that so they have really low torque, which is the
twisting aspect, but you want low torque on a powder shaft
that doesn't make sense. Absolutely.
And then turn them into a, a tuning fork with the frequency.
So he figured out with the frequency of the shaft, which is
the flex and he could change that and he can control the
Hertz of each shaft. So you, you hear it of like,
that's why I want to click and want it muted.
So it's like just some really cool the way they're made it
allowed him to do it and like all this stuff, but it's like a
really cool story. I've got a full piece that I did
with him on like the story and showing his like data that he
collected of, of the Sam stuff as well.
So yeah, yeah. It it, it, it is cool.
You'll enjoy playing around with it of yeah.
You can take a white hot insert and make it feel, you know, like
a clique. It's it's very interesting.
Yeah. It it makes me really want to
take a A50. The muted.
One and put it and put it in like my Tuon, because I I I want
to know what we didn't get to do is the opposite effect.
Like I know that I can turn a white hot into a nice, you know,
clicky sound off the face, but could I turn a Tuon Austin into
like a muted, softer feeling off the face?
If that's what I prefer to do? Like I do want to try that.
Like I want to go the other way and see what happens.
So yeah, I got to I got to reach out to our new my new friends,
your your your friends, but my new friends at TPT and I got to
figure out how to get my hands on some of those because, well,
AI need to get my hands on some. And then I also need to get my
hands on some identical putters so that I can do some some AB
testing. If you will, I like you.
Yeah, but no, that was very cool.
I was happy that I was with you, too, because you explained it
perfectly. Like, I don't know, I probably
would have walked, like, I probably would have watched the
presentation and then walked away from the booth if I hadn't
been with you. But I'm super glad I was with
you because it was a amazing demonstration.
So. Yeah.
That, that is cool innovation, right?
Like which is like new things happening like that.
That is the vibe. I, I would say the vibe, like to
summarize the show for me, it was, I've been for a long time
going to these things. I've seen years when there were
just massive sections of just it, just empty cement.
There's no booth there. I've seen demo day packed with
all the major OEMs hitting clubs there.
Now Demo day keeps getting worse year over year because the OEMs
don't want to do anything, which is fine.
I mean, whatever. But the Convention Center busier
than ever, like more booths out in the lobby.
We're everywhere. We're just putting people, we're
putting booths and all kinds of stuff.
And it was like there are tons of people.
It was crazy. I I, you know, I don't know if
the state of golf good place business, good, good place, like
what the energy let's our outlook for the year of of
things. It seems positive.
I don't know if this is a reflection of like right now or
if it's like a trailing 12 where this is like the energy where it
was 12 months ago, but like it was it was good.
It was really good. It was like probably the best
show I've ever been to. Just like busyness and like
industry's good, everyone's happy kind of kind of vibe.
Yeah, it was fun. I wish.
Like it sounds so ego maniacal but like there's so many people
that I would walk by and I'd be like Oh my God, I haven't seen
you in like 8 months and then you're like I would love to talk
to you but I got to go. Bye.
And it's just one of those things where like I wish I could
almost like just set aside like a 45 minute time slot and just
be like, look, anybody that I haven't seen in the last six
months, just please come say hi for a little bit.
Let's hang out just for because that's part of the show for me
too, is always like I get to see international friends.
I made some new international friends this year, which is
really fun, like getting to see them and just everybody, like
all my buddies are in the same place at the same time.
Whether they're people that I'm technically, you know, competing
against. You could say like I like, I
love Brian Knudsen as if he is a family member of mine.
And whether him and I are technically on the opposite
sides of the aisle, you can say with what we do for a living.
Like I support him, he supports me.
We love spending time together. It's always super fun.
And like stuff like that are like, you know, I get to see
you. We hung out for jeez.
I mean we hung out for what, 6 hours that day like.
We ran all around. Yeah, which ended up being
fantastic. Like it was actually.
Very useful. It was very helpful not only
because we kind of like split crews and like did you know our
own thing congruently, but also just like just to be able to
bounce ideas off of and be like, well look at that thing.
You're like, whoa, look at that thing.
You're like, I don't know about that thing.
You know, like just to have somebody that was kind of in it
with us was really fun. So yeah, I mean, going into next
year, I think my plan will change a little bit.
I do want to make more time to just be able to walk a little
bit. But I also think there's a huge
benefit in like the way that you and I kind of ran it this year
for ourselves of, you know, we always had a camera ready to go
if we needed it. And I think that is a huge, huge
benefit of the show for for people like us that are kind of
reporting on the show. But yeah, I've got some
interesting ideas for next year too, for the PGA Show, for some
experiences, I guess you can call it.
Wonderful. Yeah, I went nuts.
I had, yeah, three guys, some of our team down with and we we
just went, we went crazy. Yeah, you were busting exports
though, like you guys are getting stuff out like that was
that's what impressed me the most is like, yeah, you guys
were there and you had a good crew with you.
But still, I mean, that's not, we've talked about this a little
bit off camera. Like it's not easy to to do what
we did for three days. Like it's it's just not.
It was a long week and I I made him shoot Monday and Tuesday and
Friday, separate projects as well, so.
Yeah, that's a lot. That's a lot for your boys.
We got to maximize our travel time, you know.
Yeah, I did keep reminding them that they were absolute
superstars though. And I told I, I told them to
keep reminding you that they are too.
Yes, they are. They are, that's for sure.
OK, Jake, thanks for hanging out.
It's a good PGA show week. Enjoyed hanging out with you and
people can follow you? What is the best place they can
keep keep tabs on you? My Instagram so app made for the
range is is the best place. And then if you want some
content that you might not see on made for the range or updates
about new clubs and testing and stuff like that.
Most of that's going to live on app fully equipped golf, which
is the gear platform of golf.com, who I work for now.
Yeah, we're, it's going to be, it's going to be a crazy year,
that's for sure. And that's all over and out.
See ya.