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Day Four

The final day of the PGA Merchandise Show has come and gone. And it doesn’t seem like two minutes has elapsed, let alone four days!

I’ve seen some stunning irons in the form of the new Cleveland CG1 blades and a truly innovative GPS in the form of SkyCaddie’s new SGX.

But perhaps the most amazing thing that I’ve come across comes in the form of a Georgian taxi driver.

Jemal didn’t look like an athlete – he certainly didn’t look like a footballer. But as the conversation to Downtown Orlando gathered pace, my man asked which team I followed.

“Newcastle United”, was my dreary reply.

The car stopped, Jemal looked around.

“Are you serious?”

Sadly Jemal, yes.

“I play with Kestbaia at school, you know him?”

Temuri Ketsbaia – literally a worldwide star. Jemal couldn’t have been happier – he has probably been waiting years for a Newcastle United fan to be in his cab!

Day Three

It’s been a great day at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.

There have been some truly innovative products unveiled for the first time, such as Srixon’s new TRISPEED and Z-Star Tour Yellow balls.

I’ve also spied a cosmetic update to Cleveland’s new Classic range of putters in the form of the BRX version.

It hasn’t been a great day at the Rosen Plaza hotel in Orlando – the internet hasn’t been working all day and the best suggestion from the on-call manager was for me to file my copy via facebook on my phone. Brilliant.

I’m just about to be kicked out of an internet cafe in downtown Orlando by some guy who looks very much like Screech from Saved by the Bell – better go, just before it gets ugly.

Back tomorrow with some more news!

Day Two

After a fairly low key start to the week of the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Wednesday proved to be a lot busier!

We headed to the annual Demo Day which is about 40 minutes out of town to see the latest and greatest golf technologies set to launch in 2010.

I’ll have more info for you tomorrow after the Show officially gets underway, but we did manage to get a sneak peak of something a bit special from Odyssey.

The Backstryke range essentially seems to have the shaft of the putter positioned at the back of the clubhead, rather than just behind the face. The idea seems to be along the lines of making the ball roll better and more consistently which in turn should lead to more canned putts. Check out the pictures!

I also managed to have a chat with representatives of various manufacturers who talked through their product lines for 2010. We spoke to Dave Llewellyn from Mizuno golf who was only to keen to explain the brilliance behind the new MP630 and MP630 Fast Track drivers – but we won’t have this video up on the site for a few weeks so if you’re desperate to see the new range it can all be found in the next issue of TG – on sale January 28!

Jay Hubbard, from Tour Edge golf has also given us an in-depth look at how the latest technology in their new wood range has meant the company will guarantee an additional 20 yards on your fairway wood yardages – and if this isn’t the case, you’ll get your money back!

And for all of you who love gadgets and gizmos, get ready for something pretty special from one of the world’s favourite GPS manufacturers – more details to come tomorrow!

That’s about it for tonight, but I’ll be back tomorrow with plenty of good golf stories from sunny Orlando.

Day One

It’s been an interesting first day in Orlando, home of the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show.

Jetlag reared its incredibly-ugly head at 5am and with no chance of going back to sleep, TG Sales Wizard Dave Elliott and I headed out into the crisp American morning.

The Show doesn’t actually start until Thursday, with the Demo Day taking place tomorrow (Wednesday). So when the sun decided it was time to make an appearance and normal, non-jetlagged folk started waking I headed to the Orange County Convention Centre to pick up my media acccredetitation – and to see if I could blag my way into the enormous halls where the show would be taking place.

Now, I appreciate that many of you won’t ever come to this particular show – but many of you will have been to similar shows in London or at the NEC – and they really do take a lot to setup, as the pictures posted show! Hundreds of blokes, dripping in sweat, are spending hours getting product out of boxes and onto sheleves – but only once they’d erected the shelves themselves.

Later on, I headed out for a walk in the afternoon sun and came across something I’d not seen before – a Crazy Golf course with a difference. As well as the usual obstructions you had to navigate your ball through/around, this particular course in Orlando had the added distraction of ALLIGATORS to contend with!

Not plastic ones, not dead ones – bloody frightening alive ones…with teeth and everything.

In fairness, they were in some sort of enclosure – but it still didn’t fill you with confidence. Can you imagine the public outcry in Nanny State Britain if we had these creatures on the parade at Sunny Hunny?!

Tomorrow there will be another blog – probably of more interest due to the Demo Day which is where the good, the bad and the ugly of the golf industry come together to test new products for 2010.

Here’s hoping for some sun and hopefully by this time tomorrow I’ll be able to give you a more exciting read!