As the coronavirus pandemic touches all walks of life, several golf equipment companies are operating with employees now working from home.
Ping announced on social media channels Monday that for the safety of the 800 employees who work at the company’s Phoenix headquarters, it has decided to close its facility for “the next couple of weeks.”
As the coronavirus pandemic forces states and municipalities to ban gatherings and implore people to stay in their homes, several equipment companies are operating with employees working from home.
Callaway, Cobra and TaylorMade, all based in Carlsbad, California, sent workers home several days ago, and Bridgestone and Mizuno workers based in Georgia are working from home, too.
Titleist and FootJoy staffers based in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, have been working remotely for more than a week. Products that were previously ordered may be slow in arriving, but judging by the comments left on Ping’s Facebook page, golfers are supporting the brands and want everyone to be safe.
Instead of producing headcovers and hand-forged metal accessories, the Oregon company is working on masks for nurses and doctors.
Golf lovers who are can’t go to the course are taking to social media and sharing all sorts of trick shots, workouts and practice sessions. However, Seamus Golf, a small brand based in Beaverton, Oregon, that has grown a cult following thanks to its unique headcovers, hand-forged ball markers and accessories posted a very different message.
On Monday evening, the company announced on its website that it would close temporarily to help produce masks for doctors, nurses and first responders who are in need of supplies in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Prototyping began last week and ended with our first production run on Friday,” a message on the company’s homepage read. “We are using our materials and constructing them in a way that each of these individuals are requesting to use as a last resort. They have confirmed that what we are making is better than what they are resorting to use.”
The masks are not made from N95 material though the company said it is seeking it and could use customers’ help on that front. Still, with masks running critically low in many areas, the Seamus masks are better than what many healthcare workers are being forced to use.
Seamus used the past week to set up its office for “social distanced production.” The company believes it can continue to make products and keep its employees through a tough time such as this. The Seamus store has been temporarily closed to allow the full team to focus and assess the situation with masks. A second production run began Monday night.
Seamus also said it would give away the masks for free to frontline workers who contact the company at masks@seamusgolf.com.
The new Icon irons have a classic look at address and a progressive center of gravity to enhance control and feel.
Gear: Ben Hogan Icon irons Price: $770 (chrome) for seven clubs (4-PW), $800 (black) Specs: Forged irons with a progressive center of gravity and V-sole design Available: Pre-orders for chrome clubs are being taken now. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, orders for Black clubs will be available soon.
The new Hogan Icon irons are for accomplished golfers who want to curve and turn the ball in different directions and control its flight, not for golfers who struggle to repeat their swing or who need extra forgiveness. Instead, Hogan makes Edge irons for mid- and higher-handicap players.
The Icon irons have a thin topline, minimal offset and a narrow, V-shaped sole. (Ben Hogan)
In the Icon’s address position, golfers will see virtually no offset, a short blade length and a thin topline. The lofts are very traditional, with the 5-iron being 26 degrees and the pitching wedge at 46 degrees.
What golfers won’t see is a weight pad on the back of the heads that the company calls a Progressive Center of Mass system. The long irons have more mass positioned low in the heads, which pulls the center of gravity down and encourages higher-launching shots. The center of gravity rises progressively through the mid-irons and peaks in the short irons. The benefit is good players should be able to flight their approach shots down with their scoring clubs for enhanced distance and trajectory control.
The Ben Hogan Icon irons (Ben Hogan)
To help the clubs work through the turf more efficiently, the Icon irons have a V-sole that lifts the leading edge. By designing more bounce into the sole, the Icon irons should be less apt to dig and slow down through the impact zone.
By allowing Club Champion fitters to see a player’s on-course Arccos data, the fitting process can improve.
Working with a well-qualified custom fitter is the best way to ensure that the golf equipment you buy is ideally suited to your swing and the needs of your game.
Golfweek has been hammering that point home for years, and more and more golfers are listening. While most players immediately see the rewards of custom-fit clubs when they play, there can be an adjustment period and questions for others. Will a slice-fighting driver work on the course? Is the lie of a new set of irons just right? Does a player’s sand wedge have enough bounce?
Arccos and Club Champion announced a unique partnership on Monday, and it could make questions like those a thing of the past.
Arccos, based in Stamford, Connecticut, makes tiny sensors that screw into the grip of your clubs. The company also offers grips that already hold the sensors. Once the sensors are linked to Arccos’s smartphone app, the system can use the GPS feature in your phone to track every shot you hit using every club in your bag. Overlaying that data on maps of the holes and courses you play, Arccos creates data-rich stats that can reveal things like your average distance with each club, where you tend to miss and which aspects of your game are strong and which need some work.
Based on your tendencies, weather, elevations changes on the hole and how other golfers with similar abilities have played the hole, Arccos Caddie 2.0 makes real-time club recommendations.
Club Champion, based in Chicago, is one of the biggest and most reputable club fitting companies in the United States. It has 74 stores around the country and is brand agnostic, carrying equipment from every major company and several smaller manufacturers too. Thanks to a unique hosel system, Club Champion fitters can attach any shaft to any club head, allowing golfers and fitters to try scores of combinations. Using TrackMan launch monitors, Club Champion fitters can show clients exactly how different combinations of components work with the player’s swing.
Now, thanks to the partnership, Club Champion will not only sell Arccos sensors and Arccos-enabled grips, but the company’s fitters will also be able to track and see how a client’s gear performs on the course.
Club Champion allows golfers and fitters to try any combination of head and shaft.
After golfers give permission for their Club Champion fitter to monitor their play, Arccos will provide data that lets fitters better understand the player’s game and track their performance after the fitting. The fitters have all trained and certified as experts in the Arccos Caddie platform and the Arccos Dashboard. The dashboard lets fitters see insights, visualizations and shot-by-shot history of a player’s round. They can also see club distance averages, gapping, clubs used, dispersion patterns, miss tendencies and more.
“Having access to our clients’ Arccos on-course shot data allows us to fully understand each player’s unique golf DNA,” said Nick Sherburne, the founder of Club Champion and one of the company’s master fitters. “The data is golden. It helps golfers and our fitters better track performance while gaining an unbiased understanding of where they excel and what they need to improve.”
While some golfers may see an element of Big Brother in this, golfers who get an Arccos system at Club Champion are not obligated to take part in the program. However, the benefits to the player could make it worthwhile.
After completing an indoor fitting, players can now allow their Club Champion fitters to see their on-course Arccos data.
For example, if a player who used to slice is now hooking the ball using his new driver, the fitter will be able to see the issue, reach out to the player and make suggestions that could solve the problem. Some players also hit shots differently in an indoor fitting studio than they do on the course. Allowing a Club Champion fitter to access Across data could reveal those differences too.
“With Arccos Caddie, every Club Champion fitter can get a contextualized picture of their clients’ games,” said Sal Syed, the CEO and co-founder of Arccos. “This can be a huge positive for the fitter-client relationship before, during and after each studio session.”
Using plastic pulled from the oceans and off beaches, Adidas strives to provide great performance while cleaning the environment.
Plastic bottles washed up on beaches and images of sea life tangled up in spools of fishing line or plastic beverage holders are depressing. Many items that find their way into the world’s oceans can be recycled, which not only cuts down on the amount of new plastic that needs to be used but also cleans up the environment.
Adidas has a goal of converting 100 percent of its virgin polyester to recycled in every application where a solution exists. To that end, at the 2019 U.S. Open, Adidas released the Tour 360 XT Parley golf shoes, footwear manufactured using upcycled plastic waste that has been intercepted from beaches and coastal communities in California. This week at the Players, several of the company’s staff players, including Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele, will be wearing apparel and footwear that is made using Adidas’ Primeblue material which is also manufactured using recycled ocean plastics.
Primeblue Code Chaos shoes are made using plastic pulled from the oceans and off beaches. (Adidas)
The Primeblue Code Chaos golf shoes ($150) feature the same spikeless sole found in the standard Code Chaos shoes that were released in January. Made from rubber and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), the rigid traction elements cover the sole, but a scattering of oddly shaped traction elements have been added to the forefoot area. Called Twistgrip, these pieces create extra forefoot traction in every direction as a golfer swings.
The waterproof mesh upper, made using the upcycled plastic, is breathable while the Boost midsole provides extra cushioning.
See which clubs the PGA Tour’s best drivers are using off the tee to maximize distance and accuracy.
It all starts with the tee shot. Modern professional golfers attack holes right from the start using a combination of power and accuracy in an attempt to create easier approach shots and scoring chances.
The U.S. Golf Association and the R&A have determined that distance is playing too large a role in golf, and the game’s governing bodies are researching what should be done to stop the trends of players hitting the ball farther and courses growing longer. While they investigate various options, pros continue to grip it and rip it.
No one drives the ball better than the 10 players listed below, the leaders in strokes gained off the tee in the 2019-20 PGA Tour season. See which clubs they use to gain an edge over the competition.
A strokes gained average of 0.5 means a player gains half a shot against the field average. So a player with a strokes gained off the tee of 0.5 would be two shots better than average over the span of a four-day tournament.
Golfers around the world can now play the same version of the Bridgestone ball Tiger Woods uses, complete with TIGER stamping.
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Many Tiger Woods fans were sad to hear the 15-time major winner did not enter this week’s Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, but Bridgestone, the maker of the golf ball that Woods uses, has given those fans a reason to cheer up. The Japanese equipment maker announced Monday that it is releasing the Tour B XS-TW.
In a release, Elliot Mellow, Bridgestone’s golf ball marketing manager said, “Tiger Woods has proudly stated that he has never been more involved with the design of a golf ball from birth of concept to final model, than he has with the new 2020 Tour B XS golf ball, so it is only fitting that we offer a version to consumers with the same TIGER sidestamp that Woods himself uses.”
Aside from the sidestamp, the Tour B XS-TW, which will cost $44.99 per dozen when it arrives in stores in the coming days, is identical to the standard 2020 Tour B XS. As with Bridgestone’s other ball made for tour-level swing speeds, the Tour B X, the Tour B XS is ideally suited for players who have a driver swing speed over 105 mph, but it has a softer feel than the Tour B X and spins more around the greens.
Like all the 2020 Bridgestone Tour B balls, the Tour B XS-TW has a Reactiv urethane cover that rebounds more quickly than other urethanes Bridgestone has used to help golfers generate more ball speed and distance off the tee. However, on pitches and chips, it absorbs shock and helps the ball stay in contact with the face to enhance spin and increase greenside control.
Acushnet’s Titleist and FootJoy, as well as apparel maker J. Lindberg, have dropped the PGA Tour veteran.
PGA Tour veteran Scott Piercy, 41, lost two major sponsors on Thursday as a result of controversial posts he shared on Instagram. One was a homophobic meme of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and the other referenced QAnon, an ultra-conservative conspiracy theory about a secret plot against President Donald Trump.
As first reported by golfdigest.com, Titleist and FootJoy, both owned by Acushnet, ended their sponsorship with Piercy on Tuesday. Apparel maker J. Lindberg also ended its relationship with the Las Vegas native.
Piercy’s name and image have been removed from both companies’ websites.
Thursday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Piercy shot 1-under 71.
“We were made aware of Scott’s post and are disappointed in the lack of judgement used,” the PGA Tour said in a statement.
Scott Piercy’s Titleist irons at Bay Hill. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
In a statement, a J. Lindberg representative wrote, “When we choose our ambassadors, we choose individuals we know will represent us well on and off the golf course. The claims from Scott Piercy were unacceptable and far from our views and beliefs. We have since terminated our contract with Mr. Piercy. We, J. Lindberg, as a company do not stand by the statements made by Piercy and we want to make sure our customers, employees and other ambassadors know we support all communities and have no room for hate or discrimination in our company.”
Piercy, who turned pro in 2001 and has won four PGA Tour events, posted an apology on his Instagram story that stated, “Whenever I post my intent is NEVER to offend. I want to apologize if any of my recents story posts have been offensive. I will do better!”
A week after using a new TaylorMade SIM driver at the Honda Classic, it appears that Justin Rose is making more equipment changes.
ORLANDO – A week after using a new TaylorMade SIM driver at the Honda Classic, Justin Rose is making more equipment changes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Rose, the winner of the 2018 FedEx Cup, had used a prototype set of Honma TR20 irons earlier this season, but there was a new set of TaylorMade P730 irons in his bag Wednesday for the pro-am at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge and again in Thursday’s first round of the tournament. He also had wedges from TaylorMade, Titleist and Wilson in the bag Wednesday.
Justin Rose’s TaylorMade P730 irons Wednesday at Bay Hill (David Dusek/Golfweek)
In January 2019, Rose signed an endorsement deal with Honma, becoming the Japanese company’s first PGA Tour staff player. Honma did not return Golfweek’s requests for information on Rose’s current status with the company. Rose had used TaylorMade equipment before joining Honma last year.
Rose is a 10-time winner on the PGA Tour, with his most-recent victory at the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open. He also has seven European Tour wins, has competed in five Ryder Cups and reached No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking in 2018.
Rose hasn’t had a great start to 2020. In three events, he missed two cuts and had a best finish of T-56 at the Genesis Invitational.
