Sit back and get ready to take off with Dynamic Golf.
Who are we going to be looking at for this Friday?
So when we started this TMac we wanted to talk to a bunch of different people in the
golf industry.
Yeah, absolutely.
We want to fix your slice, we want to tell you how to make more putts, but also the ability
that we have to kind of have these contacts in the industry is pretty cool.
So I've got a good friend, his name is Robert Klapka, he's a tailor-made sales rep in the
area basically, goes from Gainesville to Naples, that's a pretty big area already in Florida,
and then all the way out to Orlando.
So I'm looking forward to talking to him, I think we're going to get the audience to
get a lot of different perspective on some of the new product coming out and maybe even
just the way some of these manufacturers market their product and kind of think about what
they're doing, think about what they're making to the public.
So we'll see what happens, but definitely I think it's going to be a great educational
but also informative one for the listener.
Great, great.
Well, thank you.
Tune in everybody and let's get ready for the next podcast.
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Let's do it.
All right, so welcome back everybody.
Welcome to Dynamic Golf.
I am your co-host Tim McElvanagh, the owner and operator of swingtheorygolf.com, and with
me is my co-host Sean Klotz.
Owner and operator of One Stop Golf Club.
Good to hear you guys.
Good to see you guys.
So Sean, who do we have today?
I'm really excited.
Yeah, today I got a good friend of mine, Robert Klapka.
He's a TaylorMade sales rep.
Robert, you're on the line.
What's the territory that you have?
And first of all, definitely welcome to Dynamic Golf.
We're excited to have you.
Yeah.
Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me guys.
I appreciate that.
I'm here.
My territory is Northwest Florida.
So I cover everything from about University Park in Sarasota all the way up to Chiefland,
Gainesville, going into the North Side.
Yeah.
And that's kind of like typical of today's sales reps, isn't it?
Like just a ton of accounts and really hard to see everybody that's in your territory.
That's a huge area to.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it's split up.
You know, we make our rounds.
We've got divisions set up where I can see, you know, some of my greater accounts, you
know, to all the way, some of my starting accounts, you know, on a monthly basis.
And we just kind of keep it rolling that way to make sure everybody's service properly.
I just want to say real quick, Tim's got a good bio on you.
We want to talk about some of like how you came from where you came from.
But I will say that the reason that me and Robert are friends is that I owned a golf
store in Valrico.
I would say smaller operation, TMac, you know, about a one stop golf shop.
We were grossing about $450,000.
So you know, not terrible, but in the scheme of what Robert does, maybe a smaller account.
Gotcha.
And he was just great from the start, you know, came in, really wanted to help us build
our brand.
And I think that's something that I really appreciate in any sales rep, Robert, but you
were just super helpful all the way through.
Yeah.
You know, one of the things I saw when I looked at your bio is that you're a marketing grad
from St. Leo.
How has that kind of helped you?
And also that you've been a general manager at some of the ace groups with Plantation
Palms.
How has that kind of helped you become a better tailor made rep as you've gone through?
How has that helped you?
I mean, you know, my time at St. Leo obviously taught me a lot.
I mean, like any other college grad, they're going to tell you, you learn how to basically
read a book, be on time and submit a paper.
There you go.
Just fine.
I would say most of my training and communication comes through, you know, real work and spirit.
Being able to be a general manager and a pro at the same time at a lot of these clubs has
allowed me the opportunity to kind of understand what needed or what the sales rep should be,
because, you know, I've been in all my positions at the same point in time and I've been on
that side of the desk where I've been trying to reach out to them or I need things.
So I kind of have that experience and that insight as to what they need on a daily basis
and what kind of communication they expect.
So I think that was a really huge leg up for me in the transition.
Did you get, as me and TMAC, we call them TMAC by the way, Robert.
You're more than welcome to call them TMAC.
Did you get burned out in an early age from the golf pro side of it?
Is that kind of what led you to the opportunity at TaylorMade or how did that play out or
did you always want to be like a rep kind of traveling?
Yeah, I mean, so small background, you know, I got out of the army and then coming out
of the military transitioning, I wanted to work in the golf industry.
And I started out working in bag rooms in southeast Florida at a couple of private clubs
down there.
I also did caddying as well.
And one day I had actually met a Nike golf sales rep, which obviously they're not around
anymore.
But when I met with that individual, I said, you know what, I want to do that.
And then as time's gone on, yeah, I definitely did get burnt out from a general manager,
pro because, you know, there was a great golf digest article a few years ago kind of talking
about the pro decline and just how tough it is really.
You know, the demand of working seven days up to sundown.
Just as you know, Sean, it's a very demanding thing.
And then as you know, my first daughter was born, I realized I didn't want to be working
Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day anymore.
And I really started to try and find a different avenue.
At one point, I thought it was going to take me outside of the industry.
And then I got very, very lucky with working for TaylorMade about five years ago next month.
Great.
Yeah.
Finding that work balance, especially being a general manager or head pro is tough in
today's age.
There's a lot of demand on everybody.
So yeah, I can definitely understand that for sure, Robert.
Are you seeing that with some of your accounts too now?
Like I mean, you got the, you know, kind of younger guys will call it.
I'm 52 now, so I can call them younger guys or whatever.
And I think that they're, you know, even like we're doing, you know, we're doing a podcast,
we're trying to do some more YouTube, we're trying to do some more Instagram posts.
Like you just, there's so many more ways to kind of expose yourself to the public as far
as like your knowledge that you have, but also how to balance that with the counter
time, you know, making sure that the tournament runs effectively.
Honestly, after I talked to you today, Robert, I've got to go down and try to fix basically
like a, an inventory problem with some of our beer vendors type of thing.
Like I mean, it's just, it never ends.
You know, you always have something on your plate.
Something constant.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it never ends, no matter which side of the fence you're on.
You know, I get, you know, fire drills daily, it seems like.
And you know, it's like today I'm on my way to, uh, to a fire drill down in the syrup
soda, something that just got brought up to me the other day.
So it's, it's being able to stay loose and being able to, uh, just know where you need
to be and what needs to be done and prioritizing.
But as far as, you know, some of the other pros, I mean, yeah, um, you know, I know two
very prominent pros that, uh, are very, very heavily on Instagram and they also have their
own podcast as well.
Yeah.
So, I mean, everybody's trying to do something just a little bit different to adapt to the
changes and use these new outlets.
Yeah.
How is Taylor made using that?
I mean, obviously Taylor made, you know, national brand, I mean, international brand, I should
say like, um, I guess I see a decent amount of posts from some of the tour players that
are on tour and kind of, you see them.
I think those are the coolest ones to us where you see tiger talking to Scotty or, or, or
Rory talking to, talking to tiger again.
I mean, just, um, or explaining how, you know, one move in his golf swing has helped his
driver.
I mean, obviously it's again, international conglomerate.
Um, is it just when they have the new, and it doesn't seem like it's just when they have
the new product coming out, which we can touch on a little bit later on.
And we get, we can't touch on a lot of it, but, but just, uh, some of the new, some of
the ways that Taylor made tries to continue to brand itself, I guess might be the way
I might ask the question.
Yeah.
I mean, outside of Taylor made, you know, producing some of the best or producing the
best golf products and the performance products in the world.
Um, one thing that Taylor made also was very good at its marketing.
Nice.
As everybody knows, you know, it's a marketing giant and it's all about touch points.
It's all about being able to connect with different ways.
It's like you guys are doing.
So one thing that, uh, I think our company is very, very proud of it, but you know, we
have the largest following, um, on social media amongst all OEMs.
And that's something that are really, really proud.
Yeah, it's huge.
Yeah.
Um, so it's not just YouTube, it's not just Instagram, it's Facebook, it's, it's everything,
social media, different touch points to drive consumers back to the website, into our products.
Now let me ask you, how is a tiger and Rory, how they been for the R and D department,
you know, with developing the balls, the face, how much input have they kind of given, uh,
to the tailor made, you know, R and D side as they've kind of gone through, you know,
you look at everything.
You look at those social media posts, uh, you know, obviously fledgling, it's an iron
drivers, everything through the bag.
They've been very, very vocal.
One thing our CEO likes to talk about, especially our guys in R and D is that there's, you know,
when it came to the driver, uh, it had to call it, had to have what they call the tiger
line, which is the lines on top of the club had to look clean just for tiger in order
for him to swing that club.
Interesting.
They would go through different heads, showing them different heads that, you know, whatever
model they were showing at that time, they would wait for his reaction, you know, whether
it be a smile, a grimace, you know, anything along those lines.
That's when they knew what they had.
The same thing goes into the T W iron T W wedges.
Uh, you know, Rory was very vocal on wedges as well, coming from his former OEM and they've
been, you know, absolutely transparent and, uh, very vocal, which has obviously led Taylor
made two huge market share jumps.
Yeah.
Who are it?
It's not just them.
It's Colin.
It's now Nellie Corda.
Yeah.
Scottie Schaeffler has been a huge part of that.
Like even when you look at Charlie hole, she's done an amazing job with our R and D team.
So Taylor made, you know, it's not just looking to the top guys, it's listening to everybody
and then kind of taking that collaborative effort and be able to move forward.
That's, that's funny.
Cause I was just going to say, you know, like tiger Rory, Scotty, like those are the ones
that you kind of think of, but I was going to ask like even down to the collegiate level,
you know, high end amateur level, um, there's just, you know, you guys are prevalent everywhere.
And the thing I like about Taylor made, and I mean, obviously we deal with a lot of different
vendors and different companies.
Um, you know, you, you, you have the product for the low handicap, you know, best ball
striker in the world type of thing.
But then you also have a product like the stealth, which has just kind of revolutionized
that, that, you know, player development market, right?
I mean, the, the easier to hit, get the ball up in the air.
And then you even took that and made it, you know, a different iron too.
Um, so I think that the ability to include everybody in the game is super important.
And a company like Taylor made does not just offer the best player in the world.
And you guys were looking at the mid level high end handicap as well.
Hey, how do we get them better too?
Yeah, I apologize.
I apologize.
But yeah, you're correct.
I mean, we're always, we're, we're making products for every, you know, it's not just
the best players in the world.
Obviously we have that product available, but we are, you know, a collaborative brand
and we are, you know, quote unquote equal opportunity in terms of this game.
We want everybody to play their best and perform their best.
Wow.
Good.
We're going to make everything for everyone and make sure that nobody's excluded and
ensure that everybody enjoys the game.
So from the fitting side, I'm going to ask that question.
So I think a couple of revolutionary things in the fitting world, the past, we'll call
it 10 years, being able to have a customer come in for a fitting and being able to change
shafts out, you know, in the fitting cart that we have.
Right.
Um, that just makes our jobs so much easier.
And I'm sure it hopefully, you know, lessens the amount of inventory that you guys have
to do too, in a certain way where you don't have to send me seven different seven iron,
you can send me one seven iron head with, you know, six different shafts and we can
really hone in on the, uh, on the, on the customers.
What he, what he's hitting the best and figure that out from a weight perspective, uh, from
a length perspective and also from a flex perspective.
So let's just talk about the irons for a second, but I also got a question about the drivers.
Yeah.
So, I mean, we started talking about the fitting components, right?
You know, we obviously have a fitting system, a select fit system is what we call it.
And for this selected system, what we're sending out is just basically the one iron head.
And then we actually have a sweep that can go over the fitting shaft where we can make
it weak, strong, flat, upright.
So instead of sending or wasting six or seven different fitting heads to do the same, you
know, obviously different things.
Now all I have to do is send one head and I can send multiple sweeps and they'll do
the exact same thing.
Oh, that's amazing.
Obviously that's a good thing for tailor-made because one, it cuts down on waste.
Yep.
Um, and then on top of that, obviously it saves the company money as well, but it's,
uh, it's been very well received over the past year since we started rolling it out.
I actually saw it two, two and a half years ago, uh, when I was part of like a little
R and D discussion about the product.
Uh, and it's just, it's been amazing.
I mean, it's, it's so much nicer to only have to give out a couple heads and then not have
to worry about the bumping heads because the pros, if they're fumbling all these heads
out to, uh, the range, you know, it can be a little cumbersome.
And how it can get lost real quick.
Yeah, exactly.
And if they lose one of the little loft sleeves, that's not a problem.
I've got a million of them in my storage unit and I can send them a new one.
That's great.
Um, so my question would be about the driver, um, with, uh, with you guys, with the carbon
technology, what, uh, what drove you guys to that, um, you know, side of it when, when
you guys looked at it, you guys went a different direction than everybody else, which I think
it's amazing.
Yeah.
So I think that's kind of always been the mark, you know, it's, it's been 20 years
in the making as of, you know, two years ago, when stealth was urgent, point point two,
when stealth kicked out.
So it was 20 years in the making and they knew at one point in time, they were going
to reach their limit with titanium.
They were going to reach that limit on those heads.
And so they started looking for other avenues and other opportunities to grow.
And the natural progression over 20 years was a carbon based technology.
So I mean, we saw even market share in 2022 when stealth first came out.
I mean, you know, tiger bringing it out to the PNP father and son, uh, in 2021, you know,
obviously a couple months ahead of that, which, you know, obviously tigers, whatever the product
is, it's, uh, it was a huge jump for us.
And now that we're kind of continuing that progression, we're always trying to figure
out how to better ourselves.
And that's where carving came into the book.
So I got another, I got two more questions on the driver, uh, Robert, um, and he's driving,
he's literally driving down to his appointment right now.
So we appreciate him being on board here with us.
So the thing that struck me about Taylor made over the past, again, I've been a pros, a
PJ member since 2003.
So I guess 20 years now, um, you always knew the Taylor made product when you saw it on
TV.
And what I mean by that is you guys were the first white driver, like you had the M4, I
hope it's M4.
That was the first white one.
I could be wrong.
I think it was the R11.
R11.
That's going back into like arrow burner.
There you go.
Arrow burner had a white, white top.
Then it was, uh, I believe R11.
Okay.
Yep.
Continuing on from there as well in R11S.
Yeah.
And I think that's, you know, it's, let's bottom line it, right?
Bottom line is it's how many, how many units can we sell?
I mean, right, that's, Hey, we're trying to improve everybody's game and all that stuff,
but it's also a big part of it is how many units can we sell?
So when you see a white driver, you know, 12 years ago on tour on TV, people come up
to me and say, Hey, what's that club?
Because they had never seen that look of a golf club.
So you guys distinguish yourself so nicely from the competition and now you've got a
red face again, something different, you know, um, they could have made that, they could
have made that black.
Nobody would have said
Yeah.
But, um, I just think, I think that's a neat feature about what Taylor me does.
They don't think of it just from the obviously R and D side, but also, Hey, what's going
to look good?
What's going to appeal good?
What's going to be different?
Cool.
Cool and hip.
I think that's what they,
Yep.
Even when you started talking about like the cores of ghosts putters from, Oh my gosh,
put it back there.
And then, you know, the Jason Day spider, uh, you know, an all red head.
Yeah.
And it's always something to distinguish yourself a little bit more being able to be
thought after.
And you're absolutely right.
You know, a white head driver on tour, someone can ask a question, a red face driver, someone
can ask the question.
Now it looks like the blue face driver, you know, we're going to start seeing more people
ask that question.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um, my other thing about the driver as far as the fitting part was, uh, again, something
that was just not in existence 20 years ago, let alone 15 years ago, even 10, but.
The, all the, I will say most of the high end companies will put, put use of the term
typically now have three driver heads and I might be simplifying, but maybe not meaning
like there's a low spinning head.
There's kind of a max forgiveness head.
And then there's usually some type of draw biased head.
Let's just start with that.
Is that sound still pretty accurate in the, in what you guys are doing?
Yeah, absolutely.
And that kind of goes back into your earlier statement is that, you know, in our earlier
question, but you know, we're making golf clubs for everybody.
Yeah.
Not just one particular skill set.
So not everybody's going to fit into a lower spinning head.
Not everybody's going to fit into a draw bias head.
And that's why, you know, we have those different styles for every piece of golf are out there.
So when we're doing, um, when we're doing fittings and track man, you know, and me and
T Mac have talked about this before, where we'll get a customer coming in.
Hey, I'm hitting my driver short.
I'm hitting to the right.
Yeah.
And then, you know, what, what can I do?
I need to buy a new driver.
And then, um, sometimes fortunately, sometimes unfortunately we can fix that with the settings
on the clubhead.
Correct.
You know, sometimes it's shaft and obviously sometimes it's delivery in how they're swinging
technique, but, but to be able to, they don't even know, right?
They don't know what they don't know.
They don't know that they're purchased something that could actually be tweaked with the settings
on the clubhead to be able to lower the spin rate, maybe get a little more draw biased,
rather than just the standard rigor stealth head or stealth to, you know, not, they don't
have to get the HD head is my point.
Um, but yeah, if you get a guy who just consistently slices it, he's, I don't know, maybe let's
go with the 45 to 65 years old.
He's he is what he is.
He's not going to correct.
You're not going to fix the world, right?
We tried to back on the rain.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
But correct.
You know, it's not just the head.
It's also the shaft.
Well, correct.
The shaft relation plays a big part of it and not only just the shaft, but also the
sleeve on the shaft too.
You start, you know, adjusting that sleeve go up, down, upright.
You know, there's a lot of different things we can do to kind of manipulate that course
of the clubhead to ensure that there's maximizing their opportunity on and off the earth on
the golf course.
Yeah.
So a lot of good stuff there for, for sure.
Making sure that you've got adjustability for all the clubs.
I just think a lot of people just don't understand what their club can do.
You know, I think, and you probably see this, do you still do demo days, Robert?
Are you doing, you got texts for that now or?
Yeah.
I mean, I have texts for that now.
I mean, I still go to them.
I end up falling back into the rhythm of hitting someone every now and then.
Right.
But yeah, it's still in there and I do do it from time to time.
So I think to that point, like the, the fear that people have of going higher in their
driver for loft.
Yes.
You know, and they don't realize that the higher that it goes, the more left the ball's
going to go.
Like it's going to, it's going to basically change it to be more upright for lack of better
terms and the benefit that they're going to get from the ball going straighter.
Let's just start with that instead of to the right.
And maybe yes, adding one degree of loft, but again, sort of this, this understanding
cause they're coming from, I'm going to say they're coming from a, maybe a generation
where seven and a half, eight and a half degree drivers were the thing.
And you saw that on tour a lot, but now there's quite a few tour players, Ricky Fowler going
shorter, you know, shorter and they already have the club at speed, so they don't really
need it to go further, further, but they want it to go further.
But like, just kind of talk about that, Robert, that again, with some of these adjustments
for amateur players and to just be open to it, I guess my would be my way to say it.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, that's, that's the whole thing.
It's, you know, we always try to fit, just not let them know what they're hitting just
because they're not going to get hit.
Yeah.
There you go.
Hand it to them.
If they, if they get that in their mind, then it's just kind of obviously the hardest game
part of the game golf is six inches between the ears.
And if you kind of give them that preset notion as to what's happening, then you know, they
might start to swing just a little bit different.
So we tend to fit based on just trying to work best and then working our way back from
there before kind of revealing what's happening.
Gotcha.
So again, I'm, I get my, you guys just aren't a, aren't a driver company.
You're not just an iron company.
You know, you're all inclusive.
So golf balls, let's talk about that.
Cause I really enjoy playing the TP five.
Love it.
The TP five X is a little bit too, for me, I need a little bit less spin.
We'll call it, or more spin.
We'll call it, sorry, less spin anyways, but my point being, I just, the TP five is such
a good golf ball.
And then I think the tour response is a great ball too.
I don't know if you can touch on some of the, maybe, maybe the new stuff coming up, but
just talk about in general TP five, how that's kind of exploded and also the colors and the,
and the cool logos that you guys put on them again.
Yeah.
Another paying attention.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, yeah, absolutely.
You know, obviously TP five, TP five X have just exploded in the premium golf ball category.
You know, maybe some balance and I can't speak to market share, but I know it's grown immensely
over the past few years.
Yep.
And with our ownership stance that, you know, we want to be the number one golf ball brand.
Wow.
You know, we want to take over that number one spot and the way that we're doing it is
through all those things that you mentioned.
You know, just like we talk about, we have clubs for everybody.
We also have golf balls for everybody.
So whether you're a premium, you feel like you're a premium player, you feel like you
need a premium golf ball, you don't want that premium golf ball price, which would be Tor
response, which is another three piece, you're a thing golf ball products at the $45 price
point, which is the only one out there in the major OE market.
But then you also have soft response.
You also have distance, distance plus you have noodle, which a lot of people don't even
know that Taylor made, you know, mixed the noodle golf ball as well.
Right.
So you have a plethora of different golf balls out there.
And to touch on where we're going, you know, 48% of all golf ball sales from Taylor made
from the visual technology category.
Visual technology is yellow golf ball, art, Tor, sponsor, Stripe, picks golf ball that's
on CP5, CP5X.
And then obviously like you touched on the R5 symbol program, which is our golf ball
personalization program.
So everything we're doing is kind of leading to that system.
And there's a lot of cool things coming ahead when it comes to visual technology with new
golf balls.
Obviously, some people may have seen prototype packs start to leak into for 2024, CP5, CP5X
because our current iteration actually ran three years now, which is kind of uncommon
for us because we typically run two year product cycles on everything, excluding woods.
So far, but just like all of our irons, like P series irons, those are two year product
cycles.
But not to get off point here is that where we're headed and what's coming is a lot to
be excited about for sure.
I think it goes into, again, you know, there's a reason top golf is top golf, right?
There's a reason that my studio is catching on.
Like I'm not comparing my studio in Wesley Chapel to top golf, but it's bringing the
fun back to the game.
And I think COVID, you know, that definitely affected the number.
Obviously, Robert, you can talk about the number of golfers in during that COVID 2020
to 2022, probably years.
Just I mean, you got it.
I mean, I'm going to say it nicely.
Like the manufacturing plants weren't ready.
Like they weren't ready for the product out quick enough.
Right?
Yeah.
And in the past three years, we've made up to one hundred million dollars in investment
in golf ball alone.
So we're making huge strides.
You know, we purchased our golf ball facility or golf ball plant in South Korea, which is
called Nassau Golf.
And then, you know, I had the opportunity to actually for our premium urethane facility
in Liberty South Carolina for our summer tailgating.
So we were able to kind of see how they produce the full response stripe or how they put the
actual stripe on the golf ball.
We got to watch the molding process, clear coat, the finishing, just to see how meticulous
our machines are in kicking out those impurities as well when it comes to whether the tailor
made logo may be off or there's something wrong with the dimple pattern.
I mean, it's truly amazing to see how much investment and how much time and thought has
gone into what we're doing with the golf ball category.
Great.
Right.
That's awesome.
So I know I talked to you last week.
I just think this is, again, maybe a little insight for some of the listeners and viewers
to be able to have into kind of your job.
And we kind of kidded about it.
We said it was a first world problems because you had to go to Cabot Farms and then you
had to go to Streamsong last week.
Tough life.
But kind of like the fires type of thing.
Like, I mean, you guys are on the edge of new development, new product.
You know, new accounts.
And hey, you got a big account like Cabot Farms, which is, you know, I'm going to say
the old world woods or whatever for our listeners.
Like that's got to be pretty cool to be able to start, you know, and don't they have like
a new like not practice rate and they might have a new practice range, but but like a
new fun 11 hole course where they've got speakers and music and stuff like that.
That's cool.
Yeah, correct.
And I mean, that's kind of where golf is heading as well.
Other things to do other than 18 holes.
Yeah.
Just like, you know, other properties I've been to, like, you know, I've been to Pine
Herbs that played the cradle.
Yeah.
They also have a little putting course called this will do.
And there's a lot of different things to do.
That's just kind of where that resort or golf feature is headed.
It seems like, you know, it's you're right.
You know, I do feel kind of like a golf sob every now and then.
My wife doesn't feel bad for me at all.
Right.
Not a lot of sympathy.
When it comes to saying, hey, honey, I got to go to Bandan Dunes for five days.
She doesn't know what Bandan Dunes is.
Right.
You know, with Bandan, you know, even being out there, they've got a little short course,
kind of like what's the roundabout at Streamtongue Black right next to their practice facility.
And then they have a full length one, which is their home.
And they're all phenomenal.
I mean, it's just where it's heading.
This is what Cabot's doing.
And Cabot, last week, my regional manager and I, to play their new course, our parents
course.
So this one's called the Karoo.
And it is extremely challenging, but extremely fun as well.
Everything that's gone on to this place.
I mean, you know, I've been going there since April earlier this year when I was, you know,
I don't want to say stalking them, but I was keeping tabs on them just to kind of see what's
happening, what's going on.
And I was fortunate enough to get a ride along with the, you know, the manager partner there,
Daniel Knight, and then, you know, the man, another manager there, Rick Kelso.
So they took me around in a Ford Expedition and we're just kind of going all over the
dunes, we're scrounging over what's going to be, you know, number six green.
And to see where it was to where it is now this past week is unbelievable.
You know, so like I said, we have a unique opportunity playing their large course, which
is going to be the Karoo.
And then we also played the squeeze, which is a little 10-hole challenge course.
It's a mix of par threes, par fours, which are drivable.
And it's pretty fun because, you know, it's like two, I think it's two 80 back to back
parkour.
And if you loft it up, they're pretty good.
You can get it pretty close or on top of the green.
And then it's met with a little short part three, that's about 120, 130 yards.
And then right after that, it's a gettable par five right there along Ponce de Leon.
It's going to be a fun place for sure.
You know, the 11 hole wedge course, which is their little part three property is a lit
up, lit up golf course.
They have a place called the porch where you can sit up there, uh, oversea putting area
as well.
And that's all lit up.
So I mean, it's, they've got track man range.
Um, you know, I hear they've got tailor made rainfall as well.
Nice.
Well, wouldn't you agree Robert, that the architects now are designing these courses
as you're talking about, uh, to kind of keep the golfer on the course, right?
To instead of just being an 18 hole course where you come back miserable, right?
You're out there, you play 18 holes and then you have short courses and other things that
are lit up at night to kind of keep the golfer out there on the course and entertained the
whole day.
Dad's with sons or with daughters or juniors or families or whatever.
Keeping the fun in the game, you know, instead of, you know, just making it absolutely brutal
for everybody.
Correct.
And it's, it's for those guys or, you know, that group that comes in in the afternoon
and can't play 18, but they want to go have a good time since they're on property.
So they'll go play the, uh, the 11 hole wedge course or the suite, right?
You know, I had the unique opportunity of playing the new chain last week as well at
stream song.
Uh, and that was a fun, you know, fun little thing as well.
You know, it's a mixture of short part threes, uh, a really long part three slash part four,
but it's, it's, I think it's absolutely what's needed for sure.
Because you know, there's financial levels we're talking about here, meaning like Cabot
farms is, is decently expensive and stream song is decently expensive.
But then I talked to a golfer at Lake Bernadette this week who told me he's a, he's a retired
military guy down in MacDill.
They've got a deal called five for five.
Uh, and basically it's, you play, uh, 14 through 18 on the North course, you play in five holes.
It's like literally like $5 hot dog, $5 golf.
And maybe there's a, you know, another $5 merchandise voucher type of thing.
But kind of the point is like it's all over, like different wherever you're at, you're
trying to engage the customer, keep them around, make it fun.
Um, and you know, uh, my facility there where I've got a track man and you can play virtual
golf out of my 40 members, I'd probably say 25 of them are just coming in to play virtual
golf.
You know, this guy's coming in to work on their game, but mostly it's a social part
of it, just trying to get together, you know, enjoy a couple of drinks and have some food
and be able to watch some TV while you're playing golf while the speaker's on too.
Like, so or the TV or whatever is the game on the back.
Yeah, it's, it's not secondary, but it's almost secondary as far as the actual golf part,
which is what top golf did so well or does so well to just bring people together.
Yeah.
And I mean, I think there's something for everybody no matter where you go.
And that's, you know, kind of goes back to the original statements of, you know, you
were talking about everybody's trying to do something a little bit different just to adapt
because we've had such a big boom in this industry.
I mean, I think we were one of the probably prettiest things to come out of COVID in terms
of a service industry related and where we're headed now is just keeping that momentum going.
So that's why you're starting to see all these different ideas and different avenues to keep
people in this space.
So they want to stay in it.
Right.
So without getting you in too much trouble and you just share what you can share, let's
put it that way.
We know we got the PGA show coming up in January.
That's a, you know, national golf show in Orlando.
It's been going on since it's been going on since Dunedin.
That's where it started.
Yeah.
You know, back in the driving range, people bringing their stuff in the back of the car.
But it's always an exciting thing for, for TMAC and myself to go to, you know, but kind
of just in general, I guess might be the question because I don't want to get in trouble with
R and D departments and stuff, but is there some new product coming from TaylorMade?
Are you guys excited about some of the new stuff?
Yeah.
Like I said, you know, there's a, you know, there's been a prototype golf ball that's
kind of been surfacing on social media that we've been sending out to specific, you know,
my TaylorMade plus members.
So the new TP5, we're really excited about that product.
Obviously, like I said, I can't talk too much into that one, but it's, if we're truly excited
about this thing and seeing what we're seeing on course, I think that's 24 for the golf
that we need.
But that's not to say that the rest of the line isn't going to be huge as well because
TaylorMade is a through the bag performance company.
And when it comes to everything else that's coming to 2024, you know, Rory McIlroy and
Tommy Fleetwood brought a new driver out, which took the USDA conforming list a few
weeks ago.
I'm excited about that.
Oh, okay.
I'm truly excited about that one.
And then, you know, some guy last week who wears red on Sundays decided he was going
to play it too.
And I don't turn it.
Right.
And it was nice to see, you know, him up on the street, striped it straight down and then
see that second guy just push it off to the right now driver playing more golf than him.
Right.
And yeah, really exciting, obviously, the coaching of this week, you know, Nellie Porter
did something, you know, a few things that are awesome in the bag.
Same thing with Charlie Hull.
So there's a lot of things coming in 2024 that are really exciting for the company,
not just the company, the brand itself.
Right.
I got one more.
Yeah, go right ahead.
Okay, sorry.
Yeah, let's hear it.
So last question for you and then we'll let you get on to your day.
So I heard this story and it was probably roughly around 15, 20 years ago.
So Tiger in his heyday, you know, early 2000s we'll call it.
I think at this time it was at the Nike facility.
I could be wrong with that, but I think you're going to know where I'm going with the question.
So basically, he's working with a club fitter on the range in Carlsbad and they're working
on whatever the new, you know, prototype Nike irons were or whatever.
And he basically hits a couple shots and he hands the club back to the club fitter and
says, Hey, this one's two grams heavier than the previous club.
And the club fitters like there's no way, you know, there's no way you can tell me that.
Or he said to his buddy, like, how can he tell me that?
And literally puts it on the puts it on the scale and it's two grams heavier.
It kind of goes to the point of like how good that top level player is and what kind of
feel they have.
Have you seen something like that or those types of things out there?
Yeah, correct.
I mean, I've heard the same secondhand story from our R and D guys, even with him, even
with him noticing it, the tungsten plugs right on the sweet spotter.
You know, it's just the level that these guys are at is just unfathomable and how they can
see ball flight, how they can get hit shots.
Okay.
Even if you look at like a lot of our back to our marketing giant is when we start doing,
you know, releases kind of showing the product, we also have videos from our photo shoots
with all of our pros and all these pros will talk about what the golf ball is doing, how
it's fighting.
It's just amazing to listen to the level of detail that you guys have.
Yeah.
And I can't even fathom it myself.
And you know, I'm around it all the time, but what these guys do in and out and just
back to our original conversation, getting the level of perception and what they do to
us in the feedback is what is making our products that much better.
There you go.
Cool.
Yeah.
Well, hey, really been great talking to you, Robert.
Thank you, Robert.
And if our listeners want to get a hold of you or, you know, get in touch with you, how
could they do such a thing?
I'd say let's contact Sean.
Okay.
Let's run it that way for sure.
I'd be more than happy to answer questions through, you know, obviously your guys' podcasts
to your listeners.
Yeah.
And we can go about it that way.
Sounds great.
Thank you, Robert.
Really, really good having you, Robert.
Thanks for taking the time and we'll talk to you soon around the golf course or around
the studio.
Absolutely, gentlemen.
See you guys.
All right, bye.
Thank you.
Sean, I thought that was a great podcast today.
I really enjoyed the episode, Robert, today from TaylorMade.
You know, what a, you know, I was absolutely fascinated with how much, you know, degree
of marketing goes into these products, the visual side of it and how they distinguish
themselves so much differently from their competition.
Right.
I think we both, we've known TaylorMade for, you know, they've been in business since
85 or 84 with their original metal wood, literally.
The bubble shaft.
Yeah.
Right.
They've been innovated with a lot of their product and I feel like talking to Robert,
I learned a bunch and I think you did too.
Very educational.
Right.
Very cool to hear kind of like how they go through their process of coming up with a
product like they were talking about the golf ball two and a half years into the development
of it.
Yeah.
Even the carbon fiber face on the drivers.
They touch a lot of different areas in the golf world.
So I think that was interesting.
And then I think some of the things that the viewer can take away is to go try the product.
Yeah.
You know, and there's different products made for all skill levels.
Correct.
So go try the product, come to us.
Yeah.
Right.
Get a driver fitting.
Get a club fitting, right?
You know, just don't buy it off the rack.
There's a lot of different options that we found.
Shafts have a lot to do with that.
So you know, seeing a club fitter and seeing the different products that they have is, I
find very valuable.
Absolutely.
So try the product.
You know, if you like the color of the Tor response golf ball, go do it.
If you like that, I'm going to use that, that the stripe that they have on the Tor response
ball.
Great visuals.
Right.
I mean, the fun little, I thought one of the things that was pretty cool was the 48% market
share he said of the golf balls that are not white.
Yeah, they're all different.
It tells me there's people with all kinds of, you know, tests.
Yeah.
Logos or just different looking golf balls.
And again, it kind of gets, goes to what we talked about in the podcast, that it's getting
away from the old stodgy white guy playing golf by himself or with his buddies.
Now it's moving to a whole different generation of this club, the golfers, families.
We talked a lot about Cabot Farms and Streamsong and some of these golf courses that have some
different kind of cool, fun, 10, 11 hole golf things, right?
So I think that's really where the game is going and we want it to go because we want
it to grow to all kinds of different players.
So it was a great podcast, really excited and glad to have him.
Yeah, I had a great time.
So thank you for listening and look forward to the next podcast.
We'll see you guys next time.
Thanks for listening.
Thank you.
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