Blog

A season for everything

True to form, just when some of us thought winter had breathed its last gasp (after weeks of single digit temps and way-below freezing wind chills) Ol' Man W returned with plenty of spunk here in the Heartland, home to SwingStation Midwest.  I have been enjoying our new TourLinks putting green.  Set it up in a guest room; the missus would like it in the basement but then we'd have to move the drums.  After watching Lefty and Jeff Ogilvy miss a couple of short ones lately; I'm thinking now is a good time for me to try to groove the flatstick stroke.  Even better, Junior will join me for a little father/son time. And I won't begrudge Mother Nature and her beau, Mr. Winter, having their way again.

Grow the Game...for real. (part 2)

In part 1 of "Grow the Game...for real." I mentioned the problems with golf.  It's too time consuming; it's too expensive; you can't build a golf course anywhere; and....oh yeah, it's HARD!  Well, SwingStation and almostGolf LLC and its Point3 golf ball are trying to make golf accessible by creating a golf ball that acts like the real thing but can be used on significantly less land.  Actually, the applications go far beyond that brief statement as almostGolf has other ideas in the pipeline that will help grow the game.

SwingStation is and always has been focused on making the "hard" part of golf fun.  A long time ago, back in December, January and February of 1988, in Saratoga Springs, NY I changed my golf swing.  That's right.  There was about 5 feet of snow on the ground up in that part of the country at that time of year, but my ambitious Coach, Dr. Tim Brown and my roommate and teammate rolled two VCR's, a TV, and one video camera down the Sports Center Hall, into the elevator past the basketball team practice into the baseball hitting cages.  That routine happened 4 times a week!  In COLLEGE!  My girlfriend thought I was nuts.  It took about 3 hours or so a night from set-up, to analysis to break down.  What were we thinking?  Well, I made All-American and I owe it all to Coach, Jan (pronounced Yawn) and video analysis. 

Okay, okay, okay..."what does this have to do with golf being a hard sport"?   If not for that experience, the SwingStation System would probably not exist today.  Whether you are a 3 handicap or a 27 handicap, if you want to get better at golf, you have to see yourself swing.  Okay, okay, okay..."I agree, but what does this have to do with the price of tea in China?" 

Face it, very few of you, are going to go out; buy a camera, a lap top, the necessary cables, video analysis software, a tri-pod and drag a friend to the range to video tape your swing.  Some of you may pay a golf professional a little more for a video lesson (and I think it's worth it and if you're lucky enoug to have access to a pro who has the equipment).  I'd say most of you don't want to see your swing.  Don't be afraid.  Even if you don't know the first thing about the golf swing...don't be afraid.  The power of visualization is unbelievable.  It's not as bad as you might think...trust me.  It works.  And SwingStation makes it easy.   Easy to record, to view and to send to a golf professional.

We are working with people in Mid and Northern New Jersey and the greater Des Moines areas to make video-recording your swing easy, fun, painless and inexpensive.  Your first experience with the SwingStation system may be at an outing or golf school.  Golf IS hard, but mostly it should be fun.  Give it a try; get video taped with SwingStation; review it with a pro or at least look at yourself swing...it's not that bad...golf needs you and we're here to help; for real.

Grow the Game...for real. (Part 1)

Tiger Woods has been on tour for over 10 years now.  My point is that the tremendouse numbers that hit the game 8, 9 and 10 years ago because of his emergence are gone.  In fact, golf has been experiencing a zero growth rate the last few years.  It certainly isn't for lack of effort by the PGA of America or the United States Golf Association as is evidenced by their respective campaigns.  The PGA has "Play Golf America" as well as their Foundation.  The USGA has "For the Good of the Game". 

So what's the problem?  Why is golf flat?  Well, it takes up a lot of time in a world that is more and more demanding of our time; it is expensive on a couple of levels; you can't build a course just anywhere; oh yeah...and it's HARD!!  Tiger, Phil, Annika and their friends just make it look easy.

Don't fret, there are some people out there that are trying to bring golf to more and more people.  Golfweek magazine, which in this blogger's opinion is the best golf publication out there HANDS DOWN, recently had an article written by Jeff Achenbach about a company I have become familiar with, Almost Golf, LLC. 

Robert Peterson, creator of the almostGolf ball has a unique vision about the future of golf and his company has been extremely supportive of creative initiatives to bring the game of golf to places never before imagineable.  The "Point3" golf ball only travels about 1/3 of the distance a normal ball travels but it acts and flies like a real ball.  Phil MIchelson's Dad keeps several dozen at his house for when his grandkids visit.  I met Rob at the PGA Show in January and he was immediately helpful and insightful as to what our company's product called the SwingStation was all about and the different ways the SwingStation could be adapted into different businesses.

SwingStation Systems (that's our logo on the left) is about to roll out it's junior after school, at-school golf program in New Jersey April 2nd.  A similar effort is being made in Iowa.  There are other efforts, as discussed in Golfweek magazine, around the country that aboutGolf is supporting.  Our company's pitch has been "we're bringing the golf course to your school" (or your company's office for that matter).    And yes, we are bringing indoor putting greens, hitting nets, chipping targets, the SwingStation Swing Analysis system; but with the Point3 ball, we can actually set up a golf course in an area that is roughly the size of a couple of football fields.  Think about that...

Will this reduced flight ball replace golf as we know it?  Nope.  Will this reduced flight ball REALLY help grow the game?  YUP!  And SwingStation Systems is going to be there to be a part of the whole thing.

Michelle, Reconsider...PLEASE!

I know Michelle Wie is hurt at the moment and will be out for the next few weeks. I sincerely hope she reconsiders all this playing with the boys stuff. She has a month or so to learn from her travels the last year or so.

I say, "Michelle Wie...time to go play the Ladies!" I do not understand the infatuation here. I get it a little. She was close to making the cut once in a men's event. She's pretty; she's incredibly talented for a 16 year old; she could potentially change women's golf. But the bottom line is she hasn't changed women's golf one bit.

Tiger she ain't. Tiger forced his competitors to rethink their whole existence. Golfers work out now. They stay longer at the range. They watch what they eat. They all pay attention to what Tiger is doing even when he is not playing golf. The women don't pay attention to Michelle. Annika and Lorena are the ones to watch (and of course Natalie)...they have changed women's golf. It also looks like Karrie Webb is coming back and throwing her hat back in the ring. They all understand where their bread is buttered and Michelle should learn from them. Go win several majors on the LPGA tour...win SOMETHING...ANYTHING on the LPGA Tour and then give it a go with the men. I'm begging you!

I'll add one more thing to the Michelle comparison to Tiger thing. Earl Woods influenced Tiger in an extremely positive manner in many ways on and off the golf course. He obviously worked Tiger hard but not on the world's stage. Unless of course if you consider their backyard in California, Stanford and the US Ameteur in the early '90's the "World Stage". He yelled in his backswing, sounded a fog horn while putting, probably told him he'd never catch Nicklaus, spent thousands of hours driving him from course to course; Earl Woods gave Tiger the tools to become great; maybe even the GREATEST OF ALL TIME!

For now, Michelle is all fluff and no tools but I'll stay tuned. Believe it or not, I'm pulling for her.

Cell Phones & Golf DON'T Go Together

If you're a golfer and you own a cell phone, there is a 99% chance you've done it. If you have a driver's license and own a cell phone, there is a 99.9% chance you've done it. You know what I'm blogging about! Talking on a cell phone while playing golf and while driving!

When it comes to cell phones and the golf course I have a suggestion. Unless you are the President of the United States, a Brain Surgeon, A Heart Transplant Surgeon or a Gynocologist you can't use a cell phone on the golf course. If you can't wait 4 hours to talk to me I actually feel sorry for you. I'm not even flattered. Don't get me wrong, I've been guilty of talking on the cell phone during a round. I felt bad about it. Really.

Talking on the cell phone has ushered in the "I need it now!" generation. Everywhere we go; online at that grocery store (checkout people love that), getting gas (gas attendants love it too), at a restaurant with tons of people around and the person shouting "Can you here me?"...maybe he can't but the party of 6 across the room can.

Come on people. Unless you are one of the professionals mentioned above, you are not that important. In fact, you are dangerous and you are increasing my car insurance premiums! How do you expect me to pay my golf club dues?? Oh yeah, and I lost a bet...you can play slower!

I played with a heart surgeon once. It was great. Beautiful day, pretty good golf, better conversation and the surgeon's phone goes off. The conversation was about 30 seconds, he apologized, we shook hands (the same hands that were about to possibly save someone's life) and he left. That was pretty cool when my playing partners and I thought about it.

What did we do before the cell phone? It wasn't that long ago actually. Right around the time fax paper was on a roll and turned yellow in 24 hours and beepers were a fashion accessory.

As for the rest of you, get off the phone and play golf. What...I'm not interesting enough for you big shot?

Mickelson and Life; Life and Mickelson

Phil Mickelson's life was turned upside down last June in Mamaroneck, NY.  Or so everyone thought.  Phil went from "Taming the Tiger" to "Keep all sharp objects away from him" with one bad swing and one poor decision.  Everyone said he's done; can't come back from that; nice knowin' ya Phil!

Golf may be the most exclusive scene where people make a living.  Only 125 Professionals get to keep their pl;aying privileges every year based on their performance.  What if we told big business that same thing "Hey Rockefeller, sorry, you can't come back next year, you didn't do well enough to keep your job."  Also, imagine if we walked into Bill Gates office or Steve Jobs or Michael Dell and said look, we're going to record you for 4 hours a day for four days while you work and make decisions and influence people.  I don't think they or the other thousands of CEO's and COO's would like that or agree to it and they get paid no matter what! 

Phil had us all believing in him.  Then we stopped almost instantly.  Most of us did anyway.  Phil made a bad swing, a physical mistake.  Followed by a mental mistake when electing not to pitch out to the fairway.  He lost the US Open.  He lost a chance for a Grand Slam.  He lost his mental game.  He can't come back.  Thanks for the memories Phil.

Winning the Pebble Beach Pro-Am is not winning a major we all know.  But Phil is back and we should all be thankful and happy for him.  I know I am..I mean I can relate to him-he's married, a few kids, he's a little over weight, enjoys gambling every now and then and he makes a mistake every once in a while...I'm glad we didn't shoot him! 

Collaboration Conversation

Just as most of us (except maybe Tiger and Lefty, and maybe Mr. 64) benefit from our partners' insights during a match, especially in match play on the greens, today Ted, aka Mr. 64, and I had an instructive and encouraging conference call with the Blog Coach about launching the SwingStation blog.  We discussed integrating our web site with the new blog and our aim of making it a fun and informative source of information for golfers as golfers, but also for peole in the golf business. 

The conference call followed my meeting with another interesting new company, PopStar Networks, a leader in digital signage and content management.  We discussed their financing needs and they volunteered to help SwingStaiton improve its video software and user interface.  Very cool; very collaborative; we both believe we will find a way to work together profitably eventually.

As in many sports, the fun seems to overtake  or interfere with the business.  We think both are important and blogging can advance both aspects.  So here we go.  We hope you will join us.  Stay tuned for the introduction of our after school clinic program and a new mascot.  Swweeet, Tom.

Feel what you see; see what you feel

Get ready for a fun and innovative way to enhance golf events and clinics for all level of players.  SwingStation brings a new level of ease and sophistication to golf training and entertainment.  Capture a video of your swing in 6 seconds and play it back or savae it for review.  Stay tuned for tips and thoughts from Tom and Ted Swartwood, founders of SwingStation Systems LLC (with a little help form our friends like Ted O'Rourke, Ray Purdon, Mike Sansone and Brett Trout).