In This Issue:
- The Timms Report
- Buildshop News
- Swing Metrics
- Equipment Corner
Client Profile
Name: Ken Groff
Handicap: 11
Most recent visit to Cool Clubs: Late Spring 2008.
What has been your experience with Cool Clubs?
It has been great. I first got clubs when Mark started in Scottsdale and when he opened Cool Clubs I went and got fitted there. I took all my boys there and we got fitted and now they are playing much better than I am.
Where have you seen improvement?
Well, my boys are playing better than me, so it has really affected their game. The clubs are excellent and when I am in the zone, everything goes really well. I’ve probably seen the most improvement with my driver, I’m more consistent, getting more distance and have been more accurate.
Would you recommend Cool Clubs to your fellow golfers?
Absolutely. The whole thing surprised me. The technology that they have developed from the putter and wedges all the way down to the driver, I think is just amazing. The staff was really pleasant and they take good care of you. The service as far as getting your clubs, getting them on time and the way you want them is on point every time. My boys would testify to that as well. They have been playing the best golf that they’ve played in a long time.
News and Notes
After settling in at TPC Scottsdale on December 15th, Cool Clubs is now ready to offer a bevy of services at their new outdoor fitting facility. Four new offerings now grace the menu—all of which feature analysis of your current specs, shaft recommendations and transportation to and from TPC Scottsdale and Cool Clubs Headquarters by Transtyle Luxury Transportation. Every fitting is also conducted with ProV1 golf balls.
- Ultimate Outdoor Wood Fitting - Resolves any potential gaps between your driver and the longest iron in your bag. The fitting, which includes driver, fairway woods, hybrids and your longest iron, takes approximately 3 hours to complete. $350.
- Ultimate Outdoor Iron Fitting - Entails all your irons and wedges will be fit to a tee. The four hour fitting ensures that the lie, loft, length, shaft and swing weight are optimal for your swing DNA. $400.
- Ultimate Outdoor Wedge Fitting - Through the use of TPC’s TOUR Academy short game training facility, every wedge shot in your bag will be covered. The two hour fitting begins with selecting your ball of choice from golf’s top eight brands, and then proceeding to five short game stations. Each station gets you closer to the proper shaft, length, and flex specifications as well as your optimal bounce and loft configuration. $200.
- A Day in the Life: The Complete Outdoor Game Fitting - Be treated as a Tour pro for the day. The Complete Outdoor Game Fitting begins at Cool Clubs Headquarters with a flat stick fitting in one of the putter studios, which utilize eight cameras to analyze your putting stroke. You are then whisked away to TPC Scottsdale by Transtyle Luxury Transportation and spend the day (7 hours) perfecting equipment for every component of the game. Lunch at the Grill at TPC Scottsdale is included on the itinerary. $950.
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Greetings!
As 2008 winds down and the New Year approaches, we can’t help but notice change. Cool Clubs evolved tremendously in 2008; opening two new locations while continuing to pioneer concepts that keep us on the brink of the industry.
2009 brings with it endless possibilities, our interchangeable fitting technology is a testament to that. Offering more than 25,000 potential shaft and club head combinations, Cool Clubs assures that you can play better golf in the New Year and beyond.
Our sincerest wishes go out to you and yours for a safe and happy holiday season.
See you in 2009,
Cool Clubs
Changing your swing takes some time, luckily changing your equipment doesn’t. This month, Cool Clubs CEO Mark Timms explains the incorporation of interchangeable fitting systems at the company’s three locations.
 What is the benefit of getting fit with interchangeable components?
Basically, it allows you to have a lot more demos than you’d typically be able to afford or put out there. They come in interchangeable drivers with different shafts and the same concept with fairway woods, hybrids and irons as well. If you have 10 shafts and 10 heads, you essentially have 100 combinations. There are thousands of possibilities and it’s much more effective because you couldn’t possibly have thousands of clubs just lying around. The real advantage is we are able to fit people to almost exactly what they would end up with after the fitting.
Who does it benefit?
Every level of golfer. But the ones that it really helps are the ones on the fringe that you wouldn’t typically have many demos for, for instance left-handed players. You’d never have enough combinations of left-handed clubs, whereas with the interchangeable technology you can build yourself thousands of possibilities.
How long has this technology been available to the industry?
The major manufacturers have had them for the last couple of years. This year a lot of them have added to it, so it has kind of become the norm in the industry for fitting clubs. A new one that didn’t exist before comes from Ping. Titleist just came out with one this year. Mizuno is probably going to have one next year. Callaway and Taylormade were probably the first two to use this method and Nike has a fitting cart as well.
How has it been received by consumers?
For now it is pretty accepted for demos and most all the major companies are coming out with it. It certainly makes fitting clubs way better because you get so many more options than you’d ever have before.
What does the future hold for this interchangeable technology?
The interchangeable clubs for the consumer to use as their primary set is still somewhere in the future. It hasn’t really taken off yet. Callaway came out with it last year, it is called the iMix. But I would expect that at some point in time that would become pretty normal.
How long has this technology been at Cool Clubs?
We started using it from day one, since it was made available by Callaway and Taylormade. But we also have a different spin from what everyone else is doing and that is offering fairway woods and hybrids in this interchangeable system. The major manufacturers don’t even provide it at this point, but we have developed our own way at Cool Clubs.
How many total combinations?
Total combinations over drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons is 25,650 different ways we can configure shafts and heads to create the optimum fit.
So how do you know which components will be the best fit for a client?
Basically the software we wrote that is proprietary will narrow down the conclusions of what demos to put together. With more than 25,000 combinations, you can’t possibly hit them all. We have clients hit shots and we look at their swing speed, tempo, launch angle and all the parameters, then the software will narrow down what combinations will work. So at the end of the day, the golfer only has to hit 4 or 5 different drivers not 2,000.
Which locations carry these interchangeable demos?
The Oak Creek facility is currently about 60-70 percent interchangeable. About 25 percent is interchangeable here in the store. By the spring we will have converted the store to 90 percent interchangeable. And 90 percent will be interchangeable at TPC as of our opening, which took place on December 15th.
Master Club Builder Jerry Hoefling breaks down the components of interchangeability.
Those who have tried the interchangeable technology offered by major equipment manufacturers can confirm that the speed and efficiency offered by these demos is unlike any other. “Changing from one head or shaft to another takes probably no more than 30 seconds,” Hoefling says.
However, behind the seemingly si mple clicking apparatus that alerts users of the club’s preparedness to hit, lays a precise mechanism. “There is a little sleeve that the golf shaft gets epoxyed into,” Hoefling says. “From there, the sleeve threads into the club head.”
While several manufacturers offer their own interchangeable mixes, Hoefling points out that the mechanisms employed by each brand are not necessarily consistent across the board. “Most of the companies have their own type of interchangeable system, but they basically do the same thing,” Hoefling says. “It’s just what their R&D departments came up with that they thought would be best for their equipment.”
Where Cool Club’s expertise comes in is with the ability to convert essentially any club into the matrix of possibilities that could potentially be interchanged. Even if a particular brand doesn’t entertain the technology, Cool Clubs can make it happen through the use of Club Conex. Essentially a piece of hardware that can be employed to increase the compatibility of various club heads and shafts, Club Conex links components even if they weren’t originally intended for use together. It is through the Club Conex unit that Cool Clubs is able to highlight the interchangeability of fairway woods and hybrids, which major manufacturers have yet to do themselves.
“It works across the brands because the shaft-tip diameter which would be considered a .335, and the after market shaft we use have that same diameter,” Hoefling says. “So they have great compatibility.”
Fairway woods and hybrids become part of the interchangeable demo mix after Cool Clubs analyzes each club’s stats and determines the best selection of offerings. “We like to select them based on what we see numbers-wise,” Hoefling says. “When we get clubs into the shop, we check out what is giving us the best spin rates and ball speed numbers and from there we dwindle down what we feel are the best clubs at each level, from low to mid to high handicap. We try to offer the best type of equipment for each type of player.”
Once the clubs in your bag are consistent with your game, it’s important for you to be too. John Stahlschmidt, head instructor for the TOUR Academy at TPC Scottsdale, chimes in on two of golf’s greatest treasures: Consistency and Accuracy.
 “Every golfer is searching for more consistency,” Stahlschmidt says. “Whether it’s the number one player in the world or someone just learning to play the game, everyone that plays golf struggles with it.”
Stahlschmidt advises that the key to achieving more consistent form and in turn a more reliable game is through acquiring the proper repeatable technique. “In the full swing, you are not going to be consistent if your swing isn’t on plane or you are unable to repeat the same swing over and over again. That’s what we strive for at the TOUR Academy, better technique.”
However, even in discovering the optimal technique for consistency in your swing, Stahlschmidt says accepting the nature of the game is the healthiest mental approach. “Anyone can go out and put it together for two or three holes, a round or even a month,” Stahlschmidt says. “But to be able to do it day in and day out is one of the biggest challenges of golf. It is always going to leave you as soon as you get it.”
While consistency is the key to keeping sane on the course, it truly is an advantage when accurate shots become a repeatable phenomenon. “People that hit the ball straight and solid are able to use the clubface,” Stahlschmidt says. “They, like Tour pros, are able to apply the club face and the club head into the golf ball squarely on a consistent basis. That’s the key to accuracy.”
Where amateurs tend to run into trouble is focusing on the yardage to the target versus the placement of the ball in the fairway. “For the most part, amateurs are so overwhelmed with distance,” Stahlschmidt says. For the sake of accuracy, he recommends amateurs focus more on making a solid strike than the distance to the pin.
A drill to better understand the role of the club face at impact is to take slow swings at an impact bag. While we are all familiar with this popular training aid, Stahlschmidt says it is a favorite at the TOUR Academy, especially for this purpose. “You don’t have to hit it hard, but slowly tap the impact bag and reference the face as it is hitting the bag and see if it is open, square or closed.”
Another step toward a more consistent and accurate game is to practice with intent. “You need to practice and you need to practice properly,” Stahlschmidt says. “You should have guidelines when you practice and put clubs down for aim. You don’t have to hit for 3 hours. Hit 40 balls and hit out of a practice station so you know where you are aimed every time. I think a lot of golfers want to get better but they don’t have the time or don’t know how to practice properly to achieve that.”
These selections are likely to become consumer favorites in 2009. Here, we highlight the most prominent characteristics of each.
 Nike Victory Red Irons-Encompassing 3 variations (full cavity, forged split cavity, and forged Tiger Woods blade), this latest line of irons from Nike features an assortment of aesthetics, forgiveness and technology for the long game. The full-cavity design boasts perimeter weighting that compensates for off-center hits, while the TW blade is characterized by forged carbon steel and a CNC milled face. -
 Tour Edge XCG-V- This new line of fairway woods and hybrids from Tour Edge capitalizes on the success of their “Exotics” series. Adding an even larger cup-face, the XGC-V’s evolution relies on a v-shaped sole that distributes weight below and behind the ball.
- Vokey Spin Milled Wedges- Already available to the public, Titleist’s Vokey Spin Milled Wedges are now offered in multitude of varying lofts, bounces and grinds.
 Rife Putters- While the company’s “Island Series” isn’t necessarily new to the scene, the increasing popularity of this line of putters has earned it accolades as one of the best alignment instruments on the greens. King Cobra L5V Driver- Featuring the largest club face in golf, the Cobra L5V employs built-in face settings that allow the user the ability to adjust the face and dictate their own ball flight.
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