Kyle’s Blog: Notes From the Show

GNN blogger Kyle German got a chance to check out new products at the recent PGA of British Columbia show in Penticton and says he likes some of the trends he’s seeing in both apparel and golf clubs.

It seems like every year or two, apparel seems to switch it up and go from really brights to khakis to pastels, but this year, there’s a lot of the same brightness, maybe with different colours than last year, but still bright.

I thought a lot of the clothing looked really good. I’m seeing a lot of greens, still some oranges, but the greens are a lot of different shades than before.

When you’re doing your ordering, you’re looking at different colour combinations and it seems to me that a lot of companies are doing a better job now of helping match tops and bottoms for men.

They’ve always done a really good job with the ladies, but they’re now positioning them as outfits for men in many cases, which I think is great. It’s always been outfits for ladies, but for men, it’s been, “Here’s a shirt.”

I’m a cotton guy for shirts. For me, I’m not a huge fan of all the tech stuff out there these days, but a lot of it now has some really nice hand to it and really good colours. I found that there’s a lot of really nice stuff out there.

Historically, in equipment, it’s been, “This is either a players’ club or a game-improvement club. We’ve got two and you can choose.”

A lot of the manufacturers seem to be offering one club that appeals to everybody. I didn’t see as much of the square driver – they had the triangle a couple of years back – but it seems like there’s a little more traditional in clubs again.

I think the advances in clubfitting are playing a role in the products that companies can offer to consumers.

Each company now has such a detailed, clubfitting station. They can really dial you in and it’s impressive what’s happened over the last five years.

Clubfitting has been around for quite awhile, but they’re getting you dialed in so well now. If you go and just watch a clufitting take a guy for 45 minutes and absolutely change what’s happening with his ball flight, it’s pretty amazing.

I think all of the companies are doing a great job of focusing in on this and training their employees, their reps and their staff custom fitters.

It’s great for the game. It’s going to allow people to have more fun at a game they already love. Who isn’t going to want to shave four or five shots off their games just by getting a clubfitting?

To be honest, the game hasn’t really been growing a lot lately and there’s conflict for golf’s governing bodies. Do we roll back the ball? Do we stop the golf club from doing this or that?

It’s a tough one. They have to protect the game, but I think they also have to grow the game and I think clubfitting goes a long way towards doing that.