Brian Manzella
Administrator
I'm going to the "Show."
No, I haven't been called up to the Major Leagues to throw my 75 MPH not-so-fastball.
I'm going to the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show.
That'll make it 25 in a row, which should get me a pin, or early access, or a kick in the hind end.
Especially because I attend the "Show" because I love golf, I love equipment, I love hobnobbing, and I love being up on things.
Lots of club pros have the trip paid for by their clubs, or employers. I have driven and flown to the show, ate and drank, and walked 2,345 miles of aisles, on my own nickle.
I could tell you stories of days gone by for hours. But here are some highlights.
The best part now is having a place to share all of that knowledge.
Thanks to all of you, I do.
If you have never been, you need to do it once. A little like Disney World for golf nuts, The "Show" is about like a thousand Edwin Watts', a dozen PGA Superstores, a couple of fashion malls, and a flea market.
If you go, bring a friend, you need someone to hand the 5-irons to, so you can look at the next one, and they have to put in back in the rack.
My compadres for this show will be Bently J. Doyle, Tom Bartlett, Michael Finney, Michael Jacobs, Chris Hamburger, and Nick Nuzzi.
I will report in every chance I can.
No, I haven't been called up to the Major Leagues to throw my 75 MPH not-so-fastball.
I'm going to the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show.
That'll make it 25 in a row, which should get me a pin, or early access, or a kick in the hind end.
Especially because I attend the "Show" because I love golf, I love equipment, I love hobnobbing, and I love being up on things.
Lots of club pros have the trip paid for by their clubs, or employers. I have driven and flown to the show, ate and drank, and walked 2,345 miles of aisles, on my own nickle.
I could tell you stories of days gone by for hours. But here are some highlights.
The first Show trip with pal Todd Nunez where we left for Orlando from New Orleans at 3:30pm for a 660 mile trip and made it there that night, nearly running out of gas at least once. We played golf one morning at a little 9-hole public course, $10 green fee, how we were in awe at the size and scope of the show hat was held in a building that is now about a sixth of the show floor. That was 1985.
I remember the show that was just a week after my Dad passed away, were I found out I was being duped into thinking I couldn't get into the PGA as a full-time teacher, and then running into the guy who duped me, my nemesis Frank Mackel, about five minutes later. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I could get "in." Classic memory from 1987.
The 1989 show where Big Don Villavaso and Tom Bartlett came for the first time, and Don told Tom to "Stay three steps behind me at oll times, because you are my guest." Don met Tommy Bolt in the parking lot and shook his hand. "I felt like a little baby shaking hands with that man's huge hand," Don shockingly told us. You see, Don wears a Foot-Joy XXL glove.
In 1991 taking David Toms becuase he was looking for a new club deal, which he didn't get while he was there. What's funny now is a third of the companies that turned him down are now defunct, a third have paid him millions since then, and he can buy the other third.
I go to the show primarily for the same reason I go to the teaching summits, to continue to know as much as anyone about this game and business. I remember the show that was just a week after my Dad passed away, were I found out I was being duped into thinking I couldn't get into the PGA as a full-time teacher, and then running into the guy who duped me, my nemesis Frank Mackel, about five minutes later. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I could get "in." Classic memory from 1987.
The 1989 show where Big Don Villavaso and Tom Bartlett came for the first time, and Don told Tom to "Stay three steps behind me at oll times, because you are my guest." Don met Tommy Bolt in the parking lot and shook his hand. "I felt like a little baby shaking hands with that man's huge hand," Don shockingly told us. You see, Don wears a Foot-Joy XXL glove.
In 1991 taking David Toms becuase he was looking for a new club deal, which he didn't get while he was there. What's funny now is a third of the companies that turned him down are now defunct, a third have paid him millions since then, and he can buy the other third.
The best part now is having a place to share all of that knowledge.
Thanks to all of you, I do.
If you have never been, you need to do it once. A little like Disney World for golf nuts, The "Show" is about like a thousand Edwin Watts', a dozen PGA Superstores, a couple of fashion malls, and a flea market.
If you go, bring a friend, you need someone to hand the 5-irons to, so you can look at the next one, and they have to put in back in the rack.
My compadres for this show will be Bently J. Doyle, Tom Bartlett, Michael Finney, Michael Jacobs, Chris Hamburger, and Nick Nuzzi.
I will report in every chance I can.
