toronto golf show ??

[pete kaye]

is it just me or has anyone else noticed the toronto golf show is getting to be a case of deja vue. other than new equipment releases the show did nothing for me. and the line ups to test anything were half a block long. i had a little bad luck , i lost my wallet friday afternoon and no one turned it in. i think i will take a pass next year.:

[dks_34]

I used to like when the manufacturers had booths and showed the new equipment instead of having to line up and hit them for a couple of minutes.

At least you didn't have to line up for those!

[Big Shooter]

We went to a much better Golf Show, immediately AFTER the one at the Convention Centre....GolfTown on King St., only about 5 customers there Saturday afternoon!!!:)

Well the Big Shooter & Co. put an appearance in....

Here are my observations:

1. $10 for a 15 min. lesson...that'll screw you up!
2. Too many guys 'working at the show', dressed 'Business Casual'
3. Too few chicks, and especially Hot Chicks! (well, there were those 2 hotties at the Alberta booth...)
4. Titleist...M.I.A.!!?
5. 'Nevada Bob's' (Forzani) being the title-sponsor, barely any Golf Town presence (just 'GT Tour' booth)
6. Line-ups too long, especially since you're carrying a bag of brochures & your jacket, etc.
7. A few 4-for-3 coupons, with lots of 'exceptions' (most only good 'til mid-May)
8. Pheasant Run 2-for-1, a STAPLE of The Golf Show (nice!)
9. Timber Ridge had some decent coupons/scratch & win
10. Hardly any interest at the Golf Knickers booth, the guy says he sells more stuf to Alberta & Quebec, 'cause Ontario golfer are waaaaay too conservative! (so, I bought some socks off of him!)
11. Nice hard-cover book from Angus Glen, but, how many times have they been told they have the same picture for the South Course #15 & #16!!??
(should have used a reputeable(?) printer like Rockronny, I guess?! )
12. Didn't see any Travel Info for upstate-Michigan!?
13. mmmmm, Fudge!
14. Surprisingly, not TOO many Kids!
15. Whistle Bear trying to un-load last years hats for $10?!!
16. almost went to Canada Blooms instead!????

[Faemow]

We went to a much better Golf Show, immediately AFTER the one at the Convention Centre....GolfTown on King St., only about 5 customers there Saturday afternoon!!!:)

Well the Big Shooter & Co. put an appearance in....

Here are my observations:

1. $10 for a 15 min. lesson...that'll screw you up!
2. Too many guys 'working at the show', dressed 'Business Casual'
3. Too few chicks, and especially Hot Chicks! (well, there were those 2 hotties at the Alberta booth...)
4. Titleist...M.I.A.!!?
5. 'Nevada Bob's' (Forzani) being the title-sponsor, barely any Golf Town presence (just 'GT Tour' booth)
6. Line-ups too long, especially since you're carrying a bag of brochures & your jacket, etc.
7. A few 4-for-3 coupons, with lots of 'exceptions' (most only good 'til mid-May)
8. Pheasant Run 2-for-1, a STAPLE of The Golf Show (nice!)
9. Timber Ridge had some decent coupons/scratch & win
10. Hardly any interest at the Golf Knickers booth, the guy says he sells more stuf to Alberta & Quebec, 'cause Ontario golfer are waaaaay too conservative! (so, I bought some socks off of him!)
11. Nice hard-cover book from Angus Glen, but, how many times have they been told they have the same picture for the South Course #15 & #16!!??
(should have used a reputeable(?) printer like Rockronny, I guess?! )
12. Didn't see any Travel Info for upstate-Michigan!?
13. mmmmm, Fudge!
14. Surprisingly, not TOO many Kids!
15. Whistle Bear trying to un-load last years hats for $10?!!
16. almost went to Canada Blooms instead!????

I think more people went to that Bloom show instead. There were a few tarts, the 3 putting stations on the far left.:D Yah noticed Titleist wasn't there, Yonex (spl) had there own station, like 2 clubs to try.

[Big Shooter]

Yonex (spl) had there own station, like 2 clubs to try.

Lefty left them, and down the drain....
...back to making Tennis rackets je suppose?!!

[hogannut]

is it just me or has anyone else noticed the toronto golf show is getting to be a case of deja vue. other than new equipment releases the show did nothing for me. and the line ups to test anything were half a block long. i had a little bad luck , i lost my wallet friday afternoon and no one turned it in. i think i will take a pass next year.:

Sorry to hear you lost your walet, that really stinks. I stopped going about 5 years ago because of your comments. The entry fee, all the travel booths, just wasn't worth it. Like the car show I'm only going from now on if I'm looking and considering I just got new woods last year and love my irons that won't be happening anytime soon.

[DubRepublic]

Here is an interesting point, at the end of the day on Saturday I stopped by one of the demo booths to try a few irons and the guy working the booth was 3 sheets to the wind. You could smell the vapours from 10 feet away.

[Carlton]

Here is an interesting point, at the end of the day on Saturday I stopped by one of the demo booths to try a few irons and the guy working the booth was 3 sheets to the wind. You could smell the vapours from 10 feet away.

LOL, I was there on Saturday morning. Mizuno, Jazz and Yonnex booths had the least amount of folks demoing clubs. I was at the TM booth and the kid in the red shirt ran out for 10mins, came back and looks like he was hitting the Iceberg booth 'cause he reeked!!

[hogannut]

Here is an interesting point, at the end of the day on Saturday I stopped by one of the demo booths to try a few irons and the guy working the booth was 3 sheets to the wind. You could smell the vapours from 10 feet away.

I used to work in the golf industry and unfortunatley there is a lot of that going on. One summer when I was in college the assistant pro at the club I worked at had a bar tab so high they cut him off. Then I worked for a couple of distributors after college and the reps...oh my god what a bunch of lushes!! They all think they are better than everyone because they work in golf. I remember one guy who was almost proud of the fact he was given sponsorship to try on a mini tour and sat in the bar and drank his sponsorship money away. I remember saying why would you do that and don't you feel bad for wasting your sponsorship money and the guy said no it's the sposors fault. I said to him he was taking a spot for someone who really wanted to work at it and he just didn't care. I won't mention his name because he is currently a tournament director for one of the big golf conglomerates (not ClubLink). Anyway this is common, which is why I got out of the golf industry.

[Thimble]

i had fun. i stopped by a few of the demo booths and chatted up the sales people. conventions are my chance to talk to complete strangers without feeling like a retard. ;)

the guy running the big round circle was pretty cool. he even gave me a 5 minute demonstration for free.

there was a quebec dude selling a new putting distance measuring device that was kinda neat.

most of the americans selling their course vacations were pretty colourful people.

I went late on Sunday, so there was no line up to demo or talk to representatives. The kid running the Adams booth looked like he was 14!

The Ping people seemed a bit snobby. I kept looking around and making eye contact with the sales guys there, and they kept ignoring me. And when I approached someone to talk to about fitting some ping clubs I bought on eBay, the guy just told me to go pick up a postcard off the desk.

What surprised me most was how expensive the second hand clubs there were. They were almost double eBay prices! Crooks, the lot of 'em...

The Nike computer thing didn't look like it was working properly. Cool looking gadget, but what's the point of spending all that money if the calculations are all over the place? Also, that blobby looking "graph" was pretty non-intuitive.

There was one speaker that I casually dropped in on. Some young dude that was probably a CPGA pro? Anyhow, he started talking about how the reason Tiger hit so far in his youth was because he had "narrow" shoulders. That the key to hitting it far was not muscle, but flexibility. I dunno... I kept wanting to put my hand up and ask what he thought of Sean Fister's narrow/skinny shoulders, lol...

[DubRepublic]

Nevada Bob's was selling a bunch of Adam's Tight Lies original clubs for $125 :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Someone forgot to tell them the clubs were almost 10 years old.

[Big Shooter]

Nevada Bob's was selling a bunch of Adam's Tight Lies original clubs for $125 :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Someone forgot to tell them the clubs were almost 10 years old.

Oh yah, couldn't miss that....now wonder they were near the back where no one was!:eek:

[RobertThompson]

I don't actually bother with the equipment side of the show, since it doesn't really offer much to me and there's little new there.
However, I did spend a lot of time talking to the various courses. My write up can be found at www.ontgolf.ca/goingforthegreen

[sharkhark]

Read some of your blogs, very nicely done. Cheers.

[Toughpar3]

Hey Bigshooter,

Whistlebear had a special - $50 for a green fee, cart and a nice 2006 calendar :) ...well the voucher is good any time before May 12..but I think that's still a good deal. Don't you think the "Spring into golf" promo is a pretty sweet deal???? (assuming you get a good course).

[Big Shooter]

Hey Bigshooter,

Whistlebear had a special - $50 for a green fee, cart and a nice 2006 calendar :) ...well the voucher is good any time before May 12..but I think that's still a good deal

Yah, I saw that one, good deal I guess, but WB used to give you 'free use of the range before you play', now they charge you!??:(
...tried to grab a calendar, but they said they were For Sale only!:$

[north ridge]

Nevada Bobs/DiMarco are the primary reatil sponsor. No other retailer can sell there.

It's always been a major liquidation outlet for really old stuff.

I worked at the show for a number of years back in the 90s. It had more of an equipment presence then, but now it's more travel oriented.

[East Coast Golfer]

Yah, I saw that one, good deal I guess, but WB used to give you 'free use of the range before you play', now they charge you!??:(
...tried to grab a calendar, but they said they were For Sale only!:$


I see nothing wrong with a course charging for the range. What it prevents is people coming 2 hours before their tee time and hitting 10 buckets of balls in that time. On a busy day this can result in people who tee off before you, but show up later having no balls/no stall to hit balls before their round, which is not fair for all golfers. Most course ranges are not designed for being a practice facilty, just a warm up area and charging regulates those problems.
IMO

[golfguy25]

I see nothing wrong with a course charging for the range. What it prevents is people coming 2 hours before their tee time and hitting 10 buckets of balls in that time. On a busy day this can result in people who tee off before you, but show up later having no balls/no stall to hit balls before their round, which is not fair for all golfers. Most course ranges are not designed for being a practice facilty, just a warm up area and charging regulates those problems.
IMO

Never been a problem at the course that I worked at. That's why you schedule somebody to work the range. That person takes care of all of the guests by re-stacking balls and picking them from the range. I have never heard anybody say that the ranges isn't meant to be a practice facility. If I am paying $100 + for a round of golf and I wanna show up an hour early and hit balls to practice before I play that shouldn't be an issue. All of the courses that I have played have given free range bals to warm up.

[Copetown Woods]

We charge extra for range balls, as we have not included it in the price of the green fee. We could charge an extra $5 per green fee to do that, but I would say only 50% of the customers use the range and an extra $5 savings goes a long way when playing 50 rounds per year

Maintaining a driving range is not cheap ... I can't speak for other courses in how they set up, but we have a 30,000 square foot all bentgrass deck that gets beat up pretty bad each day. To maintain bentgrass is quite expensive, plus the cost of range balls that for some reason people seem to steal all the time. :confused:

:mad: It's frustrating to see range balls lining the banks of ponds because people are too scared to hit their regular balls....and people wonder why prices go up !!!

[DubRepublic]

^^^^^^^hitting a red ring special.

[golfguy25]

We charge extra for range balls, as we have not included it in the price of the green fee. We could charge an extra $5 per green fee to do that, but I would say only 50% of the customers use the range and an extra $5 savings goes a long way when playing 50 rounds per year

Maintaining a driving range is not cheap ... I can't speak for other courses in how they set up, but we have a 30,000 square foot all bentgrass deck that gets beat up pretty bad each day. To maintain bentgrass is quite expensive, plus the cost of range balls that for some reason people seem to steal all the time. :confused:

:mad: It's frustrating to see range balls lining the banks of ponds because people are too scared to hit their regular balls....and people wonder why prices go up !!!

That's a good point, never really thought of the cost of balls and the maintenance of the turf. Have you guys always had the grass tee deck versus mats or astroturf??

[East Coast Golfer]

:rofl:, I once watched a women gather about 10 of our range balls to take with her as she was leaving the range. I politetly asked her what she was doing and she said she wanted them to try and clear the pond on 9. I explained to her that she cannot take our range balls as they are 50 cents a piece and that we have some low priced golf balls in the shop if she wants. She got very upset at me that she could take our range balls. I explained they are not floaters, but it did not matter. She was very upset??

So I went down to our cart barn and got a dozen old stray balls we find aroudn the course and gave them to her.


Ranges are not cheap, especially the ones that are real turf only.
A good range attendant can usually solve most of the problems, but you always find someone who abuses the free range priviledge.

[RobertThompson]

:rofl:, I once watched a women gather about 10 of our range balls to take with her as she was leaving the range. I politetly asked her what she was doing and she said she wanted them to try and clear the pond on 9. I explained to her that she cannot take our range balls as they are 50 cents a piece and that we have some low priced golf balls in the shop if she wants. She got very upset at me that she could take our range balls. I explained they are not floaters, but it did not matter. She was very upset??

So I went down to our cart barn and got a dozen old stray balls we find aroudn the course and gave them to her.


Ranges are not cheap, especially the ones that are real turf only.
A good range attendant can usually solve most of the problems, but you always find someone who abuses the free range priviledge.

This proves that golfers are often very stupid....

[East Coast Golfer]

This proves that golfers are often very stupid....

I wouldn't say stupid, but some think that if they pay a green fee over 100$, it gives them a right to do what ever they want. I would say that for the most part, golfers know what they can and cannot get away with.

[Big Shooter]

I see nothing wrong with a course charging for the range. What it prevents is people coming 2 hours before their tee time and hitting 10 buckets of balls in that time. On a busy day this can result in people who tee off before you, but show up later having no balls/no stall to hit balls before their round, which is not fair for all golfers. Most course ranges are not designed for being a practice facilty, just a warm up area and charging regulates those problems.
IMO

My point here was, that they used to allow you 'free range' before your tee-time included in the price, then they got the Nationwide event, raised the prices, have now lost the Nationwide event, maintained the same prices, and now also CHARGE for pre-game range-time!!:mad:

However, I understand both yours and CW's points as to costs involved, and the 'occasional' abuser of the priviledges, but, as CW aludes to, MOST golfers don't use the range THAT LONG before they play...usually in-part due to they are RUNNING LATE! (well, that would be ME!!!:D )

[East Coast Golfer]

My point here was, that they used to allow you 'free range' before your tee-time included in the price, then they got the Nationwide event, raised the prices, have now lost the Nationwide event, maintained the same prices, and now also CHARGE for pre-game range-time!!:mad:

However, I understand both yours and CW's points as to costs involved, and the 'occasional' abuser of the priviledges, but, as CW aludes to, MOST golfers don't use the range THAT LONG before they play...usually in-part due to they are RUNNING LATE! (well, that would be ME!!!:D )

I understand your frustration now.. I would be upset by that as well.