Why do you play Persimmon woods?
“Why I Play Persimmon” by Billy Mac (golf entertainer)
Golf is so many things to me, means so many things to me.
I have been privileged to have played many wonderful golf courses from “Mom and Pop” layouts that just happened to be on the way to somewhere I was going to the Olde at St. Andrews. I am always cognizant of those who have walked those fairways before me. I cannot go shoot jumpers in the Boston Garden or shag fly balls in Wrigley Field but I can play Pinehurst and dozens of other tracks once played by Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan.
Golf is a game which embraces tradition and history and Persimmon clubs are not just integral to both, but are to this day a vibrant part of golf’s present and its future. The modern game’s obsession with distance is out of balance with the demand for shotmaking and out of harmony with the treasured art of working the ball and shaping the shot. Thus the inevitable question asked by those who have marveled at the beauty and craftsmanship of my Louisville Golf Persimmon golf clubs is “do you hit it as far as a metal wood?”
Now the answer is yes, but more importantly the questions should be “Do you score as well?” and “Do you play as well?” and “Do you enjoy hitting Persimmon?” Yes. Yes, and Yes.
Your flat-faced metal wood would wilt next to Mike Souchak with an old MacGregor and simply will not move the ball both ways with the ease and grace of a Persimmon wood. Your skinny-headed Orlimar 5-wood is no match for the v-sole Niblick that goes down and gets it in the rough and still smoothes it off the tight lie of the fairway. Besides the correct shaft, swing weight and setup of the club will sweeten your swing far more than the myth of metal distance.
But let’s get to the sweetest part of all: the sound of Persimmon. I’m a singer, a piano player, a songwriter. My life is full of sounds of the most wonderful and moving kind. I have used sound to entertain, to inform, to heal, to bring together and I can say without reservation that next to my wife’s voice and my dog’s welcoming bark the sweetest sound in my life is the sound of my Persimmon woods hitting the ball. In a world infected with the doink and plink and pang of metal drivers of all kinds the pure sweet sound of wood striking the ball is music to these ears.
As an artist my life is also about beauty, whether it be pruning my orchards, landscaping my home, seeing my wife – and the joy I get every time I pull one of these magnificently crafted clubs from my bag, every time I see that deep sheen and classic clubface I am connected to the beauty and history of the game and it enriches me every bit as does the beauty of the course I am playing and the smooth, measured swing it beckons me to take.
I’m a better player because I play Persimmon. Persimmon enriches my game and my experience of it. I would love nothing more than for every golfer to know that joy – it’s why I play Persimmon.
Billy Mac
www.billymac.com
If you would like to post your reasons for playing Persimmon send them to josh@louisvillegolf.com and I will post it here on the Persimmon bLog.