As a regular visitor to STARWARS.com I noticed a convergence of two interests: golf and Star Wars. Click here to read about a new line of Star Wars golf accessories including a Darth Vader and Stormtrooper golf bag. We feel strongly that Jedi would use Persimmon woods and that using metal “woods” is a step toward the Dark Side.
May The Force Be With Your Golf Game…
It happens more than we would like, given who we are and what we specialize in, but when I saw the cover story to the March 21, 2008 edition of Golf World I knew it was bound to be there. Golf World called this latest offering their Backspin Issue and the cover featured four golfers who graduated high school in 1969 and played on the PGA Tour together. I knew that they would somehow dog Persimmon because they always do in these throwback-themed editions. Click here to read the article.
What I knew would be in this issue was some slight about Persimmon. With the Golf Digest publications it has become the easy thing to write about because it seems like such an easy shot to hit. The fact is the subject, like golf, is subjective and complicated. Most writers reduce it to simple anecdotes and, consequently, sound bites that look good on paper but are filled with opinion based on assumptions; and, all this sounds plausible because the assumptions are so imbedded. It is easy to develop an animosity about Persimmon woods when that is all you read and hear about it.
Golf now is at the zenith of what Berry calls a “technological euphoria,” and for its part this has not bettered the game. The game is no longer growing and handicaps are not improving. The buzz of golf is not as loud and the addiction no longer as acute in those that have been bitten. In part, the “hatred of the past” Berry references has eroded what makes golf different and special; golf is a lifestyle that is both recreational and sacred, and this ugly treatment of the game’s legacy is troubling. Articles such as this one (and we could give you a handful of others, seemingly all from Golf Digest or Golf World) that build on the momentum of disdain for what has always been good about the game - that is the spirit that it perpetuates and the feeling it inspires. Once this true spirit gets you, then this throwing under the cart our beloved material has to make you mad. Let me tell you specifically what we mean as it pertains to the recent Golf World article.
First, the article, titled “Recalling wood woods,” references “testing” done by Callaway and Phil Mickelson, what is called an “experiment of sorts.” The article does not say to what end the “test” was conducted, and the “of sorts” doesn’t render confidence of a fair, scientific test, but it talks about using a Persimmon driver, and an old ball. It references launch conditions and says there was a 50-yard difference, 25 yards attributed to the ball and 25 yards attributed to the Persimmon driver. This is just not possible, and there is no test or evidence that has ever been done that says there is this amount of discrepancy in distance due to clubhead material. This “experiment” is flawed because there are so many factors we do not know; we do not know what the shafts were (likely the old Persimmon driver was shafted with a shorter and heavier steel shaft) and we do not know the launch conditions - this variable alone could account for a lot of yards. If Mickelson is hitting a Persimmon driver low with a ball that does not spin, or spins too much, then of course the Persimmon driver is going to be shorter. Launch conditions are every bit as important as any other factor in the golf shot. Additionally, this test is not taking in to account that Mickelson’s driver is probably shafted with graphite and the Persimmon is shafted with steel. Graphite is lighter and longer and will always go farther than steel. The problem with this comparison, like it has been since the onset of the graphite shaft and metal heads, is that it is not a fair test. It does not compare apples to apples. No test has ever proven that Persimmon is over 2 or 3 percent shorter than a titanium driver, and that is only for players who hit the ball directly in the center and swing over 110 mph.
Some of the issues we have with this topic are not relegated to Golf World, but to golfers themselves. It mentions Tiger Woods hitting a Persimmon driver (a driver that we made him) but it doesn’t mention the fondness he has for it. This year he has been quoted as saying that if the rules were up to him, it would be all Persimmon and balata. So we love Tiger, he gets it. Chris DiMarco, however, does not. He doesn’t “see the point” hitting a Persimmon driver. Meaghan Francella, a 25-year old on the LPGA didn’t even know what a Persimmon driver was. The story ends here, with a young golfer not knowing what a Persimmon driver is, and Golf World not even bothering to explain to her that it is a club that has won more tournaments than any other driver material. It is a club that Jack Nicklaus won all his major’s with and the material that Arnold Palmer led his army with. Shouldn’t she know that? And shouldn’t the magazines, presumably there to educate the golfing masses, seek to explain this? Am I the only one who finds this embarrassing? Certainly it does the game no favors to emphasize this without comment.
Given our disappointment we recognize that it is not Golf World, E. Michael Johnson or young Meaghan that should bear the brunt of our irritation. It just should not go quietly into golf’s subconscious that Persimmon has no value, as Berry alludes to. It should not be the whipping stick of publications and writers. It should not be the punch line of cute quips on the Front 9. Shouldn’t it be respected and honored for its service to the game? Shouldn’t it be admired because they are crafted, by hand, in the United States as functional and beautiful works of art? The golden age of the game was played with a Persimmon driver, doesn’t that count for something?
It’s a larger issue here that I can tap a few thoughts out on my lunch hour in this blog entry, but at the heart of it we’re here to say Persimmon has value, and to those who already know that, all the beating that it takes is forgotten like a missed short putt. I’m not going to lose sleep on it tonight, but it stings for a few holes.
Josh Fischer
Marketing Director
josh@louisvillegolf.com
This poem was written in honor of our founder Elmore Just, known as the “high priest of Persimmon,” by Nils Nelson. It is posted here with appreciation as we are sure you will agree that it is a very touching look at all that is right with golf. Enjoy…
PERSIMMON
The wood’s been hidden by it -
black paint that foams and bubbles
as I strip the driver clean.
The pores begin to open, breathing again, coming back to life
in the U-shaped grain that fans out from the toe,
one year after the other.
This is 1945, when Nelson won 11 straight.
This is 1947, the year I was born.
And this narrower ring - a dry year,
is the summer of ’49, when Hogan,
healing from the accident, learned to walk again.
Soling the club on the garage floor,
I address an imaginary ball.
Swing within yourself, the old saying goes.
I moisten the head with tap water
and apply the stain, covering
Tommy Armour’s etched signature,
and the flare grain that sweeps up the hosel - 1955,
the year I first hit a golf ball,
following my father down the ninth fairway
at Jackson Park, Chicago.
Slowly, the wood dries,
a soft copper, like the sky
on those summer nights when we played till dusk.
- Nils Nelson
Illustration by Liam Roberts
“Throw a little Wood at it.” That is Howard Kennedy’s saying when he brings out the Louisville Golf wood clubs while playing with his buddies in California. As one of our best customers he has quite a collection, and has registered perhaps our first fansite. His array of Louisville Golf clubs includes stock items and special manufactured clubs conceptualized by Mr. Kennedy.
Click Here to go check out his website showing off his collection and to see what’s in his bag.
This is a recent e-mail exchange I had with some online golf spammer sending me an e-mail selling a driver clearly making claims that they couldn’t back up. I get a lot of these, but for once I had to respond. A larger theme looms and it is echoed in other sports, popular culture and politics. What makes golf different is that it is a game built on the pillars of integrity, and things like this erode its base. So I just had to say something
Here is what the e-mail ad said:
A Driver That Adds 30 Yards To Your Game Instantly: This breakthrough club would have been illegal this time last year. Thanks to a PGA rules change on MOI (moment of inertia), you can get a club that puts you in the center of the fairway and adds up to 30 yards on your drive without any extra range time. Its proven design eliminates hooks and slices while giving you more distance.
Here was my reply:
There is no one driver that gives you thirty yards instantly. Your ad gives golfers false hope and hurts our game. Golfers new to the sport might think this club will let them enjoy the game more by hitting drives for them, and you know it doesn’t. Your assertions about this club are hurting the golf business and, more importantly, it hurts golfers that are leaving the sport more and more. Why? Because it is billed as an easy game by claims such as yours, and that a game can be bought and improved by technology. Golf is not your equipment more than it is a skill set and discipline of the emotions that is made more enjoyable with clubs that fit you, not that make exorbitant claims. Golfers leave the game because once the reality of the game hits them, that it is inherently difficult (and that’s the joy of it isn’t it?), and their performance does not match golf company claims, then they leave the sport, hang their clubs in the garage and spend their time and money elsewhere. This is why the game is not growing and why the average handicap has not improved. So in our opinion, you are hurting a game of integrity with this bogus e-mail which makes cloudy claims that can’t possibly deliver. We do not appreciate it, and feel we had to respond. Take us off your e-mail list please, and for the good of the game, if that means anything to you, do not send these e-mails out anymore. You are doing more harm than good.
Josh Fischer, Marketing Director
The Louisville Golf Club Company
The Spirit of the Game
Here is a brief reply to my response:Thanks for your comments. First, we will certainly take your name off our list. Second, this is a proven technology that stabilizes the face and straightens shots. If not, Callaway would not have spent 22 million dollars last year promoting this fact. By simply straightening shots and reducing side spin, most golfers will improve their distance considerably. Good luck.
Here was my last e-mail to them:Sorry, we disagree, MOI is not related to distance as you state it here. Distance is finite for all golfers based on physics and MOI is way down on the list on the factors that enhance it; certainly it does not give you 30 yards as you suggest, and Callaway does not make that claim explicitly because it is elementary. And, it is also contrary to a Cobra claim that redefines sweet spot to any place on the face where a ball is struck and does not lose distance; they make this point without regard to direction, one thing Callaway does address in talking about square clubs. Callaway spends 22 million to sell their clubs because that is what it takes to sell them against other drivers that have little to no difference except branding and cosmetics. I do have respect for some companies; I do not mean to degrade some of the larger companies simply because they are large. They make a product in an industry that sells and do a good job of it, of selling. Our point is that perhaps there are consequences to the selling of golf clubs this way, and as a side effect, we see harm done to golf as a sport. The business of golf is secondary to the game, and this is the spirit of this exchange. Inversely, when the spirit of the game is healthy, then the business will inevitably follow as a result.
Josh Fischer, Marketing Director
The Louisville Golf Club Company
The Spirit of the Game
Final thoughts: One last thing that popped into my head about this back-and-forth was the old Harley-Davidson t-shirt slogan which read: “If I had to explain, you wouldn’t understand.” Most of my words in this exchange were probably lost on this businessman because all he knows is he has cases of cast square titanium drivers he has to sell, so like in a political campaign, the message gets embellished, skewed, twisted and maximized for effect because he has to get his money back. The spirit of the game probably never occurred to him. But in order that the sentiment not be lost in the vast reaches of cyberspace I have posted it here on our Persimmon bLog, for what it is worth, in hopes that there a few of you out there who understand.
Below is an e-mail testimonial from Bill Brockman, one of our customers I speak with a few times a year about golf in general, and a true friend of the company. He wanted to share with me a post he put on another golf blog about our clubs stemming from the comments Tiger made about Persimmon and I thought I would put it on here to share with you. It not only shares well the info we currently promote here at Louisville Golf, but shows you the real difference between us and the larger golf companies.
“I’ve been playing golf for 46 of my 58 years. I always loved the look, feel, sound and workability of real wood. Can’t say I used persimmon as a youngster because that was the rich folks’ wood. The rest of us used laminated woods. I tried metal woods and titanium when they came out because I appreciate the value of hitting the ball long. Never could get comfortable with the sound, feel or appearance of them. Even worse, my first titanium was a Big Bertha first or second generation model when Calloway was still using a $6.00 Aldila shaft as standard equipment. After trying all sorts of swing and set up modifications to try to eliminate the slice I always had with the club, a club maker explained that the problem was over-torquing of the cheap shaft. Replacing the shaft made some difference, but I never liked the aesthetics of the clubs. Then, about 10 years ago I saw an ad by Louisville Golf for persimmon woods with state of the art graphite shafts. They promised distance equal to titanium drivers and less dispersion on mis-hits. They also offered a money back guarantee, which is not available now. I tried them, fell in love and have used them ever since. Their “Thumper” model has a 285cc clubhead which is larger than the classic persimmon and provides a larger sweet spot. For a good player with a grooved swing, it is plenty large enough. I get as much distance as I get with any metal wood I still try from time to time and not nearly as much dispersion on mis-hits. And the game is a lot easier from short in the fairway or first cut than long in the woods. Even better is the look, the sound and the feel of a shot struck purely with a persimmon. If you have never hit persimmon, you cannot imagine. The folks at Louisville Golf told me, and I have confirmed it with other professional clubmakers, that for golfers generating less than 115 mph of clubhead speed at impact, a metal clubhead will create no spring-like effect in a USGA conforming model. Distance–and this is basic physics when you think about it–is primarily a function of the length of the shaft and its flex. Hence, a persimmon driver in the hands of most amateurs will yield just as much distance as a metal wood, provided the shaft is fitted properly to the player. The folks at Louisville Golf are true artisans–their clubs look too good to hit when you first see one. Then you hit a ball and experience something metal just cannot approach. They will talk with you as long as you like to create a club that is right for you. Unlike Calloway, they don’t spend gazillions on advertising, so that they don’t have to use inferior quality materials in their clubs. To the contrary, each driver goes through about 100 steps before being turned out as a finished product. Finally, the persimmon that Tiger uses is made for him by Louisville Golf. If you won’t take my word for how good a persimmon driver can be–and there is no reason you should since I’m just an older golfer who loves the game and appreciates beautiful clubmaking–take Tiger’s.” - Bill Brockman