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“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.

Believe me when I tell you that golf club design is not that difficult, although the larger golf club companies would like you to believe that it is. Proof of this dynamic is the seven new irons depicted and discussed in the latest Golf Magazine (November 2009). It has a Cobra iron on the cover teasing an article entitled “7 Top New Irons.” Turning to page 106 the reader is met with seven of the most complicated looking irons seen in recent memory. As a self-confessed equipment junkie I can readily see that these designs are elaborate hoaxes, made to flash “technology” on the voyeuristic golfer ensnared with techno-lust.

Irons have always been a highly competitive market due to their profit margin and their relative ease in manufacturing. Compare the casting, polishing and applying of decals of these seven models to the manufacturing of a Persimmon wood with over 100 hand operations. (CLICK HERE for video showing the manufacturing of a Persimmon wood.) These seven irons are meant to give the impression that there is space-age technology involved in the design, when little more than perimeter weighting and loft ever influence the golf ball. But man, do they look good.

What we have here is fashion, not technology; and the fashion nowadays is to make a spade look like a Blackberry in hopes that you will forsake the sticks of 2009 for the newer 2010 version. But the fix is in. These irons are no different than the models Cobra, Titleist, Ping, Wilson, Taylor-Made, Adams and Cleveland have offered in the past. (Ping will never design a better iron than the Eye-2.) They merely are new, and a bit different. The golf marketer is counting on the same dynamic that had me thinking, when I was younger, that the new basketball shoes I got for the upcoming season would make me jump higher and run faster. Perception and belief are important variables to consider, and should be factored into any equipment choice, but consider a simpler, and more direct route to more enjoyable golf.

Take for instance, just a few pages later in the issue, Golf Magazine’s look into the bag of 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman. (I always learn more from the “What’s In The Bag” page than all the other equipment pages combined. Most equipment sections regurgitate the marketing lines the companies give them.) In his bag he has forged Nike blades, with Dynamic Gold shafts. This “technology” has been around for over half a century and is used by that other Nike player who wears red on Sunday. This simple blade design is a model which many of the game’s top players utilize. Why? It is the surest way for them to become better ball strikers.

The simple fact is that you will never be the best ball striker you can be without feedback, and blade irons give you both feedback and performance. Most golfers do not need heavy offset, and perimeter weighting, and for those who do, I have no judgment, everyone follows their own path trying to enjoy this challenging game more. But I wonder how many use those design features as crutches? In so doing they will never become a better player while being rewarded for shots that aren’t hit in the center of the clubface. Forgiveness is nice, but in irons the amnesty only applies to distance, and accuracy cannot be attained without a well-struck shot. To develop this skill you have to have feedback, and blades provide the information necessary to groove your swing to knock down flags.

These are the principles we based our iron on: the Persimmon Blade 304. This clean design distills the golf experience to just you and the ball. Techno-fashion is not needed to get the ball in the air, and toward your target. We made it out of soft 304 stainless, so mis-hits aren’t so jarring, but give you the necessary feedback in order to improve. With the prevalence of Reality TV shows, making celebrities out of people who frankly don’t deserve such adoration, the seven irons listed in Golf Magazine remind me of such unwarranted praise. They reward mis-swings and supply false positives, robbing the golfer of the data he or she needs to improve. All the new irons look pretty good, but I’ll take a good blade iron to these Complicated Monsters any day.

Josh Fischer
Marketing Director
josh@louisvillegolf.com

Where: 
Longleaf Golf Club
10 N Knoll Road
Southern Pines, North Carolina 28387
910) 692-6100
www.longleafgolf.com

When: 
Monday, November 2, 2009
Registration 7:30 a.m-8:30 a.m.
Shotgun Start 9:00 a.m.

Parings Party:  
Sunday, November 1, 2009
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Clubhouse Longleaf Golf Club

Monday, November 2, 2009 will be the date of the inaugural INTERNATIONAL PLAYABLE CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP. This event the first of its kind will be the precursor of many future events using the same format.

Players must use clubs that were built between 1930-1985. No metal woods or hickory shafted clubs. Steel and graphite shafts are permissible. Era dress is encouraged but not required. All players must use the same ball. 80 compression or less. We are currently negotiating with a ball company to provide us with golf balls for the event. News on this will be provided in the future.  Play will be individual stroke play. The event will be flighted depending upon the number of entrants. Prizes will also be awarded for closest to the pin, long drive and best vintage match of clubs and dress. Entries are limited to the first 120 players.

Players will receive entry into the event, a souvenir event gift, invitation to the parings party, breakfast and lunch the day of the event. There will also be a chance to set up a display products and services at the parings party on Sunday evening. Cost of the display will depend upon how elaborate a set up is required.

Cost per player for the event is: $149.00
ENTRY DEADLINE IS Monday, October 19, 2009

Send Entry Forms and Make the checks payable to:  
Corporate Golf Services
7474 Creedmoor Road
PMB 262
Raleigh, North Carolina 27613
Attn: Tom DiGregorio
 (919) 847-9405 (O)
 (919) 844-3723 (F)
Email: CorpGolfSv@CorporateGolfSvs.com