This year has celebrated its 65th edition and has done it again in a big way, with a huge deployment involving more than a thousand companies and brands and tens of thousands of professionals in the golf industry.
An immense showcase of products that stretches along sixteen kilometers of aisles with stands of golf products of all kinds, from the latest drivers to the most avant-garde irons or the most stylish putters. And clothes and shoes and balls and buggies tuned like ambulances with beer-droppers… This is the PGA Merchandise Show, the largest exhibition of golf products in the world. Orlando was once again the venue for this event, organized by the PGA of America, where new trends and technologies in the industry are unveiled.
Holiday Golf was the only company from Spain with its own stand at the PGA Merchandise Show. It is the leading wholesale company in Spain and Portugal in the distribution of golf equipment for golf stores and clubs. The company, which also distributes in Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria and Morocco, was founded 27 years ago. It is headquartered in Marbella, 1,500 meters of modern facilities that include a spectacular showroom where products of the brands of clothing, footwear, accessories, balls, clubs, bags, etc., that it sells are displayed.
Carlos Mena, head of the Marketing and Product Department of Holiday Golf, was once again at the great golf fair in Orlando, which was also attended by several directors of Spanish golf courses, including Javier Reviriego, from Real Club Valderrama, Agustín Mazarrasa, from Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, Julián Romaguera, from Club de Golf Los Naranjos, Eduardo Ruiz from La Manga, among others, to keep abreast of the latest trends in the sector.
“Golf in the United States,” says Mena by way of introduction, “is not a religion, but it’s almost a way of life and of course a big industry that moves a lot of money”. Not in vain, the country has around 30 million golfers.
-In a huge fair, with hundreds of companies and thousands of professionals coming from all corners of the world, Holiday Golf was the only Spanish company represented there…
-This year we were the only Spanish company to attend with our own stand. Last year there were five of us, but four of us dropped out and we were the only ones left. We have been present with the Ofelia T brand, which has once again been very well accepted, because “Made in Spain”, “Handmade” and the “Spain” brand sells very well in the American market.
-What products does Ofelia T offer?
-Ofelia T is Holiday Golf’s own brand of handmade leather products, such as toiletry bags, handbags, travel bags, wallets, etc., for both men and women. And not only for the golf world, but also for business gifts, corporate events… and the American market is very interesting because there what they are looking for above all is individuality, and we have the ability to adapt any product to the needs of each customer can demand customization.
-What image do the U.S. golfers you had the opportunity to talk to in Orlando have of Spain?
-The truth is that there is a very good knowledge of Spain among golf industry professionals. with whom I had the opportunity to talk. They know very well where Spain is, and some of them mentioned places that surprised you because you did not expect them to have been there, but the American is very curious, and ventures to know many of the corners of the countries they visit.
-It wouldn’t have been bad if there had been a Spanish representation to promote the country as a golf tourist destination…
-Yes, because it was a little envious to see how Tourism Ireland or Scotland or even Paris as the venue for the next Ryder Cup were there, and also very well represented, with professionals and specialists of the first level sector, and not as it is customary in Spain, where the professional is accompanied by the politician of the day and his entourage.
-At this type of fairs, brands usually present their new products. Have many of them been presented this year in Orlando?
-There has been, but in terms of hard golf equipment last year there was more. For example, the announcement of Tiger’s return and the presentation of his new clubs and the new Bridgestone ball, which we distribute, was very impressive, Taylormade and Callaway also presented very good material. This year the queen of the fair has been technology, as for example, I was seeing in a stand where technology has reached such a point in the ball, that they have created the long-awaited ball with a device that facilitates its location. The Genius Ball, the trackable ball thanks to a chip installed in the core, and that in addition to the location on the course, will allow thanks to the information transferred by the chip to the corresponding application, to obtain data so relevant to the player that will help to know your strong parts of your swing in hitting the ball, and those where you have to improve.
-In your opinion, is so much technological progress applied to golf good or bad for the sport?
I personally like more intuitive golf, with so much technology there is a tendency to mechanization and we lose much of the imagination and creativity that the game of golf carries implicitly, in addition to subtracting the enjoyment on the course.
-Brands renew their equipment every few years. Do they do it because of technological advances or is it just a commercial issue to sell more?
-Obviously, brands need to sell and that is why they renew their products so much. In many cases it is only cosmetic issues, which do not bring anything new in the technical field. In the world of golf, what sells above all is the promise of distance; whether you get it or not is another matter, but it is what each and every golfer wants. The latest club on the market always promises more distance; it never says whether the ball goes right or left, but it promises more distance.
-What about the balls, how far will they evolve?
-The great revolution in golf and above all what has made rethink the designs of both existing courses and new designs are given by the great evolution of the ball that has suffered, which I would say is 70 or 80 percent of the material that has evolved the most when it comes to play. It is the one that has made the courses to be lengthened to considerable distances. Then came the clubs, with new materials for the shafts, mainly graphite, but the ball is the real protagonist. This year they have introduced a ball with a new material, lighter, more resistant in the cover, with greater durability, which of course seeks to reach more distance.
-There is a wide variety of stick models and prices to suit all tastes, with sets ranging from a couple of hundred euros to others that exceed 20,000 or more. Are these expensive sets of sticks, some even with gold inlays, really worth the money?
-They are expensive whims for people who can afford them, for me it is more a question of aesthetics. I remember a golf fair in Cologne a few years ago, where there were some shoes with diamond inserts, and they were on display for the first two days and on the third day of the fair. were no longer there, and according to what we were told, they were acquired by a Russian golfer. They cost just over 20,000 euros.
-What other technological innovations have caught your attention?
-This year, for example, I was surprised by the increased presence of companies dedicated to golf simulators, where above all Golfzon stood out for the impressive features it offers, such as perfectly recreating the fog that usually emerges on the 9th hole of Pebble Beach.
Also a specific application for this segment of the game that attracted me is Golf Logix, which allows to know each and every one of the falls that a player can face with the ball on the green, where there are more than 6 million data collection points to report the ideal path that the ball should follow to the hole. It already has more than 5,000 courses activated.
It is also remarkable Golf Pride, although it was last year when it surprised with the Align technology in some of its most commercial models, because it has made the grip is no longer seen as a mere piece of black rubber as a grip to be an important element in the golf club that adds consistency. This year they have applied this new technology to the flagship of the brand, the Tour Velvet.
Another novelty has been the Garmin X10 model, an easy to handle, very intuitive, lightweight and comfortable device that meets the information needs of the golfer during his round of golf. A great success.
And it is definitely ECCO’s highlight with the unveiling of the latest result of biomechanical foot research and injection molding that produces a seamless shoe incorporating the innovative ECCO Tri-Fi-Grip sole, which enhances performance with three distinct zones: one for stability, one for durability and a third for quick and easy rotation.
-It seems that buggy tuning is becoming more and more fashionable. What did you see in this regard?
-For example, I saw an ambulance buggy, whose dropper was a barrel of beer, and also a fire truck buggy carrying water but in the form of ice cubes and mixed drinks… Two years ago the stand where these customized buggies were exhibited was small, but every year the offer in this section is growing.
But I think golf has a bit of craziness in it too. Because when I saw a guy wearing “The Golf Swing Shirt” trying to make a golf swing in one of the aisles, it was obvious which one of us was going to be the first to see the golf swing. would have been the source of inspiration (a straitjacket). And that press is designed to help promote the feeling of body “connection” while executing the swing to hit the ball. The shirt’s structure and unique compression fabric immediately generate “connection” and muscle memory, so The Golf Swing Shirt “is very effective,” its representatives assured me, and even Padraig Harrington or Bryson DeChambeau wear it.
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