3Jack Golf Blog: 3Jack Golf PGA Merchandise Show Journal

Thursday night was the 'Tweet Up' that John Graham and I put together at the Brick House Tavern. Roughly 40 people showed up in total. Professionals like:

- TJ Yeaton (www.tjyeaton)
- Dan Carraher (www.dancarrahergolf.com)
- Sara Dickson (www.saradickson.com)
- Bobby Siravo (www.ifitgolf.com)
- Dave Wedzik, Erik Barzeski, Michael McLoughlin (www.golfevolution.com)
- Stan Moore (http://www.thumbtack.com/ga/atlanta/golf-lessons/golf-instructors-stan-moore-performance-golf)
- Chris Como (www.chriscomo.com)
- Rob McGill (http://rm4golfblog.wordpress.com/)
- Jon Hardesty
- Jason Sutton (www.golfgurutv.com)
- Mark Sweeney (www.aimpointgolf.com)

And many more. If I forgot to add you, I apologize.

Everything went quite well and we had a good time discussing the game, state of the industry, problems that pros come across, jokes, etc. There were some that were interested in the 2011 Pro Golf Synopsis and had more specific questions about it.

On Friday, I hit up the show at about noon and checked out a few places. To me, one of the big winners was Edel Golf. And since everybody has been asking about their wedges, we'll start off with some pics.

First, Edel wedges are custom fit wedges. So, they have a 'fitting cart', just like the ones you see for other OEM's.

Each cart has a boatload of different heads with different grinds and different bounce angles along with the bunch of different shafts to choose from.

One of the big facets of the Edel wedges is that the CoG is moved away from the heel and more towards the toe. If you have ever hit a wedge, invetibably you will have shots off the toe and it marks up the toe. Part of the problem is that when it goes off the toe, the ball doesn't make full contact with the grooves and you can hit some knuckleball shots. Here's a look at the wedges and you can see how they move the grooves (along with the CoG) more towards the toe.

Here's some pictures of some other wedges:

What's unique as well is that the Edel wedges are designed to have extra bounce so the golfer doesn't get scared of sticking it into the ground and winds up 'hanging back' on the downswing. But, the grinds are designed where the golfer can still hit off of tight lies and hit flops without any issue whatsoever.

Here's the irons prototype:

Edel plans on making 99 sets this year. The idea is similar to the wedges, more bounce without the giant sole and moving the CoG away from the heel.

Edel also has some belly and long putters available. The putters are 'torque balanced' which are designed so that the face doesn't open up thru impact. There should be more about this on the Web site.

I firmly believe that Edel makes the best putters on the market, so I'm confident that the rest of their equipment will meet that level of greatness.

I also got some pictures of the Tour Striker driver. These are available now and retail at $199. Excuse the pictures as I had difficulty getting the proper amount of light. I think the Tour Striker driver is excellent.

I then talked with 3Jack Golf Certified D-Plane Instructor Errol Helling on a new training aid that works in conjunction with AimPoint.

This training aid combines a lot of things into one. First, it serves as a bubble level than can measure the slope of a putt. It also serves as a 'putting gate' so the golfer can aim and hit the ball where they want it to initially roll. Furthermore, it's designed so you can aim it perfectly at your intended target with a protractor design. For instance, if you move it 6 degrees, that equates to 6 inches from the edge of the cup. Lastly, you can put a putting track onto it as well.

I plan on purchasing one of these myself from my AimPoint practice and they will be up on Aimpointgolf.com pretty soon.

I then went over to the Mizuno hitting booth. I hit their new MP driver and liked it. I think Mizuno makes underrated woods. They then put me on the Mizuno Shaft Optimizer, something I haven't tried in a couple of years.

The Mizuno Shaft Optimizer has been upgraded. You can now attach it to whatever clubhead you want instead of having to hit an model head. I asked about them updating their shaft database and they said they do that constantly, but they didn't add KBS' C-Taper shaft because they found that the C-Tapers were too heavy and didn't get the results they wanted. Anyway, I was fitted for the following:

- True Temper Dynalite XP X-100 (Soft Stepped once)
- Project X 6.0
- KBS Tour X-Stiff (soft stepped once)

I then headed over to Scratch Golf and was mostly interested in their putters. They did tell me that their deal with the forging house in Chicago fell thru and now they are considering a forging house in Michigan. However, they are looking to retail putters.

This picture is blurry, but it's a new finish that Scratch is experimenting with that is used for handguns. It creates a finish where no 2 finishes are alike.