Very good idea, and a way to recruit,collect,connect, and direct the many similar minded folks out there. Use the new technology, the internet, to promote old technology…persimmon and blades.
This will greatly increase the exposure…and who knows when you hit the jackpot…when someone gets involved who has the means to make something happen. It’s hard to imagine that at every old classic course, especially places like Augusta or St. Andrews, there isn’t someone who harbors the dream of a tournament like the days of old, where the emphasis was on ballstriking, not distance, and the course had teeth again.
Just another thought…We’ve already discussed the fact that the current tour players will be reluctant to take on a challenge that involves classic persimmons and blades. We can maybe overcome this hurdle if the challenge was for a good cause/ Charity. We’d have to think of a decent challenge but a scenario such as this could be mutually beneficial. The player (and possible sponsor) can get some good publicity out of the event whilst the persimmons, classic equipment and course layout will also get some decent exposure. We can then use that as a springboard to generate more interest for future events.
Obviously a lot of “ifs” and “buts” to make that work but I do believe that there is more chance of generating the exposure we crave if a charity is involved.
The gentleman that runs the Trilby Tour on behalf of William Hunt sent an e-mail to me today requesting my telephone number. He wants to discuss any ventures we might be involved in. I have told him next to nothing. I have only mentioned that we might have a Golfing Business proposal in its infancy that William Hunt may be interested in supporting. Not sure if they were the right choice of words but anyway we have their ear and they clearly have contacts @ Sky sports and other major backers…we’ve got to set our goals high, right?
I’m not sure when the guy will call but I need some guidance here. Shall I just discuss how they set up the tour and negotiated the television coverage or do I see if they will help with our project? What is our project in this instance- A British/US Persimmon Open, a Shells World of Golf game or, a “Blast from the Past” Challenge where Lag & BH take on two Tour Pros with modern equipment?
Forgetting the Trilby people for just a second, If we are serious about challenging what golf has become we should at least be thinking of doing some market research. At the moment we have no idea how many people want to see a change…it may just be us!
Shouldn’t we start generating a questionnaire that can be distributed across the golf forums and beyond to give us some idea who is interested and whether we can realisticall make a difference?
Shouldn’t we also start a thread with statistics for the PGA/ European/Asian Tour regrarding Fairways hit & greens in Regulation compared to the persimmon age? We can also have details about the great courses that are now obsolete.
I would just tell him that due to the success of an experimental pilot event in Las Vegas called the TRGA Classic where pros have competed for several years with persimmon and blades along with amateurs… that a group over there feel it’s time to expand the idea to a bigger stage and start the restoration of proper golf being played.
I would bring up several main points.
A simplified rules book that is based upon playing the ball down at all times with a universal drop option that eliminates 1/2 the current rule book quite effectively.
Equipment limitations that define woods as being made from wood and irons as being made from iron and a higher spinning ball that basically flies like the balatas did which restricts distance and puts spin and ball shaping back into the game.
Golf courses played properly again as they were simply intended in the first place. The 10 four pars divided once again into 3 long, 4 mid, 3 short ( long irons, mid irons, short irons) as originally intended to test players properly.
A priority toward course design and layout over conditioning. A few bad lies here and there ad character to the game.
Strict dress code so players look great and represent the game as one of class and style.
That the intention here is not to compete against or try to change the contemporary version of golf but instead to run parallel offering a more sensible version based upon past traditions which strived for more equality between long and short hitters.
A fractioning of the game as other sports have successfully done… baseball, softball, football (Australian, Canadian, Arena) Billiards (9 ball, 8 ball, snooker, 3 cushion)
I would mention that the press is very positive about something like this because it gives them a lot to write about, comparisons, controversy, new challenges of modern players vs traditional players and all that could arise from that.
You could point him to the TRGA site trga.info to show some work on all this has been done.
You might hint also that several well known courses have already shown interest in hosting such events, and good players will always follow the money trail.
Just some ideas to help consolidate a conversation.
A persimmon/blade website is the best option to find everyone interested and bring us together. I will sign up immediately would contribute funds to the best of my ability for the start up costs.
Meanwhile, I’m going to continue my grassroots quest to spread the word. I am going to make a few flyers and distribute them to all the local courses within a 60 mile radius (with permission of course). My telephone and email address attached. The flyer will ask if anyone would be interested in a local tournament using persimmon or laminate woods exclusively. I will find out if our local Country Club could be used as the course. I think this would create some interest as it is private and unavailable for the not so rich and famous. (Me included. But I have access through business friends). I have a friend who organizises a charity touranment every year. I’ll ask for help from him if enough players respond.
My question to all the folks here is: What about the irons? If I specify only forged blades along with the persimmon I don’t think too many players would respond. What would you guys suggest?
I feel that any persimmon tourney should also correspond with the forged blade theme.
I think a persimmon website would be great… I can link it to ABS for easy access… but it should be a separate entity as this focuses mainly on the instruction end.
Let’s start by thinking up some good names for the site.
They can be checked easy enough for availability on a site like godaddy.com
I have an account there and don’t mind paying for the site. I already have secured persimmontour.com for future use.
Any webdesigners here?
Anyone interested in hosting or maintaining such a site?
Off the top of my head I can think of several pages to start it off.
History of persimmon
Club repair articles
A place for people to post their photos
A place for people to post their scores
Stories
events
interviews with persimmon players
Top 50 persimmon courses with photos
A list of majors won with persimmon
Tech shop
Buy sell trade
Links to other sites with similar interests
Sell advertising space to businesses with similar objectives
A ton of content could be lifted from ABS… no problem here.
I’m not a web designer but my family and extended family is full of them and would like to use this opportunity to learn html and some graphic design. I’m going to start immediately looking into what it would take to get something up and running.
After researching this a bit more, I’m confident I can create and a website with the objectives already discussed. I’ll start on it tonight when I’m off work.
I had another idea for generating interest: An official (or unofficial) world persimmon player rankings list. People love rankings and it would be fun if we could ever set up a challenge match to say: “Persimmon Golf World #4 ranked John “Lag” Erikson and Persimmon Golf World #2 Bradley Hughes vs. Official World Golf Ranked #260 Lee Janzen and OWGR #288 Steve Elkington” or something like that. Maybe hard to maintain but good for conversation.
Sort of like in poker you have cash game players and tournament players. Also 7 card stud rankings and hold-em rankings, etc.
Or in mixed martial arts people love when the best from Pride fight the best from the UFC. Great for conversation.
I like the idea of a stand alone rules site. Simply there for presence, referencing and maybe an announcement of an annual meeting aimed at fine tuning the goals and objectives over there.
A site to announce, schedules, results etc for both amateur and professional events similar to the USGA site but more focused and to the point.
A community oriented persimmon site… something like this could be linked right to ABS. Stories, blogs, history and a place to link various sites together with similar goals and objectives.
“A community oriented persimmon site… something like this could be linked right to ABS. Stories, blogs, history and a place to link various sites together with similar goals and objectives.”
and see where it leads. Main purpose would be providing a site for straggling persimmon players across the globe to meet up or check the current happenings in the persimmon/traditional golf community or meetup w/ fellow players for weekend games. I agree rules and competitions should have their own sites and the TRGA guys are already working this angle well. The community site could link out to TRGA, Geoff Shackelford, ABS, etc and could feature current events, results, articles, etc. in a blog style for quick reference.
I’ll mock something up and see what you guys think.
I will gladly do anything I can to help out. I will try to organise a regional tourney for next season if that seems appropriate, put me down for the North of England.
I know a guy who works for a local news paper that also publish a golf magazine that they distribute free amongst all of the golf courses in the county. They are always looking for stories and I am sure I could talk him into running one about this in both publications, especially if we make it easy to write by doing a lot of the work for him including providing some good photos. Shouldn’t take too much effort to get some free publicity.
NRG, we can put up a link for you for UK Club repair and you can sell gear also from there… not just pancake flat ABS stuff!
Mike Rees can be the North American link.
Getting all the sites interlinked together will ad power and presence rather than the isolated island thing.
Lag,
I completely agree with everything on your list. When I moderated the fishing rod website, we had a separate website where individuals could maintain a personal picture gallery. I think it would be good to have something similiar where guys could post pics of clubs, bags, balls, headcovers, autograph collections, courses etc…any kind of memorabilia that was important to that era. Here is a link to the related photosite to the fishing rod website that I used to moderate as an example:
Both would be good for getting the concept across that we’re playing the more true form of golf, and that the other mainstream golf really isn’t golf at all.
