Yeah, that actually looks pretty good.
Thanks. Iāll clean it up, add videos and articles, etc and see what you guys think.
The challenging part will be figuring out how to due a buy-sell area and or a message board for coordinating activities. Iād prefer not to run a message board because I think it gets redundant with the board here. I considered having a standard webpage with an unchanging homepage (not blog format) but in the end I think the blog frontpage format provides a nice compliment to sites like ABS and TRGA where it might be hard to pick out the most current happenings in the persimmon community.
Looks greatā¦
Put up a link for interviewsā¦ I think that could be a driving force of the site getting the perspective of modern persimmon players. You could interview pros like Bradley and I, Vic Wilk, or others who either remember the virtues of playing with persimmon or currently train or play with them, but also interviews with amateurs of all levels and why they prefer persimmon. You have a few interviews waiting to be done right here from ABS to keep you busy for a long time. Zachaus is an amateur with a great swing, very Hogan looking and is a persimmon purist to the bone. A young guy who fully understands the value of making such a choice for his golf. He would be a great guy to kick things off. I think Arnie here is a diehard purest and would give an interesting interview from the UK perspective. Mike Rees would be glad to discuss club repair and the underlaying form of how persimmons are put together.
I think itās a great website name. I grabbed it yesterday before I read your page hereā¦ so no worries, we can get that over to you to use. Once we get some content upā¦ Iāll put a link on the ABS homepage.
It will be a lot of fun.
Think you should split this up into seperate forums/threads before it gets too messy.
National tourneys
Regional tourneys
Web Design
Balata ball
etc
And delegate who is responsible for each area/agenda. Seems to me that the success of this will depend a lot on Lag delegating responsibilities.
I like the idea of World Ranking points, surely my Persimmon win last year must still be counting towards that. 
Lipoutānice job on the websiteāclean and modern-looking. What will be compelling is populating the site with interviews from young guys that have found playing persimmon the way to goā¦the message being this not a throwback movement but rather a new way to play and compete. That coupled with interviews from Lag, Bradley, Vic Welk, and other pros, will make it dynamic and credible.
My expertise is in public affairs, particularly media relations. Though I havenāt pitched sports media, the same rules and tactics apply. Once the website and subsites get populated and to the point of critical mass, I might be able to help generate top-tier media interest, though I donāt think it will be hard. Pushing the website out to other outletsāShackelford, SITD, Gotham Golf Blog, etc., will generate momentum. If we need to develop press materialsāreleases, key message documents, Q&As, etc, all which should be under a separate page on the site, along with media contacts, I can help.
As an aside, as I go on golf websites, the common theme when talk of playing persimmon comes up is, invariably, people say they miss playing it and say theyāre going to dust off the woods and take them out for a spin. Also, Two is generating a lot of interest over on SITD with a thread on playing proper golfāpure ABS and the guys there are totally into itā¦
Agreed. I had that end in mind when setting it up. Iām trying to emphasize that a primary objective is the resurgence of persimmon golf in the modern era and not just the reminiscing of old persimmon players from the 60s. There will inevitably be reference to classic persimmon players, clubs, and idea but whenever possible Iāll bias it towards current events and modern developments.
Kicked off the equipment section of PersimmonGolfToday with a spruced up version of Lagās epic āhow to flatten a persimmon driverā. Website address will be changing shortly but for now itās available here:
Nice job LipOut! 
IMHO I think some type of independent message board functionality is vital for the site to have a viable position as a persimmon community hub. Even if coverage areas mimic areas already on the ABS site I donāt think that is confusing. Lots of golfers visit multiple forum sites Maves / Elks site, Shackelford, golf club atlas etc etc. I am sure there will be plenty of links between ABS and the new site so visitors can find their way here if they want to. But we should avoid the new site/sites appearing to be simply a recruiting ground for ABS. But we need traffic and plenty of it, quiet forums just get quieter as folks just donāt come back if no new content is added or threads donāt move.
There also needs to be some reason to register for access to the site and the ability to be able to post messages is a prime one. The ability to be able to arrange games between forum users in different geographical areas is also a good motivation.
Other website ideas.
- Offer access to the ABS Vault for users when they have posted there first 100 messages (at the discretion of mods) on the persimmon site. This benefits everyone.
- To simplify things make sure forum usernames / passwords work across the group of sites
- Have a video section for forum members hitting their own persimmons
Cheers, Arnie
Thanks arnie. I agree with you the messaging and board posting needs to be a priorIity and that is why Iām in the process of moving the site off of wordpress.com and onto persimmongolftoday.org. This will allow me to implement all the social networking aspects that I canāt do on wordpress (boards, messaging, etc.).
I will try my very best to differentiate from ABS and I think there is a path to not appearing as a straight copy. For one, it wonāt be an instruction site. ABS is great for that and Iām no instructor. Second, whenever possible I want to bias the site towards MODERN. Thatās a fine balance because a lot of potential viewers will be older and reminiscing about their gear from the 60s, 70, and 80s and I donāt want to push them away but I also want to emphasize that traditional golf is a way to play TODAY so any competitions or younger players embracing the style would be of primary concern. Iāll start getting interviews in order. Arnie, have you heard of these guys?
http://www.persimmongolf.co.uk/
They seem to have a good business model and I noticed their sales were up this year when the rest of the golf equipment industry was down. They also sponsored a pro-am tourney where a pro playing persimmon won. Might be a good thread to pull and see where it leadsā¦
Hi LipOut
Yes I have heard of them (demoed a couple of their clubs a while back) but donāt know a huge amount about them to be honest. I am sure they would be open to an interview given the focus of the site and then possibly explore where that might take us in respect of potential sponsorship / collaboration etc. Lots of interesting links from their site as well to explore and ideas for other interviews as well. I would be happy to approach them.
Cheers, Arnie
Ok guys I think it would be a good idea to take stock of where we are and what we are focusing on before things start to drift or we go round in circles. Personally I think its important to have a some clear short and medium term objectives so our energies are focused and we can see how we are progressing towards those objectives. From following this thread my feeling is that establishing the persimmon community website and nurturing it is the obvious short term objective. The medium term objective would see the inaugural National Persimmon Open or Open series with a purse that will attract a decent pro contingent.
Does everyone (anyone ) agree that this is the right strategy? Letās get any objections / contrary points of view out now so we can move forward.
Cheers, Arnie
I like that ideaā¦
should we split this thread into two threads?
Amateur community?
Pro community?
I favor one community
They guy who runs this tour was reluctant to give away too much information as he considers anybody else looking to set up a tour/competition to be a rival. He also doubts that there will be enough interest in playing golf with classic equipment because it āwill make the game even more difficult for the amateurs.ā He didnāt buy the arguement modern equipment has done nothing to reduce the average handicap figure. Nor did he believe that classic equipment provides more feedback than modern equipment to assist with the learning process. Oh well back to the drawing board.
He did recommend Penfold as a company that may be able to help us on the ball front as he believes they have created or are interested in creating a ball with more shot shaping in mind.
In my opinion no. One thread. Keeping us all together.
I think the last few responses just show how difficult it is to do anything but get a broad canvas of opinions and thoughts in a forum thread. I really think we need to kick on and to do that we need to agree who does what. I would tentatively suggest that (with his agreement) Lip Out and I work together on the persimmon community website and come back to the group when we have something more fully formed to share. Similarly I think if the National Persimmon Open is to have any legs someone (probably US based) needs to pick that up and push the concept forward. This of course doesnāt mean that we and they wonāt need help / support or that there is no room for further ideas and comments in this thread, but I suspect management of anything needs some clearly identifiable individuals pushing things along.
I can feel my dictatorial megalomaniac instincts rising, someone stop me before its too late 
Cheers, Arnie
Thatās fine with me Arnie and I had planned to develop in the back ground for a little while until we can roll it out with a some quality content. Iāll keep it moving as best I can and keep in contact with you. First priority right now is getting software in place that could let a community flourish and that means profiles, private messaging, etc.
Ok here we go!
So there were some suggestions to split up into different groups but still a strong desire to stay together as 1 community. Well the website Iāve been working on, while not fully complete, is ready for a testdrive (picture the DeathStar in Return of the Jedi) and the Groups/Forums area is primed to continue this discussion. Iāve set it up so that itās not an exact replica of the bulletin board style here at ABS but instead itās a series of groups, each with itās own discussion/forums area. As you signup (or anytime after) you can join up with groups that interest you (or start new ones) and start posting threads in those groups. For instance thereās a rules group, or a persimmon tour group, or a European Persimmon Players group.
Letās give it a try and see where it goes. If anybody has access to content or feels like creating some, please let me know. Could be a review of a classic course with images and comments or an essay on the state of the game or a summary of the greatest persimmon clubs 1950 - 2011ā¦ or whatever. Itās called Persimmon Golf Today but really itās about traditional golf and there could be groups or threads to discuss blade design or a ball rollback or classic shotmaking or meeting up for a weekend foursome or whatever. Letās keep it as modern and forward looking as possible. We know that there are straggling persimmon players all over the map. When a nice persimmon goes up on the bay it gets snatched up. That should tell us there are others out there.
Please donāt expect it to run flawlessly but I promise to address all technical problems as quickly as possible and to the best of my ability. Consider this beta testing.
The site is at http://www.persimmongolftoday.org
I hope you enjoy it!
Great to see that up and goingā¦
I think a designated area where players can talk about their rounds such as the beauty of hitting the right clubs from the right places on the golf coursesā¦ as they were intended could be fun and VERY educational to those passing by.