OK I will start a group and blatantly rip off an ABS thread title: “Classic Rounds with Classic Clubs on Classic Courses” or something like that. Remember anyone can start a new group and each gets it’s own forum to start threads. The groups are basically like the individual subforums here: Equipment, Public Area, etc. So if you want to start a group for any other topic just go for it! You can easily follow all the activity from the activity link on the home page.
Great job Lip Out 
Lets get posting.
Rip away…
Lots of good stuff on here to take over there…
Would it be a good idea to pin the new website as a forum topic here at ABS to help drive traffic, or do we want to keep the affiliation low-key?
LipOut–really nice job getting this up and running–congratulations!
It certainly is not a problem putting up a link from here… I don’t know how to actively integrate it without posts being first initiated here for it to register new posts, active and so forth… but I’m sure there is a way to do that. Either way, I’ll do anything I can to help get it off the ground.
Quick update here…
As we start preparing for the TRGA event in Las Vegas Jan 27 - 29th, Hoffman has been busy putting together a new website to support the event along with the TRGA site. The Persimmon Tour site is nearly completed and will likely host the event information while the TRGA site will be a home to “rules only”
While we don’t have a tour as of yet, I have been contacted by a supporter who has promised to put up a significant prize purse for the event’s winner. This will do wonders to attract more serious players and could be an excellent stepping stone for a bigger promotional push.
I’m hoping to secure the funds by the beginning of next week so we can hit the pavement running and start a blitzkrieg media push in conjunction with securing commitments from quality players who should be interested in taking a shot at the significant first place prize.
We now have access to the National Golf Foundation database, and their media black book. However, for us to work efficiently from that, we need to link an excel database to an email program… which we can do… but we need to get the info from a PDF file into excel.
Anyone interested in volunteering to help here? It’s busy work and nothing but… but once that is done Hoff can do his thing and we will be ready to fire when it’s time to pull the trigger.
Just from a glance, I think there are several hundred entries that need to be added to the database file. But once that is done, it will be a powerful tool for us.
I am prepared to forward the files asap.
thanks
John
John, send me the pdf file, the excel column format that you want it in, and I will get it done. There maybe some short cuts.
Cheers, Arnie
We are waiting on the funding to come in for the TRGA event. We were promised $10,000 guaranteed first place money for the winner of the event which is great. It gives us momentum, the press is eager for the story, I probably get an email from someone every other day about it, and they want the story. I doubt any mini tours are getting that kind of press interest.
So we can’t really do much at this point until that happens.
From conversations I have had with other pros, and I just spoke with a contemporary of mine that is still playing mini tours, he said we should not have trouble getting 60 guys to show up for that kind of money.
We are proposing to pay 5 spots.
10K
3K
1500
1000
500
Certainly to sustain a tour you need to make sure the guys down the list 50th place and so on can survive, but what we need now is media attention and we will get this with a 10K first prize. We should also get better players that want to take a stab at it. If you don’t think you can win the event (as a pro) you probably shouldn’t be playing.
Now, the other attractive feature is that we are only charging $375 to enter, compared to most mini tour events that often charge $1000 or more, or even have a pre Q entry fee or admin fee.
So at roughly 16K is prize money, and a cost of $6000 to rent the course, 60 guys @ 375 puts us at $22500. So that’s about the break even.
What we need is the purse guaranteed… to move forward. If this guy comes through, he is not expecting to lose all his money.
The guarantee is really acting as an insurance policy.
So while there are some obstacles to overcome, less and less all the time.
So just an update here.
We may have to postpone the event into March or April, but we are determined to make this happen one way or another.
If it’s in March or April, I will certainly try to be there as an amatuer competitor. Whenever it is, let me know if there is anything I can do to help to make things run as smooth as possible.
I think if10 of us agree to an alternate plan for the event; we can go ahead and support the event on the scheduled time. I am ready to risk 10% of the cost.
traditionalgolfsociety.com/equipment
Still waiting for KM to deposit the funding check to guarantee the purse.
KM is sick with the flu and wanted to go over things next week. So I should have a final answer by then.
I had another discussion with Wilk and he feels we will have no problem getting 60 or more guys to show up. With a $10,001 first prize for the TRGA event we will exceed the winning payout of last years Nevada Open. Very exciting stuff.
The press doesn’t care about what’s being paid out for 60th place. It’s the winners check that makes the news. $3000 for second, $1500 for third, $1000 for 4th and $500 for 5th should be enough to attract all the good players in the area. A Vegas event attracts players from California, Utah, and Arizona also.
I’ve spoke with a few other players and the word is that they will show up… but need time to secure gear and a couple weeks to practice with it. So it seems inevitable at this point that we are going to have to push back the dates again.
With an entry fee of $375 we fund the purse, and pay for the golf course with about 60 players. ($22500)
The Nevada Open was covered by Yahoo news as well as other media. I feel the TRGA story is much more interesting than any State Open.
news.yahoo.com/las-vegas-golfer- … 05724.html
I think the TRGA event starts the ball rolling.
How bout a show of hands for any who are in!
I played with Barkow yesterday, and he told me he would write a story on it in GOLF WORLD!!!
But this would be predicated upon us securing at $10K first place winner’s check… as that seems to be monetary line of demarcation for showing something substantial is happening.
That would be great, because GOLF WORLD will make sure the word gets out… and it will get out in a hurry with that kind of press.
We just lined up 30 complete sets of gear, irons and persimmons for those why want to use the “I don’t have the gear” excuse.
We can rent complete sets for about $30 for the week with a fully refundable deposit… so that now becomes less of an issue.
Vic doesn’t want to back down on the grooves issue… so the classic gear is for sure conforming. Most all the modern blades have some kind of box grooves… whether square or U shaped. For example, Hogan Redlines have the square grooves and would not be conforming.
Is there a resource or a way to know what shape your grooves are? Considering some early 80’s Wilson Staff Tour Blades. Any idea what these grooves might be?
From what I remember, Ping came out with the square grooves, then others followed… so late 80’s that stuff started showing up. I think any blade 85 or before would be conforming.
Question to everyone here…
Does anyone have trouble reading the red text against the green background?
It seems fine to me… but Hoffman wanted me to re do all the lettering in white.
It is difficult to read on my laptop.
White would be easier to read…
That’s great that it will be in golf world. Can’t wait to see the story.
hi everyone,
late to the thread, but my couple of cents are the following:
(1). is there ay interest or developments in terms of sponsership?
(2). retro is cool if you make it so. reading through the thread i have seen that attempts at taking an ‘edgy’ and provocative approach to getting the word out, but i don’t recall reading any ideas to reassociate the great ball-strikers with their equipment. everyone loves ben hogan and wants to swing like him (just search youtube), but somehow the equipment he used has been deassociated from his swing. if we were to do any advertising, we would want to re-associate the golfing coolness of hogan and snead with their equipment. cool by association. remember those gap ads in black and white, like “ansel adams wore khakis.” we could do something like “ben hogan wore khakis…and golfed persimmons and blades” or “hogan’s secret…persimmons and blades.” may be trademark issues, of course.
I had similar thoughts on this also. A proper image to this would be key. Who wants to be the image consultant?
Saw the Pecan Valley article posted…
Chip Puhl? is this a guy we should be contacting? Can someone find an email address for him? He sounds like a guy that might have similar values about the game and preserving it’s history… and who knows… maybe the game itself?
KM is still sick in bed with some kind of Malaria like flu… it’s a frustrating situation for me.