UST Tour Shaft Usage

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Interesting reading... a little technical info, a little culture!

 

 

April Showers??... Not exactly...

Published April 26, 2006 by Jim McIntosh, PGA Tour Representative

 

The Masters has come and gone for another year, what a great tournament again. UST did very well with a second-place finish and (3) others tied for third. The great part is that there were four different models of UST shafts in this group, the IROD, Accra SC 75, Harmon Tour Design 85 and the IT, formerly known as the Inertial Transfer shaft. This was the first counter-balanced designed shaft introduced into the UST line in 1994. It was also used by the 1996 PGA champion in his driver at Valhalla.

 

This is a tribute to the success and performance of all these products used on the tours in years past and today.

 

The week following the Masters my partner Stacey Benevuto (aka 'Stacey B') worked the Heritage Classic at Hilton Head Island while yours truly opted for the LPGA Takefuji Classic in fabulous Las Vegas. We were very proud to have both the winners of the Takefuji Classic and the Heritage using UST shafts.

 

The Takefuji champion has been using the IROD shaft in her Sonartec hybrid for sometime and it has been a go-to club down the stretch. The Heritage champion used an Accra SC 95 in his 3-wood to garner his first tour win. Hats off to these great young champions!

 

We have become fashionably aware here at UST and it is showing with our new 'pink' color-schemed shaft on the LPGA tour. Don't let the colors fool you, the V2 shaft has been very successful on the PGA Tour and will no doubt share the same success on the LPGA tour with flying colors, literally and figuratively.

 

We are predominately using 50- and 60-gram shafts for the LPGA tour. There are a few players who use shafts into the 70-gram range, but not many. This is our first year to work so many events on the LPGA circuit, and it is a great opportunity to gain visibility on another one of the world's most highly recognizable tours.

 

There has been no rain in sight for us in April and Las Vegas was no different. The city is a great place to go and you don't even have to hit the tables. Players, reps, tour officials and caddies all enjoyed the sights and sounds of this buzzing desert oasis at hotels like the Bellagio, Venetian, Luxor, Paris, MGM Grand and so many more. I particularly enjoyed touring through the incredible new Wynn Las Vegas hotel, very close to the Las Vegas CC. There is a stunning view of one of the restaurants as you enter through the front of the hotel and look to your right. It appears that it is raining, with different shades of blue, pink and rolling waves as you stare over the balcony overlooking the front glass and down the escalators.

 

This is no 'do drop inn,' there is definitely more 'drop' connected with this and most of the hotels and casinos here. The Bellagio and Venetian have wonderful art museums with exhibits that you would see in the likes of the Solomon Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

 

I also enjoyed restaurants like Tao (Asian Bistro) at the Venetian hotel, Nine Steakhouse at the incredible Palms hotel and Shintaro (Japanese) at the Bellagio. I didn't get a chance to hit Fatburger or In and Out on this trip.

 

The players were going low this week at Las Vegas CC with the winning score at 197/16 under par. These players are really lighting it up out here and you can expect more of the same as the LPGA season really gets into ramming speed with the Ginn Resort and Kingsmill tourneys on the horizon.

 

We are excited to work this tour and will be a new challenge for UST. It gives us an opportunity to show just how many great shafts we have had success with on another level.

 

A 1-2 finish at the Heritage for UST led to some very exciting Sunday golf at Hilton Head. Both players, the champion and the runner-up were using the Accra and ProForce shafts respectfully.

 

Harbour Town is a venerable old Pete Dye design that is long and has small greens. It is a favorite course of so many tour pros through the years and is one of the great stops we love to go to each year.

 

We hope the trend continues throughout the year on every tour, we have had some great feedback from the players with so many different UST shafts.

 

Stace and I both worked the Shell Houston Open this week at the Redstone Golf Club, just north of downtown Houston. Rain, forget about it. Temperatures on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday hovered in the mid- to upper-90s with lots of humidity. The temps did not deter the great atmosphere this tournament always brings as this year sports another fantastic field of past champions and world class players. We took in a very exciting Houston Astros game against Milwaukee. The Cobra reps were great company and we saw a nice comeback by the 'Stros to pull it out 8-7. What a great place Minute Maid park is, awesome food courts!!

 

However, this year was a little different here at the Houston Open. We all have lost a key ingredient to what has made the Houston Open and Houston golf great for so many years, and for that fact, all of golf wonderful. We lost our good friend Dick Harmon earlier this year in February. Several friends and former players along with brother Bill Harmon attended a dedication on Dick's behave on Tuesday at the Dick Harmon Golf School, on site at Redstone. I enjoyed seeing Dick every time I had the chance, but especially while coming to the Houston Open.

 

We will forever miss him, but he will always be at this great event in spirit. He would have loved the great BBQ lunch that the Houston Golf Association puts on each year on Tuesday at the range.

 

We had a great work week and being back in my neck of the woods didn't hurt either seeing several Texas pros and friends in the business and talking shafts and golf (and OU/Texas football).

 

We would love nothing more than to have this year's Shell Open champion playing a UST shaft!!..

 

Stace is off to the Champions event next week in beautiful Austin, Texas, and for me, it is down to Orlando, Fla., for the LPGA Ginn Resorts Open.

 

Hoping for some great weather with no April showers (or early Florida hurricanes).

 

I'm out..