We’ve all probably had the experience of going car shopping, being persuaded by a salesman to take a test drive in something more than we plan to buy and instantly falling in love with it like a movie-screen crush from our teenage years.
Golf equipment companies, which have mastered the marketing game, have their own version of test drives. They’re called demo days.
A company – maybe it’s Callaway or Titleist or Ping – sets up a tent at one end of the practice tee and invites golfers to sample their latest innovations. It’s not unlike passing appetizers before dinner, and who can resist a free spring roll or a few cubes of smoked gouda.
Who doesn’t appreciate the chance to swing something new? It doesn’t mean you’re buying, but information, as they say, is power.
With golf coming out of hibernation in many places and with companies offering new equipment for a new golf year, this is prime demo-day season.
It’s a brilliant marketing plan. Most golfers – there are some who are steadfast in the belief that their Pittsburgh Persimmon driver is just as good as the new stuff – are always open to new equipment if it promises progress.
Some risk whiplash because something new can turn their heads so quickly.
I knew a guy who bought multiple full sets every year, driver to wedge, with a staff bag to match. He changed clubs the way most of us change clothes, but that was his thing – and he could play.
The new stuff is shiny, the grips are tacky and a good fitter can run you through multiple variations of a 6-iron until you’ve found just the right one.
If you want to try the model designed for better players, demo day is your chance. Try this shaft with this head. Not working for you? Try this instead.
The feedback is instant and, if you’re not too proud, maybe you find out that dropping back from a S shaft to something softer actually helps.
And demo days are selling that new-car smell.
Ron Green Jr.
E-MAIL RON
Top: VM, GETTY IMAGES