Pro Sponsorship Deals for 2012

We've heard the rumours about Rory going to Nike, Tiger becoming Bridgestones new talisman, Rickie to Cobra (only one that makes sense that deal what with his Puma affiliation) etc, etc.

But news in of the first new Signing has just been announced. Its someone else moving away from Titleist and signing instead with Adams Golf (who IMO are making some of the best gear on the market). They have signed Robert Karlsson on a new deal to play equipment throughout the bag.

I'm a big fan of the Adams gear, don't have any of it yet, but like the driver and Irons. Only thing that doesn't look good is the tour bags.

Good move for Karlsson though, Titleist looks a bit old hat and the stable is too large.

Might have to stop playing Bridgestone balls if the man sausage Woods signs up though.

super_realist wrote:Might have to stop playing Bridgestone balls if the man sausage Woods signs up though.

I recall a conversation where it was stated that allowing a professional to determine your equipment due to his sponsorship arrangements was a daft thing to do.

Conversely is it not daft to allow a professionals sponsorship arrangement to cause you to stop using a piece of equipment which you have found perfectly suitable up until they start using it.

Probably LJ, however I wouldn't want to be indirectly paying the wages of the man I most despise in Golf.
In most cases I wouldn't let sponsorship bother me, but in his case I'll make an exception.

I can't see the Tiger to Bridgestone rumour coming to fruition Nike make too much out of flogging his dead horse so to speak!

However something I found interesting today. As many on hear know a good friend of mine runs his own golf shop (shameless plug coming up for purpose of informing of website) www.golfgeardirect.co.uk was in his shop yesterday for no reason other than a look at what's new as he gets new clubs 2months before they hit shelves to try out and decide what he wants to stock.

Whilst I was there I got to hit a few things like the Cobra AMP, Cobra Long Tom, TM R11S and the Rocketballz. But whilst doing this he told me how he and his staff (none of which are Pro's) had been offered a sponsorship contract of sorts by Yonex, Nike, and Cobra to play their clubs as a sort of Brand Ambassadors, the only stipulation they had was they had to completely fill their bags with the chosen barand! And all for free!!!!

I was aware that Club pro's could get this sort of deal but wasn't aware people that basically work in a shop can get the same!!!

***Footnote: Pains me to say the R11S felt quite nice to hit! But its white looks were crap! The Cobra long tim I cannot see taking off, looked awful, felt awful and the length at 4foot long is a joke!

Just been tweeted that Poulter is signing up for Puma shoes and belts for 2012. Sticking with his Cobra hardware though

Davie wrote:Just been tweeted that Poulter is signing up for Puma shoes and belts for 2012. Sticking with his Cobra hardware though

Thought there was a law against poaching and skinning endangered wild animals for clothing. Don't even want to know about his Cobra 'hardware.'

But seriously Davie, is Golf-Chat UK looking to sponsor someone next year. I'm sure if we gathered up about L100, we could get someone on the Challengers Tour to wear our patch.

venice

You shouldn't post things like that on here, I'm sure the all powerful Mod team over on the darkside will try to steal that idea and 'do a deal' with Sir Luke or Sir Eldrick!

After all, they are the premier golf chat site on Planet Earth

venice1 wrote:

Davie wrote:Just been tweeted that Poulter is signing up for Puma shoes and belts for 2012. Sticking with his Cobra hardware though

Thought there was a law against poaching and skinning endangered wild animals for clothing. Don't even want to know about his Cobra 'hardware.'

But seriously Davie, is Golf-Chat UK looking to sponsor someone next year. I'm sure if we gathered up about L100, we could get someone on the Challengers Tour to wear our patch.

No surprise about the Puma thing considering they own Cobra now so in effect he is playing Puma hardware.

The pro thing is a good idea wonder if I could swing that!!!!

Maverick wrote:

venice1 wrote:

Davie wrote:Just been tweeted that Poulter is signing up for Puma shoes and belts for 2012. Sticking with his Cobra hardware though

Thought there was a law against poaching and skinning endangered wild animals for clothing. Don't even want to know about his Cobra 'hardware.'

But seriously Davie, is Golf-Chat UK looking to sponsor someone next year. I'm sure if we gathered up about L100, we could get someone on the Challengers Tour to wear our patch.

No surprise about the Puma thing considering they own Cobra now so in effect he is playing Puma hardware.

The pro thing is a good idea wonder if I could swing that!!!!

If you can't I can. I know a few kids looking for sponsors.

David Howell has left Cleveland and will now be using Taylormade.

LJ look into it anyway if you can do it will be a nice coup for us.

Howeller gone to the darkside... Not sure I can respect any tour player using ckubs called rocket balls

easily done Mave... although we're talking EuroPro level currently.

Mav did you get to try the Rocketballz woods? TM are making pretty outrageous claims about the length this is adding to their tour pros.

LJ Europros good for us certainly a good breeding ground and gets plenty of following from serious golfers.

RR: did get to try the Rocketballz, as all things TM overhyped junk IMO felt dead off the face and is nothing more than a differently designed Burner with some R11 type tweaks!

Maverick wrote:LJ Europros good for us certainly a good breeding ground and gets plenty of following from serious golfers.

We formed an Investment Club at my golf club in 2010 to help support one of our young golfers on the Europro tour when he turned Professional. An extremely likable and hugely talented young man, there was little difficulty initially in selling enough shares to raise the capital required to make it a viable project. It was a three year agreement and the aim was that he would be on the Challenge Tour by the last year 2012.

A learning curve in the first year was followed by a pretty disastrous 2011 where a break of a relationship with a long term girlfriend caused him personal problems. This was combined with a disagreement with the golf club management which saw him leave the club to do his practise elsewhere. Consequently there was insufficient success for a promotion to the Challenge Tour and earnings have been minimal to say the least. This has been followed by a sharp decline in the number of contributing investors and 2012 will still be on the Europro tour which will be make or break year for him. He is spending two months in South Africa this winter practising in the sunshine, (funded by his parents not by us investors!) although this week he plans to be spectating at the JoBurg Open.

I have so far invested personally around £1250, 2012 will cost me around another £600. I still intend to see it through and honour my commitment to him, not sure that I would get involved with anything like this again though. It is such a hard way for people to make a living, even when you have fantastic ability, there are so many brilliant players out there all chasing the same dream.

Maverick wrote:LJ Europros good for us certainly a good breeding ground and gets plenty of following from serious golfers.

RR: did get to try the Rocketballz, as all things TM overhyped junk IMO felt dead off the face and is nothing more than a differently designed Burner with some R11 type tweaks!

Want to sponsor the lad? As I recall he was a +2 or +3 when he turned pro so has a little bit of a shot. I can put you straight onto him and your company can get lots of exposure on Sky Sports 8 or whatever shows it these days!

LondonJonnyO wrote:

your company can get lots of exposure on Sky Sports 8 or whatever shows it these days!

Sky Sports 8. The "ocho". If it's almost a sport, you'll find it here.

BC - that is almost an identical scenario to my son. He did pre-qualifying for the Joberg Open this week, but missed out by 2 shots. As you say, chasing the dream is not quite as glamorous as people think - but I guess it still beats 9-5 in an office.

Ouch...that must be so disappointing to miss out by such a small margin. Better luck to him for next time Mary.

I am sure that it beats 9-5 in the office, I do more like 8-7 for more years than I care to remember! If you are young and have got both the talent and the opportunity you have got to give it a go, otherwise I am sure you would regret it later in life.

Mary_S wrote:BC - that is almost an identical scenario to my son. He did pre-qualifying for the Joberg Open this week, but missed out by 2 shots. As you say, chasing the dream is not quite as glamorous as people think - but I guess it still beats 9-5 in an office.

It must be engaging for you none the less as you follow your son's journey. A thought: what would the chances be for your son to write a guest post or article for our site if only to give us an insight into the trials and tribulations of a young golfer "chasing the dream" during this golfing era as you say? Maybe even a guest column if he saw fit.

Venice - I am sure he would do a post, if you think it would be of interest.

For me, it has been an experience which I would not have missed for anything. Bank of Mum has taken a hit at times though!

To relate this back to the original post - he is kitted out by Callaway, and has a contract with Titliest for balls, gloves and shoes. For everything else - there's Mastercard!

Mary_S wrote:For everything else - there's Mastercard!

An excellent premise for a new MC commercial. Young pro golfer is stranded abroad. Mother answers the phone with a worried look on her face while looking at the bare cupboards in her kitchen. The father is at the local pub downing his 5th or 6th pint. "Don't worry, Son, just put it on the card. I have a feeling your father has had his last pint for the next few months." The father at the pub suddenly gets a strange feeling all over and looks inquisitively at his now half empty glass. MC... priceless.

I'm certain there would be interest on our side. And maybe we could gather a few pence to have him wear our patch with the logo. (Yet to be designed) And I'm still allowed to visit the Bank of Mum as long as I answer the phone calls and listen to her fireside chats.

Does Callaway and Titleist only offer their wares or do they also make suggestions and give leads so that the pot can potentially become richer for your son?

Mary

I think some sort of sticky or blog following your son would be a great idea on here. Would be great if you can talk him into it!

More interesting... I just found out that a kid I used to play a lot with a few years back has just gotten his full card on the ET.

Lloyd Kennedy out of Chelmsford. Been a struggle for him as he found his feet on the Europro and the Challenge and he's now on the main tour.

He's of the same Essex 'era' as Ollie Fisher so hopefully he will go on and get a few good finishes. Deserves it.

LJ...Two other Essex golfers in addition to Lloyd have also just got their full European Tour card and made their debut in the Africa Open last week.

Matt Southgate from Thorpe Hall and Jamie Moul from Colchester, although Jamie's club was Stoke-by-Nayland.

Good luck to them all

I know Matt. Didn't know he was chasing the tour card this year.

Good luck to him.

For those who might want to sponsor an up and coming youngster I've been chatting with a lad I know. He's looking for some bits for the year.

Mave... come on. You know you want the coverage!

LondonJonnyO wrote:More interesting... I just found out that a kid I used to play a lot with a few years back has just gotten his full card on the ET.

Lloyd Kennedy out of Chelmsford. Been a struggle for him as he found his feet on the Europro and the Challenge and he's now on the main tour.

He's of the same Essex 'era' as Ollie Fisher so hopefully he will go on and get a few good finishes. Deserves it.

I always look out for Lloyd's results (known by association!). Was great to see him get his tour card - he is a real grafter, so hope that he does well in the events he gets into.

Saw on twitter -

@nikegolf announce that Ross Fisher has joined them. He's currently testing clubs to decide what goes in the bag and will be using 20XI ball

smithersjones wrote:Saw on twitter -

@nikegolf announce that Ross Fisher has joined them. He's currently testing clubs to decide what goes in the bag and will be using 20XI ball

I saw that to. Seems he's decided to play the VR woods & hybrids and VR blade irons. USing the methodcore putter to and ball so thats the full house for fisher sponsor wise with Nike. Yet another player leaving titleist thats 2 since the turn of year.

Also see today SR's mate Gutlord Lowery is playing Cleveland and is to use the Z Star yellow ball.

Apart from getting a stack of cash, why would a Pro want to use a yellow ball?

BlueCoverman wrote:Apart from getting a stack of cash, why would a Pro want to use a yellow ball?

Be the only reason i'd use one now! Can't see the need or desire to use such a thing

Perhaps he is hoping for double stableford points in the Pro-am team competitions

BlueCoverman wrote:Perhaps he is hoping for double stableford points in the Pro-am team competitions

Instead of double helpings at breakfast

Maverick wrote:

BlueCoverman wrote:Perhaps he is hoping for double stableford points in the Pro-am team competitions

Instead of double helpings at breakfast

S_R would have been proud of that reply!

Tennis switched from white balls to high visibility yellow. Football is doing the same. Why not golf?

I assume that a yellow ball is easier to see than the traditional white, both in the air and against the green contrast of the grass. Clearly the ball is stationary in golf, so high visibility is not such a benefit, but there must be something in it. Taylormade and others are singing the praises of high vis white drivers.

In the past only top flite, ultra etc made yellow balls, so there is a bit of stigma attached to it, but I would be happy to play yellow z stars.

Ray, I think TM are singing the praises of white drivers because they are running out of other gimmicks to market their gear on. There's only so much "longest driver ever claims" that a gullible public will swallow.

I wouldn't be surprised to see red/green/orange drivers etc coming out of Taylor Made soon.

The white headed driver makes no difference to how it performs! That's like saying a pink condom is better for your technique than a red one!

Its a gimmick that gullible people will buy into because they contrast the white crown to a black face! No different to a black crown and steel face!

Much like a yellow Z star is the same as a white one.

**Stop Press**

Taylor Made release new Blue driver. Designed to keep the player calm in stressful situations.

I remember I once found a pro v1 with hexagons printed on it, so it looked like a mini football. I used it for a couple of rounds until I lost it but I really liked it.

I read about it afterwards, and apparently the idea is that the pattern helped your brain to more accurately register the dimensions of the sphere, which gave you more confidence when striking the ball, and it supposedly helped with reading putts. I can't vouch for the effectiveness of these markings, but it was much easier to see the roll of the ball when putting and chipping.

I guess the fact that I've never since seen another one of these balls probably means that they didn't really make a difference.

Ray, those balls are good for chipping and putting practice as it's easy to see how the ball reacts.
One gimmick that is actually useful.

Maverick wrote:The white headed driver makes no difference to how it performs! That's like saying a pink condom is better for your technique than a red one!

Its a gimmick that gullible people will buy into because they contrast the white crown to a black face! No different to a black crown and steel face!

Much like a yellow Z star is the same as a white one.

Mav - that was my point. A yellow z star is the same as a white one, so why not use it.

LOL re the condom analogy. Maybe TM will bring out white condoms to fit over their rocket ballz

Yellow balls just don't do it for me looks weird when addressing the ball.

RocketBallz is the single most stupid name for a club I've ever heard

ray

That ball you described is called a TruVis and is used on the seniors tour by Gary Wolstenholme. The idea is that it appears larger when you look down on it, thereby inspiring confidence and making it easier to co-ordinate hand/eye movement. I found one last year and used it for a couple of rounds, also quite liked it. There was a WUM on the old BBC 606 site that was constantly banging on about them, can't remember his name.

As for the yellow Srixons, although they are identical to the white ones, they somehow seem to have some sort of translucent property reminiscent of some cheapo ball. Although they perform well, they give the perception of being cheap rubbish.

drive4show wrote:ray

That ball you described is called a TruVis and is used on the seniors tour by Gary Wolstenholme. The idea is that it appears larger when you look down on it, thereby inspiring confidence and making it easier to co-ordinate hand/eye movement. I found one last year and used it for a couple of rounds, also quite liked it. There was a WUM on the old BBC 606 site that was constantly banging on about them, can't remember his name.

I remember this WUM D4S, I think he had something to do with the company or was a reseller or something. I'm guessing that you were put off of them solely by not wanting to support this guy. I have seen the ball and they look very interesting, don't think I have ever played with one though.

As for the yellow Srixons, although they are identical to the white ones, they somehow seem to have some sort of translucent property reminiscent of some cheapo ball. Although they perform well, they give the perception of being cheap rubbish.

I have used the yellow Srixons and they do take a bit of getting used to. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them but the finish, as you mention, makes it look a bit naff and I did have the concern that I wouldn't be able to get an identifying mark to stay on it.

I bought a dozen Penfold Dual ID's the other week.
Now you are probably thinking that they are something akin to a Pinnacle or a Top Flight, but they are a proper, premium 4 piece ball. Easily as good as anything on the market in terms of how they play.

Feel like James Bond teeing it up with them.

As long as you aren't shooting too many 007's S_R!

super_realist wrote:I wouldn't be surprised to see red/green/orange drivers etc coming out of Taylor Made soon.

I was in AG over Christmas and the sales assistant was going on about how Cobra/Puma are bringing out a range of wacky coloured drivers in 2012... he seemed to be more interested in that than with any improvements in performance that might be made. Guess which colour driver Ricky's going to have...

scarpa wrote:

super_realist wrote:I wouldn't be surprised to see red/green/orange drivers etc coming out of Taylor Made soon.

I was in AG over Christmas and the sales assistant was going on about how Cobra/Puma are bringing out a range of wacky coloured drivers in 2012... he seemed to be more interested in that than with any improvements in performance that might be made. Guess which colour driver Ricky's going to have...