Golf Inventors – Reinventing the Square Wheel for the Millionth Time

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, December 18th, 2013
Categories: Boneheads • Golf Accessories • Golf Gear • Miscellaneous
Tags: Golf Accessories

I receive hundreds of products per year and I do my best to review the ones I feel are worthy of some airtime. Rather than posting negative reviews of the not-so good products, I choose radio silence. I received such a product last week.

A few days after I received the product I got an email from the inventor, excitedly asking me if I received it yet. At that point I did something I’ve never done before. I sent a come-to-Jesus-moment letter to the inventor. I held no punches and gave my honest and critical opinion of the product (which I will not name) in the hopes that I might keep someone I’ve never met from blowing his life savings on patent attorneys and making 50,000 units in China, only to end up years later bankrupt with 49,995 units in his garage.

What’s this product? It is one of which I’ve seen countless versions. I’ve got around eight of them. Make it nine now. This invention is a “club stand.” It is made typically from one piece of metal, bent so that a club can lean against it. See the photos.

My only use for something like this is to give it to the wife and let her use it to hold up her tomato plants in the garden. No serious golfer will ever use this and I’d bet a round of golf and drinks at Pebble Beach that none of the big box golf chain stores like Dicks or Golf Galaxy would carry one.

Golf Entrepreneur 101

I hate to be such a party-pooper, but before you golf inventors invent the next club stand, a.k.a. piece of bent metal, look on ebay. There are dozens of them and they’re selling for as little as five bucks. If you want to compete with five dollar products on ebay, be my guest. I bet jabbing yourself in the eye with your invention would be more fun though.

The first thing you should do as a golf inventor or product entrepreneur is determine if there’s a demand for the product. And don’t ask your friends. They’ll all tell you how great it is, the same way they’ll say your ugly baby with the three eyes and warts is the most beautiful baby in the world.

Do real research. Do some blind product polling and testing. It will cost money. It will be worth it.

Then you should see if there are other products like it in the market. The golf market is flooded with bent pieces of metal which nobody will use for standing up clubs. Just look at the pictures I found of said bent pieces of metal after browsing the interwebs for about 10 minutes.

Why?

Why am I being so harsh right now? I personally know golf entrepreneurs who have lost their entire life savings and even lost their families because they sank all their dough into their products. Some of these are actually very good and high quality products.

The golf industry is tough. Even the good inventions seldom break through to the big time. I have firsthand experience in trying to get the Dicks Sporting Goods of the world to carry a great golf product and it is quite difficult and discouraging.

Please golf entrepreneurs, before you spend years of your life developing your product, then dump thousands of dollars into patent research and prototyping, then blow money on crappy Chinese manufacturing, step back and look what you’re doing. I want to make sure you’ve done your homework and are sure this will succeed. Then you can send me one for review. If it is useful, I’ll write about it.

Until then, stick with the day job.

Local Utahn Tony Finau Gains Web.com Tour Exemption

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, December 17th, 2013
Categories: Pro Golf • Web.com Tour
Tags: The Big Break • Tony Finau

Tony Finau with Bud Cauley in the background – 2011 Web.com Utah Championship

The Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament finished today. Six grueling rounds of high pressure golf at PGA West Stadium Course to see who gets their 2014 tour cards for the Web.com.

I’m happy to report that a local named Tony (not me unfortunately) finished T3 and has earned an exemption, good until the third reshuffle of the 2014 season, which occurs after 12th event. You may recognize Tony Finau from an appearance on Golf Channel’s Big Break Disney or a couple of Tour events.

This is a huge deal for him. It will be fun to see how Tony does. Looking forward to watching his (hopeful) progression onto the PGA Tour.

Historic Golf Discovery: Old Tom Morris’s First Golf Shop in St. Andrews

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, December 17th, 2013
Categories: Golf Courses • Miscellaneous
Tags: Old Tom Morris • St. Andrews

Tom Morris Golf Shop – St. Andrews

I love to keep close tabs on the “Auld Grey Toon” of St. Andrews. It is my home away from home, even though I’ve only been there twice…

Good friend and Old Course caddie John Boyne tipped me off about a very neat and historic golf discovery by Roger McStravick. Mr. McStravick has been researching in the University of St. Andrews for an upcoming book, “St. Andrews, In the Footsteps of Old Tom Morris.”

The discovery was found through the reading of manuscripts from the Golf Collection in the University of St. Andrews Special Collections Department. In statements written by Old Tom Morris was information pertaining to Tom’s building of his first golf shop next to the 18th green of the Old Course in 1878.

I hope to get in touch with Mr. McStravick and do a small interview about this discovery, and also pick his brain for other great information about Old Tom, the Old Course, and the Old Gray Town. Stay tuned.

For more information check out this article in Golf Business News.

Here’s Your Chance to Have Tiger Woods’s Personal Chef Cook for You

Written by: Tony Korologos | Monday, December 16th, 2013
Categories: Tiger Woods
Tags: Tiger Woods

Official carries the wiener off the 7th green…

Slow news day I guess…

This article in the Broward Palm Beach New Times discusses a new bistro called “kitchen” (yes with a lower case “k”) in West Palm Beach, FL which was opened by chef Matthew Byrne and his wife. Byrne is a former personal chef for Tiger Woods.

“…for several months out of the year — South Florida. Later, he was introduced to Tiger Woods, and became not only his personal chef, but also the estate manager of his Jupiter home.”

Award For Golf Website With Most Social Networking Icons Per Square Inch

Written by: Tony Korologos | Sunday, December 15th, 2013
Categories: Boneheads • Golf Media

I’m in a sarcastic mood right now. Then again, I’m always in a sarcastic mood. I was browsing Golf.com and found it mildly entertaining that in a space of roughly 3.5 inches by 5.5 inchs, there are 22 social networking icons.