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GolfProHelp.com Newsletter
http://www.golfprohelp.com
golfprohelp@gmail.com
Special Edition, February, 2001
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* From Dan's Desk
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Sue Fracker of FINDaLESSON.com was kind enough to send me her viewpoint
of this years PGA show in Orlando. It is extremely well-written, and
I'm thankful that she provided it. After you read it, you will be too.
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Is the Dot Com dead? Not at the PGA Show...
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You hear things in your car that may or may not be true. I was on my
way somewhere two weeks ago when it was revealed to me by one of the
more tolerable FM station chatterboxes that the dot com is dead. Apparently,
being in the dot com business today is something you must admit carefully
and sheepishly, as though you just spent the tuition money your parents
gave you on beer. Oops, I was hasty and foolish. Better get a real job.
This was unsettling news (or meaningless DJ fodder, depending on your
investment portfolio). After all, Elaine Crosby and I were due in Orlando
at the end of the month for the PGA Show where we would be talking up
our newborn web site, FINDaLESSON.com in sure-to-be famous Booth 24428.
The death of dot coms everywhere was a distant war in our minds, fought
by the inexperienced, the unprepared, the reckless. We were not like
them.
The PGA Show unveiled many others who must have been lounging in our
blissful ignorance. The dot com was not dead in Exhibit Halls A - F
at the Orlando Convention Center; it was not exactly a lifeforce, either,
but it tagged the end of enough company names to remind you that anything's
possible. Out of the ashes (ironically, as fires continued to rage and
smolder in patches across Florida) rises a fresh warrior for dot com,
and it's not dot tv or dot museum or dot info. It's dot com revisited.
Consider first that technology and golf have had a long and fruitful
marriage. Oh, there've been arguments along the way as tradition tries
to hold the upper hand. But let's face it, while today's golfers can
get misty recalling Ryder Cup moments, they also burst into tears of
relief when the Titleist computer discloses that they've been using
the wrong ball all along. I personally witnessed grown men standing
in a very long line, waiting for a white-jacketed Titleist expert to
introduce them to their best ball option, all at the touch of a button,
all in a matter of seconds.
It seemed at some other surreal moment in the Show, there were just
as many of these guys over at Interactive Frontiers (a.k.a. InternetGolfAcademy.com)
staring wide-eyed at multiple monitors featuring analysis software with
golfers frozen in mid-swing, their heads encircled in yellow, their
spine angles accented with red lines. You got the same mix of reverence
and delight over at 3DGolfWorld.com, where golfers belted on the sensors
and swung themselves into positions worthy of the Tour because the beeping
computer clued them in.
And then there was Bruno, from Canada, who showed us Capture-Action
software, an application similar to many video capture and swing analysis
programs, except that it was in French, and it printed out the best
quality swing frames for comparisons that we have ever seen. We also
chatted with Golftec (www.golftec.com), whose learning centers, situated
in major metropolitan cities, are attracting throngs of golfers looking
for some statistical explanation of their games' idiosyncracies. Golftec
keeps a file on each customer; repeat students can then compare current
swing angles and clubhead speeds to numbers they posted on a previous
visit. With 25 PGA teaching professionals also on staff, Golftec can
bring personal experience to the lesson in addition to very sophisticated
and impressive technology.
There were plenty of new and exciting things to see at the Show, the
vast majority of which had something to do with technology (barring
the hours of fashion shows and gazillion variations on the golf shirt...now
available in lavender!). Whether it was something to build a more precise
club or something to build a more precise you, these products held a
StarTrek quality that outwardly made you nod as if to say, yes, I understand,
but inwardly made you wonder if next year's show would actually be on
Earth. Even the Convention Center staff got in on the act, pointing
their laser scanners at your badge bar code every time you entered a
different hall.
The booths were astronomical - Callaway had the largest (over 10,000
square feet); Nike gets credit for biggest golf shoe, which was basically
a left-soled pillar bearing a 3-foot swoosh and holding up half the
booth. Liquid Golf was probably shooing away thirsty show attendees
every five minutes as six squirting beams of water arched gracefully
over their booth entrance. Ashworth was classy, booth walls dressed
in transluscent charcoal logo banners; Cleveland was a monument to Vijay's
Masters win, two enormous monitors playing looped highlights with crowds
roaring. Wilson's staff bustled about their bi-level department store
of a booth, communicating via headsets and closing FatShaft deals at
little round black iron tables.
Nicklaus, Player, Lopez, Webb, Norman and more sported grins two feet
wide as they held various swing finishes in giant photographs displayed
around their respective product booths. As a first-timer, I was floored
by the acreage this expo covered in promoting and celebrating a game
that must have given birth to the first swear word. But what impressed
me most was the presence and perseverance of the dot com amidst these
walls despite recent news of its death.
On a weekend that featured a Super Bowl with only three dot com commercials
as opposed to last year's 17 web site spots, there were thousands of
companies temporarily putting up shop at the PGA Show, the vast majority
of whom could be heard saying, "Check our web site." Need more info
on that product? Check our web site. Wondering how to order? Check our
web site. Want to learn more? Check our web site. Have you been to our
web site?
Granted, the concern in the web site business is that even though everybody
seems to have a web site, nobody's making money at it. Web sites used
to be "on-line brochures." Then they became "on-line stores." Now they
are "on-line tools" to market and manage your business and communicate
with your customer in an interactive environment full of sticky content
designed to attract eyeballs.
The common thread in all this is that a web site has always been a quiet
source of information, a soft sell, visited by fleeting strangers who
may not want to be identified. Companies who are paying attention to
the value of information presented in that way will build a strong following
and a lasting site. Others may lose, falling victim to the age-old "all
hype, no substance" approach. Sites at the PGA Show were guilty of both,
but the good news is, fewer are starting from scratch without a clue.
The dot com will survive. It may have peaked early, like so many things
that excite and challenge the human race, but it has yet to reach its
full potential.
Sue Fracker
FINDaLESSON.com
Toll Free 877-553-7766
P.O. Box 130
Jackson, MI 49204-0130
sfracker@findalesson.com
--Sue Fracker is the Vice President of Marketing for FINDaLESSON.com,
a web site that looks forward to its first birthday in July 2001. Elaine
Crosby, and LPGA Tour Division member, is founder and CEO of FINDaLESSON.com.
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