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MYGOLFSPY 2009 RUMOR NOW CONFIRMED! (PUMA BUYS COBRA GOLF)

MGS was the first to give you this possible big golf news back in August of 2009 when we were hearing lots of rumors from credible sources and we also ran across some interesting Puma driver drawings that made us think they were thinking more and more about jumping into the equipment side of the industry.  And today that news was confirmed!  Puma is set to buy Cobra Golf!  Amazing news for Puma.  We just hope they handle this great brand and product the right way.  There is amazing potential for this brand.  They year in and year out fly under the radar with some of the best golf products on the market.

The press release with all the info is below about the sale and we also wanted to include some of the earlier drawing and a link to the previous article we highlighted way back in August of last year.  READ AUGUST 2009 ARTICLE

DEERFIELD, Ill., Mar 10, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Fortune Brands, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!fo (FO 46.45, -0.03, -0.07%) today announced a definitive agreement for the sale of its Cobra golf brand to PUMA AG. The sale includes the Cobra brand, as well as related inventory, intellectual property and endorsement contracts.

“Divesting the Cobra brand will enable us to drive shareholder value by concentrating our golf investments behind Titleist and FootJoy, which represent our highest return growth opportunities in golf,” said Bruce Carbonari, chairman and chief executive officer of Fortune Brands. “With Titleist and FootJoy, we will continue to have the leading worldwide position in the attractive golf consumer products category, and we are very well positioned to drive growth as the market stabilizes in 2010 and recovers in the years ahead.”

Titleist is the #1 ball in golf and FootJoy is the #1 shoe and glove in golf. As the company’s flagship golf club brand, Titleist generates the majority of the company’s sales in the golf club category. In 2009, Titleist golf club sales grew in a global golf club market that declined at a mid-teens rate.

“With the sale of Cobra, we have the opportunity to devote all of our resources to the global growth of our industry-leading Titleist and FootJoy brands,” said Wally Uihlein, CEO of Acushnet Company, the golf business of Fortune Brands. “As we continue innovating, competing for market share in the U.S. and expanding internationally, we believe Titleist and FootJoy will be the industry’s most powerful platforms for profitable long-term growth. At the same time, Cobra is a strong brand with a heritage of innovation, and we wish the quality associates guiding the brand future success.”

Acushnet will provide transition services to PUMA on behalf of Cobra — including production, distribution, field sales and customer service — for an agreed-upon period of time beyond closing of the sale. All Acushnet employees dedicated to the Cobra brand are expected to become employees of PUMA upon completion of the transaction.

Fortune Brands expects the sale to be approximately two cents dilutive to 2010 earnings per share before a one-time gain on sale of approximately five cents per share. Financial terms of the pending transaction were not immediately disclosed.

The sale is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The companies anticipate the transaction will close early in the second quarter.

The Story Of: Ontic Golf Putters

Today at MyGolfSpy we wanted to introduce you to man with an immense passion for designing putters.  We met Bernie a couple years ago at the PGA Show…we had seen his putters before (Ontic Golf) although we never got to meet the man behind the designs.  There are a lot of believers in his putter system out there so we struck up some conversations with the owner and over the past few months we have gotten to know more about him and his incredible drive to get his putters in more golfers hands to see what they are all about.

I always enjoy hearing how a product got dreamed up and brought to life.  And the concept Bernie developed for his putters is one many golfers struggle with and that is having the correct lie angle on their putters…which this system all but eliminates.  We will soon be testing and reviewing the Ontic Putter line and will give you more feedback in the coming weeks.  Below are some testimonials from previous users.

Testimonials:

• “The Ontic mallet putter is the best putter we have seen for making straight putts in the 4-10 ft range, which is really the most important distance where a putter can really help a golfer. You have really got something here. All of my testing administrators have used the putter you sent and each one feels it is one of the best 5 or 10 putters they have used, which is really saying a lot.” Wayne Williams

  Testing Director
  Golf Test USA
  Green Valley, AZ

• “The Ontic™ M-Pulse is simply an engineering marvel. The ease in which you can adjust the lie angle while maintaining complete face balance is amazing. Knowing that your putter is always square to your target is amazing, and it gives you that added confidence to make more putts. The soft feel of the aluminum face allows you to control your speed on today’s fast greens. I believe that a custom-fit putter is the wave of the future. You would be hard pressed to pry my Ontic M-Pulse out of my hands!” Kevin Arnold

  Teaching Pro
  Diamond Springs Golf Course

• “Your putter is a very interesting design and high-quality machining. All the weight is in the center of the putting head, or directly behind the ball, which makes the putter feel very solid. I love the lie angle adjustment feature, which is great for custom fitting.”
  
  Jack M.
  Golf Works

It Started With A Dream

It started with a dream around 2 am in 1987; a dream so vivid that I shot out of bed to sketch the idea and write a short note.

The dream concept would change the shape of the putter sole. The new sole would both lower the heel and toe shape and add mass for more weight in the heel and toe of the putter.  The new design would be called “Dynamic Sole Technology (DST)”.  DST is the perfect sole platform for custom fitting the putter for the precise lie angle to the individual golfer. It is the only sole design to insure a consistent lie angle, then for a consistent length.  The result would produce consistent set-up, consistent eye and ball position for the individual golfers set-up ritual.  The dream was the beginning of the journey to design putters around this DST sole, the Flag Ship design for all Ontic Putters.

Our DST design would increase MOI long before the concept of MOI became a popular term.  The test data on our DST design showed that a putter resting flat to the surface produced straighter line roll and distance control.  Also, the data showed that a face loft angle between 2-3 degrees would produce better roll rates, and consistent distance control. We started making putters at 2.5 degrees in 1987 when the rest of the Industry was 4 degrees or more.  Today many putters are below 3 degrees and Tiger is around 1.5 degrees.

I had no idea at the time what it would take, or the costs involved to keep moving forward.  I was naive as to what it would take to market our innovative designed putters and to get out the message about the features and benefits of the DST sole.  After making the first sketch, it was more than two years before the first investment cast die was made and we poured our first, original putter head. The original design, The Pinnich, was only made for a few years.  It would be another 1 ½ years to get our Patent approval and USGA conformance.

The next design would be our Signature Series Tour Blade.  This putter is still being used and has set a few course records by amateur players.

And Ontic Golf Was Founded

It is impossible to detail all the events from the start of the process to now. From 1987 until 2003 I was content to custom make putters for individuals, work on new design concepts, and instruct putting and the short game. From the beginning, the putters I made were mostly a hobby that continued to grow strictly by word of mouth. It was a hobby for me because my career path was outside the golf industry, and I could not devote enough time just making putters.

Ontic Golf Group, LLC was founded in 2003 after a few players convinced me my design needed to be made for the rest of the golf community. It would be a rough start, since only one person was a PGA member.   We introduced a new putter, The Classic, and soon followed with the Signature Series Tour Blade.  However, trying to custom fit our putter designs on the web site was a major challenge.

The Importance Of Lie Angle In A Putter

To educate the golfer as to the importance of a custom fit lie angle and to over come the fitting process, we engineered our M-PULSE Series designs. The M-PULSE series putters took over seventeen months to develop, and to complete the USGA conformance and patent process.   A breakthrough in lie angle adjusting and locking system.  A quantum leap in putter innovation.

The M-PULSE made its debut at the 2008 PGA Show.  Strong reviews, excellent test data reports, other course records, 2nd place finish in Junior Nationals, Orlando, sales in six countries would soon follow.   However, breaking into the national market has been difficult for our small company financially, but we continue to press forward.  There has been some pressure to cut our cost by going off shore, but I totally reject the thought.  Being made in the USA is important to me and to our country.

It started as a dream;  it has become much more.  Having a custom-fit putter will make you a better putter. After all, the real scoring game is on the green, and making putts will significantly lower your score.  Johnny Miller said it best during the 2009 Ryder Cup, “It’s the putter that lights the fire.”  The Ontic M-PULSE Series putters will “LIGHT THE FIRE TM”.   I guarantee a custom- fit putter will make you more consistent, and only the DST sole can make that statement.  You can not have a consistent lie angle on a convex sole.

Getting Our Message Out There

We have much to do to get our message out. Great things are propelling us forward, but it has not been easy.  It is much more difficult today because the major players in the golf industry can buy the markets.  New innovation and ideas are coming from small companies.  Hope you will give us a try.

Just one more story I would like to tell.  In 1963 I was being interviewed for a Sales Engineer position. I was asked if I played golf.  Without hesitation, I stated, “I am NOT going to play that stupid game.”  Now I have a number of golf patents, own a golf company and in 1990, attempted to qualify for the Senior Champions Tour through the Q School, two Senior US Open qualifiers, and a few Monday qualifiers.  I soon learned it takes more than a good game.

Have a dream, define it and be persistent.  It takes a never, never give up attitude.  Stay tuned for more innovation and announcements soon.

“VISION IS BEYOND SEEING”

Bernie Pinder
President
Ontic Golf Group, LLC

For More Info on Ontic Putters: CLICK HERE

Have You Ever Putter With An Ontic?  If So Tell Us What you Think.

Alright guys…I think you are going to love today’s article!  Today you get a SUPER inside look at the type story I love to hear and read myself.  In my golf career I have been fortunate enough to get to meet some of the best golf club designers there are in the business.  And probably my favorite thing to hear about is how some of the old designs came to be…and the whole process behind their creation.

And today that is just what you are going to get to see!  This one comes to you from Jeff Sheets from Sheets Design Group.  The members of the Sheets Design Group have participated in the design and development of hundreds of golf club models over the past two decades. From tournament player designs to game improvement models the Sheets Design Group has had a hand in shaping the direction of today’s high tech golf equipment industry.

Some of the companies they have designed for include: MacGregor, Ben Hogan, Wilson Staff, GolfSmith, Lynx, Founder’s Club, Top-Flite and many more.

And today you get to hear about how an interesting fairway wood design came about while working hand and hand with Lee Trevino.  This is a story you will not want to miss!

Design Retrospect:  The Trevino Spoiler Sole Woods

By Jeff Sheets
Sheets Design Group

As a golf club designer, “How do you come up with many of your golf club concepts?” is a question I am asked rather frequently.  Every design goes through a metamorphous on its way to the market but some have pretty interesting roots to them.  A project I recall from many years ago is a fairway wood family with a bounce sole design that led to some rather intriguing performance benefits.  Why place bounce on the sole of a fairway wood?  It was one of those brainstorming questions that gets tossed back and forth between two designers who are trying to think outside of the box.  The two designers in this particular case were Lee Trevino and me.

Working on Prototypes w/Lee Trevino

I had the privilege of working closely with Trevino over the course of four years when I headed up Spalding Top-Flite’s golf club R&D group.  Even though I had a large professional staff and a close working relationship with Payne Stewart, Craig Stadler, D.A. Weibring, Rick Smith, among many others, it was Lee who I enjoyed conceptualizing with the most.  Not only was his candid approach to creation a great pleasure, but his insights to club performance and anticipating expectations from various golfing abilities was very much on his radar.

The amount of time spent testing prototypes on the driving range was invaluable.  I remember on one occasion, after showing up with an incredible amount of test clubs for Lee to hit, I wore him down to the point where he was hitting clubs shirtless.  Lee was sweating so much his caddie Herman Mitchell wouldn’t get near him.  Not exactly the professional touring pro image people think of, but in Lee’s case, he wasn’t going to let me down when we had an important chore like club testing ahead of us.

24-Hours Later The Bounce Sole Concept Was Born

But I digress.  Back to the bounce sole concept on the fairway woods.  The bounce concept was a seed that had somehow evolved in Trevino’s thoughts.  The only way to dispel his concept was to create a prototype and test it.  When Lee would come up with ideas he would contact me.  “Jeff, what if we were to stop polishing the face of the wedge and instead left it naturally coarse following the casting process?”  Thus, the Top-Flite ‘As-Cast’ wedges were born.  “Jeff, could you create me a fairway wood with a sand wedge sole on it?”  Twenty-four hours later, Lee had a mocked up prototype in his hands.

The prototype was quickly created by applying some automotive Bondo to the sole of a Top-Flite 5-wood.  “Bondo Bob” Vokey introduced me to the quick modeling technique when we worked in R&D together at Founders Club in the early 1990’s.  Lee had his model in hand the next day but I never heard back from him if the sole shape was what he was looking for.  I did however receive a phone call from our Top-Flite tour rep telling me “whatever it is you sent Lee, he put on a clinic yesterday hitting a variety of shots from the driving range bunker . . . . oh, by the way, he’s also on the cover of the Palm Springs sport section swinging the club.  Is that okay?”  Well of course it wasn’t okay.  The model was never intended to be shafted up, much less hit or used in an exhibition.  Lee was letting the cat out of the bag long before we applied for our patent on it or targeted a launch date.

The Birth Of A Golf Club!

As we continued to test the concept I was able to model the design into a product that Top-Flite introduced as the Intimidator 400 fairway woods.  The concept was quite novel.  As the loft of each fairway wood increased so did the amount of bounce on the sole.  Bounce is the angle of the sole in relation to the ground line.  It is most prominent on sand wedges but most irons have a progressive amount of sole bounce as the lofts increase.  As the golf swing becomes steeper there is a need for bounce to keep the wedge from creating too deep of a divot.  Less bounce is required on more sweeping swings associated with lower lofted irons.  Woods have virtually no bounce to their soles.  Instead they use a radius.  But in the case of the Intimidator 400 woods the bounce angle to the sole created some interesting dynamics.  The concept was termed as the “Spoiler” sole because the bounce angle created a shape reminiscent of an automotive spoiler as each wood sat propped in a golf bag. The “Spoiler” sole virtually eliminated fat shots with the fairway woods.  As the sole would make contact with the turf, the trailer edge with the bounce would make contact with the ground first.  This would force the leading edge to centrifugally ride along the turf ahead of it. This worked well with the sole slightly concave.  It would also make hitting a shot laying submerged in a divot a rather simple execution.  In fact, Lee would often step on a golf ball to bury it half way and then hit it cleanly using one of the Intimidator 400 fairway woods to show how well it worked.

Naturally hitting shots from the fairway bunkers could be executed with the ease of a sand club.  The higher bounced 7 and 9-woods were outstanding clubs from 150-190 yards out.

Many higher handicap golfers greatly praised the Intimidator 400 woods. For many of them their slices straightened out.  A simple understanding of bounce angle to turf relationship easily explains this phenomenon but to many golfers it was pure ‘magic’.  If you have never hit a wood with bounce on the sole it can easily be imagined by understanding your sand club.  Take a sand wedge with a high bounce angle (10° or higher) and set it in the center of your stance on a firm surface.  Because the trailing edge of the sole projects lower than the leading edge the wedge rotates to a closed face angle when you let go of the grip and allow the club to rest.  The higher the bounce angle the more it will rotate closed.  The Spoiler sole acted in this same manner.  In fact, the firmer that the golfer hit the turf with the Intimidator woods the more dynamically the face would rotate closed upon impact.  For golfers who display difficulties rotating the clubface to a square position the dynamics from the sole automatically executed this for you.  While being ‘magic’ to higher handicappers I had to do some custom sole grinds for our touring staff just as I would custom grind a sand wedge sole. Because the woods were cast in thick soled titanium there was plenty of material to work with when grinding. Ultimately the Intimidator 400 fairway woods offered versatility for shot making under a wide range of lie conditions.  It was even a breeze off of concrete (my clubs have the scars to prove it).

15 Years After The Concept Was Created

It’s been nearly 15 years since I created that first bounce sole fairway wood prototype for Trevino. He used at least one loft of that set for many years to come, long after the product was no longer sold by Top-Flite.  The concept proved out so well with fairway woods that I eventually created a set of Intimidator irons that incorporated the bounce sole.  However due to posturing of different product lines and a change in marketing direction Top-Flite never introduced the iron set.  I was eventually able to bring the irons to market about six years later when I carried the concept over to Golfsmith’s Special Force woods and irons.  Today, you can find Intimidator 400 fairway woods for a song on the internet.  For a 100% titanium fairway wood head they are a tremendous value.

You can learn about some of the other unique golf club models I have developed over the years on my website Sheets Design Group and more Tales From The Tour in my book The Perfect Fit at SheetsPublishing.com.

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