Recap of the Kansas City Golf Show
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Updated: Fri 3/12/2010 4:48 pm
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Recap of the Kansas City Golf Show
Golf, by its nature, is a cruel game. The lipped out putt after a perfect stroke, an abysmal lie in the middle of the fairway, and the ever present foursome from hell that views finishing the round today as merely one option to consider only demonstrate our game’s cruel heart. However, I would take a dozen lip outs, a lie three feet underground and a foursome that moves as quickly as a sundial---if only I could play, today, on grass, in the sun, and without my Alaska hunting gear to keep warm!
Alas, our weathermen conspire against us and we are left with only one way to slake our thirst for golf: The Kansas City Golf Show. For three hours of joy, practice and more fake grass, here is what I learned. First, all of my friends and acquaintances have just come back or are about to leave the city, always destined for warmer climates. It seems that Phoenix and Jacksonville have better snow plows. Second, every manager or golf professional of a public course that was an exhibitor, and there were plenty, needed lessons on remembering what paying golfers looked like. One golf professional stated that last year they had just fewer than three thousand green fees through the end of February, this year less than fifty. As we all know, the golf market in Kansas City is hurting, and this less than stellar cash flow for the first two months of the year cannot help the situation.
This year the show included an emphasis on health, with a number of fitness centers, chiropractic and wellness exhibits and the amazing people from Saint Luke’s Health Systems as the sponsor of the Wellness Zone. As winter drags on and the need to see how many bowls of chips and dip I can consume in one winter Olympic event becomes important in my life, the emphasis on health and fitness is a timely reminder that spring is indeed near and soon penance for indulging will be the order of the day.
As for the best event at the show, all I can say is the indoor driving range was visited by all. On one end of the net was a brave lad giving video lessons for ten dollars and on the other was a putting and chipping zone with imaginary holes in the cement. And in between, every golf club maker from Adams to Wilson plying their wares in front of a seventy foot net, trying for the next sale. Suffice it to say that the lines were long and the three piece composite high spin balls were flying. Of course, the real issue was to determine when to stop hitting and let the next golfer in line dream of warm days and a smooth swing. I saw many take their time on the range, but only one hit it off the hosel in front of the Titleist vendor and nearly killing the Bridgestone vendor, sending his ball careening off the Bridgestone laptop and into the plastic rough. Accomplishing that feat, I let the next guy take my place. Next year, I’m trying the game improvement irons; I think the hosels are more forgiving.
See you when the snow melts, somewhere in the right rough… the caddie perspective.
