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Speaker 1: The guys from Paying. They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want.
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Speaker 2: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping proven Grounds Podcast. Shane Bake and alongside Marty Jerts and Marty in the very very nice purple Today. Marty, we got an exciting guest today.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Stacey Pals, our vice president who is in charge of all of our women's product at Ping is including other rules and responsibilities, and we're very much looking forward to talking to you. Stacey.
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Speaker 3: Thanks, I'm happy to be here, Stacy.
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Speaker 1: First things first, I want to talk about your time at Ping. How long you been here? How'd you get involved in Ping? How well you know kind of everybody in the background.
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Speaker 4: Ah, that gets to be a bigger question, right, So I've been involved with Paying all my life.
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Speaker 3: Right.
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Speaker 4: So the secret that's not so secret here is that I'm part of the family, so third generation family member. So Carson and Louise are my grandparents and my father is Alan, So we call ourselves part of the third generation. So that's that's where I've been. I worked all throughout different office parts of the business. So I started in customer service. I supervised customer service for a couple of years, worked credit, worked marketing, did a little export, and then started working for Luise directly.
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Speaker 1: When you start out basically with pinging your bloodline and then you start to see this company evolve, how different does it look in twenty twenty five than what you remember when you were a kid.
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Speaker 4: When I was a kid, I mean I remember coming as a tour here with the junior group and hearing my dad get up in front of our group and talk about how you know, we were going to have one hundred employees and.
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Speaker 3: Everyone's like, wow, that's a huge number.
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Speaker 4: And then here we are a little over one thousand and so it's really grown, it's really changed. Went from a small off this environment where everyone was in one place, one office building, and we've spread all throughout different buildings here on campus.
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Speaker 2: Stacey, I want to know a little bit more from you having Louise be your grandmother, right, just more. And I think a lot of the listeners Shane are probably familiar with her role in naming the answer and taking care of some of the maybe a little bit of taking care of some of the operations and things of that nature and supporting Carson that way. But what did what did Louise do for the company and where what did what was her role? And maybe some inside stories there.
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Speaker 4: Okay, well, yeah, she was very very important for the business. In fact, I feel like we wouldn't necessarily exist had it not been for her. She was a very strong business minded individual.
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Speaker 3: At one point she.
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Speaker 4: Had a job as a computer so that was her job to calculate the graphs and such that the engineers would would give her the numbers, she'd have to put it together. And she went to business school early on before she met Carston, and so she was really business savvy. And so while Carston had the ingenuity to kind of go with it and the designs and the idea like, if it was up to him, he would have probably given all the clubs away like and Louise like, no, no, we need to make sure we build things. She so anyway, she was just a great advice person for him. And when the time came for our first export order that came in trying to figure out how to send something internationally. So the first or export or we actually gifted because it was.
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Speaker 3: Easier to do that.
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Speaker 4: And then Louise realized she had to figure out how to sell things to the other countries and have the proper paperwork and such, and so those that first order was a gift because she found out you didn't have any paperwork that was needed to send a gift, so we would take care of that customer and then went to take some classes to figure out how to export items properly. So but I mean she was behind the scenes. She kept the books, She was involved with a lot of our employee activities and organizations and and what we were trying to do, and so a lot of the culture I believe is also her kind of heart around the business, so.
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Speaker 2: Kind of operations, HR accounting, like all of the business.
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Speaker 1: Business card had a lot of words on many words as right.
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Speaker 4: But but yeah, she was very behind the scenes, and so she was very much letting Carson shine and she just took care of everything behind the scenes.
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Speaker 1: So that would would Carson run stuff by her, I mean obviously, I mean ideas and what do you what do you allow her to to kind of allow input to be be said, maybe even in the background.
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Speaker 4: That's a hard, hard one answer. He would he would talk to her about things. He was a hard one to get to come into the office. He would he would come into the production floor and go to engineering, but when it came to meetings and discussions and things along that, it was hard to get him to come in. And so Louise figured out early on she would invite him in for tea time. And so around two o'clock every day, that's when our more important meetings would happen. And so Carson would come up to visit with her and have tea. And then that's when say, our marketing group would get together and we'd have outside visitors come in. That's when we knew we could get Carston to sit down at the table and talk. So she she knew him very well and was able to work with him on that and then he kind of had the morning to kind of explore and do other things like that. And yeah, so so it wasn't advice per se, because Louise had a better way, I'm knowing Carston to work things out so that things came across as his idea. It was much more successful that way. So she had a way of getting things done the way she wanted it.
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Speaker 1: Does two PMT still exist? Is that something we need to bring back?
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Speaker 3: No? No, but that would be good to bring.
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Speaker 1: Back anniversary T situation at two PM. I liked that, right, Shane.
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Speaker 2: The relationship between Carson Louise kind of reminds me of ped Die and Alys.
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Speaker 1: It's so funny you said that, I was thinking the exact same thing.
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Speaker 2: So Alice was kind of probably responsible for the seventeenth that saw grass right, A lot of the forward t's, which I think had the name the Alice T's, and car path routing and just kind of like the kind of like the rock behind as designs.
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Speaker 1: It kind of feels like like like picking your spot to give advice, but when you gave advice, it was going to be something extremely substantial.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, So, and I think most people know the story of the answer, but the story that they don't don't hear as much about as the B sixty. So Louise wanted Carston design more of a women's putter at the time, and so from what I heard from the story, he drew a heart and then kind of cut off the bottom part of the heart and had the two little shapes there and it was going to be like the Sweetheart putter, but after he played with it, it was like it was pretty good putter, and so he called it B sixty.
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Speaker 2: Amazing.
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Speaker 3: And then.
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Speaker 2: How about Louise's role and then and then ultimately now the company that you're helping continue Stacey's just support overall of the women's game and the story of the Solheim Cup and how that.
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Speaker 1: Came to be.
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Speaker 4: Okay, Well, Louise took up golf, I mean because of Carston. She actually surprised him. She had taken some lessons on her own. Carson had no idea that she was learning to play golf, and she had said she wanted to get out and play when he was playing sometimes, and he said okay, and.
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Speaker 3: Heard the story where she hit the first drive.
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Speaker 4: And it went well and turned around and smiled at Carston and he, you know, had this nice little sparkle and gleam in his eye.
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Speaker 3: So so she began to play at that point.
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Speaker 4: But early on, Carston himself was very adamant about going out on the tours to try to get his putters in the hands of the golfers, and the LPGA was players were very receptive to it, and in fact, I think our first professional win was by an LPGA player, and Carston could by being at those events, could see how good these professional women golfers were and really wanted to try to help support them and showcase them. And so at the time LPGA came to us to talk about the Solheim Cup, the idea for a Solheim Cup or a match play tournament similar to the Ryder Cup. We were already sponsoring four LPGA events at the time, and so we were already supporting it a lot, and then when we when they came to us, it was just I think to do two events. Initially John it was it was there on one of these tea time kind of meetings around and John kind of got up and pulled Carston aside and was saying, how you know, if we do just two events, you know, they might change the name to something else. He thought it would be really really good to do. Louise got up and joined them, and Louise had said, let's let's do the first ten events, which is huge for us because like we don't operate off of debt. Carson's whole philosophy was to take care of today and let tomorrow take care of itself. So trying to get him to think about the future and projections and how are we going to do this And here we are committing to ten events leics twenty years in the future that we're going to be involved and we're going to support this thing was very big and quite a commitment for us.
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Speaker 1: You think about the Solhim Cup now, I mean you mentioned wanting to build an event that rivals the Ryder Cup, and you now think about what the Solhim Cup has become and how excited it is. I was out there a couple of years ago. I mean the fan you know, interaction, obviously getting to go to the Netherlands in twenty twenty six. It's become one of the signature golf events i'd say, you know, internationally, and it's an event that I think golf fans really look forward to. I'm assuming that legacy's got to be something for the brand that is paying that's got to be something as prideful as golf Club's being made or seeing you know, players went out there and the gold Vault and all those things.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean we are so so proud to be at the event. And have people come up and talk about just how much they appreciate going to the event that they plan at years in advance. Large groups getting together, mostly women, some men that join in, getting on their patriotic uh paraphernalia, and and it's it's a fabulous to see and I would I enjoy about it so much as it does showcase the women. The women are so nice and it's just a very classy event.
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Speaker 3: To see there.
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Speaker 4: It's it's a more of a friendly rivalry. Uh and and even within the fans, you see a friendly rivalry.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been it's been fun to to uh kind of see the evolution of the Solheim Cup.
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Speaker 3: So Marty, Marty, you haven't been to one yet, I haven't been yet.
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Speaker 1: You got to get involved in international trip, right, Yeah, sneak over.
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Speaker 2: The time.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's true competition though. I mean, that's why I think these match play events have become such big parts of golf. Is again, individual golf's individual golf, and that's what most people play. But getting that sense of team golf just feels so much different. And you see that sense and I think you know through the captains, you see it out of the captains. You see it out of the staff supporting. I mean, I know guys that are on the stats team, you know, and they one of the guys got a tattoo a couple of years ago, you know, after a USA win. I got a chance to work with Julie e Inkster during that run when she was a captain for the Americans. I mean, it's in their blood now and it's become I'd say it's it's something that rivals the Ryder Cup, if not at times better than right and.
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Speaker 4: Even just even the match play concept. So you got the team plus the match play. The match play, I mean, you play your game differently, if you know, you just each hole is its own little competition. Depending on what your player did, your competitor did, you're going to take a different approach to that. So it's quite unique to see in this day and age.
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Speaker 1: Yep, yep, I'm excited about twenty twenty six. For sure.
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Speaker 2: It is fun to play a little bit more aggressive when when you're in the match play mindset.
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Speaker 1: What do you do? Marty? Are you? Are you? Do you change the play?
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Speaker 3: Absolutely?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? No, Every holes its own calculus, right, So it's like the goals to win that one individual hole. And if you're in a seventy two o stroke play tournament, your strategy is a lot more conservative if you're trying to avoid the bogies and the big numbers. But in match play you can play more aggressive. So there's a lot to It's super fun, super fun.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, like I said, getting a chance to go out there and just see the dynamic of the teams. I think you nailed it when you talked about the respect and the class of the Solheim Cup. You know, when you think about the brand that is paying, I think that that kind of follows suit there as well. It's a brand that's always known what they are and who they are. I'm assuming there's a legacy involved in that as well. But I mean you think about, you know, the lines that you guys have put out women's specific lines of golf and how much I'm a left handed golfer, how involved Ping has been in terms of bringing out golf clips for left handed golfers. I mean, we talk about adapt of golf all the time, and kind of the push and the need for that. Ping has always been a brand I feel like that has put golfers first and I think that's a legacy that dates back to the start YEP.
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Speaker 3: And we're also with the Solime Cup.
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Speaker 4: We have the Junior Solheim Cup, so this event in twenty six is going to be our first time the junior team is going to play on the same course as the regular team, so we we that has been a goal that we have had kind of to be able to see how the junior players handle the course as well as to see how, you know, a few days later, see how the professionals handle the course.
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Speaker 1: So that's going to be really Stacey. Ever missed one? Do you go to everyone?
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Speaker 4: I have missed three three soul him Cups three three. I missed the first two and then I missed one because it was two close. I have four kids, so one was close to a pregnancy. I couldn't travel in the time of.
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Speaker 3: I didn't understand that, didn't Stacy.
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Speaker 2: I would love to talk about our Lady's product. And one thing I think our listeners and our customers know is that we have a different logo, Ladies Logo, So tell us a little bit about the story behind that. I remember really fun when we launched it at the was known as the Founder's Cup, at the end there at the Marriott. I remember the launch event for the new logo, So tell us a little bit just about the story and how that came to be.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think at the time I was just I think it was maybe twenty fourteen or so. I was just put over the women's specific clubs and John said, you know, Stacey, you can, you know, mix things up a little bit if you're thinking of something with logo, And I was like, like logo, like likes, oh, I am on that. So, I mean, I love our our standard corporate logo.
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Speaker 3: It's great.
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Speaker 4: It's just a little bold, and I kind of felt like for the women something a little softer might it might be better. And so we had our design our graphics design team come up with some different ideas, and this one was the clear winner at the time. It's nice because it pays respet back to the current or the standard logo, but it is a little softer feel.
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Speaker 1: Was it a look at it right away and kind of new pretty much.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was the one I know that for John, Like John is really big, like you got to be able to see it from a distance and such, and so it is a little harder to see from a distance is this corporate logo. But but it still looks really good and clean and it and it still has some traits of the standard logo. So and and it's I don't know, we're we were so happy to get that launched. I know when we launched it with the LPGA, the one you're talking about, the players were a static over I mean, just having something special kind of for the women. So it's nice to have it. So we do try to put that on our women's specific clubs. It doesn't mean that clubs they don't have that would still work for some women. So because app.
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Speaker 1: Will Stacy, where does the push come I mean in terms of the brand that is paying to make women's specific golf clubs and to kind of support women's golf, Like, where did that push originate from? And why is the passion still there as golf continues to grow and we see more and more young women wanting to take up the game at a young age.
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Speaker 4: I think it. I think it's always been our goal. We're all about helping players to play their best. And if you take it to the core way back, I mean I remember Carson saying, you know, golf club doesn't know who's swinging it, so you got to build the golf clubs for the individual people that might be able to use it differently. So it's why we have so many different models and such, so we can find the best one that's that's right for their swing, whether it's the Ladies line or the regular line or lines I should say, because there's quite a few options there. But I like to try to make sure that if women are just because you're a female, you don't automatically go to the ladies clubs, because the Ladies clubs are not for every female golfer. They're designed specifically for the slower swing speeds. And so initially when we were talking about having some different clubs for women, I actually I had a hard time with it because of course golf club doesn't know who's swinging it. I didn't want to have just something with a different a different name on it if it's if it was pretty much the same, right, And so when we started talking with engineering and they're like, hey, you know, we can make the face thinner, we can make them We've way back in the eighties we had the I too easy lights, which are lighter swing weights. So We've always kind of played around with some of those things, and we were playing early on with graphite, trying to find.
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Speaker 3: Some lighter clubs.
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Speaker 4: And I remember back in my junior days, like I was playing, I was one of the guinea pigs for some graphite shafts, trying to see what they if they worked or not, but try it.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: So we've always.
00:19:10
Speaker 4: Kind of had some of those features, So trying to incorporate that now specifically for the golfer with that slower swing speed, trying to optimize what we could do for that club so that they can also play their best stacy.
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Speaker 2: On the engineering side, I mean, I've loved that approach because we can go in and then we'll talk a little bit about the player testing we do with a lot of the ladies that work on campus. But we could really take a look, okay at the driver, what is the perfect headway, what's the perfect loft, and let's not take any sacrifices, Like you know, we have our JL four here has the carbon fly wrap and the free hozzle and the heavy CG shifter trajectory tuning, so we have all these these advanced premium features to help the golfer play their best talk a little bit of about the player testing we do and R and D side of things a little bit.
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Speaker 4: Well, I'm not sure where you want to go there with the player testing, but player testing okay?
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Speaker 3: On so yeah, on campus. Yeah, So every every employee goes through.
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Speaker 4: When they get hired on has an opportunity to kind of fill out a little questionnaire about, you know, their golf game and and then we pull those questionnaires to kind of see what we're looking for, what we're testing for. So then we look for people that have some of the slower swing speeds. A lot of more women are a couple of guys that have that slower swing speeds we're looking for. And then we asked them to come out test the equipment, get their feedback as well as look at the numbers of what's actually being produced. And these have performed very well. They've got a great sound, so much some improvements on sound as well as some better height, better trajectories. And I know, Marty, you're always big about gapping, right, So we've.
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Speaker 1: Heard that the gap guy get it a lot on the pod.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: You're right, right, So trying trying to get better gapping, you know, for the women as well in their games, so trying to get them the right club combinations that will work and so, but you know you were asking about the club testing and so so the women can come out and test them it. We do have a lot of really good female golfers here and so sometimes trying to get the ones with a little sower swing speed is a bit of a challenge for us, but we have some and we've even done some little clinics and sorts trying to get some women into the golf, trying to get more interest among that so that we can deepen our player pool.
00:21:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, Stacy, can you talk about the new line? I mean it first of all, I mean it looks incredible, but can you just kind of dive into the difference in the new line and what players should look at and what they should expect.
00:21:54
Speaker 4: Well, yes, yeah, So the new line has got a cool I really like color. So that's one thing I was very excited with the Ladies line. As I can go, we can go a little more out there on colors and kind of mix it up, and so we've got some really nice color accents on it. It does have the carbon fly wrap, its face is thinner than our regular g lines. Lucie still has the vortech. It's got twenty two gram weight in the back. It's a fixed position in the back to optimize the the flight and kind of help a little bit with the tendency to go right bias for the right handed golfer or left bias for the left handed right That tends to happen with some of the slower swing speeds players. But you've and you've got the adjustable gosh, yeah, thank you. The trajectory, we have to make it really difficulty sleeve, yes, and it is the center gravity is lower and for the in the back it does have because it is thinner with the crown. We did have to add an extra support bar in there just for sound, right, so it has a better sound overall.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Marty, which one's the support bar? Is that in the back there?
00:23:16
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right here you see these kind of ribs that are in Again. I think what's fun is that we use our same just like our Prodigy product, just our same overall engineering horsepower to optimize and the acoustics are a really big deal, and especially we kind of get to optimize these for that specific swing speed. What golf ball this player is generally using and things of that nature. I was just holding the driver here and give it. If you give it a little rotation this way and that way, you can feel the inertia. Right, it has more resistance to that twist. And the inertia is fifteen percent higher on the Jelly four than the JLL three. So that's the carbon all the weight savings, the carbon fly wrapp the free hazzle design, the more dense backweight. So and the test results showed incredible improvements to the dispersion stature with the driver Marty.
00:24:11
Speaker 1: In terms of slower swing speeds, what a player struggle with and when they when they swing slower versus somebody that swings with a really fast speed, Like, what are you looking at to optimize in terms of their abilities when you're talking about a player that swings a little slower.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
00:24:25
Speaker 2: I mean the big thing we want to try to do is get the right launch conditions. So generally speaking, with a little slower speed, you want to you want to put your priority on launching the ball high. Everything in there, the loft, the deeper CG is meant to launch the ball a little bit higher. If you look at our optimal launch and spin chart. That's kind of where you go as speed goes down, you want to get launch up. So that's really big deal. And then we spend a lot of time studying and Stacey talked about with the with I two is having lighter headweight but light lightening the entire system the right amount and you can go two light. So two lights not good either because you don't have the right like momentum or you might not find the ground or the bottom of the swing perfectly, but lightning the shafts. Getting the swing weight just right, getting the headweight just right is super important, so the club turns over easy, so we don't want to have the ball kind of going out to the right. We study a lot of the RCOs data and things of that nature to help dial that in.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: And Stacy, when you talk about gapping, we've seen this kind of big push in the game with lofted woods. Is that something you see in the women's line as well? Is it more hybrids? What is the focus on in terms of kind of maximizing the gaping abilities maybe in the higher parts of the golf bag.
00:25:38
Speaker 4: It's it's kind of the whole set, the whole combination. A lot of focus on the on the hybrids, trying to get the right gaping there, but it's got to blend into.
00:25:47
Speaker 3: The fairways and the driver.
00:25:48
Speaker 4: So you've got to got to have a good driver distance that's going to get you out there, and then good consistent gapping so that you know what to hit coming in depending on your game.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: And so the l eight these clubs in particular, because.
00:26:01
Speaker 4: We have so many, many more hybrids and irons, you can mix that set up depending on what your preference is and what will work better for you. So our hybrids go from the five through the eight this.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: Time eight here. Yeah, in the eights new.
00:26:19
Speaker 3: And eight is new. Yes, the eight is new?
00:26:22
Speaker 1: Is that thirty six degrees a loft is what it is?
00:26:23
Speaker 2: Thirty six degrees on the eighthybrid wild, So yeah, Stacey talked a lot about just the importance of the gaping, So it added the eight hybrid es and then we spaced out the lofts on the high lofted on the fairway woods. So I'm holding the five here as twenty three degrees Shane, So this is pretty much equivalent to our nine wood in our g four to forty Okay, right, the five wood, so then we have a seven wood and a nine wood. The nine wood is thirty three degrees, right, so that'd be like a thirteen wood in our main line. But we added a little bit more spacing because we saw some bunching together in our in our player testing with the fairway.
00:27:02
Speaker 1: We I mean, it just goes back to fitting, Stacy, and you think about getting fit for golf clubs and the importance of it, obviously something we've preached a lot about on this podcast, and Ping has preached a lot about for its entire existence. But finding a set where you aren't gapped up to your point, aren't kind of tightened up party, so you can kind of maximize fourteen clubs. Stacy always laugh, fourteen clubs sounds like a lot, and then when you start to kind of dive into your numbers and you go, I've got to make sure that I'm actually utilizing every slot in the bag right.
00:27:26
Speaker 4: And you'll find a lot of women at the slower swing speeds won't have fourteen clubs, and that's okay. That's one of the cool things about our brand too, is that you can build the set for whatever you need for your clubs. You want three clubs, we can build you a set of three. You want five, we can do five. You want fourteen, We'll be happy to put together fourteen for you.
00:27:46
Speaker 3: So that's the night.
00:27:49
Speaker 4: The really cool thing that we have to offer is you can really dial in what that set looks like, and you can even start with a partial set and then fill in, you know, as you're game approves if that's something that you're you're kind of newer to the game and you're trying to see if you really like it or not. So if you if you come in, you know, within the first two years or so of of the model, you can order some some filling clubs.
00:28:13
Speaker 1: What about the options.
00:28:15
Speaker 4: Putter options, We have three putter options, so we get the answer two D, which is this one here, that's that one you've got in your hands, which I always feel like an answer is A is a very solid putter of obviously very proven design. So the two D is a little bigger. We've got some nice uh color blocking on that one, trying to give a little pop so it stands out a little bit more, but it's definitely will perform well for the for the very swings stroke types.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: Is still a slight arc, right.
00:28:52
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:28:54
Speaker 4: So we also have the Louise, which is a nice mid mallet, and then we have the Oslo. So between those stroke types for those three different putters. Now, I will say one of the things that I work on for the putters and the engineers kind of know me for this, is that I'm trying to give these women that are out there that maybe aren't swinging very fast, just a little more confidence in what they're trying to do. So when they get that gimme putt and they want to be kind of cool and pick it up right that I try to make sure that the backflange, it's these small little things. I want to try to make sure this backflange can skew scoop the ball.
00:29:30
Speaker 1: These are huge golfing things.
00:29:32
Speaker 4: Right, right, And so I want to provide that female out there a better chance of being able to scoop it confidently and not have it like scutter off and you're like, oops, I shouldn't have done that in public.
00:29:44
Speaker 1: Right, Stacy. I don't think there's anything worse than if you get a new putter and you're unable to scoop the ball. It's brutal. We've all had one right, and you just can't do it, and you just kind of go, I guess I got a bend over every time and get it. I mean you kind of think about getting the suction cup thing on the end of your putter head.
00:30:00
Speaker 4: You're like, I can't do that either, right, right, So our regular lines, you know, they have been getting a little thicker on the back slang, and so I've been like challenging the engineers, like how can we keep it thin? And this one because like the Louise and the Oslo have a two piece technology, Like trying to get that keep that thin with the with the two piece there was a challenge and I think it's still works out pretty pretty good.
00:30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and still have great fitting options because the Louise has our four hazzle so strong arc and then the Oslo face balanced, so a couple of really good fitting options in there.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the little things.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. Is this now, I know it's something silly, I mean when you think about it, but it's really not because it is important for people that again, you don't want to have a puddle that can't pick up the ball. Are these things that you're that you're just kind of observing. Are these actual things that you're finding out as you're talking to golfers.
00:30:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more observing, okay, and knowing, you know, being out there type of thing.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: Like I want to be able to do this.
00:30:56
Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to bounce the ball a little better on the club face I spend it and such. I need a little more time to practice. Yeah, I don't think I have the good risks action need to, so I need to some tips on how.
00:31:09
Speaker 3: To do that. But that would be good.
00:31:11
Speaker 4: But even little There's another thing, and we don't talk about golf bags here much, but our Lady's bag. A feature that we have in that bag is that the shoulder strap on that bag is a little softer because a lot of women wear sleeveless blouses and if you're carrying the bag, which I like to carry, so the carry bags, you actually have it so that it's a little softer, so it won't like kind of hurt your shoulder. If you're playing a full round, you got to take it up and down. I try to pay attention to the little things that make it a little easier for the women that are out there playing golf. And I hate to use the term easy, but I'm really trying to make it as easy as possible for those women to really enjoy the game and have success.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: Are these if you notice something? Is this like a riot? It in your phone on the notes app?
00:31:55
Speaker 4: Thing?
00:31:56
Speaker 1: Is this an email you send to yourself? Is this coming to work on Monday going we get this? Things been rubbing on my shoulder. We got to figure this out. How do you go about your process?
00:32:03
Speaker 4: No, Well, that one I went out they had a prototype bag and took it out and look and I was wearing a sleeveless blouse at the time, and so I go out to play and I was into carrying it at the time as well. And I came back to the engineers and I'm like, I've got something that you guys probably never curaged you. And they're like, what I like this. It's a little harsh. It's a little harsh on the shoulder.
00:32:28
Speaker 1: Here, this is the area. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, that's that's interesting. That's again, I would have never thought about itless blouse.
00:32:37
Speaker 4: Unless you're playing the Mooney the Munich Courses or something like that.
00:32:41
Speaker 3: Right, it's not many coffers that are doing that.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: But anyway, Stacey even more details on the product.
00:32:48
Speaker 1: The grips.
00:32:48
Speaker 4: Right, maybe it's a little bigger, yes, yes, well this the standard. The standard is a little bigger, so we went to awkward grip as a standard. And that's what we found kind of we are testing in their numbers, is that more women are on the average women is going more aqua. So we've switched our standard to the Aqua grip, but we still offer the red smaller one. I think we still have the blue as well, so we have two sizes below that for those that need it, or even a junior girl that needs something that the blue might work well for them as well. As we still have the white as well, so you can go a little larger. It's another feature we have as you can get the right grip size for your game.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: I mean, I think again going back to golf, as hard enough as it is, I mean we all have experienced it at times, Marty probably less than most, but I mean there are times when golf is extremely tough for everybody involved. The idea of getting into the game is intimidating. I mean I talked to my wife about this a lot, and she goes, do you want me to learn to play golf, and a part of me thinks, yes, I'd love that, and a part of me thinks this is going to be a five to ten year journey for her to get to a place where she's comfortable playing. Just the idea of allowing people an oppertu you need to start out on the right foot has felt like something that's been instrumental in the existence of being, and it's so instrumental in what you're doing in terms of the women's line is allowing players to want to play and be comfortable to play right out of.
00:34:12
Speaker 4: The gate, right right, And that's one thing we've Another change we've done for this current line is that we have switched our fitting club to an.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: Eight iron from a seven iron. Right.
00:34:25
Speaker 4: So the times have changed. So back when I first started, you know, customer service, it was the five irons right where the fitting clubs right, and so going from that to the seven iron was a big deal. And so for the ladies, we're for the first time, we're going to an eight iron, just to help get them a little more confidence on it, because when you think about it, a lot of the women are using hybrids as a seven, so you know they're not even using a seven iron sometimes, so granted we have that if they want that, but so we went to the eight iron as our fitting club.
00:34:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's again, it's making it just slightly a little bit. Get the ball in the air, see some shots you want to see out on the golf course, and then kind of go from there. I mean, Marty again, I think out of the gate. It can be a little simpler, a little smarter.
00:35:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. So another big part of project we worked on with Stacy was building an online fitting experience called webfit Ladies, which Stacy's son Nick helped us do some of the engineering and software development on, which has been quite fun. And that's meant to make the understanding the fitting process easier and to help educate. Maybe it's a customer like your wife, Shane, that's like I want to get I want to get in the game. Fitting sounds intimidating. I'm not good enough. We built webfit Ladies kind of exactly for that scenario. So Stacy want to give a little background on webfit Ladies.
00:35:47
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, so yeah, So we built webfit Ladies so that a female can go in there, answer a few quick questions and it can actually take them off the path. If they're a little more athletic, their swing speed is a little faster, so they can they can take them into the regular product lines so that they can get fit properly for those and then those that are for the ladies' specific clubs with the slower swing speeds, we can dial in a little more about what kind of club combination and it can actually recommend what club combinations would work well for those ladies.
00:36:24
Speaker 1: And your son worked on that. How many do you have you said you have four kiddos?
00:36:27
Speaker 3: I have four kids?
00:36:28
Speaker 1: How many?
00:36:31
Speaker 4: So two of them currently work here and my daughter in law as well. So yeah, so my both my boys work here. The both into programming. Yeah, so my son worked on initially, and I know it was trying to get across because I'm a big proponent is just because you're female, you should not just go into the female section of the store and such. I've had that happen to me, where you kind of get pigeonholed. You walk in, they're like, no, it's almost like they didn't know what to do with you. You should go that that's where you belong, and that's not always where you belong, And so trying to make sure that if we're going to do this for women, that it's that we have that we have something as well that can help get them off off the ladies path if they're a G four forty player and they may not know it but they but they could be, you know.
00:37:22
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, well Stacey, good chatting with you. I mean, it's uh, it's I think about this every time I come on campus, you know. I mean the fact that there's you grew up in the family, you have kids that are now part of the family. I mean, their kids are going to be a part of the family. I mean PING feels like such a family company, and it's always felt like that. I mean since the first time I stepped foot on campus. I can only imagine what it feels like for you. I'm so congrats on the new line things. So much for chatting with us.
00:37:47
Speaker 3: Thanks, happy to be here.
00:37:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast
Speaker 1: The guys from Paying. They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
00:00:11
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping proven Grounds Podcast. Shane Bake and alongside Marty Jerts and Marty in the very very nice purple Today. Marty, we got an exciting guest today.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, Stacey Pals, our vice president who is in charge of all of our women's product at Ping is including other rules and responsibilities, and we're very much looking forward to talking to you. Stacey.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Thanks, I'm happy to be here, Stacy.
00:00:35
Speaker 1: First things first, I want to talk about your time at Ping. How long you been here? How'd you get involved in Ping? How well you know kind of everybody in the background.
00:00:43
Speaker 4: Ah, that gets to be a bigger question, right, So I've been involved with Paying all my life.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: Right.
00:00:48
Speaker 4: So the secret that's not so secret here is that I'm part of the family, so third generation family member. So Carson and Louise are my grandparents and my father is Alan, So we call ourselves part of the third generation. So that's that's where I've been. I worked all throughout different office parts of the business. So I started in customer service. I supervised customer service for a couple of years, worked credit, worked marketing, did a little export, and then started working for Luise directly.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: When you start out basically with pinging your bloodline and then you start to see this company evolve, how different does it look in twenty twenty five than what you remember when you were a kid.
00:01:38
Speaker 4: When I was a kid, I mean I remember coming as a tour here with the junior group and hearing my dad get up in front of our group and talk about how you know, we were going to have one hundred employees and.
00:01:50
Speaker 3: Everyone's like, wow, that's a huge number.
00:01:53
Speaker 4: And then here we are a little over one thousand and so it's really grown, it's really changed. Went from a small off this environment where everyone was in one place, one office building, and we've spread all throughout different buildings here on campus.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Stacey, I want to know a little bit more from you having Louise be your grandmother, right, just more. And I think a lot of the listeners Shane are probably familiar with her role in naming the answer and taking care of some of the maybe a little bit of taking care of some of the operations and things of that nature and supporting Carson that way. But what did what did Louise do for the company and where what did what was her role? And maybe some inside stories there.
00:02:36
Speaker 4: Okay, well, yeah, she was very very important for the business. In fact, I feel like we wouldn't necessarily exist had it not been for her. She was a very strong business minded individual.
00:02:50
Speaker 3: At one point she.
00:02:51
Speaker 4: Had a job as a computer so that was her job to calculate the graphs and such that the engineers would would give her the numbers, she'd have to put it together. And she went to business school early on before she met Carston, and so she was really business savvy. And so while Carston had the ingenuity to kind of go with it and the designs and the idea like, if it was up to him, he would have probably given all the clubs away like and Louise like, no, no, we need to make sure we build things. She so anyway, she was just a great advice person for him. And when the time came for our first export order that came in trying to figure out how to send something internationally. So the first or export or we actually gifted because it was.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: Easier to do that.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: And then Louise realized she had to figure out how to sell things to the other countries and have the proper paperwork and such, and so those that first order was a gift because she found out you didn't have any paperwork that was needed to send a gift, so we would take care of that customer and then went to take some classes to figure out how to export items properly. So but I mean she was behind the scenes. She kept the books, She was involved with a lot of our employee activities and organizations and and what we were trying to do, and so a lot of the culture I believe is also her kind of heart around the business, so.
00:04:29
Speaker 2: Kind of operations, HR accounting, like all of the business.
00:04:34
Speaker 1: Business card had a lot of words on many words as right.
00:04:38
Speaker 4: But but yeah, she was very behind the scenes, and so she was very much letting Carson shine and she just took care of everything behind the scenes.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: So that would would Carson run stuff by her, I mean obviously, I mean ideas and what do you what do you allow her to to kind of allow input to be be said, maybe even in the background.
00:04:58
Speaker 4: That's a hard, hard one answer. He would he would talk to her about things. He was a hard one to get to come into the office. He would he would come into the production floor and go to engineering, but when it came to meetings and discussions and things along that, it was hard to get him to come in. And so Louise figured out early on she would invite him in for tea time. And so around two o'clock every day, that's when our more important meetings would happen. And so Carson would come up to visit with her and have tea. And then that's when say, our marketing group would get together and we'd have outside visitors come in. That's when we knew we could get Carston to sit down at the table and talk. So she she knew him very well and was able to work with him on that and then he kind of had the morning to kind of explore and do other things like that. And yeah, so so it wasn't advice per se, because Louise had a better way, I'm knowing Carston to work things out so that things came across as his idea. It was much more successful that way. So she had a way of getting things done the way she wanted it.
00:06:14
Speaker 1: Does two PMT still exist? Is that something we need to bring back?
00:06:17
Speaker 3: No? No, but that would be good to bring.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: Back anniversary T situation at two PM. I liked that, right, Shane.
00:06:24
Speaker 2: The relationship between Carson Louise kind of reminds me of ped Die and Alys.
00:06:29
Speaker 1: It's so funny you said that, I was thinking the exact same thing.
00:06:32
Speaker 2: So Alice was kind of probably responsible for the seventeenth that saw grass right, A lot of the forward t's, which I think had the name the Alice T's, and car path routing and just kind of like the kind of like the rock behind as designs.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: It kind of feels like like like picking your spot to give advice, but when you gave advice, it was going to be something extremely substantial.
00:06:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, So, and I think most people know the story of the answer, but the story that they don't don't hear as much about as the B sixty. So Louise wanted Carston design more of a women's putter at the time, and so from what I heard from the story, he drew a heart and then kind of cut off the bottom part of the heart and had the two little shapes there and it was going to be like the Sweetheart putter, but after he played with it, it was like it was pretty good putter, and so he called it B sixty.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Amazing.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: And then.
00:07:29
Speaker 2: How about Louise's role and then and then ultimately now the company that you're helping continue Stacey's just support overall of the women's game and the story of the Solheim Cup and how that.
00:07:40
Speaker 1: Came to be.
00:07:42
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, Louise took up golf, I mean because of Carston. She actually surprised him. She had taken some lessons on her own. Carson had no idea that she was learning to play golf, and she had said she wanted to get out and play when he was playing sometimes, and he said okay, and.
00:08:03
Speaker 3: Heard the story where she hit the first drive.
00:08:05
Speaker 4: And it went well and turned around and smiled at Carston and he, you know, had this nice little sparkle and gleam in his eye.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: So so she began to play at that point.
00:08:17
Speaker 4: But early on, Carston himself was very adamant about going out on the tours to try to get his putters in the hands of the golfers, and the LPGA was players were very receptive to it, and in fact, I think our first professional win was by an LPGA player, and Carston could by being at those events, could see how good these professional women golfers were and really wanted to try to help support them and showcase them. And so at the time LPGA came to us to talk about the Solheim Cup, the idea for a Solheim Cup or a match play tournament similar to the Ryder Cup. We were already sponsoring four LPGA events at the time, and so we were already supporting it a lot, and then when we when they came to us, it was just I think to do two events. Initially John it was it was there on one of these tea time kind of meetings around and John kind of got up and pulled Carston aside and was saying, how you know, if we do just two events, you know, they might change the name to something else. He thought it would be really really good to do. Louise got up and joined them, and Louise had said, let's let's do the first ten events, which is huge for us because like we don't operate off of debt. Carson's whole philosophy was to take care of today and let tomorrow take care of itself. So trying to get him to think about the future and projections and how are we going to do this And here we are committing to ten events leics twenty years in the future that we're going to be involved and we're going to support this thing was very big and quite a commitment for us.
00:10:15
Speaker 1: You think about the Solhim Cup now, I mean you mentioned wanting to build an event that rivals the Ryder Cup, and you now think about what the Solhim Cup has become and how excited it is. I was out there a couple of years ago. I mean the fan you know, interaction, obviously getting to go to the Netherlands in twenty twenty six. It's become one of the signature golf events i'd say, you know, internationally, and it's an event that I think golf fans really look forward to. I'm assuming that legacy's got to be something for the brand that is paying that's got to be something as prideful as golf Club's being made or seeing you know, players went out there and the gold Vault and all those things.
00:10:48
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean we are so so proud to be at the event. And have people come up and talk about just how much they appreciate going to the event that they plan at years in advance. Large groups getting together, mostly women, some men that join in, getting on their patriotic uh paraphernalia, and and it's it's a fabulous to see and I would I enjoy about it so much as it does showcase the women. The women are so nice and it's just a very classy event.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: To see there.
00:11:26
Speaker 4: It's it's a more of a friendly rivalry. Uh and and even within the fans, you see a friendly rivalry.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been it's been fun to to uh kind of see the evolution of the Solheim Cup.
00:11:41
Speaker 3: So Marty, Marty, you haven't been to one yet, I haven't been yet.
00:11:43
Speaker 1: You got to get involved in international trip, right, Yeah, sneak over.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: The time.
00:11:51
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's true competition though. I mean, that's why I think these match play events have become such big parts of golf. Is again, individual golf's individual golf, and that's what most people play. But getting that sense of team golf just feels so much different. And you see that sense and I think you know through the captains, you see it out of the captains. You see it out of the staff supporting. I mean, I know guys that are on the stats team, you know, and they one of the guys got a tattoo a couple of years ago, you know, after a USA win. I got a chance to work with Julie e Inkster during that run when she was a captain for the Americans. I mean, it's in their blood now and it's become I'd say it's it's something that rivals the Ryder Cup, if not at times better than right and.
00:12:27
Speaker 4: Even just even the match play concept. So you got the team plus the match play. The match play, I mean, you play your game differently, if you know, you just each hole is its own little competition. Depending on what your player did, your competitor did, you're going to take a different approach to that. So it's quite unique to see in this day and age.
00:12:51
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, I'm excited about twenty twenty six. For sure.
00:12:53
Speaker 2: It is fun to play a little bit more aggressive when when you're in the match play mindset.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: What do you do? Marty? Are you? Are you? Do you change the play?
00:13:00
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
00:13:01
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, Every holes its own calculus, right, So it's like the goals to win that one individual hole. And if you're in a seventy two o stroke play tournament, your strategy is a lot more conservative if you're trying to avoid the bogies and the big numbers. But in match play you can play more aggressive. So there's a lot to It's super fun, super fun.
00:13:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, like I said, getting a chance to go out there and just see the dynamic of the teams. I think you nailed it when you talked about the respect and the class of the Solheim Cup. You know, when you think about the brand that is paying, I think that that kind of follows suit there as well. It's a brand that's always known what they are and who they are. I'm assuming there's a legacy involved in that as well. But I mean you think about, you know, the lines that you guys have put out women's specific lines of golf and how much I'm a left handed golfer, how involved Ping has been in terms of bringing out golf clips for left handed golfers. I mean, we talk about adapt of golf all the time, and kind of the push and the need for that. Ping has always been a brand I feel like that has put golfers first and I think that's a legacy that dates back to the start YEP.
00:14:01
Speaker 3: And we're also with the Solime Cup.
00:14:03
Speaker 4: We have the Junior Solheim Cup, so this event in twenty six is going to be our first time the junior team is going to play on the same course as the regular team, so we we that has been a goal that we have had kind of to be able to see how the junior players handle the course as well as to see how, you know, a few days later, see how the professionals handle the course.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: So that's going to be really Stacey. Ever missed one? Do you go to everyone?
00:14:29
Speaker 4: I have missed three three soul him Cups three three. I missed the first two and then I missed one because it was two close. I have four kids, so one was close to a pregnancy. I couldn't travel in the time of.
00:14:43
Speaker 3: I didn't understand that, didn't Stacy.
00:14:46
Speaker 2: I would love to talk about our Lady's product. And one thing I think our listeners and our customers know is that we have a different logo, Ladies Logo, So tell us a little bit about the story behind that. I remember really fun when we launched it at the was known as the Founder's Cup, at the end there at the Marriott. I remember the launch event for the new logo, So tell us a little bit just about the story and how that came to be.
00:15:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think at the time I was just I think it was maybe twenty fourteen or so. I was just put over the women's specific clubs and John said, you know, Stacey, you can, you know, mix things up a little bit if you're thinking of something with logo, And I was like, like logo, like likes, oh, I am on that. So, I mean, I love our our standard corporate logo.
00:15:37
Speaker 3: It's great.
00:15:37
Speaker 4: It's just a little bold, and I kind of felt like for the women something a little softer might it might be better. And so we had our design our graphics design team come up with some different ideas, and this one was the clear winner at the time. It's nice because it pays respet back to the current or the standard logo, but it is a little softer feel.
00:16:05
Speaker 1: Was it a look at it right away and kind of new pretty much.
00:16:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that was the one I know that for John, Like John is really big, like you got to be able to see it from a distance and such, and so it is a little harder to see from a distance is this corporate logo. But but it still looks really good and clean and it and it still has some traits of the standard logo. So and and it's I don't know, we're we were so happy to get that launched. I know when we launched it with the LPGA, the one you're talking about, the players were a static over I mean, just having something special kind of for the women. So it's nice to have it. So we do try to put that on our women's specific clubs. It doesn't mean that clubs they don't have that would still work for some women. So because app.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: Will Stacy, where does the push come I mean in terms of the brand that is paying to make women's specific golf clubs and to kind of support women's golf, Like, where did that push originate from? And why is the passion still there as golf continues to grow and we see more and more young women wanting to take up the game at a young age.
00:17:19
Speaker 4: I think it. I think it's always been our goal. We're all about helping players to play their best. And if you take it to the core way back, I mean I remember Carson saying, you know, golf club doesn't know who's swinging it, so you got to build the golf clubs for the individual people that might be able to use it differently. So it's why we have so many different models and such, so we can find the best one that's that's right for their swing, whether it's the Ladies line or the regular line or lines I should say, because there's quite a few options there. But I like to try to make sure that if women are just because you're a female, you don't automatically go to the ladies clubs, because the Ladies clubs are not for every female golfer. They're designed specifically for the slower swing speeds. And so initially when we were talking about having some different clubs for women, I actually I had a hard time with it because of course golf club doesn't know who's swinging it. I didn't want to have just something with a different a different name on it if it's if it was pretty much the same, right, And so when we started talking with engineering and they're like, hey, you know, we can make the face thinner, we can make them We've way back in the eighties we had the I too easy lights, which are lighter swing weights. So We've always kind of played around with some of those things, and we were playing early on with graphite, trying to find.
00:18:55
Speaker 3: Some lighter clubs.
00:18:58
Speaker 4: And I remember back in my junior days, like I was playing, I was one of the guinea pigs for some graphite shafts, trying to see what they if they worked or not, but try it.
00:19:08
Speaker 3: So we've always.
00:19:10
Speaker 4: Kind of had some of those features, So trying to incorporate that now specifically for the golfer with that slower swing speed, trying to optimize what we could do for that club so that they can also play their best stacy.
00:19:27
Speaker 2: On the engineering side, I mean, I've loved that approach because we can go in and then we'll talk a little bit about the player testing we do with a lot of the ladies that work on campus. But we could really take a look, okay at the driver, what is the perfect headway, what's the perfect loft, and let's not take any sacrifices, Like you know, we have our JL four here has the carbon fly wrap and the free hozzle and the heavy CG shifter trajectory tuning, so we have all these these advanced premium features to help the golfer play their best talk a little bit of about the player testing we do and R and D side of things a little bit.
00:20:05
Speaker 4: Well, I'm not sure where you want to go there with the player testing, but player testing okay?
00:20:09
Speaker 3: On so yeah, on campus. Yeah, So every every employee goes through.
00:20:14
Speaker 4: When they get hired on has an opportunity to kind of fill out a little questionnaire about, you know, their golf game and and then we pull those questionnaires to kind of see what we're looking for, what we're testing for. So then we look for people that have some of the slower swing speeds. A lot of more women are a couple of guys that have that slower swing speeds we're looking for. And then we asked them to come out test the equipment, get their feedback as well as look at the numbers of what's actually being produced. And these have performed very well. They've got a great sound, so much some improvements on sound as well as some better height, better trajectories. And I know, Marty, you're always big about gapping, right, So we've.
00:20:58
Speaker 1: Heard that the gap guy get it a lot on the pod.
00:21:02
Speaker 4: You're right, right, So trying trying to get better gapping, you know, for the women as well in their games, so trying to get them the right club combinations that will work and so, but you know you were asking about the club testing and so so the women can come out and test them it. We do have a lot of really good female golfers here and so sometimes trying to get the ones with a little sower swing speed is a bit of a challenge for us, but we have some and we've even done some little clinics and sorts trying to get some women into the golf, trying to get more interest among that so that we can deepen our player pool.
00:21:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, Stacy, can you talk about the new line? I mean it first of all, I mean it looks incredible, but can you just kind of dive into the difference in the new line and what players should look at and what they should expect.
00:21:54
Speaker 4: Well, yes, yeah, So the new line has got a cool I really like color. So that's one thing I was very excited with the Ladies line. As I can go, we can go a little more out there on colors and kind of mix it up, and so we've got some really nice color accents on it. It does have the carbon fly wrap, its face is thinner than our regular g lines. Lucie still has the vortech. It's got twenty two gram weight in the back. It's a fixed position in the back to optimize the the flight and kind of help a little bit with the tendency to go right bias for the right handed golfer or left bias for the left handed right That tends to happen with some of the slower swing speeds players. But you've and you've got the adjustable gosh, yeah, thank you. The trajectory, we have to make it really difficulty sleeve, yes, and it is the center gravity is lower and for the in the back it does have because it is thinner with the crown. We did have to add an extra support bar in there just for sound, right, so it has a better sound overall.
00:23:14
Speaker 1: Marty, which one's the support bar? Is that in the back there?
00:23:16
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right here you see these kind of ribs that are in Again. I think what's fun is that we use our same just like our Prodigy product, just our same overall engineering horsepower to optimize and the acoustics are a really big deal, and especially we kind of get to optimize these for that specific swing speed. What golf ball this player is generally using and things of that nature. I was just holding the driver here and give it. If you give it a little rotation this way and that way, you can feel the inertia. Right, it has more resistance to that twist. And the inertia is fifteen percent higher on the Jelly four than the JLL three. So that's the carbon all the weight savings, the carbon fly wrapp the free hazzle design, the more dense backweight. So and the test results showed incredible improvements to the dispersion stature with the driver Marty.
00:24:11
Speaker 1: In terms of slower swing speeds, what a player struggle with and when they when they swing slower versus somebody that swings with a really fast speed, Like, what are you looking at to optimize in terms of their abilities when you're talking about a player that swings a little slower.
00:24:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
00:24:25
Speaker 2: I mean the big thing we want to try to do is get the right launch conditions. So generally speaking, with a little slower speed, you want to you want to put your priority on launching the ball high. Everything in there, the loft, the deeper CG is meant to launch the ball a little bit higher. If you look at our optimal launch and spin chart. That's kind of where you go as speed goes down, you want to get launch up. So that's really big deal. And then we spend a lot of time studying and Stacey talked about with the with I two is having lighter headweight but light lightening the entire system the right amount and you can go two light. So two lights not good either because you don't have the right like momentum or you might not find the ground or the bottom of the swing perfectly, but lightning the shafts. Getting the swing weight just right, getting the headweight just right is super important, so the club turns over easy, so we don't want to have the ball kind of going out to the right. We study a lot of the RCOs data and things of that nature to help dial that in.
00:25:21
Speaker 1: And Stacy, when you talk about gapping, we've seen this kind of big push in the game with lofted woods. Is that something you see in the women's line as well? Is it more hybrids? What is the focus on in terms of kind of maximizing the gaping abilities maybe in the higher parts of the golf bag.
00:25:38
Speaker 4: It's it's kind of the whole set, the whole combination. A lot of focus on the on the hybrids, trying to get the right gaping there, but it's got to blend into.
00:25:47
Speaker 3: The fairways and the driver.
00:25:48
Speaker 4: So you've got to got to have a good driver distance that's going to get you out there, and then good consistent gapping so that you know what to hit coming in depending on your game.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: And so the l eight these clubs in particular, because.
00:26:01
Speaker 4: We have so many, many more hybrids and irons, you can mix that set up depending on what your preference is and what will work better for you. So our hybrids go from the five through the eight this.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: Time eight here. Yeah, in the eights new.
00:26:19
Speaker 3: And eight is new. Yes, the eight is new?
00:26:22
Speaker 1: Is that thirty six degrees a loft is what it is?
00:26:23
Speaker 2: Thirty six degrees on the eighthybrid wild, So yeah, Stacey talked a lot about just the importance of the gaping, So it added the eight hybrid es and then we spaced out the lofts on the high lofted on the fairway woods. So I'm holding the five here as twenty three degrees Shane, So this is pretty much equivalent to our nine wood in our g four to forty Okay, right, the five wood, so then we have a seven wood and a nine wood. The nine wood is thirty three degrees, right, so that'd be like a thirteen wood in our main line. But we added a little bit more spacing because we saw some bunching together in our in our player testing with the fairway.
00:27:02
Speaker 1: We I mean, it just goes back to fitting, Stacy, and you think about getting fit for golf clubs and the importance of it, obviously something we've preached a lot about on this podcast, and Ping has preached a lot about for its entire existence. But finding a set where you aren't gapped up to your point, aren't kind of tightened up party, so you can kind of maximize fourteen clubs. Stacy always laugh, fourteen clubs sounds like a lot, and then when you start to kind of dive into your numbers and you go, I've got to make sure that I'm actually utilizing every slot in the bag right.
00:27:26
Speaker 4: And you'll find a lot of women at the slower swing speeds won't have fourteen clubs, and that's okay. That's one of the cool things about our brand too, is that you can build the set for whatever you need for your clubs. You want three clubs, we can build you a set of three. You want five, we can do five. You want fourteen, We'll be happy to put together fourteen for you.
00:27:46
Speaker 3: So that's the night.
00:27:49
Speaker 4: The really cool thing that we have to offer is you can really dial in what that set looks like, and you can even start with a partial set and then fill in, you know, as you're game approves if that's something that you're you're kind of newer to the game and you're trying to see if you really like it or not. So if you if you come in, you know, within the first two years or so of of the model, you can order some some filling clubs.
00:28:13
Speaker 1: What about the options.
00:28:15
Speaker 4: Putter options, We have three putter options, so we get the answer two D, which is this one here, that's that one you've got in your hands, which I always feel like an answer is A is a very solid putter of obviously very proven design. So the two D is a little bigger. We've got some nice uh color blocking on that one, trying to give a little pop so it stands out a little bit more, but it's definitely will perform well for the for the very swings stroke types.
00:28:50
Speaker 2: Is still a slight arc, right.
00:28:52
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:28:54
Speaker 4: So we also have the Louise, which is a nice mid mallet, and then we have the Oslo. So between those stroke types for those three different putters. Now, I will say one of the things that I work on for the putters and the engineers kind of know me for this, is that I'm trying to give these women that are out there that maybe aren't swinging very fast, just a little more confidence in what they're trying to do. So when they get that gimme putt and they want to be kind of cool and pick it up right that I try to make sure that the backflange, it's these small little things. I want to try to make sure this backflange can skew scoop the ball.
00:29:30
Speaker 1: These are huge golfing things.
00:29:32
Speaker 4: Right, right, And so I want to provide that female out there a better chance of being able to scoop it confidently and not have it like scutter off and you're like, oops, I shouldn't have done that in public.
00:29:44
Speaker 1: Right, Stacy. I don't think there's anything worse than if you get a new putter and you're unable to scoop the ball. It's brutal. We've all had one right, and you just can't do it, and you just kind of go, I guess I got a bend over every time and get it. I mean you kind of think about getting the suction cup thing on the end of your putter head.
00:30:00
Speaker 4: You're like, I can't do that either, right, right, So our regular lines, you know, they have been getting a little thicker on the back slang, and so I've been like challenging the engineers, like how can we keep it thin? And this one because like the Louise and the Oslo have a two piece technology, Like trying to get that keep that thin with the with the two piece there was a challenge and I think it's still works out pretty pretty good.
00:30:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, and still have great fitting options because the Louise has our four hazzle so strong arc and then the Oslo face balanced, so a couple of really good fitting options in there.
00:30:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the little things.
00:30:37
Speaker 1: Yeah. Is this now, I know it's something silly, I mean when you think about it, but it's really not because it is important for people that again, you don't want to have a puddle that can't pick up the ball. Are these things that you're that you're just kind of observing. Are these actual things that you're finding out as you're talking to golfers.
00:30:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more observing, okay, and knowing, you know, being out there type of thing.
00:30:55
Speaker 3: Like I want to be able to do this.
00:30:56
Speaker 4: I'd love to be able to bounce the ball a little better on the club face I spend it and such. I need a little more time to practice. Yeah, I don't think I have the good risks action need to, so I need to some tips on how.
00:31:09
Speaker 3: To do that. But that would be good.
00:31:11
Speaker 4: But even little There's another thing, and we don't talk about golf bags here much, but our Lady's bag. A feature that we have in that bag is that the shoulder strap on that bag is a little softer because a lot of women wear sleeveless blouses and if you're carrying the bag, which I like to carry, so the carry bags, you actually have it so that it's a little softer, so it won't like kind of hurt your shoulder. If you're playing a full round, you got to take it up and down. I try to pay attention to the little things that make it a little easier for the women that are out there playing golf. And I hate to use the term easy, but I'm really trying to make it as easy as possible for those women to really enjoy the game and have success.
00:31:51
Speaker 1: Are these if you notice something? Is this like a riot? It in your phone on the notes app?
00:31:55
Speaker 4: Thing?
00:31:56
Speaker 1: Is this an email you send to yourself? Is this coming to work on Monday going we get this? Things been rubbing on my shoulder. We got to figure this out. How do you go about your process?
00:32:03
Speaker 4: No, Well, that one I went out they had a prototype bag and took it out and look and I was wearing a sleeveless blouse at the time, and so I go out to play and I was into carrying it at the time as well. And I came back to the engineers and I'm like, I've got something that you guys probably never curaged you. And they're like, what I like this. It's a little harsh. It's a little harsh on the shoulder.
00:32:28
Speaker 1: Here, this is the area. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, that's that's interesting. That's again, I would have never thought about itless blouse.
00:32:37
Speaker 4: Unless you're playing the Mooney the Munich Courses or something like that.
00:32:41
Speaker 3: Right, it's not many coffers that are doing that.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: But anyway, Stacey even more details on the product.
00:32:48
Speaker 1: The grips.
00:32:48
Speaker 4: Right, maybe it's a little bigger, yes, yes, well this the standard. The standard is a little bigger, so we went to awkward grip as a standard. And that's what we found kind of we are testing in their numbers, is that more women are on the average women is going more aqua. So we've switched our standard to the Aqua grip, but we still offer the red smaller one. I think we still have the blue as well, so we have two sizes below that for those that need it, or even a junior girl that needs something that the blue might work well for them as well. As we still have the white as well, so you can go a little larger. It's another feature we have as you can get the right grip size for your game.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: I mean, I think again going back to golf, as hard enough as it is, I mean we all have experienced it at times, Marty probably less than most, but I mean there are times when golf is extremely tough for everybody involved. The idea of getting into the game is intimidating. I mean I talked to my wife about this a lot, and she goes, do you want me to learn to play golf, and a part of me thinks, yes, I'd love that, and a part of me thinks this is going to be a five to ten year journey for her to get to a place where she's comfortable playing. Just the idea of allowing people an oppertu you need to start out on the right foot has felt like something that's been instrumental in the existence of being, and it's so instrumental in what you're doing in terms of the women's line is allowing players to want to play and be comfortable to play right out of.
00:34:12
Speaker 4: The gate, right right, And that's one thing we've Another change we've done for this current line is that we have switched our fitting club to an.
00:34:21
Speaker 3: Eight iron from a seven iron. Right.
00:34:25
Speaker 4: So the times have changed. So back when I first started, you know, customer service, it was the five irons right where the fitting clubs right, and so going from that to the seven iron was a big deal. And so for the ladies, we're for the first time, we're going to an eight iron, just to help get them a little more confidence on it, because when you think about it, a lot of the women are using hybrids as a seven, so you know they're not even using a seven iron sometimes, so granted we have that if they want that, but so we went to the eight iron as our fitting club.
00:34:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's again, it's making it just slightly a little bit. Get the ball in the air, see some shots you want to see out on the golf course, and then kind of go from there. I mean, Marty again, I think out of the gate. It can be a little simpler, a little smarter.
00:35:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. So another big part of project we worked on with Stacy was building an online fitting experience called webfit Ladies, which Stacy's son Nick helped us do some of the engineering and software development on, which has been quite fun. And that's meant to make the understanding the fitting process easier and to help educate. Maybe it's a customer like your wife, Shane, that's like I want to get I want to get in the game. Fitting sounds intimidating. I'm not good enough. We built webfit Ladies kind of exactly for that scenario. So Stacy want to give a little background on webfit Ladies.
00:35:47
Speaker 4: Sure, yeah, so yeah, So we built webfit Ladies so that a female can go in there, answer a few quick questions and it can actually take them off the path. If they're a little more athletic, their swing speed is a little faster, so they can they can take them into the regular product lines so that they can get fit properly for those and then those that are for the ladies' specific clubs with the slower swing speeds, we can dial in a little more about what kind of club combination and it can actually recommend what club combinations would work well for those ladies.
00:36:24
Speaker 1: And your son worked on that. How many do you have you said you have four kiddos?
00:36:27
Speaker 3: I have four kids?
00:36:28
Speaker 1: How many?
00:36:31
Speaker 4: So two of them currently work here and my daughter in law as well. So yeah, so my both my boys work here. The both into programming. Yeah, so my son worked on initially, and I know it was trying to get across because I'm a big proponent is just because you're female, you should not just go into the female section of the store and such. I've had that happen to me, where you kind of get pigeonholed. You walk in, they're like, no, it's almost like they didn't know what to do with you. You should go that that's where you belong, and that's not always where you belong, And so trying to make sure that if we're going to do this for women, that it's that we have that we have something as well that can help get them off off the ladies path if they're a G four forty player and they may not know it but they but they could be, you know.
00:37:22
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, well Stacey, good chatting with you. I mean, it's uh, it's I think about this every time I come on campus, you know. I mean the fact that there's you grew up in the family, you have kids that are now part of the family. I mean, their kids are going to be a part of the family. I mean PING feels like such a family company, and it's always felt like that. I mean since the first time I stepped foot on campus. I can only imagine what it feels like for you. I'm so congrats on the new line things. So much for chatting with us.
00:37:47
Speaker 3: Thanks, happy to be here.
00:37:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast
