GOUGE: Sometimes when you seek the privacy of a quiet, idyllic resort tucked away in the foothills and valleys of the Santa Cruz Mountains, you get just a little bit too far away from reality. Which most of the time is not all that bad a thing. Except when you're supposed to be working and filing a daily blog and access to the internet shuts down. And the FedEx Kinko's closes shop at 9 p.m. It really makes it easy to focus on hitting balls on the range, which after all is the whole point of this exercise in the first place. Hitting a ton of golf shots was exactly what got done today, the first day of extreme golf with our player and teacher panelists. It was a very efficient session, arguably as smooth an operation as we've ever had (on-range masseuses included), and the group even had time for golf in the late afternoon at Cordevalle. The beauty of the day's events was that everything we expected to happen probably did, as did just about everything we didn't expect to happen. For instance, the usual suspects rose to the occasion as all the excitement behind the new Callaway X-22 irons, the venerable Ping fairway woods and a new platoon of Odyssey putters (Hint: 2-Ball gets some new siblings...) was put to the test.
Of course, what torques me off is when the uninformed out there in internet land jump to grotesquely insipid and dangerously wrong assumptions. Like this gem I uncovered this evening from some goon at Golfwrx.com: "Large advertising budget with Golf Digest = Hot List Awards." Really? Is that pathetic belief system still out there? Maybe it would be worthwhile to reveal the kinds of clubs that get considered for the Hot List. Clubs from companies like Hireko and Fourteen and Snake Eyes and Gel and Profound, none of whom advertise in the magazine. And certainly there's no guarantee to suggest that any or all of these companies will be represented on the final list when it appears in our February issue, but they are at this stage as much in the game as any other company. That's right, as much as Callaway, TaylorMade and Titleist. To put it in perspective, our original search for candidates for Game Improvement irons focused on some 35 entries. We are now down to 15 here in Cordevalle and they were put through their paces in front of scientists, retailers and now players. Not all will make it, but to suggest that advertising budgets determine the Hot List makes this whole year-long enterprise a colossal waste of time and serious dollars. The commitment of all of our panelists to work hard to make this event and this process meaningful and serious and beyond reproach is overwhelming, and I'm truly gratified to be surrounded here by a team so committed to doing this thing the right way. And as I've said many times, if the Hot List were about advertising, just whom would we satisfy? The companies that advertise in the magazine? Or the ones that don't, so that they might be convinced to advertise in the future? It's a premise that completely falls apart when you shed a little light on it. The Hot List exists because readers have requested we provide a little guidance before they head to the golf shop. When we use the phrase that the Hot List is the single most important project our company does, it is not idle marketing speak. In an era when fiduciary responsibility seems to have lost any semblance of meaning, this is a project that remains our most important responsibility, and the hard work that happens here and throughout the year is the make-good on that responsibility.
Finally, on a serious note, let's send some get-well wishes to Bomb's dad, recovering in the hospital in Connecticut. Let's hope father and son are out on the golf course together again soon.
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