Notebook: Equipment Manufacturers Face Tour Van Challenges

By Jennifer Gardner
GPA Equipment Editor

It's a lot of work to go through customs with a tour van, so most equipment manufacturers don't bring their vans to the Canadian Open.

Last week, TaylorMade was the only company with an on-site tour van at St. George's Golf & Country Club in Toronto.

"We are asked to account for every piece of golf equipment on the van - including hats, clubs, weight cartridges, electronics like TVs," said a TaylorMade staffer about crossing the U.S. border into Canada. "We even have to provide serial numbers for everything."

Because vans are uncommon at the Canadian Open, tournament organizers don't even have a close location for them. The TaylorMade van was parked two miles from the course and players were forced to shuttle back and forth as needed.

Across the ocean at the Senior Open Championship, tour vans were also scarce - mostly because companies have just one European Tour van and all those were supporting the Scandinavian Open this week. Cleveland Golf/Srixon was the main van on-site at Carnoustie for the week.

A notable issue when there's just one tour van - all the players ask the staff in that van to handle their needs for the week.

"Dozens and dozens of loft, lies, grips, reshafts, wedge requests, and fairway woods were built by Wednesday night," a Cleveland/Srixon staffer said. "Needless to say we were not lacking for business."

DRIVER IMPACT: Did the driver make a difference at the RBC Canadian Open? Definitely, according to champion Carl Pettersson.

"The key to winning here was driving - putting it in play," said Pettersson, who changed his driver a month and a half ago to the new Nike VR. "I've been driving it pretty good. When I shot 60 (Saturday) I hit every fairway."

Pettersson's Nike VR features a compression channel, which is essentially a large groove on the sole just behind the face. The channel helps deliver more energy to the ball for more distance.

Pettersson's driving accuracy, 73 percent for the week, was T9 in the field.

Kevin Sutherland, who shot 62-65 on Friday and Saturday to contend going into the final round, agreed that driving accuracy was vital.

"If you're playing well, (it) doesn't bother you. The greens are soft, and if you're hitting a 6-iron instead of an 8-iron, that's not that big of a deal," said Sutherland, who plays a Ping G15 driver.

Sutherland averaged 76.9 percent of fairways (T3) during the week.

LONGER EQUIPMENT FOR PRESSEL: Morgan Pressel, who finished runner-up at the Evian Masters, is getting 15 to 20 yards more of the tee lately, and she credits her Callaway equipment as well as a newe workout routine.

"I went to a longer driver, a longer Diablo driver, and put new irons in my bag that are going further as well," Pressel said.

Morgan said that with the new Diablo Edge irons she's using, she can hit a 7- or 8-iron 150 yards rather than a 6-iron.

"Now you've also got a club to a club and a half less into the green. So it's changed my game tremendously," she said.

SURE ABOUT THAT?: Ping's Tour-W wedges adhere to the new groove ruling established by the USGA and effective for professional tournaments Jan. 1, 2010.

Too bad the Duramed Futures Tour rules officials didn't know that.

The Futures Tour disqualified Sarah Brown in the final round of The International at Concord tournament for having a non-conforming wedge, but her wedge actually was legal, and was stamped with markings that indicated so. Instead, an official pulled her off the course - not even allowing her to finish the round and then sort everything out.

"We're disappointed that the rules officials at the Futures Tour event took the action they did without properly investigating the situation," Ping chairman and CEO John Solheim said in Golfweek. We've received an apology from the Futures Tour and more importantly, they'll be apologizing to Sarah for the mistake."

Brown, a Futures Tour rookie, was on track to have her best finish of the season before the disqualification.

For the full story, see Golfweek's coverage at http://www.golfweek.com/news/2010/jul/26/nonconforming-wedge-dqs-futures-player/

THE RIGHT COMBO: Nick Flanagan made some headway on the Nationwide Tour once he dialed in the right Callaway golf ball and driver combination.

Flanagan, who had his best finish of the season with a tie for third, changed from the Callaway Tour i ball into a new Tour i(z). The golf ball switch led to some tinkering with his driver, and Callaway's tour reps helped Flanagan decrease the loft on his Callaway FT Tour club by 1 degree (fron 9.9 to 8.9).

With the change, Flanagan lost 300 rpms of spin and lowered his launch angle by 1 degree. That gave the 27-year-old Australian more distance - he averaged 291 yards off the tee and was ninth in driving accuracy (67.9 percent for the week).