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USA Today
26-03-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Florida municipal course completes $6 million restoration of Donald Ross layout
Florida municipal course completes $6 million restoration of Donald Ross layout Architect Kris Spence has completed a $6 million restoration of the municipal Dunedin Golf Club in Florida, just northwest of Tampa. The layout originally was designed by Golden Age architect Donald Ross and opened in 1927, but it had suffered over the years through several renovations as greens shrank by as much as 50 percent and bunkers were either lost or became obsolete. Spence focused on restoring much of the Ross ideals and pushing the greens back to their original sizes. 'At Dunedin, the most pleasant surprise was that I could see the old green extending out beneath those renovations and was able to measure them and compare them to his original plans and notes, and I quickly realized that the original greens had never been destroyed,' Spence said in a media release announcing completion of the restoration. 'They were just buried under this material, so the opportunity to remove the material, excavate and expose the original greens, and restore them was possible. It's fairly rare that they hadn't bulldozed them away. "There's no question that by the number of bunkers and the contouring we found in the greens, Ross was clearly given a mandate or a directive to build a top-shelf championship layout on that property.' The course originally was named Dunedin Isles Golf Club and made use of rolling hills, waterways and other natural hazards. The city of Dunedin took over ownership in 1939, and in 1944, the PGA of America moved its headquarters from Chicago to the course and renamed it PGA National Golf Club, leasing the layout from the city. The course hosted the Senior PGA Championship from 1945 to 1962, when the PGA of America moved out. The club was home to the first PGA Merchandise Show in 1954. 'Players are going to experience the greens and bunkers how he envisioned it,' Spence said of restoring the course to the original Ross ideals. 'There's some difficulty and depth to it all, and the bunkers are very challenging. That's the unique thing about Ross: He brought the style of golf to this country, which he grew up experiencing in Scotland. There are a lot of different shots golfers won't experience on other courses. The little bump and runs on the ground and the low approaches into the greens you experience in Scotland, you can now experience at Dunedin.'
USA Today
29-01-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Q&A: Cobra president Dan Ladd on Max Homa, 3D printing and the future of golf
Q&A: Cobra president Dan Ladd on Max Homa, 3D printing and the future of golf Learn why Cobra has been waiting to sign Max Homa, how it plans to bring 3D printed irons to the masses and why it supports the PGA Merchandise Show. Show Caption Hide Caption Cobra DS-Adapt X, DS-Adapt LS, DS-Adapt Max-K, DS-Adapt Max-D drivers Cobra made the DS-Adapt drivers more aerodynamic for a wide range of golfers. As the president of Cobra-Puma Golf, Dan Ladd oversees a pair of brands that have high visibility on the PGA and LPGA tours. The golf equipment arm of the company, Cobra, was founded in 1973, and the brand's first impactful club was a wooden hybrid called The Baffler that had 23 degrees of loft and a pair of rails on the sole that helped it skim through the turf. Trusty Rusty wedges soon followed, and in 1991, Greg Norman signed an endorsement deal with the company and obtained a 12 percent ownership in the brand. In 1993, Norman won the British Open at Royal St. George's, giving Cobra its first major win. In the years that followed, stars like Hale Irwin and Ben Crenshaw also played in Cobra gear. They were followed by 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy, Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter and Camilo Villegas. Today, Rickie Fowler and newly signed star Max Homa are the faces of Cobra Golf, a brand that is one of the most innovative in the industry. So it felt right for Golfweek to sit down with Ladd last week at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, to discuss the show, Cobra's innovations and the company's plans for the future. GWK: So why is Cobra at an event like this, and what do you try to get out of the PGA Merchandise Show? Dan Ladd: Yeah, I mean, we love getting with our customers, right? The golf professionals, media people like you, and getting face to face and talking about our brand and our products, our partnerships, and sometimes finding opportunities to solve issues when they're there out there. There's nothing like it. We like to showcase what we have. I think it's also that we like being around the competition, and a lot of it is here. We think we stand up really well against the competition, so we like those moments where we kind of share a stage and show how we can perform. GWK: The PGA Show was canceled in 2021, and in '22, many companies opted not to come. Are you surprised that it seems like the PGA Show built momentum in 2024 and now in 2025? DL: I would have anticipated that, and that may be a little bit of a surprise for people, but I think there's energy. I still think there are a lot of things that we need to do, as an industry, to stay strong and stay positive. We need to keep saying how do we make it better, how do we make it more efficient, right? GWK: For 2025, what will be one or two things Cobra Golf needs to achieve to be successful? DL: We've got a lot of different innovation stories. Certainly, what we're doing around the future of fitting in our FutureFit (hosel). We think it's a game-changer. We think it's gonna help a lot of golfers or all golfers. So, we're excited to get that in the market and we're excited to deliver better products. You know, we're commercialized 3D printing. We brought out a limited number, as you know, 500, and it was a great success. We're now going to commercialize that in a big way. The response to that over the last few days has been crazy. People were intrigued, and then when they tried it and they performed better, they were kind of amazed. GWK: Tell me about when the R&D team came to and said, 'We want to make 3D printed irons, and they're probably going cost about $3,000 a set.' What was what was your initial take on that? DL: As usual, sometimes when those guys come to me, I think they're crazy, but they're very smart. Our team has been working on 3D printing for eight years. What that is, what it can be. We've got a lot of intellectual property and work around that as well. What we were able to do with Max (Homa), getting him into new product as quickly as we did, which was exactly what he wanted or better than what he wanted. It's been a journey. It hasn't been easy. It's been a huge investment for us, but many times, when people wanted us to give up, our team wouldn't give up. We felt we had something, and now it's coming to life. It's really fun, honestly. It's fulfilling. GWK: You started with 500 sets of the original line at $3,000 last spring, which sold out, and then Cobra had a second release. As many technologies mature, the prices come down, and now a new iron has come out, and the price is about $500 less. Do you anticipate that in the next five to seven years, Cobra will have a 3D set of irons that breaks below $1,700 or $2,000? DL: The work that's going on with the teams right now, and that's not only innovation but our development team, our sourcing team, it's not gonna be that long. It's not gonna be five years. It's not gonna be seven years. It's not gonna be three years. I'm pushing for sooner rather than later. But we're not by cheapening anything. It has to perform. It has to perform better, or we're not going to bring it out, but we are doing a lot of things there. So, will it be this time next year? Will you see it? It's not a goal that we're not trying to go after. GWK: Several advancements changed the world of equipment, like the introduction of multi-layer solid core golf balls, metal drivers, then 460cc drivers, adjustable drivers and moveable weights. Do you think that 3D printing will become something like that? DL: I think it could be a historic innovation. I think it can be game-changing. I think it can make its mark on the game. As you said, all these different historical moments that came in and changed the game in a way and now has a space in the retail world that is pretty strong. We believe this could be that. I believe it will be on the calendar as something that helped change the game. GWK: You mentioned Max Homa before. Obviously, he was the marquee signing for this offseason. How did that partnership come about? Explain the process of getting a new player signed. Who talks to who? DL: We're not a company that is trying to win counts or have the most players, right? So, it's always finding the right people that work within our brands. We've been looking at the list of players through the years, and Max was always at the top of the list. He was always a guy like, wow, he'd be a great fit, a great player, a great ball striker, a great ambassador. He was always on that list but not available. So, all of a sudden, when he had the opportunity to become a free agent, and we started to discussions with his with his agents, and he knows our tour van and the people like Ben Schomin in it, those discussions started. And as a free agent, he wanted to test everything and get to know the people, and that was very important for him. It's a process, a six-month-plus process. We think that for us, he's someone who could move the needle again. GWK: What are the priorities when you're looking at professional athletes that you might want to sign to endorsement deals? DL: We look at two things. Certainly, we want someone to help us grow our brands, right, and get exposure to our brands. And that's no secret. What we say to them, and I think we have a history of it, is we want to talk about their brands and how we can help them grow their brand. I think, historically, what we've done with a Lexi (Thompson) or Rickie (Fowler) or Gary (Woodland), that's important for us. We feel like they deserve that and a company that wants to help build their brand and make them as great as they could be. So, you know, Max is a perfect example. He's got an amazing identity and an amazing brand. One of the things we told him is that we want to help him build that more. We want to amplify that for him, and at the same time, that's going to help us.
USA Today
28-01-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Get Equipped: New Vokey Wedge, PXG beginner set
Get Equipped: New Vokey Wedge, PXG beginner set There are two signs the golf equipment industry is healthy and vibrant as the 2025 season begins. One is that prices are holding firm. Lower prices on drivers, irons, putters and golf balls at the start of the season is a signal equipment makers are not confident golfers are ready to buy new gear, but right now, prices are staying at 2024 levels, and in a few cases, they have gone up in 2025. The other signal arrived in my inbox Monday when a note revealed last week's PGA Merchandise Show attracted more than 33,000 golf industry professionals from 94 countries and all 50 U.S. states, along with more than 1,100 participating brands. That made the 2025 PGA Merchandise Show the most attended since 2009. Sure, some large brands opt not to attend, but as someone who battled the crowds and walked every aisle in the Orange County Convention Center last week, I can attest the place felt packed Wednesday and Thursday. Booths were busy, and everyone seemed eager to get the year rolling. If you missed it last week, check out Golfweek's archived "Live Updates: 2025 PGA Show" to get a feel for what it was like in Orlando.
