Episode 2: The PING Tour Truck

Published Jun 1, 2023, 7:00 AM

Shane and Marty take us inside the PING Tour Truck at the PGA Championship with PING’s Sr. Player Development Manager, Kenton Oates. They cover the basics, like what’s on the truck, who stops by, and what their week looks like when they pull up to a tournament, before diving a bit deeper, touching on the importance of the relationship tour reps develop with players, the balance between personality and technology when working with a pro, and advice the everyday golfer can take from how they fit and take care of Tour players.

 

The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want.

We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.

Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast Shane Vaik and Marty Jertsen, and we are in the Ping tour truck, which means we're with a man that spends a lot of time in this truck.

Kenton Oates Kenton, how many weeks a year are you involved in this truck out on tour?

Probably thirty thirty ish weeks a year on this chariler.

I mean, do you know every inch to this place? Did you find anything in two seconds?

No?

I couldn't.

There's a lot of drawers back there that I don't open, and there's a lot of stuff that you can find. I'm pretty good, but I don't know. I haven't don't know everything yet.

So what it?

Just so you know, people see these trucks every year, they see all the tour trucks from different brands, and they show up. What's the schedule, Like, what day do you get to a tournament. What dat you leave to go on to the next place.

Yeah, So in my role, I'm leaving on Sunday, hopefully Sunday evenings, spend as much time as I can with my family on Sunday, and then we're leaving you know, five six pm on Wednesday. So that's that's the the for me. That's what I'm doing. That's what Spencer is doing as well. And then Jack and Adam, the other two guys on my team, they're either flying in on that same schedule or this thing doesn't just you know.

Magically appear. It's got to drive.

So from this week it'll roll down to Dallas and it'll take two or three days to do that. So Jack will do that and then he'll just be out on the road like that.

So hey, give a.

Little overview of like what all the equipment is on the truck, Like what do we got here? Not only club building stuff? Like how much does the truck weigh? What does it take to drive this thing?

Sixty three pounds of grinding of grips of clubs. I feel like there's got to be like two grand of that in hatch or two Like what I mean, there's a lot of hats on this thing.

So when players come here, are the players coming here or caddies coming in.

To get stuff fixed? Is it a mix of both?

Like what do you think the percentages of players maybe versus someone on their team coming in to get something tweaked.

I would say it's about fifty to fifty, and a lot of it is, you know, if it's play, it's usually from a text that we sent out.

Player's presence on the trailer is really driven.

By how close we are to the driving bench. If we're close to the range, they're coming in all the time, grabbing snacks, hanging out doing that. There's some events where were like Phoenix, we're miles away, so they won't be there in as much, but they'll shoot us a text and then they'll send their caddy and to do that.

So how long does it take to bill Let's say you're building a new five wood for a player for the week.

I mean, how long? What's that process? Look like?

A fairway would if everyone is like if we got Jack Adams, Spencer, myself, everyone's hands on deck one fairywood could take it's got a cure.

So fifteen minutes max?

Wow, fifty If a player lost their clubs and we had nothing else to do and press for time.

We could do it under an hour, all fourteen.

You can do a set of clubs and we could do it probably forty five minutes to an hour, pending the model of the iron.

That's the biggest pending.

Which player is the most involved in the tweaks that maybe has the most like personal assistance to what they want done to their golf clubs, to their bad week to week.

That's a great question.

Like Tyroll, whenever he does something to his clubs, he is always essence and terror was.

Here here earlier with a couple of platter grip on right.

So he's not gonna regrip anything without his preser. He's not going to move a waft why without him there. He wants to see it and look at it, be a part of the process where some other guys are like, oh, yeah, I've been my club two degrees.

Has any player ever literally regripped their own club or bent the loft in line themselves or not yet?

Jack, Has anyone ever regripped their own clubs in here? There's no way, no way.

You've so no, You've never seen a player in here regrip in their own stuff. No chance, any request. Anybody ever said, I like to regrip.

My own clubs.

John Day, Yes, John Daily grinded his own John Day grinded on a crossover.

PG Championship and the crossovers hollow.

I thought he was gonna I was worried he was just gonna keep going on the soul and like, oh there's a hole.

Like I was like, well, this could go bad.

I feel like that's that mix, Marty, of the kind of the younger generation maybe versus some of the old players. Is I mean, you know, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, you grinded your own clubs, and you probably regripped a lot of your own clubs. And now obviously collegiately and even in junior programs, somebody is going to be doing that for a lot of these players.

Yeah.

And that's a great point because like even from like driver fitting aspects, like I remember with Westwood and Bubba and older guys, they were always like when they're when their driver cracked, it was like, oh my gosh, this could.

Take an all day. Yeah he could be done. This is this is it. But like you know, so I hit the goall breaks driver. He's like, okay, just will be another one. It's fine, I'll be fine.

Like you bring out the track man, you're ready to go. He's like, oh no, bro, I'm just gonna go to the course.

It's fine.

I trust you.

Yeah.

It's which is an important part of the relationship though, and is the trust in what we're doing with our equipment, making sure it's specked out perfectly. And I mean there is a level of perfection that you guys obviously abide by to make sure that when you give them a new club they can be confident.

And what you guys just did to for sure, that's one of our I think one of the best parts about our driver. We make a great driver the first time, we make the same driver the second time, and that's not easy to do, and we do a very good job of that.

So what are what are some things that go into that?

So Jack has a spec sheet that he does that it's every player has no own Excel file. And like on a driver, we got length, loft setting, tipping of the shaft, swing weight, headwight, gegle location, so that's CG shifter location, so that everything's on there.

And that's for and that's for every club, and that's every player, and you got everything. So and you were talking about texting with players, I mean, is that basically the system now? I mean in modern society, they're sending you a texting and I want to I want a different grind on this wedge or I would like a different grip on my plutter, things like that.

So at Sunday night, it's really easy.

You're on a plane, you're now working Spencer and I will send out text to our play The guys on our staff will divide it up, send the text out, get the text back, and then you're ready.

To roll Monday morning. So Monday mornings we're doing.

A lot of like is that the busiest part Mondays?

Either, Monday mornings are like probably Jack and Adam's busiest part because we'll get a lot of like, hey I want fresh I'm gonna do new grips. And then Tuesday is probably the most active day on the range if players do want to do active like fitting or testing throughout the week.

Okay, what's like an example of the smallest little change to like a club you've made for a player, you know what I mean?

Like I don't know I'm thinking, like you need to get.

Just one hundred RPMs more spind or a quarter degree.

Aloft or something like that. We do that a lot with drivers.

Actually like the driver fitting because I think we're so precise in how we build them.

We have a really operate like if you're playing.

Nine point five degrees that week, obviously this thing rolls down the road. So we kind of always look at our gauges as a week to week basis too, Like his driver's nine to five today, and we're gonna base it off that, and it's like spinning at twenty seven hundred and they want to spend at twenty five hundred. We'll definitely build a head like at nine point five and like, which is pretty cool to see when you bring it out and it's like like Corey Connor is before Valero, He's like, my driver is just under spinning just a little bit. And it was like, whatever it is was call it nine. We brought it like nine point two, spends two and more RPMs and then you wins. So it's pretty cool when stuff like that happens. Player Like Corey's like it's underspinning. What does he see on the course? Like, what's the problem with that. I think that most players, when they're saying it's underspinning, especially got like Cory hitches so straight. He's not so much seeing the fact that he's hitting bad shots. They start to feel like a little anxiety and out of control. On the ever so slight misses, it starts to tail to the right. That's the biggest Guys will see spin and right misses go together, and that freaks some guys out. It's like they're supposed to live at twenty five. They start to see when it dips it two thousand. The good ones are still fine, but that slightness is now Like Corey is a drawer too, so it's not drawing, and he's.

Like, this is not drawing. Yeah, I have problems. So the every day golfer, they.

Go in and get fit for their driver, and their window spin might be like, you know, four hundred rpm.

You know they had ten good shots, it's gonna be up and down three four hundred.

Who's like they got the tightest spin range, s consistency on a driver out here, Corey Corey.

Corey's is so good.

I don't know if it's because he's a drawer, so the faces of it's just really walked into his path. But like Corey when he gets locked in, like he's between really good right now, it's twenty three to twenty four hundred, and it's every single swat every time.

That's crazy.

Every time, you know, there was there were stories of like Tiger Back of the Day and VJA changing wedges week to week. Yeah, I know, VJ sing was a big wedge, different wedge every week. Is there somebody that you guys work with that changes wedges that much or even close to that much?

Yeah, Hovelind and Taylor More I would say they go through sixty degrees every two tournaments. Every two tournaments they go through a sixty degree and most guys have now they've the middle wedges. Guys have like embraced the fact that like my fifty and fifty four to fifty six, whatever they may play is actually maybe a little better as time goes on. So little letos kind of just decay a little bit, and now the ball is not from one forty, it's stopping and not coming all the way back. But sixty degrees like yeah, Taylor, I know does a lot and Hovland does.

A lot or wedges, the most consistent love that you guys work on week to week.

Wedges and regripts are probably the things that we do every single week. Like Shamous Power, he uses a lot of wedges too, and when he does wedges, he does them all. So he does every single off and he does wedges probably two to three tournaments, and he does grips two to three tournaments.

I was gonna ask about grips, is that what what do you think is? Maybe I would say the average in terms of how long a player is going to use a grip three tournaments, that's it.

A month because then you got guys are taking they're probably taking a week off in there, right, So it's not like if they played three in a row and then take a week off and then they come out, that's five weeks to them.

Three tournaments for like, yeah, three a month is about what I'm not gonna feels guilty. I changed my grips twice a year.

Yeah, I mean, this is the thing Marty that I feel like I focus the most most on is the thing that I'm the most obsessed with his new gloves, new grips, and I'm maybe twice a year.

So now I feel way better.

I don't think I'm wasted nearly.

I'm going to once a quarter now. Yeah. Correct, And they get new gloves every week, so every week. I mean, you can tell we've talked about you. You can see that.

As I've said about golfers, there's no feeling better than the new glove. The new glove on the first t is a pretty epic situation.

So, okay, we talked about drivers, spin under, spinning, find their right window. What about irons, man, because the everyday golfers out there, they might begin fitted indoor place, their irons are spinning low, they're going far. It looks all good, but what you know, I know you guys work a ton with your players. I'm like, if an iron is not spinning enough, what are the players seeing? What are they struggling with?

What?

How do you find the right window you need to get it into it? That's a great question.

I think something that's really misunder not so much misunderstood, but there's a lot more to an iron spin rate than Corey Connor spends his seven iron at sixty two hundred and Tony Fenale spends his seven iron sixty seven hundred.

Is Tony's better than Corey.

Like, so, I think the things you got to look at is we look a lot at landing angle and met peak height, and we're trying to get fifty degrees of landing angle and over one hundred and five feet a height. If you can do both of those things, you can stop the ball on most PJA tour greens.

That's a good recipe.

The guys that come from and we see a lot from guys that come from corn Faerry, corn Ferry, the courses are a little bit shorter, they're softer, you can kind of eyes come in. They hit lower shots and then they're like they get to Bay Hill and they're like, I just hit a seven iron. I hit the green and I was really close to like out of bounds, Like what happened here? I go, Yeah, they're really firm out here. So you have to kind of talk through that process. And sometimes that guy's seven iron didn't spin anymore like he's still but we were able to increase height with a shaft change or just adding some waft or adding some some other things in there. But sometimes sixty two it can be low spin and still have enough stopping pier or it could be high spin if you want it to well, it's still gonna come down woe. So we're really looking at how the ball is coming down and then going out on the course and trying to see like, Okay, i'm gonna stand on the green, you're gonna hit a pitching ledge and I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you where.

This pitch and we're gonna make this shirt safts.

Yeah, yeah, So what are the levers you pull on to Let's say you need to increase spin for a player, like, what would those levers be?

You know, loftling waft would be the first we'd be like, hey, are you okay? If we just spend them weak?

Yep?

In those gaps where we'll talk about what that's gonna happen in your gaps. If they're playing a blueprint or a smaller model, we'll be like, can you look at something different?

Where nine or what a two thirty? Can you look at that?

And a lot of the times that conversation ends in no, in my seven iron, but yes in my four, five and six right right. And that's where the problem really lies is the you know, most professional golfers seven eight, nine irons, they can stop them four, five six, it becomes a little yeah. And then length is something will go at as well if they're if you know, if it's standard length. And that's another thing in long irons. Add a quarter inch to your four iron, leave the loft the same. You get a little more ball speed, you get two or three hundred more RPMs, and then you're that peak I will go up like that eight.

So it really is a lot.

Now you say, it's really a lot of massaging that long iron, that four or five six iron.

Range, because this is pretty cool, ko, because I mean a big thing. I feel like my roles man is to take hey man, all these little nuanced things that you guys do with the tower players, how do we give them to the every day right? So, like you know, our g series irons are distance irons.

We progress the lengths longer, and it matches exactly what you guys are doing in the long irons, right. The long irons are getting longer.

Long irons get longer, so you a little more club speed, you get a little more dynamic loft combine, you get a little more ball speed. You combine all both those send that ball up in the air a little bit more. Yeah, that's one thing you educate.

We've had you guys don't really they don't see it right when.

You say it, they get it.

But if you just take all the same watch conditions and add five miles of ball.

Speed, you're gaining four or five feet a peak height.

And guys they don't really once you say it to them like, oh that makes sense.

Yeah, but they don't see that.

So just that little length or then like by the foreign you can either you can add the length and keep the loft if they just want the height, or if like, hey, I got to gap this to my seven order my hybrid, add the length and then deloft it and now you have the same peak hide and you gain five six yards.

Yes, what's the weirdest request you've had in this truck over the years. Oh, my gosh, maybe maybe a club being built or something you guys don't even build. What's been a what's been one of the stranger requests you've received? You only have the name of player just in terms of the club.

One of the weirdest things that ever happened was my rookie year on tour, we had a staff player bend his irons from he played black color code to like silver color code.

So give that to context it.

So they went from standard color code to fort degrees upright, and this gentleman is.

Five to seven. What happened? So?

How was the week?

Not great? So it was that pet we asked him, was like, so number one, it's nine iron broke. Like in competition.

We got a text from the caddies because like we we just spent them all up round like, oh well, this hozzle broke.

We asked him.

The next week at Riviera, came in and he's like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys, I was wrong. We gotta go back whatever, no problem, we'll start over. And Christian was running the tour at that time, and he's.

Like, when did you know this was a bad idea? It's four degrees upright, pebble beach.

He's like, I was pretty sure early, but on the tenth hole when I had the ball below my feet and I didn't know how I was gonna He's like, I didn't know how I was going to hit it because I knew it was bad. And then he asked me on the range or and this is my first year. I wish I would have been more seasoned, I probably would have like tried to stop it, but I was just like he was into it. I'm like, oh, this is what we're doing. He's like, what would I see if they're too upright? And I go I was like, well, you've probably see some thing contact. Your solid shots are going to just like start left, go left maybe or just like poles, and like, I'm like, you might have excessive heel contact. Because I didn't want to say I'm not telling the guy who think seventh hole pebble beach shot tracker, no one.

They don't have a Pacific Ocean.

I was like, well, so you're you're saying when you first started, you might be didn't feel comfortable telling a tour player that this isn't a great idea. Are you in a place now where if those requests come your way, you feel comfortable enough to say, I don't think this is going to be a great move for you, or do you still kind of keep all the players at arms.

Ley ending the player. It's obviously different, your relationships different. One of the greatest things about ping is I mean, I'm going to miss someone when I do this, but saw hit the Gala Stefan Jeger, Harris English, Cameron Champ, Taylor.

Moore, these Tory, I mean so crazy.

These guys were on our range at fifteen years old.

Like, I mean, that's so And I've had been blessed to be able to be a part of the tour department before this. I helped out Scott Sullivan in that role with those players. So when you've had that relationship when they were kids, you can be like, Okay, Bud, what are we doing? Like talk me through this. You're gonna have to do. You're gonna have to convince me that this is a decent idea before we go, so putting in the relationship.

Yes, like I he would have not mentioned the.

Talk and talk about the ledge by the way, I mean, there's a lot of activity going around here.

Is this like the nap Is this like nap area?

Here?

This could be nap area. You definitely could.

You can catch a snooze right here, right here on the couch because you know, I mean like you got work over either. This feels a little bit more like the laid back section.

We got a couple, we got a couple of guys on the team, you know might seek in a nap on the on the on the down.

Happens in the media center too, just don't think it happens. There are some snooze spots there as well.

It's okayo, who is name a player that's like super technical in terms of their numbers, Like they know all their track man numbers and then name and name.

Someone the it doesn't know anything. We're all the field.

They just eyeball and see a window whatever here. That's super technical. Track Man Hobland, okay knows his numbers. He not only does he like he knows his carry numbers of his golf club. He knows like when I'm swinging good, my path is to this, he knows all of it, like, and he's working off of like if his swing goes off, he's not only looking at video, he's going back and looking at TrackMan data to try to correct it. So it's funny you say that I was on the ring. I was on the chipping green with him last night and we had track man out hitting an eight yard. He was carrying the ship eight yards and measuring all expense. Yeah, right, So that's okay.

So he's into it.

So like I mean, Marty, when you see that, and I mean, obviously he's a young player, and track Man has been in Victor's life probably since he was a junior golfer.

When you see that.

As somebody that's a little bit older, is it shocking to see it or is it just where golf is going?

I think it's where golf is going, and it still is.

He's he's just using it to incentivize his learning, right, It's just it's just improving the feedback loop. Like he can see what's going on, he can feel it. You know, if the chip slips, he could feel it. But he's just getting that faster feedback mechanism.

It's like, why not use it?

I mean I battle with this in my own golf game right now and like lasering short shots, Oh yeah, where Like I'm still trying to the cutoff because like you know, you'll have a caddy Like I was just on a golf trip a couple of weeks ago, and you have a caddy and he shoots thirty four yards yea, And when I you know.

I don't want to know.

You're like, well, I don't want to see it. Ill cut off for you?

Well, I mean I think I think somewhere in the thirties is not good. I don't think I want to know thirties. I think I think you can shoot me at forty numbers, but I don't want to know thirty four.

Let me tell you.

When he told me thirty four yards, guys, the shot didn't en up where I wanted it to.

So I mean, when you go to the half yard, when do you need to know?

Tell me I never need to know a half yard. I'm not good enough to know a half yard.

But you know, it's it's just so interesting, is there's somebody that knows, that knows little about their numbers, that doesn't care about their numbers in the sense of it's not on their brain.

Yeah, Like Stephan Yeager, he's not a big number guy.

And when he talks to his coach, Josh Gregory, some of their interactions.

Are my favorite, Like ye like with Driver, he says like I just want to hit hard, and.

I want to hit hard and make sure it falls to the right, and like it's like Ricky Bobby track Man could say anything and the Aggers like I don't.

It's like I don't care what it looks like. I don't want to see a video. I just want to hit hard and have it fall to the right.

And then saw Hith isn't a big number guy, and his feel he's such he is such a field player that like there's days like we'll get he uses a quad just you know, know his carry yardages. But there's days where like he'll be like, oh man, my atern's only going one sixty. And then I remember John direst Subody's like, heyll my Aterron's going one ninety five, and he's like he doesn't know what why it's happening.

And so he's Saw there's probably our most feel player. Okay, yeah, yeah.

He's just hands for days hitting. So I'm like, well, you're seeing so many different shots.

Yeah, and like and this has to be such a difficult part of you guys job here in the truck is it's not just technology, it's personality based as well, where you have to understand and again, this is part of experience. When you're a rookie, maybe don't understand this nearly as much as you do if you've been doing this for a few years. But your job is not only to hand a player the perfect club for what they're trying to do, but understand how much information they need to know when you give him that golf. Yeah.

Correct, I always say when people come and talk and ask me, like what makes a good tour rep? I think the big thing I look at my job is like, I'm trying to earn credit with all my staff players, right, I'm trying to take it as much cred as I can. Go put their hats in their locker, go help them do this, try to help them out with their seven iron or their driver here and there. And the more credit I can earn, then that gives me that time frame when I really need to step and be like listen, just sit down and talk about this. They're gonna maybe listen to me a little more because I've earned some value throughout this whole year.

So that's that's how I look at your toy.

Right, It's a personal relationship with every guy, and people are all different.

So yeah, okay, that's a great point. So hey, let's turn it to the everyday golferst right, And it's like, maybe you don't think about this that much, but what advice could the everyday golfer take from you? How you fit and take care of the tour player? You know what I mean, what what should they focus on if they go to a fitting, What should they be focusing on that they might not be or hearing in some marketing stuff that you know is not really like the tour player to score the best, play their best, the nuts.

And bolts of what you're working with.

I think the number one thing is I would encourage all amateur golfers if you're going to air and your fitting of any club in the bag, air on the high side of spin.

I think it's driven by market.

I don't know what's driven it, but it feels like it's like, oh, I got there with my driver.

I spin at nineteen hundred.

I'm like, right, well, that's that's great on the one shot the day you hit good.

So I would say even like on it just makes the club more perceived.

If the playability is perceivably higher and plays high, your ball won't curve as much.

So I would say, because that almost feels counterintuitive about what a person would think to think is I want the.

Numbers to be low, and you're saying air or the number.

Of air, like if it's close this air on this one that spins a little bit more because the box in front of you at wherever you are might say it went farther, but it's not.

I promise you it doesn't go that much farther on in real life.

And it really will save you for like your consistency of your scores, if you can have a little more spin with every club in your bag.

Yeah.

One of the other things KO that we have the luxury to do out here on tour is you fit a player on the range. Ye then quite often it's like, hey, let's go play it on the course. They're playing nine holes, you walk with them three holes. How can they every day golfer maybe simulate that and they're fitting when they.

Can't go out and play it on the ring. Correct, that's a great question.

If they're outside, I think they have a great opportunity where like hit your driver and then take a step to another stall and hit a seven iron and a different different windows, and then even if you want go walk over and hit a putt and then come back five minutes later hit that driver again, because then you're not getting the We get into this bad habit out here where were hitting drivers with fifteen in a row.

Well, he's the best, he's the best player in the world.

I could have given him anything, he would have probably be hitting it good bye now. So that would be what I would say is take some time in between your stuff and just make sure that you're giving you that break, hit a different club, try to stimulate playing golf, because if you get into a groove, even the every day golfer.

Is going to start to figure out what they want to do with it.

Yeah, so we kind of we'd like to call that game like fitting. Yeah, you kind of gamify a little bit. One of the other things I think I see you guys do a great job with So you have your player hit the shots are going to hit on the course.

Yes, it's not just stock shot. So what would that look.

Like either on web as their irons, Like you know what, do you kind of run the player through really are making.

A change, really making sure like because most players have their stock shot right and that's just what they're gonna hit. That's what they're gonna give you out of the gate for a long time. And then you're just gonna talk through what club they'rehitting and like what are your specialty shots? Like is there anything like under the gun you have to have? And that's usually bringing the height down or the height up, they'll hit those wedges. It's really important in that like thirty to seventy yard window, what is their technique, Like how hard are they going at those? Because then we have some guys that play their wedges their sixty degrees extremely flat because they're like, I'm not using this outside fifty yards and at that point, their technique so different.

There's no pull on the handle. It's coming around them so much.

The deth club can be you know, three degrees flat, and their gap ways can be standard, it doesn't matter because they're like, I'm not hitting this over sixty yards.

Ever. So that's the other stuff that goes on out there.

So interesting.

I mean, it's just so crazy to kind of walk through the tour truck and just see all of the you know, little tweaks happening. I mean, a big event, people really excited about making sure everything's perfect, and again you switch next week to a totally different golf course with totally different conditions, and everything changes, and much like how a player preps, you guys have to do the same.

So it's very very cool to see this.

That is definite probably what causes the most work in the trailers. We're playing up here in Rochester, New York. It's gonna be fifty to seventy degrees where we have, you know, primarily I think that's Rye grass, Kentucky bluegrass rough and then we're gonna go play on Bermuda grass in Texas and.

It's gonna be ninety degrees. It's gonna you're gonna eat something completely different for some shots.

So that's probably primarily our work is dealing in with that, that differences of the changing stuff.

Well, very cool to see the truck. Thank you so much for all the information, and just to take it all in. I mean, I haven't got a new hat out.

Of it, Marty.

This is a really good deal.

For the score here. Maybe get you some new grips. There you go.

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