By: Tim Baines
One golf company was hatched over a post-round beer, the other started to take shape in a condo garage.
Precision Pro Golf and Tour Edge Golf have come a long way since then, with both trying to find a niche in Canada through Golf Trends Inc., a largely successful golf distributor for more than 30 years which also represents brands that include Bag Boy, Winn Grips, Datrek, Golf Pride and Super Stroke grips.
Tour Edge Exotics XJ1 Driver
Tour Edge’s Exotics line of golf clubs have long drawn rave reviews. While Tour Edge doesn’t pay PGA players to use their equipment, it speaks greatly to how good the clubs are that they’ve reportedly been used by professionals including Brandt Snedeker, Vijay Singh, Tom Watson, Luke Donald, K.J. Choi, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson and Chi Chi Rodriguez.
“It’s not heavily advertised,” said Golf Trends Inc. president Don Heazel. “But there is a core following. We find that once a person buys a Tour Edge Exotics club, that person is the best repeat customer. The product really performs. If you have tour players playing it and they’re not being paid to play it that says a lot about the product. Every tour, there are probably 4-8 players who use them.”
New for Tour Edge Golf are the Exotics XJ1 fairway woods, benefiting real-world players with real-world swing speeds. The material behind the XJ1 fairway woods is a titanium so powerful, Tour Edge engineers refer to it as Supermetal. The unprecedented strength of 9-1-1 enables it to be thinner and more reactive, even at lower swing speeds. The XJ1 fairway wood’s lightweight body allows the majority of the weight in the club to be in the sole. The heavy Tungsten sole holds 124-grams, two-thirds of the entire mass of the club head.
The new Exotics XJ1 driver is also getting buzz, with a ground-breaking combination of a 9-1-1 titanium chassis, Kevlar-Carbon crown and three Tungsten sole weights exceeding all expectations in design and performance. This superior lightweight concept, combined with the most advanced ultra-light Air Speeder shafts, allows players with moderate swing speeds to generate maximum distance off the tee.
“Most technologies of the past decade have benefited players with higher swing speeds, eliminating the majority of golfers,” said David Glod, president and founder of Tour Edge Golf. “We have been developing the XJ1 driver for over four years, working on each characteristic of the club, moving critical amounts of weight around for the best results, and waiting for the technology to catch up to our goal of bringing this extremely lightweight driver to the market which will benefit golfers with real swing speeds.” www.touredge.com
While Glod has taken his company to new heights since starting the company in his garage in Illinois, the idea for Precision Pro Golf was hatched by Clay Hood and Jonah Mytro after a round of golf at Encino Golf Course in Los Angeles. The first products were launched in 2014.
Said Mytro: “We’re both golfers, we wanted to launch a company, so we were wondering, what do we do? It was, ‘what do we use, what do we like? Let’s make that product and sell it to golfers.’
GPS Golf Band – lightweight and easy to use
“We looked at training aids, balls and equipment and we found that rangefinders were overpriced. Plus, we thought companies were offering bad support for customers and retailers.
“We took six months to do R and D, get all the pieces in place. That’s where it all started. Our theory was we’ll sell a couple hundred of these a month. Now we’re going to sell a couple thousand a month. It’s amazing. Everything we set out to do, everything we planned to do, is working.
“The best part of the feedback I get from golfers is, ‘I love this, it works great’ … it makes it worth it.”
The first product sold out in two weeks back in 2014. The company has grown into a second model of rangefinder, plus has added a GPS Golf Band that weighs just 1.2 ounces.
“It’s very lightweight, easy to use, waterproof up to 30 feet … we use iGolf, the same mapping company that Bushnell and TomTom use,” said Mytro. “We want a GPS product, but we want to be unique so we thought, let’s create a simple interface, let’s create a nice display and be really light. It’s just really easy to use so people who aren’t tech savvy can get it set up and get going pretty quickly. If they have questions, they can call us, email us … we’re going to pick up the phone and talk to them directly.”
Precision Pro Nexus Rangefinder
Precision Pro Golf is not only offering quality products, but price also differentiates them from the competition. And products that measure distance to the hole just keep getting more and more popular so there’s a niche.
“Years ago, it was unusual to have anybody in your foursome using (golf rangefinders and watches), now it seems most everybody has one or the other,” said Heazel. “There are lots of watches out there, but the (Precision Pro Golf) band is very lightweight and comfortable.”
Precision Pro Golf will be introducing three new products at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January. The NX7 Rangefinder, which replaces Nexus with the same price point, is a bit smaller and faster. The NX7 Pro slope model has pulse technology so it vibrates when it hits the flag. The Golf Fit Band includes fitness and golf course yardage tracking.
The rangefinder fits perfectly into your hand. The internal optics components feature the Advanced Target Lock Function, dual-coated lenses, and one-yard accuracy with 1/10th yard measurements (124.6 yards). With the Advanced Target Lock Function, the Nexus Laser Rangefinder scans both the background and flag (or target) to decipher the accurate distance. The Advanced Target Lock eliminates the background yardages and locks in on the flag to give you an accurate distance reading in less than 1.25 seconds.
Over 35,000 preloaded golf courses!
The GPS Golf Band, available in white or midnight blue, is advertised as the future of distance. It is the thinnest and lightest GPS wearable available. The streamlined interface with Auto Hole Recognition and out-of-the-box usability ensures ease of use. With 35,000 preloaded courses, up to four hazards per hole, it has a 10-hour GPS battery and is waterproof up to 30 feet. Unlike others, the band also has white lettering on a black background which stands out in sunlight.
Importantly, customer support is at the core of Precision Pro Golf’s operational values.
“We want to make sure they have a good experience,” said Mytro. “We’re all consumers. When there’s an issue and I’m not treated right as a consumer, when I didn’t do anything wrong, I know what my feeling about that company is. And I know how that feeling can last.” https://www.precisionprogolf.com/
What you need to know is that the GPS Golf Band has a suggested retail price of $279.00. The Nexus Laser Rangefinder will have a suggested retail price of $299.00, likely close to $100.00 less that those with comparable features.
The NEW Tour Edge XJ1 Driver and Fairway Woods come with a suggested retail price of $949.00 for the Driver and $699.00 for the Fairway Woods. All prices mentioned above are in Canadian dollars.
As both products are very new and just being introduced at the upcoming PGA Show you can contact your pro shop or local golf retailer for availability.
For specific retail locations in Canada for both Tour Edge and Precision Pro Golf feel free to contact Golf Trends as to where products will be available.
1-800-668-1101 or visit www.golftrendsinc.com
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December 2016
