Feed Your Golf Addiction In The Winter Part 20: Attend A Demo Day

This is the 20th in a series of articles on things to do to feed your golf addiction in the golfing offseason:

Attend A Demo Day

While golf courses may have off seasons, golf retailers operate year-round. Thus, even when snow covers the ground, our local shops are in full swing, using every trick in the book to get golfers in the store and move merchandise. One such promotion is the “demo day.” At Miles of Golf, Carls Golfland, Golfsmith, King Par and other southeastern Michigan establishments, equipment reps for the major manufacturers schedule time at the heated or indoor tees to show their latest wares and offer a chance to try them out. The reps are excited to talk about the new gear, and range balls are free, so it’s a deal that can’t be beat.

Miles of Golf in Ann Arbor held two demo days this past weekend. On Saturday, I spent a couple of hours testing clubs from Cobra, Mizuno, Adams and Ping. I returned on Sunday for TaylorMade, Callaway and Nike. I learned a lot about the new year’s clubs, tried out most of them and came away with a good pile of notes for future posts. I didn’t actually buy anything, but Miles was offering some very good deals.

The Demo Days also were a chance to try out Miles of Golf’s “Trackman” system. Trackman is a driving range bay with a doppler radar installed. The system measures your swing as you practice and feeds you information on carry and roll, swing and ball speed, angle and spin rate. For me, the bottom line of the data was that I don’t hit it far enough, my launch angle is too steep and my spin rate too high. Other than that, I’m good to go.

Keep an eye out for demo days in your area. They’re a fun—and cheap—way to fed the golf addiction.