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39. What's New in Golf from the PGA Show? Anthony Newville, COO at True Spec Golf

Writer's picture: Matt FarrellMatt Farrell


39. What's New in Golf from the PGA Show? Anthony Newville, COO at True Spec Golf


Summary

Episode 39 - In this episode of the Farrell Sports Business podcast, the host Matt Farrell talks with Anthony Newville, COO of True Spec Golf. In this conversation, Matt and Anthony delve into the golf industry, discussing Anthony's career, the significance of the PGA Show in Orlando, trends in equipment and marketing, and the rise of challenger brands in golf such as Srixon, Cobra and more. They explore the current state of golf, innovations in equipment, and the importance of custom fitting at True Spec. The discussion highlights the evolving landscape of golf, the impact of COVID-19, and the future of the sport.


About the Farrell Sports Business Podcast

Interviews with news makers from sports business to talk leadership, entrepreneurship, industry news and their unique career paths. Hosted by Matt Farrell, President of Farrell Sports and former Golf Channel, USOPC, USA Swimming and Warner Bros.


Watch it on YouTube - www.youtube.com/@farrellsportsww


Listen in Podcasty Places - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio and more



Matt Farrell (00:00)

On this episode of the Farrell Sports Business Podcast, we're gonna be talking about trends and what's going on in the golf industry. Equipment, hard goods, soft goods, with an industry veteran who has spent his entire career working in the golf business and has an incredible insight coming out of the most recent PGA show in Orlando. I'm Matt Farrell, the host.


We're going to deep dive into golf and this gentleman comes from a background of working at golf courses. And he has a great story of his first job in the golf industry, Callaway golf channel, the winning ticket app. and now is the COO of true spec golf, which is a part of the 8am golf family and just a


professional in the industry and a great insight into trends and what's going on in the golf world. So for this week, I'd like to welcome our guest, Anthony Newville


Matt Farrell (01:13)

Anthony, so great to see you. Thanks for joining.


Anthony Newville (01:15)

Absolutely, Matt. Thanks for having me on. Been a big fan of the podcast and yours and excited to now get to sit in the hot seat myself and spend some time with you.


Matt Farrell (01:25)

This is going to be like 60 minutes. Absolutely. The bright, the bright light on you. So as you know, I just have a passion for golf as a player, worked for a little bit in the industry, and I just love talking about what's new and what's happening in the PGA show, what's on the horizon for the sport of golf. But let's reset a little bit. Tell me a little bit about


Anthony Newville (01:31)

I'll set up the stream later then.


Matt Farrell (01:54)

your career and then I want to ask you about TrueSpec.


Anthony Newville (01:58)

Sure, yeah, I appreciate it. So I've spent pretty much my entire professional career on the business side of golf. My first job in golf, I always like to throw this little snippet in, was I was the night water man for a nine hole facility when I was in college. So I followed the last group out at about 8.30 PM, obviously summertime in Utah, can't play golf in the snow.


Follow the last group, we had eight foot keys. So was actually like manually turning on valves to, to water fairways. We only had enough water pressure to, to water three fairways at a time, which was amazing. So my clock management skills, yeah, got pretty good during that time. And it was really during that little stint, again, as a


Matt Farrell (02:42)

You


Anthony Newville (02:52)

as a broke college kid just trying to find a place to be able to play free golf and to work at the golf course was the best way to do that. I fell in love with the industry and the camaraderie and again as you certainly got to experience too. There's so many good people in the business side of golf and again that's what really drew me to it. I played team sports all growing up and


that team mentality was our industry as a whole, which I really kind of felt at home there. fast forward through college, I spent a little over 10 years at Callaway, mostly around the custom fitting side of golf. Had a brief stint at the Golf Channel for about a year. And then during COVID, worked with a startup that was...


Trying to help charities create a software program to be the one stop shop to help them raise money through charity golf tournaments. And then from there, spent time with US Team Amia, which is a golf shaft manufacturer and vendor that's carried by all the major manufacturers. And then lastly, been here at TrueSpec for a little bit over a year now.


Matt Farrell (04:12)

Just looking back through your career in true spec, the brands that are part of a true spec and 8 a.m. golf, it's pretty impressive. You're the COO there now. What's your role and tell us a little bit about true spec.


Anthony Newville (04:27)

Sure, absolutely. yeah, and I think that's exactly how you kind of briefly touched on it starts with our parent company, which is 8AM Golf, which owns companies like Golf Magazine and Golf.com and the Nicholas brands, Golf Logic, one of the most popularly used apps and obviously TrueSpec as well, right? So TrueSpec, are Golf's premier brand agnostic club fitter. So we have over 40 locations worldwide.


And really kind of our core model is and who we help is individuals who have a passion like yourself for golf and want to find the very best brand agnostic club fitter to help recommend product that will help them play better golf through equipment. So taking that one step further and talking about my role a little bit is so not only do we custom fit at our 40 plus worldwide locations.


We take that a step further and we actually hand build, hand assemble every customer's order here in our 30,000 square foot Scottsdale HQ. So we're shipping hundreds of golf clubs around the world every day and it's a pretty impressive feat.


Matt Farrell (05:41)

Well, that's like the perfect scenario to you talk about what's going on in the industry and the agnostic work stood out on that. And so I want to talk about the PGA show, which is, I mean, for lack of a better term, it's like the CES of the golf world just finished in Orlando. You just got off a plane, you know, 12, 14 hours ago.


Anthony Newville (05:56)

Sure.


Matt Farrell (06:10)

For those listening, what is the PGA show? And then we'll get into the meat of what you saw and what you see coming for the next year.


Anthony Newville (06:18)

Sure, yeah. The PGA show is, so first of all, it's been going on since 1954, so I think my math is correct. That's 71 years now. And it's the largest global gathering for those in the business side of golf. So there's over thousand vendors that set up booths at the Orange County Convention Center there in Orlando. It's a little over a million square feet.


I think I averaged about 25,000 steps every day. So I certainly got my step count in, which is great. And I think my feet are still a little sore and a little fun antidote. think this is my 11th year in attendance at the PGA show. And I got some great advice prior to my first. And it was like, hey, we dress professionally and this is our time to meet with everybody.


You want kind of look dressed very much in your Sunday best, but absolutely wear the most comfortable shoes that you have. So you will see people in three-piece suits and beautiful sport coats and in ASICs joggers. Yeah, so and trainers. it's yeah, that many steps is trying to take care of your feet is kind of priority number


Matt Farrell (07:25)

You


It also seems to be like world headquarters for the quarter zip as well.


Anthony Newville (07:54)

Yeah, I am part of that.


Yeah, I'm part of that crew. Yeah, it's the it's the official attire of golf industry professionals. So


Matt Farrell (08:05)

Well, we're going to talk a little bit of equipment, hard goods, soft goods. But I think one thing that caught my eye in just some of our conversations leading up to this is you talked about everybody who is there. But there's actually some trends of who's not there these days and what's kind of going on there with the equipment makers.


Anthony Newville (08:27)

Yeah, it is kind of an it's an interesting time as it pertains to the PGA show and the major vendors. So, you quickly kind of talking about what originally the PGA show was for, right? So this is we talked about all the major vendors, green grass professionals, PGA, PGA professionals that are there attending seminars. And then again, the


the major manufacturers, but previously, new product would actually come out later in the year. So the PGA show was a time for actually writing business. So there was an ROI element to this convention, right? So you have all the vendors, all the buyers, people are actually writing their pre-orders. Well, now there's been a kind of a shift in when product life cycles are and when they're actually launched.


And now product is actually launched by most of the manufacturers this time of the year, which means that all of those pre-orders were shown to the buyers and like TrueSpec, we saw all the 2025 product in October, right? So as we have conversations with the major vendors, which we do quite a lot of business with all of them, obviously with 40 locations is,


understanding that expense and it now not having a direct ROI to be able to be tied to it. The show has kind of shifted from an equipment standpoint where now those those vendors are utilizing this convention more as kind of a relationship building. And when you talk about the total expense for Callaway, for Cleveland's Rick Saund for Cobra.


I mean, they are spending millions of dollars on their booth and flying all their employees in. So there have been over the last few years, and especially COVID, it kind of throws a little bit of a wrench in there too, right? It's been manufacturers that have decided that instead of that giant expense to show product to people that already have it in their locations or at their golf courses,


instead utilize those funds for other things. The most notable, especially this year, was TaylorMade. So you talk about all these vendors, it's the place to be for golf, and one of the largest equipment manufacturers in TaylorMade isn't there. So that's definitely interesting, and we'll see kind of where it goes in the years to come.


Matt Farrell (11:16)

You know, golf, at least from my view, is, I think, one of the most phenomenal marketing machines from an equipment standpoint. And I have brand loyalties that probably are more marketing than really knowing the difference of equipment. And so I think we're all used to getting hammered with a lot of golf marketing messages. So in your role, how do you...


how do you filter that out? And I want to ask you about a few brands in particular that I think just kind of stood out of like, hey, this is something to pay attention to. And so the first one on that, unless you want to talk about generally separating from the clutter, and then we'll talk about Cobra.


Anthony Newville (12:00)

Yeah.


Yeah, yeah. yeah. And I'll definitely touch on that first kind of topic. Exactly what you said. It's very interesting. And I think that that's really where TrueSpec shines, right? And when we liken it back to word that we used earlier in the podcast is agnostic. So we are performance driven through and through. So when our customers book an appointment and they come in and spend time with us, it will ask them if they have any favorites or if there's any product that they've heard about.


Matt Farrell (12:14)

Yeah.


Anthony Newville (12:33)

again from the marketing machine or maybe a friend or something like that or a tour player that is playing it. But our commitment is to the data. We use either Trackman or GC Quad, so 15 to $20,000 launch monitors in each of our locations. And we make that investment because the data is what


we thrive on and we utilize that to make the very best recommendation to our customers, regardless of what logo and what manufacturer is making that product.


Matt Farrell (13:09)

it's so helpful because I've done a few fittings in my life where you kind of come in fixed of me like I like Calloway, like TaylorMade and you come in with a preset notion and then somebody puts a Shrix on or a Cleveland in your hand and it and you realize whoa maybe I need to kind of chill on the know blind brand association if you will.


Anthony Newville (13:32)

Yeah. Yeah.


And I think and that's a great segue into Cleveland Cirkson, which, know, Cirkson's iron specifically, we sell a lot of, a lot, a lot of Cirkson irons. And when you look at these kinds of challenger brands, you know, that's really where, and as I have the opportunity to kind of meet with their leadership, you know, they love, they love TrueSpec, they love Custom Fitters because they make such incredible


product that the marketing dollars to your point and the departments and the ultimate spend by the major manufacturers can kind of overshadow these smaller challenger brands and really how great their product is. that's a commitment that we make from the TrueSpec standpoint. And as a side note, we have over 70,000 hittable combinations.


So we have so much product and we look for exotic product and we don't let anything into any of our fitting studios until we've thoroughly tested it and determined that there is a player out there that may benefit or that may really want to try this against a big 800 pound gorilla in the major manufacturers. That's why we carry brands like


like Mira for one very high end Japanese forging that feels incredible, right? But you know, there are a lot of people that have never tried that because, you know, they'll go to another kind of retailer or anything like that and only see the major vendors. So that is a big oneness that we put on ours is to at least have the opportunity.


to share with the golfing community, perhaps in brands that they've never had the chance to try before.


Matt Farrell (15:31)

So


you briefly mentioned Strixon has an iron line you like, Cope Cobra caught your eye.


Anthony Newville (15:38)

Yeah, again, yeah, we're sticking kind of on these on these challenger brands, right? you know, Strixon makes an unbelievable line, which, is their ZX line. So a couple different models there, depending on the handicap, and different blade lengths, different flight characteristics, different kind of levels of forgiveness.


And again, we sell a ton of them and they'll continue with this new line. They'll continue to dominate in that space for those individuals that come and see us that that are performance driven, that do trust the process that, Hey, you know, we're here to show you the very best product for you, regardless of, you know, if there's a whatever logo there is on the back of it. So yeah, Cleveland six on will do in Strix on iron specifically will do very, very well. And 25 is my prediction on that front.


And then Cobra, you know, it's a challenger brand in from the golf side, right? I yeah, it's kind of funny to kind of break it down that way because you think of Cobra, absolute marketing machine, and they do have some really great products and making some investments in something I'll touch on here in a second. you know, how are they in the same kind of conversations, right? Sometimes that they struggle a little bit.


to keep up with the Taylor maids and the Callaways and the Titleists and the Pings of the world. I think they have a new tip adapter for their drivers on the new DS adapt line that actually has 33 independent settings, which is about four times more than any other manufacturer. when we met with their R &D team, the kind of middle part of last year,


They really reinforced what they want to be as they want to be. They want to continue to push options and to find the very best product for customers and being able to have all of those settings to just incredibly fine tune what a player's driver is actually performing like is definitely going to allow


retailers like ours to make that product work for a wider range of players. So definitely excited to see those brands.


Matt Farrell (18:10)

Well, one you mentioned in your notes to me that, you know, I feel like I follow golf, but I had no clue what it was. I'd never heard of a white wood model. is that more on the shaft side? I don't even know what that is.


Anthony Newville (18:28)

Yeah, yeah, so it's actually so the leader in in graphites and in in shafts is Fuji Kura so mark market leader you see them on in most players bags on the PGA tour and and really have dominated since they came out with a line called Ventus They're now on really kind of their third iteration of Ventus


And just recently they added a lightweight model called the Ventus White. So it's 40 grams, only comes in three flexes. So you have the market leader come out with a model that they, and really a player kind of targeted that they haven't for a while. And some of their competitors have taken advantage of that. So that is...


in kind of our world, that's a brand, a ton of name recognition, a ton of tour play, big marketing. They make phenomenal product as well. Now actually design a platform and a structure in a driver shaft and in a fairway wood shaft as well to hit a player type that they didn't previously have. So this would be the little bit.


The term that was ingrained in me when I was at Callaway for someone who maybe doesn't swing very fast is a force limited. So for that force limited type of player, here's something a little bit lighter, a little bit softer to try to square the face up and get the golf ball to go as far as possible.


Matt Farrell (20:00)

Yeah.


Force Limited, that's like the best euphemism for old and slow I think I've ever heard. I'm gonna tell my buddies, you know, I'm just, Force Limited, so.


Anthony Newville (20:18)

You said it on me. You said it on me. I will always stay force limited.


Yeah,


hey, I I drove that 120 by you and I'm like, well, I'm a little force limited. So that's that's how it is that You'll definitely get a side eye when you say that for sure


Matt Farrell (20:41)

that's great. So if you go to the PGA show, I would be guessing the numbers, but apparel vendors galore. And every time you've gone into a golf shop and you've, you've looked at apparel in a golf shop and it's everything you would always imagine everything from foot joy to Johnny O to the Nikes to, you know, whatever it might be. Anything catch your eye on the soft good side.


Anthony Newville (21:10)

Yeah. Um, it is wild. we talk about that, you know, a little over a million square feet of convention space that the PGA show takes up. And I, you know, with kind of what we do is we talk a lot of, we spend most of our time on kind of the hard goods, right? Or the hard good side. So that's the golf clubs, but the, the apparel side is, um, semi estimating probably 60%.


I would say of the actual show floor between apparel and accessories like scorecards and trophies and all that kind of stuff. And PGA professionals and buyers from all different types of retailers, there still is quite a bit of usefulness in the PGA show for them and the actual planning out their buys. so seeing all the...


Matt Farrell (21:39)

Yeah.


Anthony Newville (22:05)

the seasonal drops from the Johnny O's and from the Nikes. We have a great relationship with Grayson. So Grayson's kind of a luxury golf kind of apparel line that you'll see. They sponsor some players out on the PGA Tour. They probably, in my mind, had one of the cooler booths. Their brand definitely looks like a


kind of 1950s sporting lodge. So it's dark, there's some flora and fake fauna and some fox statues and things like that all strewn around. And I would encourage all of your listeners, Matt, to take a look at the PGA show just to see some pictures. We talked about kind of just the sheer scale. It's hard to just kind of...


let people know what that is just as we kind of verbally talk about it. But some of these booths are grandiose is really the only adjective I can use to explain them. And so again, I definitely encourage people to take a look and see kind of the Grayson booth. Another one is a custom head cover company.


that has a cult following and you're starting to see a lot everywhere called swag. Swag is, it's impressive, not only just the level of quality and in their embroidery, but the amount of creativity that they have around everything from your teams to cartoons to pop culture. So again, they're


Their base is widening. And one of the most impressive and the things that that will stick with me from this from the 2025 PGA show is so swag had a decent size booth, especially kind of compared to their competitors. But the brilliance of their marketing, they actually set up a claw machine. So the old arcade game claw, if you remember those. And and so it's free. But and they put a whole bunch of their custom head covers into there.


Matt Farrell (24:21)

That's great.


Anthony Newville (24:28)

And I walked by, it was like Thursday at 10.30 in the morning, and there was no less than 150 people waiting in line for a shot to play the claw game and win one of their custom head covers. So, you know, again, that kind of just speaks a little bit to their audience and people that are longing for their product. So pretty cool.


Matt Farrell (24:54)

That's great. I want to maybe just go 30,000 foot here for a second. And as you, if you said this was maybe your 11th year or, you know, or such what, and you can kind of take this any direction that you want, but what's, what's the hallway conversation about golf? What's the dinner conversation? What either good or bad or concern? What, what kind of has people's attention?


Anthony Newville (25:15)

Yeah, sure.


Matt Farrell (25:24)

on those side conversation of what's going on in golf right now.


Anthony Newville (25:27)

Yeah, Matt, and honestly, for me personally, the biggest kind of benefit that I and TrueSpec get from going and attending the PTA show is those types of conversations, to be honest, right? As I mentioned, we've already done our buys for our major kind of hard goods, all the steps to launch. Most of it's actually in our fitting studios now. So the opportunity to kind of reconnect


with industry professionals that maybe we only get the chance to see once a year and have those conversations is for me the biggest benefit. Answering your question specifically is, you know, I think golf is in an interesting place. There, you know, it's not news to anyone that golf absolutely flourished during COVID as being, you know, one of the


Matt Farrell (26:05)

Yeah.


Anthony Newville (26:24)

one of the only kind of activities and especially sport related that you could do safely and be outside. everybody in golf benefited from COVID and that time. You know, from there.


Golf companies are trying to find their new normal, right? So, you know, a lot of times now is we, you we run all of our reporting is we're still in golf data tech, which is the biggest kind of supplier of statistics in, in golf. You know, when they send over quarterly reports, it's all against 2019. So even now we're, you know, taking a look at how 2024 did compared to 2019 kind of pre COVID. So it is interesting.


You know, I think that really the last 18 months, we've kind of set our new floor for what the golf business will look like, right? Because you get this gigantic rise in popularity and sales. And this was everybody in golf through that, you know, kind of two and a half year COVID period. And everybody was trying to figure out like, okay, you know, as we make budgets and


And we strategize for what the future looks like. Is this going to go back down? Where's the new norm? And really kind of my biggest takeaway from those hallway conversations was that golf is in a very healthy space. have now, you're starting to see the individual locations that are opening up.


indoor golf simulator retail locations and you're seeing the popularity of Topgolf and Drive Shack and puttery and all these different kind of golf periphery types of things that my sense and my biggest takeaway was that golf is in a


Golf has found its kind of new normal and now it's just trying to be creative and build off of that.


Matt Farrell (28:52)

I want to give you a bit of the last word, Anthony, even though I'm getting choked up, this conversation is so emotional to me. Shameless plug, anything you see for the industry, for TrueSpec that maybe we didn't talk about as you crystal ball 2025 in golf.


Anthony Newville (29:14)

Yeah, again, think golf finding its new norm is great for our industry, I think that you're gonna continue to see unbelievable product come out from the major manufacturers and these challenger brands as well. And there's never been a better time to play golf.


than there is now. With golf courses thriving, with equipment again, getting better every year. And that puts us at TrueSpec in a great spot to be able to help our customers kind of sort through all of that product, right? That's really kind of where we do our best work. Like yourself, Matt, I know you have an accountant that helps you do your taxes.


And that's their profession because that space gets noisy and there's a lot going on and it can become overwhelming. That's really where we're at TrueSpec are fortunate and highly trained individuals that are committed to the craft of custom fitting and custom building of golf clubs. So I just encourage anybody that wants to try some new product, wants to learn what could be the very best for their personal game.


to take a look at truspectgolf.com. Again, over 40 worldwide locations. We're very likely in a city near you and love the opportunity to share some new equipment and find the best stuff to help you enjoy golf.


Matt Farrell (31:04)

Well, this is great. I always appreciate you and your insight, your passion for the game, for the industry. So Anthony, is great. We'd love to have you back again. We'll deep dive a little bit more on the golf world. So thank you.


Anthony Newville (31:18)

I appreciate it, Matt. Thanks for having me on today.

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