 We're getting ready. It is 2020. Time to switch the camera on. Yes, there is a hopes to drive as you've just seen. I've reached some years really that are now past the sell-by date because the new 2020 versions of those clubs are being released. Or are they? And that's the big question. You're going to be sold all kinds of different stories in terms of marketing claims over the next few weeks. People like me will be telling you what manufacturers have said is that their new product releases are going to achieve and make us all the better to play the game of golf. But in reality, we know that that is probably not the case and those claims are going to be fairly exaggerated. But what really do we expect from golf club manufacturers? Their marketing departments have got to build a story that gets you excited, that gets you want to buy their product, that gets their product to be listened to more than their competitor's product. My question in this video is going to be twofold. The first part is going to be around golf club manufacturing and what we expect from them and what we want to hear from them and what we'd like to hear from them. And the second part of video is what impact the governing bodies have had in terms of their limitations that they've set on these club manufacturers right now. So, twofold. Let's start with a first bit. As you know, there's a lot of videos coming your way over the next 70 days. It's going to be two or three weeks of solid product release and there's going to be stories from all those manufacturers, like I said, probably exaggerated stories, telling you how ball speeds are going to increase, forgiveness is going to become an almighty sweet spot, it's going to be massive and we're going to be driving a ball further than we've ever done in our lives. But we know, to be fair to them, that we already know that because of those limitations that we're going to talk about later, that that isn't going to be the case. So we're a bit of a stalemate. But first of all, in terms of the manufacturers, today's season release is the TaylorMade Sim driver and that is shape in motion. That's often a term that is used to describe me on a Saturday night on the dance floor, but in this case it is about the aerodynamics of a driver head and how it's going to become, increase our club head speed and therefore increase ball speeds and go further and ultimately do what we want with any driver that we've got and increase the distance that we drive it. Now, whether that story is true or not and that'll be proved in, you've seen some videos already, mine is coming at 6.45 this evening, this is Monday the 6th by the way, but we do know any gains that are made are likely to be marginal, if at all. And my question is this. First of all, I want your comments down below. What do you want to hear from a golf club manufacturer in terms of their future marketing campaigns? Would you rather a manufacturer come out and say, look, we've got a driver. It's a bit better than last year's. The sweet spot is maybe a little bit bigger than last year's. We think you might be able to drive this ball a yard or two longer than last year's and we've got a new fancy paint job on it and it looks fantastic. Is that first of all a realistic approach for them, for us to expect them to take and is that one that you really want to hear? Or would you rather hear a more exciting story put across, even though it may be one that you start to criticise and you don't believe, but would you rather not hear that hype to generate that excitement and the buzz that effectively is drawing you to watch these videos in the first place? You want to see what the new drivers come out what it's looking like, what it's performing like and that really is generated by marketing hype. So first of all, first part of question, what is it you want and what do you expect? As I always say, marketing is in any kind of industry. No matter where you go, you go into the supermarket right now, if I buy a tube of toothpaste, it's going to tell me my teeth are going to be whiter than white when I start to use it. Reality is, that isn't going to be the case, but for some reason we'll accept certain types of marketing but in golf club manufacturing, it gets absolutely hammered. So what do you want to hear from them? But the second thing is, and I think the bigger part of the question is this, manufacturers have reached limits as far as I'm concerned in terms of product technology. So for me, I've been doing this product testing for about three and a half years. In the first two years, maybe two and a half years even, I've definitely seen changes, progressions in certain areas in terms of the manufacturing and performance enhancements. I definitely believe that was the case. I think of a typical example, what was the big sort of clumb to some game improvements high by in three and a half years ago. Really, lots of forgiveness, lots of ball speeds across the club face. That was achieved in a fairly big low CG. That was achieved in a fairly big profile and something that I did like whatsoever. And I think what they've managed to do, manufacturers in that case now is if you look at Mizuno HMB irons, P790s, Apex from Callaway. I think those three irons there have basically developed what is a super game improvement iron in almost a player's type profile. So we're seeing sort of those gains and those progressions. I'm not sure that in the last year I have seen those type of progressions. And certainly in terms of driver distance we all know that limitations have been set in terms of can we possibly, cannot we, can a manufacturer achieve better results in terms of into the performance in terms of yardages? And the likelihood is I think they're stuck at the limits. And my question is this. It's about the governing bodies, the people that set those limits in place. Should there be clubs made by manufacturers for the pro game and for the amateur game? And the reason I ask is this. I know limitations have got to be set for the pro game because otherwise they're going to be driving 500 yards and course is going to be need to be made longer and longer and to contain them. But for the average golfer one of the most excitable things about golf is hitting the ball as far as we can. It's a very small part of the game but it's a real, we all love the driver and we all love whacking a ball as far as we can. We all love coming to the clubhouse telling somebody how far we hit a ball. It's part of the obsession of golf. It's part of the major excitement to golf and picking up a driver and being able to hit it 20, 30 yards past your existing driver. That's a real exciting thing to happen. And in reality we know right now that isn't going to happen because limitations have been put in place by the governing bodies to say right. That's the limit. You can't go past that. There are certain aspects that you can't increase and we know that in terms of driver distance we're never going to walk now into a shop and we're never going to pick a driver off the shelf that is really going to give us the massive gains that we would like to see to get as excited. Now for me that would do two things. If they lifted the limitation it gives manufacturers a whole new thing to play with in terms of what could they achieve and how exciting can the marketing claims be. They can then be believable marketing claims and ones that if we get told there's 20, 30 yards extra in the new driver that's come out then it's plausible that might have just happened because the limitations have been released. And then it gives the excitement back to the consumer the excitement back to the golfer in that yeah all of a sudden we can hit driver distances that we haven't been able to hit before and that's something to me that is a very exciting aspect of the game and one that has partly been removed from the amateur game and I think that's a big deal I really do and I think that I'm not sure what the negative is because I don't think all of a sudden with the technique and ability and swing speeds for most average golfers we ain't going to all of a sudden be sort of driving par fours I don't think it's going to change things that greatly but I do think it could make some differences where a few of us might get a little bit more excited about new product releases going forward because right now it just feels this year that we're at the limits we're at the limits and maybe we've been there for a couple of years and I think that what happens going forward I'm not quite so sure I'm not sure what's going to happen because yes they're going to keep on releasing products in terms of the product cycles because they want to generate sales that's the manufacturers that is but each year I think that's getting harder and harder for the manufacturer to send out any plausible story that isn't getting completely criticised by the consumer so two parts to the question don't forget what do you want to hear from marketing from the marketing departments of these companies moving forward if all stays as is do you want a more honest more toned down approach to marketing and the second part of the question is should governing bodies be releasing a little bit more back into manufacturers in terms of what they're allowed to do and achieve in terms of producing some product moving forward for average golfers, amateur golfers only there are two questions right I hope you enjoyed this video it is really the warmer pack because like I said every other video that I've got released over the next three weeks is about new product releases so get your comments down below get involved thanks as ever for watching and I'm going to carry on editing over there the other 54 videos I've got in terms of product releases to go I'm getting tired I'm wilting thanks for watching see you soon