 Are we on? Yes we are on. Just ran out of card, recorded the intro to this already once. Is that okay? Bit dark. That seems okay. Right I'm with you, I will be with you in a minute. Bit dark the picture. In fact this camera I'm using is better than the last one, but not greatly different. Why did I buy it? And that brings me on to, very nicely, a little discussion that we're going to have. A little bit of a debate and you may get the clue from the title. But basically I put a tweet up last night. First thing I asked was honestly it was required and the tweet was this or this, whichever side it pops up on. With the imminent release of some new clubs coming out early 2019, how many golfers out there will already judge the product without even trying it? 114 people took place in my little survey, 25% a quarter of them said yes they do exactly that. They would judge the product before trying it, which I appreciate their honesty. I was expecting actually a bigger percentage to say that, although I wonder how many people didn't get involved in that little debate. A poll rather. But it's a big question and it's a big question that I thought we'd have a little bit of a chatter. And once again honesty is required and I'm sure there'll be plenty of comments down below on this one. It's a conversation I've had before and where I want to repeat a video, it's something that doesn't seem to go away. For me personally, we kind of all seem to know the predicament. What is a predicament? What a predicament is this? Golf manufacturers will be releasing clubs in early January and others throughout the year. The majority of people, it will come out in Jan, Jan Feb. And I will produce videos. I'm testing some product right now. Been out there today on the fairways testing out some product to give you some videos and some feedback on that product. And as I'm doing it, as I'm hitting the golf balls, I'm testing them and forming an opinion on what I think the golf club performs like. I'm thinking why on earth am I even doing this because there's so many people that straight away will either. They'll know the answers before I've even posted a video. They'll be prejudging that product like I said before they've even seen the video. Before they've even tried the product, which amazes me. How can anybody judge a product without even trying it? For all we know, the revolution might be coming. The golf club of all golf clubs might be on the horizon. But the skeptics and I understand the skepticism. That's a pretty difficult thing to say as I've just demonstrated. And yeah, I'm waiting for it. The season of when all the comments come in about limits on COR and you can't make the driver any further. My driver from 10 years ago is as good as the one they've just released. And yeah, I'm expecting all that. And it's getting to a point where you think, do you know what? Seriously? Do we have to have this conversation all over again? I like to reply to comments as much as possible. It's always something I've done. But again, I look at those comments and I just struggle to engage with it. I really do. Back to the video. So trying to apply some logic thought process to what is going on. Is it just something that is in the mentalities of golfers? Are there a lot of golfers, a high percentage of golfers out there that have got this kind of mentality? Does it? I don't know. And the reason I asked this question is this. What device are you watching this video on now? A large majority of you will be watching on an iPhone or an iPad, an Apple product. A huge percentage of sales of mobile devices come from Apple. Now Apple make a huge deal, a huge deal about announcing a new product. They have a whole big show that they put on as an announcement. There's a time of day when it will be released. This year it was live across all stores across the world to announce that new product. The likelihood is that iPhone or iPad that you've got in your hand now is probably very little different to the one that previous and very little difference to the one previous to that. But progress gets made in products in little chunks and often we can't even tell the difference. But what I say, cameras, I love cameras, I love them. This camera is better than the last camera I used. Will you notice a difference? Do I look any better on this camera than the last camera? Don't answer that one. This camera and whatever camera I get, a bit like buying a new golf club, I'm not going to turn into Quentin Tarantino with this camera in my hand. I know that. I acknowledge that. It doesn't matter what Canon in this case tell me how fantastic this camera is. It's the best Canon I've ever made. But I will still be limited to what I can do with this camera. How good I can produce a video, the quality of that video in terms of the technology that I'm using will be limited by the person at the end of the record button, me. But I know that. I acknowledge that. And no matter what Canon tell me, I'm intelligent enough to realize that I can only get so much out of this camera because of my limitations from a personal level in being able to operate this kit. I watch numerous videos online on YouTube before I bought that camera. Looking for advice, pointers, what is the best camera for me for the type of video that I want to shoot. And I went and bought this. At no point, and I've watched those videos the last three or four years since I've been very much interested in this kind of equipment, at no point did I feel the need to write a comment to criticize Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Apple to complain about marketing campaigns driven by them to me as a consumer. Never once did I feel the need to do that. Never once did I ever criticize the product when I did. What did I say? This is 13 megapixel. The last one was 12 megapixel. It's not going to make any difference. It's like, yeah, I listen. I'm intelligent enough to process that in my own brain and then decide whether I want to spend my money on the extra one megapixel difference or 1000 megapixel difference, wherever it is. I'm already out of depth with cameras. So, I'm already struggling with this. We get back to the golf manufacturers. Are we the only type, genre, whatever you want to call it of pastime that is so upset by marketing? Are we just filled with people who are upset with marketing? Because it's all I ever read and I am absolutely, I just do not get it. I honest to God, I do not get it. It's just so difficult. And the thing is for me, the interesting bit for me is honestly, I couldn't care less if Taylor Mae, Callaway, Ping, Strix and Mizzuno. I couldn't care less if they didn't sell one golf product next year. I'm not on their side. I'm not on their side whatsoever. But I am on the side of human intelligence and I'm on my side in terms of doing a video to assess, evaluate a golf club's performance or a golf ball's performance and get some logical feedback that's worth interacting with rather than another whole host and barrage of people who say about the limitations of CORs and it can't be any longer and it, whoa, obsession with the driver being longer. It has to be, if it's not longer, then it's not better. That's not the case at all, is it? That is not the case whatsoever. I haven't got a club head right now but let's just say that is the center of a golf club, right? And we all know that's the COR limit, then, is measured from that center position. We all know that it can't be exceeded, the limitations that are set. But what if, for example, all over that club face in the driver's case, we were able to get the same sort of ball speed from off-center hits, from all over the club face? Now, for me, as an average golfer, I'd be quite happy with that because I don't find the center of a golf club that often. So if a new product was brought out and the sweet spot became bigger than ever before and it produced the same ball speed from across the whole of the club face, that'd be quite interesting to me. That'd be worth having because, likely it is, it will make me a better player. It won't change my technique, it will improve my technique, but it will improve my off-center hits of which I can produce lots of. And therefore, perhaps, maybe just getting that little bit more consistency of distance off that club face for the amount of poor shots to that hit. We've seen a massive increase in movements and placements of CG, which assists golfers being able to get the ball airborne, pop that ball up in the air. It's not something that I've ever had a problem with, but there are a lot of golfers that I've played with that do struggle. And again, the movement in the CG in the last few years, the stripping back of weight from wherever you can and bringing CG back and low into drivers again, for example, has been a massive advancement in helping golfers being able to hit driver off the tee. It's a huge, huge difference. Once again, the length thing, the 28 and a half degrees, seven irons. Oh, my God, do not... It's not a seven iron, it's a six iron, it's a five iron. Oh, my God. Seriously, it is the most boring comment. I am absolutely... I just... Why does it matter? Why does it matter to you if it's a seven iron, it's 24 degrees? If you don't want to buy them, if you don't want a seven iron that is 28 and a half degrees and you're happy with your traditional 35 degrees, well, you're good then, aren't you? You're good. You're good with what you've got. You've got no reason to... What are you complaining about? Again, I don't understand the psyche of people. It's like if somebody brings out a seven iron that's 24 degrees, is it going to affect me? Am I going to change your golf club because the loft of seven iron is 24 degrees? No. Not one bit. It doesn't interest me. I've got absolutely... I couldn't care less what they did. So, I'm just embaffled by the logic and how like I said when compared to other industries, it's like as if golf has never seen marketing before in its entire life. You've got a whole bunch of people. You're going to supermarket and buy a new packet of toothpaste and I'll make your teeth whiter than ever before. You and I know that these teeth, these gnashes, they're going to be no different. But it's marketing. It's marketing. Again, the day I go into a supermarket and say this toothpaste you're about to buy is going to be the worst toothpaste you've ever used and it will make no difference to your teeth whatsoever. In fact, it'll start decaying them. That's a message that I will... I don't think that's going to happen, is it? So I don't understand why we expect that to be the case with golf club manufacturers, golf ball manufacturers. I just think that at times we underestimate the mentality of our fellow golfers because I've never met one golfer that is an intelligence enough to make up his own mind when he sees a product to decide whether he wants to spend his money on it or not. I had a guy the other day who got in touch via Twitter direct message, wanted to know how he would get fit by a set of PXG irons. That guy got fit two days ago he's bought his irons and he's bought his wedges. To some people out there, absolutely crazy. Why would you want to spend that money? For me, I have absolutely no interest. I say good luck to you. I say absolute good luck to you. If you want to buy a set of PXG irons and if you can afford to buy a PXG irons and you like them and they bring enjoyment to your life then go out and bloody buy the clubs, mate. You know, this is the thing. It's got nothing to do with me. I'm not bitter. I'm not envious of him. I might be a little bit envious. But you know, I just think go out and buy them. Go out and buy them. I don't judge, you know, people smoke. People buy 20 packs of 20 fags a day. You know, I don't say to people stop smoking, stop spending your money on fags. Why would I tell someone not to buy a set of PXG irons? You know, it's, I just don't get it. I really don't get it and it's something that it's driven me mad for a while and again, this isn't a popular opinion. This is the thing. The popular opinion right now is to jump on the bandwagon of yes, we hate golf club manufacturers. No golf clubs are any different. I could join that band. I could join that band. I've got no interest in following popular popular opinion because that's how it seems to be right now. There seems to be a little bit of a growing group that want to criticise. That's the trend. Let's all call golf club manufacturers a marketing campaign. No, seriously. I'll do my own thing. I'll form my own opinion. I'll pass an opinion on a golf club when I've tried it. I'll give you my honest opinion and assessments of it. I don't need to criticise for the sake of it. I don't need to join that bandwagon whatsoever. It's incredible, you know, and the thing is, you know, there's so many people that actually do this and they've got a different club in their bag every week and it seems like I said almost fashionable at the moment that we have to try to criticise, find a reason to be critical. I don't see the logic in that to be honest with you. I don't understand it. It just does not make any sense to me. It's like, you know, as any, if you have gone out there and tried a golf club and then come back and say, you know, this golf club was rubbish, then every respect to your opinion and that's what we should be doing. But for people who pass opinion on product that hasn't even on the market, so when we release some pre-release videos and there'll be already opinion on it, that baffles me. Baffles me. But again, I understand and totally respect that you wouldn't even want to try it, but you can't judge it. You can't judge it until you've tried it, surely. That's a no-brainer. I turn into a bit of a rant. How many minutes have I been on for? Like I said, not a popular video, not a popular subject. But, you know, I like to have a discussion, I like to have a debate. I respect all opinions. Like I said, comments down below. Respect all opinions. I'll respect yours. But keep it logical and I will do my very best to reply as well. One thing I should say before I go, probably should have started with it really is, Happy Christmas. Genuinely thank you for watching all the videos this year. A lot of views don't know what the number was. A lot of views, a lot of new subscribers. It's been a fantastic year and I've enjoyed every minute of it, even though I'm over the moon right now. It's a debate. Remember, keep it that way. And I will see it very soon, probably in the new year. So I'll say Happy New Year as well until early January before you see my next video. It might be a club review. Who knows?