All About the AGCP Roundtable

• Roundtable Schedule of Events
• Hotel Information - AGCP Rates
• 2007 Roundtable Comments
• 2007 Roundtable Pictures

Register Now for Roundtable and Save $100!

Hurry up and register for the 3rd Annual AGCP Roundtable.

Why Hurry?

We have only 125 available seats with tables so you can take notes.   Hotel space is going to be scarce in November because of a number of large conventions in Columbus and the Hosts are buying up rooms lickety split.   You don’t want to miss this one, it is going to be the best one yet.

Focus on Fitting promises to be the best opportunity you will have in 2008 to learn how and why you can make your shop a much better shop and a more profitably shop in 2009.

Come and see the best in the World and let them tell you why they are the best and show you how to do it too.

You are not only going to see and hear how to turn your customers into better golfers but also how to burn your shop in to the go to technical center in your area. You will learn how to make your shop the center of attention for golfers around you to come to for all of their custom needs and advice. You will learn the marketing techniques and advertising techniques to let the golfers in your area discover your talents and why you are the best choice to make them play better golf even if you are the most expensive alternative.

You will learn how to make the golfers in your community realize that your equipment is "only slightly higher than the OEMs even though they are a far, far superior product" and how to make them want to pay you more, not less for what you do.

You will learn how to recognize swing flaws and what you can and cannot do to correct it with equipment.

You will watch the world’s best fitters do Driver fittings and learn how to do it too.

You will learn about the importance of weight, swingweight, MOI, balance points on golf clubs and how to change balance points on golf clubs, why this is important and who it affects and how it affects them.

You will learn how to display your test equipment to get the biggest bang for the buck with your customers.

You will learn what to say and how to say it to make your customers understand how superior you knowledge is and why you are their test choice to purchase properly fitted golf equipment.

Stay tuned and when we finalize all of our speakers we will list a complete schedule of speakers and their topics right here on this page. We have the following lined up and ready to go and more on the way.

Dana Upshaw - Will do something spectacular but doesn't know exactly what yet. I asked him if he could move his whole operation over and show you around but... ;<))

Tom Spargo - Will tell us how he operates his highly successful business in RI and offer some marketing and merchandising tricks and speak to us about pricing and positioning ourselves in our market.

Bill Kelly - Bill came in on short notice last year and did a great job on counterweighting. This year he is on early notice and has promised to bring a lot of data showing the results of counterweighting for specific swing types.

Jerry Hoefling - Jerry says he's going to turn it up a notch this year and actually do some Driver fittings while we watch.

Roy Nix - Roy will be talking to you throughout the event as the Master of Ceremonies but will also tell you some thngs about Professional Selling and how you can do it. Salesman are not born, they are made. Anyone can learn to sell.

We will have some Certification Classes in conjunction with the Roundtable also and you might want to sign up for one of these. Wedge fitting, MOI, and others.

For those who want to bring your wife. We do not have anything formal planned yet. Last year we only had a few wives and we are waiting to see how many are coming before Linda starts putting any actives lists together. It seems that most that have contacted me this year are bringing their wives so I’m sure Linda will put something nice together for them all.

The Third Annual AGCP Roundtable Educational Seminars and Convention in Columbus Georgia will be held this year on November 6th, 7th, and 8th, 2008 with a Focus on Fitting.

As more and more PGA Professionals and Golf Equipment experts emphasize fitting as a major requirement to play the best golf possible, the AGCP also puts added emphasis on fitting. Over the three years of it’s existence the AGCP has placed added attention to fine tuning the fitting process. Where the major retail golf companies are bringing out fitting carts that allow PGA Pros and large retail stores to fit golfers on a macro level the AGCP strives to look more and more into not only the micro levels of fitting but you could almost say the Nano levels of fitting.

Where once we thought frequency matching a set of irons by tuning the butt frequencies on a perfect linear slope to the golfer, that has been outdated for years by flex matching irons using the butt, mid section and tip measurements of iron shafts. Where we discover that swing speed may tell us the butt frequency of the perfect iron shaft we now also know that the transition move from the top or set position of the downswing is best fitted in the mid section of the shaft and the release point fitted to the tip strength of the shaft. Thus AGCP members delve into measuring all three sections of the shaft to match a set using the total characteristics of the shaft rather than simply testing the butt frequency to match the golfers swing.

Where we measure 3 sections of irons shafts we advance this much more with Drivers and wood shafts. AGCP members are now measuring 7 positions on a raw uncut wood shaft to fit the same parameters of our golfers for drivers and fairway clubs. With new software being developed that allows us to enter these measurements and analyze and compare shafts from all companies and manufacturers we are able to measure the golfers swing speed, transition time and release point and use that data to match him or her with shafts that are designed with various configurations of flex in these areas that match their swing characteristics.

We are also finding that where swingweight was once a standard used to match a set of clubs by weight it is now only one of many considerations taken into account when fitting clubs. MOI has become the preferred measurement now because it is a more dynamic measurement and not a static measurement like swingweight. Using butt weights as Jack Nicklaus did long ago is showing us we can move the weight around and change the balance point in golf clubs to great advantage. More consistent center face contact, longer shots, straighter shots, better distance control are possible with properly weighted and balanced golf clubs.

All of this is a long way of saying the 3rd Annual Roundtable Session will be a Focus on Fitting