Feb. 21, 2019
Nashville, Tenn.
Ben Benoit sends the following report about the first golf show attended by the new Tennessee Hickory Golf Association. The show was Feb. 15-17 at the state fairgrounds in Nashville.
Well the three-day show is over and it was a trip.
The venue wasn’t the best and the soaking rains all weekend kept many away, which was disappointing. Nevertheless we had 106 attendees come by the booth (38 were females). Of that count probably 50 percent expressed an interest in playing hickory golf. Some were collectors, 5-10 are now hickory players, some volunteered to assist in organizing, and three expressed an interest in how to repair and refinish clubs.
I suspect 25-30 just came by to sign up for the raffle of a Tad Moore driver.
Here are some highlights:
We had the finest looking booth according to show organizers and all of the professionals who were working their club’s booths. Many golf course owners around Nashville expressed an interest in having us come to their clubs to play weekly, monthly, etc. The Tennessee LPGA (amateurs) expressed an interest in having hickory play after I suggested Raggedy Ann-Raggedy Andy (mixed foursome) outings. They loved the idea. And the Tennessee First Tee Program asked if we could include their juniors in our play.
Many of the golf professionals who attended expressed interest in a professional tournament or tournament flight. Hickory golf has piqued their curiosity, partly influenced by watching the PGA guys experiment with hickories on Golf Channel segments. One said he would connect me to the Tennessee Golf Association, which runs all the state’s tournaments, set-up, scoring, signage, etc. All we need to do now is find sponsors. A purse of $1,500 would be enough for a tournament. That campaign will start soon as well.
Our demonstrations of wrapping grips and other club maintenance were enjoyed by all, kept the crowd engaged. My wife, Betsy, who loves jumping in feet-first in new activities, even did a lot of the whipping demonstrations.
We answered questions on everything. The main three questions were:
1. Where do we get clubs?
2. Do we have to wear knickers? Of course, I was wearing mine while in the booth.
3. Where do we play? Play across the state will be centered around the five centric regions, Knoxville to the east, Chattanooga to the south, Memphis to the west, Nashville (our headquarters) and Fort Campbell to the north (Clarksville). I did have two hickory golf “soldiers” come down and work the booth in knickers, which was great.
We handed out 20-25 of the “show special” coupons for $10 member join discounts and told everybody the SoHG story. The SoHG banner, by the way, was a great addition. The ladies especially enjoyed seeing how both men and women dressed in period attire. Everybody loved it.
Shortly after the show, I found five email messages from those who attended to remind me they are very interested in joining and asking what is the next step. As well, I just received a call from the owner of a local driving range who volunteered to host a hickory golf demonstration, clinic or association turnout. He’s even willing to use our balls (I have hundreds of used soft-cover balls) and will pick them up after the clinic so we don’t have to hit the range’s hard balls.
So, all good and positive steps, despite the bad weather. Hopefully within the month we will see some new SoHG members from Tennessee.
Included below are pictures of the booth. It really stood out amongst all others in the show.
Looks like hickory golf has made a great start in the volunteer state. Benoit and his fellow hickory golfers in Tennessee are building a new website. We’ll post a link to the website when it’s up and running.
