RUSH: I tried to go to the golf course yesterday. In fact, I did go to the golf course yesterday. I’ve got a new shaft that I wanted to try, and the minute I got over there here go the lightning warnings. And I looked up at the sky, looked at the radar, and it was hopeless. And about five minutes later it just started. It was so dark, this was about 3:45 — (interruption) I’m being asked why I don’t have one of these gizmos where you can basically play a golf course inside. These are cool. Tom Fazio has one and I’ve used it.
You can play any course you want. You tee your ball up and you swing and it scientifically tells you how far your ball would have gone. It knows what direction it went so it puts it where you would land on the fairway. But it’s not like being out there. And who wants to trust a machine to tell you how far you’re actually hitting the ball? I mean, it’s fun, but it doesn’t replace reality.
So I got this new shaft in my driver, and I screwed up, I took the wrong driver Sunday so I didn’t get to test it. So I was gonna go test it yesterday and then it rained. I can’t believe how dark it was driving home. I hadn’t seen it that dark at 4 o’clock in the afternoon in I don’t know how long. It was pouring cats and dogs.
A friend of mine, Lord Rosow of Cross Harbor has got this friend that’s a shaft manufacturer. For you people that don’t play golf, the shaft is, particularly in long shafted clubs like the driver, fairway metals and so forth, in every club, the shaft is the engine, and shafts can make a huge difference in how well you hit the ball in terms of their flex, whether they’re stiff or regular, where the kick point is, they really matter. When pros get fit for clubs, the shaft is every bit as important as the lie angle on a club.
So he’s got this buddy that owns a shaft — what is it, PADERSON KINETIXx, pronounced like the word “kinetics” is pronounced, but it’s spelled K-i-n-e-t-i-x-x. Anyway, Lord Rosow had this new shaft in his driver on Sunday. And I’m not kidding, he was hitting the ball 10, 12 yards farther than he normally does. And I was kind of in disbelief because to get that kind of a differentiation, you need more swing speed.
Swing speed is it. Swing speed, the golf swing is everything. And that’s what separates people that can play the game and people who can’t. If you can’t swing the club 80 miles an hour, minimum, well, you can play the game, but you’re — I shouldn’t say this. I don’t want to talk people out of enjoying the game. But the professionals are anywhere from 110 to 125 mile an hour swing speed. It’s like throwing a baseball. You either can throw it 95 miles an hour or you can’t.
Nobody can teach you. It’s a talent you’re born with. Same thing with swing speed on a golf swing. But a shaft can compensate for a slower swing speed if it’s good. So I’ve got this new shaft, and I was gonna go try it yesterday to see if I could get an additional 10, 12 yards like Lord Rosow of Cross Harbor was, and I got rained out.