Visiting The West Michigan Golf Show

Visiting The West Michigan Golf Show

Twenty twenty five is turning out to be the year of the golf show for your friendly neighborhood Golf Blogger. I visited the PGA Show in Orlando for the first time in January. On Friday, I visited the West Michigan Golf show in Grand Rapids for the first time.

Whereas the PGA Show is an industry show, with a focus on showcasing products and taking orders from wholesalers, retailers and courses, The West Michigan show is a consumer exhibition. Every booth was selling something: new products, discount equipment and apparel, deals at resorts and courses and so forth.

Michigan actually has two such consumer shows: The West Michigan, and “The Michigan Golf Show” in Novi. Both have similar DNA; the West Michigan, however is much smaller.

Smaller, but also cozier. The Novi show can be overwhelming.

In those cozy confines I had time for conversations with some old friends and new.

The Detroit Putter Company was there, with its brilliant line of putters milled in SE Michigan by a family company whose machine tooling roots go back to 1942 and the auto industry.

I reviewed their Grand River Putter last fall. It is never leaving my bag. I might even get a second to keep as insurance.

I also had nice conversations with Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Terry Moore, the founder of the West Michigan Show. I also chatted with Mary-Jo Green at GAM and with Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Greg Johnson at the Gaylord Golf Mecca Booth. Tom Lang of MI Golf Journal was there, as was Michigan Golf Live’s Bill Hobson and Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Art McCafferty. Art did a short interview with me for his Michigan golf video archives. I hope I didn’t embarass myself too badly.

Looking at that list, I know a lot of Michigan Golf Hall of Famers.

One neat new company I discovered was “The Golf Project,” a Traverse City based company that makes custom, handcrafted golf gilfts. Their signature products are 3d golf maps, laser cut from wood. They also offer prints, sketch maps, scorecard holders

Each of their offerings is surprisingly affordable. I absolutely want one of my favorite course, which longtime readers will know is Washtenaw Golf Club.

My friends at Boyne Golf were there, signing up people for golf trips to their “Magnificent Ten” golf courses which with the addition of Doon Brae now is the Magnificent Eleven. Or eleven-and-a-half, if you count the new Himalayas style putting course, the Back Yaird.

Other resorts and courses there were American Dunes, Cadillac Area Visitors Bureau, Cedar Chase, The Chief, Crystal Mountain, Evergreen Resort, Garland, Gaylord Golf Mecca, Glenkerry Golf Course, Grand Traverse, Golf Indiana, Hemlock, Indian River, Katke, Lakewood Shores, Manistee National, Moss Ridge, Myrtle Beac, Pilgrim’s Run, Shanty Creek, Thoroughbred Course at Double JJ, Treetops, Tullymore and White Pine National.

Nearly all of these were data collecting names, emails and phone numbers in the guise of offering free rounds.

For my part, I got a new list of courses to add to my collection of Michigan golf course reviews.

Discount apparel and balls were on display at many of the booths and by all appearances were doing brisk business.

Three companies were showcasing their golf simulator products, including Lime Wire, an audio visual automation company that offers simulation services. They spent some time explaining how their company can make owning a simulator a no-hassle experience.

Three other companies I noted were

• Rough Luck Golf, which was selling bag tags with spinners that facilitate on-course betting and drinking games.
• Birdie Bottle, which offers a flask that has four shot “glasses” in the cap.
• Titos, the vodka company, which seems to have made golf a central part of its marketing strategy. Titos was serving small shots of Tranfusions.

And no Michigan golf show would be complete without an appearance by Maple Hill Golf. The mega retailer had perhaps a fifth of the show’s square footage, offering new, but discount golf products from major companies.

One of these years, I’m going to head over to Grandville and visit the shop and course.

The West Michigan golf show is open Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. Due to the SuperBowl, this year the show was Thursday through Saturday.