Demo Days stoke golf fever with metal buffet

Spring is the time when most golfers wipe the dust off clubs after a long winter.

For others, the process involves more than a rag.

With technology moving faster than a ball on a slick green at Augusta National, keeping one's golf equipment up to date is one way to help upgrade a golf game and help deal with the rust.

While equipment should never be considered a substitute for technique, which is best found through instruction and practice, it does make the golfer's imperfections more tolerable.

Besides, new clubs are part of the fabric of eternal optimism that's essential to the game. Let's face it, one's true potential -- The Holy Grail -- can not be unlocked with that bag of metal shoved into the corner of the garage.

To that end, Demo Days have become a popular part of the spring swing renovation.

"Most people come to Demo Days too see drivers and what's hot," said Bent Creek Golf Course co-owner Mike Litzelfelner.

Arena Golf recently hosted one, and another will take place Saturday at Bent Creek.

The Demo Day held at Arena Golf resembled a county fair for golf lovers -- a virtual metal buffet. It was a golfer's paradise, with vendors' tents lined up with the latest clubs, not to mention free balls to hit. Young and old, men and women, good and bad golfers were swinging away with the latest must-have technology. Cotton candy and funnel cakes were the only missing ingredients from the golf festival.

"We didn't get a head count, but there were wall-to-wall people all day," said Arena Golf owner Jack Pettet. "That's our biggest day of the year every year."

While customers always get the opportunity for a test drive on the range before buying a club at Arena Golf, Demo Day is unique.

Pettet said he'll have one-vendor events throughout the year, but "never on the scale of the one we just had."

The event was complete with vendors from Callaway, Ping, Cobra, Titleist, Mizuno and Tour Edge -- brands the driving range sells on a daily basis.

"Obviously, a Callaway rep is only interested in Callaway," Pettet said. "He'll have every club, with every loft, every shaft -- every combination his company has available.

"It's impossible for me to stock everything for everyone. It's just an excellent time for the consumer to come out and hit Callaway, and then walk 14 feet and hit Ping. And he can go on down the line and find what he likes best. It's just a good day for consumers to come out and try everything."

And the hot item this year?

"It was just a good year for drivers all the way around," Pettet said. "Some years irons are the hot item, and this year it was drivers. We sold way more drivers than ever before. And it wasn't any one driver."

Litzelfelner said Cobra has been a hot brand this year, particularly the drivers.

Bent Creek will have representatives from Cobra and Calloway at its Demo Day on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and balls will be provided.

"It's an opportunity for the public to come out and look what these companies have that's new or maybe what's been out there for a while and they've been wanting to try," Litzelfelner said.

Litzelfelner said Demo Day is particularly good for those golfers that vary from the mainstream. With a small pro shop, Litzelfelner said its hard to keep a stock for women, senior golfers and left-handers.

"It's hard for us to invest a lot in left-handed equipment, because there's not a real big market for that," Litzelfelner said.

Golfer's revenge

Cape Jaycee Municipal Golf Course has recently removed a few trees on the front nine. A couple trees were removed along the second fairway, as well as trees next to the tee boxes on Nos. 3 and 4.

Course manager Jason Karnes said the trees next to the tee boxes were getting too big and crowding the tee boxes. The other trees were dying out.

Jeff Breer is a sportswriter with the Southeast Missouran.