a lower round of golf.

It's true. Men who play with pink balls will shoot below their handicap. They may get laughed out of the clubhouse...

Maybe the headline would go:

They laughed when I teed up my pink balls, then cursed when they reached for their wallets.

Bear with me on this one for a minute.

About 12 years ago I created the Winged Wedge 222, an all purpose wedge with variable loft and bounce. It is designed to be used by the "average" golfer for any shot from 40 yards and in.

You only have to learn to use ONE club, rather than half a dozen you'd normally carry around for greenside shotmaking.

The truth is that you (the average golfer) don't have the time to master all the short shots, the finesse part of the game.

So I built the Swiss-knife of golf clubs, ONE club that could get you out of any kind of sand, off hardpan, high grass, ANY condition found around the green. So instead of having to learn how to hit 5 or 6 different clubs, you only had to master one.

And the "average" person could master the club in about an hour of practice.

Anyhow. I wanted to make the little wing I had put on the toe GOLD. To make it look classy, and add some expense to it. Then I met with a MASTER club maker, who gave me a lesson in colors.

Now, I was told that golf clubs should never be in gold, the excpeption might be a putter...but why not a wedge?

It turns out there is a whole industry of color...and golf club designers know this.

A BLACK shaft will be perceived as being more powerful than a silver one...and a gold one (the shaft, not the clubhead) will also imply more power, thus more expensive.

How do they know all this.

They TEST.

And the pink balls with male golfers has been tested, and I've done it with my own students, and used high speed video cameras to PROVE it to myself...

men just won't swing as hard at a pink ball...therefore they are more in rhythm, have a better tempo, are more likely to return the face of the club to the ball squared...and the result is a better golf shot...

and a lower overall score.

TESTED and proven.

I wanted to have my wedge FORGED, but the marketing company wanted investment cast...and at the time there was a PERCEPTION of value between the two processes...

TESTS show that today there is no difference in performance in either method, but some pros (us OLD ones) swear we can tell the difference...and a forged blade gives you more ability to work the ball...

but TESTS show there is still the perception of QUALITY in the minds of more savvy golfers that forged is somehow "better" and more valuable than cast clubs...so what?????

Forged clubs command up to 3 or 4 times the PRICE of their cast counterparts. How do I know this...the big boys....TEST.

I guess you are getting my point.

You see, Jim Straw is a MASTER marketer, albeit a newbie on the Net...yet what has he learned to do...

if you said....................TEST......you get a gold star.

PRINT his post out. Study it. What he has revealed is the secret to success in marketing.

On the web. In mailorder. In golf even.

Don't guess. Don't accept the "expert" opinion. Don't believe the guru's every utterance.

TEST.

I don't how true this is, but I've been told by a couple of well known marketer's with some pretty heavy traffic, that my posts are often the most read on their forums?

Why? Probably because the rest of the bar is waiting for ol Cliffie to stick his foot in his mouth, with such enthusiasm it makes his red suspenders snap...or whatever.

But how do THEY know this. They keep track of such things, because they are looking for information, for feedback, to make ADJUSTMENT with their ACTIVITY, which will accelerate their movement toward their goal...just like in the POA.

Jim Straw is telling you to TEST.

I'm telling you to LISTEN to Jim Straw.

Now you guys, get out those pink balls and go play a round with your self. You'll be amazed.

Gordon (TESTY)Alexander

PS. The only thing that gets read as much as a headline...is the PS.