Two Ping Engineers Qualify for Majors

THEY SIT NEXT TO EACH other in the engineering department of Ping headquarters in Phoenix. Now Ping engineers Marty Jertson and Mike Nicolette (pictured) will both tee it up in major championships this summer. The company said “it’s believed to be the first time two golfers who design golf clubs full time have accomplished the feat of qualifying for a major championship in the same year.”

These guys are good. They know how to design clubs—and play with them.

Jertson, a Class A PGA member, will play in the PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club in August. He earned one of 20 invitations with his fifth-place tie at the PGA Professional National Championship. Jertson joined Ping as an intern in 2003.

Shooting a 66, Nicolette was the co-medalist at the U.S. Senior Open qualifier in Glendale, Arizona, earning one of two spots for the 50-and-over national championship to be played later this month at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Nicolette is a former PGA Tour player and winner of the 1983 Bay Hill Classic. With Ping since 1989, the 54-year-old employee recently won the Arizona Senior Open.

“Amazing,” said Ping Chairman and CEO John Solheim. “I couldn’t be happier for Marty and Mike. For one week this summer, they’ll get to put their talents up against the best in the game.”

−The Armchair Golfer

Hit It Bubba Long (in Your Dreams)

“DON’T JUST HIT IT LONG. Hit it Bubba long.” That’s Bubba Watson talking in the above spot for Ping G15 and K15 drivers.

I understand. It’s marketing. But it still makes me smile. I can hit it Bubba long? Really?

Last time I checked (which was a few seconds ago), Bubba was averaging 311.7 yards per drive on the PGA Tour this season. That’s well above the average driving distance of your run-of-the-mill PGA Tour player. Which means most of Bubba’s fellow players can’t even hit it Bubba long.

(By the way, Bubba’s driving accuracy is virtually identical to the PGA Tour average: 60.03% vs. 60.20%. So Bubba is pretty darn straight while being Bubba long.)

I played golf with my dad in California using a borrowed set of clubs. Dad is a tinkerer, so he has assorted golf clubs, golf balls, a carry bag, the works, in his garage. It includes a respectable backup set of irons and several drivers and fairway metals. That’s what I use when I show up. There’s no need to lug my set through airports for a couple of nine-hole rounds.

Anyway, I hit the snot out of a Ping driver my dad no longer uses, a part of my makeshift borrowed set. I really killed it. In fact, I hit it straighter and farther than my own driver. To be honest, it was a better club than the piece of junk I carry in my bag. It was a Ping.

But I didn’t hit it Bubba long. Not even close.

−The Armchair Golfer