After waking up in Long Island at 3:40 AM and catching a 6 AM flight out of JFK, I arrived in Orlando eager to get to Orange County National Golf Course for the Demo Day on Wednesday. It was windy and cool, but there was plenty of sunshine and a real freshening breeze. I was ready to attack!
Six hours later I was exhausted but pleased that I have tried almost everything on my list and then some. But I barely made it halfway, and wouldn’t have if I hadn’t done a little fast acting along the way.
I hit over 50 different clubs at the demo day. In order to give each club a fair hearing, I hit at least 4 balls per club, in many cases several more. I figure I hit over 250 golf shots .. The last ball I hit before I arrived here was at least seven weeks ago. And I made a huge tactical error. No glove!
Understand that every club here from every manufacturer is brand new. Every grip is as new and tacky and coarse as it can be. After about 50 shots the blisters started. At around 80 shots the first blister tore off. I wasn’t even one third done and I was sporting a critical injury. What to do?
So I headed to Bionic Gloves. They were the only glove manufacturer that I could see out there. I approached the booth with a sense of feigned interest, and let the salesman draw me in. He explained to me all the features of 
the Bionic Glove. How they had introduced their new Performance Series. How the ridges in the glove conformed to the depressions between your finger joints, thus smoothing out the connection between hand and glove, giving you a lighter grip and better control. And because it was thicker construction, I would get many more rounds out of it compared to the average glove. I tried it on, and I was surprisingly impressed.
He invited me to hit some balls with it. This was the point when my world began to spin out of control. I said I would love to, that I would head down to the Adams booth not too far away, and I would try a few clubs there. And he said “No”. He might have just as well pole-axed me. He said that they had too few gloves to let me walk off with one, and that I would have to hit the clubs they had there and give it back. Crestfallen, I went up to the hitting bay and went ahead and hit a few of their clubs. Power-Built’s, I believe. There is a Hillerich & Bradsby parent company connection between the two.
After is hit a few balls, I fell in love with the glove. I also fell in love with the idea of spending the rest of my day with the glove, because man, it was really comfortable and I still had a ton of balls to hit. The salesman who had originally engaged me had engaged another customer, so I moved of to the side of the booth to make some notes about the glove. Another salesman asked me what I thought. I gave him some honest opinions, and at that moment my new Blackberry rang. Well, as everyone knows, the reception on Blackberry’s is not as strong as the reception on a standard cell phone, so I simply had to move away from the booth where I could hear better. And that was how I made my break!
I was a wounded animal, and Bionic had me cornered. I did the only thing I could do. I reacted. I bared my teeth. I lashed out. I borrowed the glove. I’m a bad man.
For the rest of the day I hit balls without much if any discomfort. The grip was very tacky, and the ridges in the fingers definitely seemed to give me a strong sense of control. I have to say the Bionic Performance Series Glove is a very good glove. I would buy this glove. If I were a pro, I would carry it in my shop.
I am going to have to live with the guilt of having borrowed my Bionic Glove. If they want it back, I will send it to them. But I hope they don’t. I want to keep it. I hope they call my Pro and he puts it in my club’s shop.
Just warn the Pro to keep it behind the counter. We certainly don’t want anyone else borrowing the glove in the future.
