Corporate Changes

Back in December of last year, Adams Golf announced its intention to 'explore options to increase shareholder value.' Basically, that meant that the board of directors decided to look into selling the company.  So Morgan Stanley was hired to explore a sale in the face of this unrest. Since then, the stock has steadily climbed...

3 month chart on top, this past Friday's chart on bottom

I was hired about the 3rd week of December, and started work on the 9th of January. So I'd like to think this stock jump is because people realized that I had started working for Adams (haaaaaaah). Of course, it's more the fact that a lot of people must think the stock will sell for more than what it's priced at.

It's certainly been interesting to follow along and listen to the scuttlebutt, even though I don't have any shares myself. The question is, who would buy Adams and what would it mean for me? I have no idea myself, but I have a couple guesses from looking at past sales of golf companies.

#1 -- an apparel company. Many major golf manufacturers are affiliated with an apparel company. Nike obviously has both under one umbrella. Titleist is now owned by Fila Korea. The biggest partnership is TaylorMade/Adidas, and Cobra was also recently bought by Puma. The apparel brands serve as parents to the golf companies, and this allows them direct access to the golf apparel. In all of these cases the golf operation remains fairly autonomous, its own entity under the parent apparel company. The rumor here has long been Under Armour, or secondarily Oakley (which is itself owned by an Italian parent company). If UA or Oakley end up buying Adams, I'll clap happily and life should likely continue on its merry way.

#2 -- a bigger golf company, specifically TaylorMade, or perhaps Bridgestone. These would be two different scenarios. TaylorMade is the biggest seller of clubs in golf, and has a significant portion of market share. As mentioned they're already owned by Adidas, and have money pouring in from the parent company. This would certainly be a merger, and there would probably be some significant changes. Bridgestone is a smaller player in the golf business. They have a growing golf ball profile, but their clubs are pretty low profile. Bridgestone is Japanese owned, and this too would probably be more of a merger than say, Puma buying Cobra, Fila Korea buying Titleist, or Adidas buying TaylorMade.

For my part, my future is definitely more secure if Answer 1 turns out to be correct. My status as newest R&D employee might be a pretty big red flag if Adams was merged with an existing R&D department. Answer 1 is looking much more likely, but one never knows. I guess the chips will fall shortly.

On the unequivocally good side --

36 Days

Shortie post this weekend. Option a) is still politics, and with the current drift of things, I am becoming very disillusioned. So I'm leaving that alone. Option b) in the wake of the Pats blowing another Super Bowl was the 10 worst losses in my life, which became too depressing a list to finish. Such is the plight of growing up in Minnesota in the 90s and 00s.

So, I'll keep it pithy.

Don's back. So is Joan, but that's probably in a forthcoming video. March 25th.


 Second, pitchers & catchers report today. Hopefully this guy bounces back.

New Job, New Weapons

We'll start with some fun. Any angsty post can wait until tomorrow.

Since I now work for Adams Golf, it makes reasonable sense that I should be playing Adams equipment. In the past, I've always bought (or been given for Christmas in earlier times) clubs piecemeal. I'd get a driver 2008, wedges, 2009, new irons 2011, etc.

I've hit Mizuno irons for six years now, and loved both sets I've had. I've hit Cleveland wedges for several years. A Callaway driver since 2008 & a TaylorMade for the two years before that, and Cleveland before that. TaylorMade 4-wood since 2001 (!), TaylorMade putter 2001-2010, Odyssey putter 2011. Hogan hybrid 2006-11. YADDA YADDA YADDA. So long story short, to be able to play a full bag of a specific brand will be new. Due to the scattershot nature of my purchases, some of my clubs were more current than others. My 4w, which I've loved for over a decade, is admittedly very old in golf club years. My driver is also old in golf club years as drivers change rapidly. YADDA REDUX. This list is a hot mess of industry competitors. (Also entertaining is some of the other subject matter in some of these linked posts. Like Matt Garza).

Mizuno Hybrid (contest prize) - October 2011
Mizuno 53 irons - May 2011
Odyssey Putter - March 2011
Cleveland Wedges Take 2 - December 2010
Callaway Driver - May 2008
Cleveland Wedges Take 1 - January 2007
Hogan Hybrid - August 2006
Mizuno 23 irons & TaylorMade Driver - December 2005
TaylorMade 4w - April 2001
TaylorMade Putter - April 2001
Cleveland Driver - April 2001
Hogan Wedge & TaylorMade irons - April 2000

Of course, it's appropriate last year was my most heavily invested year. New irons (7 clubs), new putter (1), new wedges (3). Purchased separately, but all saw their first season of play in 2011. I guess what that means is I a nice backup set.

The new set is 72% done. 10 of 14 clubs are built, with a driver, a fairway wood (like a 4w), a sand wedge, and a putter left to go. The driver and putter are especially crucial to a golfer's set of clubs, and I'm taking more time to really figure out what works best for me in the Adams lineup.

What I did build in the machining/assembly area today is the following...a 21* XTD Super Hybrid, the IDEA Pro A12 irons (4-iron-Gap Wedge), and a 60* M. Pugielli wedge.

Unassembled components

Assembled clubs, wedge on left, irons in middle, hybrid at right

Clubs

Pugielli wedge

Pro A12 irons

XTD Hybrid

All in all, as fun as a Saturday at work can be, I think. I hope I play as well with these clubs as I have with my previous models. That's probably more up to me.

Voices, Jobs, & Bowls

Thanks to the Super Bowl, and thanks to Florida, I can yet again delay any politically oriented posts.

First, it's been a month today that I've been in Plano, and things have settled into place nicely. I am happily comforted by the fact that it looks very unlikely I'll start speaking with some sort of Texas twang. From what I gather, Plano is not exactly Lubbock. I hear my fair share of notable drawls, but many of my R&D coworkers are also transplants, including several from the Midwest, which will go a long way to preserving my herculean ability to drop any concluding 'g' from my sentences. So yeah, that's goin' to be good.

Second, I recently completed this.

I found it an entertaining and worthwhile read. Isaacson did occasionally beat a point he was trying to make into the ground, but considering the book was about 600 pages, I guess that'll happen occasionally. I definitely gained a greater appreciation for Jobs, who had more to do with Apple's success than I ever realized. Steve would probably have rued the fact that I read an actual book, instead of buying it for my (non-existent) iPad, but what can I say? One day my house will have at least a den-sized library, and with the amount of books I own, it will be a pretty damn good one.

I am only a slightly integrated Mac user. I've owned three different iPods and certainly appreciate iTunes. On the other hand, I've been with T-Mobile forever and have no problem with an HTC or Samsung phone running Android, and while I love playing around on an iPad, I haven't bought one. Maybe when the iPad 3 is announced this spring. I'm also old enough (I feel strange using that phrase) to remember the late 90s and first couple 00 years when Apple was in the tank. School was a lineup of Macs and Netscape Navigator, and neither did much for me. I did play Number Crunchers, Odell Lake, Wonderland Puzzles, and many other games on the Apple IIGS computers my elementary school had back in the early 90s, but overall, I've grown up on PCs.

Am I missing a more enjoyable user experience? Probably so, especially on the computer front. But the Toshiba laptop I bought last Spring for $429.99 has worked great so far, and the Dell I had before that made it all the way through six years of college. I can't complain with what I've had.

Still, it was good to read about Steve Jobs.

Third and finally -- the Super Bowl.

After the Championship games, I figured the Giants were going to beat the Pats. Now, so many people have joined on the Giants bandwagon that I can't help but feel that the Pats are going to pull it out. If there is one game Belichek and Brady would be burning to win, it would be a rematch against the team that wrecked their year of destiny. On 1500ESPN.com's pick'em contest, it's 51/49 Pats, so who knows. I think the game will be entertaining, and that's all I really can ask for as a fan of neither team. Well, I guess I could ask for another U2 or Prince halftime instead of the Michigan Brit. Maybe I'll fire up YouTube.

With no Vikings to cheer for, my rooting interests are as follows...

• Patriots victory. I picked them in the ESPN contest, and I'm currently in the 98th percentile among participants. This game is worth 16 points (an entire week of regular season games) so I could easily jump up over the 49% of Giants backers. 
• Prop bet rooting interests...
• Big Wes Welker game. 8/75/1 or better would be nice. If he catches the first Pats pass or first Pats TD or both, so much the better.
• Kelly Clarkson anthem > 1:34. I read an article that actually analyzed this, saying that in the 10 years she's been singing it she's only averaged 1:31. This is the Super Bowl though. That's good enough to hang onto a couple notes.
• One nice Cris Collinsworth discussion of the Andrew Luck scenario. Then cut to Peyton a couple times.
• Blue gatorade dumped on winning coach. Please. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee.
• I have a few others, and all are for small wagers (<= $3). It's enough to keep me interested, and enough to actually win a little money if a couple of the longer odds (Gatorade, Brady sneaks in the first TD) somehow hit, but if I miss everything -- unlikely since I spread the money around on about 15 different props -- I lose a tank of gas. Not tragic.