THREE NEW GOLF ITEMS FOR AREA MAN

He was rushing off to the post office Friday to fill yet another order – all spurred from his appearance at the 57thAnnual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida. Howard Katz had five new orders for some of his new products.

“It was very good for us,” Katz said of the show at the end of January. “But it’s grueling.”

Katz said people were serious about buying as his company introduced three new product lines. “It’s just changed everything for us,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of follow up to do.”

Katz had already been marketing a device called “Pro on the Go,” a digital recorder that clips to your belt and gives you swing tips. The advertising tagline is “We Speak Golf,” something he’s carried to the rest of his small company.

Before he left for Florida, Katz had renewed optimism about being an entrepreneur in a tough economy. After he got home, he was sure.

“I never wanted it,” Katz said. “I accidentally invented that recorder. So many people have an idea for something and they never do it. Ideas are a dime a dozen and with this one I just decided to pursue it.”

2009 was a pretty soft business year, Katz said, but he felt fortunate. However, “when you’re a one trick pony, people had reason not to do business with you.”

So Katz introduced what he calls “three and a half” new products this year: the “Smart Mark” with two different styles; the “ProHole,” a round disk you can put anywhere to aim at; and “Bravura,” a handmade divot tool.

“They’re ‘why didn’t I think of that’ kind of products,” Katz said. He did a patent search and called himself “fortunate.”

Even though his company is officially called Silver Bullet Systems, he’s turned “Pro on the Go” into a brand. So it’s called “Smart Mark by Pro on the Go,” etc.

“Everything we do in golf we do under the banner of ‘Pro on the Go’ and use the tagline ‘We Speak Golf.’” That slogan has been registered as Katz’s trademark.

“It’s exciting,” he said “It’s a lot of work, but it’s exciting.” This was his second year at the PGA Merchandise Show.

SMART MARK

At first glance, the Smart Mark is just another ball mark. But Katz has put some lines on it to make it much more.

There are two different styles: one made of metal and one a poker chip design. You place the Smart Mark behind your ball, as you would normally do in the green and adjust your mark so the arrow points at the target. It has lines so you can center your ball and a reminder arrow if you had to move your ball because it was in someone else’s line.

Katz said he’s been caught once or twice not moving his ball back the one or two club heads it needed to be and it has cost him strokes.

“You can have your logo printed on it,” Katz said.

PRO HOLE

“It’s really a round, flat piece of rubber,” Katz said.

Used on the putting green, you place it in a spot you want to aim at, even if there isn’t the pre-cut hole. Katz says that those spots get so over-used, and his can be dropped from your pocket for a hole anywhere to aim at.

“Instead of sticking a golf tee in the ground,” Katz said. The flexible disk measures 3.875” in diameter, smaller than the official 4.25” golf hole. Says the promotional flyer: “If your ball rolls anywhere over the ProHole, you can be confident you’d likely sink the putt!”

A logo can be printed on this idea too and he points out that pros can add it in their shop as an “add on sale” when giving putting lessons.

BRAVURA

The name of his divot repair tool comes from the Italian term for great skill; “bravo, excellent,” Katz boasts in his sales pitch.

It’s a wood handle with a metal fork, handmade in the USA from a “variety of rare woods,” taking 16 individual processes to make one, Katz said. There are more than a dozen designs to choose from including the “Saratoga,” “Augusta,” and “Monterey.”

A buyer in Japan has already ordered 180 units of the tool. “And they paid in advance,” Katz said.

NEXT UP

Katz says he’s in the process of setting up new warehousing in Colorado and says he has a lot of follow-up to do from who he met at the show.

“We’re getting orders every other day and for us that’s unheard of,” Katz said. “We’ve added three new sales reps and hope to get ten more.”

He’s even signed on a distributor in Europe and Canada.

“The show was better than last year even though it may have been smaller,” Katz said.

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