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From today's InBox -- kind of a cool place to have your HQ!!! Golf Company Headquarters Planned For Pinehurst No. 8 Golf Pride Would Move From Its SP Location John Nagy/The Pilot An architectural rendering of the proposed Golf Pride Global Innovation Campus that would be built just inside the gates at the Pinehurst No. 8 golf course in Pinehurst. Courtesy/Golf Pride Golf Pride, the sport's largest manufacturer of golf club grips, is looking to trade its inconspicuous Southern Pines presence for a significantly higher profile one just inside the gates of the Pinehurst No. 8 golf course. The company, a division of the international conglomerate Eaton Corp. will go before the Pinehurst Planning and Zoning Board Thursday afternoon to present its plans for an $8 million facility that would include corporate offices, a consumer interactive wing, and a research and development operation. The company is calling the project its “Global Innovation Campus.” Pinehurst Resort and Country Club, which owns the land, would sell roughly 10 acres for the project. The building would be just inside the No. 8 gates off Murdocksville Road and nestled in among a wooded lot. The building would be 36,000 square feet, or about half the size of the Harris Teeter grocery store just about a mile west on N.C. 211. Between 40 and 50 people would work at the headquarters. Those individuals are currently in three locations between Southern Pines and Aberdeen. Golf Pride President James Ledford said the company likes being in the area but wanted to be able to have ready access to consumers. While most of Eaton's divisions are businesses that sell to other businesses, Golf Pride sells its grips directly to golfers. “We're betting on staying in the local community for the long term,” he said. “We're learning how to plug into consumer product development, and we were looking to be more visible.” Golf Pride's current building on Murray Hill Road just off U.S. 15-501 didn't fit that criteria. “You have to text me now if you're coming so I can come let you in,” Ledford said. “You can't work at Golf Pride and not engage with people buying the product.” Golf Pride employees began talking more than three years ago about a new location, spending time with consultants and construction professionals about the presence it wanted to project. Ledford, who worked previously as an executive with Callaway Golf in Carlsbad, Calif., said the company wanted a building true to its natural surroundings but modern enough inside to represent its innovative work process. “It needed to be additive to the local community,” he said. “It draws on the history and heritage of Pinehurst. And it has that excitement factor of a global brand pushing growth and innovation.” With that in mind, the company began talking with the Pinehurst Resort in 2015 about a possible partnership. “We need to be more visible,” Ledford said, “and there are not many places to be more visible than right there when people come to play No. 8.” “The synergies of these brands coming together makes a lot of sense,” said Tom Pashley, president and CEO of Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. “Why not Pinehurst? “It's a great validation not only for Pinehurst Resort but this great community.” Although it fits within a small niche in the golf industry, Golf Pride has established itself in a substantial way over the years. The company makes club grips for a number of club manufacturers, but it also makes them under its own name. It is currently the top grip company on the pro tours, and its grips are on the clubs of a vast majority of touring pros. Like the rest of the golf industry, Golf Pride finds itself fighting some unfavorable trends. Studies by the National Golf Foundation over the last few years have found fewer people playing fewer rounds. Club sales are down 50 percent in the last five years. In the face of that, however, Golf Pride has continued to grow. It now markets its grips more as a piece of key equipment than just a “handle” on a club. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a new club, a number of golfers are refitting those clubs with $10 grips to help improve their games. And there are signs that golf could be on an upward swing again. Pashley says the industry is seeing signs of renewed interest from “aspiring golfers.” “There's a groundswell that's coming,” he said. Indeed, Ledford said, the Golf Foundation studies show a lot of that growth is occurring among children under the age of 13. Ledford says the key benefit to being at Pinehurst No. 8 will be the ability to walk new products out the back door of its research and design space over to the driving range and solicit immediate feedback from potential customers. The village's Planning and Zoning Board will get its first look at the project Thursday afternoon. The property would have to be rezoned from residential to professional office. Right now, there is a string of newer homes that line Murdocksville Road on the east side. On the west side, developers are constructing a senior living facility and a cluster of townhomes. Consultants have designed the facility to have less parking and built-on space than would otherwise be allowed. Bob Koontz, the Southern Pines-based land planner, said the project was designed to fit within the confines of what is an Audubon Society Signature Sanctuary golf course. The village planning staff has recommended approval with no conditions. Assuming the project proceeds without any snags, a ground-breaking could occur before the end of the year, and Golf Pride could move in by early 2019, Ledford said. The Planning Board meeting begins at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Village Council meeting room, 395 Magnolia Road.

Sifting through the notes and pictures from the PGA show and wanted to share the story on the new Golf Pride SNSR Grips.... Met with Bruce Miller, Golf Pride's Retail Products Manager, and he shared the following tidbits. First, Golf Pride doesn't pay anyone to play their grips, but it remains the #1 grip in golf, and by a pretty wide margin. These guys can get any grip they want and the fact they choose Golf Pride is a source of, well, pride.... Did not know this -- Golf Pride is far and away the #1 putter grip on Tour, as well. That primarily due to their OEM business, but they say when it comes to putter grips, no one else is even close - they have more putter grips on Tour than #'s 2 and 3 combined. Which brings us to the SNSR. Bruce said the most important part of a putter grip is feel - it has to feel good in your hands if it's to perform. They can enhance feel two ways, with material and with shape. The new type of rubber compound in the SNSR is 40% softer than the material GP has been using in their standard putter grips. It's kind of interesting - despite being so soft, it actually discourages you from gripping the putter too tightly. It actually "springs back," so you won't be choking the grip to death over a 4-footer to halve the hole. The Red SNSR is a pistol countered grip - it has a wide paddle to rust your thumbs on, which should help alignment, as well as nicely beveled edges for comfort. The Blue SNSR is a straight profile from top to bottom. Both are available in 104 CC and 140 CC. I was planning on liking the Straight blue model more, but after trying both I did find the contoured model more to my liking. The pistol, combined with the beveled edges and wide front paddle seemed to fit in my hands nicely. Just goes to show, preconceived notions are easy to cling to, but they can often be wrong. Golf Pride says roughly 75% of the Tour uses the traditional contoured and tapered pistol-type grip. The SNSR grips are just the beginning - Golf Pride figures these will fit into the middle of the bell curve for grip styles, and they are planning on more and different styles in the future. Both 140 CC models weight in at 124 grams, the 104's are both 90 grams. Both have a .580 core size. SNRS will hit the stores April and will price out at $25 each.

Another release from Golf Pride - they kinda dominate the grip game, don't they? Top Players Choose Golf Pride Grips at 2015 U.S. Open SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. … Power management company Eaton announced today that its Golf Pride Grips Division was the leading grip brand played by professionals and amateurs at the 2015 U.S. Open Championship. The overwhelming majority, 119 players, competing in the year's second major trusted their games to Golf Pride grips. Out of the top 10 finishers, 10 of 11 players had more confidence with Golf Pride grips in their hands. Golf Pride's popular Tour Velvet® family of grips were used by 76 players during this year's U.S. Open. All three Tour Velvet models – Tour Velvet, Tour Velvet Cord and Tour Velvet Super Tack™ – finished in the top 10. The second most popular grips in play were Golf Pride's MCC™ family with 25 players, including 3 in the top 10, relying on its hybrid grip technology. “Including this year's tournament, players choosing to use Golf Pride grips have won 9 out of the last 10 U.S. Opens,” said Brandon Sowell, global sales and marketing director for Golf Pride. “We have a legacy of winning performance, and it's also great to see one of our latest innovations, the Tour Velvet Super Tack, finish in the hands of a top performer, further validating our ongoing commitment to develop leading-edge technology.” To view Golf Pride's entire line of products played at Chambers Bay visit www.golfpride.com. Eaton's Golf Grip Division is the world's largest manufacturer of golf grips, with manufacturing, sales and distribution facilities on six continents. The division's Golf Pride brand is recognized globally as the number one choice in grips among tour and recreational players, competitive amateur golfers, club manufacturers and club repairmen. For more information, visit www.golfpride.com or visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GolfPride Eaton is a power management company with 2014 sales of $22.6 billion. Eaton provides energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton has approximately 102,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com.