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As the UK hosts  two of golf’s greatest competitions this year:  the recent Open Championship, on the Old Course at St Andrews for the 28th time, and the Ryder Cup for the first time in Wales, questions and commentary abound.  Amid the hoopla and gossip—talk about Tiger’s tumble, speculation about whether Tom Watson could work more wonders,  and the strut toward Celtic Manor—an unobtrusive, modest pair of contributors are helping stage the competition. I'm talking about  the flagsticks and the cups.  They  do their best work if the wind is up, but whatever the conditions, the flagsticks  bend with the breeze, ...

I used to be a good putter. Wait, let me rephrase that: I thought I was a good putter. Once upon a time, putting felt natural, I had confidence, and I made more than my fair share. But over the last few weeks, as I tested out the new Odyssey Backstryke (see review), I realized something wasn’t right. I liked the arrow but the archer was a mess. I said to myself that it’s just a new piece of equipment, or slow greens, or early in the season, or whatever else I could think of. The truth revealed itself a few weeks ...

In lieu of Tiger Woods's proclamation that upon his return to golf at The Masters in Augusta he will be on his best on-course behavior and presumably no longer take out his frustrations over bad shots by flinging golf clubs and cursing audibly, I smiled in recollection of all his past tirades and tantrums. Sure some of them, like when his launched driver bounced off the turf and ended up carrying the gallery in the last tournament he entered, the Australian Masters, aren't laughable in the least. But I can't hold back my smile or quiet my laugh when any golfer, ...

I remember a Peanuts cartoon strip a number of years back in which Charlie Brown explained that the secret to happiness was a convertible and a lake. When the sun is out, the round-headed kid said, you happily drive around in your convertible; when it’s raining, you happily watch your lake fill up. In the world of golf, our Charlie Brown is Steve Asman. Already developer of the game’s best umbrella, the Gustbuster, Asman needed to find his “convertible,” the product that would prosper when it wasn’t raining. He found it with Sunbuster sunglasses. Just as he did when introducing the Gustbuster, ...

A contrast in styles at the Masters What a Masters. So many lasting images. In addition to Phil Mickelson’s daring, devil-may-care shotmaking down the stretch, the image that sticks in my mind is of Fred Couples ambling along Augusta’s rolling green fairways as carefree and relaxed as can be. On his feet were a pair of sport-hybrid shoes. No socks, of course. If he’s not the coolest golfer on the planet, I don’t know who is. In addition to his casual Friday footwear, all Fred needs now is a clothing contract with Tommy Bahama. A nice pair of khakis and ...

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 ...

Golf is going high tech, and you should be gong along for this ride. Remember when GPS systems on golf carts were a novelty? Now the only unique feature they offer is a menu for ordering food at the turn. You can carry more computing power in your hand and have more info at your disposal than a Tour player with a caddie (well, except for rereading putts). But how much do you really need? I have extensively tested both GPS-based systems like Sky Caddie and laser rangefinders, and I think most golfers are better served with the latter. That may not ...

If you thought the motion-capture technology used in such movies as Lord of the Rings and King Kong was cool, now you can serve as the model for a motion picturing starring, well, you. The bad news? It’s a golf movie. Filming could take place at the TaylorMade Performance Lab located in Portland, OR (as mine did) or at an increasing number of other such labs worldwide. In Portland, cordial and amusing PGA pro and golf-teaching wizard Michael Neff will hook you up to a series of reflective markers and—using nine separate high-speed synchronized cameras—create a frighteningly cool 3-D image of ...

Bob Bettinardi must not have been watching “American Chopper” the night his 5-year-old daughter came in to ask about Spiderman. The famed putter-maker is hard to distract when his favorite sprocket-heads are trading jibes and custom-building motorcycles on cable. The girl, Brigitte, wanted dad to make her “a Spiderman putter.” She already had the pajamas and the backpack, now she was after something more original. Soon enough a $300 titanium milling bit, guided by one of Bettinardi Golf’s $350,000 computer-milling  machines, was etching an artful web pattern on a carbon steel block. And perhaps carving itself a niche in putter history. Like ...

I admit I never bought a Golden Retriever headcover to change the world. I bought one because I love Golden Retrievers. But when I went to look for a lucky driver cover for “the big dog,” the best one I could find was made by Daphne’s Headcovers, so I bought it. Only later would I discover that Daphne’s is a remarkable company that combines excellent craftsmanship with extensive charitable efforts. Daphne’s is a family owned company that has carved out a niche making animal headcovers, and they make just about everything you could imagine, from virtually every breed of dog (I’m talking ...

TaylorMade’s “Tour Experience” is as close as we’ll ever get to being treated like a pro Among the many perks that come with being a Tour pro—including perfect range balls, courses in perfect shape, and big checks inscribed with perfect numbers—is golf equipment perfectly fitted to your game. Part and parcel of the contract to play a particular company’s clubs (another perk) is the opportunity to spend hours at corporate headquarters, hooked to the latest in high-techery, having your swing analyzed to the micromillimeter and matched to the ideal clubhead, shaft, loft, lie, bounce, even ball. While many equipment manufacturers offer sophisticated ...

I was recently reminded that metal woods have only been around since the late 1970s. Gary Adams first showed his drivers with little steel heads at PGA Tour stops in 1978, hoping the pros would give them a try. From those “Pittsburgh Persimmons”—along with the perimeter-weighted putters and irons pioneered by Karsten Solheim—grew the game of golf as we know it today. Of course, Solheim created Ping and Adams launched TaylorMade, two golf equipment companies that not only still exist but appear to be doing well. Now think about the great old names in equipment that have withered, fallen on hard ...

One of the most famous photographs in golf is of a 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus, en route to winning the 1986 Masters, lifting his putter high over his head after birdieing the 17th hole. Jack used a new putter that week, an oversized, somewhat ungainly looking thing called the Response ZT, manufactured by the MacGregor Golf Company. MacGregor thought they’d sell a few thousand ZTs that year, but on the Monday morning after Jack’s historic victory the phones started ringing and by year’s end more than 100,000 had been sold. The man responsible for the ZT is Clay Long (at the wheel, ...

In light of recent news stories, it seems there are many good reasons to secure your golf clubs – including the potential of theft. While I imagine there are gun cabinets large enough to accommodate full size bags, I was moved to explore other club security options. Several came to light. One is Gator Jaws – a plastic/cable device that, according to the manufacturer, fits over the top of the golf bag, wraps around your clubs and locks them together.” Another approach – the Golf Club Tag -- is more space age. Here, small tracking devices are attached to your ...

I can’t think of many great golf innovations to have come out of France—unless your post-round libation is Grey Goose. But in keeping with the French spirit of joie de vivre comes a delightful new product that won’t hit the ball longer or straighter, but is sure to cause some laughs in your group: Eiffel Tower golf tees. Unbreakable soft-plastic tees that look like Paris’ most famous landmark, they are 2.8 inches high and come in four colors—black, white, pink, and red. Not yet for sale on this side of the Atlantic (perhaps in a few months), they’re available online at ...

I’ve been in the golf business long enough to remember when Odyssey Golf was an upstart little company with some clever ideas, such as inserting plastic in putter faces. It became part of Callaway Golf in 1997, and since then, with might, money, marketing, and mastery behind it, Odyssey has become a leading innovator in putters. Its new line—called White Ice—keeps the ball rolling. For the past four years, Odyssey’s mainstay brand was the XG, which was so successful that on its own it nearly would have been the largest putter company in the world, according to Paul English, Callaway’s Senior ...

This is sure to be a very interesting year for Nike Golf. The company’s lead spokesperson is on hiatus, and if anyone inside the company knows when he’ll be back on Tour, they’re not saying. Meanwhile, somewhat lost in the ballyhoo is a strong lineup of new clubs, with more offerings for a wider variety of player. Since Nike’s founding in 1972, the company mantra has been “athletes first.” The runners, swimmers, kickers, dunkers, smashers, and golfers who use Nike products guide the company in many ways, notably with input on new products. In golf, this means that the likes of Lucas ...

This week I will be attending the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, FL. I have attended this show for the last 11 years. I used to look forward to the Show for months in advance. Now I see it as sort of a chore. Why? Because all of the troubles that have confronted the golf industry, and in particular the golf equipment industry, have taken all the fun out of it. Where are the corporate-sponsored parties? Where are the ten-person expense-account fueled dinners? Where is the Roman bacchanalia? What good is a business trade show if it is going to ...

The annual PGA Merchandise Show kicks off next week. In the past, manufacturers used the show—where equipment companies, club pros, and the golf media gather in one place—to introduce new products. Some firms still unveil goods there, but with a competitive marketplace and clubs seeming to appear almost every month, the “new season” knows no season. In some ways that makes it easier for people like me who report on the new-product stream and find a few long days of copious note-taking more than a bit frenzied. But I’ll miss the non-stop introductions, as well as the parties and hoopla that ...

Over the past few years, the definition of “golf equipment” has expanded to include shoes, gloves, spikes, and even tees as manufacturers have argued that with technological improvements, their products can affect a player’s performance. So why not sunglasses? Quality shades can help your game as well as your well-being. Besides protecting you from harmful ultraviolet rays, glare, and the onset of headaches, advances in lenses can make it easier to see the target, read greens, and judge distances. Correct information can make you more confident, and as every instructor will tell you, confidence leads to better shots and scores. Over the next ...

Another piece of equipment that most of us don’t think much about is the golf glove. But it’s rare to see a golfer not wearing one (Fred Couples is one of the few who come to mind), and rarer to know of any golfer who cares any more about his or her glove than how it fits. Golf gloves have been around since the turn of the 20th century: The early ones often were fingerless or backless. They didn’t catch on with the pros until the 1930s, with Sam Snead among the first to wear one regularly. By the 1960s, they ...

Tifosi sunglasses offer all the bells and whistles except one: high price. Almost every model in this company’s wide line of sunglasses sells for around $60. That’s a good deal for quality optics and eye protection. The golf-specific line includes more than 20 frame designs, each with a set of three interchangeable lenses. --GT (golf-tennis) lens is a smoky green: It’s for full sun when you want to see the ball in flight, and is likely to be your everyday lens. --EC (extreme contrast) lens is purple, and as its name implies, it offers the most contrast, enabling you to see contours and ...

Once I came to the realization that your hands are the direct link between your brain and your game, or least between yourself and the ball, I did what any practical person would do: I bought a pair of rubber dog bones at the local pet store. I squeezed them and squeezed them some more. Then I got a coiled-spring “V” grip exerciser to further strengthen my all-important grip. What I found over time, however, is that both the rubber dog bones and the “V” grip increased the crude grasping power of a few muscles in my forearm without promoting fine ...

You like her. You like her a lot. You like your teaching pro so much, her comfort and safety is of paramount importance to you. And so for mutually beneficial reasons—after all, she did cure your slice—you are ready to invest in some “skin care she can wear.” Look no further than the stylish line of shirts from SanSoleil, the Newport Beach, Calif.-based firm that offers 100% long staple Egyptian cotton golf wear double-mercerized with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of +25. The garments, according to the company, sport the highest SPF achievable for the fabrics chosen. They also retain their ...

A few years ago, there were just one or two companies exhibiting GPS systems at the PGA Show. Then came more, and more, until it appeared they might crowd out the club manufacturers. This year, GPS-based course-mapping and yardage-reading products remained popular. But the growing use of social networking and smartphones has changed the industry landscape—or, more accurately, cyberscape—and is allowing this technology to come to us in ever more convenient formats. If you want yardages, hole maps, and all that cool stuff, but the idea of bringing another battery-operated device into your life is too scary, take a look at iGolf, ...

Once upon a time, Chicago was the center of the golf industry, home to such iconic brands as Wilson, TaylorMade, Northwestern, Tommy Armour, and Ram. But beginning in the 1970s and ‘80s, the balance of power tipped to the West Coast (where TaylorMade headed years ago), leaving the remaining Windy City stalwarts to shrink or vanish. Only Wilson remains, hoping—yet again—to return to glory with the help of Padraig Harrington. Which means the top Chicagoland golf company today is Tour Edge, a 25-year-old brand that has made its mark by supplying quality and innovation at affordable prices. Tour Edge was founded in ...

If you are serious about golf and serious about buying a nice pair of golf shoes, your choice is probably going to come down to a simple question. Footjoy Icons or Adidas Tour 360s? Sure there are plenty of other brands out there, big and small, and I have Eccos and Nikes in my closet, but at the end of the day, for a high end, high performance waterproof shoe, these two dominate. So which is better? I used a very small sample – myself – to find out. First, to be completely candid, I have been wearing the Tour 360s almost exclusively ...

Other than politics, there are very few things professional golfers agree on. That’s especially true of equipment, where contracts and personal preferences spread the players all over the map on clubs, balls, shoes, even hats. But the best players in the world are nearly unanimous when it comes to their golf-bag travel cover: More than 90% of the pros on the PGA and Champion Tours use a cover made by Club Glove. And none of them are paid to do so. The mainstay of the Club Glove collection is “The Last Bag”—so-called for its durability—which is available in 16 colors (black to ...

I believe I was one of the first golf writers to interview Ely Callaway. It was back in the mid-80s, shortly after Callaway—who was a distant cousin of Bobby Jones and had already had successful careers in textiles and wine—bought a small company that specialized in wedges fitted with shafts that wrapped a metal rod inside a wooden sheath. From those humble “hickory sticks” grew the Callaway Golf empire. In the intervening years I met Callaway perhaps half a dozen times, usually at his offices in Carlsbad, California. I remember one occasion when we had a heated argument across his boardroom ...

Who needs the best golf rain gear money can buy? Not you. Your clubs. If you love golf, you will play in the rain. It’s virtually impossible not to, but especially on that pilgrimage to Scotland or Ireland. Sure, you could get lucky, but if you go for a week, you are probably going to get wet, maybe soaked, and if you are one of those “if it’s Tuesday it must be Ballybunion” itineraries, you can’t afford to miss a round on one of the world’s great courses, rain or no rain. So when it comes time to man up and play in ...

Some companies are just fun to write about, and one of the most amusing—as well as innovative and successful—is Sun Mountain. Operating out of golf-mad Missoula, Montana, and run by a former club pro, Sun Mountain introduced the world to a golf bag with built-in legs nearly 25 years ago, to be followed by numerous innovations in outerwear, carts, travel covers, and other smart stuff. What’s fun about Sun Mountain is its willingness to make products that truly improve the game. For example, after creating a foldable, lightweight “push cart” in 1999, a motor was added a few years later and ...

We have listened to the almost unanimous cries of joy over golf’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. From a golf purist standpoint, there can be no argument that golf is a global game and has long been entitled to a place in the Olympic Games. But we judge the benefits to be far less universal or evenly placed as most might think.   We find it hard to fathom any significant revenue opportunities arising from golf’s inclusion before sometime around 2014. It is highly doubtful that golf’s inclusion in the Olympics will make any tangible difference here in the ...

This is the first in a four-part club fitting series on state-of-the-art and diagnostics for extreme game-improvement. We begin with information about the latest club fitting tools and techniques from TaylorMade, Titleist and Ping. We also explain why the average player—not just the touring pro—benefits greatly from going through the club fitting process. When it’s time for a new set of golf clubs, you can certainly buy “off the rack” in a specialty store. But there’s an intriguing alternative—dynamic club fitting. More and more, club fitting systems parked on practice tees are enticing golfers to get evaluated and discover their ideal specs. The ...

Think Hawaii and it’s only natural to think about sunshine and golf. The bright sun that bathes the 50th state led to the creation of Maui Jim sunglasses nearly three decades ago, and in the years since golf has been the driving force behind a number of lenses and frames from this high-end optical company. Maui Jim turns out a wide variety of designs, more than 70 styles and nearly 200 different products: rimless, rimmed, metal, nylon, flexible, colorful, adjustable. There are shapes and sizes to fit any head and any sport, with island-inspired names like Honolua Bay, Hapuna, and White ...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new Backstryke putters from Odyssey (part of Callaway Golf). If you haven’t seen them, they are unusual in that the shaft enters at the back of the head rather than near the face; the three models currently available all have deep heads, so the shaft connects more than 2-1/2 inches behind the face. The putters were unveiled at the PGA Show in January. Also announced was a relationship between Odyssey and my friend and occasional collaborator, Dave Pelz. Dave—who pioneered the original two-ball putter shape—admitted that he had nothing to do with the ...

Some random notes from the world of golf equipment. You never know what you might find interesting, right? If you think using Phil Mickelson’s putter will help you win the Masters, you’re in luck. Odyssey (part of Callaway Golf) is offering a limited-edition version of the putter Lefty used to capture his third green jacket. Called the Odyssey ProType 82, it features the new White Ice insert (which I wrote about a few months ago), a Tungsten weight, and white sight-line—exactly the way Phil designed it. Only 164 individually numbered putters will be made—82 right-handed, 82 left-handed. Each one also has ...

I attended the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show and came away with the following observations about the state of the golf equipment industry. I hope you find them illuminating.. I welcome any and all feedback. I KNOW I will hear the feedback when you disagree. It goes with the territory. This is Part 1 of the report. Part 2 will follow with my annual Equipment review. 2010 Prognostications for the Golf Equipment Industry Looking in Golf’s Crystal Ball               Cracking the Bullwhip on the Golf Equipment Industry Suppliers   While attending the PGA Merchandise Show we had meetings with over 20 senior executives in the golf industry ...

January 27-30 2010   Orange County Convention Center            We attended the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show and came away with the following observations. We hope you find them illuminating, but we also hope you find the discourse entertaining. We welcome any and all feedback. We KNOW we will hear the feedback when you disagree. It goes with the territory. This is Part 2 of the report, ‘The Equipment Review’.   We are going to change thing up a little this year. Instead of strictly focusing on equipment categories, as I went through the various products, certain themes presented themselves to me. We are going to expand ...

equipment

Some golfers look at things the way they are and ask “Why?” Dr. Venanzio Cardarelli dreams of things that never were and asks, “Could you open a little wider please?” Cardarelli, a practicing dentist who holds some 20 different U.S. patents, is the D.M.D. behind the Aero-Tee, a three-pronged, polycarbonate, cuspid-shaped ball platform that he hopes will revolutionize the golf tee genre. It’s a pretty neat little gizmo and a real step forward, if all the independent testing is on the level (see results at www.aero-tee.com). The Aero-Tee’s tri-fluted, helical support structure is designed to reduce resistance by all but eliminating ...

During the 1970s and '80s, Tom Lupinacci's pro shop at the Sterling Farms muni in Stamford, Conn., was metro New York's unofficial used-club emporium. The golf industry was giving up on persimmon and forged steel in favor of irons that were investment cast and woods with metal heads. This one shop, with its bins, barrels and racks of both old and new equipment, bridged the two eras smartly. In the used-club section, classics that had stood the test of time were displayed alongside oddball clubs that were flunking the test miserably. Collectors came through on a regular basis, and Lupinacci once ...

Sometimes, marketing campaigns are so transparently contrived that I wonder who would ever be tempted enough to actually buy the shtick they're selling. [See: Nike's Tiger Woods ad from April 7th, here.] While other ad campaigns (like those for Progressive Direct's car insurance comparison service where they compare my rate with other top companies, here) not only work, but they somehow even get me to feel something resembling trust when I think about an insurance company. The difference is in the promises made. If the campaign is promising something that I can believe - that they'll at least show me other rates ...

As of last Wednesday, June 23rd, the Ryder Cup was 100 days away. So a little over three months from now, the best of the US and the best of Europe begin battling it out on the Twenty-Ten course at Celtic Manor in southern Wales. Set your TiVos now! But before the pros start their fun, I'll be having some fun of my own in Wales. In early August I'll be touring the country, playing golf and blogging on my experiences for VisitWales, their tourism group. Watch here for more information on my trip, and for the address for the blog. ...

This is the second in a four-part series on state-of-the-art clubfitting and diagnostics for extreme game-improvement. We began it with a review of the latest clubfitting tools and techniques from Ping, TaylorMade and Titleist. And we explained why the average player—not just the touring pro—benefits greatly from going through the club fitting process. This installment takes the reader to the very heights of high-tech game-improvement—the so-called “destination” fitting centers and labs where tour-pro treatment awaits the weekend golfer. The recreational golfer of this era has it pretty much made when it comes to custom club fitting and the modern means of acquiring new golf equipment—from ...

For flats fishing aficionados, Hawaii is not the first (or even third) place that springs to mind.  That’s because there simply aren’t many stretches of shallow water, places where bonefish come out to play on waxing and waning tides.  That’s too bad, as the waters here are home to monster fish, with many eclipsing ten and even approaching fifteen pounds – fish several multiples of those regularly encountered in bonefish hot spots like Ascension Bay and Belize. The island of Oahu is an exception to the rule understood by most fly anglers that “there isn’t any flats fishing in Hawaii.”  On ...

When—not if—golf bounces back from this recession thing, one company poised to take off is Under Armour. Best known for compression shorts, running shoes, and other hard-core athletic gear, UA has a fledgling golf line that will be a focus of corporate attention and resources in the coming months. A number of pros are already under contract to Under Armour, including Hunter Mahan, England’s Ross Fisher, and Vicky Hurst on the LPGA Tour: They wear fairly traditional golf clothes, including polo shirts, pants, shorts, and skorts, as well as accessories such as belts, hats, gloves, and socks. The company uses performance ...

Golf clubs of different makes and models differ from each other in hard-to-spot ways. You can’t see the lie angles of the irons; you can’t, from the markings, tell much about shaft stiffness and flex points; and the loft angles on the woods don’t tell you much, either, because of internal weighting patterns that offset or magnify the effects of simple loft angle. Even if golf equipment were standardized and fully labeled with specifications, you still wouldn’t know which ones were ideal for you. Thankfully, professional clubfitting has come a long way in the past 15 years. That said, most amateur ...

Neither in the classified section nor in cyberspace chat rooms do we run across ads offering top dollar for old Stan Thompson Ginty woods--a fact that is hard to fathom. The company is out of business, of course, but the V-soled Ginty was a beloved trouble club before the term was even invented. Among golfers who were around in the 1970s, there remains a deep reservoir of affection for it. A recent conversation with the sought-after instructor Gary Wiren revealed how the Thompson Ginty first got its name. Stan was an accomplished sailor as well as a golf club maker, explains Wiren. ...