Highlights from 2012 PGA Show in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Last week’s PGA Merchandise Show was, once again, an embarrassment of riches. It’s a golden age of equipment, a time when all the big manufacturers -- and even some small ones -- make superior gear.   I’ve already named my 10 favorite items, but those were just the beginning of the most notable things I saw at The Show.   Oakley Golf was this year’s biggest surprise for me. They’d been only marginally in the golf business, to my mind, with sunglasses and efforts to spin off some of their trendy footwear as golf shoes.   So I didn’t expect much when I checked out their gear, but I was stunned. The Oakley Cipher shoe was remarkable, but so was the company's high-tech apparel. Oakley hired some talent away from UnderArmour and adidas, went all-in for technology and signed some prominent names to wear its stuff—Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Ryann O’Toole and Rickey Barnes. My favorite was a windbreaker with removable sleeves. That idea isn’t new, but this jacket had a real innovation: you unzip the sleeve partway up and then neatly fold it, still-attached, into a pouch hidden on the inside of the vest. It’s totally out of the way, and you can't lose the sleeve. Ingenious.   A Swedish outfit I’d never heard of, Cross, also impressed. The kings of raingear are FootJoy, ProQuip and Sun Mountain, but Cross is suddenly in the mix with its FTX Full Stretch rainwear. It’s soft and unusually stretchy and quiet. It reminds me of ProQuip’s Silk Touch raingear from a few years back, as soft as a sweater but impervious to water. Plus, Cross has slick European style. Only a few online outlets carry Cross gear, and keep in mind that it’s cut to European sizes. The large pullover fit me nicely, but if I were going to wear it with a sweater or vest underneath, I’d probably have to go up a size to extra large. I’m pretty sure this is going to be my next rainsuit. The jackets go for $275-$300, the pants for $225.   In addition to the RocketBallz line, I was also impressed by the new TaylorMade ATV wedges. With their beveled leading edges and versatility, the ATVs are a big improvement for TM. I like that Titleist broke out of its traditional mold ever so slightly and painted its new Velocity’s numbers in yellow-orange ink. Also impressive on the ball front was the Callaway Hex, which a fellow hacker in the industry told me was the best ball he’d ever played -- “phenomenal,” in his words. I also played nine holes in an outing with the Innovex V-Motion Tour ball and was impressed. Its playing characteristics were comparable to top-of-the-line balls, but they’re about $29 a dozen.   Nobody ever talks about spikes. Well, I do, but only to complain when I'm trying get them changed. Champ spikes has a new model out -- the Zarma -- with six longer, spidery legs that have a little more bounce, cushion and give.   I never get tired of looking at or trying out new drivers. The Adams Speedline Fast 12 has a more bulging head and a flared fantail, and it felt great when I hit it on Demo Day. I also liked the classic style of the Ping i20 driver and its flat-black paint job. No driver looks better than the Cleveland Classic, which looks like an old persimmon and gets my vote for Prettiest New Driver.   I also got a chance to swing a unique club at Demo Day, the new Exotics 11-degree 3-wood from Tour Edge. It’s got a large, flattish head and is perfect for the golfer who needs a backup driver during his round.   You’d have been hard-pressed to find more than one belly-putter in almost any golf shop a year ago, but golf’s newest trendy club was all over The Show. Everybody has a version. TaylorMade has its Ghost Manta series, a large center-shafted mallet with a white head and alignment markings. The Ping Nome has a similar mallet shape but is more rounded, and it had a really balanced feel that I liked. The Odyssey Metal-X is based on the Sabertooth model that Keegan Bradley used to win the PGA Championship last year, with two prongs behind the face. Bradley’s Tooth was white. The Metal-X is gun-metal black.   How about gadgets? Golf Buddy’s GPS rangefinders now have audio, so you don’t have to constantly check the screen. You can clip one to your belt, maybe even your hat, and it will announce distances as you move around the course. If I jack the volume up, I bet I can annoy my playing partners. I love that idea. Bushnell tweaked its classic laser rangefinder. The new Tour Z6 is more compact and attractive, and the numbers now light up in electric red instead of the usual black. It sounds like a minor change, but it makes the yardages much easier to see. Bushnell says it can hit targets up to 450 yards; from 125 yards and in, it provides distances to a tenth of a yard. It’ll be available in April.   Sky Caddie is the Cadillac of the GPS market, with accurate and up-to-date course information. Sky Golf, which makes Sky Caddie, has also expanded into a new area with Swing Labs, a launch-monitor-based fitting system that aims to help club pros, club-fitters and retailers match golfers with the perfect clubs.   I will go to extreme lengths to distract my opponents. Hence, a new Hello Kitty headcover for my driver. Hello Kitty Golf, as absurd as it seems, is going to sell a lot of accessories. Women, especially, were buzzing around that booth at The Show. They sell women’s and children’s clubs, bags and accessories. In the same vein, I may pull out some Chromax golf balls, which have colorful metallic finishes, kind of like lawn orbs. They come in seven colors, including turquoise, silver, pink and yellow, and they’re much easier to see than a standard white ball. The suggested retail price is $20 for a six-pack.   I can’t believe I’m about to write this, but I was also impressed by the Jacqueline Kennedy Collection.  It’s a line of historically accurate jewelry, sunglasses, hats and accessories that has been approved by Caroline Kennedy. Why was this company at the Show? Because the collection will be sold in golf shops. Prices will vary, but most of the jewelry will be under $100.   More on shoes: adidas has two eye-catching models, the Crossflex and the Puremotion. The Crossflex, which weighs just 10.6 ounces, has molded traction areas on its soles instead of spikes and is modeled after a running shoe. The Puremotion is a mesh shoe based on the shape of the foot, and it’s also spikeless. They’ll be priced somewhere around $100-$120 and will be available in late spring. True Linkswear updated its models from last year and made them more contemporary. The phx model has a striking red stripe on the outside of the shoe and gripping nubs in the sole for traction instead of spikes. The Stealth is a leather model. They’re all very comfortable and light and are continuing the trend away from spikes.
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Source: http://rss.golf.com/equipment/highlights-2012-pga-show-orlando

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Fantasy Preview: WGC-Cadillac Championship

The world?s best are taking on the Blue Monster this week at Doral for the WGC-Cadillac Championship. While wind will play a factor, the Blue Monster can be tamed, so look for scores to go low. As always, the questionable...


Source: http://blogs.golf.com/fantasy_golf/2011/03/fantasy-preview-wgc-cadillac-championship.html

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Here are five underrated holes in California and five whose reputations are overblown

5 That I Love 1. Spyglass Hill, No. 1, 595 yards, par 5; Pebble Beach, Calif. Library quiet, except for shots echoing off the pines, this brutal opener emerges from a chute, then offers tumbling terrain, a stunning ocean vista and full-tilt shot values. It's an exhilarating start to a memorable round. 2. Pasatiempo, No. 11, 392 yards, par 4; Santa Cruz, Calif. Its architect, Alister MacKenzie, considered Pasatiempo's 16th "the best two-shot hole I know," but it's not even the best on the course. That honor goes to the super risk/reward 11th, which features a scrub- and tree-filled barranca that hugs the left side of the fairway, followed by an approach set on a diagonal to the line of play. 3. Pacific Grove, No. 12, 513 yards, par 5; Pacific Grove, Calif. Ocean to the left, a lighthouse to the right and some of the tallest dunes this side of Ballybunion are integral parts of this dogleg-right par 5, the spotlight hole on this underpriced muni just outside the gates of Pebble Beach. 4. Pelican Hill (Ocean South), No. 12, 159 yards, par 3; Newport Coast, Calif. When Pelican Hill shut down for renovation from 2006-2008, many forgot how special the Tom Fazio designs were here. The first of back-to-back oceanside par 3s, the 12th parallels the Pacific. Thanks to coastal breezes and sprawls of sand that bleed into larger dunes, it's simply a delight. 5. Sandpiper, No. 13, 532 yards, par 5; Santa Barbara, Calif. Despite a recent redesign, this course never fully capitalized on its cliff-top site next to the Pacific. One hole that did is the 13th, provided you're playing to the precipice green to the right, with the churning ocean below, rather than the alternate left green. 5...Not So Much 1. Pebble Beach, No. 17, 208 yards, par 3; Pebble Beach, Calif. I know about the historic shots here and realize the view is pretty special, but I've always found the bunkering weird and never comprehended why the tiny back left target is so fiercely guarded, while the shorter, easier front-right target escapes unscathed. 2. Torrey Pines (South), No. 12, 504 yards, par 4; La Jolla, Calif. Statistically one of the hardest holes on Tour, Torrey's 12th is a big, mean schoolyard bully delivering a beat-down. It demands no imagination, just two massive smashes into the stiff wind to an elevated green. 3. Pasatiempo, No. 16, 387 yards, par 4; Santa Cruz, Calif. I cannot believe that MacKenzie really thought that this hole was the best par-4 of "his acquaintance." It's a blind, layup drive for most decent players, with a fairway that's canted to the left toward a barranca and OB right, followed by an approach from a downhill, sidehill lie to an elevated, three-tier green with way too much slope to accommodate modern green speeds. 4. TPC Harding Park, No. 18, 440 yards, par 4; San Francisco, Calif. The bite-off-as-much-as-you-can-chew drive over a lake is mitigated by trees obscuring the landing area, and the massive, elevated, three-tiered green is out of character with the rest of the course. 5. Olympic Club (Lake), No. 3, 229 yards, par 3, San Francisco, Calif. Sure, it's gorgeous, with an elevated tee and cypress trees, but other than its role as an early-round long iron or hybrid test, I don't see what all the fuss is about.
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Source: http://rss.golf.com/courses-and-travel/here-are-five-underrated-holes-california-and-five-whose-reputations-are-overblow

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Tiger's foundation still flourishing

From ESPN.com: There are still a fw people and companies standing in support of Tiger Woods. The sponsors of his foundation haven't jumped ship, even as some such as AT&T and Accenture have severed ties with Woods himself. And if the foundation folks hired by Tiger thought his transgressions embarrassing, they're not letting on. As if reading from the same talking points, they profess to be so consumed by their work -- most specifically the daily operation of the Tiger Woods Learning Center here in Southern California -- that they pay no mind to the salacious accounts of his female...

Source: http://blogs.golf.com/golf-truth-rumors/2010/03/tigers-foundation-still-flourishing.html

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Is Woods's return bad for the PGA Tour?

From The Wall Street Journal: Tiger Woods is golf's moneymaker. The PGA Tour, CBS, Augusta National, everyone associated with the Masters is breathing a huge sigh of relief that Woods is returning for the year's first major. But Woods's return may be the worst possible thing for the PGA Tour in the long run. Certainly, hundreds of golfers can thank Tiger for driving up purses and making sure that even the relatively mediocre are living quite comfortably. But Woods's dominance is a clear sign of the superstar effect which causes opponents to concede, rather than rise to the occasion when...

Source: http://blogs.golf.com/golf-truth-rumors/2010/04/is-woodss-return-bad-for-the-pga-tour.html

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Hogan showed the best can achieve greatness after absence

From The New York Times Magazine: If Tiger Woods wins the Masters in his return to professional golf, he will have matched a feat seen just once before. To return from such a long layoff and win a major championship would prove that Woods actually can turn his game on and off at will. Both Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer said they could not imagine being away from the tour for so long and winning a major. But one golf great has done so before. Ben Hogan won the 1951 Masters after nine months away from competitive golf. Hogan's feat...

Source: http://blogs.golf.com/golf-truth-rumors/2010/03/hogan-showed-the-best-can-achieve-greatness-after-absence.html

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