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Have the most stylin' swing on the links
Today's hottest new golf gadgets are all about virtuality, visualization and video. For instance, tomorrow morning you could install a home driving range—thanks to the latest launch monitors that analyze the club impact to determine a golf shot's distance, direction and trajectory. High-end home-theater golf-course simulators offer the ultimate arcade-style links experience. The only things missing are the wind and rain in your face.
See our slideshow of Golf Gadgets, Gear & Garb.
If you're actually going outside to play and you'd like a better keepsake than a scorecard and a $5 divot tool from the pro shop, hire a cart equipped with a high-quality video DVD recorder. Assuming you have enough good shots, your highlight reel will be ready for your buddies almost immediately—or, to the golf pro you’re paying to analyze your swing.
Inventing his video system was just a matter of meeting a need, says Nebraska-based creator Mikol Hess. Fifteen years ago, Hess met an overworked golf pro who said, “It would be so cool if people could just go out on the course and video their golf game and bring it in so that I'd have a way to review it." After countless broken-down prototypes, the DVD-based PortaPro was born. It debuted at the 2007 PGA Show in Orlando.
Like most sports-equipment industries, golf outfitters are always on the lookout for new trends. When it comes to woods and irons, they may want to emphasize more form to accompany the increased function made possible by the latest technology. That may have been on Bruce Caldwell’s mind when he set out to perfect the Malibu Woody, which he promises will put you in the fairway more often. No other driver, he says, “feels better, sounds better or performs better.” Maybe it’s the club’s white head, which makes it looks like a ghost of a persimmon golf club.
Meanwhile, innovation in traditional equipment seems to have stalled, along with sales. "The hard goods have a smaller margin than any other product that's in our stores," says Ken Morton, Jr., of Haggin Oaks Golf Super Shop in Sacramento.
Fortunately the outlook for soft goods looks a bit brighter. More and better designers continue to move into the golf shop—simply because it's one of the best places to catch a man's eye. "It's the psychology of shopping: Men tend not to be shoppers at heart," says marketing consultant Vicki Bernstein of Houston-based Vicki Bernstein Retail. "But they're very much into gadgetry and things that make their golf game better, and they visit golf shops more than they visit retail establishments. So a lot of the vendors feel like that's the perfect opportunity to get their brand in front of those people with disposable incomes."
This year, golf apparel designers are returning to traditional, comfortable fabrics. "There's a return to luxury and functionality and crossover dressing," says Bernstein. "Sweaters and layering pieces are now coming back in vogue. A couple of years ago it wasn't as important to be carrying layering pieces—in cashmere for example—because sweatshirts came into existence, and everybody was opting into fleece."
It’s funny that some of the sports world’s favorite gadgets and accessories are actually inspired by totally unrelated activities and professions. Glasscutter gloves, for instance, were discovered by professional and college baseball and football players; it took years for Cutters' Jeff Beraznik to work out a prototype that golfers would love.
Then there are the gizmos from out of nowhere, like the brand-new Nubrella, a hands-free umbrella design that may soon keep trendy urbanites dry. While pro golfers can’t wear a Nubrella during play, per regulations, jokesters might get a laugh at the first tee with this curious dome covering their head and shoulders.
See our slideshow of Golf Gadgets, Gear & Garb.
