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The Loop

You need this flashlight for your golf bag (or your police car)

March 14, 2015

My Golf Digest colleague Guy Yocom recently told me about a super-powerful flashlight he'd bought after learning about it about from a policeman he knows in Ohio:

When the cop used one on the job, virtually everyone in his department fell in love with it. Out of curiosity, I bought the outfit, too. He was right -- the light is so bright that it illuminates my entire backyard. And when you shine it on a white ceiling inside you can easily read a book, vacuum, or make the bed. What you cannot do is stare at the bulb for longer than one second. It definitely would blind anyone not named Clark Kent.[#image: /photos/55ad7cd4b01eefe207f71770]|||fenixpd35.jpg|||

The flashlight is called the Fenix PD35. It has four beam settings and a maximum output of 960 lumens -- which is bright. Yocom continued:

*Of course, I thought about whether it could be used for golf. The answer is yes, especially if all four guys in a group carried one. The Fenix  is small and fits in a little hip holster. With two of these things popping at full brightness, you could easily illuminate a guy's entire shot, from start to finish, and read a green as well at night as in daytime. *

I bought one immediately. In tests of my own, I have also proven -- and this could be important -- that the beam is powerful enough to melt snow.  The outfit Yocom recommends consists of the light, a pair of rechargeable batteries, and a charger. I also bought a detachable red filter, because red light doesn't kill your eyes'  adaptation to dark. Or so I've read.

Yocom, incidentally, is Golf Digest's master interviewer. He's done some great ones over the years. Why don't you cut the power in your house, shine your Fenix on the ceiling, and re-read a few of them -- maybe starting with this one, with Payne Stewart in 1999.