Allen Edmonds said that its successful entry into the golf shoe market (see this: "Shoes that Hogan would have worn") has prompted it to introduce four new offerings in its Honors Collection:

-- The Medalist, "For the golfer who wants to shoot the lowest score and look good doing it," the company said.

-- The Legend, honoring "highly fashionable golf legends like Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead."

-- The First Cut, featuring "the man-made designs with the beautiful works of nature that make golf courses so alluring."

-- The Haskell, honoring "Coburn Haskell, a fellow Midwesterner and a father of the modern golf ball."

As we noted in our original post on Allen Edmonds golf shoes, they aren't for everybody, given their price, $345. But they are stylish and creatively linked to the game's heritage.

-- John Strege

The first thing anyone probably wants to know about a new golf bag marketed as superlight is its weight. In the case of Sun Mountain's new KG:2 stand bag it isn't readily apparent without a decoder. Kidding, of course. But we had to ask. The answer: It's right there in the name, KG:2, or two kilograms (4.4 pounds).

That doesn't make it as light as Sun Mountain's Superlight 3.5 (3.5 pounds), but it does come with more pockets (eight, including one specifically for your cell phone) and hand-holds (three on the top of the bag and a lift-assist pocket panel on the bottom).

It also features Sun Mountain's E-Z Fit Dual Strap System, Roller Bottom leg mechanism and high-tensile aluminum legs. It is available in eight colors.

The bag will be available in November at $199.

-- John Strege

It is called the potato-chip test. Place a potato chip in your mouth and attempt to hit a shot without breaking the chip.

"The purpose of these exercises goes to the heart of the technology and why this works," said Bob Molhoek, president of Bite Tech Inc., which has partnered with Under Armour in the production of ArmourBite performance mouthwear. "How we respond to stress is by clenching our teeth," Molhoek said, citing how people will clench their teeth when angry. "When they're stressed out or nervous, kids bit their nails or chew on a pencil. It's a little glitch in the human body."

Hunter Mahan has trained with ArmourBite mouthwear. The LPGA's Vicky Hurst has used it. Champions Tour player Bruce Fleisher is an outspoken advocate of its benefits.

Molhoek cited this Golf Digest tip from renowned instructor David Leadbetter, entitled, "Open mouth, lose tension," "about trying to relax your jaw on the teebox," he said.

"The concept of affecting performance by adjusting the jaws is centuries old. Viking and Roman warriors often bit on leather straps before going to battle. [Olympic sprinter] Usain Bolt used to bite on a neckless when he'd run."

What the ArmourBite does is adjusts the placement of the jaw. "The wedge changes the physiology of what's happening," Molhoek said. "It interrupts the signal to the brain and as a result of that leads to the benefits -- increased strength, endurance, reduction of lactic acid, reduction of cortisol. Cortisol has been linked to the yips. It's really a bad thing, the antithesis of testosterone. It saps your ability to perform."

Hurst said that it did not make her a better golfer, but it helped her play her best, according to Molhoek. The first time Fleisher used it, Molhoek said, he reported no fatigue for the first time in years. "Fleisher said that this product made him feel exactly the same on hole one and hole 18," Molhoek said.

"As you know, as you get later in life, it's not whether you can play, but whether you can play two days in a row. The benefit for the recreational player is having the endurance to play more golf than they used to play. We're also seeing improvement in range of motion and flexibility."

The ArmourBite is available in either a custom-fit mouthpiece for $495 through an authorized dental provider or a self-fitting mouthpiece for $60 at underarmour.com or sporting goods stores.

-- John Strege

Ray Campbell was playing the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., one day when on the fifth hole he hit a perfect drive that rolled into a fairway bunker. "I didn't know that I should have laid up on that hole," he said. "I thought, 'there must be a better way.'"

Some courses offer yardage books, but Campbell deduced that "they were not sophisticated enough.

"I'm a graphic designer. I thought, 'I can improve on this problem.' I wanted to bring local knowledge to a golfer even before he steps onto the course.."

His solution is Track Notes, "a modified yardage book for the average golfer," he wrote. It comes in two formats -- a generic one for do-it-yourselfers -- and course-specific yardage books done by himself in concert with the club professional.

"I'm trying to approach every course in the country to have this Track Notes book to show basic target lines," he said. "Nothing overly done like a pro yardage book, but one easier to understand."

Campbell prefers his idea to range finders. "I would rather have this," he said, "because it's quick. You don't have to wait 20 seconds for it to pick up the satellite signal. It's also traditional. Watching golf on TV, I always wondered what the pros were looking at."

They were consulting yardage books, of course.

"Everyone I show this book to loves it," he said. In the meantime, he has begun the process of contacting courses to assess their interest. A Los Angeles-area resident, he is in the process of mapping out Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, Calif.

He is selling a single copy of a blank Track Notes for $2.25, a five pack for $11.95, or a 10 pack for $19.95.

-- John Strege

How does a man working in fish immunology in China decide to start a business manufacturing and selling golf nets? "Funny story," said Ryan Dickerson, founder of ProAdvanced and the ReadyNet that he has just launched..

Unusual, for sure. While he was in China, he became acquainted with a man who made golf nets. "He said, 'I would like to do a high-quality product,'" Dickerson said from his Atlanta headquarters. The man explained that he had been manufacturing golf nets for other companies, none of which was interested in quality. "All they do is squeeze me on price," the man said to Dickerson.

"So I looked at what he was doing and redesigned it into this product [the ReadyNet]. I reserched all the other nets out there and read all the reviews. Most of them are [junk]."

Pop-up nets were gaining momentum in the sports industry, so Dickerson decided to follow that route with his product. Others were making one-layer nets that he saw as "kind of dangerous." So he constructed his with a double layer. He also made his with a ball return system so that the ball would not get tangled up in the net. The ReadyNet sets up in a matter of seconds, weighs only 14 pounds, folds flat when not in use and comes with a carrying case.

It sells for $199. The company also has a pop-up chipping net for $19.

-- John Strege

Compression socks are not new to the athletic world; indeed, they are common among runners, triathletes, cyclists and football players (it has strategic partnerships with the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons), who often claim less post-workout fatigue.

Now, Sigvaris, an international leader in compression therapy, has introduced compression socks specifically designed for golfers.

"When you walk, the calf muscle acts as a second heart and pumps the blood up, helps move it back up to your heart," Sigvaris spokesperson Melissa Gwozdz said explaining in layman's terms how compression socks work. "It helps flush out lactic acid, which is improtant for golfers who are on the golf course all day."

Sigvaris' cotton golf socks feature graduated compression. "It's tightest at the ankle and less and less tight as it goes up the leg," Gwozdz said. "The socks act as a layer of muscle to help squeeze the veins.

"We did a field study with a local golf course here [in Peachtree City, Ga.]. Eighty-six percent of golfers said their legs felt better after a round, 50 percent said they had less swelling in their legs."

Will compression socks, which are routinely used to guard against deep vein thrombosis (among other medical uses), work for athletes? The jury is still out. A study conducted by Stellenbosch University (in South Africa) and presented at the annual meeting of the 2007 American College of Sports Medicine showed mixed results. On the one hand, "there were no statistically significant differences in maximal oxygen consumption, heart rate or minute ventilation between treadmill runners who wore compression socks and those who did not," Running Times Magazine reported.

But it also showed "a faster lactate recovery rate after exercise when wearing compression socks, suggesting that compression socks might speed recovery after a strenuous workout or a race."

The latter is the benefit touted by LPGA star Brittany Lincicome, who has an endorsement contract with Sigvaris and uses its cotton golf socks in workouts. A pair sells for about $25.

-- John Strege

A golf ball that goes missing is an irritant, no doubt, but do we want to do away with it without improving our swings as a hedge against losing it in the first place? One company is betting that enough people will.

Prazza is a Netherlands-based company that has developed the Prazza ball with microchips and a Prazza Golf Ball Finder that allows the user to home in on a ball that has gone into hiding. The Golf Ball Finder is about the size of a smart phone and uses active radio-frequency identification to locate the Prazza ball from up to 110 yards away. The company claims it has the ability to locate the lost pellet in U.S. Open rough or in water up to eight inches deep.

The company's sales pitch is that "most golfers lose four balls per round," and that a five-minute search for each of them adds 20 minutes to a round. We can't vouch for the four lost balls a round, but when Callaway Golf first entered the golf ball business with its Rule 35 ball, it offered a five-pack based on research that said the average golfer uses 4.5 balls per round.

The big question is how well the Prazza balls perform. "Prazza golf balls are high-performance distance golf balls with excellent spin control," the company website says.

The Prazza Golf Ball Finder can be purchased here for $299.95 and includes two Prazza balls. A sleeve of three balls can be purchased separately for $39.95.

-- John Strege

Golf trade shows produce an interesting mix of products that range from ingenious to inane. Most fall somewhere in between.

The AeroCaddie, introduced at the recent PGA Expo in Las Vegas, probably fits in the latter category. It works and provides a service. The AeroCaddie is a small windsock, a replica of an airport windsock, that attaches to the top of the golf cart. The idea is that it unerringly shows which way the wind is blowing, regardless of the windspeed.

Of course, a handful of grass clippings tossed in the air also will show which way the wind is blowing.

"Say goodbye to grass clippings," AeroCaddie's website said. Maybe not. The Aerocaddie sells for $20 per unit (up to 49 units; after that the cost per unit declines). Grass clippings are there for the taking.

The AeroCaddie's advantage, perhaps, is that it's considerably easier to see than grass clippings and takes no effort. Whether that's worth $20 is wholly dependent on the golfer.

-- John Strege

It isn't often that a new product comes along that is both unique and practical and, rarer still, is not something to which the tour player has access.

Precision Glove has introduced such a product -- custom fit golf gloves, "the only custom-made glove in the universe," it claims. Though tour pros receive their gloves gratis from the companies, they're standard-issue gloves, sized for the masses.

Precision Glove uses what it calls its 3D Immersion Simulator Hand Scanner that "captures 45 geometric data points from the surface area of an individual's hand, including measurements of the palm and fingers length, width and girth to create a three-dimensional digital model."

Shown here is an image of a scanned hand and some its data points

Premium Pittards lambskin is cut to the precise measurements by an automated laser cutting system. The gloves are then individually sewn and finished. Among options available are color and monogram or name. The cost is $30, in line with other high-end gloves, and the turnaround time is three weeks.

The company has recently hired 27 sales reps, according to Oliver Ahn, co-founder of the company. He said that big box and chain stores as well as pro shops will be equipped with their hand scanners.

"This is an exclusive market for us right now," Ahn said. "There is no technology out there that is able to capture the geometric data points we can with our technology with a combination of software and hardware. And with our glove, when you grab the club it's like grabbing the club in your hand. We hope we're going to be revolutionary."

-- John Strege

Golfers, overweight? Seven of 10 of them are, Larry Jacobs said, "and the other three are not in the best shape, either."

Jacobs is a weight-loss coach, who in recent years has turned his focus to golfers. He has another of his four-part tele-seminars, Weight Loss for Golfers, scheduled to begin on Sept. 28. A former aspiring tour professional, Jacobs, in addition to working with recreational golfers, has worked with those in professional golf circles, as well, including Dottie Pepper, Champions Tour player Allen Doyle and Don Trahan, the latter (pictured below, before and after) a swing coach and the father of PGA Tour player D.J. Trahan.

"I'm going to be 60 in October," said Jacobs, who established his reputation with his Thin for LIfe program that he began in the '70s. "A lot of baby boomers and seniors are headed onto the back nine of life, so to speak. Excess weight detracts from them being able to play this game the way they want.

"I merged my passion for golf with nicheing out my Thin for Life program and began working with golfers. I make the whole thing like a game of golf. The front nine is from the time you and I wake up until after lunch. The back nine is after lunch until it's time we go to bed. I like to make the claim that this is a game unlike golf, that you can shoot par or under almost every day of your life. Even if on the front nine you had a bogey or two, you've still got the rest of the day and can still shoot a decent score."

Jacobs promises results, provided one works his program, or he'll refund your money.

"I make a huge promise to them," he said. "I promise them that they can go from a fat storer to a fat burner in two weeks or less without dieting, starving or counting calories, or your money back. That's a pretty big promise.

"It's a simple format. We're not using any kind of high-tech anything. Just a knife and fork, sneakers and a certain way to think. People have had tremendous turnarounds."

Each session lasts from 60 to 90 minutes and can be viewed or heard in a number of ways. There are call-in sessions, too, with Jacobs answering questions either by email or phone.

The cost of the Weight Loss for Golfers tele-seminar series this month is half price, $497. Jacobs wouldn't give specifics on how it works, but suffice it to say it doesn't recommend a hot dog at the turn.

-- John Strege