For nearly a year now, Tiger Woods has been wearing Nike prototype golf shoes that he requested, based on Nike's FREE technology, and the company is finally introducing it to the marketplace on June 8.

It's called the Nike TW '13 and will be available in white or black with red accents. It will sell for $180.

The genesis of the Nike TW '13 was Woods' interest in a golf shoe that had the same technology contained in the Nike shoes in which he ran and worked out. The idea behind the FREE technology is to allow the outsoles to replicate the natural motion of the foot

"I train with Nike FREE technology all the time," he said in a Nike news release. "I love training in it, running in it, lifting in it. So I asked, why can't I play golf in it?"

Following is a clever 30-second video of the evolution of the TW '13.

-- John Strege

Dr. Joseph Lee is a prominent LASIK eye surgeon in the Los Angeles area and was a frustrated golfer lamenting the lack of quality indoor nets with which to practice. So he combined the two elements and came up with the Swing Box.

So, what did his profession have to do with this, aside from providing him the wherewithal to develop it and bring it to production? Lee invented a device involving strands that would help correct near-sightedness. It never came to market, because LASIK eye surgery proved so successful. The strands gave him the idea.

"The first idea was to put a bunch of strings across a board," he said. "That's got to slow the ball somewhat. If that doesn't work I can always adjust it. My second try pretty much worked. I went with four to five millimeter-thick rope. It's that tension that basically stops the ball."

So the Swing Box was born, an indoor and portable golf practice net that takes up less room than its competitors and, Lee said, provides more feedback.

"What happens when you hit into it, the feedback is tremendous," he said. "You get visual feedback and you get audio feedback." The thud it produces stands in stark contrast to the lack of sound made from a ball hitting a net. Moreover, the ball returns to your feet after hitting the Swing Box.

It has piqued interest, if more than 460,000 views of a YouTube demonstration (below) are any indication. And in the April issue of Golf Digest, David Owen included it in his story headlined, "Gear You Didn't Know You Needed," after testing at the PGA Merchandise Show earlier this year.

The Swing Box is now available at the website, iswingbox.com, for $470.

-- John Strege

Premier Aerials International, which calls itself "home of the world's finest golf course aerial photograph, has introduced a 16 inch-by-20 inch aerial-view print of the Olympic Club, site of U.S. Open.

It comes framed in cherry wood and is available now at a reduced price, $199 (ordinarily, the cost is $275).

Premier Aerials also has prints available of each of the 18 holes at the Olympic Club, as well as a wide variety of prints from courses from around the U.S. and abroad.

Incidentally, in the Olympic Club aerial shown above, that is the Pacific Ocean in the foreground and Lake Merced in the background.

-- John Strege

Those inclined to play 100 holes in a single day on foot better have comfortable footwear, which is why TRUE linkswear has introduced three limited-edition shoes to benefit Hundred Hole Hike and the Evans Scholarship Foundation.

The Hundred Hole Hike is a charitable organization that promotes 100-hole marathon golf outings to raise money for a variety of charities.

TRUE linkswear shoes are designed to allow the feet to function naturally as they would walking barefoot. It has described its golf shoes as "slippers with traction."

The three limited-edition models are the TRUE phx in black and electric blue ($99) and TRUE stealth in either white and electric blue or black and electric blue ($199). Fifty percent of the proceeds are designated to the aforementioned charities.

-- John Strege

Callaway Golf last week introduced its upro mx+ rangefinder, a new and improved version of the upro mx, emphasis on improved.

"When we launched the mx last year, it was not our biggest success," Callaway's Scott Goryl said. "People encountered some frustrating software bugs with it. First and foremost, all those problems have been solved."

Aerial imagery remains the principal point of differentiation from other rangefinders. "The feedback on that particular element has been really good," Goryl said, "especially if you're playing a course you're not familiar with, so you can see what's around the bend before you hit the ball over there."

The aerial imagery (unlimited courses provided at no additional charge), available when the device is set in Pro Mode, is downloaded from callawayuxplore.com. Pro Mode also provides AnyPoint Technology, allowing the user to identify yardage to any point on any hole using the touch screen.

"The software itself is a lot easier to navigate," Goryl said, "everything from the menu screens and the touch surface. It didn't work all that great before, but it's a lot more responsive now. Navigating is a lot smoother."

Another feature offered by Callaway, one that doesn't require the purchase of the upro mx+, is that the satellite imagery and video flyovers are available at callwayuxplore.com. "People can go and check out holes before they play a course," Goryl said.

The Callaway upro mx+ retails for $250 and will be available on May 30.

-- John Strege

It is helpful, obviously, for the golfer to know how far he hits each club in his bag. For those who don't know or aren't sure and want to find out, Ernest Sports has introduced the ES12 Digital Golf Assistant.

It employs Doppler radar to measure ball speed, then based on what club you're hitting calculates the distance that then is relayed via Bluetooth instantly to a smart phone or audibly to a hands-free device. The mobile app will log practice sessions (up to 2,000 shots, in fact) for later analysis.

The question, of course, is accuracy, given that it does not consider ball spin, angle of attack or the variations in loft that might occur between equipment manufacturers' respective irons. "It's proven pretty accurate," said Will Moore, the engineer who designed the device. "There are shots like a thin shot or a 30-yard slice that would be off, but it's pretty accurate on better strikes."

The company provides a spreadsheet comparing distances recorded by the ES12, a laser rangefinder, and a launch monitor.

The app comes with a few other features, including a digital scorecard and stat keeper. It also is capable of showing frame-by-frame video of your swing taken by a smart phone for the purpose of swing analysis.

The ES12 retails for $249.

-- John Strege

Go to any PGA Tour or LPGA event and you'll see players who aren't being paid to do so using a variety of putting aids on the practice green. Their unofficial seal of approval is one way to cut through the clutter in the training aid category.

Among those that has been in use at tour events, including the Masters, in recent months is the Straight Trax, a new introduction from MVP Sports, a company whose core business has been alignment rods.

The Straight Trax was developed by Dwight Hansen of MVP Sport, who saw a rudimentary device in use at the PGA Tour's Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic a few years ago. "A couple of the players had a contraption with an alignment rod and acrylic pieces," Hansen said. Hansen decided to devise one that was better and more versatile and to market it.

The principal benefit of the Straight Trax is to help promote a straight back, straight through putting stroke. Another is stroke height, an area on which instructors are focusing more, Hansen said. "If you take it back inside you're going to hit a rail. If you lift the putter you're going to hit a rail. The way we designed it was to make it intuitive, where you're getting physical feedback."

Its simplicity and affordability ($30) make it an attractive product for anybody, from the tour player to the recreational player. "It's fun to get a product in play with the best players in the world," Hansen said, "but we wanted to make something that really works for anybody. "

The product comes with five rods and two end pieces and breaks down to fit in a side pocket of a golf bag.

-- John Strege

The competitive rangefinder category continues to expand, making it increasingly more difficult for a company to differentiate itself.

GolfBuddy has done so with its latest offering, the GolfBuddy Voice, that with the push of a button audibly provides yardage to the middle of the green (or front or back). It might not be for everyone; the sound of a ringing cell phone is a nuisance on the golf course, so presumably -- for somet -- will be a talking rangefinder. But it does come with volume control.

It is a clever little device (it weighs an ounce and measures 1.7 inches wide). It is multilingual (eight languages), is pre-loaded with more than 35,000 courses internationally, and has automatic course and hole recognition. Its cost is $179.

And for those who would prefer a rangefinder that doesn't speak, GolfBuddy has six other GPS devices from which to choose, including the new full feature GolfBuddy Platinum.

-- John Strege

The number of tee vendors at the PGA Merchandise Show earlier this year -- by some counts more than 20 -- was astonishing, considering the traditional wood tees we've all used since we started playing seem perfectly suited for the task for which they were designed.

Yet companies are attempting to innovate, including the highly-regarded spike manufacturer, CHAMP/MacNeill Engineering Worldwide. The company put out a news release this week that the winner of the Wells Fargo Championship used its Zarma FLYTee -- in blaze orange.

The tees are made of biodegradable materials with a six-prong head and a shallow cup to reduce friction, theoretically allowing the ball to come off the tee faster. It makes sense, though to what degree it makes a difference is anyone's guess. Probably not as much as the subhead on the news release suggests: "Blaze Orange Model Propels Young Star to First PGA Tour Victory."

The young star, of course, is Rickie Fowler (hence the blaze orange), though the company can't use his name, for that would imply an endorsement. That said, Fowler using without remuneration is better than a paid endorsement.

Even disregarding the performance benefits, an environmentally-friendlier tee is a good thing, no? The Zarma tees feature "a bio-agent additive...[that] enables microorganisms to metabolize the plastic into humus, an organic matter which benefits the environment," the company claims. The tees are said to be considerably more durable than wood tees, which results in fewer broken tees littering tee boxes. Also a good thing.

CHAMP, incidentally, has recently introduced the MyHite FLYTee that feature colored bands on them to help the user consistently tee the ball at the same height. That makes sense, too.

-- John Strege

A growing category in rangefinders is the GPS device resembling a wristwatch. The latest to join the fray is Bushnell, a leading player in the rangefinder market, both GPS and laser (and even a hybrid). Bushnell has introduced the Neo+ Golf GPS Watch.

It comes pre-loaded with 25,000 courses and provides yardages to the front, center and back of greens. It automatically recognizes the course and the hole on which the consumer is playing. It includes a watch and an odometer and has a battery life in GPS mode of more than 14 hours.

The price is $200.

Garmin and Expresso Satellite Navigation also have introduced GPS devices worn on the wrist.

-- John Strege