By John Strege
Who wouldn't want this, a bigger than life-size John Daly wall cling from Fathead for a wall in your living room or family room?
Yes, Fathead has a golf section, offering wall clings of Daly, Steve Stricker, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer and Camilo Villegas. Each is $100 and is removable, reusable and safe for walls.
The John Daly Fathead shown above is six feet, five inches tall (Daly himself is listed as 5-11) and is 3 1/2-feet wide.
By John Strege
The quest for better golf through technology has been undertaken by SkyGolf, maker of the SkyCaddie rangefinder, with the introduction of SkyPro.
A swing analyzer and training tool, SkyPro features a small, lightweight device (under an ounce) that attaches to a golf club just below the grip and provides a variety of swing feedback, via bluetooth, to a smartphone app.
The SkyPro captures as many as 100,000 data points from address to impact, the company said, including clubhead speed, swing path, club rotation, face angle, swing plane, impact position and tempo. It does this automatically, too, without the golfer having even to push a button. You can see your swing in 3D, from virtually any angle, at any speed.
It also features groove and practice sessions that identify faults in less than perfect swings and provides alerts for common swing miscues for club rotation, shaft angle and swing plane. Practice tips are provided by renowned instructors Hank Haney and Michael Breed.
It has a sleep mode to save power, but can accommodate eight hours of swinging on a single charge. Morever, in the event you can't use a cell phone on the course or range, the swing information is stored in the device and transfered to your smartphone afterward.
The SkyPro retails for $200
By John Strege
Mike Bender is not only a renowned instructor, No. 4 in Golf Digest's 2011-2012 ranking of America's 50 Best Teachers, but he also has an inventive mind, to wit his new training aid, the BenderStik.
It is a simple device -- a yellow foam ball at the end of a long flexible shaft that sticks in the ground -- that can serve a variety of functions for those attempting to eliminate faults in their swings by providing physical feedback.
For instance, to help eradicate too much head movement, place the yellow foam ball to the right of your head (for a right-hander), and if you've caused it to move during the swing your head is moving too much, as this video demonstrates:
The stick can be positioned to address eight separate elements of the golf swing, including the aforementioned head position, shoulder turn, alignment, downswing and follow-through.
"The thing I Iike about it is that it's not conducive to any certain teaching philosophy," Bender said. Any instructor or any player working on their own can use it, he said. It comes in halves, so it's easy to store in a golf bag.
The idea was an offshoot of the MEGSA (Most Efficient Golf Swing Attainable) Perfect Practice Equipment that Bender designed. MEGSA, however, is Nautilus-like equipment that is stationary, expensive and doesn't travel.
University of Northern Iowa golf coach John Burmel had bought one. "He had such great success with college players in it," Bender said. "But they were always on the road and he said, 'we need one of those things to be portable.' He came up with the initial idea of something you could adjust and brought it to me. I kind of re-invented it."
The BenderStik and the instructional video that comes with it retails for $99.95.
By John Strege
Those who watched the Northern Trust Open on Sunday might have noticed the white over-sized grips that Charlie Beljan and Fredrik Jacobson had on their putters. Beljan finished second (losing in a playoff to John Merrick) and Jacobson tied for third, each with a SuperStroke Mid Slim grip, shown above.
SuperStroke continues to make headway in professional golf with its over-sized, non-tapering grips that help take the hands out of the stroke.
The movement generally began when Jason Dufner put a SuperStroke Slim grip on his putter for the 2011 PGA Championship and reached a playoff with Keegan Bradley.
"It was kind of like a springboard," Jon Luna of SuperStroke said. "He was a great ball striker, but was regarded as shaky at best at putting. [The grip] steadied him for shorter putts and in 2012 he won twice. It definitely took a negative in his game and made it into a positive. Once they see that, people want to try it."
SuperStroke recently added two grips to its line. One is the Claw, a longer grip for those who grip the club unconventionally, a la the claw that Phil Mickelson, among others, currently uses. The other is the Flatso, which features a pentagonal design along with the non-taper technology.
The Claw sells for $14.99 and the Flatso for $24.99 to $29.99, depending on the size.
By John Strege
IJP Design, Ian Poulter's apparel company, once again will be offering colorful limited-edition putter covers commemorating each of the four major championships, the first of which is the Azalea Jacket.
It isn't Masters green, however. It does have splashes of green, along with red, pink and maroon, as one might expect from anything which which Poulter is involved.
"The azaleas at Augusta are iconic and these covers encapsulate the striking colors of not only the flowers, but also the characteristic bold colors and style that have become synonymous with Ian," Mark Truby, managing director of IJP Design, said in a news release.
The putter covers, in either mallet or blade style, also come with a protective-lined tote bag and an IJP Design ball marker. The cost is $69.95 and the the quantity will be limited to 600. They are available for pre-oder at ijpusa.com.
By John Strege
Teeing the ball at a consistent height is no doubt important (albeit provided you're reasonably consistent in returning the clubhead on the same path), so a young entrepreneur with the help of his father developed a simple way of doing so.
JC Godlove, a recent American University graduate, has introduced the TZ, a device that works with any tee and ensures that you tee the ball at the same height every time.
"My father is an engineer and inventor/tinkerer at heart and designed and patented the TZ," Godlove wrote in an email. "When we hit a bad drive, we were never sure if it was our inconsistent tee height, our swing, or a combination that was causing our bad drives, so my Dad came up with the idea for the TZ to fix this problem."
The Godlove Golf website quotes from Callaway Golf's Randy Peterson's article, "The Scientifice Side of Ball Striking": "How high you tee the ball has a big effect on where you hit the ball on the clubface," Peterson, a respected instructor, wrote. "And where you hit the ball on the clubface, especially with a driver, dramatically affects the resulting shot."
The TZ will last a lifetime (its made from an aluminum alloy), Godlove said, provided you don't lose it. The photo above demonstrates how it works, by slipping a tee in it, teeing the ball, then removing the TZ.
They're offered in three sizes -- high launch, standard and low bore -- and two colors. Thge cost is $9.99. They can be pre-ordered at the company website and will be available in early spring, Godlove said.
By John Strege
Is there anything this push cart-golf bag combination cannot do? Maybe, but we're hard-pressed to find it.
The Duo Cart from Alphard Golf is made for walking, but on those occasions the walker is required to ride, the wheels can be removed, allowing the Duo Cart to be strapped on the back of an electric or gas cart.
Then there's this: "The outer layer of the fabric, or we call it the 'skin,' is interchangeable so that one can prolong the lifetime of the product when the fabric wears out," Alex Tse, designer of the Duo Cart, wrote in an email.
For storage purposes, the Duo Cart easily folds down to a size not much bigger than a typical cart bag. It weighs 20 pounds.
The Duo Cart LT retails for $299, while the Duo Cart DX with upgraded fabric and an insulated cooler pocket, retails for $329.
By John Strege
Color is in vogue these days, from Rickie Fowler's wardrobe to the different hues on metal woods, so it stands to reason that golf gloves would expand its color palette beyond traditional white.
PureBold is a new company based in Escondido, Calif., that is offering cabretta leather golf gloves in 10 colors, including the purple shown above.
"I grew up playing golf and played in college [at Biola, in La Mirada, Calif.), but I also had an entrepreneurial side," company founder Michael Belleggie said. "I thought there was a little bit of a hole in the market for colored golf gloves."
PureBold offers its gloves in purple, blue, pink, yellow, green, orange, red, gray, black and white. The gloves sell for $17.95 and can be purchased from PureBold's website.
By John Strege
Gary Loomis and his G. Loomis brand are legendary in fishing circles, but the company also once made a graphite iron shaft ithat was popular in the '90s, even among PGA Tour players.
"We had 47 players in '95 and '96," said Jeff Meyer, who was vice president of engineering for the company then. Among players using G. Loomis graphite iron shafts in those days was Greg Norman.
Meyer, who began his career as a design engineer with Aldila and later was director of shaft development and metal wood development for Titleist, has obtained the exclusive rights to Loomis Golf and is back with a new graphite iron shaft. Meyer's brother, Robert, vice president marketing and tour relations for Loomis Golf, was at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the Northern Trust Open, introducing the new product to tour players.
"Players are interested, especially players that beat a lot of golf balls," Jeff said. "We've been out two weeks and we have a ton of people interested and we're in the process of making them for them."
Mitsubishi Rayon is Loomis Golf's manufacturer partner. The new iron shafts won't be available to the public until late summer or early fall, Meyer said.
By John Strege
The nor'easter that buried New England states in snow last week need not have kept golfers from working on their golf games. ProAdvanced Sports has introduced a portable net for practicing your short game indoors.
When unfolded for use, the ProApproach measures only five feet by three feet and is designed to return the ball automatically. The ProApproach opens in seconds and is said to fold up instantly for storage purposes.
ProAdvanced Sports has its own production facility to help ensure quality control. The nets are made of polyster and feature a spring steel frame.
Originally, the ProApproach was called the ProIndoor, but because retailers at the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando inquired as to whether it could be used outdoors as well (it can), the company changed the name to remove the confusion. It retails for $79.
ProAdvanced Sports also has a full-sized net called the ProReturn ($149) that opens in seconds and easily folds up for storage.
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