Equipment
5 Show Stoppers from the 2016 PGA Fashion and Demo Experience in Vegas
What happened in Vegas certainly seems to have stayed there, so far as the 2016 PGA Fashion & Demo Experience is concerned. I mean, did you see any press coverage of the mid-August 3-day show?
For the record, I was making a first visit to one of these golf-industry get togethers, and did in fact find the whole thing oddly low-key, especially given the two venues: the breathtaking Cascata Golf Club and the Strip’s classy Venetian resort hotel and casino.
Maybe it’s that we’re in uncertain times for the game — declining rounds-played, Nike’s announcement, the Olympics withdrawals, Tiger’s absence — or maybe wild Vegas nights left everybody needing hushed show days. In any case, word should’ve gotten out about some of the Experience’s most noteworthy products.
Here are my 5 Show Stoppers 2016 PGA Fashion and Demo Experience.
The Steadihead Putting System
“You can’t consistently execute a good golf shot unless you keep your head entirely still over the ball. You must consciously and deliberately force your head to hold still.”
In the spirit of that timeless advice from the King himself, Bobbi Salmon, a California LPGA pro with three-plus decades of touring and teaching know-how has invented a sleek “awareness aid.” Worn like glasses and employing a pinpoint laser (“It’s SPOT on!”), the Steadihead trains you, in Bobbi’s words, to develop an accurate alignment of your eyes directly over the ball, while precisely sighting down your intended line and developing a repeatable putting stroke that minimizes head and body movement. Learn more.
coLLo Apparel
“Don’t get burned” is the motto of Tom Hurst’s SoCal-based coLLo Apparel, which takes its name from the Italian word for neck/collar. So while the entire range of coLLo polos offers burn-avoiding UPF 50+ sun protection, you won’t be surprised to learn that the distinctive feature of the company’s tops are its collars. They’re larger than usual, and especially around the back of the neck they’re extra-high. Larger, though, doesn’t mean annoyingly floppier. The coLLo coLLar’s patent-pending design is reinforced with internal collar stays.
They polos are available in in short- or long-sleeved; athletic or loose fit; high-density, moisture-wicking, 4-way-coLLo-stretch fabrics or with woven-in sunblock. The coLLo range will be in stores for spring 2017. Learn more.
Club Glove
Serious golfers should probably pay close attention when the overwhelming majority of tour players use a particular golf-related product. So have a look then at Club Glove, the impressive travel bags nine out of 10 pros use to endure all those endless miles.
CG’s travel bags come in sizes that match-up to stand bags, cart bags, and large tour bags. They can also be combined into a self-balancing “Train Reaction System,” such as the 3-piece ensemble of a rolling duffle, mini rolling duffle, gear bag — and add a shoulder bag for good measure, too. Choose the piece or pieces to accompany your clubs, and then unite the whole shooting match for effortless single-handed transport by means of CG’s ingenious TRS connection device.
While you’re at it, add CG’s Stiff Arm to that travel bag. Its premise is simple and irrefutable: when in transit, and especially when being thrown around by baggage handlers, your clubs are most vulnerable to damage from head-on collision. Sturdy Stiff Arm to the rescue. The 3-piece, 1.2-lb aluminum tube telescopes expand to 4 feet by means of precision-lock and spring-loaded pins, protecting all your clubs — especially that pricey new driver shaft. Learn more.
Zero Friction’s DistancePro GPS Glove
Why the shout out for a GPS glove, rather than, say, any of Bushnell’s popular range- finders, or even, despite the fact that I never wear a timepiece, Garmin’s powerful and snazzy GPS golf watches?
The answer turns out to be the bam! factor. I discovered this while talking about the DistancePro with Mike Roeser, the Zero Friction sales rep I met at the ZF booth. Mike, of course, was eager to provide me with the technical details. Powered by Bluetooth, the DistancePro GPS device attaches to the glove flap. It weighs less than half an ounce, has a replaceable 400-hour battery, and can be easily removed from the flap for transfer to a replacement ZF glove (Johnny Miller Motion-Fit Cabretta Leather, or men’s or ladies’ synthetics). Operating as slave to a cell phone master, the device has a simple uncluttered readout that gives distances to the front, center and back of the green on tens of thousands of courses worldwide. There’s automatic and manual hole advance, Mike went on, and…
“Yes, but it’s just like bam!” I interrupted, turning my left hand palm-down and giving it a smart smack just above the wrist. “I get to my ball, and my glove’s on anyway, and I just turn my hand, and bam! I’ve got my yardage.”
So that’s what got me — the bam! Learn more.
Dormie Golf Workshop
Get used to seeing this slightly surreal image of a cow standing on a golf club. It’s the striking brand icon of Nova Scotia-based Dormie Golf Workshop, and I have a feeling that its handcrafted premium leather goods are quickly going to become sought-after accessories.
Dormie’s irresistible vibe comes from the brothers Bishop, Jeff and Todd, who have cannily shaped their backstory into a single memorable sentence: “Born in Nova Scotia, raised in Nova Scotia, golfed the world and back to Nova Scotia.”
Specializing in custom-made head covers, the Dormie team wants to make the creation of your unique product a fun, collaborative effort. You introduce yourself via email. Then you choose from among available premium leathers, colors, stitching patterns, and so on (check out “hide on hair”!), and supply the imagery and/or text you want to use for digital rendering. And in about three weeks you get to astonish your foursome with what you and Dormie’s craftsmen and women have created together.
“Dormie,” as many holes up as there are holes to play. For the player on top, that’s right where you want to be. And that’s where I think Jeff and Todd Bishop find themselves and Dormie Golf Workshop. Learn more.
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Whats in the Bag
Rory McIlroy’s winning WITB: 2024 Wells Fargo Championship
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @8.25) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees) Buy here.
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X
Irons: TaylorMade Proto (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9) Buy here.
Shaft: Project X 7.0 (4-9)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB) Buy here, Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-K @59) Buy here.
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3 Buy here.
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour
Ball: 2024 TaylorMade TP5x Buy here.
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Rory McIlroy’s WITB in the forums.
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The winning WITB is presented by 2nd Swing Golf. 2nd Swing has more than 100,000 new and pre-swung golf clubs available in six store locations and online. Check them out here.
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Whats in the Bag
Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)
- Kevin Tway what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX
5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX
Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)
Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4
More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.
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Equipment
Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.
The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?
Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.
When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.
To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.
Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.
“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.
“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”
Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.
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rory
Sep 18, 2016 at 6:55 pm
Shank cause you gotta at least put a price range on stuff even if ya dont know that exact price…Shank
R C
Sep 18, 2016 at 12:34 am
“did you see any press coverage of the mid-August 3-day show?”
…Now we know why.
cgasucks
Sep 17, 2016 at 9:14 pm
Would be much more cheaper and practical if they had this hoidy toidy fashion spectacle the same time as with their traditional show.
emb
Sep 16, 2016 at 10:03 pm
Having to keep your head still when putting has got to be one of the oldest and most common teaching myths ever, its complete garbage and robs you of your natural feel, but people still believe it and will probably buy this terrible product anyways
Just Do It
Sep 16, 2016 at 11:52 am
Becoming more and more ridiculous
KK
Sep 16, 2016 at 6:17 pm
Skirt length? Yes. Yes, they are.
Charlie
Sep 16, 2016 at 10:29 am
Regarding #2, so now I also have to shove a GPS device in my back pocket every time I go to putt?
Mr. Wedge
Sep 16, 2016 at 12:34 pm
My thought exactly. And weighing in at less than a half ounce makes it easy to forget it’s there before you sit on a hard surface with it still in your back pocket…