If one pays enough attention to the golf world, and more specifically the equipment industry of the golf world, it is easy to see that there are numerous trends. For example, one such trend is an increase in the use of belly and long putters. Keegan Bradley was the first player to ever win a major using one and now three of the last five had one in the bag for their major victory (Bradley, Simpson, Els). Another trend is the increased focus on speed that companies now have. We have seen companies creating lighter drivers for a good while now and the idea behind it is that the faster the club can be swung the further the ball will go.
Until now, this concept has not really been applied to irons. This is exactly what Nike has done with the new VR_S Forged irons.
Many people aren’t aware of the fact that Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup mere months after it opened. Check out Google Earth and go back to aerial photos from 1989 and you won’t even see the beginnings of a golf course. Yet less than two years later the site hosted the “War by the Shore” that really set the modern-day Ryder Cup as the most hotly contested, emotional, nationalistic event in golf.
Since Nike burst onto the golf equipment scene roughly a decade ago, they have been one of the more forward-thinking, technologically advanced companies around. They were among the first manufacturers to introduce square drivers with their SasQuatch line and jumped into the adjustability game early on with the original version of the Str8-Fit hosel.
When TaylorMade introduced the R11 irons, they claimed they were the only irons worthy of the R11 name. Of course the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of R11 is the very successful white matte drivers that have blanketed golf courses lately. It is very hard these days to play in a foursome that does not have a golfer with the R11, R11s, or RocketBallz driver in their bag.
The new Callaway Hex Black Tour ball hits all the marks to compete with the other premium balls on the market.
Many golfers might be surprised to know that, in terms of dollar market share, Bridgestone Golf has grown to become the number two golf ball in the industry. Bridgestone Golf began manufacturing its first golf balls on U.S. soil in 1990 under the Precept brand, and while it’s only been seven years since the Bridgestone Golf U.S. brand was launched, the company has been producing golf balls since 1935 and they are the number one golf ball producer in Japan.
I think of myself as a little bit of a history buff, not because I am any good at history (in fact I got really poor grades in school for history), but simply because I love to learn about it. As we approach the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, Al Barkow decided to write a detailed account of the first U.S. Open held at the famed San Francisco layout. In 1955, a little-known man named Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff that made ESPN’s list of the top 10 upsets of all time.
The 2012 RocketBallz fairway wood line has received a majority of the buzz from the new products that have been released this year. TaylorMade has been advertising that the RocketBallz 3-wood is 17 yards longer than your current 3 wood. 17 yards longer? For a fairway wood? Really? When I attended a TaylorMade media day late last year I had heard the rumors of the line that would be replacing the popular Burner clubs. I thought the name “RocketBallz” was some insider joke and the actual name would be revealed during the presentation.
Adams Golf doesn’t really have much of identity right now. They’ve stopped airing the “number one hybrid on the Champions Tour” commercials (or maybe I’ve stopped watching Golf Channel at 2 AM?), and they don’t really have a repetitive nomenclature. They’re not revered for their huge revenues like Nike or TaylorMade, and they don’t have the rich history of Titleist or Mizuno.