January 8th, 2010
By Robert Thompson

Hot off the wires:

Callaway Golf Company today announced the January 15th retail availability of their new Odyssey® Black Series® Tour Designs line of milled putters. The latest innovation from The Number One Putter in Golf®, Black Series Tour Designs were crafted through extensive work between the Odyssey design team and professional golfers across the world’s major tours.
 
With a new black look, the precision-crafted milled putters in Odyssey’s Black Series Tour Designs line feature updated shapes and more head options, all designed to offer elite performance at the highest levels of the game. Each putter is milled from 1025 carbon steel for the soft feel demanded by the best players in the world.
                       
“In creating the Black Series Tour Designs putters, we consulted with some of the greatest players in the game, including Phil Mickelson,” said Austie Rollinson, Principal Designer for Odyssey Golf. “We incorporated this Tour player feedback into the design of these precision-crafted milled putters. The result is updated shapes and more head options preferred by better players, all delivering the truest roll possible in a premium look.” 
 
Black Series Tour Designs putters feature Advanced Roll Technology (A.R.T.) for precise response and the truest roll possible. A.R.T. is achieved through multi-material construction using tungsten weighting, which creates a quicker, more favorable roll by moving the center of gravity back and lower in the putterhead. A urethane dampening layer is subtly placed between the carbon steel putter head and the tungsten flange, which enhances the feel at impact.
 
The TD Milled Face has a precise, deep milling pattern that generates consistent impact performance across the face, resulting in better feel, distance control and a smooth roll. Each putter is finished with a Deep Black PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating, producing a durable, glare-free look that was added specifically in response to feedback received from the world’s best golfers.
 
Black Series Tour Designs putters are available in several core models, including the #2, #4, #6 and #9.

January 6th, 2010
By Fairway Stevie

Just before the Christmas break, Callaway Golf invited us in to their offices to take a sneak peak at their new clubs launching 2010. You’ll be able to start hitting these at your local golf store mid-February.
click here for story

December 21st, 2009
By James McCarten

For the amateur golfer, it has long been one of the putting game’s most vexing dilemmas: whether to prefer the bulky, branding-iron stability of the mallet putter over the more feel-friendly but decidedly less idiot-proof blade-style flat stick.

On the one hand, the heavy perimeter weighting of a wide mallet can be a tremendous help in keeping twitchy hands at bay, and in resolving issues of speed control – especially when it comes to long-distance lag putting.

The tradeoff, of course, comes when the ball is closer to the hole. With the nerves in play, the fine motor control of a lighter, more manageable utensil becomes paramount; when a stabby stroke pulls a heavy mallet off-line, it’s simply too bulky to regain control, resulting in the most frustrating of golf’s misses: the short putt.

Enter the compromise solution: the Heavy Putter Mid-Weight Series from Boccieri Golf.

Lighter than the early models that made Heavy Putter something of a household name, the Mid-Weight series offers the perfect balance point for players looking for the heft and stability of a mallet with the more traditional aesthetics and manageability of a blade.

Make no mistake, however – it’s still heavy. As the Connecticut-based company itself has acknowledged, the original Heavy Putter, while based on sound theory, was simply too heavy for many players, who considered it a “quantum leap” to go from a standard model to one weighing upwards of 900 grams.

In the Mid-Weight, Boccieri believes it has found a happy medium. Available in five different head shapes and both a black and silver satin finish, the MW models weigh 750 grams, including a 400-gram head (about 125-150 grams heavier than standard), and a 200-gram counterweight in the grip.

The result is a confidence-inspiring, well-balanced putter that’s heavy enough to function almost like a training aid – allowing a player to practice grooving a stroke with the larger muscles of the shoulders and the back, and taking the short-twitch muscles out of play – but still manageable enough to be playable. It’s the perfect fix for the player who struggles with speed control on longer putts but demands the more understated aesthetics of a smaller, more traditionally shaped putter.

There’s nothing wrong with the optics here, either.

The K4 Mid-Weight, a Laguna-style blade with minimal offset, is a sharp-looking putter with a flared toe to give the club a more symmetrical appearance at address, along with a grooved face to promote a smoother roll in the fashion of a Rife or Yes! flat stick. A series of grooves along the back of the putterhead also help give the club a sleek, streamlined look at address.

John Daly, a recent addition to the Heavy Putter staff, wielded a K4 during a strong rebuilding year in 2009 that included a runner-up finish at the BMW Italian Open in June.

“I’ve always had real problems with long backstrokes and never following through, causing deceleration – that’s probably the worst thing you could ever do in putting,” Daly says in this video endorsement posted by the company earlier this year.

“(The K4) makes my putting stroke a lot shorter . . . and it automatically makes you release the putter.”

Anyone with a problem holding on to the putter through the ball, a typical symptom of tension or stress that causes a lot of blocked putts and stabby strokes, will definitely find it easier to develop a smoother, more pendulum-like stroke with the Heavy Putter, and get into the habit of allowing the putter head to square up through impact.

The extra weight takes some getting used to, however, so be prepared to make a commitment to this putter if you decide to take the plunge. That, or make the decision to use it as a practice aid if you think you’d prefer to stick to a standard-weight gamer. But there’s little doubt that a little time with the Heavy Putter will allow you to better understand what sort of a putter you are.

The K4 is available in either a matte black or a stainless silver finish and carries a newly reduced MSRP of $119.95 US, down from $169.95 when it was first introduced. The price drop, according to the company, was the result of a “purchase program” that “leveraged increased production volume and significant economies-of-scale in the manufacturing process with no compromise in product quality.”

In other words, they were able to make more for less, passing the savings along to the consumer without taking profits away from the retailer level.

The Mid-Weight series boasts five head shapes, including some more traditional mallet-style heads for those whose preferences might run more towards the Zebra-style putterhead. And if the latest news from Boccieri is any indication, the company has definitely found a sweet spot with the Mid-Weight Series.

The party line:

Boccieri Golf’s Heavy Putter Doubles Market Share

New MID-WEIGHT Series Purchase Program Spurs Rapid Sales Increases Nationwide
(RIDGEFIELD, CT) — Boccieri Golf confirms that its renowned Heavy Putter has doubled market share over the past 12 months, with sales fueled by the recent announcement of the MID-WEIGHT Series purchase program, resulting in a 23-percent month-to-month market share increase for the brand in September.
Challenging the industry trend of declining equipment sales, September represented one of the highest monthly sales periods to date for the Heavy Putter. This continues the levels of rapid adoption by discerning consumers and professionals nationwide which began immediately after the MID-WEIGHT Series was introduced early this year.
“We are confident that our market share will continue to increase as our products are ideal for customers looking for performance and value in this economy,” says Stephen Boccieri, President and CEO of Boccieri Golf. “We’re looking forward to a stellar holiday season at retail, as was predicted by our consumer testing which showed 7 out of 10 golfers preferred the MID-WEIGHT Series to what was currently in their bags.”
Premiering late this summer, the MID-WEIGHT Series purchase program made these distinctive putters more affordable to all demographics. It leveraged increased production volume and significant economies-of-scale in the manufacturing process with no compromise in product quality. This momentum allowed the company to maintain retailer margins while passing savings on to consumers by pricing MID-WEIGHT models at $119.95 (previously $169.95).
With a total weight of 750 grams, the MID-WEIGHT Series is lighter than previous Heavy Putter models yet heavier than traditional offerings. It is available in a five classic designs offered in a rich black “PVD” or silver satin finish, and features Boccieri Golf’s innovative system of added weight in the head and grip. This causes the body to engage its larger muscles for a consistent swing path, uniform pace, precise distance and directional control, tightening end-over-end golf ball roll.
Not just a retail phenomenon, Heavy Putter users have recorded victories on the PGA, European, Champions, Asian, Nationwide and Canadian Tours. The company’s popular MID-WEIGHT Series was used by John Daly during his best professional outing in five years — a runner-up finish at the BMW Italian Open earlier this season.
MID-WEIGHT Series models include:
CX2 — Classic blade design that is face balanced; plumbers-neck hosel with a full shaft offset.
H1/H3 — Medium-size face balanced mallet; high MOI rating for forgiveness on off-center hits.  Features a thin face to improve feel at impact; available in both heel (H3) with a double bend with half shaft offset and center-shafted (H1) models with a striking parabola channel alignment aid with a single long site line.
J2 — Deeper flanged blade offers the forgiveness of a mallet with a sleek top-line; face balanced with a plumbers-neck hosel with a full shaft offset.
K4 — Classic “toe-droop” blade with thin top line; short slant neck hosel with half-shaft offset.
L3 — Traditional small face balanced mallet; heel shafted double-bend half-shaft offset, a unique three-line alignment system, center top line and two lower lines frame the ball, while thin-face design promotes crisper feel at impact, improves MOI.

About the Heavy Putter
Heavy Putter is carried in all 50 states and more than 35 overseas markets.  It is found in many of the finest off-course shops and most prestigious golf courses, country clubs and resorts worldwide and since its 2005 introduction, has captured victories on the PGA, European, Champions, Nationwide, Asian, Canadian and European Challenge Tours.
The Heavy Putter Original, Matte and Deep Face Series models, which spawned a global following, each incorporates the company’s pioneering weighting technology, including a 475-gram head (conventional heads are 330 to 350 grams) and a 250-gram weight installed in the grip end, producing a balance point 75 percent higher than conventional putters.
Contact: 888.PUTTER.4, info@heavyputter.com, www.heavyputter.com, www.boccierigolf.com.

December 6th, 2009
By James McCarten

The dead of December might not seem like the time to be talking about short sleeves and lightweight, moisture-wicking fabrics, but if you’ve got a sunbelt destination in your holiday future, this is news you can use.

And besides, with all the talk of climate change these days, who knows when the Canadian courses might open in 2010?

Know this: whether you’re sweating it out in the Bahamas this winter or looking instead to another one of Canada’s 30 C (86 F)-plus summers, you’re eventually going to want a golf shirt that doesn’t wither and wilt under the heat.

The Arizona-based Antigua Group, maker of one of the game’s newest mid-range apparel brands, is marking its 30^th year in the golf business by doing its bit for global warming.

Desert Dry Xtra-Lite (D2XL) is the wispy, light-as-air fabric that comprises the backbone of Antigua’s men’s and women’s apparel line for 2010.

Despite its almost space-age lack of mass, D2XL isn’t even remotely sheer, which means those of us with curves and jutty bits where we’re not supposed to need not endure the suffocating indignity of cotton any longer.

Sure, there are a host of other moisture-wicking and heat dispersing fabrics on the market, but D2XL is the closest thing you’ll find to the sensation of not even wearing a shirt at all. Thanks to a hit of elasticity, it doesn’t bind, trap body heat, retain odour or accentuate your love handles the way some other modern fabrics do.

D2XL is a marked improvement over some of Antigua’s earlier performance-line offerings, which – like so many early efforts at moisture-management fabrics – ended up feeling hot and clammy to the touch.

According to Antigua, the fabric’s “three-dimensional” construction makes it extremely light without being sheer or see-through, and wicks away moisture even quicker than Antigua’s original Desert Dry fabric introduced some ears ago.

If you have any Antigua from previous years in your closet, you might notice a common theme: a lot of bright pastel colours. In 2010, Antigua says it’s going in a “new direction” with something called “contemporary performance,” replacing its active brights “with a rich, sophisticated color palette and clean, updated styling details to complete its transformation to a contemporary performance men’s golf wear collection for Spring 2010.”

“Our target audience is the weekend golfer who expects their apparel to perform,” Antigua president and CEO Ron McPherson said in a release.

“When golfers began demanding performance apparel several years ago, we not only continued to excel as a genuine golf brand, but we easily shifted to performance apparel.”

Here’s the release:

Antigua’s New Holiday Delivery Hits Shelves and Is Available Now

PEORIA, ARIZ. – The Antigua Group, Inc.-celebrating its 30th year in business in 2009 as one of the nation’s leading designers and marketers of genuine golf and sports apparel under its Antigua brand has added an additional golf apparel delivery for the Holiday season featuring it’s DESERT DRYâ„¢, and introducing it’s new light weight DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE (D2XL), moisture management styles.

This is the first time Antigua has offered this special Holiday delivery to its accounts.

Antigua has developed this Holiday/early Spring delivery specifically to cater to the demand from its Sun Belt, as well as to its northern accounts and will begin shipping for Holiday ’09. Antigua’s new deliveries will include exclusive styles for the holiday season that give accounts a fresh look when replenishing in-stock items.

“We feel so strongly about the course that we’re on with our contemporary performance that we’ve expanded the collection into three deliveries,” says Ron McPherson, President and CEO of Antigua. “This gives us the opportunity to deliver fresh new product early to the Sun Belt states and follow that up with additional new product from the beginning of 2010 through summer of 2010.

“Our DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE technology has really been accepted by all golfers, of all genders and has allowed us to expand the demographic of our target audience as more golfers, young and old, expect apparel that performs,” McPherson adds, “so it’s great that we’ve increased the availability of our performance golf apparel offering to include this holiday season.”

The special Holiday delivery also features sophisticated styling details, including an argyle pattern designed using a subtle look in a pointelle mesh as part of the DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA LITE offering, as well as updates on the traditional hounds tooth design. The holiday delivery also offers a preview look at Spring 2010′s more sophisticated color palettes. The rich, warmer colors include Henna Red, Sienna Rust, Bayou Olive and Capri Blue, and are complimented by a natural shade of Natural Birch and accented with a Granite Charcoal.

The outerwear pieces in this new holiday delivery of 2009 are designed to merchandise together with the new golf polo’s, and include long-sleeve stretch shell layering pieces and lightweight fashion rain outerwear.

The comfortable technologically advanced fabrications are what truly set Antigua’s Holiday 2009 and Spring 2010 delivery apart from the competition.

“Greater performance is, simply, more comfortable on the course,” says Sean Gregg, director of product development at Antigua. “Moisture wicking keeps you dry, which in turn enhances your ability to perform. The fact that the performance fabrics also don’t fade or wrinkle, which provides easy care and longer life of the garment, are added benefits that make for greater performance of both the product and the player.”

For instance, DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE (D2XL) combines Antigua’s exclusive DESERT DRYâ„¢ moisture-wicking feature with specially constructed ultra-light fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort. The additional benefits of DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE are:

Moisture wicks more rapidly
Lighter weight on body
Less heat trapped on body
Less restrictive movement
Antigua’s new DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE is an extremely light fabric while remaining opaque. The three-dimensional construction is what makes the fabric extremely light without being sheer or see-through. Because the fabric has a lighter weight construction, DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE wicks away moisture even quicker than Antigua’s proprietary DESERT DRYâ„¢, a performance fabric the company created when it introduced its performance category for golf several years ago.

DESERT DRYâ„¢ BAMBOO is a combination of Antigua’s exclusive DESERT DRYâ„¢ moisture-wicking feature and environmentally friendly bamboo-blended fabrics for maximum wicking performance and optimum comfort. Using bamboo yarn as a fabrication in Antigua’s performance collection not only offers consumers additional choices in natural, environmentally friendly fabrics, but the bamboo fiber itself is an extremely supple, natural and synthetics-blend fiber that knits into an exceptionally comfortable, soft garment and still allows Antigua to achieve the performance ability of the garment and classify it as one of Antigua’s new DESERT DRYâ„¢ XTRA-LITE products.

“We are constantly pushing the envelope in the development of new fabrics, ensuring that we are staying current and contemporary in both style and color,” Gregg says. “We continuously look at the sports industry-tennis, running, soccer, etc.-as a whole for fabric direction and inspiration, then look to make the translation into golf so the consumer clearly knows that what he or she is buying is golf apparel.”

Headquartered in Peoria, Ariz., The Antigua Group, www.antigua.com, through its license sports division, holds license agreements with Major and Minor League Baseball (MLB), the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), along with numerous American universities and colleges for men’s women’s and children’s apparel, headwear and outerwear. Antigua additionally designs, produces and supplies product for corporate America and specialty retail managed under its corporate division. Its golf division also holds license agreements with the PGA TOUR, LPGA and the PGA of America.

November 24th, 2009
By Fairway Stevie

THis press release just showed up from aidas Golf wear this morning. Should be fun to follow the story:

adidas Golf Wear In The World – Update #1
Testing Of adidas Golf Apparel and Footwear in the World’s Harshest Golf Conditions Finishes First Leg in Death Valley, CA & Continues in Bolivia

CARLSBAD, CA (November 24, 2009) – The journey began on Thursday, November 19th for Lindsay Knowlton and Josh Sullivan. The two “Wear in the World” golf adventurers had a dramatic helicopter send-off in front of fellow employees, family and local media members at company headquarters. TaylorMade-adidas Golf employees Knowlton and Sullivan who were selected to test adidas Golf’s apparel and footwear in the most extreme conditions via a 31-day golf adventure called “Wear in the World,” completed the first leg of their journey in Death Valley, CA and raced to their second stop in Bolivia.

Before the globe-trotting duo could catch their breath after an emotional goodbye with family, they were soaring over the beautiful San Diego coast line en route to Furnace Creek Golf Course to play the lowest elevated course in the world and put their ClimaCool® apparel to the test.

After a couple of adventurous days experiencing the many wonders of Death Valley National Park, Knowlton and Sullivan teed it up in the first of many extreme golf environments.

“It only took the tee shot on the second hole to remind us that we were here to put our games against extreme golf environments,” said Sullivan. “Golf Digest ranked Furnace Creek #50 on their survey of toughest courses in USA specifically because of the barometric pressure and its effect on the flight of a golf ball at the low elevation.”

To read more and follow the adventurer’s first trip in Furnace Creek and current experiences in La Paz, Bolivia, please click here.

About adidas Golf’s Wear in the World Adventure
adidas Golf’s “Equipment for your Body” tagline is being put to the ultimate test as part of the company’s global “Wear in the World” golf adventure. The company is sending two of its employees on a globetrotting adventure of the world’s most extreme golf courses to test its ClimaCool®, ClimaLite® and ClimaProof® apparel and adidas footwear.

Canadian Lindsay Knowlton and American Josh Sullivan were selected from a global pool of candidates who went through an extensive interview process to determine who would best represent and enjoy playing the most extreme courses in Death Valley – United States, Bolivia, Argentina, South Africa and Australia. Each of the golfers will be tweeting, blogging and posting video segments as they play the world’s lowest- and highest-elevation golf courses as well as the world’s hottest and southern-most courses. In early 2010, they will embark on a Northern Hemisphere adventure that will take them close to the North Pole, as far south as the Middle East, all across Europe, Asia and North America.

While in each region, Knowlton and Sullivan will also play a round of golf with adidas Tour Professionals such as Andres Romero, Nathan Green and Jason Day. They’ll also experience local cultures, teach golf to aborigines and participate in thrill-seeking adventures such as cage diving with sharks in South Africa and mountain biking through Bolivia’s “Death Road.”

Each day of their adventure will be documented with video and blog entries that’ll be featured on the adidasgolf.com and golf.com websites, as well as daily tweets and Facebook updates from Knowlton and Sullivan.