lucky golf outfit

I never golf without wearing my lucky viking hat, single-lens sunglasses, corduroy blazer (with elbow patches), purple and yellow wrestling singlet, golf glove, swim trunks, and of course my fins (aka flippers). Although I only wear the fins when I'm teeing off at the beginning of each hole and then switch back into my normal golf shoes until the next tee. Because really, how stupid would I look trying to walk around the golf course in fins (found on flickr).

EVANgolf

Golf fashion is moving in the right direction at Evangolf in Los Angeles.  Whether or not its the right direction for all of us (I'm picturing you, mister middle-aged bald-and-chubby) is perhaps questionable.  But the point is, it's thoughtful, progressive, functional, and a meaningful step away from what has blighted the sport for so long.

Bennington golf bags

Fundamental innovations to golf bag design are long overdue, as the ubiquitous industry standard has our clubs clicking and clacking, and has us fighting to get them in and out of the bag.  There have been several marginal attempts at improving this situation, none of which seem to have penetrated far into the mainstream market.  The Bagboy Revolver has probably been the best effort to date.

Bennington Golf offers several innovative improvements on the standard golf bag, including a unique club head organizer, interesting travel bags, and quick draw head covers.  Not earth shattering stuff, but at least they're trying...

japanese preteen golf tv shows

I ran into these Japanese and Korean television shows while surfing the web.  They are like those saturday morning preteen dramas (Hannah Montana, or Saved By The Bell).  I like the special effects they use to dramatize the golf shots.  And of course, the harajuku-esque costume design takes center stage.  Check out this episode of "Hana Pro Golfer", and these trailers for "Birdie Buddy".  If I were up early on a Saturday morning, hung over, and there was no tournament playing on the Golf Channel, I would problably watch these... for about three minutes.  But these shows say a lot about where golf fits into the culture there, compared to here in the U.S.

winning at golf

is always cool.

Winner

barefoot golf

Documenting the slew of "street / hybrid" golf shoes that are coming out now would be a full time job that I don't have time for.  But seeing these hybrids from Vivobarefoot, I was reminded of a late evening this past summer, standing on a putting green talking with friends, drinking Bridgeport IPA after a Cake concert at McMenamins Edgefield.  I was barefoot, thinking for the first time how awesome it would be to feel the ground in such detail like that while playing golf.  We joked that we would start manufacturing ultra-thin-soled golf shoes with individual little toes, like those barefoot running shoes.  It looks like Vivo has done almost that.  They are pretty close to True Linkswear shoes that have been out for a while now, but the "barefoot" moniker and claimed 6.7 oz. weight lead me to believe they are thinner and lighter.

Street Golf Europe

The culture surrounding urban golf is everything regular golf's culture should be.  Watch this video of the 2011 French Street golf City Pro Tour Championship.  This is the video from last year.

There is a super cool French online magazine featuring street golf, played in all kinds of locations including a ski resort.

They have special "semi rigid" golf balls.  They have real sponsors, like Grolsch, Lacoste, and Vuarnet (of course).  Nike sponsors a streetgolf event in Amsterdam.  Just look at the production value in this video.

We are beginning to see what we hope is the future of golf in the form of street/urban golf around the world.  My fellow Americans,  what are we waiting for?