time off

Whether retro or newfangled, these products will take your game to the next level.

If there is a correlation between a game’s complexity and all the stuff it generates—equipment, clothing, instruction—then golf is chess, and everything else is checkers. Bottom-line demographers will attribute this to the comparative affluence of golfers, but there’s more to the equation.

While hardly the only sport to undergo a technological revolution, golf’s simultaneous embrace of tradition constantly creates parallel consumer appetites for the new and the avowedly old-school. In keeping with golf’s character, the following selection includes both the innovative and the traditional.

1. Bag Boy Carts
$69.95 and up, bagboycompany.com

Perhaps to capitalize on the growth of walking as a low-impact form of exercise ideal for baby boomers, Bag Boy has come out with a new generation of carts, both manual and motorized, that are lighter-weight and more compact to store than their progenitors.






2. Callaway FT-1 Driver
$499, callawaygolf.com


Inveterate equipment fans may contemplate the changes in club design and wonder, what next? This year, the answer is square-headed drivers—the hybrid clubs of today. Yep, they look weird, but we hear that they’ll be in common usage in a few years, especially as they gain widespread favor among pros.


3. Bushnell Rangefinder
$299, bushnellgolf.com

Upended traditions make for surges in technology, which is what happened to rangefinders when golf’s regulatory agencies approved them for use in official competitions and for calculating handicaps. The two basic options are the GPS variety, which requires downloading widely available course-specific programming; and the laser-beam-emitting device for ad hoc distance
Measurement.


4. SkyGolf SkyCaddie SG4 Rangefinder
$229.95 and up, skygolfgps.com

The SkyGolf SG4 model offers advanced features such as a larger
display and a long-lasting rechargeable battery.




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TOM HARACK is a freelance writer based in New York.