Six days of Christmas for your local golf enthusiast
Books, magazines, personalized balls, memberships great gifts, columnist writes
If you have a golfer on your shopping list this holiday season, fear not, fret not. With 20 days between today and the big day, you’ve got more than enough time to squeeze these six days of shopping in comfortably — 12 days of Christmas was my first choice but there’s only so much space in this paper for golf in December.
Golfers are almost always genuinely great people so the rule of thumb is to make them a gifting priority. The winter is hard on them so when you absolutely nail the right gift, you will experience kindness, appreciation and overall joy in spades. There’s no doubt that you can never go wrong with the the old standby shirts, sweaters and toques, especially when adorned with a favourite club logo. But if you’re looking to change it up a little, check out some of these suggestions.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. A dozen personalized Titleist golf balls. The best way to arrange is through your local club professional. He or she has a direct line to their Titliest representative. If not a corporate logo, try your golfer’s full name, nickname or initials.
5. Golf Magazine and Golf Digest are solid reading choices.
But they’re quick and quite disposable. For the hardcore golf fiction and culture junkie, $100 gets them a year’s subscription to the coolest golf publication on the planet, The Golf Journal. Sponsored by a handful of the top golf equipment and apparel companies in the world, but written and photographed by a cracker jack team of hard core golf geeks, TGJ is published just four times per year and has almost no ads. It’s as close as a golf magazine can get to a coffee table book.
4. For more of a local take on the game and its history, there are still some copies around of Ed Arnold and Roger Self’s selfpublished book Peterborough’s Golf Story. Proshops at both Peterborough GCC and Kawartha GCC are the best places to look for this important work that chronicles some important stories and in depth championship results all in one 300-page volume. It’s easy reading and a great addition to any serious golfer’s library.
3. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, there’s not a better gift than a USGA membership. For $25 you get the basic level, which gets you a cool USGA bag tag with you name inscribed on it, and a US Open cap. For an extra $25, you can join the USGA Champion Club, which also gives you advanced opportunity to purchase US Open tickets and full access to the deep, rich library of on-line content created by the world’s pre-eminent steward of the game.
2. If the golfer on your list thinks that last month’s pay-perview match between Tiger and Phil was THE match, set them straight. Mark Frost’s 2007 book The Match chronicles the 1956 best-ball match between the two best amateurs of the day, Ken Venturi and Harvey Ward, versus the power duo of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the game’s greatest living professionals at that time. Best golf book ever.
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me. One custom club fitting at Modern Golf in Toronto. For $150 and 90 minutes of time and attention, the golfer in your life gets custom-fitted with the right driver to suit his or her game. The latest in fitting tech measures swing speed, launch angle and a host of other variables to determine the driver that best suits the player’s game. For an extra $150 and 90 more minutes, you can add an iron-fitting or hybrid-fitting. Note that these prices don’t include the cost to purchase new equipment, although some or all fitting fees are waived if you purchase new equipment following your fitting. And if you are worried about not supporting your club pro, many club pros now work directly with Modern Golf and have become part of delivering this custom club experience.
Happy shopping. Merry Christmas and all the best of the holiday season to you and yours.