2015 Holiday Gift Guide

An assortment of gifts for golfers and golf fans alike

Colorado AvidGolfer

A Most Beautiful Golf Book

Denver resident Joshua Evenson couldn’t have graduated with a business degree from CU at a worse time than 2008. So instead of competing for jobs with unemployed MBAs, the lifelong golf fanatic set his sights on St. Andrews—a university town and the historic home of golf—to continue his education. While earning a master’s in international strategy and economics, he volunteered at the British Golf Museum, where he catalogued documents from the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Then, as the university neared its 600^th anniversary in 2013, he saw that St. Andrews’ endowment was less than 10 percent that of Cambridge’s. He parlayed his passions into a job fundraising for the school around golf. His pet project, the St. Andrews 600—a once-in-a-lifetime, $10,000-per-person Sunday tournament held in 2013—generated more than £3 million.

“Every golfer wants a piece of St. Andrews,” he reasoned.

With that in mind, he says, “and while I was still young enough to take a risk,” he then set out to create the most glorious homage to the Auld Grey Toon he could. The result, Links to St. Andrews: Love Letters to the Home of Golf—a strapping six-pound, 320-page celebration handsomely designed by Carol Haralson—gushes with lush artwork from the British Golf Museum, as well as commissioned pieces from Lee Wybranski, Michael Klein, Aaron Damon Porter and other artists. Historic travel posters graphically counterpoint a chocolate box of rare photos and hero shots of the course, the town, the food and people.  

The “love letters” are crisp and evocative, never treacly or repetitive. Evenson solicited contributions from a stunning list of 100 St. Andrews admirers—from such immortals as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorenstam, Judy Bell and Nick Faldo to architects like Tom Doak, Pete Dye and David McLay Kidd. Words and images from scores other shapers of the game (including Joe Louis Barrow, Jackie Burke and Jim Nantz) also grace the pages.

Their original signatures of all 100 will also grace 100 sheets of parchment specially infused with blades of grass from the Old Course. Once Evenson gets all 100 sheets signed—he’s already traveled 13,000 miles culling them—he will enclose them in leather-bound editions of Links to St. Andrews and auction off these rare collector’s items for charity, giving back to the place and the game that indelibly shaped him. $150. Available only at linkstostandrews.com

The Holes Truth

With titles like Every Golf Question You Ever Wanted Answered and Good Golf Made Easy, CAG contributor Tony Dear clearly delights in making bold promises—and he keeps them with authority, wit and erudition. His latest, The Story of Golf in Fifty Holes, continues the trend. Starting with the 11^th at the Old Course at St. Andrews, Dear cleverly spins a 600-year history of golf that embraces course architecture (the original Redan and Biarritz holes), golf lore (the Atlantic City’s 10^th, where the term “birdie” was first used), iconic shots (Arnie on no. 1 at Cherry Hills), blowups (Van DeVelde on 18 at Carnoustie) and the game’s global appeal (holes from Australia, South Africa, Japan and China). Classic illustration and vintage photography highlight each entry. Some of the picks (16 at Cypress, 13 at Pine Valley) are obvious, but anyone looking for stories from the 17^th at Pebble will have to wait for the sequel. $30. fireflybooks.com.

Epson M-Tracer MT500GI Golf Swing Analyzer

At roughly the size of an ink cartridge and sporting a well-known imaging brand on the box, the Epson M-Tracer MT500GII Golf Swing Analyzer suggests printing, not playing. But Epson, a leader in sensing sports and fitness technologies, has produced a device that gives golfers unprecedented insights and feedback into every element of their swing. It mounts on the club shaft and saves data for up to 200 swings wirelessly to an app on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android. You’ll see your full swing path in 3D and rotational views, complete with comprehensive graphical analysis of the impact zone, shaft rotation, club speed and swing tempo. You can freeze the frame at any point in the swing and compare it to Henrik Stenson’s.

Although we’d like to see a few other pros, we loved the M-Tracer. It was easy to set up and brimming with visual details and measurables—so many stats, in fact, it probably requires a PGA pro to interpret them. Then, armed with that knowledge, you’ll groove a statistically sustainable swing that’s the same each time—like pages from a printer. $250. epson.com

Easy Glider

Any golfer who has breezed through an airport with a Sun Mountain ClubGlider will no doubt love the new ClubGlider luggage line. The pieces come in carryon and suitcase sizes, and feature the identical ballistic-quality nylon construction and the same extendable legs and wheels as the ClubGlider Meridian golf travel bag. Multiple pockets and handles, an expandable main compartment and a TSA-approved lock make the 17-pound suitcase ($350) and eight-pound carryon ($240) an easy lift. sunmountain.com

Even more holiday gifts:

Make Your Golf Gifts Count This Year: the GolfBuddy, Knuth High Heat Driver, new Footjoys and more.

Holiday gifts from last year: Message in a Bunker, recycled golf balls, rainwear, a clothing line from a Breckenridge resident and more.

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.