Characters: Golf Statistics Expert Lou Riccio
Whether you realize it or not, Lou Riccio’s statistical studies of golf affect how you play—and how much fun you’re having Looking for an impressive resume, you’d be hard pressed to better that of Lucius (“Lou”) Riccio. The 75-year-old has been Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation, served on a Presidential Commission on […]
Rick Shiels: Golf Equipment’s YouTube Guru
It’s hard to pinpoint Rick Shiels’s English accent. Predominantly Lancastrian, there’s a lot of Mancunian in there too, and just a trace of Yorkshire perhaps. Fortunately, despite the mix, he has no problem communicating with an audience, be it online or fans of Golf Channel’s Driver v. Driver 2 on which he was a judge. […]
Is MyGolfSpy Disrupting the Golf Equipment World?
On Memorial Day 2018, Adam Beach was chilling at the beach with friends in a circle of chairs when someone asked if anyone had played with a little-known golf ball sold at Costco under its Kirkland house brand that had beaten the best-selling golf balls on the market in independent testing conducted by MyGolfSpy.com in […]
Q&A with Mark King on Honma Golf, TaylorMade’s Shortcomings, and More
Through relentless innovation and unrelenting product launches, Mark King guided TaylorMade-adidasGolf to more than 50 percent market share in the metalwoods category and $1.7 billion in annual sales in 2013. It was a remarkable run, but one that ultimately couldn’t last as customers grew confused by the rapid driver launches and left the market flooded […]
Testing Bridgestone’s TOUR B JGR Woods
By Graylyn Loomis A few months ago, a box of clubs arrived at the LINKS office. Not an unusual occurrence, but this package contained a driver, 3-wood, and 5-wood from Bridgestone’s new line, the TOUR B JGR Series. Right now, if you’re like most golfers, you’re thinking, “Bridgestone makes woods? I thought they only made […]
Maybe it is the Arrow: The Progression of Golf Equipment
Horace Hutchinson long ago bemoaned golf as “a game of putting little balls into little holes with instruments singularly ill-adapted for the purpose.” Poor Hutchinson. The two-time British Amateur champion (1896–97) missed out on over-sized titanium drivers, cavity-back game-improvement irons, perimeter-weighted putters, and solid-core, multilayer golf balls that hardly curve. Today’s equipment is designed by […]
PXG Golf Clubs – What’s the Big Deal?
By Erik Matuszewski Bob Parsons is a larger-than-life character in commercials for PXG’s high-end golf clubs. In real life, well, he’s the same way… only without saying, “Ka-boom, baby!” Sitting across a table in one of the luxurious villas at his Scottsdale National Golf Club, Parsons fixes his gaze on me and, in his […]
Characters: Tim Boyle
The longtime CEO of Columbia Sportswear has blown the dust off the oldest course west of the Mississippi Tim Boyle is getting set to play the short, par-three 15th at Gearhart Golf Links in tiny Gearhart, Ore., when a couple of cars pull to a stop on the adjoining road. Four locals jump out with […]