HILUXURY – Hawaii Luxury Magazine

Photo courtesy 59 Belts

Custom belt designed for the band nickelback
59 belts
Belt buckles can be customized with any personal initials, logos or designs. all buckles are individually machine-milled and hand polished. available at www.59belts.com $310-$375

Photo courtesy 59 Belts

Custom belt designed for miura Golf
59 belts
Belt buckles can be customized with any personal initials, logos or designs. all buckles are individually machine-milled and hand polished. Available at www.59belts.com $310-$375

Photo courtesy SkyCaddie

SkyCaddie
SkyCaddie SG-5

Photo courtesy Nike Golf

Nike
SQ Dymo STR8-Fit

Photo by John Schulz;
courtesy Taylormade

Taylormade
R9 driver

Photo courtesy Belding Golf bag Co.

Belding
Gambler all In bag

Give your game a unique spin with personalized gear

Playing in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last June, Tiger Woods gave one of the gutsiest and most inspiring performances ever when he won despite an injured knee that had him grimacing with pain on every full shot. The U.S. Open’s final round is traditionally held on Father’s Day each year. With that, Woods’ 2008 triumph had to be especially sweet, as shortly after the U.S. Open, he and wife Elin announced that they were expecting a second child. The Woods family celebrated the birth of son Charlie Axel in February 2009.

This year, the U.S. Open returns to the site of another previous Woods Open victory – the celebrated Bethpage Black golf course in New York. This 7,214-yard, par-70 layout originally designed by A.W. Tillinghast and later given a makeover by Rees Jones was the longest course in Open history.

While some minor alterations have been made to Bethpage, the course will basically present the same tough challenges that the best golfers in the world faced in 2002. The USGA is known for setting up the golf course extremely difficultly, but says in its defense that it is not trying to punish the best players; instead, the USGA tries to identify the best player with these challenges. Generally, the fairways are more narrow and the roughs higher than anything the players see on tour all year. While the deep rough can swallow up wayward golf balls, the USGA has never lost a spectator or player in its celebrated rough! The greens are always double-mowed and then rolled to make sure that only the deftest putting touch will succeed.

Certainly a complete golf game is needed to win the Open, but the first thing a player has to do is drive the ball long and straight off the tee. To help out with this, the TaylorMade Golf Company just launched its new R9 Driver, which is rapidly becoming the No. 1 driver on tour. Featuring Flight Control Technology, players can easily and quickly change the face angle, loft and lie of this driver. Movable Weight Technology also allows a player to change the club head’s center of gravity to help hit the ball higher or lower, depending on course or weather conditions.

Not to be outdone, Nike Golf just launched a similar driver with adjustable face control – the Nike SQ Dymo STR8-Fit. Inspired by the customized drivers ordered by tour players like Woods and Trevor Immelman, this driver has eight different club face positions to help you to either hit draws or power fades. By the way, you don’t have to be a PGA Tour player to take advantage of these new golf technologies – both drivers are available in a pro shop near you.

If your favorite golfer is already a straight driver of the ball, you can still help him look great on the course and make a hip fashion statement at the same time. Currently, the hottest fashion fad in golf is the large belt buckles being worn by some of the top players. This trend was started by Anthony Kim, the young star of last year’s Ryder Cup, who sported a specially designed buckle with his initials. Many major companies and designers, including 59 Belts in Las Vegas, have followed suit and now offer large specialty belt buckles.

If you don’t think your golfer wants to sport his initials on the front of his trousers, perhaps you can surprise him instead with a personalized golf bag from Belding Golf, a company long known for its ability to create one-of-a-kind golf bags. Ranging in price from $200 for a light carry bag to more than $1,000 for a tour staff bag, you can choose from a wide assortment of designs, fabrics, colors and exotic patterns to create a unique golf bag. Finish it off with a personalized name embroidered on the bag, just like that of a real tour player.

A man likes to ask for help on the golf course about as much as he likes to ask for directions when he’s lost in a strange city. So another wonderful gift to consider this summer is a series of lessons from a local PGA professional. If your favorite golfer is too shy to take lessons and caddies aren’t available at the golf course he frequents, the next best thing to do is buy him the SkyCaddie SG-5, the brand’s top-of-the-line range finder, which features a brilliant color display for easy outdoor readability and advanced course management features, including 40 separate targets per hole, instant distances to hazards, fairway targets and lay-ups.

When I see people struggling with hitting their driver, I remind them to swing within themselves. Most people don’t know that the driver is one of the lightest clubs in your bag. They think that they need to grip it tighter and try to get their arms and body moving faster to hit the ball a long way, when in reality, you just need to have the club head move faster. The same balanced and measured swing that you make with a shorter iron will automatically generate faster club head speed because of a longer arc from the longer shaft in a driver. You simply want to focus on staying in balance throughout the swing. A good drill when you’re warming up prior to your round or simply practicing is to alternate between hitting pitching wedges and drivers, while focusing on keeping the same smooth rhythm and tempo with both clubs.