The nine best golf gift ideas for Christmas and the holidays
Due to a microchip shortage that has affected the seat warmers in Santa’s sleigh, it might be hard to rely on the Big Guy to do all the heavy lifting for your Christmas list this season.
That’s why I’m here to help. Unfortunately, my expertise is limited to golf gifts. But if you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift to give that special golfer in your life, you’ve come to the right place.
After lots of careful consideration, I’ve come up with the nine best golf gift ideas for Christmas and the holidays.
1. Garmin Approach Z82 rangefinder
Nothing I wrote about golf this year elicited more feedback from readers, friends and fellow golfers than the review of the Garmin Approach Z82 rangefinder.
Simply put, it’s one of the best pieces of golf technology on the market. The Z82 is a game-changer because it combines GPS, slope readings, wind readings and a high-definition OLED screen that shows you a two-dimensional overlay map of each hole, plus green close-ups and pin locations on 42,000 preloaded courses.
It’s the closest thing to having a caddy. In fact, when I showed the Z82 to some veteran caddies at Oakland Hills they joked that it could do their job for them. Not quite. But close.
Price: $499 at Garmin.com
2. Bushnell Wingman speaker
Let’s stay with tech, even though I’m reluctant to mention this product because I’m not a fan of people blasting “Seven Nation Army” from the next fairway as I’m lining up a tricky downhill putt. Golf, a friend once opined as we listened to someone cranking “Paradise City” 100 yards away, is a contemplative sport.
But it feels like Bluetooth speakers aren’t leaving golf anytime soon. So Bushnell's Wingman is a great offering that blends music plus audible GPS tech in one sleek, simple unit. Let’s say you’re standing in the fairway listening to Yoko Ono’s greatest hits. All you have to do is press the button on the remote and the Wingman announces your distance to the front, middle and back of the green.
The speaker mounts to a cart bar with a very strong magnet that the rest of the industry should emulate. It holds a 10-hour charge and has a USB port so you can power other devices.
Price: $129.99 at Bushnellgolf.com
3. Green Books by GolfLogix
This is some seriously cool golf-nerd tech, but with an old-school twist.
If you’ve ever been to a practice round on the PGA Tour — or better yet, a Monday morning when the caddies arrive — you know the most serious work is done on the greens. That’s where pros make their money and where amateurs should spend a lot more time if they want to score better.
Green Books by GolfLogix, an Arizona-based company that has mapped over 216,000 greens, sells green maps and yardage books that illustrate the break on greens with heat maps and extensive break contours, plus traditional hole-overview yardages for fairway landing zones.
These types of green books are so helpful that the PGA Tour is banning their use Jan. 1. You wouldn’t be interested in gaining the kind of advantage tour pros no longer have, would you?
The books cost $30, $40 or $50, and you can add a leather cover for $29.99. There’s also a phone-app version that gives you a putting line, but there’s nothing like an old-school book.
More at Golflogix.com.
4. Golf balls
Lest you think I’m a golf snob, I offer the most traditional of gifts: the humble ball.
But don’t just grab a random dozen. Put some thought into it and order some with a personalized message in a specific color. Just about every ball manufacturer offers personalized options, but Golfballs.com takes it to another level by letting you upload a photo that can be printed on the balls.
If you’re really short on time, run over the Carl’s Golfland in Bloomfield Hills or Plymouth and pick up some Titleist Pro V1’s in any of the several unique numbers they carry. When your partners are helping you look for your ball, it’s fun to say, “I’m playing a Titleist 99.”
5. Vacation golf
All right, enough with the cheap stuff. Let’s reach for the stars with the two of the sweetest words in the sport: vacation golf.
That’s especially true as we head into the teeth of winter. Boyne Golf is ready to give you a head-start on planning your 2022 golf vacay with three packages at its extensive resorts: Michigan’s Magnificent 10 Vacation, the Super 5 Vacation and the Unlimited Golf Package.
The Magnificent 10 includes five nights’ lodging (Sunday through Friday) at Boyne Highlands or Boyne Mountain and unlimited golf on seven courses plus two rounds at the premier 27-hole Bay Harbor Golf Club. Prices start at $1,585 per person and include a welcome party, a lesson, a TrackMan Range session and $100 shopping card.
The Super 5 also includes the same five nights’ lodging options, with unlimited golf on five courses. Golfers can also play the Heather, Arthur Hills or Bay Harbor for an additional charge. A welcome party and TrackMan session are included in the package that starts at $1,109 per person.
If you can’t get away for five nights, the Unlimited Golf Package gives you the chance to play as much as you want from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at five courses, with upgrade fees if you want to play the Heather, Arthur Hills or Bay Harbor. Lodging options include Boyne Highlands, Boyne Mountain or Crooked Tree Cottages. Pricing varies.
For more info, visit Boynegolf.com.
6. A round of golf
If you want to keep it simple, get your golfer a gift card to their favorite course, or perhaps to a more upscale club they tend to overlook because of the price. Just about every club offers online gift cards in various amounts.
Anything that lets golfers imagine warm, spongy fairways beneath their feet on a nice course in the spring is a great gift. Oh, and here’s a pro tip: If you can swing the cost, make sure the gift card covers the price of two rounds so that your golfer can share the round with a friend.
7. Lessons
Here’s another variation on the gift-card idea. There isn’t one golfer on the planet who couldn’t use a lesson. Most recreational golfers dismiss the idea of lessons as an expensive endeavor pursued by zealots who take themselves too seriously. Instead, many recreational players prefer to stumble around the range without a plan and pound 50 scattershot drives before they arrive at the first tee with strange expectations of glory.
The fact is a lesson can be anything. A chipping lesson. A putting lesson. Swing analysis. Just something small a golfer can work on with a plan for improvement.
Many courses offer private or group lessons. I’ve always been partial to lessons that are recorded so I can reference them right before I practice. Carl’s Golfland offers unique on-course playing lessons aimed at offering beginners better strategy.
8. Club fitting
Two things revolutionized my game and took my handicap from the high teens to single digits: Lessons and professional club-fitting.
We happen to live in a golden era of club-fitting, which is why I’m always surprised so many golfers balk at being fitted. It’s just foolish to pass up the benefits of technology that tell us which clubs fit our swing best, rather than relying on marketing, anecdotal evidence and brand preference.
Rasheed Wallace, the Oracle of Auburn Hills, was famous for telling us, “Ball don’t lie.” He was talking about basketball, but ’Sheed’s philosophy applies to golf as well because doppler-radar technology that measures launch angle, ball speed, spin rate and carry distance definitely doesn’t lie.
Metro Detroit is lucky to have two of the best golf shops in the fitting business: Carl’s Golfland in Bloomfield Hills and Plymouth, and Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti. I’ve been fitted at both and they’re equally excellent. The fittings are aimed at selling you new equipment and offer you discounts on the fitting fee with a purchase. Both stores offer a wide range of fitting pricing from $50 to $225 for a full set.
More info: Carlsgolfland.com and Milesofgolf.com
9. A great golf book
There are people who play golf, and then there are golfers. There is a distinct difference. One person enjoys an activity. The other has little control of an obsession that is imprinted on their soul.
If your recipient is the latter, please do not buy them a pedestrian book of instruction. Buy them something that speaks to their obsession. I’ve enjoyed a lot of golf books, from instructional writings to biographies, novels and even John Updike’s literary musings on the game.
But there are two books that have stuck with me more than others: “Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime in Golf,” and Tom Chiarella’s “Thursday’s Game: Notes from a Golf with Far to Go.”
Penick was a longtime golf coach at the University of Texas, famous for teaching Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. His book was first published in 1992 and it remains just as true, fresh and insightful today. Technically, it’s a book of instruction, but Penick delivers it through his breezy wisdom that delivered in beautiful bite-sized morsels. When he speaks of the importance of putting, he writes: “Go to dinner with good putters.”
Most of the work in Chiarella’s 2004 book is a collection of his published essays in Esquire magazine. It’s an overlooked subtle masterpiece that pierces the heart and gut of every golfer. Chiarella writes about life with all its joys, frustrations and entanglements, but with golf either at the forefront or in the background, like a thrumming heartbeat that impels him through the world.
Prices at Amazon: Penick hardcover, $20.99; Chiarella hardcover, $7.99.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The nine best golf gift ideas for Christmas and the holidays
