Ultimate gift guide for golfers

Accessories
When it comes to golf gadgets, Bushnell has two of the better ones on the market this holiday season. The Medalist Range Finder with PinSeeker technology allows the golfer to get exact yardages and hole viewpoints and conforms to PGA Tour rules. And while it might not be the most courteous invention in the world, the Travel Tunes portable music system lets you plug your iPod and take it anywhere — even if you’re going to stick it to the golf cart for a makeshift stereo system.

Golf teacher John Novosel has come up with a product called the Tour Tempo player, which is a small digital music player that allows golfers to musically time their swing tempo to. It also includes a CD with six music tracks that incorporate all six swing tempos for long game and short game training. And if you’re looking for a good golf workout that you can take on the road, check out the TRX Suspension Trainer, which was conceived by Navy SEAL teams. It’s less than two pounds, can fold up into a backpack, and anchors to any overhead structure that can support your body weight.

If you’d rather stay home for vacation, you can “play” a bunch of the top courses in the world via the AboutGolf home simulator, which lets you swing the clubs and test your skills on computerized courses such as Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, Harbour Town and St. Andrews.

Bags
Alrighty. Now that you’ve selected all of your new equipment, you’re going to need to put all of it into something to take on the road. And it might as well be protective, high-quality and good-looking, right? You should start with what they now call “Travel covers,” or bags to put your golf bags in so you don’t have to affix those flimsy snap-on hoods to the top and then worry about losing your 60-degree wedge and golf glove somewhere over Sandusky, Ohio.

Deal of the Day Newfoundland and Labrador Explore World Heritage sites, glimpse into the life of the Vikings, more, from $1,635.

The biggest new travel bag is the very-appropriately-named Mammoth by Ogio, one of the leaders in the bag market. The Mammoth is absolutely enormous but has every conceivable luxury you’d want, including four wheels for easy tugging through airports and a detachable shoe bag. Not quite as big but also impressive is Datrek’s new AT-Xtreme travel cover, with the AT standing for “Armored Transport.” This bag offers serious protection including dual skid plates on the back and a “crash helmet” on top. And Taylor-Made’s TM Players travel cover is worth checking out, too. It’s built tough with metal hardware, and has fancy in-line skate wheels.

For regular golf bags, Burton’s Hybrid CXS Cart-Stand Bag is constructed to have the durability to sit on the back of a cart but lightweight construction to make it easy to carry on the course. Ogio’s Edge stand bag has a zipperless ball pocket and a Torq stabilizing strap that keeps the bag secured to a cart. In the old-school department, The MacKenzie Golf Bag Company makes beautiful, high-end leather golf carry bags perfect for walking the great golf courses of the world. And Sun Mountain’s H2O Tech model is constructed of completely waterproof fabric, making it the ideal vacation bag if your parade gets rained on.

Bon Voyage, and hit ‘em straight!

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