2016 Golfers Gift Guide

Over the course of 18 holes, the weather can change from sunscreen to snow (as I have experienced on more than one occasion), and the terrain can change from sand to mud. A golf towel that clips on your bag is an easy way to wipe off your clubs and gear.

I gave up on using a fingernail to clean out the grooves on my golf clubs a long time ago, and I use one of these brushes instead. They are cheap, easily replaceable, and highly effective. Having clean clubs in grooves makes it much easier to put a good spin on the ball, so this is an inexpensive gift that actually does help with the game.

I always find that I need more tees that I expect, so it is always nice to have a big bag of them to spare. I personally like the tees I'm recommending here, but you should sneak a look in your golfer's golf bag before you order to make sure that you get the right length and material first.

I live in an area that gets cold in the winter, so I have to fly south if I'm going to golf after Thanksgiving. I picked up one of these bags a few years ago, and I found it to be the best balance between a soft bag and a hard bag. The trouble with a hard bag is that they are very awkward to maneuver, but they have the advantage of protecting your club heads during transit. Soft bags are much easier to maneuver, but they provide little protection to your club shafts and heads when they get thrown around by baggage handlers. This bag has a hard shell around the clubs where they are exposed to protect them, but the rest of the bag is a canvas material that can actually be pushed up into the cap itself for storage.

I'm not going to pretend that one of these golfing mats is going to be the key that lowers your handicap, but they are a lot of fun. This particular model is reasonably priced, portable, and includes a ball return. If nothing else, they are great for fiddling around in the office or at home when you need to get a golf club in your hands but can't make it to the range or the course.

Swing trainers aren't for every golfer, but a good clue is if you have seen your golfer taking practice swings through the air while not holding a club at all. During the golfing season, I sometimes find myself taking practice swings when no one is looking. These swing trainers are great because they can help you work on your swing tempo and grip even indoors without breaking things if your ceilings are high enough.

I don't particularly enjoy taking golf lessons because it feels like I lose everything I picked up as soon as I get a few holes into the course. This sensor is designed to clip onto your golf glove to track everything about your swing and to provide coaching on how to improve. It also lets you record video of your swing and compare it to professionals. With the built-in sensors, it can analyze every aspect of your swing in 3D.

This swing trainer has significant flex to help you work on your tempo. Weighted perfectly to help you with your rhythm and balance, this is great for practicing or warming up before a round.

This device tracks everything about your game using your position on the course and input from you. By having actual metrics, it forces you to become a better golfer. Do you honestly know how many putts you hit per hole on average? This will help you to break down your game by club, by distance, and by comparison to other players.

The alternative to using a laser rangefinder or trusting your gut on the distance is to use a GPS that already knows the course. By downloading the course from Garmin in advance, this smart watch uses its built-in GPS to tell you the distance from where you are to the front, center, and back of the green. Based on my experience, this is much faster than using a rangefinder. As a bonus, this watch is also fantastic for tracking other fitness activities and gives you notifications from your phone.

The most accurate way to tell your distance to the hole is with a laser rangefinder. Not all rangefinders are created equal, so I have been using Bushnell models for years. They use their pin seeking technology to help you get locked onto the pen rather than the trees behind the hole. Getting a proper reading is the difference between setting up by the pin or overshooting the green.

My newest rangefinder has built-in slope correction. Though it sounds complicated, it simply tells you whether you need to go up or down a club based on the elevation of the green. The device calculates your angle to the green and does a little math to determine whether you will need to increase or decrease the number of yards you are trying to hit in order to intersect the green at the optimal position.

My dad always told me that the biggest problem with the putter is the putter. Even so, he buys a new putter every year. I'm a big fan of Odyssey putters as I find them to be well-balanced and reliable.

Before buying a driver for your guy, I recommend looking in his golf bag and checking for a few things on his current driver. First, look for the shaft flex. This should say something like Senior, Regular, Stiff, or X-Stiff. Then you should look for a number on the head between 6 and 13 which indicates the angle of the face. Finally, you should make sure that he uses the right-hand or left-hand clubs that you think he does. Once you have these down, you should be good to go. Callaway advertises that this driver is the best combination for club head speed they have made in a lightweight club.

If your guy likes Nike clubs, then this driver is an excellent choice for fast ball speed off the face.

This driver by TaylorMade is engineered for a big sweet spot and reduced spin to make shots more consistent.

If your guy likes Cobra, then this driver will be great to help him better control his shots.

This driver by Wilson has been designed to control mishit drives and still make them great shots.

Walking or riding at the golf course is a matter of personal preference more than anything, but walking is much more pleasant with a pull cart. Having spent a lot of time on the golf course in a riding cart, with a pull cart, and with the backpack bag with a built-in stand, I can say that a good pull cart is the best combination of walking and riding. Most pull carts have two wheels, but I'm recommending this cart that has four wheels because it has more stability and is less likely to tip over when being pulled over hills. It also folds down to be compact for throwing it in the trunk.

Rather than being a “pull” cart, this robotic cart automatically follows you on the course. Just so there is no confusion, no one needs this, but I had to include because it looks like so much fun. It comes with a remote control that allows you to drive it around and for it to automatically follow you.

These balls are a good balance of the Callaway brand name with a reasonable price. This is the softest ball that Callaway makes which makes it easier to hit longer and straighter.

These TaylorMade golf balls are built for one thing, distance. If you are looking for more distance on your shots, this is the right ball to choose.

They aren't cheap, but many golfers who are much better than I am swear by Titleist Pro V1. They are designed to give able players significant control during gameplay. If your golfer has a tendency to lose balls or is more novice, these might not be the best choice, but they will be very appreciated for more experienced golfers.

These golf balls are designed to be a novelty for practice. There are a dozen balls with six different face patterns on them for fun.

Some golfers like to have a little music while they play, and I have noticed a trend of more golfers putting a Bluetooth speaker in their golf cart. This Bluetooth speaker is designed to be loud and to have a lot of bass which is ideal for outdoor use. Boasting an eight hour battery life, this speaker should be able to comfortably get through two rounds of golf between charges.

If you're like me, you try to play golf as late into the season as possible. One year I was even able to play the week of Christmas, and I live in the upper Midwest. This heater takes a standard propane torch canister and can run for about five hours per tank. It's not hot enough to keep the golf cart toasty, but it's perfect for warming up fingers between strokes.

For amateur golfers like me, losing balls feels a lot better when it's one that you didn't have to buy in the first place. My favorite brand of golf ball is Other People's or “OPs” as we like to call them. These ball retrievers help you quickly grab balls that have gone into ponds and down hills. This is a part of the sport that my family takes very seriously, and it is not uncommon for us to end the season with a laundry hamper full of collected golf balls.