This past weekend, members of Golf Canada and its board of directors met in Vancouver for the 2013 annual general meeting and for the first time in a couple of years, there appears to be optimism from the Oakville-based organization.

Through this year, Golf Canada announced its commitment to what it feels is the four key pillars of success in order for its vision to be carried out. Those four are: grow participation, ensure excellence, expand capacity, and foster interaction. 

The full details of that report can be read here.

The usual giving of awards and the naming of a new president aside, much focus was on the year that was and the year ahead – especially from a financial perspective.

As the National Sport Organization for golf in Canada and the governing body for the game, Golf Canada relies on multiple sources of funding to stay afloat, and has been financially struggling for the last couple of years. For example, its expenses outpaced its revenues by over $2 million in 2011.

But 2012 was a different story.

The net loss for the organization last year was $328,332 – a significant improvement over the net loss of $2,347,278 a year ago.

The focus was on streamlining programs and reducing operating costs. Beginning this year, there will also be an increase in membership dues by $2 per member – the first increase of it’s kind since 2009 – and an initiative that will increase Golf Canada’s revenue by approximately $700,000.

The aforementioned efforts, coupled with having the RBC Canadian Open hosted at Glen Abbey – as opposed to another club that would require dues to be paid – should result in Golf Canada being positively in the black for 2013.

Further, Shaw Communications, whose Chief Marketing Officer is none other than Jim Little (the man who brought the RBC sponsorship to the Canadian Open in the first place) has committed itself to being a big sponsor of golf in Canada from a media perspective.

It has also stepped up to the plate as a premier sponsor of the RBC Canadian Open, joining other sponsors like BMW, TaylorMade, and Glenlivet. 

Suffice to say, Little’s move to Shaw was a good thing for Canadian golf.

With the Canadian Women’s Open now without a sponsor, it would not be surprising to see Shaw step into that role as well.  

That press release can be found here.

It will be interesting to see where Golf Canada nets out come this time next year, but it should be hopeful for a good 2013.

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Hitting the Links – 

Rick Young debates giving the winner of the Canadian Amateur Championship an exemption into The Masters (ScoreGolf)

Highlands Links members could see an increase in membership dues of 140% (The Chronicle Herald)

Luke Donald has turned to Michael Jordan to help his mental approach (Yahoo! Europe)

Want to win lunch with the Wanamaker Trophy? You can (Democrat and Chronicle)

So much for my expert prediction of Brandt Snedker winning the match play in two weeks. He’s withdrawn (CBS Sports)

McCall Lake Golf Course, owned by the city of Calgary, is being sold and closed (CTV News)

Careless driving sparked chase on golf carts. Awesome (The Courier)

A couple of new features being rolled out today. I’m going to do my best to have daily content uploaded to this blog, Monday to Friday. On Mondays I’m also going to feature “Hitting the Links” (pun, fully intended) a segment devoted to pulling interesting golf articles from around the web . Also on Mondays, I’ll be adding a reactionary podcast touching on (pun, again, fully intended) the happenings of the past weekend. It’s called “In Touch” and the first episode is featured below.

Keep ’em straight.

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Brandt Snedeker, the only competitor in the field this past week at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am – celebrity or otherwise – whose wavy locks matched the wavy surf of the Monterey Peninsula, emerged victorious after a near-flawless 65 on Sunday for 19-under-par 267.

Since the beginning of 2013, Snedeker has played in five tournaments, and has finished in the top-3 four times. A masterful performance that, he’s hoping, could turn into a victory at The Masters, or any of the other major tournaments yet to be played this year.

He commented after his round finished on Sunday that winning majors is his next goal, and why not? He has seemingly accomplished everything a young player should do at this point in his career.

Multiple victories, a Ryder Cup appearance, top-5 in the world ranking, and $10 million richer thanks to last year’s FedEx cup win (of which he says he has spent none).

Snedeker is the quintessential nice guy, who is primed for a huge season.

He’s second only to Rory McIlroy in terms of worldwide victories the last three years and if the beginning of the season is any indication, it may be Snedeker, and not McIlroy who should be the favourite heading into Augusta.

Snedeker is playing the best of anyone on the planet, and it will only help him down Magnolia Lane that most of the focus will be on McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Louis Oosthuizen or Bubba Watson (they of last year’s playoff).

In his last ten starts on the PGA Tour, Snedeker is a combined 125 under par. Quite the performance. He uses a simple swing, has an enviable putting stroke, a brisk pace-of-play, and has clubs from six different manufacturers in his bag, simply because they work.

Snedeker, works. 

His most recent sponsor is Canadian bank RBC and according to the RBC statement announcing it’s signing of him (and former U.S. Open champion Graeme MacDowell), chief brand and communications officer at the bank Jane Broderick said Snedeker is “well respected, (has) global recognition, and will serve as (a) terrific ambassador for RBC.”

With his brilliant streak of success, it’s easy to give Snedeker any of the banal labels in golf lexicon. However, he isn’t the most flashiest of golfers, and none of the labels seem to work for this Tennessee-native. 

He doesn’t have the big sponsor contracts, the flat-brimmed hats, or the major championship trophies.  He’s got a down-home swing and a down-home attitude and Snedeker is just fine with the way things are.

Come the end of 2013,  it’s likely the third item on the aforementioned list will be crossed off.

I’m sure he’ll be just fine with that, too.

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In Touch – 

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Hitting the Links – 

TaylorMade’s financial success story (Wall Street Journal)

Canadian Brad Fritsch is currently 4th on the PGA Tour’s “Rookie Rankings” (PGATOUR.com)

Holocaust survivors stage a protest at the Allianz Championship, won by Rocco Mediate on Sunday (The Algemeiner)

Mike Weir snubbed by the Northern Trust Open (again) (The Globe & Mail)

Trump set to build a second course at his acclaimed Scottish resort (The Scotsman)

New Zealand couple both record holes-in-one at a tournament (STUFF – New Zealand)

15-year-old Lydia Ko wins her third professional tournament. She’s 15! (Global Golf Post)

TaylorMade gets pros and celebrities to wear ridiculous yellow bucket hats (TaylorMade)

Mustache of the year! And it’s not even Movember (GOLF.com)

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Photo of the Week – 

Golf courses managed by the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division of the City of Toronto saw an increase in both revenues and rounds played for 2012.

An email from the auditor general’s office for the City confirms that 167,815 rounds of golf were played on the City’s golf courses last year.

The total net revenue for the year is approximately $975,000.

Both numbers may be subject to year-end adjustments, however, they represent increases on both fronts.

The 167,815 rounds played is an increase of 11,815 from the 156,000 played in 2011.

More interestingly, the net revenue is up $454,000 from 2011.

The City of Toronto owns five golf courses: Dentonia Park Golf Course, Don Valley Golf Course, Humber Valley Golf Course, Scarlett Woods Golf Course, and Tam O’Shanter Golf Course.

A review of the management of the City of Toronto’s golf courses was completed in September 2012 and can be found here.

This time of year, especially in the golf world, is filled with predictions – hazy, unscientific, or otherwise – for the year ahead. I’m going to take a page out of the book of Bob Weeks and take a look into my own crystal ball with some (really) unscientific thoughts for the year in golf for 2013.

Would love to hear your own, as well!

Before getting to that, many thanks to anyone who took some time this past year to read my musing here. I hope that you and yours had a wonderful holiday season, and all the best for 2013.

I want to try to evolve this blog and what I write about in the world of golf for next year. Should be a lot of fun. Thanks again for reading! Keep ’em straight.

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Some 2013 thoughts…

Who will be no.1 in the world at this time next year?

Rory. Can’t stop the kid.

How many times will Tiger win?

Twice,  including the Open Championship.

Will any of the ‘Best to Never Win a Major’ win a major?

Yes (see below)

The winners of the Majors will be?

The Masters – Rory McIlroy; U.S. Open – Luke Donald; British Open – Tiger Woods; PGA Championship – Bo Van Pelt

President’s Cup?

The U.S.A will bounce back from its Ryder Cup disappointment; however, it will be a lot closer than many think. The International side is coming into good form.

PGA Tour Player of the Year?

McIlroy, again. He’ll win three times next year.

Major I want to attend the most?

The U.S. Open at Merion. I have a tattoo on my leg of Hogan’s famous 1-iron from the 1950 U.S. Open played there and, one day, I’d like to stand in that spot.

Canadian Content…

• James Lepp will get an exemption into the Canadian Open
• Brad Fritsch will finish 108th on the money list, with two top-10s, and regain his PGA Tour card for 2014.
• A Canadian will win on one of the major tours. Smart money is on the Web.com Tour (with the LPGA a close second)
• Mike Weir will go on a run at the RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey – 10 years after his near-miss against Vijay Singh – to help spark a somewhat successful 2014.
• Cabot Links will be announced as host of the Telus World Skins Game for 2014.
• You’ll start hearing more about Chris Hemmerich in the world of Canadian amateur golf.

This post originally appeared on Flagstick.com on December 21st. 

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“If you were a dentist, it’s not like you’d bring heart-surgeon tools into your office with you.”

Stewart Bannatyne, manager for the TaylorMade performance lab at the venerable Glen Abbey golf course in Oakville, Ontario, shrugs his shoulders as he mentions this to me; he knows how important the right tools are for the job at hand.

For me, the words were poignant, to-the-point, and really opened my eyes as to why I had just spent the better part of the last three hours strapped to various video game-like sensors, and then hitting balls until my blisters had blisters.I visited Bannatyne at the lab, and got the full club-fitting experience. It made me realize I could most likely never be able to buy golf clubs off-the-rack ever again.

The number of golfers who still buy clubs from a store and immediately swing away is staggering, but there have been so many advances in club-fitting from nearly all of the top-tier brands that it’s surprising more golfers – from low to high handicapper – aren’t taking advantage of the service.

“The tools, they’re step one,” says Bannatyne, who has been with TaylorMade in various capacities since 2006.

A former golf standout at Sam Houston State University in Texas and Canadian Tour pro, Bannatyne speaks quickly, but with knowledgeable authority through any session.

“Properly fitting golf equipment to a player’s natural tendencies will give them the ability to work on their game and improve with golf clubs that will continue to work for them.”

Golf, unlike other sport – especially team sports, where each player uses the same ball, or other equipment – features not only a human action, but a responsive result from a tool as well.

Sure, the technology in tennis rackets or hockey sticks have improved slightly over time, but golf remains the lone sport where a slight adjustment through any of the 14 clubs that most players carry in their bags can make a world of difference.

Custom club fitting is an important aspect to all players’ games because, as TaylorMade says on its website, “people are interested in making the most of their investment by ensuring the clubs they use are tailored to their needs.”

“We can make anyone better,” it continues.

A bold claim indeed, but one that is hard to argue against after going through one of their sessions.

TaylorMade uses a patented fitting system called MAT-T (Motion Analysis Technology by TaylorMade) to measure and track literally everything in one’s golf swing.

The MAT-T system is a joint effort between TaylorMade and Motion Reality Incorporated, which combines TaylorMade’s golf knowledge with Motion Reality Incorporated’s motion capture, modeling, and analysis technology to provide a 3D projection of a golfer.

It uses nine video cameras to track the position of multiple markers attached to a golf club and a golfer – kind of like if one was getting recorded for a video game or animated movie – that create a computer animation of a swing to be reviewed later.

A better question may be what the system can’t measure, but at any point during the fitting, one can review: club impact data, swing planes, body lines, centre of gravity, posture lines, and shaft line. Not to mention a launch monitor that measures ball speed, launch angle, and spin.Bannatyne was quick to point out that the bad shots are arguably more important than the good shots, when going through the system.

“There are two kinds of fittings that can be done: compensatory and complimentary. The difference between the two is compensatory fitting uses the golf equipment to try and mask flaws or change ball flight without adhering to the player’s general tendencies. As they work to improve their game, the better the swing, the worse the club will tend to respond,” he says.

Complimentary fitting, he adds, involves working with a player’s existing swing and creating the most consistent ball flight for their given tendencies.

For a brand so focused on distance, I was surprised not to hear more yardage numbers thrown at me during the session, but Bannatyne explains,  “it wouldn’t make sense to tell someone – who may be exaggerating their distances – how far or short they are hitting. The perception is off.”

What one will get though, is comparative numbers based on your existing clubs.

“That drive went eight yards further than one with your existing driver,” said Bannatyne on more than one occasion, making me feel like I was in one of TaylorMade’s television commercials.

After leaving the fitting centre, I gained a new perspective of technology, and how far the industry has come with respect to making sure the right tools are in the hands of any golfer.

So why would anyone not want to get clubs that are properly fit for them?

It seems as though in most cases, golfers are scared about their own swing tendencies, thinking that they’re not “good enough” for a session.

“In most cases, players are nervous that their games are not consistent enough to benefit from fitted equipment,” says Bannatyne.

“When a player is practicing, and they do not see the golf ball fly in the same direction, or the same distance, they are convinced that each swing is entirely different from the last”

The visual nature of TaylorMade’s system allows players for a better understanding of their own golf swing, and dispels some of the myths of inconsistency that one may believe he or she has in their swing.Overall, the experience is definitely one that should be at least considered by golfers of any skill level.

TaylorMade has raised the bar in custom fitting experiences, but that’s not to say it’s the only option.

Regardless of your preference of club manufacturer or how you swing, getting fit for the proper equipment is easier-than-ever in this high-tech world and, having the right equipment for the job is the key to any golfer’s improvement.

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The Process… 

When you arrive at Glen Abbey Golf Course for an appointment at the TaylorMade performance lab, the ClubLink service standards are absolutely adhered to – and so begins your very personalized experience.

I was shuttled from the parking lot to the lab – a hard-to-miss TaylorMade building practically adjacent to the ninth green – where a screen saying: “Welcome, Adam Stanley” greeted me, along with my personal fitter for morning, Stewart Bannatyne.

From there, you fill out a standard survey of questions about your golf game and enter into a closed-door room with televisions, computers, cameras, and hundreds of clubheads, shafts, grips, and balls, ready to be built in any combination for any swing.

After a couple of warm-up swings with your own clubs, the real fun begins.

Your fitter will emerge from another room with a collection of motion capture sensors and begin strapping them on one by one: feet, knees, elbows, waist, chest, and head.

Surprisingly though, you don’t feel restricted when you begin swinging.

During the fitting itself, you’ll hit a 6-iron, wedge, driver, and then a putter, all with the motion-capture markers on. The data from these swings – about half the total fitting time of three hours is dedicated to working indoors – will then produce the best suggested combinations of heads, shafts, and grips to bring outside to the driving range.

Moving from inside the lab to the driving range is truly eye opening. For someone like me who has had the same set of irons for six years, the change in shafts especially was quite jarring – but in a good way. My misses now didn’t feel nearly as bad, and my flush hits were travelling further and straighter.

The data produced details I didn’t even think about changing on my own.

At the end of the session, you’ll be able to take home printouts of custom club specs for ordering new clubs – if you don’t already order them during the session – your data sheets that contain the fitting information for each swing, and a DVD of your 3D swings to either watch at home or with your own instructor.

For a while now, it’s not been uncommon to see the incomparable white headphones peeking out of golfer’s ears on practice greens or driving ranges.

PUMA Golf is the first company to really take notice of this trend and have announced the release of two athletic-styles of earphones, the Pro-Performance and the El Diego.

Both are available in colourful fashions. Not unexpected of PUMA Golf, given it’s sponsorship of flamboyant young superstar Rickie Fowler.

The Pro-Performance is available in black, pink, and vibrant orange – which is a given, as PUMA Golf practically become synonymous  with ‘vibrant orange’ because of Fowler’s continued success.

The El Diego is available in black, pink, vibrant orange, and red.

“We are always looking for innovation and unique ways to develop our business that push the industry forward,” said Bob Philion, president of Cobra PUMA Golf in a news release.

Each earphone product also features a microphone to allow for answering phone calls, as well as volume and play & pause controls.

These are clearly earphones for the connected golfer.

To take things a step further, PUMA Golf has also introduced ‘PUMA Golf Beats’ a Spotify application hosted on Facebook featuring the playlists of PUMA staff golfers including Fowler, 2012 PGA Tour winner Jonas Blixt and LPGA stars Lexi Thompson and Blair O’Neal.

The new line-up of earphones, along with it’s social media campaign connects PUMA Golf to the same market it’s trying to reach with its clothes, and Cobra Golf through it’s clubs. Focusing on the passion of music for this target is an interesting take to get them more involved with the respective brands.

“The PUMA Golf Audio Collection fulfills a major opportunity in the market, bringing advanced technology to the golf course in a very relevant and fun way,” explained Philion.

Cobra PUMA Golf are going all-in from a product perspective for 2013 – from clubs to clothes to accessories – and are likely hoping that the off-course  innovations will translate to on-course success for its staff players.

Now that would be music to their ears.

Learn more about the PUMA Golf Beats Facebook application here: http://bit.ly/pumagolfbeats. The Pro-Performance is set to retail for $79.99 and the El Diego for $59.99

BEAVERTON, Ore. – Nike Golf made a bold statement when it first introduced a new innovation in its premium 20XI golf balls called RZN.  The new proprietary RZN technology resulted in a lighter, faster and more responsive core that is engineered to produce longer distance and more controlled shots.

Nike Golf has taken this technology a step further by adding more RZN to its new 20XI ball, available on February 1^st. With more RZN material added to the core and mantle of the golf ball, Nike Golf engineers have created an even faster engine for ultimate tour performance.

This larger, softer RZN core improves feel off all shots while maintaining driver distance. The added RZN mantel produces longer shots off irons while providing a softer short game feel. This combination of core size and mantle translates into two times more RZN material than the previous generation 20XI.

“The added RZN mantle provides faster speed off irons and, therefore, more distance,” said Rock Ishii, Nike Golf’s Product Development Director for golf balls. “Not only did we increase speed with 20XI, but we added softness for improved feel around the greens, creating a balanced tour model golf ball.”

RZN technology accomplishes two critical performance components to maximize benefits from a golf ball: More distance off the tee and a more stable ball flight (especially in crosswinds).

The 20XI will be available in two versions, the 20XI and the 20XI X.  While both balls deliver faster speed and high levels of MOI, the 20XI ball is designed to improved feel and enhanced short game control. 20XI X delivers maximum distance, improved feel and reduced spin for greater accuracy off the tee, making it the longest tour model Nike Golf has ever created.

This past Sunday, Rory McIlroy put an exclamation point on the finest global season of golf this side of Tiger Woods (the 2006 edition), with a five-birdie barrage to close out the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

As the last putt dropped in Dubai, so ended the European Tour’s official 2012 season. It’s time to look ahead to 2013, but first,we must look back. McIlroy’s performance the last few months gives us just cause to do so.

McIlroy’s late-season run has been magical. Dominating or legendary? Not quite. But he’s a magical athlete, there’s not another word worthy of his performance.

Starting at the PGA Championship in August, McIlroy went around the world with a winning clip of 50% – that is if you include the Ryder Cup, where he helped to lead the European squad to victory, despite his tardiness.

The Boy Wonder dusted the field at the PGA by eight strokes. Then, he won two of the four FedEx Cup playoff events before finishing 10-2-3-MC-1 in his final five events, including the victory in Dubai on Sunday.

The one blemish came in Hong Kong last week, McIlroy cited exhaustion as a factor.

Throw in a one-stroke victory over Tiger Woods at their made-for-money event in Zhengzhou, and McIlroy has had a busier fall than a school teacher.

Jason Sobel from The Golf Channel hits the nail on the head when he comments about McIlroy’s game. When he’s on and has his ‘A’ game, he’s tough to beat, he says. But when he has his ‘B’ or ‘C’ game, he’s vulnerable. This is unlike Woods – well, the Woods of old – who has won plenty of times when he wasn’t at his best.

The Woods & McIlroy bout will be the headlining attraction next year, like Ali & Foreman in 1974. But, the other storylines that exist in the golf world will combine to give the 2013 golf season an appropriate comparative moniker to that title fight from years go – a rumble in the jungle.

McIlroy is on top of the world and is only 23. The men in waiting are older, more experienced, and perhaps are getting desperate. They’ve had to play their entire careers in the shadow of a Tiger, but one who is no longer the king of that proverbial jungle.

Now, they have to play in the shadow of a wunderkind, with a lion’s mane of curly black locks.

The likes of Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Luke Donald all know that if they want to win a major in the next 20 years, they’re going to have to beat McIlroy.

These names, not to mention the Westwood’s, Mahan’s, McDowell’s, Oosthuizen’s, Snedeker’s, and Bradley’s of the golf world have all been playing and performing to the best of their abilities through the end of 2012 and it seems that they are all in top form heading into 2013 as well.

It’s this combination of storylines that give 2013 the potential to be the best year of professional golf in recent memory, if not ever.

It remains to be seen what next season will hold, but week in and week out, it’s unlikely that the best in the world will not be playing somewhere. With the wraparound schedules, the elimination of Q-School and the further development of golf as a global game, we do know that it will be a season for the ages.

Bring it on.

Chip Shots

Despite the appearance of snow falling outside the windows of most Canadians, lots of eyes are on Q-School as there are seven Canucks in the field of the final stage. The names include Brad Fritsch, who has already locked up his Tour card but is looking to improve his ranking, and Adam Hadwin who just narrowly missed out on his card via the Web.com Tour. Nice write-up on Hadwin here by Robert Thompson… With Toronto Mayor Rob Ford likely to be shown the door in the next 14 days, this leaves a vacancy to be filled – in the interim at least, I assume – by Etobicoke councilor Doug Holyday. Why, you ask, do I mention this in a golf blog? Well, Holyday is a long-time member at St. Georges Golf & Country Club (host of five RBC Canadian Opens) and also the chair of the city’s audit committee. The committee is responsible for taking a look at the City’s expenses, including the expenses of its five golf courses. We’ll have to see if Holyday’s new, albeit temporary, role will have an impact on the city’s golf community; however, it’s likely he may have other tasks at hand… Cabot Links has been named Canada’s Best New Course by ScoreGolf Magazine. It will be interesting to see in 2014 where it falls on the magazines bi-annual ranking of the top 100 courses in the country. Many are saying it will be top-5 at least… Speaking of courses, rumours are swirling that some renovation work has been approved for The Old Course at St. Andrews, including the famous Road Hole bunker, which seems odd. The Old Course is ‘The Old Course’ for a reason…

There’s no doubt that golf is a traditional game, but now more than ever its consumers are becoming far from traditional. The biggest brands in the game are starting to realize this, and it’s resulted in some new, creative ways of selling products to the masses.

Over the past month, golf equipment enthusiasts have been abuzz with debate, predictions, and reactions as three of those brands all took to social media to help launch products from their 2013 line-ups.

The brands in question – TaylorMade, Callaway, and Nike – all took interesting approaches to their products’ unveiling that were reflective of what their brands stand for.

Interesting too, that the only brand missing from this triumvirate, Titleist, released its newest club-offering (the 913 drivers) a few months back with little to no social commentary.

But, as I wrote here, Titliest doesn’t need a huge marketing event to boost conversations. Its positioning is such that it lets its product speak for itself.

TaylorMade on the other hand, is best-in-class in the world of golf with respect to marketing. Known for extravagant campaigns which feature highly-involved athletes, and media relations initiatives that are unsurpassed, the launch of the RocketBladez irons in late-October reflected all that TaylorMade does to market its products, and more.

Having used hashtags – a method of keeping track of a discussion on social media websites like Twitter – before to help launch the new R11s driver earlier in 2012, along with the new RocketBallz driver (#driverlove) it was not surprising to see TaylorMade take to Twitter once again; this time using the hashtag #thislittlething to help track conversations.

TaylorMade got most of it’s Tour staff to tweet using that hashtag, along with many in the golf world who were all talking about the new iron release. The ‘little thing’ the hashtag was referring to is a 2mm ‘Speed Pocket’ that is incorporated into the 3- through 7-irons in the sole of the iron, that flexes and rebounds at impact – which helps promote faster ball speed.

From a ‘buzz’ perspective, it seems to be working. The RocketBladez are the most talked about iron heading into the holiday season.

While most thought that TaylorMade would be releasing a new driver – they are “the number one driver in golf” – it was actually Nike and Callaway that went that route.

Nike brought the golf world with it to an innovation summit in Florida, where it took the cover off the VR_S Covert driver.

Nike is known firstly as a company for superior athletes – hence its interest in one Rory McIlroy – it’s always going after the best in any sport and try to outfit him or her head-to-toe in the swoosh. That said, the perception has been that the R&D for it’s golf department has been slipping the past few years.

But, Nike will be back in a big way for 2013 with the VR_S Covert.

The innovation summit was quite the first step in the unveiling of Nike’s newest, and arguably most buzzed-about golf product in some time.

Whereas TaylorMade went traditional – at least for them – with a big campaign, Nike focused its promotions, both social and otherwise, into this one grandiose event that of course had it’s own hashtag too, #believeit.

Nike continues to have the strongest brand identity in all of sports, not just golf, a contrast to Callaway, which has been struggling to find itself of late. But, Callaway was able to successfully release a new driver – the Razr Fit Extreme – with much social fanfare.

Callaway reached out to a digital agency, Mass Relevance, to help them to produce the social strategy, where the brand used real-time social content to help launch the product.

The more tweets that were sent out using the hashtag, #LongestDriverinGolf, the closer Callaway got to fully unveiling the Razr Fit Extreme. Along the way, Callaway was also giving away the driver to random followers who used the aforementioned hashtag.

Sam Decker, the CEO of Mass Relevance said that they were inspired to build an owned media experience that was “a first for golf – and one of the firsts for any product launch.” It was a purely user-generated media experience to literally pull the cover off the new driver, and resulted in Callaway’s most-talked about product in some time.

It’s too early to tell if any of these campaigns could be directly correlated to sales.

But that’s not the point.

A good social campaign should help a brand bring awareness to its product or service. It’s tough to argue that the three of these campaigns don’t do just that.

Now more than ever, brands are trying new ways to connect consumers with their products, and it’s good to see that golf brands are jumping into that space as well.

With plenty more product releases to come for 2012 and early 2013, who knows may come next.  But, we do know that golf brands are just scratching the surface with respect to social engagement.