Moments, our staff’s favorite products

ORLANDO, Fla. – After spending two days wandering the aisles of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando for the 2025 PGA Show, our employees are brimming with new ideas and excited by everything we saw, heard and experienced. Below, check out our takeaways from our time on the show floor.

Jessica Marksbury, Senior Editor: One thing I loved about attending this year’s show was the energy. After several post-Covid years, the show is back in force for 2025 and is the biggest show in terms of physically occupied vendor space since 2009. It was great to see! Floods of people were on hand to check out all the new and cool products, but there was also a lot going on each day on the show floor. PGA Tour players and influencers appeared with their brand partners, panel discussions on multiple topics took place throughout the day live on the main stage, and several brands had fun activations to draw you in, like claw cars filled with cool swag.

One area that attracted a lot of attention was the configuration of GOLFZON’s simulator, where The final of the GOLFZON Tour matches played in front of a live audience on the floor. GOLFZON tour it’s basically like TGL for recreational players, and on Thursday afternoon, a team of three players triumphed over their competitors and took home $150,000! The growing popularity of simulator golf is proof that the game can be enjoyed in many ways, and the PGA Show was a great place to showcase the concept.

Jack Hirsh, Associate Hardware Editor: MacGregor and Ben Hogan are back making forged irons. Two legendary companies are now under the same roof with Golf Brands Inc. (along with a few others) and produce some incredible looking products.

Hogan has a soft spot in my heart as my dad played them for years and I have a set of his bladed irons on a 1-iron fairing with a couple of palm trees for when I want to go out. and have fun. Ben Hogan irons were also my first set of clubs growing up when my dad cut a set of Apexes for me. Now Hogan has five new iron models and they have the same great lines and shapes from their latest incarnation with some updated technology. I will be very interested to see what they can do on the course.

I’m also amazed at what some of these custom and premium cover brands are doing. From Swag, Seamus, Pins and Aces, Dormie, Tremont, Smathers and more, it’s really cool to see head wraps turn into a true art form for your golf bag.

Maddi MacClurg, editor and producer (game improvement): I enjoyed having the opportunity to speak with some of the brightest minds in the golf industry. from 100 best teachers for the tour pros, there was no shortage of knowledge or advice. But as I talked to some of these industry leaders, I noticed that there was one product that kept coming up in conversation: BAL. ON.

BAL.ON is a brand new piece of performance wear technology that essentially puts pressure plates into your shoes. Simply open the smart insoles in your shoes to start recording key swing data about your weight change in the golf swing. Plus, you can access the data in real time using their app, and it even presents the information as a heat map, so it’s easy to understand. This type of technology is revolutionary for coaches because it allows them to see details of a player’s movement that would otherwise be invisible. With BAL.ON, instructors can see how your weight shifts on the move and because it’s almost invisible while in use, you can also use it on and around the greens, where proper weight shift is just as critical. for your success.