John Holmes's blog

Back in the good ol' days of NASCAR when the race cars actually looked like street cars, there was a saying: ''Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.'' That meant, of course, that fans would want to buy the cars that prevailed on the track.

There's no similar adage in golf, but the same principle applies. That's why you so often see golf equipment ads touting the success of products on tour.

Seldom, however, is the correlation between tour success and sales as immediate and direct as it was over the weekend.

Around the first of the year, Nike Golf made a big marketing splash by unveiling a series of new signings – first, Nick Watney and Kyle Stanley, then Thorbjorn Olesen and Seung-yul Noh, and finally Rory McIlroy.

The Ghost Spider S putter from TaylorMade is big – and big on stability.

The oversized mallet delivers a Moment of Inertia (MOI) measurement of 6,030, dramatically higher than previous TaylorMade mallets like the Ghost Manta (4,900) and Corza Ghost (3,830). This high MOI makes the Ghost Spider S extremely stable, even on off-center hits, and makes it easier to control the head and square the face to the ball at impact. That's a key benefit, as articulated by the tour pros who have put it in play.

Designed with insight from short-game superstar Luke Donald, the MP-T4 wedges from Mizuno are among the most versatile high-spin wedges on the market. Created with Mizuno's patented Grain Flow Forging process and 1025E "Pure Select" mild carbon steel, these new wedges provide a soft yet solid feel.

Titleist calls its 913D2 and 913D3 drivers the fastest, most consistent the company has ever designed. They are also Titleist's most playable and forgiving drivers, primarily as a result of improved launch conditions from a lower, more optimal Center of Gravity position, a new rear SureFit Tour weight and the fitting precision provided by the SureFit Tour adjustable hosel.

To most of us, bombing away on the golf course is a good thing. Unless, that is, you’re playing at Royal Sydney Golf Club.

After researching a new book, historians Terry Jones and Steven Carruthers believe that an unexploded Japanese World War II shell might be buried under the eighth hole of the Centenary Course at the prestigious Australian golf complex.

Phil Mickelson came within a whisker of shooting a 59 on Thursday in the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, a score even more impressive because it was the first competitive round he played with a new Callaway RAZR Fit Xtreme driver in his bag.

Here in the Golf Buzz the other day, I posted an item in which TaylorMade CEO Mark King was quoted as predicting that bifurcation – separate equipment rules for tour pros and amateur players – is not only inevitable, but that it's also coming fast.

We're about two months into the three-month comment period that the USGA and R&A instituted after they announced their proposed rule to ban the anchoring of long putters.

Mark King, the CEO of TaylorMade, has a comment. And, wow, what a comment it is.

Golf's biggest equipment makers dominated the news last week at the PGA Merchandise Show down in Orlando, but Mizuno held its ground with the biggest of the big boys thanks to three noteworthy developments: