The Nick Hotchkiss Collection has released another neat tie—this one featuring golf carts.

I own a couple of Nick’s ties and love them. The designs are subtle and yet fun. From a distance, the ties look as though they’re an abstract design. But up close, you see the fun designs.

SureShot Golf GPS

The SureShot is the latest entry into the golf GPS beauty pagent. Apparently prominent in the European and Australian markets, the SureShot can store ten courses and give you the distance to the front back and middle of the green from any location. It also can show the distances to up to fifteen hazards per hole.

It also keeps tracks of statistics, such as fairways hit, greens in regulation and putts. WIth a USB connection and the included Windows software you can crunch the numbers and keep statistics for multiple games.

The downside is that it requires a an annual subscription fee of $19.95 after the first year. This grants access to the online database of courses.

What I can’t tell is if there is a way to map your own courses. While there are more than 800 courses in Michigan, there are only a dozen or so listed in the SureShot database. In that case, it wouldn’t be particularly useful unless there was an easy way to map a course as you play it.

Solar Powered Anti Mosquito Guard

Mrs. Golfblogger is a gardener and enjoys watching “The Garden Guy” on Home and Garden TV. This anti-mosquito device was featured on that show the other day. It apparently emits a sound that keeps the biting female mosquitos away.

I thought that it might be just the thing for golfers who don’t like to slather themselves with smelly insect repellant. Now, I want one that keeps horseflies away, too. My favorite course in “Up North” Michigan has a couple of holes where those nasty beasts prowl incessantly.

Lets give a welcome to the golf blogosphere to Golf Noise.

In what has to be a major embarrassment for the company, Nike Golf is recalling its new SUMO 2 square drivers. The recall apparently was announced when it was discovered that a manufacturing variance caused the “Characteristic Time” measurement of some of the drivers to fall outside USGA specifications. A Seattle area paper (Nike is in Washington state) sniffed that the defect would “only” result in two or three extra yards.

Nike claims the equipment used by its tour players is not affected.

It’s a voluntary recall, but I’ve read that the testing was done at the behest of an unnamed competitor.

To tell whether your driver is conforming or not, check the bottom of the driver as shown in the photo. Conforming drivers have a little circular mark. If yours isn’t conforming, Nike will replace it. You can get more information on the recall on the Nike site.

I wonder if the old, non-conforming drivers could become a collector’s item like some of those mis-struck coins that occasionally make their way out into the open. If everyone else turns theirs in ...

Walter Hagen SB5 Pro Irons (Graphite)

I was very much impressed with the Walter Hagen driver that I had a chance to test drive last year, and so I have high hopes for the rest of the Hagen line.

The SB5 Pro is—in spite of its name—a game improvement set. It includes a five through pitching wedge, and matching adjustable weight hybrids for the three and four. A vibration dampening system also serves to move the weight around as necessary for each club.

The Walter Hagen clubs are made exclusively for Dick’s Sporting Goods by Nicklaus Golf.

First Nancy Lopez ... now Tony Jacklin. This coming-out-of-retirement thing seems to be catching on.

Tony Jacklin, one of the best and most popular of the British golfers of the 1960s and 1970s, will play the British Open this year at age 62.

Jacklin won the 1969 Open Championship, becoming the first British player to do so in 18 years.  He won the US Open in 1970—the first and only by a British player since 1920. He also won eight events on the then-fledgling European Tour, as well as events in Europe, South America, Africa and Australia.

Jacklin’s biggest claim to fame, however, was as a playing member of a series of losing European Ryder Cup teams, and the Captain of the 1985 European team, which racked up the first Euro victory in 28 years.

Jacklin was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002.