Well, Vice Golf, has got the antidote.  In collaboration with solo sobriquet

artist “Hektor” has created a limited edition set of golf balls,  with caricatures of the key players in the competition drawn on them.  So even if you miss a phenomenal Neymar header, bendy Messi rocket that hits nothing but mesh, or small and lovely deek move by Shakira’s boyfriend Gerard Piqué, you can compress your clubface against their mugs off the tee.  Feel free to yell an overlong “Goooooaaaaaaal” after your par putts drain to keep the football vibe going during your round.

The word on his inspiration from the artist who ever cheeky Vice Golf claims is a fox describes himself as a keen fan of Schalke 04, a Bundesliga team who won the UEFA Europa cup in 1997. "I simply cannot ignore a soccer world championship. For this reason I have designed an exclusive collection of golfballs. Having been raised in Bottrop-Kirchhellen, Postwegmoore – in the direct vicinity of Golf Club Schwarze Heide – I have developed a deep attachment to those small, pearl white balls – how fondly I remember the times when we used to steal golf balls from the fairway as fox kits!”

Get them fast, Vice has capped the run on the SELEÇÃO series at 500 dozen.

 

So, got a new Twitter Follower the other day, Bikini Golf: "Our mission is to bring a contemporary edge to golf by broadcasting energetic 9-hole competition from spectacular courses across the world, where our athletic and attractive women golfers compete for “skins” while wearing sporty and stylish bikinis."

If insects played interspecies golf, betting on the praying mantis in the field would be a sound strategy.   Tasked with a par-5 their powerful lunch snaring front legs could deliver a monster drive and if other bugs started to show them up on the leaderboard the Mantis could easily paralyze them with a quick neck nibble and get away with it too.  Officials wouldn’t even see the infraction thanks to a Mantis’ innate camouflage ability.

What does this flight of fancy have to do with a new putter? Surprisingly plenty.   The design element that sets Mantis apart is the fact that it is grass blade green which forces golfers to keep their eye on the ball and not their putter, a common performance hampering faux pas that leads to more three-putts.  Think about it, when is the last time you heard a golf pro say, “keep your eye on the club?” With Mantis your putter blends into the turf and your eyes key onto the ball.

Over the years we’ve seen white putters, gold putters, and even a red putter but whereas these color flourishes were flashy sartorial choices with Mantis the colour is the concept.  The putter blends into the background putting the spotlight on the ball.  After spending a couple hours getting to the know the Mantis ‘B’ on the putting green I found that my visual acuity was sharpened increasing my accuracy and lessening my miss distance from the hole on longer putts. 

Putter aficionados feeling a tingling sense of déjà vu may recall Nike’s green foray a few years back with their IC flat stick.  But the Swooshters opted for a much more muted shade so the invisibility effect was less pronounced.