Like Bubba Watson likes to say, you need to live your best life on and off the course. Dude’s right, sometimes you need to play without your clubs. A perfect day in North Carolina kicked off at the Foothills Regional Airport, 8 miles northeast of downtown Morganton. This is the launch pad of Thermal Valley Aerosports , a family-run outfitter offering thrilling aero-towed tandem hang gliding experience where you’ll feel like Superman to rank newbies like the Slinging Birdies crew.

Flights start at $159 for 1500 feet on up to $385 for a mile high glide. So what’s it like to get pulled behind a Dragonfly, an ultra light and ultra maneuverable Australian bush plane? Well it’s a lot like waterskiing in the sky and then when they cut the tow cord when you reach the assigned altitude that’s when this human kite flight gets dialed up to the next level as you catch the thermals and float down to terraferma while pulling off every aerobatic maneuver in the book if you’re so inclined! See if you can catch the Dragonfly pilot pull off a few gnarly moves after cutting us loose. Next we feasted at JD’s Smokehouse is a Burke County BBQ institution, drawing commuting diners as far as adjacent states for their fall of the bone ribs, pulled pork, brisket and a smorgasbord of Southern sides—I can vouch for the cobbler and the red slaw and admit to stealing a couple envious glances at a neighbor’s sweet potato crunch. Then it was off to Sidtracked Brewery. Their 5 Barrel system chugs and choos over a dozen whistle-wetting beers like Cross-tie Brown, Light Rail Blond and Thomas the Dank Engine New England IPA. Did some locomotive artwork ogling and brushed up on my Lantern Signals while sampling a flight of delicious brews. They’ve also got the pub sports: ping-pong in the back and there’s darts to fling too. As it started to get dark we sauntered over to Cawtaba Brewing Co.   to knock back a couple White Zombie’s and catch a cover band.

 Birdie Bundle takes  customization a step further than any other golf sub and gift box on the market.  In addition to logging customers style preferences, a common best practice, they also account for dislikes. Wouldn't be caught dead off the first tee wearing a checked or paisley polo? No problemo, Birdie Bundle will screen them out when they hook you up.  The surprise factor is still intact they just do their due diligence to avoid unhappy surprises.  We sneak a peek inside a Birdie Bundle down on Daufuski Island, South Carolina's southernmost inhabited island and give you the goods in the below video which is queued right up to the unboxing portion of the video.
 

Being calm and having smooth consistent energy is very important in the game of golf. We put a spearmint flavored elixir called "Golf Gum" to the ultimate test to see if it will bolster cognitive function.

Warning: If you have a pet squirrel, python, or hamster, keep them away from this product. Golf Gum is for human consumption only. If you're playing golf with your labradoodle and you drop a piece and he takes a bite, quickly grab him and wrestle the gum out of his jaws because it could have real dire consequences for pets.

Pregnant women and children should also not chew golf gum. If you start playing exceptionally while chewing Golf Gum, do not proceed to then put another piece of golf gum in your mouth every couple holes because golf gum is mega strong. It's not recommended to  chew more than two pieces of gum within a ten hour period so no more than one piece per round.  Now that we got that out of the way, lets chew some Golf Gum in the below vid.

Played in the Battle of the Smokies this past weekend at Etowah Valley Golf Club and got a lot of complements on my Asher glove. The Death Grip which also comes in white has been around for a few years but always turns heads in the tee box.  Alice Cooper has been known to rock the glove on courses.

Antigua’s 2017 Spring line is out so we had to zip in and take it for a spin.  Antigua is the brand that you think of when you think of the perfect holiday, only this a vacation you can wear on your back and torso. Pictured is is their Arctic's pullover, it’s very cool, it's got that diamond pattern going, a
little quilting action. What's unique about this quarter zip is the arms are a lighter layer than the chest, so there's a vest effect.  It makes you feel like you got bigger chest muscles and sleeker arms which is important because I I’ve got the opposite.

Currently happily plowing through sports scribe extraordinaire Dan Jenkins’ latest romp, Stick A Fork in Me where a griseled College Athletic Director looks back on all the crazy and colorful experiences he had coaching college football and navigating University politics as an AD.  There’s a hilarious bit about a golfer who met his maker after hitting a ball into the drink by the eighteenth green and then jumping in after it: “that’s when his foot got tangled with other clubs lying on the bottom, having suffered the same punishment for betraying their owners.  Dub couldn’t pull himself loose and drowned while his playing partners were lining their putts on the green. Nobody knew he drowned until his straw hat floated to the top of the pond.”

Drinking Arnold Palmers and their booze infused cousin,  a John Daly, have been 19th hole libations for decades but Dixie Southern Vodka, a Charleston, South Carolina based craft distiller is upping the ante on golfer tipples.   Their smooth sipping product is 6x distilled from non-GMO American corn before the remaining impurities are purged in their TerraPURE process.  Along with plain, it also comes in all-natural mint and black pepper flavors.  Try their  Clubhouse Cooler which is  vying to move up the golf cocktail leaderboard and find its way into the mix at Masters parties. But with the Phoenix Open, aka  the  Greatest Show on Grass, upon upon us, why wait till then to give this drink a whirl?

The Clubhouse Cooler
 
1 bottle Dixie Mint Vodka
4 cups of lemonade
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3 large tea bags (or 12 individual) for iced tea (or purchase your choice of pre-made sweet tea)
Fresh mint sprigs
8 lemon slices
 
Directions: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Remove from the heat and add in tea bags. Let tea bags steep for 5 minutes then remove. Stir in one cup of sugar until dissolved. Pour tea, lemonade, and Dixie Mint Vodka into preferred punch serving bowl. Add additional 3 quarts of water and stir together. Muddle handful of mint leaves in a separate bowl and add to punch ingredients. Cover and chill until cool. Fill mason jars with ice and pour in tea. Garnish with mint sprig and lemon slice.
 
 

The Biebs face planted against the glass courtesy  of a laughing Chris Pronger in the Celebrity Shootout is instantly up there with a an airborne Bobby Orr for best hockey pic ever.  Speaking of Bobby, he had a little fun when Bieber couldn't close the deal on a pair of penalty shots against former L.A. King goalie Jamie Storr.

Meanwhile  at Torrey Pines big names Brandt Snedeker and Keegan Bradley are battling out at the top of the leaderboard at the Farmers with plenty of other players in contention.  We're pulling for Patrick Rodgers to rise to the occasion  and earn his first PGA Tour victory.

So, umm, this is apparently an annual yuletide tradition in the Woods household but first time the general population was clued in so we're all still processing.

The holidays are upon us whether you celebrate Golf Christmas, Golf Chanukah, or Golf Kwanzaa. We're filming our next BirdieBox vid tommorrow, a special one tackling one of their holiday boxes. In the meantime we wanted to ring in the season with a little DIY unboxing anticipation vid cheer.