Golf Today Equipment Special - Spring 2000
STARS IN THEIR AISLES

As the dust settles after the first gargantuan golf equipment show of the new Millenium, DOMINIC PEDLER picks his 10 items set to steal the limelight in the coming season.

With technology talk all the rage as we enter the new century, it's hard to believe that 100 years ago golfers were raving about the joys of the Haskell ball - the world's first wound ball that took the game so conclusively out of the gutty era. There was no Orlando show in those days, a shame as - for perhaps the only time in the history - the marketing men would really have a been able to deliver those 'extra 30 yards' they've been known to promise.

Of course the world's largest golf show has seen its own share of revolutionary launches since its formation in 1953 - the year of the Fawick Flexi Grip, the first real rubber grip. Since then, graphite shafts (1972), the first cast cavity-back irons (1969), the metalwood (1979), oversize irons (1990) and titanium woods (1996) have all debuted in the labyrinthine aisles of the world's largest convention centre in the heart of Florida.

But would 2000 really be the year when we saw a golf ball that is all things to all golfers? It seemed too good to be true as, amid a suitable hail of publicity,  Callaway unveiled its first golf ball - one of the top 10 items of new gear we expect to make a splash this season....