New Products at Munich

A host of new items of equipment were unveiled in Munich, headed by a full range of Ping products.

Ping chairman John A Solheim flew especially across the Atlantic to give his personal seal of approval to the i3 Blade and O-Size irons, stainless steel and titanium fairway woods, Pal youth clubs and Mantis ultralight carry bag.

Adams and Orlimar both had modified versions of their Tight Lies and TriMetal woods on display, with the latter using a '+' system to provide extra elevation.

Taylor Made added a new tour iron to their Firesole range of clubs while the Callaway Hawk Eyes irons also made their European debut in Munich.

Wilson introduced a new, hard alloy, Metal Matrix, which liquefies when exposed to heat and is sprayed straight on to the hitting surface to create a face both harder and lighter than titanium. On the subject of alloys, Liquidmetal also made a much-awaited first appearance while other new clubs included the Ben Hogan Apex 5 irons and Titleist's Bob Vokey line of Pure Spin wedges.

On the balls front, the most potentially innovative newcomer was the Wilson Smart Core, a two-layer distance ball with a soft core made from a mixture of titanium and urethane.

Maxfli presented their new two-piece Patriot ball which, like the Smart Core, will shortly be arriving in the shops while Titleist and Spalding did some strategic repositioning of their lines.

While adidas enlisted Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia to help launch their 2000 golf footwear line, FootJoy, world leader in this particular market, came out with a high performance, waterproof product known as the Dry ICE (interactive cooling environment) which features technology originally developed for the NASA space programme.