What’s Next in Golf: SI Golf’s Highlights from the 2026 PGA Show

As I golf here at the PGA show, we're right in the heart of all the action.

Jeff, this is, this is a pretty good show we got going here this year.

We're rocking, man.

The energy, the, the excitement, the new stuff everywhere.

There's stuff, and it's new and it's exciting and everybody here, you know, there's thousands of exhibits.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Everyone has something to share.

And it's uh it's exciting and it's a lot.

It is a lot.

It's a 1.1 million square feet of of showroom floor.

They said if you walk every single aisle, it's over 10 miles.

Yeah, that's one of the evolutions of the show and the technology along with it is like the number of steps you walk every day is now like that becomes a dinner topic or a badge of honor.

Uh , it didn't used to be like that, but it is, uh, it's just one of those games you play now.

Do the steps count if you're not wearing a step counter?

I, I don't know.

I don't, I don't know.

I mean, there's so, so many of these devices now measure everything about your golf game.

You probably just throw one of those in the bag and walk around and get your steps counted that way too.

30,000 attendees here and of those 6000 PGA of America members, it's a great turnout.

I mean we've got a lot of the golf industry here.

Yeah, this is a big one.

It's over 1000 vendors, and um I will tell you, I feel like I've been walking for days and I still feel like I haven't seen half.

Yeah, that's uh that's the mark of a great show.

I mean it's been, uh, it's been fun over the years to watch the evolution of this event.

It's always, it's always exciting.

There's always something you go home and say.

I'm glad I saw that.

I'm glad I did that, but it's gotten, it just keeps getting bigger.

I mean the, the golf business, golf is in general is a sport is exploding.

Really ever since the pandemic, it's been on this upward trajectory of just bigger numbers, more players playing golf on golf courses, more players playing golf on non-green grass golf courses, going to Topgolf or places like that.

More people are buying golf stuff and getting into the game, and it's just uh.

All of those great data points, all that buzz you hear about golf is growing, golf is good, it all kind of manifests here and you look at it and go, oh yeah.

It's a real thing, you know, this golf movement.

Well, and you see it, it's, it's kind of like this from all walks of life thing we're really seeing.

I mean, it's athletes from every sort of sport and, you know, people from different places.

I mean, it, it for me growing up it was kind of this thing that grandpa did on the weekends, and now it's, it's, it's sort of the everyone's game, and I think that's an incredible thing about it.

I was, uh, chatting with some young golfers here and, uh, one of the young gals, she qualified for drive chip putt.

And she's gonna be the youngest competitor out there at 6 years old this year.

So you know, you just talk about how much the game has grown.

I mean, I, I, I feel like my grandpa, if he was around, he'd sure be proud.

Yeah, it's, we should start getting college recruiting here, you wonder, especially for the 6 year old, like maybe she needs a meeting with Stanford or somebody since she's on that trajectory.

But yeah, the, the evolution of things too.

I mean, it's bigger, there's more, there's just more everything.

There's more people, there's more exhibitors, but the evolution of things too, technology.

Um, it's just such a huge part of golf, it's a huge part of this show.

It's a huge part of what's on company's mind.

I think, I think back, I was just thinking back before we started the camera, my first PGA show, and the reason I had to look up the year, but I remember the big innovation.

Was the Nike square driver, solo square being played in that moment by Tiger Woods and Anthony Kim, and it was they were winning tournaments and I had to look it up it was 2007, but that, that was at the time a huge technology movement of course now you fast forward, Nike's out of golf clubs, the squared.

The driver has, you know, come and gone, but it's funny to, to see how there's always something that gets you talking.

There's always something there to kind of make you stop and go, oh, I hadn't thought about that, or something you've maybe just caught like when Tiger's but you know, in that moment , oh, there it is, you know, I get to take a look at it for the first time and so all of that kind of comes together here in uh here in Orlando every year.

How much has the show grown since then?

I mean, I imagine, uh, you know, I've been coming for a few years and it just seems like the floor space keeps spreading and spreading.

I mean, is, is there, I mean, just a dramatic difference from then till now?

It's really, it, the real change, I think, was coming out of the pandemic.

There are a couple of pandemic shows that actually, it's hard to even imagine it now given what we look at, but there were kind of some blank spaces in the aisles and on each end of the floor and.

You know, like, in the pandemic, there was data points telling us that people were finding golf, but we weren't really able to gather in a place like this as we're coming out of it.

So once you come out the other side of the pandemic, that to me is where you really saw like this explosion of the game of golf happening, like reflected here.

Of all these new brands, there's so many brands that are 5 years or less, uh, in business, uh, and they're here and they're they're excited and they have something new to share and and uh to engage different groups of golfers.

Some, some brands are very skewed towards new golfers, 20-something golfers, women golfers, senior golfers.

Yeah, uh, amateur, very amateur golfers, I, I don't know that this, this is all here.

All of it is here, and it's, uh, it's what makes it kind of this dizzying blur of a, of an exciting week.

So, um, I'm just happy that, um, my badge has my name on it this year.

I was telling you the story before we were rolling, but my year 1 here at the show, I was in town.

I didn't have a badge.

I, I, I was, I don't know, I just wanted to get in and see the place.

And on the last day for like the 2 hours before it closed, I got to put a friend's badge on and walk around for a short amount of time.

I don't know.

I like to say I've come from.

From a life of crime sneaking in being welcomed here on the stage, but, uh, now it's my 4th show and, and I do, I, I just, I feel like it just keeps spreading farther and I don't know if we're gonna run out of convention center at some point, what are they gonna do after this, but it's, it's just noticeably bigger year over year and I, I, I find it fascinating that.

The stuff that's coming into the world of golf, I mean, whether it is, it's new brands, it's new equipment technology, and we got a couple of finds we're gonna share with you guys that uh are, are, I, I kind of, well, here's what I would say I found stuff I need.

And I, I thought I've gotten to the point in golf where I've got it all.

Uh, I've proved myself wrong today.

This week, um, more stuff I need.

All right, let's have a look at the stuff.

Yeah, is it?

I think it's time.

All right, let's check it out.

All right, I got Tim Beno joining us here from Cobra Golf talking about the brand new Optum Drive.

Line up these things look incredible.

They feel great off the tee, but you've got to tell me a little bit about them.

What is going on in these sort of technology packed drivers you guys got here this year?

Absolutely.

Well, first, thanks for having me.

Yes, so this is our optim line.

The newest technology that we're coming out with this year is called POI.

A lot of people are familiar with MOI, moment of inertia and forgiveness.

POI is really an extension of that, and the easiest way to describe it is it's really a dynamic balancing of the head.

And so heads traditionally are unstable in that there's a lot of weight in the heel.

There's not much weight in the toe, and what happens is on any kind of hit, face in miss hit, the head.

Twisting in multiple directions, uh, we've seen in testing that that is usually reduction of ball speed, uh, inaccurate lots of offline as most people who play golf know uh and so what we're trying to do is tackle that problem.

Uh, it's a problem that all drivers have it's a very tough problem to fix and talk about and so I think you know we're pretty ambitious in taking.

That on what's turned out though has been very, very, uh, impressive, um, from, from what we've seen so far so really it's the internals and unique waiting locations that uh that are different this year and so starting with the LS this is our um low spin driver so high ball speed, um, high spin players are gonna fit into this, uh, and what's new is this um.

This toe weight and so the internal weighting in that toe weight essentially offset the weight of that hozzle and so uh it doesn't look symmetric from a geometry standpoint but mass balance wise it is and so uh top down left right uh the rotations of the head on off center hits way more predictable and then let's be honest, the most of us out there.

Our hitting off center hits, uh, probably the majority of the time if we're honest with ourselves.

Correct, correct, yeah, I'd love to think that I hit the center of the face.

I tell everybody I do, but you know, of course you have to, right, um, but yeah, so that allows the shots that, uh, for example, are hit high and low in the face to fly dead straight.

With just slight changes in backspin, whereas previously you might see some draw or some fade off of high and low shots and then heel to toe shots, they only have side spin versus side spin and backspin differences.

So really it's a dynamic balancing and it's a difficult problem to solve and I'll get into that a little bit here in a minute, but it's it's really.

Really good and exemplified most in our LS driver as we go to the other end of the spectrum, uh, our Max K was wildly successful last year, and that's just a traditional MOI based performance story.

So that's a mishit, uh, you, you know, you want, you want ball speed retention, you want spin retention, you want head stability, uh, and so, um, the other end of the spectrum from the.

is our Max K.

It still utilizes some of the POI technology, correct?

Uh, it's a much larger head shape front to back, uh, top down.

It's a very different profile, you know what I mean?

Give me a big driver.

It makes me feel like I'm going to hit a big bomb.

Absolutely, yeah, it's, it's, it's confidence inspiring, right?

Everyone feels like you can, you can hit good drives when you, when you look down at something this size.

The interesting thing about POI is that as you increase MOI, POI naturally increases with it, so POI is something that you want to reduce from a numerical standpoint and you want to increase MOI.

So as you get higher, uh, POI is more difficult to manage.

We still managed to to reduce it.

So this is the lowest POI, highest MOI driver that we've created.

And so it still uses a lot of the same POI technology, uh, but it incorporates that MOI benefit as well.

So these are kind of the two sides of the spectrum of what we offer.

We have a driver in the middle, and this is our X driver.

So I'm going to put this one down for a second.

So our XDriver is really kind of a Goldilocks mix between these two.

It has a lot of the POI, um, design elements from the LS.

It maintains some of the MOI design elements of the Max, and the top down shape is something that we spent a lot of time dialing in.

So, uh, if you remember 2019, we had our F9 driver.

It was very, very popular.

Most of the pros and people that we've talked to, uh, as far as, uh, Cobra drivers, is like, what's your favorite driver?

F9 is usually what comes to the top.

So top-down shape, this is identical to F9.

We knew it was a successful shape.

We really wanted to bring that back into the lineup, um, but incorporating the POI technology, MOI technology, uh, we're, uh, a much higher level performance than even F9, which is internally we're super thrilled about, um, and so this is , like I said, really the middle of the bell curve stuff and so I think a lot of players are gonna kind of wanna dabble in, in, you know, POI MOI.

This is a great mix.

What you're saying is we gotta balance POI.

An MOI to hit it FAR correct, uh, I don't know.

Hey, and what I love about it too though at the same time, all of this technology, you guys are working behind the scenes to make it work on the inside and all of that, but at the same time it looks fantastic on the outside, you know what I mean?

Yeah, thank you.

I, yeah, that was a, that was, there are other design elements here that I think are worth mentioning.

Uh, we went back to a gloss crown this year, so, uh, we've been matte for a couple of years, uh, but notice we didn't just go all gloss, uh, we kept the very top line, uh, satin, and there's even, uh, a decal alignment on there.

So, uh, this was direct feedback from our tour pros that, uh, when it's all matte they kind of lose.

Face recognition a little bit.

So you're saying this is how Ricky wanted it.

This is exactly how that's exactly what I'm telling you.

So yeah, the gloss crown satin top line, um, but you know, the pros love it.

They, they recognize where the face is aligned, and so I mean, who doesn't want to know exactly where they're aimed.

So it really is kind of the whole system together and then of course I shouldn't forget to mention the Future Fit 33 that we've continued this year, um, so this is 33 unique settings more than anyone else in the industry um it's uh 2 degrees up and down by uh in each direction 2 degrees up and down and loft, so more, more range and swing and more settings than anyone else.

It's a beautiful club and um I, I actually had a chance to hit a few balls on this here at the show and I mean it's, it's fun flying great and I just gotta get it out of the golf course and see it fly over some real grass.

Absolutely, thanks for taking the time.

I appreciate it and uh I, I wanna say congrats , but also, you know, thanks to the team for bringing us some great stuff.

Yeah, well, absolutely, thank you for having us.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, so we gathered up a handful of our favorite things from the show.

Uh, Jeff, this table's kind of piled with cool stuff here.

There's a lot, there's a lot to go through.

There's a lot at this convention center.

There are, there's more than we could fit on, uh, probably a convention center worth of tables, but I like what we got.

We got a good mix.

Can I, can I start?

I like this.

OK, so, so one of the things I like, is this, this just grabbed me.

When a company can take a traditional golf piece of equipment that's kind of bland, let's.

Say for example, the golf bag strap that we all pretty much know it has one job and one job only and that's the job it does and then suddenly add some integrated bells and whistles that give it now new functions.

So this is, this is the links, uh, this is the stitch links strap Stitch Golf, uh , originally a head cover company they still make awesome head covers, but I really just thought this was so cool what they've done with the golf bag strap that can clip onto.

Most of the golf bags that are out there are compatible with anything, but you've got two new pieces of tech.

In the strap you've got a GPS.

This is magnetized.

We'll see how easy this comes out.

There you go.

So there's there's your GPS.

It comes out easy enough but not too easy.

Yeah, you don't have to go anywhere like that.

So it's in a magnet, then you've got your, your Bushnell speaker.

Link it up to your Bluetooth and and play some tunes, but I just thought this is cool, so a new twist on the golf bag strap.

Never thought that could be technically , you know, uh evolved, but here we are.

It's, it's, oh, it's.

Taking a look at the items that are like kind of right in front of your face and innovating them, that's kind of fun.

All right, well, if we're gonna look at some tech, I've got some tech for you.

uh, Shot scope, they're launching a brand new launch monitor.

This thing here, Jeff, I'm telling you, it's compact.

But not only is the size compact, so is the price, and this is what grabbed me from a mile away.

You're looking at a full-blown launch monitor giving you full data at the range, everything you want.

You've got, you know, carry distance.

You've got ball speed, smash factor, all this.

200 bucks.

Yeah, that's a, I, I was like, no way, that's an evolution.

I mean that's like that's a new world.

Of all the things we thought we'd have in 2026, I mean, we didn't get flying cars, OK, still waiting on that, but to have launch monitors coming in here for 200.

Bucks blows me away.

This thing is, is still on its way.

It's, I think it launches in about a month, so we got to take a sneak peek at this thing, but our friends over at Shotscope, um, are, are finally making launch monitors affordable, and, um, I, I couldn't be more excited.

200 bucks is a new world for a for a product like that.

That is, that is awesome.

All right, I'm gonna stay in the launch monitor world, but I'm gonna show you a new, a new spin on the launch monitor.

I like what you did there.

Here it is in my hand.

It's a golf ball, right?

Clearly, but it's what's inside.

So this is called the Genius Golf Ball.

This is a brand new product here debuting at the show, uh, coming out in June.

Inside this golf ball is.

Technology again I wait for it.

That launch monitor is the perfect segue because inside is a battery and a GPS that can give you data points on your putting stroke.

So this will link to an app on Bluetooth.

Put it down, stroke the putts.

Measures launch angle, spin rate, skid distance, skid skid quality, and then it adds it all up and gives you a putting score.

They call it the genius score as it is the genius golf ball, and you kind of, it's like your scorecard of like is my putting stroke working and it's, it's funny, you know, you think about putting.

You always think of it as like, oh, putting is by feel.

People are born good putters or they're not.

But in reality, maybe the reason we don't really, we just haven't had data for putting.

Like we putt by feel because there's no other way to learn to be better at putting, right?

Is is by feel.

So I just love that that data and information.

That's a trend that happens all across this convention center, all across the golf industry, but now bringing launch monitor type data to a golf ball, the genius Golf Ball, I thought was.

I don't want to say genius because it's putting it on too thick, but it's just a really great evolution, and I, I'm excited for this product when it comes out later this year .

Um, kind of taking something that used to need, you'd have to go to like the putting studio with the high speed cameras to see what the ball's doing.

I, I can get behind that.

All right, all right, if we're gonna look at innovating things that have existed right in front of us but now are made better, uh, I gotta take a look here.

I'm pretty pumped about this new vessel bag, and first of all, before we get into the details, I've gotta have you hold this thing up.

Do you know how lightweight this is, just give it a lift.

Yeah .

I mean this is, this is a substantial bag that is still just, this is not, this is very easy, very easy to lift.

Uh, so Vessel has taken obviously what they've perfected in golf bags and, and found a way to make this thing so much more lightweight and carryable to get out of the golf course, uh, Cordura.

That's what we've got here, and here we've got the Omniflex carbon fiber, which adds strength because here's the thing, you take some weight out, you can't lose structural integrity, so we've got to get some carbon fiber to keep the handle in all this area so you don't have to worry, your bag's not falling apart just because it's become quite lightweight and you still have all the fun stuff like the magnetic pockets.

And all that, but, um, I quickly felt, I, I love my Vessel bag, uh, but now they've, I don't know, made it even more like, wait, I can just kind of take a vessel.

Vessel is one of those golf brands for golfers where like if you know, you know, right?

It's just Vessel is one of those places.

They just have been cranking out incredible golf bags now year after year.

And this is the evolution of vessel is to find a new material that is still incredible and kind of makes you stop dead in your tracks, and all the zippers and everything are still top notch, but it just all comes together in this new really great package.

So, um, and while I was what do we what do we got here?

while I was walking out with the golf bag, I just had to grab one more thing to bring with me.

Uh, of course, they do more of the golf bags.

They've got travel bags and all kinds of stuff, but this.

The, um, is decored after one of my favorite golf tournaments.

Yes, I see the theme.

Yeah, um, and if you're not sure, I believe this as a, if you know, you know kind of a thing, um, but I just, I absolutely kind of fell in love with the way this thing looked, and I'm like, hey, uh, I'll, uh, can I borrow this for a minute?

Um, I don't know, this thing's just super cool .

Travel backpack, um, tons of fun stuff on it.

This is, uh, kind of just a little bonus item.

I don't know.

You know why?

Cause it's got the magnetic pockets, the whole thing.

All right, it's a bonus item.

There is something about a magnetic pocket.

All right, um, I've looked at a lot of golf shoes in my, in my life.

I'm not, I'm not the fashion expert at SI Golf, but I've seen a lot of shoes.

I've never seen a shoe look quite like this.

So I, I wanted to show this.

This is, this brand is called Alma Mater, new brand this year.

Uh, they had a kind of a soft launch last fall, but they're rolling out a whole new product line this spring.

The technology again, so there's 3 pieces.

There's an outer piece that's transparent, there's an inner piece that has the bright color that really pops when you walk, and there's a third piece here.

So, uh, there's just a lot to assembling this particular golf shoe that doesn't exist in, in a lot of other models.

I also just like how they take like the old school wing tip and kind of smash it into a new school, you know, street shoe.

Uh, I just, I was impressed with this brand alma mater.

They're coming out this year.

They got a whole line of different funky colors and, and setups, but, uh.

They're nice.

It's, it's the theme here, it's like, you know, taking existing things and finding ways to make them cooler and more interesting.

Well, I've got, uh, one more of those very things.

We've all been to tournaments.

There's awards, not that I win a lot of them, but I know they exist and I see them there.

Um, well, no longer do they have to be trophies or plaques or other things.

Why not make your tournament trophies into.

Chains, stuff like this.

Why not?

I mean, come on, we've got closest to the pin here.

Um, so company Bnet, they are, they, they, they're taking a new look at, at, at golf tournament awards and, uh, bringing us things, um, you know, like Super Bowl ring.

Exactly.

I mean, um, I mean really long drive ring maybe long drive ring, um, closest to the pin chains.

Uh, I, I, I actually feel like for me to.

an award like this, I, I don't know.

I mean, my ego would be through the roof.

I like it.

Yeah, I like it.

I don't know if I want to take this off.

I don't think you should.

I mean, it's, you know, anything goes through.

All right, I've got, I've got one more.

All right, it doesn't shine as much as the, as the ring or the chain, but it's another, another new product from a brand that's experienced.

This is Daphne head covers.

Uh, is another if you know you know kind of golf brand.

They're the inventors of Tiger Woods' famous tiger head cover.

Frank, who got his own commercials as time went on.

Daphne is still here.

Uh, Jane Spicer is the, uh, is the founder.

She's great .

She's got a new collection for this year.

And wait for it.

She's done frogs, she's done chickens.

We're getting deeper into like the zoo animal world.

We're at Highland Cow, everybody, it's Highland Cow this year.

There it is, uh, Highland cows are Scottish.

You'll find these roaming the outside the fairways in some of the top golf courses, uh.

So would this be the first time we could say the Highland cow is related to the tiger?

I think so, yeah, this is the first time they've crossed, yeah, cross populated, uh, on the shelf, but, uh, it's always fun to have a fun head cover and Daphne head covers, uh, they're , they're doing it every year, year after year, so.

I love it.

I don't know, it's, it's, it's been a great show and I feel like kind of the theme here has been making things better.

Yeah , and I, I, that to me is great.

That's, you know, what I look for is, is what can make my round more enjoyable, more comfortable, more interesting, more tech connected, um, or just maybe a little more flashy and fun to show up in front of my friends.

Yep, I'm up for all of it.

Evolution, evolution is definitely a theme this week.

Uh, evolution is also a theme at Sports Illustrated.

And we're uh we're certainly happy to be working with you on our evolution.

uh, this week, the big news at the company was the launch of SITV, our new uh fast channel, free advertising spend.

Television.

Oh, I like that it's the channel you put on the TV and it's on, but we're gonna be building this out over time.

We're very excited to have 24/7 programming with Sports Illustrated.

Dan's show, uh, Dan Evans' show is one of those half hour blocks, uh, on SITV, but you can check out programming for baseball, NFL, college.

It's all gonna be there.

Um, it's probably poss quite possibly lurking on your TV sets now somewhere in your channel lineup.

Uh, check it out.

We'll be building that up as we go.

We're looking forward to it.

I love it.

You know, Sports Illustrated has been around for quite a while.

I mean, I, there's not a point in my life where I don't remember Sports Illustrated.

Um, but yet still innovating, but I, I think one of the great things about it is it's, it's kind of, it's been with all of us for, for so much of our lives.

Like we can think back and remember whether it's our favorite cover or, you know, a, a moment in time that was, uh, you know, marked by something said in Sports Illustrated , but there's, um, and yet still we.

New things and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Good to have the Dan Evans show on there.

I mean, it's, it's, it's a legacy brand at this point and it's fun to get to be around for it.

Yeah, like, like many of the brands here at the show, right?

We, we started, we started as a magazine, a humble, humble sports startup in the 1950s, and.

It has evolved into a multimedia, you know, conglomerate with, with tentacles all across sports media, and, uh, we're excited for SITB to be the latest, and it certainly won't be the last, you know, piece of evolution, but, uh, it's fun to go on the ride with you, so, uh, and it, it's been a great week here.

So that's it for the wrap it up.

All right, well we gotta get this guy home.