Twice a year The Hackers Paradise puts together its Bi-Annual Golfer’s Choice Awards for equipment, accessories, and apparel that have excelled throughout the year. This year the nominations were loaded with tons of great gear. Choosing finalists is hard enough for our panel of writers, and because of that the Golfer’s Choice Awards are chosen by readers. In each category our panel chose 4-6 finalists and let the readers vote on who the winner was in each category. To qualify, it must be a product that we tested and be released for the 2009 season. Not all products tested have been reviewed as of yet.
Readers of The Hackers Paradise had the chance to vote in 15 different polls made up of finalists in each category. Here are the Golfer’s Choice Award Categories:
Best Driver
Best Hybrids
Best Irons
Best Wedges
Best Blade Putter
Best Mallet Putter
Club Innovation
Overall Club Company
Best Ladies Apparel
Best Men’s Apparel
Best Golf Bag
Best Golf Ball
Best Golf Shoes
Most Innovative Accessory
Most Innovative Apparel
Each company will be receiving a plaque to display as well as the honor of being called a THP Golfer’s Choice Award Winner. The only site out there for consumers, by consumers. But let’s get on with the show. Each award will have a link to the voting so you can see how each poll finished up.
1. Best Ladies Apparel – LIJA
We have covered so many great ladies apparel lines this year and the readers picked their favorite. You can read about the LIJA line in the review that Golfer Gal wrote several months back.
2. Men’s Apparel – Sligo Wear
The Men’s Apparel award was another one where the voting was very close. We learned about Sligo Wear a while back when Josh B had the pleasure of reviewing last year’s line. Since that time they have even gone to the extreme of doing makeovers for our readers.
3. Accessory Innovation – Daphne’s Headcovers talking dog
Everybody that comes in contact with this company gets more excited with every passing year. This year Daphne’s Headcovers came up with something really clever. The readers apparently thought so too. For more information on this one you can check out our video that was shot at the PGA Merchandise Show in January.
4. Golf Apparel Innovation – PUMA Golf
PUMA came up with something that they showed us at the PGA Show this year called Invisibonding Technology. It hides the seams so that the shirt appears seamless. The readers loved it. We had the pleasure of receiving a private showing of PUMA at the PGA Show and learning all about this new technology.
5. Golf Shoes – Adidas Tour 360 3.0
Lots of golf shoes have been reviewed by THP for 2009 but few garnered the attention of the Adidas Tour 360 3.0. Here is the poll to show how the voting went.
6. Golf Bag – Bag Boy Revolver Pro
The Best Golf Bag award was won by a bag that we had the chance to review a while back. The poll was filled with great golf bags but this won came out victorious.
7. Golf Ball – Srixon Z-Star
Lots of great golf balls this year and the voting was very close in this one. When THP had the pleasure of reviewing these in Feb it was truly a pleasure. Then we even learned that our friend at Srixon got a hole in one with the new balls.
8. Golf Club Innovation – Taylormade R9 Driver
This was a very close race between two great innovative products. The R9 Driver from Taylormade was truly innovative and when we had the opportunity to review it, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. This could truly change the way we look at drivers from now on.
9. Hybrids – Nickent 5DX
When THP first got the chance to review Nickent products it was their hybrids. We had always heard the buzz, but they truly delivered and more and more of our readers have been raving about them ever since. There were quite a few great hybrids in this voting and the readers chose the 5DX.
10. Mallet Putter – SeeMore SB1
The voting for the best mallet seemed as though it was a two horse race in the voting. THP had the pleasure of reviewing the SeeMore SB1 earlier in the year and it was our first taste of the SeeMore addiction.
11. Blade Putter – SeeMore M1
SeeMore Putters made it a clean sweep in the putter category in the thoughts of our readers with their M1 putter picking up the win in the blade category. Each time THP has reviewed a different putter from SeeMore we find ourselves liking them more and more.
12. Wedges – Nike VR Forged
In a year where so many companies were putting out great wedges, our readers have spoken with what is their favorite wedge of 2009. It seems as if the THP readers have enjoyed the changes that Nike made with their VR line of wedges.
13. Irons – Mizuno MX-200
In one of the tightest polls we had in our voting, the MX-200 Irons from Mizuno took home top honor as the irons of choice. THP had the pleasure of reviewing this set a couple of weeks back and you will get no argument from us.
14. Driver – Taylormade R9
The Taylormade R9 Driver took home its second award of the show with Driver of the Year honors. The voting was a 2 club race the entire time and it was a very close poll. THP thoroughly enjoyed the R9 when we had the chance to review it a few months back.
15. Equipment Company – Nike Golf
With their Victory Red Irons and Str8-Fit Driver few companies have had the impact on 2009 that Nike Golf has had. THP has had the opportunity to review their VR Cavity Back irons, Split Cavity irons, Dymo & Dymo2 Drivers, and of course their Str8-Fit driver. We have enjoyed their entire line this year and apparently our readers have too.
That concludes our THP Bi-Annual Awards Showcase for the 1st half of 2009. We want to thank all of the readers of The Hackers Paradise that voted on these awards, and the companies that we have been able to work with to make all of this take place.
