Five years after forming IJP Design, Ian Poulter has launched his first range for kids. Poulter and creative director Niki Perry reveal to Duncan Lennard the inspiration behind IJP’s most expansive range to date.

If you thought the junior section at your club was thriving, consider China’s dual-complex Mission Hills resort. Combined, the twin centres at Shenzen and Haikou nurture a scarcely believable 6,000 junior members. Banned during the Cultural Revolution, golf in China is fast catching up with the game’s Asian explosion. With this growth has come a particular adulation for one Ian James Poulter.

The Golf Show in Harrogate, presented by the PGA, Foremost and the TGI Golf Partnership last month, was a success, but by no means a sensation. Staged from October 25-27, virtually all of the UK market’s major brands exhibited and the seminars and presentations were better supported than in 2010, but there is a difficult issue facing the organisers, as the Golf Show has not grown in terms of exhibitor or attendance numbers.

It was announced at the Golf Show that the PGA has renewed its PGA Collection licensing agreement with Sigma Golf, the manufacturer owned by PGA pros Richard Jewell and Peter Darnell.

Foremost’s annual Awards Dinner was staged on the eve of the 2011 Golf Show, at Harrogate’s Majestic Hotel on October 24. Hosted by BBC Sport’s Andrew Cotter, over 200 Foremost members and suppliers attended the celebration.

Nike Golf has confirmed that retailers across the UK and the European continent will be receiving their first deliveries of the new 20XI golf balls in February 2012. The 20XI-X, promising increased “Tour-level distance”, and the 20XI-S, with a slightly softer cover to provide enhanced “Tour-level” spin, both come with RRPs of £40 per dozen, and Nike Golf has told SGB Golf that pre-sales are looking “incredibly positive”.

Central to Cleveland’s extensive launch of new equipment for 2012 is the introduction of a new-generation 588 Forged wedge, reviving the “number one wedge of all time”. Cleveland’s original 588 wedge, so named because it was the company’s fifth wedge model and because it was launched in 1988, was one of those rare pieces of golfing hardware that managed to remain relevant year after year, defying the annual onslaught of newer, competing models from other companies.

Sterling silver Japanese giant Mizuno has been one of this autumn’s busiest golf brands. UK marketing manager Graeme Gorrie explains the design and strategy behind a flurry of new products to Duncan Lennard, and reveals a shake-up in the company’s custom-fitting service

The success of Nippon Shaft’s new NS Pro Modus3 Tour 120 shaft has paved the way for a very successful 2011 for the Japanese company. Robin Barwick reports

Danish shoe brand Ecco continues to innovate for Spring 2012, as its new Hybrid range combines its Golf Street and Natural Motion concepts. Robin Barwick reports

October’s Harrogate Golf Show will be a progressive blend of trade opportunities and educational events. Eddie Reid, managing director of co-host TGI Golf, explains the ethos behind the show toDuncan Lennard

Following the highly anticipated launch of the Ping G20 range, early indications suggest that G20 will carry on where G15 left off. Robin Barwick reports - The August launch serves Ping well. It has become customary for the Arizona-based manufacturer to make its major range releases on August 1 on a worldwide basis, unlike all of its main competitors. It gives professionals a great boost for the second half of the season, and from a UK perspective, we can use July’s Open Championship to gauge how the Tour fraternity is receiving the new equipment.

Progressive, protective and pricey, the sleek garments in Scandinavian outerwear firm Galvin Green’s latest range sum up the brand. Mike Johnson-Hill, the company’s UK and Ireland managing director, takes Duncan Lennard through the technologies

Robin Barwick reports from the 2011 Open Championship, where Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke brilliantly won the prize that had eluded him for 20 years

With Grafalloy, Project X and Rifle under its wing, True Temper is a true giant of the golf shaft industry. Director of European operations Dave McCarthy explains how the brands knit together to Duncan Lennard

In November 2009 Scottish apparel brand Glenmuir signed a 10-year deal to develop and distribute Sunderland of Scotland apparel. Eighteen months on, managing director Colin Mee tells Duncan Lennard how the deal has affected both brands

Ian Barrett, EMEA marketing manager for Cobra-Puma Golf, spoke exclusively to SGB Golf about steering the Cobra and Puma brands into a new era

Having bought the Cobra Golf brand last year from Acushnet – the company that remains owner of Titleist and Footjoy, for the time being at least - it was on September 1, 2010 that new owners Puma took control of the management of Cobra Golf, but only on April 1, 2011, that the German sports giant took full control of all Cobra affairs. The handover is now complete and all ties with Acushnet have been severed.

Softspikes’ mission to help golfers get a grip on the game has expanded from dynamic and adjustable cleats to a range of grips, under the Black Widow sub-brand. Product managers Chip Chiapetta and Blake Martin explain the strategy to Duncan Lennard.

Jack Nicklaus may have accumulated 18 major titles, but Wilson irons have won 61 – more than any other manufacturer. Doug Wright, European business director for one of golf’s oldest brands, talks to Robin Barwick about the resurgence of Wilson Golf.

Canadian outerwear specialist Sunice has made its European intentions clear by setting up its own office in the UK and by appointing Jonathan Camp as European managing director. Camp spoke exclusively to Robin Barwick

Just over two years ago, Jonathan Camp was European managing director for a major North American golf apparel brand, based in Laindon, Essex. A lot has happened in the two years since, and now, Camp finds himself the European MD of a major North American golf apparel brand, based in Laindon…

A white-headed, three-way adjustable driver is the latest in a series of eye-catching product that has made TaylorMade one of golf’s most talked-about companies. Managing director Ben Sharpe explains to Duncan Lennard why he feels the performance matches the hype.

Every retail environment needs to have compelling, exciting products that stimulate interest and give golfers a reason to change and retailers a reason to sell.”

Callaway brought a series of high-technology products to market throughout one of golf’s toughest trading years in 2010 – assisted by an eye-catching liaison with Lamborghini. European president Neil Howie explains the brand’s enduring confidence to Duncan Lennard, and how he intends to improve relations with green grass retailers in a bid to boost the brand’s flagging UK performance.

Cleveland Golf has launched the new Launcher Ultralite Series of drivers for 2011, and Ben Davis, European marketing manager for Cleveland Golf and Srixon, explains to Robin Barwick Cleveland’s plan to get the drivers into golfers’ hands

After a rocky few years, Maxfli has returned with new investment and fresh impetus. Ben Gardener of Elite Brand Company outlines an ambitious future for a brand with an illustrious past

At the 1923 Open Championship, just a year after the first Maxfli ball was developed, more than three-quarters of the field used one. In more recent times Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros gave testimony to the calibre of the brand by teeing up a Maxfli. Sandy Lyle’s famous last-gasp trap shot to win the 1988 Masters was played with a Maxfli DDH, so the brand has a strong sense of belonging at the premium end of the golf market.

With the demand for minimalist footwear growing in the running and outdoor sectors, Ecco Golf is spearheading the concept’s entry into golf. Thomas Maymann, design manager for Ecco Golf, spoke to Robin Barwick about the introduction of Biom Golf.

It is hard to imagine that conventional thinking in footwear for running and walking over the past four or five decades – and in golf to an extent –might have been leading us down the wrong track. It has been widely accepted that feet require substantial cushioning and support to encourage optimum performance and injury prevention, but this theory is being challenged with increasing conviction by a new wave of ‘barefoot’ or ‘minimalist’ thinking, or in Ecco’s terms, by its ‘Natural Motion’ concept.

In 2010 Brand Fusion celebrates its 30th Anniversary as a global wholesaler of a broad variety of golf merchandise. Nigel Freemantle talks to Duncan Lennard about his journey from Essex 'white van man' to company MD

Somewhere in the depths of Brand Fusion’s massive new warehouse in the West Midlands, there lies a batch of fantastic and forgotten fur-lined headcovers.

Just when we were waiting for one of the in-form English golfers to step up at Pebble Beach – and Paul Casey had us going for a short while – it was an Irishman, Graeme McDowell, who held his nerve through one of the most intense challenges golf can throw at a man. Pebble Beach and all the unforgiving treachery it could muster, in a US Open, with three of the finest golfers of this generation in determined pursuit – Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els – as well as Gregory Havret at his career best.

So when did the pressure really tell on the golfers competing in the 2010 Open Championship? Was it through the brutal squalls that blighted the golfers during the first two rounds, or down the stretch on the Sunday afternoon? Or was it in fact on the eve of the Open, when some of the world’s finest golfers tested their nerve and versatility in the Golf Foundation’s fast-paced ‘Open Tri-Golf Challenge’?

A sense of perspective of the UK’s glove market is provided by Golf Datatech figures. For market share in terms of unit sales, FootJoy accounted for 47% of gloves sold in 2009; the three best selling models in the UK were all FootJoy products, led by the WeatherSof with 15.3% of the market; and just to confirm the gloom for FootJoy’s rivals in the glove category, the nearest rival brand recorded a total market share of 7.6%. In terms of market value FootJoy was even less relenting, with a 49.4% share.

A new generation of rangefinder might come as a surprise to those who weren’t sure these devices had been around long enough to complete one generation, let alone be starting on a second.

In fact SkyGolf has been around since 2001. During that time GPS devices have come and GPS devices have gone. But where others have fallen foul of the potential for sexy yet superficial gimmickry offered by a hi-tech, handheld gizmo, a focus on the golfer’s true needs – accuracy, reliability, clarity – has seen SkyCaddie quietly rise to become golf’s most respected GPS brand – and the category’s market leader.

To the hosts, an added advantage of staging one of the most exciting events in world sport is the spur to local trade. This has been one of the top priorities for the Welsh Assembly and for Celtic Manor owner Sir Terry Matthews, right from the start of their bidding process for The 2010 Ryder Cup, a process that began in 2001.

“The Ryder Cup is about putting Wales on the map for us,” said Rhodri Morgan, the former First Minister of Wales, at the 2009 Celtic Manor Wales Open, when he was still in office. “Wales has a deficit in its profile compared to Scotland or Ireland. We didn't want to continue to be Europe's best-kept secret. When we say ‘put it on the map’, that is in terms of business investment opportunities, trade opportunities and trade partnership funds.”

When the first golf clubs started rolling off MacGregor’s Ohio production line, the US Open was just three years old, the first rubber-cored ball was yet to leave Coburn Haskell’s drawing board, and amateur Harold Hilton missed out on the £30 winner’s fee for pipping James Braid to the Open Championship.

This was 1897, and the advent of a company that would claim 59 Major wins, endorsements from the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan, and a legacy of technical innovation including ‘harmonised’ sets of steel and hickory shafts, rubber-and-cord grips, and four-way face roll. MacGregor was the first company to market sand wedges as part of a set.

The world’s largest golf trade exhibition, the PGA Merchandise Show, is predicting it will feature over 1,000 exhibitors and over 40,000 attendees when it is held at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Florida, from January 28-30, 2010.

For January 2009 the PGA Show had hoped to count in over 45,000 golf industry professionals. In the end they staked a claim for “more than 41,000” through the gates from 74 countries, although there were mumblings from exhibitors at the time about an apparent influx of golfing consumers to pad out the numbers.