30.7.12

HIPPY GILMORE


Here's one of our new hand-dyed organic polo shirts. We're calling it the 'Hippy Gilmore' shirt.
If there are any hippy golf pros out there, please get in touch.
 

http://www.golf-refugees.com
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28.7.12

TO SCOTTY AND WALLY


All brands have a story to tell, a history of ideas and events that stay with you forever.

We can remember the exact time and moment we thought of the original black golf ball. How scared we were when we first appeared holding our black balls on Channel 4’s Big Breakfast, dry mouthed and tongue-tied with presenters Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen.

How excited we were to film a video with MTV using skateboarders trying to hit golf balls from roof tops and through the hazardous streets of London, all playing to a Smashing Pumpkin’s soundtrack.

You bring many people with you on your journey and we’d like to thank all of them who helped our ideas along there way.

How grateful we were when the mainstream golf media ridiculed the idea of a black golf ball and how it was loved by the design and style media. The backing we received from publishers Conde Nast who featured the black ball in many of their printed magazines and on-line web sites such as ‘style.com’.

Our ideas have been featured in some of our favourite reads, from Sleaze Nation, Tank magazine, and the likes of GQ and Vogue.

But when other brands take your idea, they also take a piece of your history.

Only Nike can explain why they copied the original black ball. Only they can explain why they felt the need to do it.

There are usually witnesses to your unforgettable events, and the main purpose of this piece is to ask for two of the biggest names in golf to recall their meeting with us.

I hereby call upon putter guru Scotty Cameron and the CEO of Titleist Wally Uihlein.

It was the Open at St Andrews, the one where John Daly won and spat on the hallowed ground as he lifted the claret jug.

I had spent the last nine months on placement with a Formula one racing car team as part of my Industrial Design degree.

Whilst waking through one of the exhibition tents with my carbon fibre prototype golf club head featuring an aerofoil hosel I was stopped by a fresh faced American called Scotty, who asked me if he could take a look at my club. He immediately expressed his admiration for the design and arranged a meeting with one of his colleagues, Wally.

The meeting took place in the motor home of Titleist CEO Wally Uihlein. The design was protected and offered to Titleist but unfortunately they turned it down.

So I ask Scotty and Wally to contact and forward their accounts of our meeting to the new President and CEO of Callaway Golf, Chip Brewer. As they both witnessed our design of a composite golf club featuring an aerofoil hosel.

Later my composite golf club won a prestigious award from The Audi Design Foundation, who exhibited my prototype club and funded additional aerodynamic wind tunnel testing at Cranfield University, UK.

Dr Alan Hocknell, Vice President of Innovation and Advanced Design at Callaway Golf, agreed to supply a wind tunnel model of one of their ‘standard’ golf club heads for comparison testing. At the same time expressing his doubts that there were any performance benefit to be gained from such a single design feature.

Only Callaway can explain their change of mind; Why they are now claiming the idea of an aerofoil hosel for improved characteristics of a golf club head as their own idea.

Shame on Callaway Golf, but you can’t spend all of your time moaning about the actions of others.
 

So what is the future for Golf Refugees?

We are a company which prides itself on our innovative ideas. Our next product will be a successor to the original black ball. We believe it will be the most dynamically visible ball in golf.
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26.7.12

RSVP


Dear Rebecca Hanovice, Intellectual Property Counsel Callaway Golf.

At the time of Callaway's 2012 US patent ‘golf club head with improved aerodynamic characteristics’ there was an active US patent, showing drawings of a ‘golf club head with an aerofoil shaped hosel’ developed by Golf Refugees.

Can you please explain why this active
US paper was not cited in Callaway's 2012 patent?

Happy to supply you with the relevant US Patent number(s) if required.

Here is what Callaway’s VP of Innovation & Design said to Golf Refugees via e-mail in 2006.

”I will be interested to hear what you may find in your wind tunnel testing. The club head is very large relative to the hosel, so it will be interesting to see if you can attribute drag or stabilizing effects to a single feature like that”

“Best of luck with the design work”

Regards,

Golf Refugees

PS Callaway Golf has so far refused to answer this question
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25.7.12

BRAZIL 2016


With our popular unofficial ‘LDN 12’ graphic tee shirt for this weeks London 2012 Olympics.
Where outsiders are restricted from using the terms ‘
London’, ‘2012’ and ‘Olympics’ in any merchandise.

We feel we’ve gone one better for the next Olympics in
Brazil, where golf will be included as an official Olympic sport.
Like or no like?

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23.7.12

ROSSELLA IN WALPOLE PARK


Rossella wears organic tee in Walpole Park, West London.

Wide lens pic by ace photographer Mariangela.
http://www.golf-refugees.com/tshirts3.htm
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22.7.12

THE MOST EXPENSIVE CADDY AT THE OPEN



The most expensive caddy at the Open. (if not the World)
Footballer Carlos Tevez who earns £200,000 per week for Premiership Champions Manchester City, pictured here playing caddy for fellow Argentine Andres Romero in the final round of the Open at Royal Lytham.

Could this start a new trend for footballers who love golf?
Who’d like to see Rooney caddy for Luke Donald next?

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20.7.12

GEARKNOBS


Union 76 Pinnacle golf ball and Golf Refugees original black ball, both modified to fit VW Golf mk1 as gearknobs.
 
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19.7.12

GOLF IN 2020.

The Futures Company report commissioned by money-laundering HSBC;
‘Golf’s 2020 Vision’ - Key findings of the report:

     •    Low cost urban courses will fuel the growth of golf in inner cities and emerging markets
    •    New digital “smart clubs” which memorize your grip and swing will allow players to analyse their own performance 
    •    Six and nine hole formats of the game will complement the 18-hole tradition
    •    Carbon positive golf courses will start to appear
    •    Family friendly facilities will be developed for a new golfing demographic as men and women spend more leisure time together

So there you have it. The future of golf; greener, shorter, urbanized.
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17.7.12

SHOULD GOLF BE ASHAMED?


On the eve of the Open. Should Golf be ashamed of Trump’s new links course in Aberdeenshire?
Trump’s new links course in Aberdeenshire was built on SSSI land. Land designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Trump said that if he were to build a course within the sand dunes, he did not want the dunes to shift with the prospect of large amounts of sand drifting onto the golf course.
He therefore proposed to stabilise the dunes. Which Trump explains as environmental stewardship. When others would describe it as fundamentally changing the inherent nature of the dunes ecosystem.

Which camp are you in? Preserving SSSI land or building another links golf course?
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GOLF REFUGEES V CALLAWAY DISPUTE CONTINUES



Golf Refugees have received a reply from Callaway’s Vice President General Council and Corporate Secretary in regard to who thought of the idea of using an aerofoil section hosel for a golf club head. He said “You did not provide Callaway with any specific details regarding your wind tunnel and CFD experiments”.

To remind Callaway, Golf Refugees have forwarded a picture of a golf club head wind tunnel model created by Callaway to assist us with our testing. Creating a wind tunnel model requires a serious amount of time, effort and money. First you need a high quality CAD model and then you convert the data to enable a CNC machine to follow generated tool paths. At the time Golf Refugees did not have a CAD model of a ‘standard’ golf club head, we only had our own proposed aerodynamic design for a golf club head. We relayed information to Callaway regarding the required scale (2:1) for the wind tunnel model and used their ‘standard’ golf club head for comparison testing with our own aerodynamic design. It is worth noting that the Callaway wind tunnel model features a circular section hosel, which all of their then and current golf club heads have used.

In return for supplying a wind tunnel model to Golf Refugees, we offered Callaway access to our results.

It is highly probable that Callaway did not use our aerodynamic data and conducted their own testing some years later. The main point we are trying to make with Callaway is 'they assisted us with our aerodynamic testing and were fully aware of the fact we were evaluating an aerofoil section hosel for a golf club head'. Which they are now claiming as their own idea.
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13.7.12

OBESITY DREAM TEAM


Pic: Lord Coe (right) head of organising committee


London 2012 Olympics obesity dream team;

McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Heineken
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11.7.12

NO TROPHIES. SO WHAT


Talented Ealing-based duo Mariangela & Sean create photoshoot for Golf Refugees organic cotton t-shirts.
 

http://www.golf-refugees.com/tshirts3.htm >>
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3.7.12

HEAVY METAL GOLF SHIRT


This synthetic moisture-wicking men’s black golf tour polo shirt is the first sports apparel garment to show the consumer exactly what’s inside. On the front, if you look very carefully you should see a list of embedded heavy metals.

On the back you will see a list of the embedded chemicals.

Ethical brand Golf Refugees are working with the European Consumer Organisation to develop other ways of providing the consumer with more knowledge on which heavy metals and chemicals are used to make polyester based sports apparel with a moisture-wicking finish.

This is a voluntary act as there are no legal obligations for disclosure, but we are hoping to persuade other European brands to consider doing the same.

Consumers have a vital role to play and if they are interested in what's inside their sport shirts we ask them to contact their favourite sportswear brands.
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2.7.12

THE CATCH


http://www.golf-refugees.com/video_blackball.htm >>
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WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE GOLF BALL ADVERT?


This is ours.

http://www.golf-refugees.com >>

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1.7.12

THAT LOOKS EXPENSIVE


This is what happens when a Golf Refugees Original Black Ball tee shot by professional golfer Jake Shepherd clocked at 178mph hits a $200,000 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG roadster driven by ex Formula One driver David Coulthard during their World record attempt to catch the farthest golf shot in a moving car.

Fortunately no black golf balls were harmed.
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