What the heck is this?
There’s probably nobody on the planet who has more golf gadgets in his/her house than me. 10+ years of running a popular golf blog will do that. Most of the gadgets are useless pieces of plastic and metal that some poor aspiring golf entrepreneur blew his retirement fund on in hopes of selling a million of them. Likely the poor sap as 5,000 of them sitting in his garage, shipped directly to him from a plant in China that screwed them up and took his money.
I thought the SILO Golf Club Carrier by Rival and Revel would be another one of those useless gadgets I trip over in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom, but after playing with it I’ve changed my opinion.
So what is the SILO? It’s a golf club carrier which carries up to six clubs, three tees, and a ball marker. The intended use is for times when carrying a full bag of clubs isn’t needed and just a few are necessary. Those times might be practice sessions, rounds on smaller courses, or perhaps using it to carry wedges and a putter right of one’s main bag.
I’ve played in a lot of 3 and 4-club tournaments, and the scores are nearly the same for the players as when they play their usual 14 clubs. So why not knock it down to six clubs and carry 80% less weight around?
Scotland Coming
I’m currently planning my third trip to Scotland. Golf over there is very different than here in the USA. I’ve learned what clubs I use over there and what ones I don’t. Most of my wedges are useless over there, especially a lob wedge. I could easily go with a sand wedge and get rid of the gap, lob, and maybe even pitching wedge. The only reason I would keep the sand is to get out of pot bunkers. I never used 3-wood either. I could easily drop 2-3 irons. The ball rolls forever there, and it’s about feel. I’ve thought of bringing a pencil bag with about 8-10 clubs, but now I’m toying with the thought of bringing the SILO and six clubs: Driver, putter, sand wedge, 5-iron, 7-iron, pitching wedge… or perhaps driver, putter, SW, 4-iron, 6-iron, 8-iron.
Critiques
There are three tee holes on the opposite end of the unit from the magnetic ball marker. I could not get a tee in there.
Suggestions
I would love to see a SILO-8 or SILO-10. The 8 or 10 representing the number of clubs it holds. I would like to see a wider unit and down the center one could store a sleeve of balls (not in the sleeve of course).
Conclusion
Would a tour pro use this golf gadget? Probably not. But for practice, quick nines, or perhaps a trip to Scotland the SILO could be a great alternative to a golf bag Joe golfer.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
They were selling these at the golf merchandise show in NJ last year. Almost bought it. Wasn’t expensive and I can see it being pretty useful to go to the range with or a pitch and put course