Life at the Turn is at the 2026 PGA Show in Orlando, Florida! For the next four days we’ll be sharing the new, the unique, and the truly odd from the golf industry’s annual flagship event. Highlights will be available via daily recap articles like this one posted each evening, but infinitely more photos and instant feedback can be found at the Life at the Turn community that you can access here.
Demo Day
Day 1 of the PGA Show is Demo Day. Wednesday through Friday the PGA Show is housed in the Orange County Convention Center, with over 30,000 industry professionals perusing the wares of 1.1K vendors. On Tuesday however, PGA Show action was held at the Orange County National Golf Center driving range, where a smaller set of golf companies set up shop. Think of PGA Show Demo Day as the outdoor soft open to the ensuing indoor madhouse to come.
A soft open, but an impressive one to say the least. Major OEMs like PING, Mizuno, Srixon, and Cobra made their full lineup of new clubs available to the industry to demo. Mixed in with these heavy hitters are a mix of smaller but noteworthy shaft and grip companies like TPT and SuperStroke, to name a few. Golf technology companies were well represented by the likes of FlightScope and Rapsodo, and truly fledgling companies making their first appearance in the show (and in the golf industry as a whole) put their products on display. Imagine the largest driving range you’ve ever seen, lined with golf companies big and small and a massive amount of golfers looking to try everything out, and you’ll get the idea.
The Good, the Different, and the…Huh?
If you’re getting the sense of an event with a lot of everything, you’re on the right track. After a day spent hitting woods and irons from nearly every club manufacturer at demo day, it’s safe to say the new lineups of clubs coming from the golf industry are very impressive. Speed still dominates the game, and you’ll find most of the major manufacturers are selling a speed story, but the forgiveness that comes along with that speed is extraordinary.
Lesser known names abound however, with some different and unique concepts to bring to the industry. Take Fine-Tuned for example, a company producing custom putters and wedges. Big deal, lots of companies custom-fit their clubs, right? Not like this. Fine-Tuned has developed custom bounces and grinds for their wedges, accomplished by a removable bounce plate.
Of course, what one finds unique another might find downright odd. At the least very different, and the jury is out on whether some of the innovations and concepts we witnessed today will catch on with consumers. Case in point, Killer Golf. A fledgling putter company out of Boise, Idaho which used the PGA Show Demo Day as their official launch, Killer Golf has made some bold choices in creating a distinctive product line. Boasting a level of adjustability that allows their putters to “move with you,” Killer Golf has also added an element of ornamentation that will absolutely have their flatsticks standing out in a crowd.
Or consider a new training aid from Cadero that will similarly stand out in a crowd. Hot pink and gripped with what can only be described as an ultra-mega-jumbo grip, this training aid promises to help you learn to use your body in the swing and quiet your arms and hands. The grip is so big in fact that it comes with a strap to put around your wrist in case you lose your grip on the club entirely. Some testers didn’t use the strap, as evidenced by the collection of training clubs that had been sent flying and we’re still laying on the ground twenty yards down the range. Our hot take: If you’re brave enough to practice with this on the range, you deserve every bit of improvement that comes your way.
Up Next
Tomorrow is Day 2 of the PGA Show and the real madness begins. We’ll be taking plenty of photos and sharing updates throughout the day, and posting them in real time to the Life at the Turn community. Check back here tomorrow evening for another recap, but get to the community site for countless more photos, instant feedback, and discussion. There are well over a thousand vendors at the PGA Show and we won’t be able to get to them all, but we’re damn sure going to try!