FIELDREPORT


Retailing at £249 with a standard Aldila shaſt or £299 with a Grafalloy BiMatrx, Boom Boom 3 currently sits alongside its predecessor, which is still available with regular or ‘novelty’ heated headcover for recreational use. Elford however confirms the Boom Boom 2 will be phased out, though there is still no shortage of Big Dog options. For the men, the more budget- conscious titanium Black Cat and Predator models accompany the brand’s only and somewhat reluctantly-produced adjustable driver, the four-piece forged Parallax (£199). For


We are not answerable


to shareholders, and will only bring out new product when we have a genuine step forward. The public have become cynical with too many launches and you can’t blame them


putter rotates slightly at impact. Our new groove design counters those damaging effects, bringing the ball back online and generating consistency and better grouping."


The four putters Swash has designed for Lynx – the bladed Isis and Luxor, plus Memphis mallet and Rameses supermallet – also feature two alignment aids – one for the putter face and one for your head position – and have a suggested retail price of £99.


Such product releases, following Elford and Zinsor’s full aquisition of the Lynx trade marks have certainly given us a clearer picture of what the second coming of the Lynx brand is now about. The original ranges have seen steady upgrading in quality, with Elford confirming a desire to take the brand a little more upmarket than was perhaps the original plan. He describes the impressive stand at the Harrogate show as a “statement of intent” to re-establish Lynx as a major hardware player.


“We want Lynx to be perceived as a top end brand,” he insists. “We have to show people we believe in what we’re doing, which is making innovative, top quality equipment. We are not


the women, updated and consistently popular marques, Tigress and Elegance, accompany Crystal.


The Boom Boom 3 comes in the middle of a period of activity for Lynx. Earlier this year they were forced to deal with a spate of counterfeiting. In June they announced a Club Loan Initiative, designed to help clubs offer taster days to potential new members. In August they declared their status as the latest preferred supplier to the TGI Golf Partnership. And meanwhile, they have been working on a new putter range with respected putter designer Harold Swash.


The new range is called Swash by Lynx. “Harold approached us with some new ideas, and we’ve been delighted to team up with him,” Elford continues.


The main design of the Swash’s Lynx putters is something called Pyramid Groove Design – a milled section in the centre, in which two angled sets of grooves flank a zone of horizontal grooves. “It’s designed to quash the famous gear effect,” Swash explains. “Off-centre strikes produce side-spin and shot curvature as the


answerable to shareholders, and will only bring out new product when we have a genuine step forward. The public have become cynical with launches and you can’t blame them. Our range reflects that, with genuine new developments, and is unrecognisable from two years ago.” There is also clearly a desire to be different – as evidenced by the brand’s early season ‘love story’ ad campaign, their commitment to innovation, and also its eye for style, epitomised by the striking red, black and white cosmetics on the back of the Boom Boom irons and the rose gold version of the same club. “Rose gold is the next big thing,” Elford confides. “Look at Rolex – every watch they make now is rose gold.”


Such cosmetics, plus the brand’s continued relationships with the likes of Di Doherty and Austin Healey – led one commentator to describe Lynx rather unkindly as a fashion brand. “Of course we’d 100% refute that,” Elford responds. “A club can look fashionable and still perform. As Steph would say, why do looks and performance have to be mutually exclusive? “Our clubs do perform – and we are very happy to be tested and compared to anything to prove that. In fact we’d prefer robot testing to personal, subjective accounts.”


Finally, Lynx are also emerging as helpful business partners. You need make only an investment of £1,000 to be on their best stockist terms while Elford claims minimum profit margins of 40%. The brand’s strict internet trading policy has seen them cease an arrangement with Amazon.


“We are passionate about our relationship with retailers,” Elford concludes. “We want to build something sustainable with them. Hopefully, our presence at Harrogate has confirmed our intent to take Lynx back to its former glories… and perhaps past them.”


www.lynxgolf.co.uk SGBGOLF 13


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