2009 British Open Release

Rating: 5 points
Pros: Perforated Leather, Scooters, Bad Ass Scotty Dog, Oversize Driver Cover
Cons: Oversized Covers sold out quickly

For this year's third Major, Scotty released a few British Open specific items as well as some new Cameron merchandise. The Open specific items start with the Scooter Dog headcover then the matching Pivot Tool and T-Shirt. Additional Cameron items include a new small towel (already fetching $70 on eBay), a new Fairway & Green striped polo, a new ball tool for 2009 and new wood headcovers including a much needed oversize driver cover.

The Scooter headcover has 9 dancing scooters emblazoned with the Union Jack and a Scotty Dog on one side with a helmet, goggles and mean looking goatee. Early indications were that the headcover would be white due to an image released through CameronCollector.com. However some of us were pleasantly (or not so pleasantly, depending on your taste) surprised by the blue cover when it hit the Studio Store yesterday at 2pm. I am one of the former and prefer the blue since the white looked too much like the 2008 PGA Championship headcover. The coolest thing about this headcover is the faux perforated leather look.

Edge bleed is the newest design element brought to us by Scotty on pivot tools. Up until the U.S. Open, we were used to seeing one design, centered on the pivot tool. The Scooter Dog design bleeds off the edge with "British Golf Championship" text filling in space above and right of the artwork. One of the more exciting things for me is the possibility of two or three edge bleed designs carried over separate tools, so they could be placed next to each other to show one image. Scotty has stepped up production of limited pivot tools in the past two years and I'm happy he is still finding ways to keep the designs fresh.

The British Open t-shirt was offered in white only and has what I will call a "hollowed out" Union Jack Scotty Dog design. Front and back styling is similar and clean with red, blue and gray accents. The ever-present red crown tag is on the bottom left hip. This is one of my favorite t-shirts in years because of the simplicity. The Fairway & Green polo is very similar to one released previously and is blue and white striped, however the Scotty Dog on the chest is blue this time instead of red.

The small red crown towel is similar in design to the aforementioned crown tag and measures 15" x 24" which is a great size for stand bags. We have been waiting for a towel this size for a while.

The woods covers match the Navy Stand Bag released earlier this year and include a new addition, the oversize driver cover. I'm particularly excited (as many others were judging by the fast sell-out time) about this cover because I play a larger driver (907 D1) that does not fit in the standard AM&E driver cover very well.

When the Ball Tool was released at the Scotty Cameron International Collectors Convention last year, some speculation was made to the tenure of the Circle T logo engraved on the tools. This release we're greeted with a new design, a Scotty Dog in the location vacated by the Circle T. I'm glad Scotty made this change and actually wished he had done so sooner. The other major change is the paintfill color to a high contrast yellow which should show up just as well as the red in the sunlight and even better in twilight conditions.

This was a great release overall, though it may have lacked a real "wow" item... Scotty is usually good for one or two of those a year.