President Dwight D. Eisenhower didn't start playing golf until he was in his 30s, but he fell hard for the game. During his eight years in office he played more than 800 rounds. Over his lifetime Ike's handicap very between 14 and 18, and he broke 80 on a handful of occasions. When it came to equipment, the President was a Spalding man, in deference to his good friend Bobby Jones, says Art Kennel, a former superintendent of Gettysburg (Pa.) Country Club, where Ike was a member. Kennel became Ike's personal Gettysburg caddie from 1955 to '66. Upon his death in 1969 Eisenhower left two sets of clubs to Kennel. The set pictured below dates from the '50s and is one that Kennel gifted Ike's golf buddy Arnold Palmer, who loaned the clubs to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

DRIVER: Spalding Model 15. According to Kennell, when Ike was in his prime, he could hit his driver 250 to 260 yards.

FAIRWAY WOODS: Spalding Model 15. "Ike liked all of the fairway woods," Kennell says. "But the 4-wood was his favorite club. A lot of times he teed off with it."

IRONS: Spalding Robt. T. Jones Executive. Ike would carry as many as 18 clubs, as long as they said BOBBY JONES. "Once, a new set came," Kennell says. "I said, 'Ike, these don't say BOBBY JONES on 'em.' He said, 'Pet 'em back then. I'll play with the old ones.'"

10-IRON: Ike's 10-iron was the equivalent of a pitching wedge. His clubs always had GENERAL IKE or five stars or both engraved on them.

PUTTER: "That putter was a 'personal' gift from Arnold," Kennell says, "but the Bulls Eye was Ike's favorite."

BALLS: Spalding Dot. In 1968 at El Dorado Country club in Palm Desert, Calif., Ike accomplished a longtime dream—a hole in one. He sent the ball to Spalding president Edwin Parker as a thank you.

HEAD COVERS: "When Ike went to Augusta after Arnold's Masters win in 1960," Kennell says, "they gave him head covers with the club's logo and his name on them."

GLOVE: Ike wore a red glove to match his unbrella.

GAUZE: "Ike had very big hands," says Kennell, "and he used tape to build up his grips."

CART: "When he was in office, Ike used a motorized cart to play fast, in two or three hours. But later he usually walked. Still, he always had a cart that he would let guests or Secret Service agents ride in.

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif — I received an e-mail this morning from Augusta National Golf Club that pointed out subtle difference in the Masters jacket signed by Phil Mickelson being auctioned for charity and the famous jackets presented to winners of the tournament.

"You'll notice the jacket for auction has a replica Masters logo on the left breast. Green Jackets carry the Augusta National map/flag logo with no text (left in photo). The auction photo also shows an unauthentic button. Green Jackets have gold buttons with the map/flag logo (also no text)."

The folks at Augusta National also likely reached out to charitybuzz.com, the company conducting the auction, to inform them of the irregularities in the jacket. The item is no longer listed among the items available on the company's Web site.

The business of sports memorabilia is tricky, and it seems that this is another case of something simply being too good to be true.

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**Update, June 14: Augusta National says this jacket is not real**

Sportswear comes in all shapes, styles and colors, but the green jackets worn by the members of Augusta National Golf Club—as well as Masters champions—are the most coveted by golfers. Only the greatest players in the history of the game have earned one, but now, one can be yours if the you've got the cash.

An online auction going on now through next Wednesday afternoon at charitybuzz.com—a site that runs fund-raising auctions for charities—features a Masters jacket that has been autographed by three-time winner Phil Mickelson.

According to the Web site, the money raised in the auction will go to the Music for America Project. As of Friday afternoon, the highest bid for the jacket was $1050.

Among the other items available as part of the site's Dads & Grads Auction are two badges for the Monday and Tuesday sessions at the 2011 Masters (including lodging); dinner with Joe Montana at his home; and two VIP tickets to the next Victoria's Secret fashion show, including backstage passes and invites to the after party. Are any dads or recent grads actually worthy of this stuff?

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On the night that Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters, I wrote in detail about his custom-made Odyssey blade putter. As I noted that evening, Phil's putter is not currently in Odyssey's lineup. But Odyssey recently announced that 82 right-handed and 82 left-handed models of the Mickelson-inspired ProType 82 blade putter will be made available to the public.

Beginning May 10 at 11:00 AM ET (8:00 AM PT), those interested in owning one of these limited edition putters can sign up to be eligible for purchase on a first-come basis at OdysseyGolf.com. Each of these 164 individually numbered, limited-edition putters features a green highlight on the sole, a nod to Mickelson’s win at Augusta earlier this month.

According to a release, the ProType 82 features a face insert that is identical to the insert in the White Ice family of putters, a tungsten weight in the rear section and a single white alignment line—just like Mickelson's. The putters will come with special headcover and a Black Series grip that is identical to the one Phil used at Augusta.

Each of the putters will be numbered and sold for $500.

"I'm very excited that the designers at Odyssey have produced this limited edition putter with the same design as my gamer," Mickelson said in the release.

Austie Rollinson, Principle Designer for Odyssey Golf, said in the release, "Phil came to us a few years back to develop this particular model and he’s obviously had great success with it on the PGA Tour. The ProType 82 Putter was developed due to the large number of requests we receive from people interested in the product that Phil uses on the game’s biggest stage."

Don't be surprised to see more ProType putters released from Odyssey in the future.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Odyssey and Callaway, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter | ClubTest 2010: Putters

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson walked away Sunday evening from Augusta National with a third green jacket for his closet and a hefty check to hand to his accountant.

According to Golfsmith, more than 15,000 golfers who purchased a Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Edge, FT-Tour or FT-iZ driver also expect to get a check thanks to Phil's win.

A joint Golfsmith and Callaway promotion promised a refund on drivers purchased between March 18 and April 7 if Mickelson won the 2010 Masters.

A release sent by Golfsmith this morning said:

"In addition to wowing the galleries at Augusta for his third Masters Championship, Sunday, Phil Mickelson gave golfers across the country and internationally a great present to start the season," said Golfsmith President and CEO Marty Hanaka. "Phil's win is great for the game and wonderful for Golfsmith and our valued retail and online customers."

"We couldn’t be happier that Phil claimed his third green jacket and that thousands of Golfsmith customers now will start off the season with a new Callaway driver, free of charge," said Brian Groves, VP of US Marketing, Callaway Golf.  "Callaway drivers are the hottest clubs on the PGA Tour and have already won six tournaments in 2010, including the season’s first Major."

Because the organizers of the promotion took out a  'prize indemnity policy,' the money sent back to driver purchasers will actually come from an insurance company, not Golfsmith or Callaway.

If you are one of the people who purchased a Callaway driver during the designated time period, click here to learn how to get your money back from Golfsmith.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter | ClubTest 2010: Drivers

More than almost any golfer on tour, Phil Mickelson is willing to experiment and tinker with his golf equipment. He won the 2006 Masters using two drivers and the 2008 Colonial carrying five wedges. He broke out a 64° wedge at Winged Foot for the U.S. Open in 2006, inspiring other players to carry super-high-lofted wedges.

He's also used a wide variety of putters over the years. Notably, Mickelson was the first player to use a Scotty Cameron Futura in a PGA Tour event. It wasn't pretty, but Mickelson made it work.

While he's also used a variety of mid-size mallets and heel-toe weighted Anser-style putters, these days Mickelson is using a classic blade putter, a White Hot XG Blade, made by Odyssey, the putter-arm of Callaway Golf. Unfortunately for Mickelson fans, his blade is not a part of Odyssey's current line, so it's not available to the public.

There are a few things that make Phil's old-school putter unique.

"[Manufacturers] have never been able to put a line on a blade putter," he said at Colonial in 2008, a week after spending some time at Callaway's testing facility in Carlsbad, Calif. "But with the way they can grind it now, they were able to put a line in it. I can align it so much better."

While his current blade has a darker finish than the one he used that week, Mickelson still has Odyssey grind a line into his putter to assist him with alignment.

There is an insert in the face of the putter, but that's a variable he can change. An Odyseey rep told me that the company has supplied Phil with several identical putters that feature different inserts, some being firmer while others are softer. Based on the ball he's playing and the speed of the greens, Phil changes putters accordingly.

The same thing goes for the lead tape you see in these photos. On slower greens, like those found on the West Coast Swing or in Europe, he often adds weight. On faster greens he uses less or removes the weight entirely. There was no lead tape on Phil's putter at Augusta National.

Another unique thing about Mickelson's blade is the amount of loft he uses. The standard loft on most putters is between 3°-4°. But Mickelson's putter has slightly more because of his stroke. He recently told Golf Digest, "The amount of loft you have on your putter is going to be dependent on your hand position and ball position. My hand position is ahead, so I need more loft. Sometimes I have 5° or 6° on my putters."

So will a blade putter like Mickelson's help you drain more putts like his 20-footer for birdie on the 12th hole Sunday? That all depends on your stroke and how consistently you can hit a solid putt.

A blade putter is ideal for golfers who swing the club on an arc, taking it inside the target line on the backswing and follow-though. If your putting stroke goes straight back and then straight through the ball, a blade-style putter is probably a poor fit.

When you strike the ball in the sweetspot of a blade, it will perform wonderfully. But with almost no perimeter weighting, putts hit near the toe or on the heel will be short and offline. Forgiveness is not a blade putter's strong suit.

If you have your heart set on trying a blade, talk to your PGA professional or club fitter about a Wilson Staff 8882,  Cleveland's 1905, Yes! Sophia or a Scotty Cameron Napa.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Odyssey and Callaway, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter | ClubTest 2010: Putters

DRIVER:  Nike Victory Red Tour (10°) with a Graphite Design Tour AD DI 83x shaft
FAIRWAY WOODS:  Nike SasQuatch Sumo (15°, 19°) with Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 103g shafts
IRONS: Nike Victory Red Blades (3-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts
WEDGES:  Nike Victory Red (56°, 62°) with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts
PUTTER:  Titleist by Scotty Cameron Newport 2
BALL:  Nike One Tour

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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DRIVER: Ping G10 (9.0°) with a Aldila PGA Tour Only Prototype XNV6 shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: Ping i15 (14°) with a UST Mamaya V2 76X shaft, Rapture V2 (19°) with Aldila NV75 X shaft
IRONS: Ping i10 (3-PW) with Ping JZ stiff shafts
WEDGES: Ping Tour-W (54°, 58°) with Ping JZ stiff shafts
PUTTER: Ping Redwood Anser
BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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DRIVER: TaylorMade r7 Limited (8.5˚) with Aldila NV 75X shaft
HYBRID: TaylorMade Rescue TP (19˚) with a Tour AT UT 85 shaft
IRONS: Ping G15 (3-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold S100 shafts
WEDGES: PING G15 (52˚, 56˚), Tour-W (60˚) with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 shafts
PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot #2
BALL: Titleist Pro V1

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping, TaylorMade and Odyssey/Callaway clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photo by Fred Vuich/SI)

Below is a complete list of Phil Mickelson's Masters clubs. For a close-up look at his unique Odyssey blade putter, go here.

DRIVER: Callaway FT-9 Tour Authentic (7.5°) with a Mitsubishi Fubuki 73 X shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: Callaway Big Bertha Diablo (15°) with a Mitsubishi Fubuki 73 X shaft
HYBRID: Callaway Prototype (22°) with a Mitsubishi Diamana Thump X shaft
IRONS: Callaway X-Forged (4), X Proto (5-PW) with Rifle Project X 7.0 shafts
WEDGES: Callaway JAWS (53°, 60°, 62°) with Rifle Project X 7.0 shafts
PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot XG Blade (Learn More)
BALL: Callaway Tour ix

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC

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(Photo by Fred Vuich/SI)

DRIVER: King Cobra ZL (9.5°) with a Fujikura 6.0 Motore Speeder X shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist 909F2 (13.5°) with a Fujikura Rombax 7X07 shaft, Titleist 906F2 (18°) with a Grafalloy ProLite 35 shaft
HYBRID: Titleist 909H (21°) with an Aldila NV Hybrid 85 X shaft
IRONS: King Cobra Pro CB (4-7), Pro MB (8-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shafts
WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled C-C (54°, 60°)
PUTTER: Rife Antigua
BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cobra and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Golf equipment aficionados study Tiger Woods's gear closely, so maybe a few noticed that the irons the game's No. 1 player is using at the Masters look a little different.

They are ... sort of.

Although he began 2009 using Nike Victory Red Blade irons, Tiger switched to an old set of Nike Forged Blades at the Memorial and continued to use those clubs for the rest of the season.

I asked him at the U.S. Open why he made the switch and he said, "I went back to an old set that I had played before and had some success with, so I went back to that."

But this week, the Victory Red Blades are back in the bag.

I asked Rick Nichols, Nike Golf's field tour manager, about the clubs.

"Some players have a custom grind, and he is playing a custom-grind VR Blade," Nichols told me shortly after Tiger teed off Thursday. "The topline, the sole, we do some custom grinding for some of the guys."

Nichols wouldn't get more specific than that, but Woods hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation on Thursday, so Nike has to think this set of irons may stay in his bag for a while.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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DRIVER: TaylorMade R9 460 (8.5°) with a Fujikura Speeder 757 shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: Callaway FT-i (15°) with a Harrison Mugen 105 shaft
IRONS: TaylorMade Tour Burner (2), Bridgestone J38 (3-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour shafts
WEDGES: Callaway X-Forged (54°, 58°) with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour shafts
PUTTER: TaylorMade Rossa Imola belly putter
BALL: Bridgestone B330-S

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Bridgestone, TaylorMade and Callaway clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photo by John Biever/SI)

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Nike has several golfers in the field this week at the Masters. And each of them received some very unique gifts from the company on the eve of the tournament, including a green-and-yellow pair of Nike sneakers. Each player's first name was stitched on the back of the left shoe, and the last name was on the right. Below is a photo of the shoes given to Francesco Molinari.

But wait, there's more. Several players were also given a green track jacket with their name embroidered on the front. However, as past champions, Trevor Immelman and Tiger Woods were given white jackets. Above Immelman's name was a single star to symbolize his 2008 victory; there were four stars placed above Tiger's name to represent each of his wins.

Inside, discreetly screened into the back of each jacket, is an image of the famous oak tree that stands behind the clubhouse at Augusta National.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photos by David Dusek)

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- It seems appropriate that the first bag we publish in the Shop Blog from the 2010 Masters is that of the defending champion, Angel Cabrera. Ping made Cabrera a special Masters-themed bag to use here this week, and his son, Angelito (below), will proudly carry it for his father during the tournament.

DRIVER: Ping i15 (8°) with Aldila RIP 80X shaft
FAIRWAY WOOD: Ping G15 (15.5°) with Aldila RIP 80X shaft
HYBRID: Ping i15 (17°) with Aldila ProtoPype 105X shaft
IRONS: Ping i15 (3, 4) S57 (5-PW) with Rifle 7.0 shafts
WEDGES: Ping Tour-W (54°), Tour-W TS (60°) with Rifle 7.0 shafts
PUTTER: Ping iSeries 1/2 Craz-E
BALL: Titleist Pro V1x

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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(Photo: Ping Golf)