GBN Associate Editor Nick Bayly provides some of the highlights and talking points from the 2026 PGA Show, which saw the annual golf industry event at its most buoyant in decades following a period of unprecedented growth in the game on and off the golf course.
Attendance at the 2026 PGA Show almost mirrored the boom currently being experienced across global golf markets, with the 74th renewal of the annual trade event hosting more than 30,000 visitors and over 1,000 exhibitors drawn from all aspects of the golf industry over the course of the four-day event in Orlando, Florida.
After Tuesday’s well-attended Demo Day at Orange County National – which was thankfully blessed with dry but chilly weather – the first day of the exhibition at Orange County Convention Center on Wednesday was one of the busiest I’ve ever witnessed in my near 30 years of coming to the show, with the squeeze on space resulting in a significant number of smaller companies having to set up their booths around the edges of the show floor and even spilling out onto the concourse immediately outside the main exhibition halls.
HARDWARE HIGHLIGHTS
All the major manufacturers were present to showcase new product ranges – with the notable and continuing exception of TaylorMade – and there was a strong buzz around the Callaway booth, with its new Quantum range of woods and irons and the Odyssey Ai-Dual putter range, Titleist with its new Vokey SM11 wedges and updates to the Pro V1 Left Dot, AVX, Tour Soft and Velocity golf balls, plus a new range of Scotty Cameron low-torque putters.
PING’s booth – where I spotted dual Masters champion Bubba Watson visiting on Thursday – was busy with PGA Pros and retailers checking out the all-new G440 K driver, which joins the the three other 440 driver models launched last year. Living up to PING’s reputation for creating drivers with added forgiveness, the K model promises record levels of moment of inertia via weight-saving measures in the sole, crown, and hosel.
PXG’s sizeable and well-designed booth also attracted plenty of attention for what was the company’s debut appearance at the PGA Show, with its hi-tech space dominated by the launch of its new GEN8 0311 irons and Lightning Max drivers.
Vice Golf, previously best known for its golf ball range, is gradually making a name for itself in the hardware market with the new one-piece forged carbon steel VG103 irons looking sure to attract consumer interest this season.
The ever-rising retail prices of premium equipment, driven by significant investment in raw materials, R&D, staff costs, and in some cases, rises in import duties, was a major subject of conversation in the aisles and in the booths, and it remains to be seen how long the market can sustain drivers with standard issue shafts costing over £600 and putters over £300.
INDOOR GOLF BOOM
Pricing aside, the rise of indoor golf and its associated technologies was unquestionably the dominant theme on the show floor this year.
A significant chunk of the middle section of the main equipment hall was given over to a wide array of hitting bays, platforms and simulator spaces, with established brands such as Trackman, Foresight and Toptracer attracting large crowds eager to sample their updated tech, with the latter launching Toptracer IQ and Toptracer Go, while smaller outfits such as Fullswing, Uneekor, Inrange and Rapsodo also drew plenty of attention, the latter showcasing a new ceiling-based launch monitor with a six-camera set up called the CLM Pro.
Platform Golf, which made a big wave last year on its PGA Show debut doubled down with some new tech partnerships for its adjustable True Slope and True Break hitting platforms, as did Zen Golf, whose pioneering Active Terrain technology represents another significant innovation for the simulator and practice/coaching market.
LAUNCH MONITORS & GP
Shot Scope’s new LM1 launch monitor, which is set to retail at just £199, looks to be a gamechanger for the brand that mainly specialises in GPS and performance tracking devices. Offering basic metrics of clubhead speed, ball speed, smash factor, launch angle and carry and total distances, it will surely prove popular with range users for both indoor and outdoor locations.
Blue Tees Golf, renowned for its GPS speaker systems, is also entering the launch monitor market this year, with its Rainmaker R1, which also works as a simulator, looks set to rival other mid-price models Garmin, Rapsodo and Voice Caddie, with a price point of around $600 (£440).
Meanwhile, a brand moving into Blue Tees and Bushnell’s GPS speaker space is Mileseey, the Chinese-owned rangefinder company, which launched the GeneSonic Pro at the show. Its version boasts a Bluetooth speaker with built-in GPS, with the latter being removable from the unit for added flexibility.
Garmin issued updates to its handheld GPS offering, including the all-new G82, which is half launch monitor, half GPS device and is a big step up in the G80 that came before with its 5-inch screen, while a new GPS watch aimed specifically at junior golfers, the Garmin Approach J1, could also prove popular at retail.
As expected, integration with AI was a prominent theme throughout the show, with machine-learning models leveraged in everything from club design to business analytics to instruction.
PADEL & PICKELBALL TAKES CENTRE STAGE
One of the other reasons for the show floor feeling a little squeezed this year was the expansion of the space given over to fast-growing sports Padel and Pickleball. With full-size courts built to showcase both games, and at least half-a-dozen booths offering essential accessories, there were plenty of golfing die-hards questioning if either game has a place at the golf industry’s leading global trade event, despite both sports growing popularity among the golf & country club set-up.
APPAREL & FOOTWEAR
While the was plenty of excitement built around new technology, with the growth of Ai and the merging of indoor experiences with new software platforms, the apparel section of the show had something of a retro feel to it, with challenger brands such as Malbon showcasing collections that had a slight ‘old school’ feel to them, with classic knitwear, pleated trousers and cotton polos all making an appearances among the more performance-driven sportswear brands.
Nike Golf, which has been out of the hardware business since 2016, had a sizeable booth stacked with Swoosh-branded apparel and footwear, although even its space was overshadowed by Under Armour’s massive emporium, which reflected the brand’s dominance in the golf apparel market and growing share of global golf shoe sales.
The footwear section saw headline new models from FootJoy across its Pulse, Premier and Hyperflex models, Under Armour (Drive Fade 2) and Tiger Woods’ Sun Day Red brand, with the latter’s Presidio shoe, a spikeless design featuring a torsional traction plate and exposed traction lugs attracting plenty of interest courtesy of its eye-catching design.
The PGA Show’s traditional Wednesday night Fashion Show saw ten leading apparel brands, including – J.Lindeberg, Ashworth, A Putnam and Johnnie-O – showcase their latest collections on the catwalk, while the week’s entertainment ended on a tuneful note on Thursday night with the Winter Jam, when country music artist Dustin Lynch gave a free concert to send PGA Show attendees off with a bounce in their collective step as they prepare to kick start the 2026 golf season.
EDUCATION & LEARNING
The PGA Show also serves as a hub for professional education and networking. Conferences for PGA of America members, the Association of Golf Merchandisers and the National Golf Course Owners Association ran all week, offering a chance for industry members to discover the latest trends and gain new insights into subjects as diverse as club management, retail, coaching and staff recruitment.
Among the key topics in the education seminars this year included advice around retaining golf club members, tracking membership and visitor data, and the role that Ai in playing in all aspects of golf club operations. There were also seminars on the role of influencers and content creators in the marketing mix for clubs and resorts, with Nick Stubbe, aka ‘Fat Perez’ from popular YouTube channel Bob Does Sports, proving a big draw for a panel discussion on the subject on the opening day of the show.
FINAL THOUGHTS
My overall impression of the 2026 PGA Show was that it felt a much more ‘hands-on’ experience than ever before, with a larger number of booths offering attendees the chance to test products, whether it be on the driving range, within a simulator bay or putting green, making it feel like a much more visitor-friendly, interactive event.
From a media perspective, there were plenty of opportunities to engage with exhibitors, while a reserved space given over to the growing number of influencers and content creators to cover the event was very much welcomed. There were dozens of camera crews to be seen moving between booths capturing content for their various channels, all of which added an extra buzz to a show that seems to have made a good fist of reflecting the generally buoyant mood and younger demographic that currently exists around the game across all of its many and varied platforms.
If I had a slight niggle – and it’s only a slight one – is that the aisles on Wednesday and Thursday were packed with humanity to such an extent that it often felt like swimming through treacle trying to move from one end of the hall to the other without bumping into fellow attendees. While it’s a good problem to have if you’re the PGA of America or show organiser Reed Exhibitions, it could be time to expand the footprint of the show floor in order to make it a more enjoyable visitor experience in future years if this is the trajectory that the industry – and the show itself – is on.
Oh, and maybe lay on a few more healthy eating options for those show-goers who don’t want to pile on even more calories during a week of general excess!