Find elegance, efficiency (or both!) with these fancy and functional flasks

ICYMI: 8 amazing resorts for golfers (and their families!) to visit this fall

***

It was a frigid, windy winter day in Eire, circa 2008 — the sort of climate that requires so many layers you may barely bend your arm sufficient to swing the membership. Nevertheless it was dry, and I used to be taking part in golf abroad for the primary time, so being chilly was no excuse to overlook out on the journey.

As a strictly fair-weather golfer, this sort of on-course discomfort was a brand new expertise for me. The chilly was positively bone-chilling. However then, midway via the spherical, salvation got here within the type of a piping sizzling Irish espresso on the midway hut. It was simply what the physician ordered. One gulp and the whiskey did its work. My shivering instantly subsided, a warming sensation coursed via my limbs, and I felt a brand new power to battle on with the spherical.

Our good friend and taking part in companion, Colin, defined that he retains a flask of whiskey in his golf bag year-round for simply such circumstances. You by no means know when a “wee nip” will should be referred to as upon to avoid wasting the day — or just your spherical.

Such is the good energy of the standard flask, a useful, concealable vessel created to discreetly home the libation of your alternative. Up till that blustery Irish day, I’d by no means held a flask, not to mention taken a swig from one. However you may guess from that day ahead, I thought-about it a necessary piece of golf gear — particularly when taking part in within the chilly you would possibly expertise within the fall or winter.

Now that I’ve turn into an Arizona transplant, the necessity for warming spirits on the course has lessened considerably. However the usefulness of sustaining a number of ounces of hooch useful stays.

Maybe you’re a fan of Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz’s in style GOLF podcast and are acquainted with the idea of “birdie juice” — that’s, celebrating a birdie with a tasty libation. Relying on how and with whom you’re taking part in, this may doubtlessly contain a large bar tab. So, as a substitute of downing a whole cocktail, many golfers maintain a number of mini bottles of their favourite spirit of their golf bag for sharing with their taking part in companions each time the event calls for. However, as anybody who has loved a serving of birdie juice is aware of, it tends to vanish fairly rapidly. (Particularly in a web format.)

So, until you propose to inventory your bag with a number of miniature bottles of alcohol, investing in a flask is a way more prudent approach to observe the birdie juice ritual. And, choices abound, from the traditional Stanley flask, which holds eight ounces of liquid, to modern options like these of Excessive Camp’s Torch flask and VSSL’s mannequin, which incorporate shot glasses straight into the design.

So, which flask is finest suited to golfers? Whereas that may differ from individual to individual, I made a decision to ask somebody who is aware of his whiskey from his, ahem, whisky. Brian Cox is the vp of Dewar’s Scotch Whisky, North America, and the very first thing he recommends is to pay shut consideration to your flask’s materials make-up.

“I’m in opposition to the previous conventional pewter or sterling-silver flasks,” Cox messaged lately by way of e-mail. “I’ve at all times discovered that they’re very troublesome to maintain clear. However stainless-steel does work. Simply be sure to don’t use dishwashing cleaning soap to wash it otherwise you’ll by no means do away with the odor and style of cleaning soap.”

Smart recommendation certainly. And Cox brings up an necessary level: A correct flask mustn’t impart any of its materials’s taste into your spirit. The ivory ceramic flask from Misc. Items Co. is totally glazed each inside and outside to keep away from the potential for tainting the spirit with any undesirable taste in addition to to protect the spirit with out diminishing its high quality.

Man Sporbert, a licensed whisky specialist and the senior Scotch ambassador on the Westin Kierland in Scottsdale, Ariz., introduced up one other salient level for flask consumers: Prioritize high quality.

“Don’t go too low cost since you don’t need any good whisky leaking into your pocket as a consequence of poor development,” he emailed. “And don’t overlook to additionally spend money on a funnel, which is necessary for filling.”

Extra prudent recommendation, to make certain. Yet one more nugget earlier than you go: Don’t waste a drop.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will be able to out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily accountable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular initiatives, akin to GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview sequence, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video kind on GOLF.com.