Blue Hen Invitational set for Oct. 18-19

The University of Delaware Lady Blue Hens women’s golf team hosts its 12^th annual Battle at the Beach at Rehoboth Beach Country Club Oct. 18-19.

College golf fans are welcome to come watch the action.

Participating teams include host UD, Dartmouth College, Delaware State University, Georgetown University, Howard University, University of Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University, Sacred Heart University, Seton Hall University, St. John’s University, Yale University, and Youngstown State University.

Each team uses five players. Some schools are adding a few more individual golfers to the field, but their scores will not count toward the team total.

The competition uses the club’s popular bayside 19th hole as the 10th, set at 140 yards, with the entire course length running at over 6,100 yards.

The teams are scheduled for practice rounds Friday, Oct. 17. The next day begins before sunrise with the opening of the putting and chipping areas, followed by a shotgun start for 36 holes at 8:30 a.m.

The club is hosting a welcome dinner Saturday evening.

Sunday’s start again arrives before the sun, with an 18-hole round with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. The awards presentation should take place mid-afternoon.

2025 marks the 25^th anniversary of college golf tournaments in the Cape Region, which began at Kings Creek Country Club with an event presented by the George Washington University’s men’s golf team. It remains a popular tournament destination for fall college golf - with good reason.

Zero Friction

I visit the folks at Zero Friction every year at the PGA Show because there’s always something new to see.

The Chicago-area company sells tees, gloves, balls, and golf bags as well as other accessories. It is perhaps best known for its Zero Friction tees, a pronged design that has spawned more than a few imitators. It is also well known for multicolored, one-size-fits-all golf gloves. The gloves’ fit design makes it possible for several colors to be displayed at one time, making them far more marketable within the crowded confines of a pro shop. 

Zero Friction also has a presence in large-box retail stores such as Walmart, especially with its golf balls. I focused on that segment when I went to its booth at the PGA Show in Orlando last January and met Michael Wuhland, the supply chain operations manager. 

We first looked at the new Tru Roll balls. These feature a series of alignment stripes to help with putting, in a choice of three colors. The two-piece, urethane-covered design sells for $21.99 a dozen.

For the budget-conscious who can also lose several balls in a single round, the Vibe model offers glossy multicolored balls in a box of 36 for only $34.99 SRP. The high-gloss finish should make them easier to find in what we might charitably call less-desirable locations somewhere on the golf course.

Mantra

Creating an apparel line is a well-trodden path to success for those seeking to become part of the multibillion-dollar golf industry.

For the past several PGA Shows, I have checked out some of the smaller clothing lines, seeing what made them tick and what seemed to succeed. For several of these companies, the first step seemed to be to invent a cool logo that people wanted to wear. From that first bit of artistry came eventual success.

Dominic Natalizio and Ashley Revay of Mantra took a different approach. Instead of highlighting a logo, they went with a drastic change in the collars of their polo shirts. 

The Mantra collar is a near-cousin to the Nehru jacket collars of the 1960s, or perhaps a clerical collar without the white band. No part of the fabric turns down. Instead, each side stands tall and a little pointed toward the middle. 

The collar escapes from the ordinary, and after five years’ experience it has been a nice success for the small company.

Natalizio said the fabric used for most of their styles is a blend of recycled polyester and Tencel. This mixes cotton with fibers derived from eucalyptus trees, much like the rayon created from bamboo.

In a nod to the more traditional, the company also sells normal point collar polos as well. Natalizio said the market reach of both versions varies. “The direct-to-consumer sales at our website gets a lot of Mantra collar orders. We’ve also done well with it at places like TPC Scottsdale. On the other hand, the point collars sell at more traditional clubs, like Belair CC,” he said.

For those golfers looking for cool little logos, Mantra handled that task as well. Natalizio showed me the tiny blue-footed booby that adorns the company’s caps and other items. This year’s booby cap was so popular it sold out.

Revay showed me several of their new women’s lines, released in May. She highlighted a small loop at the bottom of the polo placket. “It’s for your sunglasses,” she explained.

As happens with several innovations, as soon as I saw the loop I wondered why it hadn’t been incorporated into golf shirts universally. Perhaps that day will come sooner than later.