I’m all about practical solutions – especially when those solutions tend to be rather stylish to boot. So I was pretty excited (or as excited as one can be to test out a belt buckle) when I received The Golfer’s Belt Buckle in the mail.

We golfers tend to carry a lot of things in our pockets: tees; extra ball; ball marker; divot repair tool; pencil and scorecard…let’s face it, our pants pockets can get pretty crowded. And trying to fish-out any one of the aforementioned items can be…well, annoying (and painful if you happen to impale a finger on the divot tool or pencil).

The good news is, there’s a new product on the market that can help free-up some pocket space – it’s called The Golfer’s Belt Buckle and it’s the brain-child of Colin Smith, whose company is called On The Green. The buckle neatly hides a divot repair tool and ball marker, while still allowing the golfer to easily remove and replace said tools as needed.

On first inspection, Mr. Smith’s buckle isn’t too big (which is a good thing considering all the giant buckles out there these days) and it seems to be well-crafted and made of extremely durable metal. A quick check of On The Green’s website confirmed my suspicions:

“…we chose a highly refined metallurgic manufacture process: metal injection molding, the same production process used for aerospace, automotive, medical instrument, and firearm component production. Likewise, to ensure a durable and smooth, yet color versatile exterior, we chose an electrostatically applied powder coat finish. Powder coating has become the preferred finish for durable metal parts, especially in the automotive and bicycle industries. It is environmentally friendly because it does not have a liquid carrier (as would paint) and therefore is not a significant source of volatile organic compounds. Finally, to ensure there would be no jiggling or risk of the tools falling out, strong magnets were included to hold the tools securely.”

I recently wore the buckle out on the course for 18-holes. I will admit, it took me a couple of holes to get used to finding and removing the tools efficiently, but once I went through the motions a few times, I began to really appreciate how convenient this buckle really is. And by the back 9, I became consciously aware of the time and (perhaps more importantly) the frustration it saves from rummaging through your pockets searching for the right tool.

On the green, you don’t want to lose focus – If you consider the time you spend (even if it’s 4 or 5 seconds) feeling for the ball marker in your pocket when you could be mentally concentrating on lining up your putt, you begin to realize how this buckle could even help you save a stroke or two!

Perhaps best of all, the buckle is pretty stylish (as far as belt buckles go). If you get the black, as I am wearing in the photo above, it can look like a normal, modern belt buckle. But you can jazz-it-up too, as it comes in 12 colors! And you can specify a different color for the tools, so the buckle can be multi-colored (to reflect the colors of your alma matter, for example).

I’ll definitely continue to wear The Golfer’s Belt Buckle when I’m on the course – it’s practical, stylish and might even help me play better! The buckle retails for $35. You can purchase it alone (if you already have a belt strap to pair it with) or you can purchase a strap from On The Green for an extra $20. Mr. Smith sent me a black cotton webbing strap, which worked fine (On The Green also offers leather straps and in multiple colors too).

Oh yeah, and Mr. Smith was nice enough to send me a second buckle (in black) to give away free to one of you! Just head on over to our Facebook page around 3PM EST today (Nov 7th) and “Like” (adding a comment helps too) the post on our wall entitled: “Win The Golfer’s Belt Buckle” – That’s it! We’ll choose one random winner next week!