The big advantages of this device are that it fits in the bag (and as an accessory, does not count against your club count), can be placed anywhere on the fairway or green and keeps your cigar level and at an easy-to-grasp height instead of close to the ground or hanging off of your club bag.

It was invented by John Nicastro and Tom Tracy and is distributed by NTI Products of West Chester, Pennsylvania. It’s reasonably priced at $24.95 and is available at some Pennsylvania smokeshops, but mostly online.

Beyond its obvious utility, you’ll be the talk of your foursome when you bring this thing out for the first time.

More specialty cigars coming to Davidoff’s New York stores:
The seemingly endless march of specialty products, offered only at the Davidoff of Geneva stores on Madison Avenue and at Columbus Circle in New York, is continuing.

The newest item is a small line, created and manufactured at the Davidoff factory in the Dominican Republic, called the Winston Churchill. It’s reportedly made with what are termed “all-Cuban seed” tobaccos, including an Ecuadorian-grown wrapper, Dominican-grown binder and Nicaraguan and Peruvian filler leaves. Promising a full-bodied smoking experience, it is being offered in four sizes at prices similar to those charged for the Davidoff line. The official announcement of the line is scheduled for February.

Also arrived in Davidoff’s U.S. stores is the sensational Davidoff Royal Salamones, a giant, 8 1/4-inch by 57-ring perfecto. It was introduced in June at a special dinner in New York, but delivery of the regular production cigars only came recently. This shape is cellophaned and offered only in cabinets of 50, at $45 per cigar or $2,250 for the full box. Reportedly, only 100 boxes (5,000 cigars total) have been made, split among the seven Davidoff stores: two in New York and five in Las Vegas.

FDA control of tobacco legislation on hold . . . for now:
With the year-end coming quickly, legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco products is on hold, but will come up for a serious vote next year.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported that “Supporters of a pair of similar bills in the House and Senate – including several leading anti-smoking and cancer research groups – argue that FDA regulation would further curtail tobacco marketing messages aimed at young people and bring about a reduction in cigarette nicotine levels.”