I’ve never been particularly good at answering these questions, “What do you want for (Christmas/Your Birthday/Anniversary/Father’s Day)?”

I’m not much of a gadget guy: until this spring, I was still rocking a BlackBerry phone.  If people want to buy me clothes, I usually ask for things that are tried and true and don’t require much stylistic judgment: socks, khaki pants, or maybe a pre-screened selection of button down dress shirts.

However, in addition to all the other reasons I love the golf, it has given me infinite gift ideas that I can now pass along to family or friends that insist on giving me a gifts for holidays.

Since I walk the majority of golf rounds, even during the sweltering Kentucky summers, I got the idea from the fellas over at Three Guys Golf that I could use a good scorecard holder.

I’m old-fashioned: I like using a paper scorecard.  Sure, I’ve got a couple of apps on my phone that would keep my score, record my shot statistics, and remind of far I don’t hit my individual clubs, but I still like using the course provided pencil and paper scorecard.

And frankly, I’d grown tired of my scorecards disintegrating in my back pocket somewhere before I’d made the 9th green.

So after reading a few reviews and performing my own perfunctory research, I decided to move a CarveOn Scorecard Holder to the top of my Christmas season wish list.

CarveOn is a small, family owned Irish company that apparently does all of their own craftsmanship, with a nice little background story that you can read all about on their website.  While I whole heartedly support buying local, the CarveOn holder was pretty much exactly what I was looking for, so

Importantly, they do fill orders to the United States, but because their prices are denominated in Euros, the actual cost fluctuates due to relative currency value changes.  Still, at approximately $70.00 for a customized scorecard holder, I felt it wasn’t much of a risk placing an order.

Once I received my scorecard holder, I was impressed with the quality.  It looks and feels professionally made rather than leaning towards the more “arts and crafts” feel small artisan shops sometimes produce.  The leather smells…well…like leather is supposed to smell: delicious.

Also, as first impressions go, the CarveOn holder felt good in my hands.  The leather is sturdy and firm without being bulky.

The scorecard holder is slightly larger than 5″ x 7″ (14.5 cm x 20 cm), so it can hold most scorecards with ease, while it’s compact enough to fit seamlessly into both front and back pockets of every pair of shorts or slacks that I wear.

The corner flaps do a wonderful job of holding the scorecard in place during a round so that there is no fiddling or fidgeting when trying to quickly record a score.

As a testament to how well the pencil holder does it’s job, I’m still currently using the CarveOn pencil that came with the scorecard holder in January.

As you’ll notice on the CarveOn website, with only four colors available, there aren’t a lot of options to choose from.  That’s just fine by me; I’m a traditionalist and the dark brown leather was exactly what I wanted.

For those wanting to exhibit a little more creativity on their scorecard holder, customized text (in four available fonts) and the crossed-clubs logo are included in the price of each item.

If that isn’t enough for you, CarveOn accepts requests to include a personalized or corporate logo on their products, presumably for an additional fee.

While my scorecard holder sports my given name, whenever I order something new from them, I’m looking forward to making further use of the great Blog logo Herb McNally worked up for me.

And I’m sure I will be ordering from CarveOn in the future, because I couldn’t be more satisfied with my scorecard holder.

It’s just a little bit of cool that I enjoy having on me during a round of golf and it has done a great job of preserving my scorecards on the course.  They no longer disintegrate in my pocket, and as a bonus, I never have to search for my pencil like a smoker that can’t find his lighter.

If you predominately play your golf from a cart, there probably isn’t much use to you for a scorecard holder.  But that is about the circumstance in which I wouldn’t recommend the CarveOn scorecard holder.

My scorecard holder has been a great addition to my on course paraphernalia, fixing a problem that I no longer wanted to have, and adding a little bit of #TourSauce to my otherwise incredibly unremarkable golf course style.

If you have a golfer in your life that you struggle to find quality gifts for, or if you’re a golfer that’s tired of receiving cheesy personalized Pinnacle balls for Christmas, consider adding this accessory to your list.