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Golf, Black Friday, Christmas what to get
What do you get for the golfer when you don’t know what they have or what they want? Here are some great ideas: Golf Book: Why you suck at golf Trunk Organizer for golf shoes, balls, tees, and other valuables. Golf equipment organizer For home storage of golf bags, clubs, and accessories Stores two golf bags Adjustable feet for leveling Sturdy metal construction, 32 by 16 by 37 inches ...
read moreWill Tiger Woods Select Ping as His New Clubs?
Let’s look at the facts: Tiger woods has used a Ping putter grip in the past. “Ping Putter” and “Tiger Woods” have the same number of characters. Subliminal marketing message, I like it. Tiger and Phil played Ping pong at the 2004 Ryder Cup. Coincidence? I think not. I really want to see Tiger and Bubba on the same brand. That’s enough for me.
read moreDiscontinued golf ball model? What do I play next?
I have a basic question for golf ball manufacturers. When you discontinue a golf ball, how do I know which model replaces it? I have found a ball that I like, the maker has discontinued it, none of the current models use the same words to describe it. They use words like ultra, mega, long, distance, feel, control, hex, but no specifications. I can understand if the don’t want to reveal competitive information, but at least publish a roadmap. I think without knowing the next evolution, many golfers will stray to other golf equipment manufacturers that are using the current buzzwords. Hydro-über-super-hot may catch the eye of the occasional golfer, but serious golfers want what they are used to, consistency, repeatability are words I like to think of when it comes to my golf ball. Titleist continues with the ProV1, and other models that are obvious to follow year after year. Why can’t the...
read moreGolf Equipment Made in the USA (Part 2)
As I mentioned in a previous post I am going to continue to research and find golf equipment that is made in USA. Club Glove: According to the companies web site, ClubGlove.com, their products are “Proudly made-in-the-USA.” While not golf related, I found a great alternative use for the Stiff Arm club protector. Normally used in a soft side club travel bag. I use it to hold up my boat cover. I tried numerous alternatives, but the Stiff Arm stays in place and the durable plastic head spreads the contact to the cover and prevents the pole from poking through the cover. CaddyIt: I have never used it, but it looks like a great idea. It allows easy placement in your normal putter spot in your bag. When needed, remove it from your bag and stick it in the ground (next to, but not in the green), then you can lean your wedges, hold your towel, and keep your putter off of the wet grass. Prevent bending over stresses and strains. According to their site, http://www.caddyit.com/ you can then lean up to four additional clubs with the grips facing up. Cool idea. Pure Grips: Listed on their FAQ page on their web site, http://www.puregrips.com/help All PURE Grips are made in our manufacturing plant in Tempe, AZ. They have a unique, tapeless installation. Even better, they can be easily removed and adjusted. I think these might be my next grips. Bettinardi Golf: Just South of Chicago Bettinardi golf is CNC milling their putter heads in the USS. According to their website, http://www.bettinardi.com, Matt Kuchar, J.B. Holmes and Brian Gay have used the Bettinardi putters. They have some neat videos on their site showing the actual CNC process to mill the putters. http://www.bettinardi.com/videos/ I hope you are enjoying this “Golf equipment made in the USA” series. Let me know if you know of more equipment manufactured in America or if these posts influenced your decision to buy...
read moreNeed some balls?
Great couple of videos from Top-Flite golf balls. I usually play Top-flite balls when not playing the Titleist ProV1, but they have discontinued my favorite model. Based on these commercials, I will definitely be giving these a try. Do you like the way they feel? Do you like to just wind up and really whack your...
read moreGolf Equipment Challenge
I have a challenge for the golf equipment manufacturers or golf magazines. Take 3 golfers or 3 groups of golfers from high, mid range and low handicaps. Have them play a round with their own clubs then give them the top ranked equipment (including golf balls and putters) or better yet, fit them with equipment that best fits the individual. Then, send them back to the course and publish how much they improved. As an added bonus, then have them go through some individualized instruction, then see how they do. What has more of an impact equipment or technique? I know when I got fit for clubs my game improved, but then I also had more of an interest and practiced more and played better. How about it Ping, Titleist, Golf Magazine, Taylormade, Callaway, Adams, GolfTips...
read moreWhat do I want Google Glass to do for my golf game?
I was recently invited to participate in the Google Glass Explorer program. Not sure if I will spend the $1500 to participate or not, but it got me thinking about how it might be used on the golf course. It seems like not too long ago we were wishing there would be some way to accurately read the distance to the hole and along came the laser range finder. Then the dedicated hand-held golf GPS. Soon after followed the GPS app for smartphones. Now I have a Garmin GPS golf watch (Garmin Approach S1 GPS Golf Watch). My golfing buddies often ask, “What does your wrist say”? Brainstorming about what I would like to see for the ultimate Google Glass Ultimate Golf App, here is what I came up with: Wind If the wind speed and direction are not available from the local weather source, maybe golf courses could be “Glass Enabled” offering hole-by-hole wind speed and direction. A 3D wind model with local Doppler radar would be a very nice to have. Distance to hole This is a no brainer, using standard GPS, you should be able to get distance to the front, middle, and back of the green. The green doesn’t change size very often, but the hole does. If the golf course was “Glass Enabled” they could provide a more accurate pin placement for the day. Pre-shot routine One of the best things I ever did for my golf game is to develop a pre-shot routine or for me a thought process. I mentally go through not only the motions of a routine, but also the one or two things I need to think about during my swing. I learned long ago, too many swing thoughts is a bad idea. I use the pre-shot routine to clear my head. If Glass would provide me with a short bullet-ed list of what I should remember it would be most helpful Show me the putting line This might be my favorite. A lot of technology would be needed for this to work correctly. I want to “see the line” when I look down at my ball. I want an augmented reality and see the actual line including distance to putt to overlaid on my vision. Log my score to the cloud I learned so much about my game when I started writing down what happened on each shot. I learned I need to practice more with my wedges inside of 75 yards. I learned my fairway 3 wood was an issue. I also learned that waiting for players in front of me destroyed my game. If Glass could track simple things like what club you used, what it did (simple things like slice, hook, topped, thin…) including shot distance to the cloud, you could go back and analyze it later. You can’t improve if you don’t know what you need to work on. I would sometimes go to the range and hit an entire bucket with one wedge. Find my ball Ever lose your ball in the middle of the fairway? This usually happens when you are having a great round. Glass should be able to tell you the direction and distance of the ball and as you walk up to it, highlight where your ball should be....
read moreWhere can I find golf equipment made in the USA?
I am looking for golf equipment made in the USA. This post starts a continuing series of what clubs, balls and other golf products are made in the United States. I like to buy products made in the US whenever practical. Here is what I have found so far. Titleist golf balls: The Titleist web site lists Ball Plant 2 and 3 in Massachusetts on their contact page. Bridgestone: Bridgestone has a great commercial all about being made in the USA. David Feherty in the video, the balls are engineered in Georgia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQxXD1L2Fno It features David Feherty, Freddie Couples, Paula Creamer, Davis Love III, Matt Kuchar, Lee Travino. Don’t miss the outtakes here: http://youtu.be/-c9A5DildVo Ping: According to MadeInUSAStuff, “PING has more club components produced in America than any other brand.” http://madeinusastuff.blogspot.com/2013/12/golf-clubs-made-in-USA.html They also go on to state that some of the offshore manufacturing has been caused by EPA laws. SKB Cases: I use one myself and LOVE it. They manufacture in the USA. Check out this HD video of the installation of a plastic injection molding machine. Notice how many workers it takes to install the machine. Great video, thanks SKB for posting this! Scratch Golf Clubs (based in Berkley Michigan): In 2010 Ari Techner at Scratch Golf Clubs posted, “We get extremely raw forgings from Japan and then we do all the rest of the manufacturing here in Chattanooga. Our putters are 100% made in the USA.” http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/365880-what-clubs-are-made-in-america-anymore/ Maybe made in the USA? Scratch Golf: Ari Techner mentioned in the link posted above, they were in talks with a foundry in US. I am trying to find out what ever came of...
read moreWhich is better golf GPS or laser?
What are your favorite golf aids? For years I used this great little app, and still do occasionally: http://gudensoft.com/projects/golf-gps-for-android/ This golf app allows you to download courses for free from its web site, or create your own. I have created about 20 myself. The nice thing about this app is that it not only shows you distance to front/middle/back of the green it also gives you the distance to a hazard. When you create your own course using “Course Maker”, it uses Google maps. You zoom in on the course of choice. Next you zoom in on the green of hole number 1 and click on “Add Hole 1”, Then it drops 4 flags. You then position front, middle and back flags (red, white, and blue respectively), then you get to position a “hazard” flag. I have had this app since it was only in a windows version. Then when I got my androids all of the courses ported over. Great job Gudy at GudenSoft! I know there are other apps out there, but I have to give a big thanks to Gudy at GudenSoft. For a “Christmas in July” present, I received a Garmin S1 golf watch. Awesome, simply awesome! I never have to pull out my phone, unlock it, wait for it to get a GPS sync. (although my Galaxy S4 Syncs VERY quickly). I simply look at my wrist and there it is. I never have to tell it what hole I’m on. One reason I find GPS better than laser is that when you have a blind shot, you can tell the distance. For example. I was on a dogleg and there were trees between me and the hole. The golf watch told me I had 140 to the middle of the green. For me this meant 9 iron. I knew with a 9 iron I would easily clear the trees. I stuck it to 10 feet from the hole and made the putt. With a laser I could not have gotten an accurate distance without line of site. My golf partner has a laser and I often find it more accurate than the GPS, but in times of not being able to see the pin (behind trees, over a hill, etc.) it is useless. If I had to pick one, I would recommend a GPS, but what I really want is a Golf Watch with GPS and laser. This would be the ultimate. My next (golf) fantasy would be to use the new Google Glass with an app that analyzed the green and showed you the line. This would be awesome. Let me know your...
read moreHow to Choose a New Golf Bag – What Features Should You Look For?
When looking for a new golf bag I found an overwhelming number of features to consider. I have written this post in an effort to help you understand a few of these or at least remind you what to look for in a new golf bag. Things to consider in a new golf bag One of the first things to consider is price. Sometimes bags can be expensive. Consider this, you will probably have this bag for more than 10 years. Amortize the price over the cost of 10 years and it doesn’t seem like so much. Also, look around. I found the bag that I wanted at a local shop (which I am very loyal to) for $295 but when I found the exact same bag on Amazon for $109, I couldn’t pass it up. Also consider purchasing in the fall. Sometimes you can find a very good bag at a discount just because they want to make room for new bags. While a golf bag won’t directly impact your score, there is something to be said for having everything right where you need it, when you need it. My old golf bag the inside bottom of the tubes were ripping and the material was grabbing the club and sometimes I couldn’t pull the club out of the bag. Sometimes 3 or 4 of the surrounding clubs would lift up as I was removing another club. Not only embarrassing, but frustrating and neither of those feelings help your golf game. Style; cart, stand or travel? If you primarily walk consider a stand bag and what the weight is. Will the stand mechanism stand (pun intended) up over time? I travel a lot with my clubs and needed to make sure my full cart bag would fit inside of my hard sided travel case (If you haven’t looked into the travel cases by SKB, you should. They are well worth the money). Another thing to consider with a cart bag is will it fit on the cart? My old bag was very wide and had huge pockets on the sides. Sometimes my playing partner’s bag and mine did not fit so well on the cart. I broke a pare of glasses cramming my bag onto the cart once. Features to consider: Where are the pockets and what purpose do they serve? Based on how you play, you probably know what you like to keep in your bag. Where will you put your new stuff in the new bag. Will it hold what you want? Think about valuables, cell phone, sunglasses, sunblock, balls, ball markers umbrella, extra gloves, does it have a beverage pocket? Where will you hang a towel and a club brush? Is it easy to get to tees and balls? Most bags come with 14 tubes for clubs, where will you put your ball retriever? The new bag I chose has slots for 14 clubs AND a separate putter well. This gives me a nice location for a ball retriever. Are the handles in the right locations? Will you be able to pick up your full bag and put it in the trunk of your car. Look for a handle at the base of the bag to assist in this effort. Does the bag come with a...
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