Golfing News & Blog Articles

It’s amazing to see how many putts the professionals sink. If you practice their techniques, you can putt with the same amazing precision and win more dough on the course. Pros work on (1) reading the break, (2) feeling the distance and (3) learning how to hit a straight putt up their target line. This blog is a summary of Andrew Tursky’s recent article covering the techniques used by Aaron Baddeley, one of the PGA Tour’s best putters of the last 20 years. [In 2004 Baddeley finished in the top-10 in the putting category ten times and he led the tour in 2015 which is nearly unmatched.]

“Poor putting tends to wear down the psyche of a golfer more than any other part of the game.” Aaron’s putting strategies and practice tips may be your gateway to success:
1) Just putt it: Baddeley’s approach is to allow his inner athlete take over, rather than doubts or concerns. “I just putt…I just try and hole it,” Baddeley says. “It sounds funny, but it’s like throwing a ball to first base.” He sees downhill putts gently falling over the front lip of the cup and on uphill putts he sees the ball going into the back of the cup. From there, he simply reacts to the speed he has in his mind.
Speed Drill 1: Find a putt with a good amount of break on your practice green, and place three balls down about 4-5 feet from the cup. Hit each putt with different speed; one fast, one slow, and one medium. Each putt will break differently, and over time, you’ll get comfortable controlling the speed needed for all 3 balls to tumble into the hole.
Speed Drill 2: The tee drill. Surround a practice hole with tees at around 5-6 feet, and go around the circle from tee-to-tee hitting putts at the cup. This helps simulate the different breaks of putts you’ll see on the course.

2) Setup the same way every time: The swing needs to be is exactly the same to hit the center of the face to create straight putts. Only the swing distance changes to compensate for distance. To ensure he sets up the same distance from the ball on every stroke, Baddeley uses his putter head to measure the distance from the golf ball to his feet. His sweet spot is 3.5 putter head lengths. At that distance, Baddeley has his eyes over the ball in the proper spot where he can make a free-flowing stroke. Measure your gap and check it (while your play) if your putts stop sinking.

3) “Measure” your aim: Baddeley says the most important part of putting is aiming the face properly at your starting line. Reading the putt correctly is only half the battle. Butch Harmon taught Baddeley to putt off the end of a ruler to get his putter face square. Setup a ruler about 10 feet from a hole and pointed directly at the hole on a dead straight putt. When you setup to the ball, check to see if the ruler looks like it is pointing left or right of your target? Hit putts to see what “square” really feels like.

Improve your putting by practicing to feel the break and to set up exactly the same way with a square putter face to hit up your target line. The GOLFSTR+ Training Aid is a great way to practice putting with your locked leading wrist and to build your confidence for your successful putting. By one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

Starting next week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the PGA Tour will no longer require fully vaccinated players to wear masks indoors.

Steve Stricker said Tiger Woods has "got some ways to go" in recovering from injuries related to his car crash in February, but the U.S. Ryder Cup captain would like Woods to serve as an assistant on the team in September.

Rory McIlroy is the consensus favorite at sportsbooks around the nation to win this week's PGA Championship.

New COBRA KING 3D Putter line features high-MOI designs facilitated by new nylon 3D-printing technologies.New COBRA KING Vintage putters are COBRA’s interpretations of classic putter head shapes.All putters will be available for pre-order today and will ship June 4.

COBRA is launching not one but two new putter lines. If memory serves, other than its less-than-well-known box set offerings, this is the first time we’ve seen COBRA putters since Bobby Grace’s name was on them. It’s been a minute.

So what took so long?

COBRA has long maintained that it wasn’t going to make a putter just to say it did. The timing had to be right and given COBRA’s culture of innovation, category-advancing technology had to be part of the equation as well.

The proper timing comes courtesy of the COVID boom where, in 2020 alone, an estimated 998,000 putters were sold to the tune of $200 milllion in the U.S.A. alone. Globally, golf has exploded. There’s never been a more receptive market.

The category-advancing technology comes by way of 3D printing and a Sik face insert. With last year’s limited release of the Supersport 3D-printed putter, COBRA gave us a peek at what they were working on. With the Supersport 3D, the entire putter was 3D printed. The retail KING 3D putter series is taking a different approach.

MyGolfSpy Ball Lab is where we quantify the quality and consistency of the golf balls on the market to help you find the best ball for your money. Today, we’re taking a look at the 2021 Bridgestone e12 Contact. 

About the Bridgestone e12 Contact

The Bridgestone e12 Contact replaces both the prior-gen e12 Soft and e12 Speed. The e12 Contact is instantly recognizable by its Contact Force Dimple pattern which puts 38 percent more surface area in contact with the clubface. Bridgestone says that helps create better energy transfer (more speed), straighter flight and more spin around the green. On paper, it check all of the boxes.

The e12 Contact is a three-piece ionomer cover ball with 326 dimples. Given its low compression, we can reasonably expect high launch and low spin on full shots.

All of our samples were manufactured at Bridgestone’s U.S.A. ball plant.

Bridgestone e12 Contact—Compression

On our gauge, the Bridgestone e12 Contact has an average compression of 61. That’s about eight points softer than the prior generation e12 Soft. Though not as soft as the 2019 e6, the e12 Contact is still among the softest balls we’ve tested to date.

The defending champion has had the same coach since age 8, when he first showed up and paid the going rate. Collin Morikawa's team, despite all his success, has changed very little.

Our experts weighed in with a range of choices, from those looking to end droughts to those trying to grab that elusive first major title.

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island is difficult -- and could get even more difficult if the wind blows. So who has what it takes? Who could stun everyone? Who should just be happy to be on property?

Perhaps the best field of the year will tee it up this week for golf's second major. Here are our best bets for the event.

PGA CEO Seth Waugh said Tuesday that he expects a "full fan experience" when the Ryder Cup, postponed a year, is played Sept. 24-26 at Whistling Straits near Kohler, Wisconsin.

Here are the tee times for the first and second round of the 2021 PGA Championship.

Brooks Koepka, who is playing at the PGA Championship this week, said that he can deal with the pain as he recovers from a right knee injury but that doctors have said he's still six months away from a full recovery.

Collin Morikawa will begin his PGA Championship title defense by teeing off with reigning Masters champ Hideki Matsuyama and U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau in one of eight featured groups at Kiawah Island.

When DON’T you have to break the bank on golf equipment? We also talk the TaylorMade sale and Tony answers your burning golf ball questions.

0:17 – Taylormade sold for $1.6B10:00 – When to save17:15 – When to spend22:29 – Golf Ball Q&A: Crafty core coloring?27:46 – Have golf balls peaked in performance?31:34 – The most overhyped/underrated tour balls?34:09 – Does handicap matter for using a tour ball?41:27 – Which balls do we play?47:02 – How do I determine the best ball for me?

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The post When to Save, When to Spend | NPG 83 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

Rory McIlroy was struggling. Enter Pete Cowen, whose guidance helped McIlroy get a win two weeks ago. But can he help him end his 7-year majors drought?

The new Precision Pro R1 rangefinder combines the functions of a laser, GPS and cell phone.The R1 gives targeted yardages, plus front/middle/back GPS measurements.New MYSLOPE feature incorporates environmental and swing data to give club suggestions during play.

The new Precision Pro R1 rangefinder may be the most technologically advanced rangefinder ever. At its core, the Precision Pro R1 is a laser rangefinder but once you pair it to the Precision Pro app on your smartphone, the R1 becomes a complex data-crunching machine.

Sure, lots of laser rangefinders can give you a slope-adjusted reading but how many will also adjust the yardage for air density, air pressure, altitude and wind? The data digested and delivered is substantial and it all starts with the R1’s MYSLOPE algorithm.

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MYSLOPE Functionality

Not content with just adjusting yardages for slope, the data analysts at Precision Pro have taken environmental measuring to the next level with MYSLOPE. This proprietary algorithm taps into the endless streams of data provided by our smartphones. Once you load and launch the Precision Pro app, the MYSLOPE system will compile environmental data and give you a yardage that factors in the influences of slope, elevation, humidity and wind. You won’t even need to have your phone out as all the numbers are delivered directly into the viewfinder of the R1.

On top of this, the display will also feature front/middle/back of green yardages based upon GPS measurements. So, in the display, you have the yardage you shot with the laser, the adjusted laser value for environmental conditions and the GPS values. At that point, if you don’t hit the green, it’s not because you didn’t have a good number.

Spirit of the Game: Collin Morikawa—Coming Up Big

May 17, 2021

When it mattered the most, being short proved a great advantage for Cal alum Collin Morikawa.

This is not about his diminutive stature but rather his length off the tee. TPC Harding Park was a bombers’ paradise until the critical moment of the final round of last year’s PGA Championship on the short par-4 16th.

With the hole playing at 294-yards it was inviting players to have a crack, particularly as nine of them had been part of the lead during a frantic final round. Someone had to step up. Problem was, in these modern times of big hitters, for most of them, 294 yards is too short to wail away with driver.

Bryson DeChambeau hits his drives over 350 yards, so to Tony Finau. Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jason Day, Matthew Wolff, Cameron Champ … the list of long hitters in contention was long.

Thirty years ago, an anonymous ninth alternate won the PGA Championship. It was John Daly. As he triumphed, a family grieved, a father and husband killed at the tournament when he was struck by lightning. Daly and the family are forever linked.

Your Golf Ball Questions Answered

Over the past couple of weeks, we asked you to send in your golf ball-related questions. Suffice it to say there were more than we could handle in a single serving—which is awesome—but we picked a couple of handfuls. Here you go. If your question wasn’t answered, keep them coming and maybe we’ll do another one of these again.

Let’s get it.

Q (@richriker): Have we reached peak performance with golf balls? Is it now just about manufacturing cost savings and price points?

A: Balls sure as hell aren’t going to get longer but that’s been true for quite some time. As with all things golf, there is always room for gains through material advancement and companies will continue to tweak launch and spin profiles. Aerodynamics is the least understood area of golf ball design so there’s an opportunity, for example, to provide greater wind stability. You’re also going to see improved ionomer cover blends as brands try and get closer to urethane performance at a lower cost.