Golfing News & Blog Articles

Golf Australia has aborted plans to reschedule the summer's premier three events, reluctantly cancelling the Australian PGA Championship, Australian Open and Women's Australian Open.

 

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Titleist TSi Drivers – Key Takeaways

Titleist has launched the new TSi series of drivers.The TSi2 offers higher launch and more forgiveness.The TSi3 offers a compact shape and adjustable weighting.Retail price is $549.

The new TSi driver lineup is the follow-up to Titleist’s surprising TS series. TS offered proof the company was capable of making something other than a high-spin driver and in doing so, reestablished Titleist as a serious player in the metalwoods market. It may even have helped shake the perception of Titleist as a golf ball company that also makes clubs.

That said, when designs shift as significantly as they did between 917 and TS, it’s reasonable to expect only modest changes from the next design.

You can’t fault me for thinking the i in TSi might be for iteration.

I was wrong.

Titleist TSi Fairway Woods – Key Takeaways

Titleist TSi fairway woods will be available in two models.The TSi2 features higher launch and greater forgiveness.The TSi3 offers a penetrating flight and movable weight technology.The retail price is $299.

As is typically the case, the Titleist TSi fairway woods won’t receive the same amount of attention as the TSi drivers but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story worth telling.

Titleist’s TSi fairway lineup will again include two models. Unfortunately for those looking for even more ATI 425, I’ve got nothing for you. TSi fairway woods feature 465 stainless steel faces. It’s not particularly exotic but it gets the job done.

Both the TSi2 and TSi3 are 175cc, so the visual distinction is again one of shape, not size. As was the case with TS, it’s important to understand that golfers who fit into the TSi3 driver may not fit into the TSi3 fairway. There’s little if any correlation between the two, which is why I’m going to fall back on one of my go-tos…

If at all possible, work with a fitter to determine whether TSi2, TSi3 or a pairing of the two is the right solution for your bag.

I’ve called this article “The Art of Putting”, because if you want to get better at it, it’s important that you become more of an artist and less of a technician on the greens.

In this week’s lesson, I’d like to show you how you can become a great putter by engaging more of the intuitive, “athletic mind” and less of the analytical, critical, ego-driven mind.

This is a key skill for putting well under pressure and lowering scores.

SWITCHING ON THE “ATHLETIC MIND”

The ball being stationary in golf can be both a positive and a negative. It’s a positive in the sense that you get time to consider the situation in front of you and figure out the best shot, but it can be a negative in the sense that it can open up a window of time for you to think before and during your stroke. Athletic motion is optimal when the mind is quiet – you’re not thinking – you’re using your senses to connect directly with your environment and using your “mind’s eye” to see (and feel) what you intend to happen. You are deeply focused and at one with your target and your intention.

Making the right length and speed of stroke and squaring the face to your intended start line (once you’ve set up and aligned correctly) requires you to have your “athletic mind” switched on and your “thinking brain” switched off. This is something that takes practice.

The U.S. Open champion gave an interview on Sirius/XM and was asked again about last week’s “mockery” comments from Matthew Fitzpatrick. Like Einstein and Newton, Bryson’s approach will be better understood by future generations.

“You Look at Einstein, you look at Newton, you look at all these big-time names in the science field there’s been a lot of people that have been called crazy. Decades later they’re like, wow, that person was actually pretty interesting, he did a lot of amazing things. I’m not saying that’s what I’m going to do but, shoot, I hope so one day. That’d be fun.”

That would be fun.

If the governing bodies cared about this distance stuff and the amazing cascade of events we’ve witnessed this year, they’d be alarmed by other DeChambeau suggestions of “no end game” to the distance pursuit and this on long drivers:

”They’re still 25 mph faster than me. I mean, there’s so much room for improvement, I feel like.”

Those thirsting for the original links won’t quite get it at the Fairmont St Andrews, a Sam Torrance design that looks overshaped and, well, isn’t Crail, Elie or the Old Course. But it beats the silliness of Shadow Creek!

Brandon Tucker offers this preview in case you saw St. Andrews on your European Tour listing and got excited. The fall Dunhill Links this is not, but we’ll take something seaside with St Andrews in the title no matter what. Lee Westwood headlines the Scottish Championship Presented by AXA.

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Jerry Tarde’s “Last Call” column in the pre-November Masters issue makes a terrific case for what’s been lost with the end of true three-shot holes.

There’s something about the symphony of a par 5 that makes it greater than the sum of its shots. It requires more forward thinking, more self-restraint and sufferance, risk and reward at once. It can be cataclysmic like Sam Snead’s triple-bogey 8 when all he needed was a par on the last hole in the 1939 U.S. Open, or heroic like a 5 on the 18th at Pebble Beach any day of the week.

I was standing on the green of Pine Valley’s behemoth uphill 15th hole, measuring over 600 yards, about 15 years ago, when the second shot of the club’s pro, David Clark, bounded onto the putting surface, stopped and glacially rolled back off the fringe. David is a good player, but not Bryson DeChambeau. I remember thinking, Have I just witnessed the death of par 5s?

He eventually includes Tom Doak’s views on how to roll things back to restore relevancy and you’re feeling really good about the case Tarde’s making.

There used to be a list of what Tom Doak called in 1982 “the untouchables”—par 5s that had never been reached in two. In researching Golf Digest’s ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses today, we’ve found only one untouchable left—the 675-yard 16th at Olympic’s Lake Course.

**Blogger’s note because the fact checkers are gone: even that 675 tee is one, only used for the 2012 U.S. Open. Go on…

Your setup for every shot on a fairway may need adjustments. Every course is rated with a SLOPE. It is drastically affected by the rolling terrain of the fairways. Every time that you find your ball on side sloping ground or a forward or backward sloping surface, you need to make adjustments or your will lose control of your shot.

Find a FLAT Surface for Your Tee Shot
The simplest mistake that I notice is when recreational players don’t check out the slope on the tee. Premium courses ensure that the tee is flat but many club and public courses don’t pay enough attention to the flat surface on every tee. A side slope to the left will automatically force your ball to pull to the left and a slope to the right is just as dangerous. Find a flat surface to setup your tee shot to avoid pulls or pushes or slices.

Setup for any Shot
Clay at Top Speed Golf recently pointed out the importance of your body position for your setup:
1/ Ball position (forward or back in your stance) affects your angle of attack and shot shape. Practice and know what to expect from your swing.
2/ Let your arms hang to avoid stretching to reach your ball.
3/ Your stance width relates to your stability and power, You need a shoulder width stance for driver power, a narrower stance for irons and even narrower stance for gentle chip shots.
4/ Bend your back forward (don’t hunch forward) at your hips (and stick your butt out) for more power using any club.
5/ Shoulder tilt is so critical to ensure that your club path will add launch angle to your drives.

Hitting from a side hill lie can throw your ball 20 yards in the wrong direction. Adjust your direction based on the severity of the slope.

Adjust for Slope (side, up or down)
A. Your mind expects to make every swing on a flat surface. It is difficult for you mind to adjust for your swing on sloped surfaces. Adjusting for the 5 points listed above will all be affected. To help your mind adjust, make a full speed practice swing on the same slope where your ball is resting. You need to “customize and sensitize” your body and mind for the swing that you need to make. Then duplicate that exact swing without changing your swing speed.
B. You swing a golf club in an arc. Expect that a side slope to the left will pull your shot to the left. If the slope is to the right and you are standing above the ball, you are faced with more problems. You may have to bend your knees a little more (or widen your stance) to reach the ball and to keep your balance. Your club will not lie flat on a down side slope. A severe side slope can catch your hosel and twist your club before impact. Don’t expect a miracle shot. Prepare for the worst and take your medicine to reach a safe location for your next shot.
C. When you hit from any up or down slope, adjust your stance to ensure that you swing on the plane of your slope and your club will bottom out just after your ball. Use a higher lofted club for a down slope and a lower lofted club for an up slope to compensate for added or reduced angles.

Your clubs are designed to hit from flat surfaces. If you don’t adjust for sloped surfaces you can expect direction and distance control problems. GOLFSTR+ is a great training aid to help you learn the correct swing for every club in your bag. Golfing on sloped surfaces needs your special attention. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com

It doesn’t take the eye of a predatory bird to spot the Orlando World Center Marriott resort, a 2,000-plus-room hotel and conference center near Walt Disney World. When this marvel opened in 1986 it was the largest hotel in the state of Florida. And accompanying it from the very start was an 18-hole golf course, […]

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October 14. 2020

Course Rating—Under the Hood of Your Handicap

One of the benefits of NCGA membership is a core foundation of the game of golf – your unique official USGA handicap index. You use this GHIN number to enter your 9 or 18-hole scores into the my NCGA mobile app, a golf course kiosk or online website – all connected to the World Handicap System.

Starting this year, with the WHS, your index is re-calculated every day with a set of algorithms. This all sounds like a simple database automation, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. What goes into making it all happen is much more impressive.

Just think about it – when you enter your score, you are indicating which course you played and from which set of tees. Part of the handicap calculation is course rating and slope. No doubt you see these numbers on the course scorecard. Who figured them out? NCGA Course Raters! A best-in-class team–which includes volunteers–visits every course in Northern California to rate the relative difficulty of scoring a par on that course for a typical scratch golfer and a typical bogey golfer.

These course ratings take a full day and follow a comprehensive process that includes (1) identifying course obstacles such as topography, bunkers, fairways, rough, green surface, water and trees (2) playing the course and (3) recording and analyzing all the detailed data to produce the course rating and slope – for each tee.

Who is worth investing in, and whom should you fade? Our experts offer their best bets for the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek.

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 Maxfli Tour from DICK’S Sporting Goods.  An overview of the equipment we use can be found here. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls and our True Price metric, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

I’m not sure if it qualifies as common knowledge but Maxfli now is a house brand of sporting goods giant DICK’S Sporting Goods. Sorry, folks. DICK’S doesn’t own the rights to the Noodle franchise.

DICK’S Maxfli Tour lineup consists of two models; the three-piece Maxfli Tour and the four-piece Maxfli Tour X. One of the differentiators, if not the selling-point, for the Maxfli Tour family is that the balls are CG (center of gravity) balanced at the factory. DICK’S has invested heavily in what is essentially an industrial-strength Check-Go-Pro device.  The process aligns the sidestamp with the golf balls’ center of gravity. While DICK’S stands behind the quality of its product, CG balancing is an extra strep that it believes makes its balls just a bit better than those of its competitors who compete at lower price points than the Titleists and Callaways of the world.

In this report, we take a closer look at the Maxfli Tour golf ball and let you know how it stacks up against other golf balls on the market. Finally, we’ll give you the True Price – how much it costs to get a dozen “good” golf balls.

The world No. 3 revealed pre-CJ Cup in Vegas that he, too, is looking to find more clubhead speed despite already having plenty in his tank. (Thomas has perennially averaged between 116-117 mph.)

Adam Schupak at Golfweek.com on Justin Thomas seeing what Bryson DeChambeau has done with modern technology and dieting.

“I’m not far off. It’s really about messing with some different stuff and different training and explosiveness to be able to pick up something,” he said. “There’s different ways to do it. I mean, the absolute No. 1 thing is I’m continuing to stay injury free and I’m continuing to progress in a good direction in terms of staying healthy and staying fit. But if I can do that while incorporating some more speed, then that’s big.”

Thomas has recovered from a 2019 wrist injury to be one of the game’s elite. While it’s great to read his strength work is centered around injury prevention, it’s hard not to wonder about the injury implications in pursuit of speed.

However it is quite easy to wonder if anyone in St Andrews or Far Hills is concerned by what they are reading.