Golfing News & Blog Articles

Members of the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland teams at the Walker Cup are dealing with a stomach bug and are under observation at the team hotel, organizers said Friday.

Golf has unquestionably been on the upswing over the past year. Countless people have taken up the game for the first time or returned after an absence. While a boxed set or a few decades-old clubs from the garage might have been good enough to get started, it’s understandable that many of these golfers might be looking for an upgrade.

Club shopping these days can come with a serious amount of sticker shock. With the 2021 MOST WANTED DRIVER models running $500+ in most cases and iron sets around $1200, you can easily be looking at a $3000 investment once you add in woods, wedges, a putter and a bag. There is definitely a space, however, for golfers who want modern, quality clubs but at a budget half that.

By going through the 2019 and 2020 Most Wanted top performers and searching online golf markets, this article looks to find the best full bag you can build for under $1500.

Driver

Callaway Epic Flash Sub Zero

The 2019 MOST WANTED DRIVER winner definitely provides a good option for building a bag on a budget. That year, the Epic Flash Sub Zero ranked 1st in strokes gained and fairway accuracy as well as 2nd in total distance. The Epic Flash features similar tech to the current 2021 MOST WANTED DRIVER Epic Max LS including Flash Face and Jailbreak Technology. Consistently available in a variety of options at around $250, it is a strong contender for the top of our budget bag.

Check Price -NEW

Phil Mickelson shot a 64 to take the early lead at the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday.

Local stars Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul carded 8-under 64s to share a stroke lead after the first round of the LPGA Thailand on Thursday.

Darren Clarke opened with a 6-under 66 Thursday to take the lead in the Regions Tradition, the first of five PGA Tour Champions majors.

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Welcome to the Neighborhood!

May 6, 2021

By Dianna Stein 

Longtime NCGA/WGANC Rules official KC Cote assumed she was always going to live in her town of Novato, although she does have an adventurous streak, having served our country during the Vietnam War as an Air Force Nurse and becoming a Lieutenant Colonel.

On a less adventurous note, but as a revered volunteer, KC became a passionate golfer and helped found the WGANC Rules Committee in 1997, and has long served as a Rules official for NCGA, USGA and other countless tournaments.

Rickie Fowler, who watched the first round of the Masters with Tiger Woods, says the former world No. 1 is "not lacking any fire" in his recovery from injuries suffered in a February car crash.

The Fujikura MC Putter is the second generation of the company’s putter shaft line.It’s available in three distinct flex profiles to fit a variety of putting strokes.Retail price is $250.

The graphite/composite/multi-material—whatever you want to call it—putter shaft is far from ubiquitous but things are changing. Callaway nearly made it mainstream with Stroke Lab. Bryson has 14 graphite shafts in the bag, including an LA Golf Partners putter shaft. Yours Truly is playing the BGT Tour in my putter. Mitsubishi has a couple of options, too, and the more recent addition to the growing cadre of alternatives to steel for your putter is the second generation of MC Putter shaft from Fujikura.

While it may not come with a side of fries or a plastic toy, the MC Putter is yet another option that suggests that maybe, just maybe, the future of shafts is graphite.

Why Graphite?

Before we dig into specifics, we should probably rewind a bit to talk about why you might want a graphite putter shaft.

Too many golfers destroy their swing by starting their downswing with their arms and wrist release from the top of the swing. If you are one of these golfers you need to “FEEL” A NEW approach to your swing. You will never improve the consistency of your swing unless you commit to learning the correct way to swing. START YOUR DOWNSWING WITH YOUR LEADING KNEE AND YOUR LOWER BODY ROTATION.

As shocking as it may seem, your downswing STARTS WITH YOUR WEIGHT SHIFT TO YOUR LEADING LEG as your backswing reaches the transition from swinging up to down.

Because this is a new approach for your swing, you should learn this move at half the speed of you normal backswing. Remember that the change in direction from up to down is ZERO MILES PER HOUR. The transition of your club reaches a dead stopped at the top BUT YOUR LOWER BODY IS IN CONSTANT MOTION as you start your down swing with an EARLY LEADING KNEE BEND for a weight shift to your leading leg.

Your backswing and downswing must include:
1/ a rotation of your hips and shoulders to coil up your body for POWER and wrist cocking for lag at the top of your swing.
2/ a BEND IN YOUR LEADING KNEE for weight transfer to your leading leg during the transition at the top of your swing.
3/ a straight leading arm (and flat wrist) or a leading arm that will straighten out before the impact with your ball to keep a consistent distance to the ball for your setup and your point of impact.

How to Create Your Weight Transfer
1/ Weight transfer happens as your swing approaches the top of your backswing. YES, your body weight is shifting forward with the momentum of your backswing. It happens as you reach the transition point where you change club direction from up to down. Give yourself more time in your backswing to make this weight shift. Instead of using the UP and DOWN cadence of “1, 2”, mentally think the words “1 and 2”. Adding the word “and” to give you a little more time to bend your leading knee to shift your weight to your leading foot and cock your wrist to create lag at the top of your swing.

Course Records Shot at Blue Rock Springs

May 5, 2021

Vallejo resident Jared Stone closed out 2020 with a couple of bangs. Within a time frame of six weeks, the St. Patrick High alum, who’s now a junior at University of Redlands, set the scoring record for both courses at Blue Rock Springs GC in Vallejo.

On Nov. 13,, 2020 Stone, who once worked at Blue Rock Springs, posted an 11-under 60 on the 5,987-yard, par-71 West Course. The previous record had been a 67, shot by former University of Oregon standout Kathleen Scavo.

 

Phil Mickelson sees some advantages to a golf super league, but he -- like many other players -- isn't committing to the idea.

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 Srixon Z-Star XV. 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.

With two models reviewed previously (and two others fully measured), Srixon is proving to be hit or miss in our Ball Lab tests. It’s fair to say the Q-Star Tour failed to live up to expectations while the prior-generation of Z-Star proved to be more in line with what golfers expect from Srixon. As we continue to measure Srixon golf balls, we’ve noticed some patterns across multiple models (detailed within).

Suffice it to say that while many of you love Srixon, we’re not entirely without some concerns.

About the Srixon Z-Star XV

The Srixon Z-Star XV is a four-piece golf with a urethane cover. It’s the firmer of Srixon’s two Tour offerings and, with the release of the new models, the compression gap between the two has grown.

The PGA Tour heads to Quail Hollow in Charlotte for this week's tournament. Here are our best bets for the event.

The Korn Ferry Tour, the circuit right below the PGA Tour, informed players on Tuesday that prize money will be a minimum of $1 million for tournaments starting in 2023.

Brendon Todd has pulled out of the Wells Fargo tournament after testing positive for COVID.

The Premier Golf League is again attempting to force top stars to choose between the PGA Tour and the circuit that is backed by Saudi Arabia money interests, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Over 9000 golfers responded to our Golfer’s Choice Survey to tell us what new clubs you’ve bought this past year and from which manufacturers.

0:19 – Would you buy Tag Heuer’s Golf Timepiece?9:41 – Results from our 2021 Golfer’s Choice Survey11:43 – Drivers13:31 – Fairway Woods & Hybrids21:44 – Irons27:13 – Wedges31:07 – Putters37:23 – How closely do our results reflect the average golfer?

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The post What are YOU buying? The Golfers Choice Survey | NPG 81 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

You signed up for an iron fitting. Smart.

Getting fitted is something we preach relentlessly at MyGolfSpy. When it comes to finding the best-performing gear for your game, it’s an absolute necessity.

Now what?

We’ve compiled our best tips, based on experience, to help you get the most out of your fitting.

Like anything else, it helps to have a game plan.

All you need to know about the 2021 PGA Championship, including day-by-day results and analysis from Kiawah Island's Ocean Course.