Golfing News & Blog Articles

Jon Rahm started his round strong and ended it even better Thursday, closing eagle-birdie-birdie for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Carson Young gave his rookie season on the PGA Tour quite a spark Thursday when he made three eagles on his way to a 9-under 63, giving him a three-shot lead after the opening round of the Puerto Rico Open.

Flex on them, FootJoy!

This week the self-proclaimed “No. 1 shoe in golf” introduced the redesigned, retooled HyperFlex and HyperFlex Carbon. Surely you’re no stranger to the Hyperflex line of spiked golf shoes but this year is different. Behind the new sleek, sexy look, FootJoy has some bold claims to live up to.

With the release of the HypefFlex and HyperFlex Carbon golf shoes, FootJoy promises hyper power, hyper control and hyper fit for men and women. Let’s dive straight into the technology behind the shoe and how it can possibly benefit your game.

FootJoy HyperFlex and HyperFlex Carbon Release Details

Available nowLaced and BOA available in both modelsHyperFlex Carbon available for men only; HyperFlex available for men and womenRetail for the standard laced pair is $175 and $220 for the HyperFlex and Hyperflex Carbon, respectively.The BOA variants of each model come with an upcharge with the HyperFlex BOA retailing for $210 and the HyperFlex Carbon BOA for $250.

What’s with the Carbon?

The biggest difference between the two HyperFlex models is the addition of a carbon fiber shank plate on the HyperFlex Carbon. But, for $45 more than the standard variant, it’s important to understand the purpose of the added carbon fiber. After all, you need to be sure you’re getting what you pay for—that FootJoy delivers what they promise.

The molded carbon fiber “power plate” should make the HyperFlex Carbon more stable, thanks to added rigidity in the midsection of the foot bed. Carbon fiber plates aren’t new to footwear (distance running shoes take advantage of the same stiffening and energy return properties) but they are still fairly new to golf shoes. The HyperFlex Carbon is undoubtedly not the first shoe to feature this technology and it surely won’t be the last. However, this is the first time FootJoy has outfitted the popular HyperFlex with carbon fiber.

Acushnet 2022 Financials – Key Takeaways

2022 Total sales top $2.27 billionNearly six-percent increase over 2021**Nearly $200 million in net profitDistant second to Topgolf Callaway**

The Acushnet 2022 financials are out and you can look at them a couple of different ways.

From one perspective, you could say Acushnet’s image in Topgolf Callaway’s rearview mirror is getting smaller by the day.

But from a slightly different perspective, it could be a case of the image in the mirror being closer than it appears.

Acushnet is reporting 2022 sales of $2.27 billion. That may sound like a pittance compared to the nearly $4 billion in sales reported by Topgolf Callaway last month. But as the new corporate moniker suggests, Topgolf Callaway is in the process of morphing into a golf-focused lifestyle and entertainment brand.

Acushnet is morphing, too. Just not to the same extent nor in the same direction as its chief competitor.

2023 SUNDAY GOLF BAG BUYER’S GUIDE

You don’t know it yet but you probably need a Sunday golf bag. Not just for Sunday but for every day of the week.

Do you spend every afternoon counting down the seconds until you can escape for a little golfing “me” time? Do you enjoy the occasional twilight nine under the setting sun? Do you love a quick round at a par-3 course? If so, you need a Sunday golf bag.

So what’s a “Sunday” golf bag and how is it different than what you’ve got now?

The parameters that define a Sunday golf bag have shifted drastically over the last decade. What was once a bare-bones, ultra-lightweight golf bag for a quick weekend nine has swiftly turned into a slimmed-down carry bag, although some have nearly as much storage and functionality as their heavyweight siblings. It is important to note, however, that not every Sunday bag is a stand bag, but that the addition of a stand has become more standard as of late in the Sunday golf bag category.

Even so, the DNA of a good Sunday bag hasn’t changed. The best Sunday golf bags of 2023 feature lightweight construction, comfortable carry straps and enough storage for the essentials.

Elizabeth Szokol shot an opening-round 64, and she leads by 3 strokes in the Women's World Championship at the Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore.

The PGA Tour's about to make majors even bigger and better. Amazing!

Plus, Jon Rahm on Tiger, the USGA's "Keepers of the Cup," This, That, Tweets and Reads in the latest Quadrilateral.

Every time you setup to hit a ball you need the right plan in your mind.  You are either planning to LAUNCH with your driver by hitting up or you are trying to POWER off the deck with all of your fairway clubs. You can’t afford to mix these up or you will pop-up your drives and top your fairway shots.  Positioning your ball forward for drives and centering your ball for fairway shots is easy to do but your mind also should focus on the right swing ANGLE OF ATTACK.

Too often we generate power off our back foot when we drive and then repeat the same swing and fall back when we are mishitting a fairway shot with a wood or iron.  We have all read articles where you can’t tell if the author is writing about a LAUNCH or a POWER shot (off the deck).  Make sure you tee up and tilt your shoulders 20 degrees to launch your drives.  It’s the best way to shorten the course.

EARLY EXTENSION Will Kill Your Launch AND Power Shots

Completing your swing by SPRINGING up with your knees will kill your driver or fairway shots.  Don’t do it.  I’m only making this statement to ensure that you don’t misunderstand the launch with your driver.  You still need to let your shoulder tilt and let your limited loft driver do the work.  Use the point of impact off the tee to allow your driver’s trajectory angle take care of the distance.

Tiger Woods Described How He Controls Launch Angle with Irons

The PGA Tour, in a memo obtained by ESPN, told its members that, starting in 2024, eight designated events will have fields between 70 to 80 players and no cuts.

Maxfli has released new Tour, TourX and TourS golf balls.Tour S is new to the Maxfli Tour family of golf balls.MSRP is $39.99/dozen.

When you have a good thing going, sometimes the greatest challenge is finding small areas of improvement without changing too much. Or as my dad used to remind me, “Hey, it’d be great if you didn’t screw this up.”

That’s essentially the situation Maxfli faces with the 2023 line of its Tour golf balls.

The outgoing 2021 Maxfli Tour and Tour X balls were, by any measure, class-leading. Both the Maxfli Tour and Tour X received high marks in our Ball Lab and gained a lot of traction with consumers who wanted a high-quality cast-urethane ball without the top-shelf price tag.

Based on our comprehensive Ball Lab testing, Maxfli garnered the “Best DTC Brand Quality” award as well.

The takeaway for golfers should be that in a market that is increasingly flooded with direct-to-consumer options, Maxfli has earned its place at the front of that line. However, because we haven’t thoroughly tested the 2023 offerings, it would be premature to make any claims regarding the performance or production consistency of this line. That said, I fully expect Maxfli to maintain its position.

Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler could reclaim the top ranking, Jin Young Ko defends her title and more from the PGA and LPGA this week.

The No. 1 player in the world, Jon Rahm, got some solid advice recently on how to keep his game at its peak for as long as possible. He asked Tiger Woods.

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said viewership for The CW's inaugural live broadcast of the LIV Golf League "exceeded our expectations" despite just an average of 289,000 viewers and a 0.18 household rating on Saturday and Sunday.

“I just tell myself positive affirmations on certain tee shots or when I’m feeling nervous and it calms me down.” – PGA Tour winner Max Homa

Most players think that confidence comes solely from past success, but they’re wrong. A huge part of your confidence comes from what you say to yourself about yourself in relation to the challenge in front of you. I.e., your “self talk”.

If you were to get an audio play-back of all your self talk during a round you would probably be shocked at how negative it is. Negative self talk will never help us. In fact it lowers confidence and puts a negative experience to memory.

So how do we change self talk for golf to build confidence and guide us towards the thinking, feelings and behaviors that are performance enhancing?

First we have to agree with the following assumptions:

Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club & Lodge is the location for the next event on the 2023 PGA Tour. Here is how you can watch all of the action from the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

LIV Golf kicked off in Mexico, the Honda Classic provided some drama despite the lack of star power and the LPGA returned with a breakthrough win. Catch up on the weekend in golf.

Teeless Driver

There’s a plethora of golf infomercials. Is the TeeLess Golf Driver the one that actually helps golfers?

Let’s see what our testing proves. Read before you buy.

Teeless Driver – Who is it for?

 

Every infomercial golf product claims it can help golfers. Teeless is no different. It targets golfers who struggle with fairway woods and swing below 100 mph.

Despite being 13 degrees of loft, the Teeless Driver is designed to limit fat or chunky shots and essentially be a better option versus your current 3-wood or driver. Hitting the ball higher is the goal, especially from tight lies. Many higher-handicap golfers struggle with this.

The Georgia star Chris Kirk is a victor again and headed back to The Masters after overcoming personal struggles to win the Honda.

Plus, Eric Cole's big week, Fred Perpall is the new USGA president, a Rory McIlroy manspat roundup, and some fun LIV Tweets.

Charles Howell III shot an 8-under 63 to win the LIV Golf Invitational by four shots for his first title in the series.

Chris Kirk stuck his approach to the par-5 18th to tap-in range, and his birdie on the first hole of a playoff lifted him past Eric Cole for the victory at the Honda Classic on Sunday.