Matt Fitzpatrick's fast start helped him move out in front in the Race to Dubai as Rory McIlroy struggled in the first round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Golfing News & Blog Articles
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The “Best” Driver Shaft?
Stock. Made For. Premium. Featured. Aftermarket. Exotic. No Upcharge.
All common descriptors of the shaft in your driver. The challenge is understanding which one is right for you. The quick answer? It depends.
The longer answer: It really depends.
Selecting the best driver shaft isn’t always a case of you get what you pay for, though many boutique club fitters might have you believe otherwise. The only guarantee that comes with a $400 shaft is that you’re $400 poorer after buying it. Conversely, plenty of golfers can find better performance with something other than the stock off-the-rack shaft.
Fujikura Ventus Bend Profiles
Major(s) News & Notes, November 17th, 2022
A golf hole, humanly speaking, is like life, in as much as one cannot judge justly of any person’s character the first time one meets him. Sometimes it takes years to discover and appreciate hidden qualities which only time discloses, and he usually discloses them on the links. C.B. MACDONALD
Great Tips to Sharpen your Game (Series #6, Tips 21-24)
This is the sixth in a series of blogs to help you simplify your knowledge of golf and hopefully improve your game. [These tips are distilled from an article published by Luke Kerr-Dineen for a GOLF franchise called “Play Smart”.]
21/ Plan for Your Shot Pattern: In golf, we deal with luck in terms of shot patterns (according to Scott Fawcett, Founder of DECADE GOLF). Think of your shot pattern like the spray of a shotgun blast: Some pellets may end closer to where you were aiming, but others may veer off slightly, and you never know which one ends where you want. This fact is what makes golf so darn hard. That’s why you should plan around your typical dispersion pattern for each type of club and distance. Instead of trying to hit your approach shot inside of eight feet, choose a target that results in a safe location for an occasional birdie putt. You would be stunned at to know how many PGA Tour players aim away from a hole, as you should to stack the deck in your favor.
22/ Count Down Your Swing: Dr. Matthias Grabenhorst, who has spent his life researching the subject of human reaction, published a study last year that showed humans tend to react best to events a few seconds into the future. Instantaneous reactions are often clumsy, but a little head start can go a long way. Dr. Bob Christina of UNC Greensboro, wanted to see if that held true for golf. They took a group of 32 golfers and found that those who counted backward from four (as in “four, three, two, one”) before hitting shots performed the best in terms of accuracy. Those who decided on their own when to hit their shot often stood over the ball for a lot longer and fared much worse.
23/ Understand “Spin Loft”: As defined by TrackMan, it’s the measured angle between the loft delivered by the club at impact and the angle of attack into the ball—the larger the number, the more the ball will spin. When hitting driver, it’s optimal to generate the lowest spin loft number as possible because that’s what fuels distance. So you should be driving into the ball with a positive angle of attack. For shorter shots, a higher spin-loft value is key for shot-stopping power into the greens.
The total angle of your club face and swing impact angle add up to your launch angle. Use that angle to add spin and stopping power when your ball hits the green.
24/ Practice the Money Putts: Sinking an 8-foot putt is a “money putt”. Sink more of them and play like the pro golfers who sink 53% of them. Golfers shooting in the 80’s sink 33% of 8-footers and golfers shooting in the 90’s sink 27%.
Developing A Growth Mindset for Golf
The journey to your goal is going to be full of challenges and failures along the way. In a game as difficult as golf, there will always be more failures than successes.
Your approach to these challenges and failures is also known as your mindset for golf, and it’s a huge factor in your overall success. The good news is that your mindset for golf isn’t fixed, and we can continually work on it and develop the growth mindset of a champion.
How do you view failure?
Do you see it as an indication that you are not good enough or that it’s a way to learn how to be better?
Do you play with fear of making mistakes because of what failure would say about you to others?
The studies of Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford University prove how mindset affects learning and skill development. She concludes that people who exhibit more of what she calls a “growth mindset” to learning, viewing failure as a way to learn most effectively, and seeing challenges as a positive, are more successful in the long-term. The opposite of a growth mindset is called a fixed mindset which describes a person who sees their ability as fixed and hence they are less concerned about the learning and more concerned about the result as it speaks to how good they are. In the context of golf, I call these two different mindsets and types of golfers, Mastery and Ego Golfers.
We Tried It: PuttOUT Devil Ball
There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.
WHAT WE TRIED
PuttOUT Devil Ball: A devilish twist on a putter face-angle training aid.
YOUR PUTTOUT DEVIL BALL REVIEWER
Phillip Bishop – Most Wanted testing overseer and still a woeful putter.
PUTTOUT DEVIL BALL – DOUBLE TROUBLE
This training aid isn’t singular by any means. It is a hellacious duo.
The PuttOUT Devil Ball is unlike any other golf ball. On second thought, scratch that. It isn’t a golf ball (or at least not by traditional definition). The Devil Ball has a unique design where one side of the ball has a straight edge. PuttOUT even puts a disclaimer on the packaging: “Devil Ball has been created as a putting training aid and should not be used with any other golf club!” You’ve been warned.
Ball Lab: 2022 Bridgestone TOUR B RXS Review
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 2022 Bridgestone TOUR B RXS. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.
About the Bridgestone TOUR B RXS
Like the Srixon Q-Star Tour we covered in our previous Ball Lab, the TOUR B RXS falls within what we call the “non-Tour urethane” category. It’s a ball marketed for slower swing speed golfers who often prefer a softer-feeling ball and who won’t pay much, if any, low-compression penalty off the tee. As with other low-compression offerings, you can expect relatively high flight with low spin.
Bridgestone TOUR B RXS Construction
The Bridgestone TOUR B RXS is a three-piece ball with a 338-dimple cover.
Our samples of the TOUR B RXS were manufactured at the Bridgestone’s ball factory in Covington, Ga.
Netherlands to host its first Solheim Cup in 2026
The Netherlands will play host the Solheim Cup, the biggest team event in women's golf, for the first time in 2026, organizers announced Tuesday.
Rory on Norman: PGA-LIV feud needs 'adult'
Rory McIlroy said Tuesday that for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to "try to mend fences," LIVE Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman "needs to go."
MyGolfSpy Experiences: Destination Kohler
MyGolfSpy Experiences believes there’s one fundamental truth in the cosmos: the best bucket list golf trip is the next one.
And even though it may not be first on your list, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better “next one” than Destination Kohler.
If you want a great state for golf, don’t sleep on Wisconsin. From Hudson to Milwaukee and from Green Bay to La Crosse, the Badger State is home to some outstanding public courses. And you won’t have to wear a wedge of cheese on your head to play them.
Unless, of course, you want to.
Destination Kohler and its crown jewel, Whistling Straits, are on the bucket list for many. In this edition of MyGolfSpy Experiences, we’ll share our thoughts on where to stay, where to dine and, of course, the golf itself.
#AskMyGolfSpy – Golf Ball Dimples
Why do golf balls have dimples?
Dimples are responsible for the lift and drag properties of the golf ball. Dimples create turbulence, giving the airflow something to cling to as the golf ball travels through its flight.
Simply put, dimples help the golf ball get in the air and stay there.
What would happen if a golf ball didn’t have dimples?
Having seen this in person a couple of times, I can tell you that the flight looks a bit like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball. Without dimples, air separates quickly from the ball. From what I’ve seen, it causes it to fly unevenly before suddenly diving out of the sky.
What if the dimples are uneven for some reason?
Lots of things can impact the aerodynamics of a ball. A common example is mud but things like scrapes and gouges and uneven paint fill from the factory can cause problems. It’s also not unheard of for factories to accidentally mix molds and put different patterns on each half of the golf ball.
Regardless of the cause, a golf ball will generally move opposite of aerodynamic disruption. If you’re a right-handed golfer and you’ve got mud on the side of the ball away from you (the right side), that ball is going to move left (draw/hook). The same thing is true for a big scrape or a gauge.
OK, so dimples are important but how hard is it to create a dimple pattern?
Mike Madson, Senior Director Golf Ball Research and Engineering at Titleist, tells us that creating a dimple pattern isn’t that hard but creating a better one is extremely difficult.
There’s no magic formula and R&D guys don’t always know what will and won’t work.
You can’t be certain either way until you create the molds and put the pattern on an actual golf ball. Bottom line: Creating a new pattern is a costly and time-intensive endeavor.
To put all of this in context, over the last 20 years, Titleist has developed nearly 3,000 different aerodynamic patterns with only one to two percent of them making it onto a final product.
LIV Golf confirms Adelaide as Aussie event hosts
Adelaide has won the race to host the first LIV Golf tournament in Australia, with international stars including Cameron Smith teeing up at The Grange GC in April next year.
Alker claims Schwab title with third-place finish
Padraig Harringto broke the PGA Tour Champions 72-hole record with a 27-under 257, but it was Steven Alker who won the season-long Charles Schwab Cup title by placing third.
Korda rallies to win Pelican, returns to No. 1
Nelly Korda pulled ahead for a one-shot victory Sunday in the Pelican Women's Championship and reclaimed her position as the No. 1 player in women's golf.
Fleetwood defends title for 1st victory in 3 years
Tommy Fleetwood rallied to retain his title at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and end a three-year winless drought. This was the first Sun City tournament since Fleetwood won it in 2019.
Finau coasts at Houston Open for 3rd win of year
Tony Finau stretched his Houston Open lead to eight shots on the back nine and sailed to his third PGA Tour victory of the year.
Corpuz 'in position,' fires 65 for 1-shot LPGA lead
Allisen Corpuz's second-round 5-under 65 Saturday gave her a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Pelican Women's Championship.
Finau up 4 after bogey-free 68 at Houston Open
Tony Finau kept bogeys off his card, had a 2-under 68 and kept his lead at four shots going into the final round of the Houston Open.
Harrington leaps 5 shots ahead of Alker after 62
Padraig Harrington took a five-shot lead over Steven Alker after Saturday's 9-under 62, but has some work to do if he's going to overtake Alker for the season-long Schwab Cup.
