Golfing News & Blog Articles

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

The new adidas fall/winter 2022 collection: the adidas FW22 Fleece Collection.

Your Apparel Tester

Hi, I’m Harry and I am a professional golf apparel tester. (Yes, they exist.) I actually test a lot of things at MyGolfSpy and play professionally when I’m not checking and comparing specs on shoes, gloves, rangefinders, bags, ball retrievers, etc.

You can call me the Director of Soft Goods Testing here at MGS. You can also just call me Harry. That’s fine, too.

What’s New in the Lineup

It’s not unusual to receive a press release on new product releases from OEMs throughout the year but adidas took it to the next level. They invited some select golf media to put their new FW22 Fleece Collection to the test in Whistler, British Columbia.

Accuracy. Distance. Which is more important?

Think of the best players you know. Do they hit towering bombs off the tee? Or does it seem like they’re always putting for birdie?

To help provide some context, we gleaned some data from the more than 200 million recorded shots in Shot Scope’s database.

Let’s take a look.

Accuracy

Many golfers likely believe that more skilled golfers are more accurate than golfers with higher handicaps. However, Shot Scope’s data suggests that isn’t exactly the case—at least not when considering the percentage of fairways hit per round. In fact, scratch golfers (0 hdcp) hit fewer fairways than any other handicap range.

Phil Mickelson has responded to Rory McIlroy's most recent criticism of LIV Golf by saying the Saudi-backed breakaway series is "a force that's not going away."

This is the third 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”. These nuggets of knowledge will provide you with a quick reference to sharpen your games.]

9/ Randomize Your Practice: A study was performed in multiple sports to determine the best way to practice. (a) Block Practice, practicing one thing over and over again and (b) Random Practice, where you never do the same thing back-to-back. Randomized practice is by far the best where you hit different shots with different clubs and never the same shot twice in a row. It makes you think about each shot and make adjustments to get them right.

10/ When to Hit Driver (or NOT): So, you’re standing on the tee of a tight hole, wondering what to do. Should you play it safe? Or hit driver and hope for the best? DECADE Golf founder Scott Fawcett dived deep into the PGA Tour’s ShotLink data to find the answer. He says that to solve that problem, golfers need to answer two questions:
a. Are there less than 65 yards between penalty hazards?
b. Is the fairway less than 40 yards wide to the spot where your driver would land?
If you answered “yes” to either of these, then you should play it safe. Club down. If you answered “no” to either—or can carry your driver over the hazards—then pull the big stick and in Fawcett’s words, “Send it!”

11/ A speed-boosting concept: When it comes to hitting the ball far, more muscle mass certainly helps. But you can only get so far with brute strength. In order to maximize how efficiently you transfer your body’s strength into your swing, pros are using a concept that’s known as “over-speed-under-speed training.” It’s the concept that helped Matt Fitzpatrick boost his speed to win the 2022 US Open. Overspeed training is when you swing some-thing like the shaft of a club at very high speeds to increase your swing speed. Underspeed is the opposite: Swinging your weight loaded driver slower than your driver. Overspeed trains your muscles to be explosive and Underspeed improves your strength. Fact: You need to train both ways to hit booming drives.

12/ Change Up Your Breathing: An intriguing point of interest among pro golfers is learning how they use their breathing to play better golf. Nick Bolhuis, who works with Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, among others, the vice president of performance programs at Neuropeak Pro, explains: Golfers perform their best in an optimal zone. “Sometimes that means taking slower, deeper breaths” (to reduce their heart rate when they are nervous). “Other times it means quicker, shallower breaths.” to speed up your heart rate and help you focus during those mid-round lulls.

Joe Biddle, whose Nashville sportswriting career spanned five decades, died early Wednesday. He was 78.

Roots

Fresh on the heels of the introduction of the adidas Samba Golf line, the Brand with Three Stripes is paying homage to its roots with the release of a new limited-edition Samba OG golf shoe.

The iconic white-and-black colorway was first featured in 1950 on the OG adidas Samba, a shoe which has been a streetwear staple and soccer stalwart ever since. That same nostalgic look has been carried over to adidas’s newest golf shoe with a modern twist and updated materials.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes the limited-edition Samba OG Golf shoe ready for your next round.

From the Pitch to the Fairway

The OG Samba was designed as a soccer shoe for icy and firm conditions. More recently, however, the Samba has been seen a fashion piece, “function” being very much thrown to the wayside. With the introduction of the Samba OG Golf, adidas revived and retooled Samba in a way that brought performance to the forefront while maintaining its legendary roots.

At first glance, the Samba OG Golf shoe looks eerily similar to its casual counterpart. Upon closer inspection, it’s clear that adidas put a good amount of thought and effort into making the shoe suitable for the golf course. Take, for example, the upper. Where the OG Samba featured leather and suede, the Samba OG Golf is laden with recycled materials and synthetic leather. This small change provides better waterproofing and is better for the environment.

Alphard Club Booster V2 introduces the CB SidekickFollows you from behind or the sideAvailable for pre-order

If you don’t know anything about Alphard Club Booster V2 , you need to read this article. Trust me!

Back in 2018, we discovered the Alphard’s Club Booster V2 and it made us stop in our tracks and listen. I can assure you we get a lot of product coming through MyGolfSpy’s doors and this was one which stood out.

Electric trolleys weren’t as common in the U.S. then as they are now but, due in large part to COVID-19, people walk the course a lot more while playing golf. So you could say Alphard was ahead of the time within the golf industry.

But what is it and why do you need to pay attention? Well, it might save you money.

Alphard Club Booster V2

The Alphard Club Booster hit the market in 2018 with their 18 hole golf caddy. It was designed to attach to different makes of pushcarts to transform a manual push cart into an electric trolley. The Club Booster was upgraded to the Club Booster V2 in 2018, providing six-axis gyroscope technology, an electronic parking brake, wheelie bars to prevent tipping and a lithium-ion battery good for 27 holes.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy said the feud between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf Series is "out of control" and that it could leave the game fractured for a long time.

 

The post Inside an NCGA Qualifier appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

 

The post Fall 2022 appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Rory McIlroy reclaims the world No. 1 ranking for a ninth time, John Daly is back, the LPGA has a brief hiatus, and $50 million is on the line in the LIV Golf season finale.

The Great Big Bertha is a new ultra-premium offering from Callaway.It’s a technology-packed, lightweight design intended for moderate swing speed golfers.Retail price is $699.Available beginning Nov. 11

The fall release cycle is when Callaway typically launches products that fall outside of the mainstream. Some of my recent Callaway favorites have been fall releases: the Epic Super Hybrid, Big Bertha B21 and the grossly underappreciated Big Bertha Fusion driver come to mind.

While the mainstream stuff is designed to appeal to the masses (thanks, Captain Obvious), Callaway’s fall releases tend to target a narrower segment of golfers. That’s certainly the case with the latest incarnation of the Great Big Bertha family.

Billed as “ultra-premium,” the Great Big Bertha driver is packed with nearly every bit of technology Callaway has. The paint scheme is technically “sage” but, with a price tag of $699, it should probably be called “money green.”

Callaway Great Big Bertha Irons

Key Takeaways

Driver technology in an iron with titanium face and bodyUp to 145 grams of tungsten for low CG, easy launchLightweight construction, targeted at lower swing speed golfersUltra-premium priced at $449,99 each

The Great Big Bertha irons story may, for many of you, begin and end right here.

They’re $449.99 per stick.

But before you jump right to the Comments section and proclaim OEMs are pricing the average golfer out of the game, please note that we have checked the internet this morning. The golf industry did not force Sub 70 to close down. PXG’s 0211 line has not been pulled from the market and Tour Edge hasn’t locked its doors.

In fact, all of the game-improvement and super game-improvement irons listed online yesterday for less than $1,000 are still available today. You can still buy complete iron sets from Wilson, Cleveland, COBRA, PING, TaylorMade, Mizuno and Callaway anywhere from $599 to $999.

So before we dive into the new Callaway Great Big Bertha irons, let’s say it all together so the folks in the back can hear:

The Great Big Bertha is a new ultra-premium offering from Callaway.It’s a technology-packed, lightweight design intended for moderate swing speed golfers.Retail price is $499 (fairway), $449 (hybrid)Available beginning Nov. 11

Do we really have an equipment off-season any longer? Sort of, but not entirely.

Generally, Callaway targets the back half of the calendar year for releases dedicated to golfers who, for one reason or another, live outside the mainstream.

In this case, the Great Big Bertha family is an “ultra-premium” line where the list of materials is exceeded only by the price tag. Callaway bills the Great Big Bertha family as born from the Epic Star franchise, yet something entirely new.

The first hint is a subtle sage green colorway but it’s much more than an updated aesthetic with a familiar name.

Step on the Scale

It’s been so long since PING released an i2-something iron that I had to go back and check to make sure I hadn’t missed a release. Astonishing as it may be, the i210 iron has been current in the PING lineup since late summer of 2018.

That’s a hell of a run.

Score another for COVID, I suppose, but it’s crazy to think that PING’s update schedule for what is arguably the most versatile iron in its lineup isn’t too far out of whack with how often golfers typically replace their irons.

Seriously, if you bought the i210 when they released, enough time has passed that you can probably get approval for a new set.

“Honey, it’s been four years.”

 

The post Memories of a Junior Merit Program at Meadow Club appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Steven Alker birdied three straight holes to break out of a late four-way tie for the lead on Sunday and won the opening event in the Charles Schwab Cup on the PGA Tour Champions.

It's the ninth time Rory McIlroy has reached No. 1 in the world, behind only Tiger Woods and Greg Norman (both 11) for most ever.

Yannik Paul made a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win his first European tour title by one stroke at the Mallorca Open on Sunday.