Golf Confessions

The golf tournament gift business has become a very large endeavor.  There are very few organizations both large and small that do not use golf tournaments to raise money, for charity, fund raisers or to entertain their customers or prospective customers.  These tournaments will always have some sort of golf gift for the participants.  The gifts can range widely in value and practicality.

Some of the larger corporate and member guest tournaments can have some extremely nice and valuable prizes.  These gifts can range from airline tickets, golf shirts, fine crystal, or a variety of personal items.

The golf gifts do not always have to be affiliated with a golf tournament, there are any number of occasions that golf gifts are approiate for the golfer. A few of the occasions that one may receive a golf gift are weddings, birthdays, retirement, Christmas, Father’s and Mother’s Day.  Some of these gifts often consist of prank gifts, exploding golf balls, Goof balls-ex-wife or ex-husband.  Some of the finer gifts could be personalized crystal, framed pictures of famous golfing destinations, paperweights for the home or office.  Something that most all golfers can use is a golf valuable pouch, these can be made from cloth or fine leather. 

So keep in mind the many options you have when planning your next golf tournament or a gift for your golfing friend. 

The golf cart has become a valuable form of transportation in many areas other than the conventional golf course buggy.  When you look up the many uses of the golf cart you will be blown away.  Also, the old conventional golf cart may surprise you when you see the variety of ways that the cart can be customized. 

Shopping malls, race tracks, apartment complexes, marinas, ranches, and a unique use is for ice fishing.  Any large comlex, such as a large car dealership or factory can certainly benefit from the use of a golf cart.  They are reasonably fast and the battery operated ones are certainly quite.  The stretch version will carry several passengers to their destions quickly and comfortably.

The hunting industry has adopted the golf cart into its variety of toys for the avid ourdoorsman.  The camo version offers a quite approach into the hunting area and with a few modifications the hunter can have a traveling blind.  Hunting carts can also be accomodated with four wheel drive for the hard to get to areas and dealing with bad weather conditions such as rain or snow. 

You may see golf carts at school functions, such as baseball and football games and practices.  The cart comes in handy for carrying practice equipment and training supplies.  The golf cart when customized to fit the situation may be used to carry injured players from the playing field.

But still, the number one use for the golf cart is to ferry the millions of golfers around the golf courses world wide.  Many golfers would not have the opportunity to enjoy the great game if it were not for the golf cart.  The golf cart has been adapted for the many varities of courses.  Gas powered carts are used in many mountainous areas because more power is needed for the steep terrain.

When using a cart one should always practice safe driving and be courteous to others.

Today the selection for golf balls is a varied as the golf equipment that you have to choose from in order to pound these balls down the fairway.  Just a fews years ago the golf ball world was very simple compared to today.  There were very few brands to choose from and you usually only had two choices with each ball manufacturer, and this was a 90 compression or a 100 compression.  This limited world was made up of Titleist, Maxfli, Spalding and Wilson for the most part.  Some of you may remember playing with the Acushnet Club Special.  I ran across one of those old relics in a draw the other day.  The world of golf balls has certainly changed, just like the clubs.  Now each brand has many different balls to choose from.  The modern ball is designed to go high and straight.  And of course and rightly so each manufacturer has a ball designed for the lady golfer.

One of the most noticeable qualities of the modern golf ball is its durability.  In years gone by the balata ball was the top ball for the better amateurs and pros.  This balata ball gave the player the most feel, but with it’s thin cover the ball would suffer severe wounds if you caught it a little thin.  Even when watching tour players you would see players constantly checking their ball after reaching the green to see if any damage had been done and the ball needed to be taken out of play.  Today with the modern ball and its durable covers a player could play the same ball forever.  The story goes that pure swinging Sam Snead once played an entire Los Angeles Open with one ball.  It boggles the imagination to think what Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and the likes would have done if they would have had the modern golf ball.  These tour players of today can select from a wide range of balls to fit their individual swings and equipment.  They can choose from low spin, high spin , soft feel a little harder feel or what ever the conditions may require.

Sam Snead was one of the first players that I saw that had his own personalizrd golf ball.  Sam played Wilson equipment most all of his career and he also used Wilson Staff balls.  Wilson printed balls for Sam that had the number 0.  Today Greg Norman has a shark, Tiger Woods has Tiger on his ball and several players have their names or a personalized logo for their identity.

In order to find what ball fits your swing and equipment best, you can check with your PGA pro or see a swing doctor that has all of the modern computerized equipment to analize your swing.  The things you hear so much today is all about spin, launch angle and ball speed.  To optimize all of these critical areas you will then get the most out of your swing. 

The golf club business has grown tremendously over the past 15 years.  In the years prior to this explosion the golf industry was dominated by the likes of Wilson, Macgregor, Spalding and Hogan.  When you go into the huge golf discount stores these names are hard to find.  They have been replaced with Mizuno, Callaway, Taylormade, Ping, Bridgestone.  These club manufacturers have also gotten into the ball business and shoes. 

The golf industry has grown world wide.  China may be one of the new frontiers with the likes of Russia.  These countries were slow to get into the golf course business, but they are coming on strong.  With their huge populations there is a lot of room for growth.

There are several places that one can find great values on excellent used golf equipment.  Several golf stores in all areas usually take trade-ins on golf equipment.  This offers shoppers the oportunity to pick up good deals on used equipment.  I have a friend that will buy the latest set of irons, drivers, putters, fairway woods, or anything he thinks will help his game several times a year.  He always buys new equipment and invariably will trade it for something else within a few months if not days.  This constant buying and trading will offer some other golfer the opportunity to pick up a good deal on used golf equipment.  This used golf equipment so many times has hardly been used and is just like new.

Callaway golf also is a great source for used golf equipment.  Callaway will certify their used clubs before offering them for sell.  This will give the customer a feeling of security that he or she is getting a good peice of equipment.

Some golf businesses will offer a program to first time buyers and or junior golfers that the business will help the player trade up as the player matures or developes into a better player.  One of the most important things for a beginner is to have proper fitting equipment.  The better the fit, such as length and weight of the clubs  the better control the player will have.  This control of the club will help to develp better swings because the player will not be laboring with a club that is usually too heavy.  So many youngsters start off with clubs that have been cut down from their dad or mom’s sets and they are too heavy and this usually promotes an over the top move that may stick with the beginning player for a life time.

So there are a lot of places that you may find good deals on used golf equipment and you owe it to yourself or someone else that you are helping start in a game for life get some proper fitting equipment.

Callaway Golf is one of the top researchers and developers of golf equipment in the industry.  The founder of Callaway, Eli Callaway was very devoted to developing the best equipment for the amateur and professional.  I was caddying for a friend on the Senior Tour the year that Callaway made it’s debut on the tour.  Callaway,during the off season had gotten with several of the top players and introduced them to their clubs and encouraged them to try the new and innovative golf clubs.  A couple of these players were Bob Murphy and Jim Colbert.  These golf clubs reminded me of the first time I had seen Ping golf clubs several years prior.  They were certainly different if you were use to looking at the likes of the typical clubs on tour, such as Wilson Staff blades.

These modern clubs began to catch on very fast and a lot of the pros that had some skepticism at first really started to take note when they saw what kind of results these players were having.

Tom Wargo’s career was definetely influenced by the Callaway driver.  Tom was an average driver of the ball with the then conventional drivers.  But when Tom tried the more forgiving Callaway driver he gained a lot of confidence and was able to pursue a successful career on the senior tour.

If you play golf at least twice a month, you could probably benefit from a custom set of clubs.  You need to be playing with some degree of regularity so that you can establish some tendencies to your game.  When you play very little and your ball flight is totally different from one round to the other, then you would have a hard time deciding what you may need to help your problem.  What you are trying to find in your game is something that you can repeat.  Repetition is what even the best of players are constantly looking for, and they are trying to find the right equipment that will help them find this consistency.  Most good players will tell you that there biggest concern is not what the ball is doing but can they do the same thing each time.
 
So what you should look for in your equipment is something that fits your ability and will allow you to be as consistent as possible.  Don’t worry about what your friends play–such as stiff shafts or no offset on their woods or irons.  You don’t want to give into your ego when getting fitted for golf clubs.  What you want is something that will allow you to get the most out of your ability and be able to post the lowest score.  Most people play with shafts that are too stiff and usually have too high of a kick point that will not allow them to get the ball airborne sufficiently for maximum carry.  It is a good idea to look at the fairway metal clubs to replace the long irons in your set, most all of the pros on all tours are now carrying at least one hybrid club in their bag.  A lot of pros have started using 5 and 7 woods that were never carried by them just a few years ago, these clubs have taken the place of the 2, 3 and the dreaded 1 iron.  The loft and perimeter weighting in these fairway clubs have made them much easier to hit out of the rough and bad lies.
 
Women and youngsters that are just getting started should get with a qualified club fitter, so they can get suggestions on clubs that will fit their abilities.  If you start out with clubs that do not fit your body frame and the clubs are too heavy and too long there is a good chance you will develop bad habits that may stay with you forever..  The worst thing that can come from ill-fitting clubs is that you may not be able to hit the ball very well when you are trying to learn and you become dejected and quit.  Everyone likes to see some progress and you can use all the help you can get in the beginning.  You do not necessarily have to spend a lot of money with your first set of clubs, even if you only have a start up set, make sure they are not too heavy and the lie angle fits your posture.
 
A good club fitter can usually take your existing clubs and tweak them to fit your needs, such as checking your shaft flex,  and your clubs loft and lie.  He may suggest changing the shafts in your clubs to help you with lack of distance or certain shot configurations. Modern technology has brought about a lot of good equipment that can be used in determining what best fits each player when it comes to fitting equipment, but remember the equipment is only as good as the person using it. There is an old saying in golf-its not the arrow but the indian-there is some truth to this, but all good indians have arrows that best fit their bodies and abilities.
 
Please share your comments and what you may experienced with cusom clubs.  
 
See you on the next tee.

You may be able to hit your driver as straight as your wedges.  The more loft you have on that new titanium driver the straighter you should be able to hit it.
 
Most golfers are able to hit fairway woods better than there drivers and there is logic to this delima.  Fairway woods(metal) have more loft and are not going to put as much side spin on the ball as does the less lofted driver.  The straighter the face of any club will naturally promote more side spin and miss-hit shots will curve off line more. The bigger drivers which can be legally up to 460cc, more loft has also come about.  When metal headed drivers first came upon the scene, most golf enthusiast wanted very little loft.  Unlike the high degree of loft that had been prevalent on wood head clubs the loft for most golfers had to be around 10 to 11 degrees for the player  to get the ball airborne.  The balls of this era also were not designed to go as high as they are today.
 
Then came the phrase launch angle, this terminology got the golfer thinking about how far he could carry his tee shots.  The longer the carry the farther you can hit the ball.  For most golfers he needs the proper shaft flex and higher degree of loft to maximize his abilities.
 
So the next time you get the itch to try a new driver you should find where a club or driving range is having a demo day and try all of the latest technology.  Usually a shaft that is lighter, has a lower kick point and probably not a stiff as your old driver and also has 9 to 10 degrees of loft may do the trick.  Hit em long and straight.
 
See you on the next tee.

Technology has been around since the invention of the game of golf.  I wasn’t there, but I suspect that the first time man tried to hit an object with a stick or what ever he used to strike another object he wanted to hit it farther the next time.  The halls of golf museums are full of many different clubs and balls that have been used since the introduction of the game of golf.  All of these weird looking instruments had several purposes in mind when they were introduced. 
 
You can look at the thousands of different shapes, and sizes of club heads and the many different materials used to understand that man has always sought to have an advantage.  Some of the early difference makers was the evolution of the ball.  Probably one of the characteristics the ball maker was seeking was a quicker and easier way to construct the golf ball.  Since all of the work was done by hand and was very labor intense the manufacturer wanted a ball that would last.  The ball and club manufacturing up until recently was in the hands of true craftsmen.  The people that built clubs and balls also had to figure out how to build the tools to construct this golf equipment. There were no computers or high speed equipment around that punched out thousands of clubs a day.  Each club and ball was done by hand one at a time.  Each player would put a set of clubs together by feel and there was no standard set of clubs for them to choose from.
 
Now with modern equipment and many manufacturers in the golf business anyone can choose from a wide variety of precision matched clubs.  With the intervention of modern computer technology, players can have their swings analyzed. This analysis will tell you what loft, different shaft flexes, kick points, launch angle and the right ball that will work best for you.  Players today will switch to a different ball for certain playing conditions.  The better players may also use different putters with more or less weight and a different loft angle that will hopefully work better on fast or slow greens.  This switching of equipment can be done a daily basis because much more equipment is readily available to all golfers.
 
This changing of equipment does not usually reflect better scoring for the average player and may not improve the tour players stats.  The one thing you have to remember, getting the ball into the hole in the lowest number of strokes is what counts.  There are many other improvements in technology that have given the golfer a better chance to score.  The condition of golf courses today is one area that I think is overlooked.  The mowing equipment is so phenomenal today, the fairways are usually better than the greens were thirty years ago.  This mowing equipment has evolved right along with the many different grasses that have come along because of golf.
 
I think the metal headed drivers and fairway metal clubs which include the hybrids have made a tremendous improvement in play.  These fairway clubs have made it possible for players to go for par fives in two, in situations before that would required a lay-up.  Fairway clubs made from wood usually required a pretty good lie for even most tour players to have a go if there was trouble near the landing area.  In the old days there were few tour players that could take a wood headed driver and hit a consistent shot off the fairway.  Today, most single digit handicap players can consistently hit their drivers from a fairway lie. 
 
Today’s modern clubs and balls are designed to go high and straight.  These design traits which are built into clubs and balls has just about alimented a lot of shot making from most modern players.  The equipment today is much more forgiving and reliable.  Golf balls have improved in several areas, they are much more durable, their flight path is more consistent and you can choose a ball that fits your play. 
 
Are these changes good?  I believe for the most part they are good.  This improved equipment makes the game easier for the masses in respect to being able to hit the ball better.  What I mean by this is that more players can get the ball airborne easier and for the most part the ball goes straighter.  The biggest improvement may be equipment that is better suited for women and the young player.  In the past a lot of kids and women were introduced to the game with hand me down clubs from men and they were usually too heavy.  Clubs that are too heavy are very difficult for most people to hit and control.  It is important for these new players too have some success early, so they will not become discouraged and leave the game.
 
The down side often associated with this improved technology is the courses are becoming obsolete in regards to distance.  This argument probably does not apply for 90 plus per cent of golfers, and these are the people that are paying the bills at the courses.  The length off the tee may be an issue on the pro tours around the world, but even with this increased length the scoring averages have not been effected that much. 
 
The next big break in technology will be with the mind, we are already seeing this with all of the sports psychologist involved in golf.  Most of the top players are employing the help of mind gurus, because they realize the mind is what makes the technology work to its fullest potential.
 
 
So in reality, this boom in technology is probably no different than in the past when the gutta percha ball, sand wedge, steel shafts, surlyn cover, graphite shafts, greens mowers or fertilizer came along–they have all added something new and different to the game of golf.
 
I personally am still looking for more distance and fewer putts.
What are your thoughts and comments?
 
See you on the next tee.