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Don’t you wonder why you are more likely to top a ball when you are trying to hit your longest distance with any of your clubs. It’s that ticking time bomb in your head. It’s caused by your state of mind that triggers a chain reaction in your mind and body to overpower your transition at the top of your swing. You need a remedy to break that STUPID habit.
Pros Have the Same Problems
What happened to Rory McIlroy in the 2023 Masters? He missed the cut and it must have been caused by the pressure and emotion to win! The opposite must have happened to Jason Day’s victory in the Byron Nelson after 5 years without a win. It’s not the phase of the moon or just wearing lucky copper infused socks. Calm, controlled emotion must have a lot to do with your success on any given day when you are playing golf.
What is Your Primary Mishit?
The slope of the ground where you are standing has a lot to do with your mishits but first your need to understand what causes your mishits on the flat surface of the tee or fairway. It’s rare that TV cameras will show us the mishits for the pros but they do happen. We should be more concerned with the typical mishit for Weekend Warriors. I have played with hundreds of different golfers so I suspect that you will agree that fat and thin shots are the most prevalent mistakes for mid-handicappers. But thin hits or topped balls are by far the most common mishits for most golfers.
Problems Causing your Topped Ball Mishits
We all have to agree that emotion and personal pressure to hit longer or better shots are the primary causes for our mishits. These are the causes:
1/ Swaying back in the backswing and then rushing your arms during the downswing are the primary cause for bottoming out our swing arc before the ball and then topping the ball as your club arcs upward.
2/ Tensing our shoulder and arm muscles reduces the length of our swing arc. You may be lifting your shoulders or bending your leading arm to shorten your swing arc (as compared to the distance when you setup for your hit.)
3/ “Early Extension” refers to the way you stand up taller just before your impact with the ball. During impact, you need to keep your shoulders down on the same plane as when you setup.
4/ Transition Yip: You can’t afford to rush the transition because it will make your arms get out of sync with your body as you start to shift your weight to your leading foot. The harder you try to swing the worse this problem get. Just relax the transition.
Let your hips start your rotation as your hands reach the top of your backswing. Control your transition!
Solution: We all need to create a comfortable rhythm to add wrist lag at the top and to hold that lag as we transition into our downswing. I now think the words “bow annnd go” to add cadence to my backswing. Saying “bow” reminds me to bow my leading wrist (for drives) or fatten my leading wrist (for fairway woods and irons), saying “annnd” as I cock my wrists for lag at the top and “go” as I bump my hip forward to start my down swing.
Nine golfers that left the DP World Tour to join LIV Golf, including Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia, remain ineligible for the Ryder Cup.
Rory McIlroy hopes LIV Golf "goes away" with the PGA Tour's new alliance and that there "has to be consequences for actions" for the golfers who left.
Bryson DeChambeau, one of the first big names to sign up for LIV Golf, praised the unified entity created in his sport but said he felt bad for the players who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour.
Yesterday’s announced merger between the PGA TOUR and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) may be the very definition of a “what the hell just happened?” stunner.
But of all the many, many tweets, blog posts or diatribes written in the past 24 hours, this paragraph from the official PGA TOUR website might be the most important:
“PIF will initially be the exclusive investor in the new entity, alongside the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf and the DP World Tour. Going forward, PIF will have the exclusive right to further invest in the new entity, including the right of first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity.”
I’ve read that maybe a hundred times since Tuesday morning and it still says the same thing:
The Saudis just bought men’s professional golf.
Planning is well underway for the 2023 MyGolfSpy ball test. We’ll have more details to share in the near future but the summary version is that it will be our biggest ball test to date.
We’ll again test balls with drivers and irons at three different swing speeds. We’ll also be doing a greenside spin test.
If time permits, we’ve got ideas for additional tests as well.
What makes this test different from our previous efforts is that we’re expanding the field to 50 (FIVE-ZERO) golf ball models.
A good bit of the field is already filled but we know many of you have STRONG opinions about what else should be tested so we’re letting you choose the rest of the field.
While there are still many details to be worked out, here's what we know and don't know about the new partnership between LIV Golf, the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.
Commissioner Jay Monahan had what he described as a "heated" discussion with PGA Tour golfers over an agreement to unify with the DP World Tour and LIV Golf League.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf announced they were merging on Tuesday morning in what is a massive move in the sports world. Golfers from both leagues were surprised in reaction to the news.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the LIV Golf League have agreed to merge and move forward in a larger commercial business, the circuits announced.
Driver fitting is inarguably the most accessible of golf club fitting types. With that, it’s reasonable to say it’s also the most widely understood.
That shouldn’t suggest that every driver fitting is a good one. As with basically everything else in the golf equipment world, there’s still plenty of bad info out there but even among golfers who find difficult to get fitted, there’s likely somewhere nearby where you can work with a competent fitter or find the tools to DIY your way to better results.
While we’d strongly recommend working with a fitter, when that’s not possible (or you just don’t want to), DIY can be a whole lot easier when you know what to look for.
Before we get into that, let’s tackle the basics.
Why driver fitting is important
When you get fitted into a driver that matches your unique swing profile (what Mizuno calls your Swing DNA), the outcome is often more consistency and better results on the golf course.
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 Vessel Player IV Pro DXR stand bag; Vessel’s latest and greatest luxury golf bag offering.
Who Tried It:
Connor. Director of Soft Goods Testing and resident sneakerhead. I believe golf is better with a pair of cool shoes and comfortable joggers.
I used to be the laughing stock of MyGolfSpy because of my choice of golf bag. I’m here to fix that. It’s about time I conducted a Vessel golf bag review!
Vessel Player IV Pro Golf Bag Review: Bigger, but Better
Vessel is a perennial top player in our golf bag testing. And if their cult-like following is any indication of their performance, I’ll take that as a good sign. The Player IV Pro is the latest in Vessel’s lineup. It aims to not only iterate upon, but drastically improve the few spots where the Vessel Player IV fell short.
Let’s dive right into my review of the Vessel Player IV Pro DXR stand bag.
Michael Block finished in sixth place at U.S. Open qualifying in Toronto, where 27 players competed for one of three spots to gain entry into next week's field at Los Angeles Country Club.
A day after winning on the PGA Tour, Viktor Hovland caddies for his former college teammate's attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open.
The Callaway Paradym Night Mode driver launch is the clearest signal yet that we’re into Round Two of the special-/limited-edition launch. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen TaylorMade launch black versions of the P7900 and Stealth irons. Today, Callaway is announcing a limited-edition Paradym driver offering it’s calling Night Mode.
Night Mode. At night, it’s dark. The drivers are black and “Night Mode” sounds way cooler than “black.”
For the record, there are two Callaway Paradym Night Mode drivers. There’s the standard Paradym and the low-spinning, better-player-focused Paradym Triple Diamond. As with the other special-/limited-edition offerings, the only difference between these drivers and the originals is cosmetic.
Callaway Paradym Night Mode Drivers
This is the second go-round for a special-/limited-edition Paradym. In late March, just before the annual Eastern Georgia Golf Extravaganza, Callaway released a limited-edition green-and-yellow themed Paradym.
We’re unsure if the Paradym Night Mode drivers are connected to the upcoming U.S. Open or Father’s Day. They could also celebrate National Veggie Burger Day or National Moonshine Day, both of which happen to be today.
Two-time NCAA champion Rose Zhang became the first LPGA Tour winner in her pro debut in 72 years, capturing the Mizuho Americas Open with a par on the second hole in a playoff against Jennifer Kupcho on Sunday.
Viktor Hovland delivered three clutch putts at the end to win the Memorial in a playoff over hard-luck Denny McCarthy on Sunday.
