Golfing News & Blog Articles

2021 Travel Bag Buyer’s Guide

How wonderful does a golf getaway sound? Pretty darned good after all the travel restrictions necessitated by COVID-19!

With that in mind and to make your golf trip worry-free (the travel part, anyhow), we tested the Best Travel Bags in 2021.

Rule No. 1: Don’t cheap out on a golf travel bag. You invested thousands of your hard-earned dollars into the gear you are putting into it so it makes sense to ensure your investment is protected.

Although travel bags come in all shapes and sizes, the hard-case versions are becoming obsolete. They tend to break into pieces when dropped. After testing both kinds over the years, I recommend a durable soft-case travel bag.

Whether you’re looking to buy a travel bag today, looking for some buying advice or just want a closer look at what’s on the market right now, this guide will help you find the right one for you.

Even at the age of 50, the Master of the Short Game has proven that he can still win a major championship. We really should learn from Phil Mickelson’s success. He provided 3 short game tips in a recent blog which was released by SCGA (Southern California Golf Association). Following is the abbreviated version of their blog.

Knowing these tips will improve your game but you can’t expect to instantly excel like Phil. He started practicing as a young boy in his back yard. Starting early helps but countless hours of practice are needed to learn the precision that he has accomplished. Learning these 3 tips should speed up your learning curve.

Setup with Weight on Your Front Foot:
Successful chipping needs a sharp edged 60 degree wedge where you keep the leading edge down to lift the ball through impact. Setting up with your weight forward helps you impact the ball first with your downward strike. A shallow swing will end up blading your ball across the green.

Setup for a High or Low Chip
Consider what you are trying to do with your chip before you setup. A high chip over a sand trap or rough around the green with a pin close to the edge of the green, the ball needs to be placed off your front foot. A low chip which you are using for directional and distance control should be setup for hitting off your back foot. The ball should never be setup for a chip between your feet as you need to keep your weight forward to avoid hitting the ball thin or scooping the ball.

Setup with an Inverse Line
Your arm and the club must be setup with an inverse line where your trailing wrist is bent back. You need a slight forward press in your hands to get the club in the correct position for crisp contact. Setting up with this position will ensure that your leading edge will stay down.

Andy Gardiner, the CEO of the proposed Premier Golf League, told ESPN on Wednesday he is hoping to meet with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to explain his concept. "All we want is a conversation,'' Gardiner said.

Mikko Korhonen of Finland withdrew from the U.S. Open on Wednesday because of travel concerns getting to Torrey Pines.

Brooks Koepka says his ongoing feud with Bryson DeChambeau is "good for the game" and is helping to grow the sport.

Top 50 Golf Courses

What makes one course better than another?

Architecture? Shot value? History? Cost? Access? Condition? Ambiance? Name-brand course designer?

The importance of any single criterion is, in the final analysis, entirely up to the individual golfer. And, as with our industry-leading golf equipment testing, we believe most golfers best relate to feedback and opinions from ….wait for it … other regular golfers.

Sure, we’d all love to walk the fairways at Pine Valley or Augusta National. But what good is a course ranking if the opportunity to play it is somewhere between no chance in hell and absolutely 100% no chance in hell.

To build our list of the best golf destinations, we turned to TheGrint and to real golfers just like you.

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. 

About the Cut DC

The Cut DC represents the value brand’s foray into the four-piece space. The DC stands for “dual-core.” As the name should imply, the construction of the Cut DC is similar to the Titleist Pro V1x or Srixon Z-Star XV. For less than $30 a dozen, that’s a rare find

The DC features a 360-dimple cover. The company lists the launch and spin characteristics as “workable.”  While that might typically imply high spin, our hunch is this one will shake out somewhere in the middle of the launch and spin chart.

Cut DC — Compression

On our compression gauge, the Cut DC measures 99. That put it on par with the Wilson Staff Model and the Mizuno RB Tour X, just a tick softer than the Callaway Chrome Soft LS, and a whisker softer than the Pro V1x Left Dash.

We’re talking about a ball on the extreme end of the compression range. That should immediately suggest a high ball speed offering (especially for faster players).

Angel Cabrera was handed over to authorities in Argentina on Tuesday to face trial on charges he assaulted three former partners.

Drew Stoltz, AKA The Sleeze (Subpar, Gravy and The Sleeze) joins us today to share tales of wins and woes with Phil Mickelson and other golfing stories.

0:00 – Intro/Meet the Sleeze3:46 – Whisper Rock’s secret society of dudes9:49 – Drew’s fateful bet with Phil17:11 – The sharpest tongues on tour?20:40 – MAIL BAG! If you had to build a full custom bag with one brand, which would you choose?25:52 – Favorite training aids?28:03 – What’s in The Sleeze’s Bag?31:17 – Drew’s shoes

Watch Now

Also available on:

iTunesSoundcloud

and all major podcast apps.

 

The post Betting with Lefty & other Stories with The Sleeze | NPG 85 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

The Premier Golf League is a new project run by British-based World Golf Group, which would include 18 tournaments targeting the top 48 male players in the world with each event offering prize money far exceeding those currently on the PGA Tour.

Rickie Fowler failed to qualify for the U.S. Open on Tuesday, finishing 1 shot short of qualifying for the playoff in Columbus, Ohio.

DICK’S Sporting Goods has launched new versions of the Maxfli Tour and Maxfli Tour X golf balls.The urethane-covered balls are designed to compete with the top “Tour-level” offerings on the market.Retail price is $34.99.

Maxfli Tour and Tour X are the second generation of Maxfli’s surprisingly good “Tour-level” balls. I say “surprisingly” because at the start of our 2019 ball test, we had low expectations for the DICK’S house brand. However, during testing, the Maxfli offerings flew longer and straighter than several mainstream offerings.

Subsequent MyGolfSpy Ball Lab testing placed their prior-gen Tour ball near the top of our rankings table and, while we had some issues with the Tour X, they were largely confined to a single bad box. Not that it should ever happen but this time around should be better.

About the Maxfli Tour Golf Ball Lineup

The Maxfli Tour and Tour X are manufactured by Foremost in Taiwan. If you’ve been keeping up with Ball Lab, you know that Foremost is among the most reputable of the Asian factories. In addition to Maxfli, Foremost produces balls for Vice, Wilson and OnCore. It’s also responsible for the majority of TaylorMade’s TP5 core production. While Foremost quality was already pretty good, increased business from TaylorMade is driving QC improvements which ultimately benefit its other customers as well.

Rickie Fowler had to deal with traffic after his opening round, leaving him time to park, grab a hot dog, hit a few putts and go back out for his second 18 at The Lakes, where he was at 4 under for his round before played was halted because of darkness.

 

The post Merced County Championship appeared first on Northern California Golf Association.

Marcus Armitage shot a 7-under 65 on Monday to win the three-day European Open by two shots.

The 2020 Most Wanted Spikeless Shoe has had a plastic surgery makeover. Literally!

Introducing both apparel and footwear for men and women that features recycled technical material: adidas PRIMEBLUE. This release is just part of adidas’ commitment to continue to innovate in the area of sustainability until they reach their goal to use only recycled polyester in all of their products by 2024.

It just goes to show that recycled material can look and feel like an everyday shoe but be environmentally friendly.

Both the adidas PRIMEBLUE apparel and CODECHAOS21 footwear are available beginning today at adidas.com, the adidas app and at select retailers worldwide.

Click through the gallery below to see the new products.

Yuka Saso Has Historic Win at U.S. Women’s Open

June 7, 2021

The Olympic Club struck again. Just as in the five U.S. Opens contested on the club’s Lake Course, the first U.S. Women’s Open Championship played over this iconic Bay Area layout wasn’t kind to the favored final-round frontrunner.

Olympic’s list of past victims includes Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Jim Furyk and Payne Stewart, and Lexi Thompson can now be added to the remarkable list of players who have come up short in championship bids here.

Thompson, the 54-hole leader, was five strokes ahead of her closest pursuers on a beautiful early June Sunday with 10 holes remaining, only to play the final eight in 5 over par, including consecutive bogeys on Nos. 17 and 18 that left the 26-year-old Floridian with a final-round 75, one agonizing stroke shy of the playoff between Yuka Saso and Nasa Hataoka at 4-under 280.

It took three holes to decide the outcome. Saso converted a 12-foot birdie putt on the first sudden-death playoff hole (No. 9) after both players made back-to-back pars in the two-hole aggregate playoff. At 19 years, 11 months, 17 days old, Saso joined World Golf Hall of Fame member and seven-time major winner Inbee Park as the youngest champion in U.S. Women’s Open history – to the day. She also becomes the first player from the Philippines to engrave her name on the Harton S. Semple Trophy. Princess Mary Superal (2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior) is the only other player from the Philippines to claim a USGA title.

If there are three things your dad loves, they might just be golf, gadgets, and saving money. Granted most MGS readers likely have those same loves, but with Father’s Day coming up let’s take a look at a few gifts that hit all three.

Most know eBay as the largest online auction site in the world. Many reading will have bought and sold gear there in the past. Another side of eBay, however, is their certified refurbished shop. We don’t recommend refurbished golf clubs or golf balls but consumers can find great deals on a wide variety of other items. Most are being resold directly from the manufacturer after refurbishing and testing the product. This results in a like-new item that is often still under warranty and in original packaging, but at significant cost savings.

With Father’s Day quickly approaching, many of these items would make great gifts. eBay is sweetening the deal even further by offering up to 50% off a variety of top items from June 7th – June 13th 2021. Looking through the available products, a few stood out as perfect gifts for the golfing dad in your life.

Here are a few of the top golf gadgets currently available on eBay refurbished today.

BUSHNELL PRO XE LASER RANGEFINDER

The best rangefinder of 2021 is packed with features. The display is simple to read and understand. Visual notification and jolt technology alert you when you’ve locked onto a target. This rangefinder also considers climate. It accounts for altitude as well as temperature for ultimate accuracy in playing distance.

A few weeks ago, we asked you to take our annual golf ball survey. We asked you about your preferences, buying habits and how likely you are to recommend brands to your friends. Your feedback helps us better understand your perceptions as well as trends in the market.

More than 10,00 (10,680) of you completed our survey. Here are some of the more interesting results.

What Are Your Golf Buying Habits?

We know from the survey that the majority of our readers play between 26 and 55 rounds of golf annually (26-40 was listed most often). What does that rate of play translate to as far as golf ball purchases are concerned?

The highest percentage of you buy five to six dozen balls annually.Perhaps this is why when brands give away “a year’s supply of golf balls”, it’s typically six dozen.I’d wager that those of you buying fewer than four dozen balls are playing a bit less, while I’m envious of those of you who play enough golf to need at least seven dozen (though I’ve had weekends where I’ve gone through nearly that many).

Jon Rahm probably should have won. But he didn't. Instead, Patrick Cantlay walked away with the victory as the U.S. Open looms with plenty of questions.