Golfing News & Blog Articles

A South Korean newspaper is reporting today that golf’s biggest company, Topgolf Callaway, may be up for sale.

That’ll put a jolt in your Wednesday, won’t it?

The Chosun Daily is reporting that Topgolf Callaway’s three largest investors are joining together to sell their ownership stakes and management rights. Those major shareholders include BlackRock Advisors LLC, Providence Equity Partners LLC and Thomas Dundon. Together they own over 33 percent of Topgolf Callaway shares.

The paper also reports that the plan is to spin off the Topgolf business and sell the Callaway golf and apparel business for approximately $3 billion.

A South Korean investment company is said to be the leading candidate to land the Callaway business.

Olympics organizers are close to agreeing on a new Olympics mixed-team golf event involving men and women, according to the AP.

The post Report: Olympics could add mixed-team golf event for LA games appeared first on Golf.

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 PAYNTR X 001 Trainer. The new training shoe is the Oregon-based brand’s first foray into something other than golf. The brand’s push into fitness is headlined by long-drive champ Martin Borgmeier. If they’re good enough for that mountain of man, they’re good enough for me, right?

Who Tried It:

Connor. Director of Soft Goods Testing and resident sneakerhead. For the past few months, I’ve been extremely consistent in the gym. As such, I’m always looking for an excuse to get a new pair of trainers. My wife thinks I have too many. I think I need a new pair for every day of the week.

Why Training?

If you haven’t noticed, it’s clear that the intersection between golf and fitness is growing stronger. Evidenced by FootJoy’s recent release of the Flex TR, the golf shoe industry is just starting to take note of the growing demand for training gear.

Big name brands like NIKE, Under Armour and PUMA already have this area covered. But smaller brands like PAYNTR have a lot to offer to the crowded training space. Can the budding golf brand create a training shoe that rivals the big boys like the NIKE Metcon or Under Armour Slipspeed?

Who doesn’t enjoy traveling for golf? Getting the opportunity to explore new golf courses, take part in new experiences and create  memories that will last a lifetime. As much fun as the trip and experience can be, there are potential hiccups along the way that can derail that journey. In this Amazon Finds, we will explore a critical piece of travel equipment—the travel bag. It’s a key piece of equipment to protect your beloved gear and ensure you can enjoy your travel experience to the fullest extent.

The Problem

We have seen the videos and heard the nightmare stories about golfers traveling and their clubs not arriving but what is worse is when the golf clubs do arrive and are in pieces. Of course, there are common tips and tricks to help protect golf clubs in a travel bag but it can still happen. Having a quality travel bag is essential for any golfer but can the more affordable golf travel bag from OutdoorMaster be the best combination of price and protection?

The Solution

The OutdoorMaster Golf Travel Bag aims to be the solution for golfers who want to spend less than $75 and still get a quality bag that will protect their clubs and bag. It has all the basic features and comes in several different colors. It is Amazon’s Choice Top Overall Pick for golf travel bags. Finally, the OutdoorMaster travel bag has received high praise from other users with a star rating of 4.6 out of 5 from over 2,400 reviews.

How I Found It

With an upcoming trip and an older, well-worn travel bag that has seen a lot of miles put on it, it was time to look for a replacement. As I wasn’t sure how much travel I would be doing after this next trip, spending a fortune on a travel bag was out of the picture. So, off to Amazon to see what options there were. It was pretty clear that this OutdoorMaster Travel Bag was the go-to option on their site. I had to wait just a few days before its arrival.

How It Works (Or Doesn’t)

My main big trip isn’t until the end of May but I had a couple of small trips where I put the bag to good use. The packaging it came in was alarmingly small. I was concerned it wouldn’t hold everything I wanted it to or have the padding I would look for in a golf travel bag. 

Callaway is continually striving to make advancements and push technological limits. This applies not only to their drivers and fairways but also their irons. Callaway has several families of irons that suit a vast array of golfers. In this model-by-model series, we will showcase the current Callaway offerings, whom they are for, their various options and their technology story.

Callaway Release Cycle:

Callaway continues a trend of having separate release cycles for their different iron families. By this, we mean Callaway has a yearly launch that coincides with its driver and fairway release. The name of this iron is usually the same and is aimed more towards the game-improvement category. Callaway also has secondary families that usually release every 24 months. These releases sit on either side of the game-improvement category, being the Tour-inspired Apex series or the super game-improvement Big Bertha series. 

Callaway often continues to keep their previous yearly model as a current model within their lineup. In this case, the Paradym is still considered a current model, even though the new Paradym Ai-Smoke has been released.

Key Technologies for Callaway:

It is difficult to discuss Callaway golf irons and offerings without the inclusion of AI technology. Of all the brands, it could be argued that Callaway has leaned the most heavily into this technology. While the main story is often focused on their drivers, their AI technology is highly integrated into their irons as well.

Urethane Microspheres: A material used inside hollow-bodied irons to help reduce vibrations and improve sound and feel. This technology is used extensively within the Callaway lineup of irons.Face Cup Technology: This has been used in various iterations over the years by Callaway and is a core feature to improve ball speed and help golfers gain more distance.

 Callaway Irons: Model-by-Model Overview

Callaway Apex MB Irons

Release Date: Aug. 18, 2023

You asked us what are the telltale signs of a sandbagger? We all know that one golfer. They show up with a 15 handicap, haven’t posted scores in months and shoot 74. Whether it’s a club event or a friendly round, sandbaggers have plagued the game forever. How can you avoid being their next victim?.

Watch for these signs to help you figure out if you’re being duped or if this person is really having that career round. We’ll also look at some shady sandbagging strategies.

What is Sandbagging?

The word “sandbagger” did not originate on the golf course but comes from 19th-Century gangs. Their weapon of choice was a sock filled with sand.

What makes a sandbagger different from an obvious cheater who may reposition their ball, doesn’t take a deserved penalty stroke or takes “gimme” putts that are anything but is that they take a more subtle approach to their manipulation of the rules of golf. They may work to protect their current handicap, keeping it artificially high. They may only post their worst scores or may post scores all too infrequently. At their core, however, a sandbagger is nothing more than a cheat.

No Consistent Score Posting

One of the first things to look for is how consistently and how recently they have posted a score. The handicap system allows golfers to upload their own scores from their cell phone. Gone are the days when a publicly posted signed and attested scorecard was required. This gives sandbaggers the ability to avoid posting their best scores. Then to only post scores they know will not drop their handicap.

Full 2024 Valspar Championship tee times for Thursday's first round at Innisbrook, featuring Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth and more.

The post 2024 Valspar Championship Thursday tee times: Round 1 groupings appeared first on Golf.

Jon Rahm, who made the move to LIV Golf in December, acknowledged Tuesday that it has been "difficult" not being able to defend his titles at some of the PGA Tour's most iconic stops.

Masters champion Jon Rahm is bringing plenty of Spanish flavor to the Masters Club dinner for champions next month.

In a memo sent to PGA Tour members Monday night, commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed the meeting Monday with PIF, saying the conversation was "constructive."

The Callaway White Box Testing Opportunity

Callaway has completely revamped their golf ball lineup with the new Chrome Tour series. This revamp shifts focus and looks to target the better players who may have not taken Callaway golf balls as seriously as they might have in the past.

The new Chrome Soft remains in the lineup. However, the focus for this testing opportunity is on the all-new Chrome Tour, which replaces the previously named Chrome Soft X LS and the Chrome Tour X that replaces the prior general Chrome Soft X. 

We selected 40 golfers to test, review, keep and report back to us on their findings of these new Callaway golf balls. Each tester received a dozen white box golf balls: six Callaway Chrome Tour and six Callaway Chrome Tour X. 

Testers were asked to play these golf balls and provide feedback to us on the Forum to highlight certain performance aspects.

About The Testing Group

Age Ranges

As with all MyGolfSpy Forum tests, we aim to get a wide variety of testers to make the reviews relevant to you, the real golfer. This testing opportunity was no different with testers’ ages ranging from 14 to mid 70s.

Buoyed by ballstriking numbers we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler is on pace to have a dominant year.

Prior to The Players Championship, I wrote about the possibility of a dominant season for Scheffler—that seems like even more of a possibility after the world No. 1 became the first player in tournament history to successfully defend his crown.

Scheffler now has two marquee victories in 2024, and all signs point to his success being sustainable. If his putting can continue to be slightly above average, he will hard to beat.

In 116 PGA Tour starts, Scheffler has 36 top-five finishes (31 percent). That is almost an identical pace to Jon Rahm (now on LIV) and is slightly ahead of the pace Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth set earlier in their careers. For those curious, Woods had 56 top-five finishes through as many starts (48 percent).

It will be no surprise that Scheffler led one of the four major Strokes Gained categories this past week at The Players Championship. In this new segment, I am highlighting the four Strokes Gained winners and the gear they used during a successful week at Sawgrass.

The new Wilson Staff Model ZM wedges are something we haven’t seen from Wilson Staff in a long time: wedges that come with an actual wedge story.

For the company that’s credited with inventing the modern sand wedge, that’s kind of astounding.

Seriously, for the last decade and a half, Wilson has produced serviceable, decent-enough, non-descript wedges. Functional, but not cutting-edge. It was almost like, “Oh, yeah, we have wedges, too.”

But friends, the past is just that: the past. It’s there but the only bearing it has on the here and now is between our ears. And, for the first time in at least that last decade and a half, Wilson has wedges that check off the “story” boxes.

A groove/face milling/face blast/wet-dry spin story? Check.

From tour pros to weekend warriors, we all will benefit from adding strength and performance training to our weekly regimen. Often overlooked is prioritizing recovery from training sessions and golf rounds to optimize that training. From sleep to nutrition to stretching, building a solid recovery plan will help you take your golf game to new levels. In this overview of recovery strategies for golfers, we will give you some recommendations to do just that and have you feeling better than ever on the course and off.

Why Sleep Matters

A good night’s sleep is a fantastic time for our body to recover. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Once our bodies reach a deep sleep cycle, hormones are released to help repair damaged muscle cells. This helps to lead to a shorter recovery window between training bouts, as well as golf rounds, and allows us to be at a more optimal performance level the next time we head to the gym or course. Sleep isn’t just beneficial to our physical performance. It can assist in all of the following:

Improved moodReduced daily fatigueReduced risk of cardiovascular diseaseReduced risk of Type 2 diabetesImproved mental functionStrengthened immune systemStress reliefMaintaining a healthy weight

What Can I Do to Improve My Sleep?

If you struggle with getting a good night’s sleep, try to work on creating a consistent nighttime routine. Reading a book, practicing mindfulness through meditation, soaking in the tub or taking a shower, and stretching are all great things you can put into practice. Start your routine at the same time each night and aim to be in bed by the same time.

Nutrition: What you Eat and When you Eat Matters

I know. You eat a pretty healthy diet and your weight stays the same…for the most part. But what foods we are eating – along with when we eat – play a vital role in our recovery from exercise. Not only does our food matter but so does our hydration matters. How much an individual needs to eat on a daily basis will vary based on a multitude of factors –  gender, age, weight, activity level, goals (i.e., weight loss/maintenance/gain).

Golf is a physical sport. Not in the same sense as football, for example, but it does require physical demands of us. With this comes the importance of proper hydration and nutrition.

Ludvig Aberg approached this interview feeling like he was on a movie set.

Director’s chairs were flanked by cameras, boom mics, tripods and lighting equipment as in-house and external media were capturing content with the 24-year-old Swede, Collin Morikawa, Grace Kim and other adidas golf ambassadors ahead of their seasons and in anticipation of the release of the adidas Tour360 24.

While Aberg may have felt like he was on a movie set that afternoon in Hawaii, he was certainly the star of a feel-good film during his rookie season on the PGA Tour.

After turning professional in June, Aberg recorded four top-10 finishes in 11 PGA Tour events, including one victory (The RSM Classic), one runner-up, three top-5s and $3.14 million in earnings. To add a cherry on top, Aberg etched his name in the history books by becoming the first golfer to participate in the Ryder Cup before playing in a major.

“Last year was almost a little bit beyond my dreams in terms of what I thought I was going to accomplish that quickly,” Aberg said. “But that’s also in the past and there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do, and what I’m really looking forward to and what I’m really, really excited about, is this season and the opportunities I created for myself by playing well last year and now what I can do this season.

Everyone could use a few extra yards off the tee, and you can get them simply by adjusting to hit a different shot shape.

The post Add easy yards off the tee with this 1 small setup tweak appeared first on Golf.

GOLF Teacher to Watch Daniel Gray shares some tips on how to avoid hooking the ball when releasing the golf club, leading to better shots.

The post Hooking the ball when releasing the club? Do this to fix the issue appeared first on Golf.

If you're struggling with your golf posture, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jon Tattersall suggests using these checkpoints to clean it up.

The post Use these 3 checkpoints to dial in your golf posture, says top teacher appeared first on Golf.

Need some accuracy in your life? According to Golf Laboratories' swing robot, these 3-woods are worth a hard look.

The post Robot testing confirms these new 3-woods are the most accurate appeared first on Golf.

After Scottie Scheffler won his second straight Players Championship, he reminded us of an absolutely absurd Tiger Woods stat.

The post Is Scottie Scheffler on Tiger Woods-like run? Here’s what Scheffler thinks appeared first on Golf.