Golfing News & Blog Articles

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. Today, we’re taking a look at the 2021 Costco Kirkland Performance + V2. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

About the Kirkland Performance + V2

While the world awaits another four-piece Kirkland golf ball that will hopefully be the equal of the original, golfers still have the option of choosing Costco’s three-piece Performance + V2.

At less than $13 a dozen, it seems like a great deal but when we ran the original through Ball lab, we found that although the ball was cheap, it was of no value. Nearly a quarter of the sample had a significant concentricity issue and the diameter consistency easily qualified as poor.

In our recent robot test, we found that Costco’s ball doesn’t always hold its own against the premium balls on the market. The Performance + V2 is shorter than most due largely to its high spin properties and there are some question marks around its performance in the wind. Those details alone suggest it’s not a ball for everyone but for those it fits (or for those who are willing to sacrifice some performance for value), the question of quality lingers (or at least it should).

Bellerive Country Club has been selected to host the Presidents Cup in 2030, making it the seventh American course to host the biennial event.

Seven golfers, including defending champ Yuxin Lin of China, share the lead at 4-under-67 at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Dubai. Lin is vying to be the event's first three-time winner.

I was happy to see that Colby on a recent GolfersRX blog suggested putting with a swing like a pendulum. As a graduate engineer I decided to swing my putter like a pendulum many years ago. It really is the only way to direct a putt directly up your target line. If you read the breaks and hit the right target line with the right speed, you should be able to sink more putts. A perfect “pendulum” swing is ideal for your success.

Your your swing must impact the ball with a square face and with a follow through swing directly up your target line. Unfortunately, we all have a natural tendency to swing our putter around our body as our arms are attached to our rotating shoulders.

Pendulum vs Arc Putting Swing
There are too many putting contraptions that encourage you to swing the putter in an arc as you rotate your body during the putt. This really is a dumb approach to putting as your putter only squares to your target line for a fraction of a second as it arcs around your body. If your ball is not resting exactly at that spot which is square to your target line, you will never hit it on the right path. A perfect pendulum swing is the only solution to minimize miss-directed putts.

The Colby Recommendation
To eliminate the wrap around the body effect, he suggested that you practice with your leading left arm wrapped around your ribs to your right side while you practice putting with your trailing right hand (for right-handed putters). He stated that “the toe of the putter should turn over just slightly after impact”. Unfortunately, if you don’t place your ball on the perfect point before your putter turns over, you can expect a pulled putt.

Solution
Because your leading arm is on your left side (for right-handed putters) it’s much easier to make a pendulum swing up your target line if you use your leading left arm to swing straight up your target line (and not around your body). That’s right, let your leading arm be your pendulum and your trailing arm my even let go of your putter as it impacts the ball (and continues swinging up your target line).

The CEO of the Premier Golf League hopes to partner with the PGA Tour on "co-sanctioning" for his idea for 48-player, 12-team, 54-hole events with guaranteed purses.

TaylorMade has acquired Nassau Golf Co. Ltd.

That’s the headline. The terms of the sale weren’t disclosed. There’s your footnote.

The interesting stuff is somewhere in the middle.

Chances are, even if you’re not keenly aware of it, you are familiar with Nassau Golf. The South Korea-based ball factory has produced numerous TaylorMade balls over the years. It’s also the factory responsible for the original Kirkland Signature four-piece golf ball (the one where the covers didn’t rip) and, perhaps most notably, it produces the MTB Black and MTB X for Dean Snell.

Special guest Ryan Barath (@RDSBarath) joins us for a head to head debate with MGS owner Adam Beach: Should fittings be free for all golfers?

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October 31, 2021

PEBBLE BEACH – Merrill Grant and Jason Porto came out on top in the 2021 eClub Four-Ball Match Play Championship on Sunday at the Links at Spanish Bay. Grant of

eClub East Bay, and his partner Porto of eClub Sacramento, beat Abey Mullassery and Nitin Pai of eClub San Francisco 4 and 3. After losing the first hole and the third and fourth holes, Grant and Porto found themselves down two holes early in the match. However, from there the duo was able to rally and not lose another hole the rest of the day.

Porto made a net par on the fifth hole to cut the lead to one down and tied the match up three holes later on the eighth with a par. Starting on the back nine, his partner Grant got in the action by winning his first hole on the par 5 10th with a par. Porto then extended the lead to 2 up with a par on the long par 4 12th, and Grant put the duo 3 up with 4 to play with a bogey 6 on the par 5 14th. The next hole Grant closed out the match 4 and 3 with a par.

The 2021 eClub Four-Ball Match Play had 64 teams of two participate with three rounds of pod play followed by a single elimination bracket of the 16 pod winners.

The Hall of Famer says he isn't picking a fight with the PGA Tour. But it sure seems like he is. So why now? Or, more accurately, why again?

Women’s Golf Survey

We want to hear from female golfers.

In this brief survey, we ask about your playing habits, whether you’ve been fitted and the gear in your bag right now. Are golf equipment and apparel companies meeting your needs?

The survey should only take about five minutes but if there’s something else we should have asked or there’s something else you want us to know, don’t hesitate to use the comment section below.

Click here to take the survey.

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Spirit of the Game: Babe Zaharias

November 1, 2021

Olympic gold medal winner in track and field. All-American basketball player in college. Champion golfer. If there was a Jim Thorpe among women athletes, it was Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias.

As a professional golfer, she won 31 tournaments, including three U.S. Women’s Opens, and helped found the Ladies Professional Golf Association. “Babe changed the game of golf for women,” said Patty Berg.

Didrikson didn’t even take up golf seriously until she was 21. She was introduced to the game by Grantland Rice in Los Angeles during the 1932 Olympics. Somewhere in between winning gold medals in the javelin and hurdles-she might have won the high jump, too, had she not been disqualified-Didrikson joined Rice and three other sportswriters for a round of golf at Brentwood C.C. According to Rice, the Babe shot 91 that day and regularly hit drives measuring 250 yards.

Rule of the Month: Unplayable Ball

November 1, 2021

If you are in a situation where you don’t want to or don’t think you can play your ball, you always have the option of taking relief under the unplayable ball Rule. The player is the only person who can decide that their ball is unplayable, and this can be done anywhere on the golf course except when your ball lies in a penalty area. If your ball is in a penalty area, your only relief option is to take relief under the penalty area Rule.

When you decide that your ball is unplayable, you have three relief options, all for one penalty stroke. Your first option is to go back to the spot of your previous stroke and play again (stroke and distance relief). Your second option is to go back as far as you’d like and drop on the line from the hole through the spot where the ball lies (back-on-the-line relief). Your third option is to drop anywhere within two club-lengths of where your ball lies, no closer to the hole (lateral relief).

If your ball lies in a bunker, you must remain inside the bunker under options two and three. You also have a fourth option for an extra penalty stroke (two penalty strokes total) which allows you to go back on the line and drop your ball outside the bunker. Click here to learn more about these options in our video on bunkers.

FAQs:

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Golf’s New Rules of Amateur Status

November 1, 2021

Golf’s new Rules of Amateur Status have been published by the USGA and The R&A ahead of their January 1, 2022, effective date.

The work is the latest step by the governing bodies to make the Rules easier to understand and apply and follows the modernization process of the Rules of Golf in 2019. The new Rules were informed by golfer and golf industry feedback as a part of a comprehensive review, to ensure they continue to reflect how the modern game is played by millions of golfers around the world.

This review, along with the global feedback received when the proposals were publicly shared earlier this year, reaffirmed amateur golf’s important position in the game and the value in maintaining amateur status Rules.

The result is a set of Rules that removes many of the restrictions that previously applied to amateur golfers, while ensuring that the integrity of the game is protected by limiting the form and value of the prizes an amateur golfer can accept.

The Electric Trolley Revolution is happening in North America. Slowly, yes, but it’s most definitely happening.

What started as an oddity a little over a year ago evolved to a rarity this spring. And, as we approach the end of Daylight Savings Time, it’s not all that unusual to see at least one or two during a normal round.

That may not sound like much of a revolution to you. But the people who make and sell these things will tell you it’s a certifiable big deal.

“When I first came here, it was a product for the elderly, to put it gently,” says Roger Teat, who started Motocaddy’s U.S. operation last September. “But now it’s amazing how many people in their mid-30s are using electric walking carts.”

You can call them electric pushcarts, electric caddies or electric trolleys, which is the term we’ll use here. Heck, you can even call them silly toys for rich golfers. But one thing you can’t call them is a passing fad.

Lucas Herbert clinched an invitation to the Masters for the first time by winning the Bermuda Championship for his first PGA Tour victory.

Taylor Pendrith is going for his first PGA Tour victory and he picked up a few late birdies to help. Penrith has a three-shot lead in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

Taylor Pendrith took advantage of a much calmer day at Port Royal with a 10-under 61 for the lead in the Bermuda Championship.

In honor of the spookiest weekend of the year, we look at some of sports world's biggest curses and jinxes - and how and why they've come about.