For a company like BirdieBall, the pandemic created an unexpected surge in demand for at-home golf practice gear. With many courses closed, plenty of golfers looked for opportunities to transform a garage, backyard or living room into a makeshift short-game practice area. Now that the industry is back to some semblance of normalcy, golfers haven’t abandoned this concept. In fact, it might have lit the type of fuse that results in conversations that start like: “Hey,  honey, you know that addition you always wanted to put on the house?”

I’m not suggesting you go that exact route. But a quick Google search reveals the market isn’t suffering from a shortage of manufacturers. In short, if enough people are willing to buy something, someone will figure out a way to produce it.

It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in economics to understand that BirdieBall is in a complex—yet potentially lucrative—situation.

In order to take full advantage of the unforeseen and perhaps temporary circumstances, it is in BirdieBall’s best interest to extend the product line where it believes the opportunity exists to gain new customers.

BIRDIEBALL OUTDOOR PUTTING GREEN

We know that BirdieBall produces class-leading indoor putting mats. Its secret sauce is a polymer that allows the indoor green to roll precisely like the manicured surfaces pros putt on every week. If there’s a downside, it’s that the indoor version looks more like a foam pad than a conventional putting green. Then again, a good bit of BirdieBall’s success is rooted in its purposely non-traditional approach.

Nelly Korda tied the Women's PGA Championship record on Friday with a 9-under 63 to give her a 1-shot lead going into the weekend.

Bubba Watson recovered after snapping his driver to make birdie at No. 2 on his way to a second straight 66 that left him at 8 under, one stroke behind 36-hole leader Jason Day, at the Travelers.

Steve Stricker increased his lead to five strokes Friday in the Senior Players Championship, following an opening 7-under 63 with a 68 at breezy Firestone.

Irish golfer Niall Kearney took a two-shot lead after the second round of the BMW International Open on Friday.

It’s our duty to you to tell you when we uncover industry secrets. Sometimes that means calling out companies for misleading advertising. This time it means we’re bringing attention to a company that is putting performance first.

We love telling you when we come across something that just gets it right. adidas golf shoes get it right.

adidas might not be a small name, in fact we concede that it’s a regular househould name. adidas destroys competition in almost all soccer equipment and has considerable sports apparel market share. But in the golf world, adidas is a perceived relative underdog. That is until, you evaluate their golf shoes based on performance. Then, adidas is a giant.

An Invisible Revolution

adidas golf shoes didn’t start at the top. Early renditions were notoriously narrow, and didn’t fit enough of the golfing population to surge in popularity.

We like to make the distinction between revolutionary and evolutionary. Revolutionary of course is a drastic departure from the norm while evolutionary advancement happens in consecutive small increments.

Players will not be allowed to share accommodations or visit restaurants, pubs or grocery stores during The Open next week in England.

Lizette Salas, who has a one-shot lead at the Women's PGA Championship after Thursday's 67, spoke publicly for the first time on the mental health issues she dealt with in 2020.

Satoshi Kodaira and Kramer Hickok each shot a PGA Tour career-best 7-under 63 to share the Travelers Championship lead.

Steve Stricker shot a 7-under 63 to take a four-stroke lead in the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship.

The threat of lightning caused the first round of the BMW International Open to be suspended on Thursday with Wade Ormsby the clubhouse leader.

How else are you supposed to celebrate your first major victory than by cranking some tunes and turning the trophy into a goblet?

PERSONAL LAUNCH MONITOR BUYER’S GUIDE

Flightscope, Trackman or Foresight? Which one are you picking?

These are the leaders for golf launch monitors but they come at a price. $15,000 to $25,000 to be exact. So who has the money to spend that much for data? Not many. However, there is an alternative in the personal launch monitor space for a more reasonable price.

Many of the best players in the game rely on launch monitors to dial in their game. Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas are just a few professionals been seen using a launch monitor at the 2021 US Open practice rounds.

Given that many of the best players in the world use these devices to drive both equipment and on-course decisions, it’s understandable that average golfers would be hungry to do the same.

Personal golf launch monitors are the Holy Grail for the average golfer looking to improve their golf game. Technology is developing rapidly, and personal launch monitors have improved over recent years. These gizmos might still need a few years to become more accurate and provide more data points, but they’re able to offer enough information to help you reasonably dial in your game, with your expectations managed.

I loved reading a recent article about Brooks Koepka’s recent and past success at the US Open Tournaments. If you are hitting great shots where you focus on the right swing, your confidence and success will just grow. It’s easy for the pros to get this feeling but recreational players just look forward to hitting 2 or 3 perfect swings on every hole. Of course the mishits creep in but you will only shoot great rounds if you can forget about your last mishit and focus on your next great shot.

“The most important shot in golf is your next one.” Ben Hogan

That article highlighted 3 areas where Brooks picks up stokes on the field:
1/ Analyze each shot to understand where your best miss will be. (A long putt is much better than trying to hit out of a pond.)
2/ Brooks plays to avoid double bogies. (It’s OK to hit a sand trap but make sure that you next shot stays on the green.)
3/ He putts with confidence so his mid-length and short putts are firm and into the back of the cup. (Weak putts curl as they slow near the hole. Practice with enough speed to pass the hole by 2 feet and eliminate a lot of the break at the hole to sink more putts.)

The most important area of our games where we can easily drop more strokes is PUTTING. Most of us average 2 putts/hole or 36 putts/round. Unfortunately the rest of your game would have to be perfect to shoot a 72. Fat chance!

That’s exactly why I write so many blogs about putting. If you don’t have a confident putting grip and stroke you will never lower your scores. This week I received an interesting response from one of our followers from the West Coast of Australian (NSW), about a new putting grip that helped him win his club championship. Phil Parker has never putted better now that he is using his “Y Grip” Putting Stroke.

This week, 156 of the best women golfers will tee it up in Atlanta for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Here's what to watch for as the women compete in the third major of the 2021 season.

MyGolfSpy Experiences is a way for us to make your golf trips easier. We make the plans, we test out the courses and then fill you in on everything else a golf destination has to offer after your 18 holes are finished. This time we’re in Virginia sampling all of your Williamsburg golf options.

Meet Your Travel Guides

We’re Harry and Miranda Nodwell, MyGolfSpy employees (and, yes, married). Harry is the Director of Testing at MGS and a professional golfer. I’m the Content Manager—aka, I make sure the content you want to read makes it from the brains of our talented team to your screens.

We live in an East Coast golf paradise: Williamsburg, Va. There are so many great courses in our area! We’ve picked three that Harry is going to break down for you. Then I’ll guide you through everything else Williamsburg has to offer.

Who better to learn from than a couple of locals?

The Golf

Kingsmill: The Woods Course

Here’s Harry:

I often get asked if there are any exercises that can be practiced away from the course that can improve your mental game of golf.

Fact is, the mental game of golf could essentially be called “the mental game of life”. How you are off the course (mentally), is reflected on it. i.e. how well you can focus, deal with stress and challenges, use techniques to be confident, etc. is the same whether you are playing golf or not. This is why you can work on these skills as you go about your daily life and at the same time, improve your mental game of golf.

I’m always trying to find ways to improve my overall well being and productivity and here are 7 of them I’ve found to be very effective during my days.

Habit 1: Make Your Bed

How you’ll improve your mental game of golf: self-discipline, keeping a sense of order

What you do as soon as you wake up can affect the success of the entire day. 
When the pandemic started in March 2020 and most people had to start working remotely, many were enjoying the prospect of being able to work in their pajamas and not have to do all the things that we normally do to start our days, like making our beds. Hopefully for them that got old quickly. 

Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell, players who have holed decisive putts for Europe at Ryder Cups, were appointed Wednesday as vice captains for the team for the 2021 edition at Whistling Straits in September.

Defending champion Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau enter the tournament as co-favorites. Here are our best bets for the event.

The 60-man field for the Olympics was set on Tuesday based on world golf rankings, and there were a half-dozen late withdrawals, including U.S. Open runner-up Louis Oosthuizen.