Golfing News & Blog Articles

USGA and RandA Release Areas of Interest to Help Mitigate Continuing Distance Increases

February 2, 2021 

The USGA and The R&A are re-engaging with the golf industry on the Distance Insights project, which aims to help achieve a more sustainable long-term future for golf.

The governing bodies are issuing specific Areas of Interest to help mitigate continuing distance increases and three proposed changes to the Equipment Rules to ensure their effectiveness in relation to distance limits.

The delivery of research topics related to hitting distances and golf’s sustainability was delayed in 2020 to allow the golf industry to focus on the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Areas of Interest notice, sent on Monday to golf equipment manufacturers, follows the conclusions of the Distance Insights Report delivered last February. It is the first step of the established Equipment Rulemaking Procedures, which give the opportunity for golf’s stakeholders to provide research and perspectives on topics that might lead to equipment Rules changes.

Key Takeaways

Shot Scope adds Strokes Gained data to its shot-tracking/performance package.Phase One introduced this past week includes Strokes Data comparison to Tour.Hole-by-hole analytics and other info will be rolled out in Phase Two this spring.Phase Three allows you to compare with players in your handicap range.

Shot Scope’s new Strokes Gained Data is a big deal for the Edinburgh, Scotland-based golf tech company. Shot Scope took a huge leap forward last summer when it released its V3 GPS watch. But with Arccos adding Strokes Gained to its data package last summer,  Shot Scope had been lagging just a wee bit behind, as the Scots might say.

That wee lag is no more.

Strokes Gained is the Holy Grail for golf analytic nerds. The self-aware golfer finds Strokes Gained to be a data-centric insight into their strengths and weaknesses. You’ll discover where you need work and it helps you track your progress. The self-delusional golfer, however, will find Strokes Gained a cold and harsh but ultimately very useful dose of reality.

Just What Is “Strokes Gained”?

Strokes Gained determines exactly where and how you’re gaining (or losing) strokes. By analyzing millions of shots over years, Strokes Gained determines how many strokes the baseline average golfer takes to hole out from every imaginable spot on a golf course. Strokes Gained uses that information to tell us whether an individual shot is better or worse than the baseline average and by how much.

Simple, right?

PointsBet, an online sportsbook that has a partnership with the PGA Tour, has offered refunds to all of those who did not bet on Patrick Reed at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Rule of the Month—Unplayable Lie

February 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.

In-person club fittings were already troublesome, and that was before a global pandemic. Are virtual fittings the wave of the future?

0:30 – Putter testing check-in1:23 – Are in-person club fittings a thing of the past?24:13 – What to look for in a virtual fitting30:32 – A better way to handicap with TheGrint43:14 – What would you change about golf?

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The post Are Fittings Going Virtual? | NPG 70 appeared first on MyGolfSpy.

Key Takeaways

Relatively minor updates for Srixon’s Tour-level ballsZ-STAR gets a slightly thicker cover for better approach and greenside spin.Z-STAR XV gets reformulated inner and middle cores for enhanced ball speed.Slight price increase for 2021 to $42.99 a dozen

The new Srixon Z-STAR and Z-STAR XV golf balls represent a golf industry truism: When your two-year life cycle is up, you better have a good story to tell. Srixon freely admits the 2021 edition of its flagship Z-STAR golf balls is strictly an evolutionary upgrade. That, however, doesn’t mean there’s no story.

“These aren’t a major departure from where we’ve been or what these golf balls are designed to do,” says Srixon R&D VP Jeff Brunski. “We want to make incremental improvements but we won’t do it at the expense of the overall performance that we already had.”

Translation: Don’t f*** it up!

The updates to the Srixon Z-STAR and Z-STAR XV balls are minor compared to their last two iterations. The line is definitely not broken so it’s really a matter of a pinch here and a skosh there. Given the renewal of ball war hostilities between Callaway and Titleist, Srixon appears to be flying under the radar this year.

Maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Following the great tradition of Astro Tour series clubs, we have here the Astro Tour F Titanium Fairway Wood. By utilizing a design to bevel off the toe side of the crown, Astro Tour was able to add 2 sole weights to create the lowest CG ever in their fairway wood lineup. The low CG allows easy launch and maximum forgiveness for players of all abilities. The head design also features a cup face construction made of 15-3-3-3 forged titanium for expanding the high ball speed area across the face for optimal distance performance. The body I made of precision forged 6-4 Titanium. The Astro Tour F head 207cc head with shallow profile and a larger foot print that inspires confidence for players.  Though the foot print is larger, the shape is traditional and beautiful to look at address.  The Astro Tour F Fairway wood are available in 3W+  which is 13.5 deg loft,  3W in 15 deg and 5W in 18 deg.   The larger sole weight in the front is a fixed weight of 20g and the rear weight is an adjustable weight with 5g being the default with 1.5g, 2.5g, 3.5g and 8g sold separately.   The Astro Tour F is a high quality fairway wood with high level of forgiveness and distance performance in a very attractive package. 

Astro Tour F Titanium Fairway Wood Specification

Head Material	(Face) 15-3-3-3 Titanium (Body) 6AL-4V Titanium
Head Manufacturing Method	(Face) Forged Cup Face (Body) Precision Casting
Count	# 3 +	# 3	#Five
Loft angle	13.5 °	15 °	18 °
Rye angle	58 °	58 °	58.5 °
Head volume	207cc	207cc	177cc
Head weight	213g ±	213g ±	217g ±
length	43	43	42.5
Hardness	S / SR / R
gross weight	324g ± (# 3R)

BUY ASTRO TOUR F TITANIUM FAIRWAY WOOD

 

For those looking to complete their wood set up with an Astro Tour Driver and Astro Tour F Fairway wood,  you absolutely need to consider the Astro Tour U!    The Astro Tour U adopts similar design method as the Astro Tour F where they have bevelled off the toe area of the crown to create discretionary weight to place an adjustable weight the sole for lowering the CG but also provides the option for players to optimize the swing weight of the club. The results are an easier to launch head that is highly forgiving and versatile from any type of lie on the golf course. The Astro Tour U heads are available in 18 deg , 21 deg, 24 deg and  27deg variations to provide a nice range of options to blend in with the rest of your clubs.

Showing no effects from a rules controversy a day earlier, Patrick Reed pulled away for a 5-shot victory on Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open.

Patrick Reed had another rules controversy. Still, even if he did everything right, which he seemed to do at the Farmers Insurance Open, his history won't allow him the benefit of the doubt.

The rules issue that Patrick Reed faced at the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday is one that Rory McIlroy also confronted -- without a rules official and with virtually no fanfare. The PGA Tour said Sunday that both cases were handled correctly.

Paul Casey left behind one of the unhappiest years of his golfing career by capturing his first title since 2019 with a four-stroke win at the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday.

Patrick Reed, who is tied for the lead at the Farmers Insurance Open, picked up his golf ball before a rules official could arrive, claiming he was seeking relief because it was embedded -- despite replays showing that the ball had first bounced.

England's Paul Casey carded an eight-under-par 64 in the third round of the Dubai Desert Classic on Saturday to take a one-shot lead heading into the final round.

Viktor Hovland closed with a 7-foot birdie putt to take a 1-shot lead over a group of six at the Farmers Insurance Open on a rainy, miserable Friday at Torrey Pines.

The ability to control both the face angle and loft at impact is paramount to playing better golf! This element in the golf swing really plays a major role in my teaching philosophy. Here’s a simple, yet illustrative, video that shows what can go wrong and how it needs to work…

So much of what we do in our golf swings is dictated by the face angle in the early part of the downswing. An open face means a stalled pivot and handle to go along with too much loft and an inconsistent strike. On the other hand an overly closed face will encourage too much lateral drive in the downswing and cause the hands to ultimately be too far forward and de-loft the face too much. This image illustrates the two extremes…

If you can make, even subtle, upgrades during this all important part of the golf swing you’re going to see a marked improvement in both your ball-striking and flight. Give it a go!

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Belgium's Thomas Detry, eyeing a maiden European Tour title, surged to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday.

Althea Gibson’s Second Act

Black History Month

February 1, 2021

Note: February is Black History Month. In celebrating, the NCGA will feature a number of articles on African-Americans who have had an impact on the game. This story was written by Rhonda Glenn and originally appeared on usga.org on Feb. 8, 2006.

Althea Gibson was famous for her amateur tennis career, during which she won one French, two Wimbledon and two U.S. singles titles in the pre-Open era, as well as doubles victories in all four Grand Slam events. Few remember that, in 1963, Gibson took up another challenge when she joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

As a young amateur who occasionally played in LPGA events, I first met Gibson in the snack bar of Delray Beach Country Club the day before the Louise Suggs Invitational began. I was introduced as a contestant and, accurately, as an announcer at a small Florida radio station.

“Oh, yeah?” Gibson said with a sunny grin.

The European Tour's Oman Open, slated for early March, has become the first event of the 2021 season to be postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Patrick Reed fired a bogey-free 8-under 64 on Thursday and is tied atop the Farmers Insurance Open with Alex Noren.