Golfing News & Blog Articles

Have you ever tried to walk in cement shoes?

Chances are kids feel that way when trying to swing a golf club that isn’t right for them. When introducing kids to golf, parents often think they need to choose between proper instruction and good equipment.

The fact of the matter is, as an instructor, it is nearly impossible to help kids develop the proper foundation for their swing when the clubs aren’t right for them.

With all of the options available, finding the right set of junior golf clubs may feel daunting. It doesn’t have to be that way.

As a parent, the first thing you need to ask is: What is a realistic goal for my child and the game of golf? If you just want them to get out and swing a golf club with you without focusing on improving their swing mechanics, then Grandpa’s cut-down forged blades will suffice. If you are looking to get them started by learning the proper fundamentals, are considering registering them for a local junior golf program or camp or hoping they’ll learn enough about the game and their swing to play a round of golf with you, then start them off with clubs that will maximize those opportunities.

USGA

The appeal of hack-out, last-man-standing golf has always been a mystery.

The joy of seeing tour pros brought down to a lower level is deeply narcissistic. To want to watch skills reduced or nullified, to make you feel better about your lousy game is both selfish and terribly simplistic.

But it’s been a while since we’ve heard of a setup so anticipated for the carnage it will inflict. Winged Foot this year sounds legitimately cruel, with spot-fertilized rough, tight fairways, old-style rough, restored hole locations and no fans to mash down the tall stuff.

Players made very clear in pre-tournament assessments that they expect this to be a war of attrition.

The next time someone mentions “ironclad” and sports rights contracts, you’ll probably think of this story by Dave Shedloski at GolfDigest.com.

He speaks to several figures, including NBC’s Jon Miller, who largely orchestrated the unbelievable swap of USGA rights from Fox back to NBC/Golf Channel by staying in touch with the Fox execs. Former USGA official and now-NBC Sports head Pete Bevacqua also played a key role in bringing the two sides back together after the shocking end to NBC’s prior deal.

Most amazing in the sequence of events might have been this revelation:

FOX and NBC had to hammer out a deal in which the two sides split nearly equally the cost of the remainder of the FOX contract. Talks wrapped up in early June. But that was hardly the end of it. FOX did not have the right to simply assign the TV rights to NBC. The USGA had to sign off on it, essentially negotiating an exit deal with FOX and closing on a new deal with NBC.

FOX representatives broke the news of their agreement with NBC to Davis at a June 17 meeting at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

Well that must have been a surprise!

The USGA’s annual U.S. Open news conference this year was a roundtable went 47 minutes and highlighted initiatives, corporate sponsors, the high rough and the distance issue.

We learned about the “cadre of social media influencers” helping to bring the tournament to everyone who can’t be there. So there was some humor.

I enjoyed this from John Bodenhamer on why the opening pairing was selected:

We can't wait for two local players, a little special start tomorrow. Brandon Wu from Scarsdale and Danny Balin from White Plains will hit the first shots off the 1st and 10th tees tomorrow morning when we start, and we're pleased by that.

Warning, there is now a brand anthem that you’ll be tired of by Sunday. From Craig Annis, Chief Brand Officer:

It’s amazing when we hit perfect shots and wish that we could capture that swing in a bottle. It seems to be magic but it’s really the fact that you used the swing skills that you already know. You just need to bottle up the right moves in every swing.

My Recent Awakening
After I played 9 holes of golf with consistently poor drives my wife suggested one of my swing thoughts: “Are you swinging with a flat wrist?” I thought “What a stupid question!” Of course she may not really know what I mean when I tell her to swing with a flat leading wrist but she said it as a serious reminder. Sure enough that was my exact problem. I immediately pared the next 4 holes. It was that one simple thought that I forgot during my backswing. I had been cupping my wrist.

Recreational golfers should avoid cupping your wrist in your backswing. You need power like Dustin Johnson to manage a severe bow shape in his wrist. Flat wrist is the best solution. GOLFSTR (used in this image) helps you learn to swing with a flat wrist.

It’s the same thing that a teaching pros will do with professional golfers when they sees a swing mistake during a tournament. I’ve heard interviewers discover after a round of golf why a pro has had an amazing turnaround during a round of golf. There is one small detail in their swing that they tend to forget about as they get frustrated with their game. Their trainer spotted the problem and the fix is instant.

FLAT WRIST IN YOUR BACKSWING
That’s one of the 6 swing fixes that you can discover when practicing with GOLFSTR+. I invented this training aid to remind me to keep my leading elbow straight in my backswing. Teaching pros suggested 5 more uses for GOLFSTR and that’s why we call it “GOLFSTR PLUS”.

1/ STRAIGHT ARM BACKSWING: It’s applies pressure on the back of your arm to remind you to keep your leading arm straight and to limit your backswing to avoid bending your elbow.
2/ FLAT WRIST PUTTING: Forces you to learn to putt by rocking your shoulders and NOT bending your wrists.
3/ FLAT WRIST BACKSWING: Swinging with a flat wrist forces your tailing elbow to graze your ribcage during your downswing and to swing from inside-to-up-your-target-line. That was my recent BINGO THOUGHT and it really works..
4/ FLAT LEADING WRIST for CHIPPING: It prevents you from bending your leading wrist while chipping for better direction control to your target.
5/ MINIMIZE TRAILING WRIST LAG while chipping: It stops your wrist from bending more than 30 degrees as you sweep down into the ball.
6/ LAG TRAINER: Reminds you to bend your trailing elbow 90 degrees during your backswing to feel that you have loaded up a proper lag.

Thanks to reader Brian for this Caroline Wilson story where the Herald writer tells us American golfers are less likely to hit balls into the Old Course hotel than Scots.

This “news” comes as the hotel has filed for netting to protect the Jigger Inn’s outdoor revelers from incoming golf balls after all these years.

The five-star hotel, which is owned by Herb Kohler, a bathroom hardware magnate from the US, has historically had a problem with wayward balls hitting its walls and it seems Scottish golfers may be mostly to blame.

According to hotel bosses it is the American golfers who are able to add enough curl in their stroke to prevent it hitting the walls of the hotel, which borders the famous 17th ‘Road hole’. Scots golfers, are said to be more likely to hit the building.

A hotel source said: “They have to hit it over the green sheds which is part of the hotel. It is famous and notoriously difficult.”

And we know those Scots all just hit it a few feet off the ground!

The story does seem to be talking about a pair of different tasks here: hitting over the faux railway sheds from the Road hole tee, versus slicing one into the actual hotel.

USGA CEO Mike Davis said the organization looked at making Winged Foot "a little bit easier" for the U.S. Open.

More money has been bet on Tiger Woods to win the U.S. Open than has been bet on any other golfer at William Hill sportsbooks, although Phil Mickelson has attracted the largest single bet.

The Australian PGA Tour, scheduled to take place on the Gold Coast in December, has been postponed until 2021 as Australia's strict border controls cause a major obstacle.

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Martin Davis considers the role playoffs have played in creating epic U.S. Open memories. While I don’t agree with some of the sentiments expressed in the story questioning the end of Monday 18-hole playoffs—one unnamed voice calls it the equivalent of a pop quiz—the new format remains befuddling after so many years of lectures about the importance of 18 holes to decide a tie.

The USGA settled on two-hole aggregate playoffs when The Open and PGA Championship use three holes (The Masters remains sudden-death). The two-hole setup is especially curious this year given the natural three-hole loop and this:

If a playoff is required at Winged Foot, it will be decided by a two-hole aggregate playoff on Holes 10 (a par 3 of 214 yards with the deepest bunkers on the course) and 18 (a dogleg left par 4 of 469 yards to an elevated, well-bunkered green) immediately after play. If the playoff results in a tie, play will continue on a hole-by-hole basis on Holes 10, 11 (a short par 4 of 384 yards) and 18, repeated, if necessary, until a champion is determined.

So in the aggregate playoff setup, the 11th hole providing a natural bridge to the 18th tee will be skipped, but in sudden death it would be used. Presumably the two-hole idea is for television, but it sure chips away at the championship’s cache, particularly when it’s so obviously setup for a perfect three-hole playoff.

Above is the overhead of the holes in play, with the 10th at the bottom. That’s 10, then a cart drive to 18 tee, but in sudden death the sequence would be 10-11-18. Ok.

Guardian Management of Handicap

 

Beginning in January 2021, digital profiles will be required for all golfers accessing the GHIN Mobile App and ghin.com.

Per the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), golfers designated as minors (under 13 years of age) will not be able to provide an email address, create a digital profile, or directly access GHIN Golfer Products (Kiosk, GHIN Mobile App, ghin.com).  Their profile must be linked to a guardian who can access the products and post on their behalf.  A minor is defined as a golfer who is under 13 years of age per the date of birth in their golfer profile.

The Guardian Management program will be introduced in mid-October to provide adequate time to link a guardian to each minor before digital profiles are introduced in January 2021.

Included below are suggestions as to how you and your clubs can prepare for this change to minimize disruption.

Paul Sullivan of the New York Times considers what the loss of normal U.S. Open revenue means for the various initiatives receiving USGA support. The story, as with others on the topic, mentioned a general number of $165 million in tournament revenue with $70 million in profit.

The two entities mentioned that got my eye:

Girls Golf, which works with girls to teach them golf and life skills, was hit with a double whammy in March. It receives $1 million from the U.S.G.A. and the L.P.G.A., the governing body for women’s golf, which halted its season in March.

“We didn’t really know what was going to happen,” said Nancy Henderson, chief teaching officer and president of the L.P.G.A. Foundation. “Our initial focus was our Girls Golf sites weren’t able to do programming in person, so we moved a lot of it online.”

While grants from both organizations came through, Ms. Henderson remains worried about next year. “That’s the big question,” she said. “You don’t know if you’ll be back to a new normal.”

Regarding the new normal and the sites hosting, there is a startling change in fees for 2020 host Winged Foot. According to Bryan Marsal, the chairman of the 2020 U.S. Open, the club will see only about 10% of what was expected.

“Our compensation was based on the number of fans that came to watch the tournament, plus the amount of merchandise that was sold in the merchandise tent, plus the corporate tents that were sold and the rental of the property,” he said. “We’ve had a 90 percent reduction in the revenue going to the club.”

If you’ve watched early week coverage from Winged Foot, you know the 18th green just has something special going on. I don’t recall that sense the last time the West hosted in 2006. So we’ll chalk up that eye-catching quality to the restoration work reclaiming both shape, size and artistic flair to this historic location.

John Fischer takes us back to the putt that changed golf history and forced a 1929 U.S. Open playoff. Carve out a few minutes to go back to his moment, which now is easier to visuale in 2020 thanks to the green reclaiming its identical look.

The 12-foot putt that Jones faced on the 72nd hole was downhill on a fast green, with a left-to-right break. Jones took a few extra seconds to look over the putt. The gallery had swelled to 7,000, some standing back as far as the knoll in the 18th fairway to get a good view of the green.

Jones decided on his line and aimed 1½ feet above the cup. He stroked the ball amid dead silence from the huge crowd. The ball slowly rolled down the slope and seemed to hesitate at the edge of the cup. The gallery let out a collective gasp. Then, after seeming to hang on the lip, the ball fell into the cup. Thunderous cheering and applause followed. Jones had done it. He had tied Espinosa.

If you want to keep going back, why not get a little Grantland Rice in your life. His dispatch well after that day and one of the last things he authored.

Sam Harrop loves golf and knows music. He has combined his passions to become the golf parody song hit-maker. This week, for the U.S. Open, he finally got to write a song for his favorite player, Phil Mickelson.

Dustin Johnson comes in hot for the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Is he the best bet to win on this difficult track? Here are our picks for the tournament.

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 Bridgestone Tour B XS.  An overview of the equipment we use can be found here. To learn more about our test process, how we define “bad” balls and our True Price metric, check out our About MyGolfSpy Ball Lab page.

The Tour B XS is Tiger’s golf ball. While we probably don’t need to say much more than that, Tiger is almost certainly the reason why the Tour B XS is now neck and neck with Bridgestone’s traditional bestseller (Tour B RX) at retail.

In this report, we’ll give you the rundown on what we learned about the 2020 Tour B XS and let you know how it stacks up against other golf balls on the market. Finally, we’ll give you the True Price – how much it costs to get a dozen good golf balls.

About the 2020 Bridgestone Tour B XS

Tiger hasn't been great since the restart. Is the U.S. Open at Winged Foot the place he finds his game? He's just one of the big question marks going into the year's second major. There's Phil and Bryson and the difficulty of Winged Foot.

Despite years of planning and the USGA’s extensive data on distance, it appears Bryson DeChambeau’s U.S. Open driving range work will force a Tuesday evening change to Winged Foot’s temporary fencing.

I'm told the USGA plans to move the netting back on the temporary range set up on the East Course. Bryson was bombing balls over it in the direction of parked cars. Send him out there with the scissors and add it to the list pic.twitter.com/1ritnMO25H

— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) September 15, 2020

I’ve independently confirmed from two sources the veracity of Brendan Porath’s Tuesday Tweet based on an email to members.

The temporary range was not deep enough for today’s triathletes who’ve been armed with launch monitors, plant-based diets and conforming non-conforming equipment. And now the fence must move.

If you know anything about the USGA, you’re aware of the planning, refinement and expense that goes into a U.S. Open site preparation. Rarely does something like this happen. They’ve done this before.

We have a lot going on in American sports. It’s an unprecedented situation and sports ratings have been all over the map. But golf has retained its audience and even shown increases while most sports are seeing declines.

Then there was last week.

The final round of the LPGA’s second major and the 2020 Safeway Classic aired up against NBA and NHL playoffs, the first NFL Sunday, U.S. Open tennis finals, and major league baseball. Then there is cordcutting. And a pandemic. Still, not even at The Villages, where Golf Channel reigns with the non-coveted demo Americans, were many watching last weekend.

Golf Channel’s airing of the ANA and season-opening Safeway were lightly watched in the way Korn Ferry and Tin Cup reairings of reairings are watched.

The numbers from Showbuzzdaily.com are embedded above, with the previous week’s Tour Championship-Monday finish omitted (but covered here).