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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 Galvin Green Amos rain jacket. This new jacket from Galvin Green aims to provide versatility for use on and off the course.

Who Tried It:

Connor. Director of Soft Goods Testing and resident sneakerhead. I’m not much of a rainy day golfer, but I’ve started to find some joy getting after it in the rain. The Amos jacket might just be the perfect piece for my closet.

Not For the Wallet Watchers

Before we go any further, I’ve got to let you know that the Amos jacket is $530. I’ve reviewed expensive raingear in the past and been flamed for it. For every person unwilling to spend that much on raingear, there’s someone who plays in the rain every day who wants the best money can buy.

My job is not to tell you how to spend your money. My job is to tell you what performs, price be damned. Understood? Let’s get into the review.

This Ask MyGolfSpy is a little different, in that we’re asking for your questions on a specific OEM, Wilson Golf.

Or, if you prefer, Wilson Staff.

We solicited questions from you on our social media feeds and, as always, you came up with some doozies. We couldn’t answer all of them (but we’ll throw out some on social, just for fun), but as you might expect, you had a lot of fundamental questions about Wilson’s past, present and future.

So here goes…

Q: I think about Wilson’s company strategy vs the major OEMs we think about. At some point, they lost all their ground. Was it just marketing or investments in technology or just their clubs didn’t look good or that their woods lineup was poor? Why did they fade? – @BigHippoZen

This is what you folks are most curious about. In one form or another, it was the most-asked question. There’s no simple answer for one simple reason: there’s no single thing, event, product or happenstance that you can identify as a turning point.

TaylorMade just made it a little easier to get your budding junior golfer into the game. This week, TaylorMade introduced the Team TaylorMade junior set. Engineered by the same team that brought you the “big boy” clubs, the new junior set doesn’t skimp on performance.

Release Details

Built With Purpose

Your junior won’t be playing the same Qi10 driver that helped Scottie Scheffler win the Masters. But the new Team TaylorMade Junior set is still designed to help your little guy or gal find enjoyment in the game.

That, above all, is what junior golf should be about.

From the 17-degree driver head with a low CG to the massive blade putter, these junior clubs are designed to be easy to hit and fun to play.

And they’re sized appropriately. Three distinct sizes offer a set of clubs for three age ranges. The Size 1 set is best suited for ages 4-6. The Size 2 set is appropriate for ages 7-9. The Size 3 set is perfect for 10- to 12-year-olds.

Is there any other spot in the bag more confounding than those first few clubs after your fairway wood? What to bag between the 3- or 5-wood and your irons can be one of the more stressful golf purchases you can make. Egos can get in the way here, big time. But if you’re willing to be open-minded and honest with yourself, the answer could well be a hybrid—or two.

Hybrid Basics

Let’s start with the basics. A hybrid golf club is so named because it combines the features of a fairway wood and an iron to create a more playable club in the top end of your bag. Fairway woods have bulge and roll. Bulge is the curvature of the clubface from toe to heel while roll is the curvature from the sole to the crown of the club. Bulge and roll work to straighten your ball flight on off-center strikes. Your irons don’t have that but they typically have higher lofts than fairway woods. So, combine the two to make a hybrid club and, in theory, you get the power and forgiveness of a fairway wood with the accuracy and control of an iron. But that description doesn’t quite do the hybrid justice.

Versatility

There’s a reason hybrids are also called rescue, utility or trouble clubs. Need to punch out from the trees?  A hybrid can be an excellent option. Maybe you left your approach just short of the green. The hybrid chip is a great shot to have in the bag in that spot. Gnarly rough? A hybrid could be just the right club. Hybrids are extremely versatile clubs that belong in a lot of bags, and probably yours, too. 

A Hybrid For Everyone

Hybrids come in all shapes and sizes.  Frankly, the space between fairway woods and long irons has gotten pretty cloudy. The advent of “utility woods” and “super hybrids” has blurred the line between where fairway woods end and hybrids begin.

It’s just as blurry on the other end of the spectrum. Utility irons and even driving hybrids have emerged. Skirting awfully close to the domain of a driving iron, these clubs offer more iron-like profiles than a traditional hybrid while adding hybrid-like forgiveness.

Nelly Korda, who is looking to tie an LPGA Tour record with her fifth straight win, is 2 shots back after an opening-round 68 Thursday at the Chevron Championship.

Scottie Scheffler said he was mentally and emotionally "drained" after his Masters victory, but still managed to fire a 2-under 69 that put him 6 shots back at the RBC Heritage.

Wesley Bryan chipped in twice -- once for eagle and once for birdie -- en route to a first-round 63 as he leads the Puntacana Championship by three strokes.

Defending champion and world No. 2 Lilia Vu withdrew from the Chevron Championship before the first round because of a back injury.

Gordon Sargent is deferring his PGA Tour status until next summer and will return to Vanderbilt for his senior year.

Switching to a counterbalanced putter could cure your tempo and stability issues.Many manufacturers offer their putters in standard length and longer counterbalanced configurations.Counterbalancing will be a solution for some—but not for all.

If you are reading this, you likely have putting issues. Something is just not right on the greens. You are missing the reads, struggling with speed, aiming at anything but the hole and are finding putting to be petulant, not pleasant.

Poor putting can really sink a good round. Imagine you finally get to play the Old Course at St Andrews and you card 40 putts for your round. You enjoyed the walk and snapped a sassy photo on the Swilcan Bridge but you just can’t stop thinking about how four fewer putts would have dropped your score below 80.

What should you do? Take a putting lesson? That’s a good start. Learn a green reading system? Aimpoint will help you improve your feel for slope. Practice more? Obviously.

Since all of those options take too much time, let’s jump to option four: buying a new counterbalanced putter!

Quite a few pros who were struggling on the greens dramatically improved their putting when they moved to counterbalanced putters. Maybe that is the answer for you as well.

There’s 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’s worthy of your consideration.

What We Tried: The new Penfold Sunday Stand Bag. The name says it all. It’s a Sunday bag with legs.

Who Tried It: John Barba, traveling golfer, lover of old brands and the unofficial MyGolfSpy historian. We also had a special expert tester, Stevie Blady. Stevie knows a wee thing or two about carrying golf bags.

The Penfold Sunday Stand Bag

The Penfold Sunday stand bag is a line-straddler. It’s a bit too small to be a true stand bag and a bit too big to be a true “Sunday” bag. That’s not a bad thing.

The Penfold Sunday stand bag carries 10 to 12 clubs with ease. Even 13 isn’t a problem. A full set of 14 can be done, provided the grips are standard size.

Golf is a difficult and sometimes maddening game. You can be striping it one day and unable to hit a decent shot the next. The difficulty of building a consistent, repeatable swing is even greater for those of us with one of those pesky day jobs. Fortunately, maybe, there are plenty of gadgets that offer to aid you in building that swing. One of those training aids is the Callaway Swing Easy.

The Problem:

There are a lot of moving parts to the golf swing. It can be all too easy to get lost in playing “golf swing” and trying to commit to different positions with your arms and hands, hips, torso, etc. Synchronizing all those movements and positions could probably go a long way towards consistency in your golf game. But how can you work on that synchronization?

The Solution:

Enter the Callaway Swing Easy. The Swing Easy promises to teach you how to use the arms and body in a consistent synchronized motion. At just $14.99 on Amazon, you’ll receive a bright “safety orange” Callaway-branded elastic band with a hole on each side for you to insert your arms. Slide it up past your elbows to lower-bicep height and swing away!

How I Found It:

It should be noted that while we found this on Amazon, it is in fact available at golf retailers.  I found it on the shelf at Golf Galaxy for the same price, right next to the Callaway Connect Easy. Try not to get them confused. The Connect Easy wraps around your torso and your trail arm and is designed to correct a “flying elbow.” The Swing Easy wraps around both arms with the intent of helping you sync the arms and torso. Whatever you’re working on, Callaway apparently really wants you to take it “Easy” doing it. Moving on …

How It Worked:

Wearing the Swing Easy, I found myself consistently hitting the ball flush and with generally less curvature than my normal shot. I tend to hit a sometimes-overcooked draw with my irons. Shots while wearing the Swing Easy were a bit shorter (it’s hard to feel like you can go after it while wearing it) but they were certainly straight. The band actively worked to keep me from lifting the club with my arms, instead encouraging a full shoulder turn. The Swing Easy is also small, light and folds up easily, meaning you can stuff it in your bag and have it at the ready for any driving range emergency.

With wins in four consecutive starts, Korda is outpacing all of the LPGA Tour -- and even fellow No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler.

As we age, “DING Dong Hits” start to take over your game. We all wonder where these crazy mishits are coming from. They could be caused by physical injuries and reduced strength. So, its important to sort out what is causing your missed shots and make some minor changes in your swing to get your game back on track.

The most critical areas to consider are your backswing, impact and finishing pose. You can exercise more to improve our strength, but mishits are your greatest concern as they are the primary reason for your higher scores. Focus on these areas:

Setup
Using a lighter grip to relax your muscles and allow your floppy wrists to add lag at the top of your swing for more whipping action and power at impact.

Backswing
Rotate your wrist to open your club face to keep your leading wrist flat and to shallow your downswing. [Use a mental count (such as Cocaaa-Cola or Wateer-Loo or 1-aand -2) to allow for more time in your backswing to add wrist lag.]

Study Your Divot and Club Face Impact Point
Your practice swing should be touching the grass just after the point where your ball is resting (you may want to try moving your ball back a few inches in your setup). Your divot should be a square cut but more important you need to determine if you are hitting on the center of your club face. An inside hit may be hitting your housel and directing your ball as if it is hit off the toe of your club. Spray your club face with foot powder to determine your point of impact and make appropriate adjustments.

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in 2031 will again host the PGA Championship after previously being held there in 2012 and 2021.

GOLF Teacher to Watch TJ Yeaton says gaining distance without completely redoing your golf swing is easy — just follow these tips!

The post How to add distance without completely changing your golf swing appeared first on Golf.

Not using your driver's adjustable wrench could be costing you distance and accuracy off the tee, as well as precious shots to your score.

The post Many golfers are afraid to use this tool and it could be costing them shots appeared first on Golf.

A punch shot is a low-trajectory golf shot that is useful in windy conditions or when you need to keep the ball under tree branches or other obstacles. Here's how to execute a punch shot:

1. Select the Right Club: Choose a club with less loft than you would typically use for the distance you need to cover. A lower lofted club, such as a long iron or even a fairway wood, will help keep the ball trajectory low.

2. Position the Ball Back in Your Stance: Place the golf ball slightly back in your stance, closer to your back foot. This helps to deloft the club at impact, reducing the launch angle of the shot.

3. Keep Your Hands Ahead: At address and throughout the swing, focus on keeping your hands slightly ahead of the ball. This encourages a downward strike on the ball, promoting a lower ball flight.

4. Compact Swing: Take a shorter backswing than usual, with a more controlled and compact motion. This reduces the amount of height generated in the swing, further lowering the trajectory of the shot.

Nelly Korda is the talk of the Chevron Championship as she seeks her fifth win in a row. Here's how she's handling the attention.

The post ‘Kind of our Caitlin Clark’: Nelly Korda talk of Chevron as she chases history appeared first on Golf.