Imagine to my surprise the e-mail I got from my friends at OOBGolf that I had won something! Not only did I win their Golf Addict monthly prize but the prize turned out to be a Nike SQ Dymo Str8-Fit driver! Schaweetness!

I played a round with it the other day and for starters, it’s a sweet looking club that has an adjustable head. I need to learn more, but the club pro helped me set it to “straight"while I get used to the club.

The other thing about this club is that the shaft is an inch longer than my current driver - which is causing me to slice the ball a bit more than I have been. That said, when I hit it right with this new club… holy cow, it goes far.

If you haven’t yet checked out OOBGolf, be sure to take a peek. There are lots of sites that will help you track scores, but none with a slicker interface and fun charts to play with.

I bought something called “The Key” the other day. I was so distraught after an absolutely horrid day at the range last week, I felt that I simply needed to buy one more golf gadget to make me feel better. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, will it work?

At the range, I hit a bucket of balls… umm.. I didn’t actually hit much other than the ground and pieces of the ball. It was horrible!

I was thinking that golf season may in fact be over this year but just remembered that I’m playing at a CIO.com event in San Diego in November which means I’d better get my swing together quickly!


Here’s a link for more info.

I’m finally back from too much business travel and hoping to get some rounds in shortly. My P.O.S. bag by Acuity that I bought about a year ago cracked at the bottom, so I went to buy a new bag tonight at Golf Galaxy. While I was there, I traded in 3 clubs for some fast cash. Gone are my 3 and 4 irons which I never, ever hit along with my lousy driver. RIP TaylorMade R580…

I picked up a stiff shaft TaylorMade R7 fairway wood which is now my default driver. In talking with a club fitter, he is convinced the stiff shaft will make a big difference for me immediately when using this club. Now let’s see how it all works out on the course.

I realize that I’ll eventually need a driver in my bag, but for now, I’m hoping I can hit the new fairway wood about 230-240 yards which would be a perfect compliment to my 3 hybrid which I hit about 200 yards or so.

I am hoping to get up early tomorrow and get 9 holes in before work, so we’ll see soon enough!

Full disclosure, I got an e-mail from the guy who invented “Swing Reminders” asking me if I’d review his product. I’m happy to do so and am thrilled to finally (yes!) have a moment to write up my review.

What are they? Swing Reminders are a bunch of hardwood tokens with golf swing tips to help you improve your game. In my hands, they feel like poker chips (that’s a good thing, especially if I’m holding a bunch of them!).

I stalled at first before using these, they sat in my bag for a few rounds before I pulled them out. But I really wanted to try them out and sure enough, I grabbed a few and thew them into my pocket along with tees and some balls a few weeks ago.

On the first tee, I went to pull a tee and ball out and instead, had a token in my hand that said “No Sway.” Because swaying is my biggest issue right now, I was surprised to myself. I dropped the token back into my pocket and hit a nice tee shot.

Throughout the round (and subsequent rounds since), I’ve been using the reminders every few holes. I think it helps if you don’t overdo it - there is no reason to look at 5 or 6 tips right before you take a shot. That said, I have found that glancing at a single swing reminder is a nice way to get my head back into the moment.

My favorite 3 reminders so far are:

• no sway
• quiet legs
• pick your target

TaylorMade.com has a very slick (but who knows how good) custom fitting application on their web site. They let you plug in tons of stuff like typical distance, shaft type and accuracy (you drop balls on a fairway, err, in the rough). Once you finish, you click the recommendation button and voila.. time to buy a new driver!

The site is suggesting that I get the r7 CGB Max, 9.5 loft. Yea, not this year (unless TaylorMade wants to be my first sponsor and sends me one)…

As I was reading this post on The Grouchy Blog about Tilghman and Faldo being corporate shills, I decided that I’d like an official golf sponsor.

I offer several key sponsor benefits:

1. Complete coverage on my blog that includes gear review, ads and more
2. I’ll wear or play with whatever you send me (and blog and twitter about it). I play about 25 rounds a year on various CT and Myrtle Beach courses.
3. You get great PR for sponsoring perhaps the worst golfer possible.

I had an incredible experience at the PGA Superstore in Roswell, GA this week. I took a break from my trip to check it out and ended up sending almost 2 hours inside the place. After wandering around for 30 minutes and seeing some incredibly cool things I asked how much the simulator bays cost. When I was told it was free, I was just about in heaven. With just about every club known to man in demo racks, I started right away hitting balls.







I also want to mention that the genius who figured out the licensing agreement to put sports teams and college logos on hats deserves a free round somewhere. When I first saw a Titleist hat with a Yankees logo, it never occurred to me that they might also be licensing colleges as well. They are!!!





After hitting balls for about 30 minutes, one of the store pro’s came over and we got to talking. He offered me a free club fitting (wow!) and watched me hit some balls. I had no consistency hitting the ball off the sweet spot on the driver head. We tried a few different clubs and different shafts but still got very little. With my swing between 88-95 miles per hour I was only hitting the ball about 230 yards or so.

The guy grabbed a Ping and asked me to hit it. Straight shots every time but only 200 yards of distance. I looked at the club and saw it was a “2” - he told me that the club was basically a fairway wood with a driver head. Looking at the tape on the club head, I managed to hit the dead center just about every time. Hmmm…

Perhaps I need to add a fairway wood back to my bag and leave the driver at home. We talked a lot about how the longer shaft makes it even harder for high handicappers to get consistent shots. We both agreed that I should play my fairway woods or hybrids off the tee for now, presumably I’d get a ton more consistency and would not be giving up much distance. I’m playing on Saturday, so we’ll see!

Finally - when I made my hat purchase, the PGA store even gave me a cool black bag loaded with golf tips!

I’m in Atlanta a few miles from the PGA Superstore - anyone need anything?

I recently added a 52 degree wedge to my bag and I can’t stop hitting it. I hit it short, I hit it long and I hit it perfectly more often than not.

I have yet to figure out at what distance I should switch back to the pitching wedge - which has created a few problems (leaving the ball way short for example) - but overall, this is the best addition I think I’ve ever made other than the hybrids.

I seem to hit it from about 15-40 yards very well - it’s totally changed my very short game.

The Golf Launchpad :)

http://www.electricspin.com/

This is too cool. Wonder if it works well…