Apparently, Golf is Hard TV is catching on like wildfire down in Brazil, where Carlos and crew are hard at work. We got this terrific photo and caption the other day and I had to share!

Great stuff guys. Exactly what was missing: golf talk and tips for average golfers - we believe that you will grow exponential if you target that.

This is part of your audience down here: Lauren, my wife Julia and Fernanda. Lauren and Fernanda are some of our golf beginners.

You can use the picture in your show, if you want, as Julia says: “Nice golf ladies always atract more players."

Eng. Carlos Tondo & Prof. Julia Mistrello

www.itaaragolf.com

www.flickr.com/photos/itaaragolf/

Play video game golf? Think you are good? Personally, I play Tiger Woods 08 on the Wii and when I travel I tee it up on my Nintendo DS.

I was curious about my Wii stats so I looked them up this morning before teeing off at Cog Hill for a quick round. It turns out, I am pretty good at Video Game golf!

Low rounds:
The National: 63
Doral: 65
TPC Boston (I own this course): 58, 61

More goodness:
Rounds played 24
Average score 61.8
Driving average 285
Long drive 383
Longest putt 62

What’s your best?

Ok, that title makes no sense at all, but it makes me laugh. I think I heard either Shaq or the ESPN guy say it and I’m stealing it here to announce our first ever Golf is Hard TV contest!

Not a huge fan of the baby normally, but hey… shankapotimus? That’s good stuff.

This is definitely something we will address live on GIH and thanks Brian for your comments about Dave Pelz’s thoughts. Pelz has done extensive research on the short game and many top players believe in him, I for one became a much better putter after practicing his concepts and Jim Flick talks about the same stuff in his golf schools.

Regarding the plumb bob, the golf season is way too short in Saskatchewan for any opinion to be formed (kidding of course…I think). The first thing to know about PBing is how to do it correctly, and there is no study to prove that any given method of estimating a line (which is all that this is) is fool proof. This is a highly subjective topic and involves many factors, the most important of which may be a player’s skill to consistently stroke a put. Remember this when putting…it is much more important to be decisive than to be correct. Meaning, if you have doubt in your chosen line (no matter your method), you will make a tentative stroke and it can not be blamed on your method of choosing a line. So be decisive, you will get it closer more consistently.

I am a good putter, I plumb bob on longer putts only (20 ft +) that have significant break (12" plus). The only reason I do it is to get an estimate of the break, it is not exact. I then overestimate what a PB may show (Pelz advises players to actually double the break they see, which is very good advice). Together these thoughts usually form a good estimate of the best line.

How to PB: You need to know your dominant eye. To do this, place your index finger pointing upward approx 12" in front of your face, eye level, in the middle of your eyes and look past it to the wall behind (you should see 2 images). Alternate closing each eye and when your finger does not move, this is your dominant eye and the one with which you should PB if you choose.

We will explain the rest next week on GIH as well as basic green-reading concepts and methods….very simple and a great topic.

We are building YOUR game from the hole and out…stay tuned.

Coach Dave

I was thinking back to some of the putting discussions we’ve had on Golf is Hard TV and remembered that one of the things I was going to ask Coach Dave was about “plumb-bobbing."

This morning as I was drinking my coffee and catching up on the latest issue of Golf Magazine, I came across 2 different articles that mentioned that plumb-bobbing is a useless activity.

Apparently, there was a study done by some folks at the U of Saskatchewan (insert funny Bugs Bunny joke here) that showed “the plumb-bob method was found to be an invalid system for determining the break of a putt” (see page 79, March 2009 Golf Magazine).

Additionally, in a Steve Flesh article in the same issue, Flesch talked about his 10 year old son doing the plumb-bob in relation to it causing slow play.

I’ve been known to plumb-bob but never could remember myself what it meant for the break. To me it always seemed confusing; like turning in a car sliding on ice. Do I turn into the turn or out of it? No clue.

Anyway, I’m going to take the U of Saskatchewan’s study as truth and am dropping the plumb-bob immediately.

Unless Coach Dave says different.