Golf Talk

Do you check your golf balls?

Do you spend any time thinking about the golf ball that you are using? I think we just assume that the ball we are using is perfect because that is the way the manufacturer made it. After all, they have all that state of the art technology and equipment to make the balls as perfectly as you could possibly want. You assume that if you buy the best balls on the market, Titlelist, Nike, that your balls will fly perfectly and will roll perfectly.

Now, when we talk about ball-stricking, obviously we want to know about the ridge technology, weight, and elasticity of the ball as it is impacted by the club. These all affect the trajectory and spin. But probably more important and perhaps most overlooked is checking your balls for balance so that when you putt they roll straight. Seems pretty straight forward, except, do you even know how to check for that?

Have a well balanced ball is extremely important for putting. Have you seen a soccer ball that has a little bit of water or sand in it? You’ll notice that the ball doesn’t roll straight. That can sometimes happen with the golf ball, in that the weight distribution is not quite right and there for the ball doesn’t roll straight. This warping of the ball happens naturally and happens to all balls, even those expensive Titlelist and Nike balls you just bought for fifty bucks a box.

Continuing with our series with our good friend Ralph Maltby, Ralph shows us a relatively easy way to check whether your balls are balanced. I highly recommend that you check all of your balls before you head out to the course, it might just save you a stroke or two.

balanced golf balls

Talkin ’bout wedges.

Have you ever thought about the length of your clubs and their swing weights. Specifically, do you the lengths of the shafts from 3-iron all the way through to your gap wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge?? Do you know their respective swingweights of your 3 wedges?? Most of us know the loft angles of our wedges but how many of us care to even measure the shaft lengths and swing weights, nor do we care. Should we care?

The answer to that question is absolutely you should care. You should be carrying clubs first of all that are fitted to your height, arm length, and leg length. Next, your clubs should each be perfectly a half-inch shorter from each other from 3-iron all the way down through to your gap wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge. Your gap wedge, sand wedge and lob wedge should be progressively heavier as well.

I know that it seems trivial to care about such seemingly minute and useless detail, but it can make a huge difference in your game and your swing. If you have a club that is too long, you are much more susceptible to slice it or hit it off the heel. Conversely, if you are playing with a club that is too short, you are more likely to top the ball, or move your body up and down to compensate for the shortness of the club.

This video below is from Ralph Maltby and he shows you a really easy way to measure your club shafts to make sure they are the right length. He also talks about swing weight and what the relative weights should be compared from one club to another.

shaft length, swing weight

If you have never used a laser rangefinder on the course to measure distance to the pin on the fairway, you are really missing out. I don’t personally own one, but I use a friends Bushnell on occasion and it is fantastic. A laser rangefinder is an electronic instrument that measures distance using a laser. It calculates distances to any target you point it at. According to Bushnell, it’s 1500 model is supposed to be accurate up to one yard. Distances are displayed instantly through the LCD display while peering through the lens.

Before you start going off on the dangers of laser, these new rangefinders use an invisible laser which is completely safe and won’t blind anyone. You basically look through the lens, find a target, push the button and the distance will be displayed. The way it works is the rangefinder calculates the time it takes for the laser to bounce off the distant object and return to the rangefinder.

I really like them because I feel it’s too complicated to figure out the course landmarks and color of flags to exactly calculate the yard from ball to pin. Plus, when you peer through the rangefinder, you often can see how the green is sloped and how the greenside bunkers are setup. Once you start using a rangefinder, you’ll find it extremely difficult to switch back to the old way, it almost seems like you are golfing blind without the rangefinder. Perhaps Phil Mickleson should’ve used one last week.

Just how much will one of these babies run you? The Bushnell Yardage Pro Golf Pinseeker 1500 Laser Rangefinder retails for a cool $575.

Bushnell 1500 Rangefinder

The music and zoom in shots are pretty corny, but the idea behind this is pretty cool. Basically, this is about a guy named Anthony Netto who was a golf pro but was hit by a drunk driver and is now a parapelegic. He designed this special wheelchair that allowed him to drive around and still play.

practicing your golf swing, funnies

Credit: AOLFanhouse

Ever wonder what goes into those thousand dollar clubs that you still can’t hit properly?? Today, I bring to you a clip that is a behind the scenes look at PING’s factory headquarters in Phoenix Arizona and how their putters and clubs are made. It’s a fascinating look at what it takes to make a set of clubs.

PING factory, golf equipment