Golf Blog

Archive for July, 2009

Richard Green

Australia’s Richard Green hit a superb first-round 64 to lead a top-class Scottish Open field at Loch Lomond.

The left-hander, who finished tied third at the tournament in 2008, made six birdies and an eagle on Thursday to set the pace at seven under.

England’s Graeme Storm, US-based Scot Martin Laird, Ireland’s Paul McGinley and Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano were tied second, one shot adrift.

Rory McIlroy shot 68, Ian Poulter hit 69, but Lee Westwood struggled to a 73.

England’s Westwood was struggling with a chest infection and said he was “stupid” to have teed off, while Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Masters champion Angel Cabrera and Australian Geoff Oglivy all shot 69 for two under.

Northern Ireland’s defending champion Graeme McDowell carded 70, while former Masters winner Jose Maria Olazabal went round in level-par 71 as he bids to secure a spot at the Open next week.

The Spaniard has yet to qualify and needs to finish as the highest player on the leaderboard not already exempt in order to book a place at Turnberry.

Former European Ryder Cup captain Sir Nick Faldo, playing in his first tournament of the year as he gears up to return to the Open next week, and colourful American Boo Weekley also carded rounds of 71.

First-round leader, Green, ranked 90th in the world, has struggled this year with five missed cuts in 11 appearances but seems to be hitting form at the right time.

Martin Kaymer, who last month committed to joining the TaylorMade Golf Tour Staff in 2010, captured the Open de France ALSTOM in a playoff at the weekend.

The victory, Kaymer’s third on the European Tour, elevated him to 19th in the Official World Golf Rankings. One of the European Tour’s rising stars, Kaymer was named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 2007, then won twice in 2008; the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and the BMW International Open.

“This is precisely why we wanted Martin on our Tour Staff,” said Chuck Presto, TaylorMade Golf’s senior vice president of sports marketing. “He’s a great competitor who knows how to win. We’re looking forward to helping him reach his full potential as a tour professional.”

For more information on TaylorMade products, check out the TaylorMade section on the main site.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get custom fitted by the TaylorMade Tour Custom Fitters and have your clubs built on the Tour Van while you wait.

We are proud to announce that Golfbuyitonline are hosting this special event on Friday 4th September (1pm until 6pm) at our Custom Fit Studio at Hensol Golf Academy near Cardiff.

These slots are precious and we are only booking clients who are definitely buying on the day. Once you have been fitted using the latest Custom Fit equipment, the clubs will be made to measure on site on the famous TaylorMade Tour Van for you to take away on the night, or the next morning.

A £100 deposit is required when booking this event to secure your place which is refundable on the day against the cost of your clubs.

Golf is one of the fastest growing leisure activities in the world. People all over the world are experiencing the joys of this challenging and rewarding sport. Golf has become wildly popular because you don’t have to be a superstar athlete to enjoy it, and it’s a fantastic way to relieve stress. There are countless other reasons why golf has exploded in popularity, but there isn’t enough space here to list them all.

If you’re just getting into golf, it’s a good idea to invest in a nice pair of golf shoes. You might think that since you’re just starting out you don’t need to bother with shoes specifically designed for golf, but all the experts will disagree with you. If you’re determined to make a go of it without purchasing golf shoes, at least make sure that you are wearing shoes with a suitable degree of traction. You don’t want to be slipping and sliding around the course. Also, be aware that many golf courses require players to wear golf shoes. Be sure to check the rules at your favourite course before strolling across the fairways in a pair of tennis shoes.

One of the characteristic features of golf shoes are the spikes. Golf shoes have spikes for one obvious reason, traction. Golf doesn’t require the same kind of traction you need in football, baseball, or soccer, but it does have its own specific traction requirements. First of all, you won’t always being playing on a flat surface. You’ll often find yourself on all sorts of slopes and angles. Picture the difficulty of pitching the ball from sloped rough in a slippery pair of shoes. Your feet will be moving around and you’ll end up shanking the ball straight at your partners. That’s why golf shoes have spikes on them. Also, you won’t always be playing on perfectly dry grass. If you have any experience with wet grass you know it can be extremely slippery. Again, this is where the spikes become necessary. It’s of the utmost important that you maintain proper form during your swing, and it’s almost impossible to do that if your feet are sliding around.

When considering the type of shoe and spikes you’ll need, keep in mind the course, or courses, you usually play on. If you normally play on dry, flat courses, then you won’t need quite as much traction as you would if you regularly play uneven courses in moist environments. Regardless of where you play, you’ll want spikes because they’re key in keeping your feet properly placed whether you’re driving the ball or putting.

Golf shoes used to come in a basic old-fashioned sort of style. Many players still prefer these kinds of golf shoes, but they are by no means your only option. Today’s professional golfers often prefer more contemporary looks and golf shoemakers have followed their lead. Modern golf shoes are made from a variety of cutting edge materials designed for maximum performance, comfort, and durability. Many of today’s shoes are not only breathable, but water-resistant, too.

As with any sport, having the proper equipment is of the utmost importance if you want to be successful. After the clubs and the balls, the next most important thing on your golf shopping list should be a good pair of golf shoes.

In the chemistry of air pressure, turbulence, and aerodynamics, surface structures are vital physical element. History has it that there are things that seem to be peculiar on their make-up hundreds of years ago which eventually came up with a better composition based on scientific research. And a golf ball is the best paradigm of this theoretical stand in history.

During the earliest days of golf on the eastern coast of Scotland, most players used ancient apparatus in order to play the game in a more disorganised and informal way. Here, the first clubs and golf balls are made up of wood.

It was on 1618 that the feather golf ball was finally introduced. This was commonly known as the “Featherie”. This feather golf ball was a handcrafted ball made with goose feathers securely pressed into a horse or cowhide sphere. This is being done while the ball is still wet. After drying, the leather shrank and the feathers expanded creating a hardened ball.

But because these kinds of golf balls are specially handcrafted, they usually cost higher than the clubs. In doing so, only a few privileged people could afford to play golf during those times.

Next, came the Guttie golf ball. This prehistoric kind of golf ball was made from the rubber like sap of the Gutta tree that can be found in the tropics. Normally, these Guttie balls can be easily shaped into a sphere when hot and eventually used as a golf ball. With its rubber nature, Guttie balls can be cheaply reproduced and can be easily repaired by reheating and reshaping.

However, between the two earliest forms of golf balls, the feather golf ball was said to travel farther than the gutties. This is due to the smooth surface of the gutties that limits the capacity of the golf ball to cover more distance.

With this new scientific analysis, the developers of golf ball finally came up with balls with the “dimples” that are predominant in modern golf balls nowadays.

Dimples are crafted into golf balls so as to reduce the aerodynamic drag, which will be acting on the ball if it were totally smooth. This is because smooth balls, when sailing through the air, leave a huge pocket of low-pressure air in its stir therefore creating a drag. With the application of drag, the ball slows down.

Hence, by having dimples on golf balls, the pressure differential goes down and the drag force is reduced. These dimples create turbulence in the air surrounding the golf ball. This, in turn, forces the air to clasp the golf ball more closely. By doing so, the air trails the warp created by the ball towards the back instead of flowing past it. This results to a smaller wake and lesser drag.

Dimples also help players to put backspin on a shot making the golf ball break off on the putting green.

The idea of putting dimples on golf balls can be traced back during the gutta percha phase. Coburn Haskell introduced the one-piece rubber cored ball encased in a gutta percha sphere. It was during this time when the players observed how their shots become more and more predictable as their balls turned rough from play.

When William Taylor applied the dimple pattern to a Haskell ball in 1905, golf balls finally took their modern form.

From then on, dimpled golf balls were officially used in every golf tournament. In 1921, the golf balls took its form with standard size and weight.

Today, there is an abundant selection of golf balls to fit different golf game and condition. There are golf balls that offer control, while some offer distance. In whatever ways golf balls vary, only one thing is common and known. Golf balls are not just elements of the sports arena; they are more than ever paradigm of a concept in physics.

TaylorMade Golf Tour Staff professional Kenny Perry fired a nearly effortless, bogey-free final-round 63 to clinch victory at the Traveler’s Championship. It was his second win on the PGA Tour this year, his fifth in the past 13 months and his first since switching to the new R9 460 driver.

It was the 14th career PGA Tour win for the 48-year old Perry, whose goal is to reach 20. His Traveler’s win was a record-setter for the event at 22-under par that started with an opening-round 61 and finished with a final round 63 to stave off fellow TMaG staffer and R9™ 460 user Paul Goydos.

This is as good a win as I’ve ever had,” Perry said. “On Sunday, my golf was unbelievable. To shoot 22-under par, to break the all-time record of all the great champions that are on this trophy, it’s unbelievable.”

With his R9 460, Kenny ranked 12th in driving distance with an average of 293.1 yards and T20th in driving accuracy at 80.4% of fairways hit. He also ranked T3rd in greens in regulation. *

The victory was his fifth on the PGA Tour in a little more than a year; the most of any player in that time span. It elevated Kenny to No. 1 on the PGA Tour money list, No. 1 on the Fedex points list, No. 3 on the Presidents Cup points list and No. 3 on the Ryder Cup points list.

Perry was one of 38 players who played an R9 driver, 14 of whom used the just-introduced R9 460.

In Perry’s winning bag*:

Driver: TaylorMade R9 460 9.5°
Fairways: TaylorMade Burner 3-wood, Prototype Raylor® 17.5°
Irons: TaylorMade r7 4 – PW
Wedges: TaylorMade rac 54° and 64°

*  PGATour.com
** Darrell Survey model count at Travelers Championship