Golf Blog

Archive for August, 2009

The grip is your only contact with the club so it mustn’t be overlooked when you play golf on a regular basis. You should clean and brush your golf grips regularly to attempt to maintain the original grip and feel of your clubs.

However, if you play once or twice a week then you should look to replace your grips every 12 months or so, or even sooner if signs of wear and tear are showing. If you apply quite a lot of pressure when gripping the clubs you might need to replace even more often than that! Some golfers change their grips 3 to 4 times a year as they realise what a difference it can make to their game!

When a new grip comes onto the market you should also think carefully as to whether you could gain benefit by fitting them onto your set. After all, modern surfaces keep improving all the time and technology constantly improves giving you better adhesion and contact in your hands.

Grip size is very important too – too small would rotate the hands quickly giving a draw or hook spin. On the other hand to thick a grip would hinder or slow the club rotation giving a slice or fade spin.

Climate conditions can influence grip selection too. Some grips react better in wet and some react better in drier or more humid conditions. Most grips, especially worn or part worn grips, react unfavorably in cold conditions. Badly fitted grips can also cause alignment problems which can lead to a host of problems.

So the key to success of you game is grip, get it right and it won’t let you down.

If you are a style addict who happens to, also, be a golfing enthusiast, then the brand Cutter and Buck will not be new to you.

Unlike other designer golf clothing, Cutter and Buck started with golf and spread their influence out (many designer brands started with street clothes and adapted their style to golf clothing or from other sports and altered their clothing lines to suit the golfing game).

Cutter and Buck have built their golf clothing reputation on quality production of fashionable golf apparel that reflects the huge popularity of golf with a younger, more style conscious market who want to be seen in clothes that reflect their own tastes in styling and clothing, that in previous generations of golfers would have been deemed unthinkable and did not match the ultra conservative image that golfers had acquired.

Now, meeting the needs of the modern golfer does not, necessarily, mean that a golfer should be attired in designs that require any players within a hundred yards of them to wear sun glasses. Cutter and Buck offer golf clothing in up to the minute colours and designs, but, need not be outlandish at all (but, if that is your style, then Cutter and Buck golf clothing can accommodate that fashion statement, too).

Nike Golf Tour staff member Simon Dyson  claimed victory in emphatic style at the KLM Open this week for the second time in four years, bringing to 12 the number of tournament wins by Nike staff in the 2009 season. This was his third career win and comes on the back of three further top 10 finishes this year.

Six strokes off the lead going into the final round, Dyson produced a stunning, course record equalling 63 to take him into a sudden death play off which he won at the first extra hole.  Dyson, with his Nike Sumo² 5900 driver in hand, was fourth in driving accuracy averaging 299.1 yards, proving that square technology is here to stay. He follows fellow Nike Golf athletes Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink’s recent major wins with each champion having something in common, storming to victory with a square-shaped driver. Also assisting him with his pinpoint iron shots were his Nike ONE Tour D ball and Nike VR Split Cavity blades.

Nike’s Victory Red Forged Split Cavity irons maintain a traditional look with a high degree of workability with a split back design that positions the centre of gravity behind the sweet spot for ball control while providing forgiveness.  The Victory Red Forged Split Cavity irons are made of 1025 Forged Carbon Steel and are machined to precise tolerances to optimise feel and accuracy, while the CNC Milled Face ensures uniform ball compression for consistent ball flight and distance control.  Differentiating slightly from the Victory Red TW Blades, the Victory Red Forged Split Cavity provides a higher trajectory and is more forgiving.

Dyson’s Nike Golf Arsenal

• Driver: Nike Sumo² 5900 Tour 10.5
• Irons: Nike VR Split Cavity
• Fairway Woods: Nike SQ2 3 wood (19 degree) and Sumo2 3 wood (15 degree)
• Wedges: Nike SV Tour Black Satin 52 and 60 degree
• Ball: Nike ONE Tour D
• Footwear: Nike Air Zoom Elite II
• Apparel:  Nike Golf Border Collection

There are many types of golf bags on the market today. When it comes to choosing a golf bag your decisions should be purely based on looks and the specifications you want your bag to have. When choosing you bag you also need o consider that it’s not just your golf clubs that you are carrying around the golf course, you have numerous other things like rain wear, gloves, balls, towels, drinks etc.

The most popular types of golf bags are:

Stand bags are built to be carried on the shoulder (or both shoulders to evenly distribute the weight of your golf clubs) and comes with a foldaway stand so golfers can leave bags standing whilst they play their shots. Golfers who use a stand bag have every reason to feel self-righteous. Not only, are the making the 4-5 mile walk, that a typical round of golf involves ,but, carrying your stand bag means that you are giving your body a more thorough workout. Golf stand bags easily hold a full set of clubs, are available from all the top names in golf manufacturing, such as, Cobra, Mizuno, Callaway, Titleist, TaylorMade,  and Mizuno,  etc and come in a huge selection of colours.

The other most popular type of golf bag is the cart bags. They are designed to be set onto a trolley, so there is no extra burden to the body during your round of golf. Golf cart bags are much heavier than stand bags, but, because you are not carrying them, but are wheeling them about it is much less of a strain on your back and shoulders. Golf clubs are incredibly heavy and on a, typical, round of 4.5 miles you may feel justified in using a golf cart bag as you will already be getting quite a bit of exercise already.

Other types of golf bags include tour bags and pencil bags. Your own personality will come into play when choosing the colour and detail of the bag. Keep an eye on quality and price, but especially on getting the right bag that will work for you.

Most golfers will know the benefit of wearing a golf glove but believe it or not, some don’t. Wearing a golf glove is not a requirement, but it is recommended. There are some pro players – Fred Couples, for example – who do not wear gloves. They are very rare, however, and golf pros will always recommend the use of a glove.

Wearing a glove will help you have a better grip on the club. If you don’t wear a glove then when you swing the momentum will cause the club to swing very slightly out of your hand and wearing a glove prevents this from happening. And if you don’t you could lose control of the club and take someone out and that wouldn’t be good.

However a golf glove provides much more grip on the club so it is less prone to twisting during the swing. It also allows you to hold the club less tightly leading to a more relaxed, more accurate swing.

The biggest advantage of a glove is to prevent blisters on your hands. Blisters occur the harder you grip the more friction you will create between the grip and the hand and cause the blistering & cracking. The glove should allow you to take a grip with less tension while still maintaining a good amount of grip friction between the leather and the grip.

The winning photo of Y.E Yang seen here on the left, is Yang holding his trusty TaylorMade bag, with his clubs in that lead him to victory in the USPGA.

His bag contained.

Golf Driver: TaylorMade r7 Limited (8.5°) with Aldila NV 75X shaft

Golf Fairway Woods: 13 degree TaylorMade Burner and 18 degree
TaylorMade V Steel (18°) with Honma ARMRQ golf shafts

Golf Hybrids: 19 and 21 degree TaylorMade Rescue TP Golf Hybrids with Alida NVS 105 hybrid golf shaft

Golf Irons: TaylorMade r7 TP ( 5 iron through to Pitching Wedge)

Golf Wedges: 48 degree and 58 degree TaylorMade rac wedges

Golf Putter: Odyssey White Hot Two-Ball Putter

Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP Red LDP

Golfbuyitonline is the one of the UKs leading TaylorMade stockists and Official TaylorMade internet retailer as well as a TaylorMade golf Select fit custom centre fitting drivers, rescues, fairways and all models of irons are in the TaylorMade range.

Throughout the whole competition Tiger Woods was on fire, and it looked as though he was going to take the winning title from the USPGA. However Yang Young-Ean took the victory the first Asian player to win a major championship first prize of $1.35 million (about £820,000).

The 37-year-old was two shots adrift of overnight leader Woods but held his nerve to card 70 to the American’s 75 to win by three on the final green. Yang’s victory ended Woods’s run of winning all 14 of his major titles when leading going into the final round. The other main player in this competition was defending champion Padraig Harrington, level with Yang at the start, however he blew his chances with a quintuple-bogey eight on the par-three 8th.

Yang, who was ranked 110th in the world before the event came to the final hole leading by a single shot, playing with TaylorMade Clubs he sank a ten-foot putt for birdie at the 72nd hole that guaranteed victory and sent immediate shock waves around the world.

Putting the ball in the correct position before you take your shot plays a big role in keeping that chain reaction of the golf swing working. For example playing the ball too far back in your stance you will see that you will have a tendency to the right of the intended destination. Conversely if the ball is too far forward there is a chance that the shot will miss the target to the left.

Most professional usually play the ball between their left foot and the middle of the stance, this is dependent upon the stance though. For example, the most popular position for the driver is just inside the heel of your front foot, this positioning allows the golfer to hit the ball further in the position of stance. This effectively produces impact on a slight upswing, taking advantage of the loft and the design of the club that is being used.

The suggested ball location for the remaining clubs that you have in your bag, progresses from left to right. Subsequently the long irons are played a ball or so to the right of the driver position. Mid-irons are played about one or two balls to the right of the long irons, finishing with the short irons, which are played in the middle of your stance.

The objective of adopting theses stances is to allow you to hit the ball at the lowest point of your swing taking advantage of the club’s loft and allowing you to make optimum contact with the ball, increasing the distance of the ball getting closer to the green resulting in saving you shots on your round of golf.

Also golfers need to bear in mind that there are various kinds of balls dependent upon your requirements. You may want to hit the ball longer distances with less effort on your tee or iron shots or you may want to have better control on the greens. We supply the biggest range of golf balls around from the very best names in golf.

Top quality golf shoes are a necessity when you are playing golf on a regular basis.

When you consider that, on average, a golfer will play a round a week and that adds up to a massive 260 miles walked in a year, bearing in mind, that 260 miles is what a low handicap player can expect to complete. We expect much from our golf shoes, but, unless they are less than perfect and hurt the golfer’s feet, they are given little consideration.

Any golfers know that having the right kind of shoe is essential to a good game, but with so many choices how do you know they are the perfect pair when you see them.

It’s essential that firstly your shoes fit you properly not having them so tight that they hurt your feet or to big that they slip from your feet. Often golfers can be distracted by foot pain when on the golf course from having the wrong type of shoes, this can consequently affect the concentration going into getting the perfect swing. The highest quality golf footwear also reduce foot fatigue with an orthopaedic insert that allows you to play longer and better, which is really what it’s all about!

It’s also important to pick a pair of golf shoes that reflects your personality there are loads of golf shoes out with different designs and colours, when looking for the perfect shoe you should look for you. You need to think do you want to stand out from the crowd or do you want to stick with a sophisticated neutral tone.

Golf shoes don’t come cheap; if you’re willing to spend a bit to start with the will defiantly save you money in the long run. A good quality pair of golf shoes will last several years if looked after properly.

Remember golf shoes are an investment into your game, so you should choose wisely.

The TaylorMade R9 460 driver is a big and forgiving model that offers a great number of customisation possibilities for golfers. It’s an offshoot of the TaylorMade R9, with some differences that will please golfers and others that may not.

TaylorMade’s Flight Control Technology (FCT) allows the player to easily adjust a metal wood’s loft, lie and face angle. FCT utilizes a metallic sleeve positioned over the tip of the shaft. The sleeve can be rotated into different positions, changing the characteristics of the head (to one of eight different settings), by loosening the bolt that secures the sleeve and shaft into the club head.

It gets the ball in the air with ease, and has attributes that fit both low and high handicappers, so it suit any type of golfer. Better golfers will benefit more from the eight customizable settings, while those who struggle off the tee will appreciate the additional forgiveness. The T9 was one of the most popular drivers on the PGA Tour as soon as it was released, and this is TaylorMade’s attempt to bring some of that technology to a driver that’s more of a game improvement model.

The TaylorMade R9 has a slightly smaller club head (430 cc), but also has 18 grams of removable weights that a golfer can use to adjust the balance is more forgiving, it lacks having  those weights, so a golfer who values that customisation won’t be satisfied with the bigger model. There has also been some criticism with the quality of the grip, though that is something that can be easily changed.