Golf Blog

Archive for the ‘Golfers’ Category

Trevor Immelman may have won this year’s Masters, but he has never won at The Open. His best finishing position at The Open was tied for 15^th in 2005. In 2006 Immelman won his first PGA Tour event at the Cialis Western Open, a result that moved him into the top 15 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Immelman uses Nike golf equipment and uses Nike ONE Platinum golf balls. The Nike ONE Platinum balls are inspired by the best players but are engineered for every player and are responsive to all swing types. If you are a serious player, Nike ONE Platinum balls are the golf balls for you. They are the first ball designed to maximise the potential of larger headed drivers by promoting a higher trajectory and a lower spin rate.

The ONE Platinum is not designed exclusively for drivers over 400cc; its distance off the tee, wind-boring control from the fairway, and responsiveness around the green will match any combination of clubs. Golfers who have made the move to a larger driver will experience the greater potential of the ONE Platinum.

Luke Donald has never won The Open and his best finish was in 2006 when he tied for 35^th place. His best finish in the Majors was in 2005 at The Masters and in 2006 at the PGA Championship when he tied for third place. Donald is an enthusiastic painter and donated one of his pieces to a PGATOUR.com auction and the winning bid was $1,640, which was split between PGA TOUR Charities and junior golf charity in Chicago.

Donald’s golf equipment is supplied by Mizuno and he favours the Mizuno MP Wedge series. There are two types of MP wedge which are the MP-R and MP-T. The classic Teardrop wedge has been updated to include the highly versatile C-Grind sole design. The C-Grind sole is based on a favoured custom grinding of Mizuno’s tour players, allowing greater creativity around the greens. The T-Series profile features a straighter leading edge than the R-Series, an alignment aid favoured by many professionals. Unlike Mizuno’s irons, grooves are CNC precision milled rather than forged which provides the maximum traction allowed by the R&A. The R-Series delivers the purest touch and biting control unleashed by Mizuno.

Vijay Singh has had 3 victories in the Majors but has never won The Open. His best finish at The Open was second place in 2003. 2003 proved to be a very successful year for Singh. He had 18 Top 10 finishes and was the PGA Tour’s money leader beating Tiger Woods. He narrowly lost the vote for the PGA of America’s Player of the Year to Tiger Woods.

Singh uses a Never Compromise GM2 FM Putter. Originally recognised as the company whose putters incorporated three-piece technology, Never Compromise went back to the drawing board to update and modernise this extreme weighting system. The end result is the Never Compromise GM2 line of putters, which have strategically placed copper tungsten weights in the heel and toe to perfect their balance and raise their moment of inertia, or resistance to twisting. To further increase its stability, designers have positioned an aluminium-infused, composite weave insert into the face of each putter. Being only half as dense as standard aluminium, this high-tech insert allows for additional weight to be shifted away from the putter’s face while giving golfers a highly responsive feel.

Phil Mickelson is one of the leading golfers of his generation, having won three major golf championships and a total of 34 events on the PGA Tour. He has reached a career high world ranking of 2nd in multiple years. One event he has never won is The Open. His highest position at The Open was third in 2004, the same year he won the US Masters which was his first major win.

Mickelson uses Callaway golf equipment and his irons of choice are Callaway X-Forged irons. The Callaway X-Forged Irons are built for experienced golfers who are looking for perfect shot making and distance control. X-Forged irons have a shorter blade length, minimal offset, and the thinnest top-line and narrow sole, meaning that these irons provide the serious golfer with every attribute expected in a quality set of irons.

At the 2007 Open Championship Justin Rose tied for 12^th place but moved into the top twenty of the World Rankings for the first time, and by October had reached a new career high of 12 and became the top ranked British golfer. Rose won the European Tour Order of Merit title for 2007 in a thrilling climax to the season at the Volvo Masters, which he won in a playoff in November. His new world ranking of number 7 made him the top-ranked European golfer for the first time, and he has since moved up to sixth in the rankings.

Justin Rose uses TaylorMade equipment and uses Taylor Made Burner TP Fairway Woods. The Burner TP fairway woods have a tour-shaped clubhead that promotes confidence and is preferred by the professionals. Thanks to its mid-face height with a forward Centre of Gravity location a lower and more controllable ball flight is achievable.

Sergio Garcia finished in second place at the 2007 Open, so it is little surprise to see that he has made the top ten favourites list for the 2008 Open. After missing the cut of the first two major championships in 2007, Garcia found success at The Open Championship which is his favourite of the four majors. He held the lead after each one of the first three rounds and carried a 3-shot lead over Steve Stricker and a 6-shot lead over the rest of the field into the start of the fourth day. At an early stage of the last round he had extended the lead to 4 shots, but bogeys at the 5th, the 7th, and the 8th holes brought him back to the field. The last putt on the 18th hole on Sunday would have given him his first professional major but he missed it by a fraction and faced a playoff with Padraig Harrington that he eventually lost by one stroke. In his post round news conference, Garcia seemed to suggest that bad breaks had cost him the championship.

Garcia is a TaylorMade player and his driver is the TaylorMade r7 SuperQuad TP. The r7 Superquad TP Driver has six movable weights in four ports that allow 102 Centre of Gravity locations. The massive clubface area makes it easy to launch on a high, strong trajectory for long carry and phenomenal distance.

In the 2006 season, Jim Furyk finished a career-high second on the money list and won the Vardon Trophy for the first time. He also had a career-best thirteen top-10 finishes, including nine top-3s, four second-place finishes, and two victories. Although Furyk has never finished higher than 4th at The Open Championship, he did finish first at the US Open in 2003 and has finished 2nd at the US Open for the last two years.

As with the majority of Furyk’s golf equipment his golf balls are by Srixon. Srixon Z-URC golf balls feature a revolutionary, ultra-thin urethane-elastomer cover, highly resilient large Energetic Gradient Growth core, and high velocity boundary layer with a high trajectory dimple pattern. The cover of the Z-URC is the softest of the family providing more spin with all clubs and greater control with approach irons and delicate scoring shots around the green.

Padraig Harrington crashed out of the Welsh Open recently when a second round 74 saw him miss the cut on European soil for the first time since October 2006. Harrington was reportedly paid a six-figure appearance fee to play at Celtic Manor but admitted his putting wasn’t on form as he finished 15 strokes off the lead. Despite his disappointing finish at Adare Manor, Harrington said his game is in good shape with the big events of the summer looming, including his title defence of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Padraig Harrington uses Pro V1X balls from Titleist. Titleist Golf Pro V1X Golf Balls have been created for serious golfers seeking long distance; these golf balls deliver the longest driver distance of any Titleist golf ball. Pro V1x provides improved playability and feel with mid and short irons. They feature an improved, higher coverage 332 dimple design, along with a new staggered wave parting line and exclusive A.I.M. sidestamp, the Pro V1x golf ball maintains long, consistent distance with softer feel and Drop-And-Stop control around the green.

Ernie Els has often been compared to Greg Norman in the sense that both men’s careers could be looked back on and think what could have been. Although both of them have won multiple major golf championships they have both shared disappointment in majors. Their disappointments have ranged from nerves, bad luck and simply being outplayed. 1996 was the year where Norman collapsed in the Masters and Els in the PGA Championship.

Els has finished runner-up to Tiger Woods more than any other golfer and has often been described as having the right game to finally be the golfer to beat Woods in a major.

Els’ equipment is by Callaway and he uses Odyssey putters by Callaway. Every detail of the White Hot XG #5 was precisely engineered to match Els’ playing style, offset double-bend 35″ shaft (no hosel), butane finish that highlights the sightline, and a new Tour Insert.  The White Hot XG is Odyssey’s latest putter that uses a insert made up of multi-layers which results in excellent performance on the putting green.

All together, the Odyssey White Hot XG allows weight to be moved to the perimeter of the putter head for a high Moment of Inertia, which prevents the ball from jumping as it leaves the face, pushing it straight in to its top spin roll.

Tiger Woods was the highest-paid professional athlete in 2007, having earned an estimated $112 million from winnings and endorsements. Woods became a professional golfer in August 1996, and signed endorsement deals worth $40 million from Nike and $20 million from Titleist.

He played his first round of professional golf at the Greater Milwaukee Open, tying for 60th place, but went on to win two events in the next three months to qualify for the Tour Championship. For his efforts, Woods was named Sports Illustrated’s 1996 Sportsman of the Year and PGA Rookie of the Year.

Woods began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments, a link to his college days at Stanford and a colour he believes symbolises aggression and assertiveness.

Tiger’s irons aren’t just any irons, they’re Nike Forged Irons. Forged Irons are generally preferred by advanced players. The small blade head is stable with the impact point precisely positioned on the face of the club. Forged irons are made in a two step process: Precision Forging forms the head of the club and Squeeze Forging aligns the grain of the soft 1030 carbon steel.

Nike Forged Irons provide superior accuracy and feel while eliminating soft and hot spots on the face. The Muscleback design distributes more weight throughout the back of the blade, especially behind the sweetspot.