See if you agree with my picks for the five biggest surprises of 2009.
This season the PGA Tour has given us some memorable – or at least notable – winners. It has also given us some surprising performances, results, and standings.
We all have our favorites and not-so-favorites. But, when the ones we expect to be consistent are not, we question their abilities. All players have their good and bad days. What we can expect is there will be surprise winners, and there will be those players who do not do as well as we might anticipated.
Recently, an agency which provides female models to caddy for interested golfers was banned from a number of courses in England. Good move?
I woefully regret that it has taken me more a week to learn of the grim news. Eye Candy Caddies, a reputable British business entity which provides (theoretically) capable and attractive young women to serve as loopers is currently in the process of being blacklisted; it’s services having been banned from a number of courses in England managed by the villainous entity known as Leaderboard Golf.
Steve Stricker is Mr. September. Could he win Comeback Player of the Year again? 🙂
Steve Stricker wins in Boston and takes over #1 in FedExCup race and #2 in the world. Plus, Suzann Pettersen keeps doing her, uhhh, “stuff,” an LPGA tournament is back, Annika has a girl, and a whole lot more in this episode of Golf Talk.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 125 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.
For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.
After three years of development, TaylorMade Golf announces the new Penta TP, the first five-piece golf ball to reach the market.
Normally, when choosing a ball, one takes into account that there is a subtle tradeoff between maximum distance and maximum spin around the greens. Golf ball technology has progressed so that there is less of a tradeoff, and TaylorMade claims to have eliminated it with a new ball they’ll introduce soon: the Penta TP.
Titleist has been dominant in the ball market, despite challenges, for decades. Though TaylorMade’s TP Red and TP Black were reviewed well, they did little to take away from Titleist’s market share and have been heavily discounted at retailers for most of 2009.
The Penta TP is TaylorMade’s next offensive attack.
Annika has her baby, Ernie’s still lookin’ to be #1, and it takes Tiger 13 holes to make a birdie!
Hello golf fans, and welcome again to Hittin’ the Links. Well the PGA Tour has a Monday finish this week and there is a lot of golf news out there. I mean really and truly its news all by itself when on Sunday it takes Tiger 13 holes to make a birdie.
In this edition of HTL we first say congratulations to Annika on the birth of her child, then find out what made Paul Casey miss the Deutsche Bank Championship, and see who will be the starters at the 2010 Masters. Also, we investigate who has a plan to be #1 in the world, see what LPGA tournament decided to stick around another year, and do a wrap-up of the week’s tournaments. Read on!
An excerpt from Scott Kramer’s e-book on choosing the proper golf equipment.
Veteran golf equipment writer Scott Kramer has published a new e-book, How to Buy the Right Golf Equipment. The easy-reading book helps simplify the process of buying clubs, shafts, balls, bags and shoes – as well as buying equipment for other people, including your kids. The following excerpts are the chapters on buying drivers and putters (scroll down). For the complete book, visit amazon.com for the Kindle version or lulu.com for the instant PDF download.
What follows is an excerpt from this book.
Continue reading ““How to Buy the Right Golf Equipment” Book Excerpt”
Working on lag can be tough… especially when another swing fault makes it nearly impossible to create it.
Joe French is what I would consider your slightly above average player. He consistently shoots in the mid-80s. He hits the ball an average to above-average distance. He even has days where he can hit as many as nine fairways and 13 greens. However, he has reached the point where it is time to take the next step. It is time for Joe to start consistently shooting in the 70s. With a few changes, I think we can get him there.
You could probably freeze frame at any point in Joe’s swing and identify a problem. Even at full speed you could say that he takes the club back too far inside, creates no pivot, crosses at the top, casts during his down swing, comes inside, and then nearly jumps off the ground at impact. Ultimately, making a check list of faults is not going to help Joe. Our job is to identify which problem must be addressed next in order for him to achieve his goals.
Read on to see Joe’s swing and the fixes I’ve outlined for him.
Eighteen non sequiturs for your reading and responding pleasure.
One
If the FedExCup is starting to work the way it’s supposed to and that “way” looks a lot like the traditional season money leaders list, what’s the point?
Manufactured drama? More money for the Tour’s elite? More FedEx commercials (which, I admit, are generally funny)?
Not, however, as funny as this.
Tiger Woods is putting like a pretty good PGA Tour player these days. Hey, at least he’s not putting like Phil!
Tiger wins, then loses to Heath Slocum. Michelle Wie notches another top five, Jack becomes a ceremonial golfer, the U.S. Am winner is even younger than Danny Lee, and a whole lot more in this episode of Golf Talk.
You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 124 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.
For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.