Month: January 2005

Like most of the rest of the golf world, you’ve added a “rescue,” “hybrid,” or “ironwood” to your bag. You use it out of the rough and off the tee, and it works well for you. Guess what? You’re still under-utilizing the club.

As Todd Hamilton showed us at last year’s British Open, the hybrid club is also an effective tool around the greens. You may not get as much use out of it as Hamilton did around the links-style Open course, but from greenside rough and fringes, hybrid clubs possess a number of traits that will help you get the ball closer to the hole.

To play a chip with a hybrid, stand the club up on its toe a little and take a putting grip. Play the shot very much like a putt, with very little wrist action. The hybrid will glide through any grass quite easily, ensuring solid contact.

The next time you find yourself around the green, do as Hamilton does: put that hybrid to work!

This lengthy article at Golf Club Review talks about the value of a spin-balanced golf ball.

A player with a poor stroke may never realize much benefit from the use of balanced balls on the green, but a good putter should be able to reduce his handicap by close to a stroke with careful and sustained use of balance-oriented balls. If he is also adept at using the alignment lines on the ball to aim his putts, he may save substantially more than a stroke a round.

Further reading reveals that Golf Club Review found disparities in long irons, short irons, and driver shots as well. Turns out that balancing a ball is important for more than putting!

You can read more about the Check-Go system here or purchase one from TGW.com or other retailers.