Author: Donald MacKenzie

A Quick Nine With ‘The Ball Jack Wants You To Play’

How does today’s state-of-the-art golf ball stack up against a comparable ball from the mid-1980s? Let’s just say there’s a great distance between the two.

There’s a rumor that’s been going around the equipment biz that a major golf ball manufacturer has crafted a unique response to Jack Nicklaus’ continued complaints about how far today’s balls travel. The company – which hasn’t been positively identified, but I’m 99.9 percent sure it starts with a “T” and ends with “itleist” – made a limited run of golf balls manufactured to mid-1980s specs. The balls are stamped “RIP Distance” on one side, with the inscription “This is the ball Jack wants you to hit” on the other.

In the name of due diligence, Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. came across some of these rare old-school golf balls and had PGA European Tour player Gary Orr try one side-by-side with the new Pro V1. Read on to find out what happened.

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Wie Qualifies For Match Play at U.S. Amateur Public Links

Michelle Wie fired rounds of 76 and 72 – 148 is 8 over on the par-70 course – to qualify for match play at the Men’s Public Links. If she wins, she’ll advance to The Masters.

One week after missing the cut at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, 15-year-old Michelle Wie has made the grade at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. Wie finished at 8-over-par 148 to make the two-round cut by a stroke at Shaker Run Golf Club in Lebanon, Ohio. Now she and the rest of the field will duke it out in match play. Wie will take on Will Claxton of Swainsboro, Georgia at 11:18 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Claxton tied for 8th at 140 over two rounds of medal play. Anthony Kim of Norman, Oklahoma won medallist honors at 4-under-par 136. See all the scores here.

At stake, aside from the pride of winning one of the USGA’s top events, is an automatic entry into next year’s Masters Tournament. That would create another spot in the history books for Wie, who today became the first woman to qualify for a men’s USGA championship.

Hybrids Take Hold

Smaller companies like Sonartec and Tour Edge have been big winners as hybrid clubs have taken off. Now the big names of the business have taken notice and are firing back.

Bag DropHybrid clubs are an overnight success more than five years in the making. While these clubs – which combine design features of irons and woods into a small, fairway wood-like package – have caught fire at retail over the last year or so, they’ve been around for a while. And now that the big boys of the OEM world are getting into the game, it looks like the hybrids are more than hype.

Hybrid iron-woods started out as an option for golfers who didn’t have the swing speed or skill to get their long irons airborne. Esthetically, they aren’t that different from the “bulger” woods of a century ago, sporting a clubhead that is relatively long from heel to toe and fairly compact. But, like most clubs in the bag, they have benefitted from recent changes in golf technology.

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Japan Market Gets Exclusive Products

Japan is known as a golf-crazy country. U.S. equipment manufacturers cater to the market with some interesting Japan-only products.

Bag DropIn America, the words “hot import” would probably be most closely identified with cars bearing the names Honda, Toyota, or Lexus. The tables are turned, however, when it comes to golf clubs. The hot imports in the Japanese golf markets come from U.S. companies like Callaway and TaylorMade.

If you’ve seen the movie “Lost in Translation,” then you’ll likely remember the brief but beautiful scene in which Bill Murray’s character tees off toward the towering visage of Mt. Fuji. What kind of driver do you think the American visitor was using to put the ball in play? While it might have been something from a top Japanese golf company, like Mizuno or Bridgestone, it was quite possibly a product made for the Japanese market by a U.S. club company.

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What’s In the Bag Isn’t Always What’s On the Bag

Sometimes the logo on your favorite player’s hat or bag doesn’t match up with the clubs and balls he uses. What’s up with that?

Bag DropA few eagle-eyed Bag Drop operatives have pointed out something that’s an open secret in the equipment business: sometimes pro tour players don’t use the gear they endorse. Now, if you’re the type that still believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, stop reading right now. But if you’re ready to face up to the fact that paid spokesmen (and women) sometimes don’t actually use the products they’re paid to gush about, read on.

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Equipment at the U.S. Open

This week, The Bag Drop takes a look back at the U.S. Open and how equipment played a part at Pinehurst.

Bag DropIn this week’s installment of The Bag Drop, we’ll take a look at last week’s U.S. Open Championship from the equipment perspective. What tools did Michael Campbell use in his stunning victory, what did the boys in the tour van create specifically for Pinehurst No. 2, and further proof of how right the saying “drive for show, putt for dough” really is.

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Pinehurst Pity Party Planned for Vijay

Vijay Singh is one of the best in the world, but does he really believe that nobody else could break 100 on a U.S. Open course?

Pinehurst US OpenAs the world’s best golfers tee off at Pinehurst No. 2 this morning, I’m still chuckling about a wayward shot world No. 2 Vijay Singh fired off in the media tent yesterday. Vijay obviously doesn’t practice humility or common sense as much as he does his golf game.

So Vijay rolls into the media tent. No one ever expects him to have much of interest to say, and he obliges with all the boilerplate comments about the great shape Pinehurst No. 2 is in, etc.

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U.S. Open Preview

The previous U.S. Open held at Pinehurst No. 2 featured a memorable duel between Payne Stewart and Phil Mickelson. Oh, and some guy named Tiger finished third. The stage is set for more drama this week.

USGA LogoPinehurst No. 2 is universally acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest layouts. Yet the 2005 U.S. Open is only the third major championship to be held on the course. The most recent was the stuff of legend, as the late Payne Stewart won a duel with Phil Mickelson just months before Stewart’s untimely death. Will this year’s U.S. Open match 1999’s drama?

Who can forget the 1999 U.S. Open? You had the built-in drama of a major championship finally coming to North Carolina’s Pinehurst No. 2, one of Donald Ross’ sublime masterpieces. You had Tiger Woods rounding into his “Tiger Slam” form and finishing third, his game ready to explode into the stratosphere. You had Phil Mickelson, looking for his first major championship while listening for his beeper to see if his wife had gone into labor with their first child – who would be born the day following the tournament.

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Got the Backorder Blues?

Many golf shop customers are discovering that plenty of hot products are currently on backorder, and new custom orders are taking a month or more to arrive. Why the wait?

Bag DropWelcome to The Bag Drop, a new weekly rundown on what’s going on the world of golf equipment. If you’re a gearhead who lives to find out the latest about what’s going on in the golf business and what new products and trends are around the bend, read on – and be sure to come back next week for another round.

This week, we’ll start started on a sour note: Why are so many players having to wait to get new gear because the clubs they want are on backorder?

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