Author: Erik J. Barzeski

Golf Talk Special Edition: The TaylorMade TP Golf Ball Launch

TaylorMade has a new golf ball, and we’ve got commentary, TaylorMade CEO Mark King, Sergio Garcia, our initial on-course impressions, and a whole lot more in this special edition podcast.

PodcastLast weekend, Donald MacKenzie and I had an opportunity to head to Greensboro, GA and the Reynolds Plantation to attend the TaylorMade‘s launch of their new TP golf balls.

We’ve covered this ball launch thoroughly this week, starting with a Sunday night edition of Donald’s The Bag Drop entitled TaylorMade Gets Back in the Ball Game. We followed that up yesterday with TaylorMade’s product “reveal” video as well as an inside look at a major golf product launch.

And we’re not done yet. As of today, subscribers to our podcast feed (see right-hand column for subscription links) will find a Special Edition Podcast that covers the TaylorMade ball launch from every angle. If you’ve not subscribed to the feed (and now is as good a time as any to do so!), you can also download the podcast (.m4a, 29:22, 7.33 MB) separately. Subscriptions are free.

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TaylorMade TP Golf Ball Video

TaylorMade knows how to get the heart pumping with a fast-paced video that makes you want to go out and whack some golf balls really far.

TaylorMade TP BallsIn case you haven’t heard yet, TaylorMade now makes golf balls. Sunday’s introduction of the TP Red and TP Black golf balls was done by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf CEO Mark King, PGA Tour player Sergio Garcia, and others. Towards the end of the presentation, Garcia introduced a video.

This video (6:07, 31.3 MB .wmv), to be more precise.

Go ahead and grab the video. You’ll find it’s an aggressive, energy-packed video that makes some bold claims and statements, not the least of which is Senior Director of R&D Dean Snell saying “Holy Shit, this is awesome” (though Dean would later jokingly claim he never said “holy shit” and that the audio was dubbed in).

What follows are some screenshots of the presentation for those who don’t have time to watch the six-minute video.

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UPS to Unveil ‘Damaged Contents’ Zone

The FedEx Reliability Zone: an April Fool’s Day joke played out upon us despite the changing calendar.

Package delivery company FedEx, title sponsor of next year’s “FedExCup” on the PGA Tour, has gotten an early jump on things this year with the “FedEx Reliability Zone.” If you’ve watched televised golf this year, you’ve no doubt seen the “FERZ.” Displayed on par 4s and 5s, the FERZ is a purple shaded area about 270 yards to 310 yards from the tee and spanning the entire width of the fairway. Roughly the size of smaller states such as Vermont, announcers use the FERZ as a means of displaying just how important it is to find the fairway. Oftentimes, the purple haze is used to illustrate stats such as these:

Location            Scoring Average
From Inside Zone        3.87
From Outside Zone       4.12

Fedex Reliability Zone

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Golf Talk Podcast Update

Due to technical troubles, Episode 019 of the Golf Talk Podcast will be delayed one week. We will, however, be bringing you a special edition podcast within the week!

PodcastUnfortunately, staff member and Golf Talk host Jeff Smith suffered some computer issues this past week, so we’re unable to bring you this week’s podcast. Had we been able to record our show, we’d have talked about the list of topics below.

If you’d like to be on the Golf Talk Podcast, you can read the instructions and find out when we’ll be recording each show in this thread in our forum. Basically, you need a free Skype account and 30 minutes on a Friday to participate. Opinions are a welcome bonus. 🙂 If you can’t join us live but you’d like to submit a question to us, send an email to podcast@thesandtrap.com.

By the way, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or via iTunes by clicking here.

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2006 Masters Predictions

The staff of The Sand Trap weigh in with their predictions. Who will win? Who will disappoint? Find out what we think.

Masters LogoThere may be another stop on the PGA Tour this week, but c’mon, who is thinking about The BellSouth Classic right now? Here at The Sand Trap we’re in full Masters mode. We’re checking the quality of our HD signals, we’re buying snacks and timing how long it takes to get to the refrigerator and bathroom and back to the couch, and we’ve put all of our family and friends on alert: we cannot be bothered a certain four days next week.

Here at The Sand Trap, as we like to do with all the majors, we’ve quizzed our staff and come up with some predictions. Find out what we think about the course, who will win (and with what score), who could be a dark horse, who will disappoint, and what will surprise us (though, by spilling our surprises now, will they surprise anyone?).

Read now, and tell us whether you agree. And remember: this article will still be here after The Masters is over. For some, that will give them bragging rights. For others, tremendous shame…

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Ames Dominates Players Championship

Stephen Ames’ steady 67 definitively claims victory at the TPC of Sawgrass.

Stephen Ames at the TPC of SawgrassStephen Ames managed to avoid a train wrecks all week long, never carding back-to-back bogeys. That’s more than Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, Camilo Villegas, Henrik Stenson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, and Tiger Woods can say. He put on a clinic in the final round, staying steady under pressure and maintaining composure after a double-bogey on the 10th hole. He played with both skill and luck, the latter of which helped him enormously on the 16th hole when his ball took an unnerving bounce but wound up close enough to the pin for him to drain an eagle putt.

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Episode 018

We have chokers and people who never choke, an angry listener with bleeding ears asks a question about loud drivers, and The Players Championship.

PodcastGreg Owen choked away a tournament at the 17th with a three-put from 40 inches, Sam Saunders may be the clup champion but he can’t play on the PGA Tour yet, and Fred Funk weighs in on Distance. Also this week, loud drivers, golf’s fifth major, making the 17th hole at the TPC of Sawgrass tougher, and some Tiger news – his dad, his putter, his interclub matches (the Tavistock Cup), and his Ryder Cup preparation. Plus, Tim Finchem gets a new contract. This and a whole lot more in this week’s Golf Talk Podcast.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 018 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.

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Oak Tree Country Club, West Middlesex, PA

Oak Tree Country Club is a shotmaker’s course: you’ll be forced to work the ball both directions to navigate this deceptively narrow track.

Oak Tree Country Club, PAOak Tree Country Club is a semi-private course near Sharon, PA. Built in 1967 and designed by Ed Ault, Oak Tree existed until 2005 as a private club. The pressure of maintaining a large, active membership in the modern day forced the club’s hand, but the transition has been smooth, and memberships are still available.

Director of golf Bob Collins invited The Sand Trap to play a round after making sure we were okay with a “tighter, tree-lined course.” After assuring Bob that we valued golf courses of all shapes and sizes and that we weren’t going to blame our poor shots towards those trees on faulty course design, he set up a tee time.

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The Players Championship: Golf’s Fifth Major?

The Players Championship the fifth major? I don’t think so.

Players Championship LogoThe Players Championship will be played later this week for likely the last time in the calendar month of March. As usual, “The Players” will draw a top field and be contested on a famous, testing course. But The Players is richer than that, and for years, the debate has raged: “is it golf’s fifth major?” The answer, unfortunately, is quite simple: NO.

The U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and British Open all began no later than 1916 with the oldest, “The Open,” dating back to 1860. The Players began in 1974 (or, for the more cynical, 1988). Even the Masters – which was instituted by a guy that won all four of golf’s then-major championships – came into existence more than two generations prior to The Players Championship.

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