Author: Jeff Smith

Velocity Wipes Review

Velocity Wipes are a product intended to make cleaning golf clubs simple and convenient. I found that they delivered on their promise in almost every category.

Velocity Wipes HeroThere are a plethora of accessories available to make you golf life easier. Some meet expectations and some don’t. Velocity Wipes are an item intended to make cleaning golf clubs easier.

Somebody was going to come up with a product like this sooner or later. Velocity Wipes fills a niche: an easy to use golf club cleaning product. While they can’t do anything for bag chatter or dings, let’s see if they do a good job of cleaning post-round grit and grime or if they’re just a glorified wet-nap.

Basic Construction
Each wipe is approximately 9 x 13 inches unfolded. They come out of the dispenser folded once, just like a baby’s diaper towelettes. The wipes look somewhat like a blue paper towel, but are made of a more fabric-like material and are much more durable than all but the strongest of paper towels.

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Nine Holes with Lee Trevino

Golf has had its characters and Lee Trevino might be the most quotable of them all. Hop on the cart and join me for a quick nine with Trevino.

ProFilesElected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981, Trevino is truly a memorable character in golf lore. His ability to distill truth into a Trevino-ism is well known. His ball-striking exceptional, his ability to talk in the middle of a swing a little odd, and his PGA and Champions Tour records have cemented him as one of the very best to have stalked the fairways.

Trevino once said, “I’m down in the top 30. I won six majors, but I wasn’t dominant, wasn’t long enough for courses like Pebble and Augusta.” And while he doesn’t give himself much credit, history will make up the difference. He is one of a kind.

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Aaron Skidmore

Somehow golf gets a hold of you. Somebody somehow or another passes on the game to you. Sometimes it’s a family member, sometimes a friend, or sometimes it’s an inspiring personality on television. Here’s how the game came to me.

ProFilesAaron Skidmore isn’t your typical professional. In fact he never really was a pro golfer, except that he is and always will be a pro to me. I can’t remember what his swing looked like and there isn’t one swing tip I remember him passing on to me. He gave up the game out of necessity long before I took it up.

But still I consider him the one who handed me the baton. It was he, whose passion for the game somehow found its way to me and surfaced about three years after he passed away. I came by it honestly because Aaron Skidmore was my Grandpa.

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Nine Holes With Nancy Lopez

Only six LPGA golfers have more wins than Nancy Lopez. It didn’t take long for her to rack up an impressive number of wins on the LPGA Tour.

ProFilesI can’t think of another golfer, man or woman, who won 17 tournaments including one major in the first two years after joining professional competition. Nancy Lopez accomplished in her freshman and sophomore seasons what some never achieve their whole career.

Her quirky swing and dominating play made her one of the LPGA’s most celebrated and winning athletes. She is known as much for being a gracious competitor as she is her impressive record.

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Tadd Fujikawa is the New Wie

Just when you thought it was another weekend that the Wie media circus would flourish Tadd Fujikawa steals the show.

ProFilesThe media’s neurotic obsession with golf’s new bionic woman got shelved last weekend and a little amateur stole the show. Tadd Fujikawa was the youngest player in fifty years to make the cut at a PGA Tour event. My new favorite amateur golfer showed us what is sorely needed on the PGA Tour. Just as Wie, with her injured wrist, was thrashing around the Sony Open to another disappointing missed cut (+14) this five-foot-one firecracker steals the show. It was the best golf story since Tiger won the British Open.

Wie has more than her fair share of talent. She plays exceptionally well considering her age. She nearly made the cut at the Sony Open in 2006 and finished T3, T5, T3, and T26 in the women’s majors last year. That’s a good year for most of the LPGA field and she’s only now 17. But her propensity to accept every PGA Tour sponsor’s exemption is annoying.

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Masters of the First Major

Augusta National is America’s most prestigious golf venue and it has revealed some of the greatest players in the game. Here are Masters champs with the most victories.

ProFilesThe 2007 Masters is just a twinkle in the collective eye of golf fans. The highs and lows of 2006 are fading into the past, the leftover turkey is gone, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” plays in the background, and the decorations are up. Not exactly Masters weather.

Never-the-less, looking at the masters of The Masters is worth it because, before you know it, the on-air pontification over potential winners and contenders is going to start. You want to have a little history in your back pocket to impress your friends.

One rule: Those who make “Masters of the First Major” qualified by winning at least three.

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Adams Idea Pro Hybrid Iron Review

Adams Golf recently released their new Idea Pro hybrid. Intended to fill a need for a non-offset players club it has found a good reception amongst professionals.

Adams Idea ProThe Adams Idea Pro hybrids follow in the footsteps of the popular Adams utility family. The difference here is that Adams is, with the advent of the Idea Pro hybrids continuing their foray into club-building for the player’s market.

They have been very well received on the PGA, Champions, and Nationwide Tours. Trevor Immelman won the Western Open with an 18° Idea Pro in his bag, John Rollins won the B.C. Open using an Idea Pro hybrid, Jason Wagner won the Nationwide’s Cox Classic with an Idea Pro, Kevin Stadler used one to win the Nationwide’s Xerox Classic, and Allen Doyle used one to win his second consecutive U.S. Senior Open Championship. This club has become very popular in a short amount of time.

Adams spent a considerable amount of time and effort getting this club in play on Tour prior to its September release so it will have been well tested before it makes its way into your hands.

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Nine Holes With The Aussies

It was a successful PGA Tour year for the Aussies with one Major and another seven regular season wins among them. Karrie Webb nearly equalled the number of PGA victories on her own.

ProFilesIt was another successful year for the Australians in golf. With a history of producing successful golfers Australia is teaching their students the right thing. Foremost among Australian golf is Greg Norman, and while he’s hung up his spikes for the most part, the legacy he created and left for his country seems to be paying dividends.

Aussies were responsible for eight PGA and five LPGA victories in 2006. Out of a relatively small group of professionals has come a lot of success. Look for Aussie golf to continue to garner plenty of attention in coming years as a few of these players are really young and already successful. Join me for nine…

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Celebrity Deathmatch – Carolyn Bivens vs. Tim Finchem

TV contracts, performance enhancing drug tests, promoting some of histories best players… how will the two commissioners handle themselves? Who will win this brutal Celebrity Deathmatch?

ProFilesNothing gets your blood boiling more than a showdown between two stodgy golf executives. And because I love to give people what they want, you get a front-row seat to our second celebrity deathmatch. This time LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem square off in the battle of the golf execs.

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