Category: Hot Topics

The Woods-Haney Divorce: Why Hank Had to Walk Away

The latest departure from Team Woods — aka Team Enablement — should be far from the last.

Thrash TalkSo much has been made of Hank Haney’s split from Tiger Woods this week, it brought more attention to the role of golf coach than we’ve seen in many years.

It comes at a turbulent time, with Woods reeling, with the media calling for Haney’s dismissal, and with Tiger suffering through the pain in the neck heard ’round the world.

I’ll always believe that Haney finally had enough of the luke-warm support he was getting out of his primetime pupil. However, the fallout raises an interesting point about golf coaches.

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Let’s Not Send Tiger Off Into the Sunset Just Yet

Red-hot youngsters and a surging Phil Mickelson set the stage to usher Woods out of the spotlight. Get real. Tiger’s one good week from reminding us of his greatness.

Thrash TalkThe winds of change are blowing but one man can restore order to the PGA Tour by himself.

There has been no shortage of “changing of the guard” and “youth movement” talk this week, thanks to two stunning performances on Sunday. Ryo Ishikawa made headlines with his closing round of 58 in Japan, followed by Rory McIlroy holding off a star-studded field with a 62 at Quail Hollow. Separately, they’re two impressive showings. Put them together and you’ve got yourself a “trend!” And we in the media love nothing more than a trend. If you really want to take it to the next level, add the fact Phil Mickelson can take over the top spot in the world rankings and it all adds up to a PGA in flux.

Can we all take a deep breath please?

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Adams Unveils New Idea Black CB2 Irons and Super Hybrids

Adams Golf establishes an entire new line of premium products under the Idea Black brand name.

Bag DropNew equipment just continues to roll out at a steady pace as temperatures continue to rise across the country. If your bag isn’t set for the rest of the season, you might want to make it a priority to do so. Because of course, once it’s set, we’re not lured in by other new shiny toys, right?

Perhaps you’ll consider a set of irons from “that hybrid company” – Adams Golf. The number one hybrid maker is at it again, this time with a new brand name they’re calling Idea Black. Now don’t get confused, this is different than the Idea Pro Black hybrids we saw last October. This week we take a look at the soon-to-be-released Idea Black CB2 and Idea Black Super Hybrid from Adams Golf. So kick back, relax, and follow along as we see what these new sticks are all about.

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Ochoa Hands Off to LPGA’s Real Personalities

The world’s top female golfer steps aside, and the world shrugs. Now it’s time for budding stars like Michelle Wie and Christina Kim to spur the tour’s rebirth

Thrash TalkSome are saying Lorena Ochoa’s retirement is the latest blow to the LPGA. They must have forgotten the women’s tour took a major leap into irrelevance and tiptoed toward extinction while the phenom from Mexico sat atop their rankings.

How can it get any worse with her stepping away? It can’t. If anything, it should open the door for more of the LPGA’s personalities to take the spotlight. Names like Christina Kim and Michelle Wie, who can make more headlines without hoisting a trophy than Ochoa ever could while assembling what would be a Hall of Fame career had she stuck around for 10 years.

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Masters Offered So Many Lessons on Both Phil and Tiger

Whether you took away the good vs. evil angle, or if the Krispy Kreme pictures cemented the Mickelsons as “real,” this was a very educational major

Thrash TalkThere’s no doubt I could have written a half-dozen columns about the epic week at Augusta National. From the Hall of Fame leaderboard, to masters.com blowing me away, to the fact I’ll trade the televised par-three tournament for just about anything else golf-related, there’s so much to say about the highlight of the golfing calendar.

They say the Masters doesn’t begin until the last nine holes on Sunday. So in honor of that great Augusta truism, I present the nine things I learned from the 2010 Masters.

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PURE Grips Introduces Five New Grips and Tapeless Installation Tool

Take grip installation into your own hands with PURE Grips’ tapeless installation tool and custom grips!

Bag DropWhen we talk about the performance of our clubs, there is one desirable quality that’s desired by players of all skill sets – good feel. Good feel probably simply described as what the club feels like upon impact, both in the sweet spot and on the outer edges of the clubface. And yes, while the clubhead and shaft play the primary roles in what a club feels like, the connection between your hands and that club goes right through the grip. What you may not realize is that even a pured shot might not feel as good to the hands as it should if the grips on your clubs are old, hard as a rock, and flaking. Not to mention that you’re less likely to hit the ball well if you’re forced to squeeze your grips because they’re old, hard as a rock, and flaking!

Unfortunately, though changing your grips is something a lot of avid golfers do themselves, it’s always been a bit more of a hassle than it probably should be. That’s where PURE Grips comes in. Not only do they make a line of quality grips, they also make installation simple enough that anyone with a few spare minutes and an air compressor can install the grips without taking paying their local retailer. Couple that with a pretty enticing durability guarantee, and you have an overall product that’s definitely worth checking out. Follow along as we take a look at PURE Grips and their products.

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2010 Masters Staff Predictions

Will Tiger win? Will he regret his decision to return this week? Will the “patrons” heckle him? Our writers weigh in.

Thrash TalkOn a typical year, golf fans start counting down to the Masters months in advance. This year, the addition of Tiger Woods’ return turns it into one of the most anticipated golf tournaments in the sport’s history.

We’ve polled The Sand Trap staff to offer you their insights into all things Tiger, Augusta and ask who will be wearing the green jacket Sunday afternoon.

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Cobra Introduces New S2 Max Iron and Iron Hybrid Set

Cobra extends the S2 lineup with new S2 Max Iron-Hybrid and Iron sets, which borrow a good deal of key design features from the drivers and fairway woods released earlier this year. Why let a little thing like Puma’s acquisition of Cobra stop them from giving you an extra bit of game improvement?

Bag DropRecently, we covered Cobra’s new S2 drivers and fairway woods, which were said to offer numerous improvements for this year in terms of forgiveness and distance. With that in mind, it would be safe to say the the newest game improvement irons and hybrids from Cobra have the same exact intention – to help improve your game as much as possible.

At the time of that release, we had no idea that there were some shakeups right around the corner. The guys at Cobra aren’t going to let a little thing like the sale of Cobra from Acushnet to Puma stop them from rolling out some new hardware. We’ll get to the few details we know about the Puma/Cobra acquisition in a minute, but first lets check out the latest in the S2 lineup from Cobra.

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When It’s Time For a Golf Trip, I’m Flying Solo

Give me peace, quiet, and meeting new people over reminding my buddies each night that our 8 a.m. tee time will make staying until last call all the more painful.

Thrash TalkI made my long awaited (in my mind) return to the golf course last week. No press conferences. No media stakeouts. Just me, my clubs, and a balky putter. At some point there will be apologies to my wife and family since the next eight months I’ll be sneaking off with my other loves (all 14 of them, with a few substitutes depending on my mood). I’d like to blame the layoff for by abysmal start to the year, not the distractions caused by my infidelity this winter (demoing irons and drivers for hours on end, leaving my current player-club relationships in serious jeopardy).

Unlike a certain big name golfer, I couldn’t possibly wait for the Masters. But I did choose a controlled environment to kick off my season, and got away from my familiar surroundings, heading across the country for a solo golf trip in Nevada that reintroduced me to the joys of traveling and playing alone, with strangers, and (unfortunately) the rigors of being joined by my buddies after three days by myself.

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