Category: Hot Topics

An Open Letter To All Anti-Tigerites, Part One

I’ve been called a Tiger lover; I might as well be out with it.

Thrash TalkTo Whom It May Concern:

I am not an entirely shameless and uncritical worshipper of Tiger Woods. There are things about the man that I don’t like, both on and off the golf course. On the course, it annoys me when he refers to himself as “Woody,” when he insists on two possible hat and shoe combinations (white and white or black and black), when he and Steve Williams interact like they are angry school teachers, when he blows snot rockets or expels worse: an unbelievably generic post-round interview.

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2009 Titleist Pro V1/Pro V1x Balls Review

The Pro V1 and Pro V1x have had a makeover, creating a slightly longer and more durable ball.

Pro V1/Pro V1x HeroTitleist has had the number one ball on the market for as long as I can remember, and I have a few gray hairs. Every two years Titleist releases a new version of their high-end balls. I sometimes think that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Titleist seems to use the mantra of “every moment we rest gives our competitors a chance to catch up.”

With that, Titleist has released all new versions of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x in an attempt to keep their competitors at an arm’s length and keep a tight grip on their tremendous market share. So how do you improve the number one ball on the market? Well, there are a few ways but you’ll have to read on to find out what those are and if it made a difference to this long-time Titleist player.

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Titleist 909D2/909D3 Driver Review

Titleist gets back in the driver’s seat with the 909 series. And yes, that pun was totally intended.

Titleist 909D2It seems to me that Titleist’s 909 drivers are the most eagerly awaited Titleist drivers since perhaps… well… in a long time. The retailers I’ve talked with are reporting good sales numbers, and PGA Tour adoption was awfully quick, with the majority of staff players switching before the first ball was struck in 2009. On a personal level, the number of emails, PMs, and IMs I’ve gotten from people anxious to read this review has been off the charts – and the 909H and 909F3 reviews only seemed to wet their whistles.

Titleist is the first to admit that the 907D1 and 907D2 – two drivers with near identical launch conditions but different looks and different MOI characteristics – were perhaps not the best pair of drivers for fitting a wide range of golfers. They’ve corrected that “one set of launch conditions” error with 909, offering three models: the composite-crowned (a first for Titleist!) 909D Comp, the “tweener” 909D2, and a low-launch, low-spin, 440cc 909D3.

Don’t get me wrong – the 907 was a great driver if you were the type of player that fit its launch conditions. I was able to, and switched to 907D2 after playing an r7 425 and an FT-3, and the 907 worked beautifully for me.

Now that I’ve had a chance to test both the 909D2 and 909D3, I’m ready to share my thoughts. Click through for the rest.

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What’s a GEF, Anyway?

Some fetishes are more time consuming than others.

Thrash TalkWhether it’s expanding, or it is simply a particular culture of obsession which has bubbled to the surface, the community of golf equipment fetishists is a presence across the World Wide Web as well as the non “e” world.

In forums, such as the one on this site or those at our partner golfwrx.com and elsewhere, begging for access to equipment trailers at PGA Tour events nationwide (and presumably at Nationwide Tour events, also) scouring eBay and “buying/selling” threads for premium equipment and rare goods, GEFs are here and they are thoroughly obsessed.

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If I Was King of Golf

There are going to be some changes ’round here.

Trap Five LogoMarch is the cruelest month above the Mason-Dixon Line. It teases us with the breath of Spring from time to time, and then blasts us with more snow and cold winds. It’s a time of year that can drive a golfer to fits of lunacy… like imagining what it would be like to be King of Golf.

I don’t mean imagining what it would be like to “the King,” Arnie (in the day, that had to be a blast), or golf’s current king, Tiger (I suspect that wouldn’t suck, either). No, I mean, what would I change about golf, if I could change anything I wanted to.

Naturally, I want to reverse my handicap. Go from my -9 to a +9, and see what the PGA Tour is really all about. But that’s too easy. Everyone would want to do the same thing. I’m more concerned with the bigger questions of golf. Here are five things that, with tongue more or less in cheek, I’d like to see changed about golf.

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The Worst of the Worst

Of all the brands of intolerable golf enthusiasts, one stands alone.

Thrash TalkSince I have been in the habit of airing my grievances as of late, I’m going to continue that trend for another week, albeit with a much more insidious target than Phil Mickelson. Those of us who play golf regularly and attend tournaments are most certainly familiar with this individual; although, as I learned quite recently, his natural habitat may be the driving range (more specifically, the indoor golfing facility).

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The Tiger Effect

All Tiger All the Time

Trap Five LogoWell, Tiger’s back (though he’ll be taking the weekend off). I, for one, am happy that he’s back. Sure it was interesting to see more press about some of the other guys on Tour, but they just don’t have the same impact that Tiger does, on Tour and beyond.

We’ve experienced a beehive of buzz (or maybe several) in the week since Tiger announced that he would participate in the WGC-Accenture Match Play. That Samuel L. Jackson spot on Golf Channel was out less than 12 hours after the announcement. Nike wasn’t far behind with its new “The Good Life” where five pros live it up until you-know-who walks back into the locker room. The marketing machine runs at full speed when Tiger is involved.

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I Wish I Could Like Phil Mickelson, But I Can’t

Let the supporters of Philip Alfred ready their arms..

Thrash TalkMentioning Lefty in my column last week seems to have a beneficial effect on the golfer’s play. When, last week, I jokingly suggested Mickelson had lost the ability to compete at the highest level, he went out and won the Northern Trust Open, collecting a cool 1.1 million dollars in the process. I only make reference to the preceding as a way of saying “Phil, I hope the following published objection to you makes you richer and more victorious.” Recent history, and the fallacy of false cause, suggest it will.

It isn’t that I dislike Phil personally, it’s just that, representationally or symbolically I find him tough to stomach. It isn’t as though I haven’t tried to like the guy. I have. However, despite my best efforts, I find myself rooting against him, amused by his two way miss off the tee and quite delighted when his umpteenth unnecessary flop shot doesn’t come off as planned.

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Contest! Win a Leupold GX-I or GX-II!

Win a GX-I or GX-II laser range finder from Leupold and The Sand Trap .com!

Leupold GX-IWe’ve teamed with Leupold to give away a Leupold GX-I, a GX-II, and three super-spiffy hats.

To enter, we’ve setup a page at http://thesandtrap.com/contest with a few trivia questions about the Leupold GX-I and GX-II. Entering is simple: fill out the form, answering the questions correctly, and submit it. We’ll randomly choose from the correct answers to give away the prizes.

Every answer can be found at the Leupold golf rangefinder site, our review, or elsewhere on the Web.

Click here to visit our contest page. And hurry – the contest ends on March 11.

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