Colbert Putter Plating

Don’t relegate that old putter to the closet, have it refinished and put a
‘new’ gamer in your bag.

Colbert Putter Plating LogoI love putters. All shapes, sizes, lengths, and colors. Mostly I love putters that are different or unique.

My Scotty Cameron Newport putter is not a very unique putter since the Anser-style is the most copied putter design ever. My putter is – or I should say was – a very ugly one in need of a drastic restoration. I had to change it.

I could have sent my putter off to Scotty’s Custom Shop, but they only don’t offer very many finishes Enter Colbert Putter Plating, owned and operated by Kevin Colbert out of Blaine, Minnesota. Colbert Putter Plating came highly recommended from some acquaintances and other putter aficionados who, like me, were looking to give their putters a little TLC. Great thing about Colbert Putter Plating is that he can refurbish nearly every make and model out there, so it’s a great one-stop-shop for putters.

After visiting the Colbert Putter Plating website, my imagination quickly began to race with ideas of how to transform my ugly duckling into a sexy swan.

Golf Mind Software Review

You are about to enter another dimension, not only of sight and sound but of mind – the golfing mind. Is it worth the trip?

Golf Mind CDWhen I heard about the Subconscious Training Corporation and their mental training series for golfers, I knew I had to try it. As a physician and skeptic of the millions of herbal remedies, supplements, and outright snake oil that gets pushed on a gullible public, I was determined to assure that no such quackery made its way into the homes or dented the bank accounts of golf enthusiasts.

So, after a thorough review, what is the verdict? To my surprise, I’m here to say that one out of one physician agrees that, while unlikely to turn an uncoordinated chopper into Gene Littler, Golf Mind Software can definitely help your game. That is, if you let it.

GEL Ruby Putter Review

Grooves on a putter face are intended to help get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. Here with another take on grooves is a new company called GEL.

Gel Ruby Putter AngleGrooved putter faces have emerged in the last few years to open up yet another option when choosing a putter.

Yes! Golf was perhaps the first to use grooves on a putter face and were quickly followed by the likes of Guerin Rife and the TaylorMade Rossa line. Proponents say the grooves get the ball rolling much more quickly off the putter face thus reducing skidding and hopping that can cause the ball to wobble off line.

GEL (Groove Equipment Ltd.) entered the U.S. market at the 2007 PGA Merchandise Show with a line of six putters all featuring a grooved aluminum insert and named for precious stones. For our review, we chose the Ruby model. It’s an Anser-like head with a plumber’s neck. Here’s what we think after using it awhile…

Kaenon Sunglasses Review

You’ve only got one set of eyes, so we suggest you take care of them. Do these sunglasses from Kaenon fit the bill?

Kaenon SunglassesAs a contact wearer and avid golfer, I’ve been in need of a good pair of sunglasses for a while now. It isn’t much fun squinting and fighting dry eyes during a round of golf in the sun.

Kaenon Polarized is a company that manufactures sunglasses for a variety of sports, ranging from kite boarding to climbing to golf. Competing against giants like Oakley and smaller but somewhat entrenched companies like Tifosi, Kaenon has their work cut out for them. Can their products compare or even surpass the others? Read on to find out.

Titleist 906F4 Fairway Wood Review

Titleist is renowned for their fairway metals, and the 906F2 and 906F4 continue the tradition of solid fairway metals for better golfers.

titleist_906f_fairway_woods_hero.jpgThe fairway metal may be the most under-rated and least publicized club in the bag. It doesn’t command the $400 price tag of some drivers, nor does it supply as much drama as “letting the big dog eat.” It’s not the newest rage in golf – that honor belongs to hybrids. It can’t make a ball spin like crazy or hit a glamorous flop shot like the modern wedge. It doesn’t make 50-foot putts (or miss three-footers) and it isn’t used on virtually every hole like irons.

Still, as a player’s handicap drops, he typically relies on his fairway woods more and more. Whether it’s playing safe on shorter, tighter par fours or hitting to long par threes or trying to reach long par fives, many better players will use their fairway metals more times during a round of golf than their driver.

Titleist has long held its own in fairway metals. Tiger Woods held onto his Titleist PT 3-wood for years after signing with Nike for a reason: he couldn’t find anything better. Last year, Titleist replaced the 904F with the 906F2 and, this year, supplements the lineup with the 906F4. I’ve had a chance to play both, and I believe Titleist has another winner on its hands.

Longaberger Golf Club (Nashport, OH) Review

Longaberger is one of the most expensive courses we’ve reviewed so far, but it’s worth it.

Longaberger LogoRegardless of your location in the country or perhaps even around the globe, you may have heard the name Longaberger. The Longaberger company has been turning out world-famous baskets for 70+ years. Their office is even shaped like a basket.

(Note: as of 2016, Longaberger was sold and is now known as The Virtues Golf Club. Much of the article remains the same, but some URLs were updated.)

In 1998, Longaberger commissioned a golf course from architect Arthur Hills. The Longaberger traverses up and down unusually hilly terrain and offers breathtaking vistas, huge elevation changes, and a challenge to golfers of all skill levels… though higher handicappers may want to stay away. From a few locations on the course, you can even see the building shaped like a giant basket!

Longaberger Golf Club is not about the baskets. The owners didn’t copy Merion’s wicker basket flags nor are the tee markers little baskets… though they should have been. The golf course may have been funded by money earned from making expensive woven baskets, but the golf course is all about golf.

Titleist NXT Tour/Extreme Balls Review

If you think Ian MacCallister was miffed with the old Titleist NXT line, he’s really going to be stark raving mad with the new ones.

Titleist NXTUnless you’ve been hiding under a rock the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen quite a bit of Ian MacCallister expound on the evil virtues of Titleist’s new NXT Tour and NXT Extreme golf balls. While the ads are quite humorous, Titleist seemed to be quite serious in giving the NXT line a facelift, which is pretty impressive since the older versions both were rated Gold on Golf Digest’s 2007 Hot List.

I’ve been using the first generation of the NXT Tour for the past several years. The original NXT Tour was a good all-around ball, and I didn’t have to worry quite so much about losing them as I would a $5 ball. They were, in short, a great blend of value and performance. They were also quite durable… and durability matters when you scrape your ball around the trees and off the cart paths. My only real complaint with the original NXT Tour was how soft it felt off the putter.

Avalon Lakes (Warren, OH) Review

Avalon Lakes is typical Pete Dye, but set in the middle of Ohio. Renovated in 2001, the course shows plenty of Dye characteristics.

Avalon LakesAvalon Lakes Golf and Country Club is located in Warren, OH about 40 minutes southeast of Cleveland and 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh, PA. Avalon Lakes was created by Pete Dye in the late 1960s and is one of the esteemed architect’s earliest creations.

In the late 1990s, Dye came back to rework his diabolical magic. Avalon Lakes underwent massive renovations that cost somewhere between four and six million dollars. The change took the original course from a great Fowler’s Mill style Dye course into a modern-era Dye course: target golf along the lines of the famed TPC at Sawgrass.

Avalon Lakes is ranked 67th on Golf Digest’s list of Top 100 public courses. Avalon Lakes previously hosted the Giant Eagle LPGA event for four years. The final year – 2000 – was the only time the LPGA players competed on the redesigned course.

Cleveland CG12 Zip Wedges Review

Cleveland’s CG12 with new “Zip Grooves” promise to put a new spin on your short shots. Do they?

Cleveland Zip Wedges HeroRoger Cleveland founded Cleveland Golf in the 1970s on the strength of his wedge designs. They’ve long been renowned as some of the best in the game, but Cleveland has been slipping in this category since Roger’s departure in the mid-1990s. Bob Vokey at Titleist, Roger’s new employer Callaway, and even TaylorMade have made great inroads in the wedge game and the top spot now belongs to Titleist’s Vokey line of wedges.

That has not stopped Cleveland, of course, and they’re looking to get back on top with their new CG12 wedges with “Zip Grooves™” – deeper U-grooves than found on previous models (like the CG11s we reviewed) that aim to add juice to your wedge shots much like TaylorMade’s “Y” grooves, Callaway’s “Mack Daddy” grooves, and Titleist’s Spin Milled grooves.

As a long-time Vokey fan, I put these wedges to the test: I took my Vokeys out of the bag and played with these for a month straight. Did they pass the test? Read on to find out…