Does the Twin Cities area need another golf course in an oversaturated market? Does converted farmland make a good golf course? Yes and yes (although about three million yards of dirt had to pushed around first).
With over 580 golf courses to choose from in Minnesota, course owners have to work hard to attract golfers with an attractive layout, good maintenance, and quality service in order to fill their tee times and turn a profit.
Does Riverwood National have what it takes to attract golfers in a Twin Cities golf market that offers many choices for your golfing dollar? Read on to find out.
In the new 755 irons, Titleist has a forged cavity back design that mid-handicappers can call their own.
Over the last two seasons, I have tried on two occasions to work a set of Titliest irons into my bag. The results left me feeling a bit like a modern-day (and male) Goldilocks. One set – the Forged 690.CB – was too hard to use. They were a great set of irons that looked great, but were a bit too demanding for my 10-handicap skills. Another set, the Forged 775.CB was too soft, loaded with game-improvement technology, and too much offset for my swing.
I’ve now had the chance to play several rounds with the new Titleist Forged 755 irons. Were they just right for me? Read on and see.
The Titleist PT 585.H is a holy grail of sorts: the perfect hybrid blend of long iron and fairway wood. Me likey.
Titleist was admittedly a bit late to the hybrid market, and when they first arrived, it was only with the 503.H, which I reviewed in early 2005. The review was rather favorable if the club is viewed as a driving iron, but the 503.H lacks the true versatility found in most modern hybrids. Getting the ball airborne with a 503.H from poor lies, for example, was much more difficult than with most other hybrids.
After giving the 503.H half a season, I moved on to a TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP in mid-2005. My complaints in the Rescue Dual review: the ball got up in the air, but workability and trajectory control was lacking. Early 2006 brought a truer hybrid from Titleist, the PT 585.H. Read on to see whether it kicked the Rescue Dual out of my bag or whether I’m still searching for my 2-iron replacement…
“Deep Freakin’ Bunkers Country Club” may be a better name for this course, but Little Mountain will suffice for now.
I looked high and low, but never really saw any large mountains at Little Mountain Country Club (LMCC), so they must be little. Or perhaps I was simply distracted by the gaping bunkers sprinkled liberally about the course.
LMCC is a five-star layout (as determined by Golf Digest), which places it in some heady company: Bethpage Black, Spyglass Hill, Pinehurst #2, Bandon Dunes, Pebble Beach, Arcadia Bluffs, and Whistling Straits are among the others to receive a perfect rating.
I live less than 90 minutes from Little Mountain, so I’ve stopped by a few times. Is the course worthy of five stars? Read on to find out…
Continue reading “Little Mountain Country Club (Concord, OH) Review”
The Ogio Straight Jacket: a $99 travel bag that protects your sticks while looking stylish to boot.
The tales of a golfer on the go’s woes often begin with “airline baggage handlers” and ends with “broken clubs.” It’s a sad tale, yet one that needlessly plays itself out time and time again across the airports of the world. A golfer arrives, waits anxiously at the baggage claim, pulls his clubs off the track, and opens the zipper to his rain hood with trepidation. Have his favorite clubs survived or met an ugly fate?
The frequent golf traveler has no doubt invested in a golf travel bag. Travel bags fit over your standard bag – be it a cart or a stand bag – and offer additional storage and protection to your collection of sticks. Ogio, makers of some fine stand and carry bags, makes two travel bags: the Monster and the Straight Jacket.
I’ve spent some time recently lugging my clubs through airports in a Straight Jacket, and here’s what I think.
The TaylorMade r7 Draw Driver is supposed to help cure a slice and add distance, but so say many other drivers. Does this one have what it takes to cure this slicer’s problem?
There is no mistaking TaylorMade’s popularity when it comes to drivers. They are a consistent driver count leader on the PGA Tour. There’s a reason for that. The r7 driver is the latest in a long series of drivers released by TaylorMade, makers of the first metal driver. The latest iterations in that series, the r7 425 and 460, were reviewed positively earlier this year.
Fast forward to the present. TaylorMade’s latest r7 driver is the “r7 Draw.” After reading about the r7 Draw driver at TaylorMade’s site, I felt that I understood what the club offered. As a slicer, I was filled with hope.
Reading about something on the Internet is one thing. Playing with it is another. After spending a few weeks with the driver, it didn’t take me long to find my answer. Read on to find out if TaylorMade’s newest release is hit or miss.
Does your putting stroke make your stomach turn? Puku Golf’s adjustable belly putters could help your game.
Long putters – the broomstick-style flatsticks like Bernhard Langer has used for years – have been part of the golf equipment landscape for the last couple decades. Some players swear by them, and some would never touch one. The last few years saw a spike in the use of mid-length putters, also known as “belly” putters for the tendency of golfers to anchor the end of the shaft around their navel. Mid-length putters have the benefits of a long putter, mainly taking the wrists out of the putting stroke, while providing for a more traditional stance and stroke.
An interesting new twist on the belly putter idea comes from New Zealand’s Puku Golf Company. Puku – which is Maori for belly – makes mid-length putters with an innovative design that allows golfers to adjust the length of the putter. We had the chance to try one out, and here’s our gut feeling about it.
With hybrids now mainstream equipment, Nickent leverages its success in this niche to introduce an integrated set of irons and hybrids that totally rethink loft progression. So is their lofty promise justified?
As our editor, Erik J. Barzeski, reported in his review of the Nickent 3DX Pro irons, Nickent has taken on noted club designer John B. Hoeflich and, with his expertise, launched itself into the iron market in a big way.
Their latest offering is an evolutionary – maybe even revolutionary – take on set makeup. The Nickent 3DX Hybrid irons are designed from the hybrids on down. What this means is that there is no longer a gap in loft between the shortest hybrid and the longest iron. Loft progression through the set results in extremely strong mid-irons and weaker short irons.
I’ve always been a “walker,” but the Speed E Cart has redefined how I view lugging a bag around 18 or more holes of golf.
We’ve all seen them. The first time we see them, we usually do a double-take. “Is that cart going along all by itself?” we ask. Yes, yes it is. The cart is driving itself, the owner a few paces behind, strolling along the fairway without a care in the world (nor a bag over his shoulders).
At only 28 years of age, I must admit to having mixed feelings over electronic carts. I longed to have the freedom to walk without carrying a bag, yet I didn’t know if I could tolerate the “old man” jokes I felt certain would accompany the use of an electronic cart.
After spending some time with a Sun Mountain Speed E Cart, I can assure you that I suffered no such jokes – only curiosity – and I found the pleasure of walking a golf course without the weight of a bag on my back all I thought it would be.
