A fair test of golf that plays far shorter than the 7025 yards listed, the Upper Course at the Peak is a sight to behold.
Peek’n Peak has long been known to northwestern PA and New York as a great place to ski. With over 25 trails, “the Peak” entertains skiiers and snowboarders in those wintry months when golf can’t be played.
When golf can be played, the Peak offers two courses – the Lower and the Upper. The Upper course, some may remember, plays host to a Nationwide Tour event – the Lake Erie Charity Classic, won this past July 3 by Esteban Toledo.
Adidas has released some nice performance enhancing apparel and footwear that blends comfort and style. See what we think about one of their polos and a pair of shoes.
Golfers used to be made fun of for their clothing – and with reason! Suffice to say Duffy Waldorf and Woody Austin would have fit in quite nicely 15 to 25 years ago.
The modern golfer is a bit more stylish, however, and a recent push within the clothing industry has focused the energies of golf apparel designers on a new target: performance. What began with Under Armour and Nike Dri-Fit has come to nearly every golf clothing line from Callaway to Izod to Adidas. Performance clothing wicks away sweat while you’re working out (and more). As a geek and a clothes horse (is that possible?), I’ve always been fascinated with this stuff and have found myself buying multiple pairs of moisture-wicking underpants. The only problem with most of this stuff is when you wore it you felt like screaming “I must protect this house” à la Under Armour every time you enter a room.
The Bag Boy EZ Fold 12 Push Cart is both lightweight and as simple to fold as its name implies. But how did it stack up on the golf course?
As Tiger Woods separates himself from the field at the British Open, I pay tribute to something they call a “trolley” across the pond. Though we call them “pull carts” or “push carts” here in the States, trolleys are a staple in the home of golf – a way to relieve players of the burden of carrying clubs without the necessity of a caddie.
Out With the Old
I’ve been lugging around my old two-wheel pull cart on the golf course for several years. It’s old but reliable. Every round, it seems to get heavier and harder to drag. Casting my old cart aside, I felt it was time to enter the 21st century and try the latest in trolleys. My old cart was a pull cart. My new one? I push it like a baby stroller.
What better product to try than a push cart created by an innovative company like Bag Boy? With excitement, I opened the box to my new EZ Fold 12 Push Cart. I’m not particularly handy and leave all areas of assembly to my husband, but I heard that the EZ Fold was simple to put together. I told Barry to leave it to me.
Continue reading “Bag Boy EZ Fold 12 Three Wheel Push Cart Review”
Bob Vokey is a renowned wedge maker, and in 2005 he introduced a spin-milled variation that adds spin but retains the shape and playability of the classic wedge line.
Next to putters, wedges may be the single most personal clubs in a golfer’s bag. Wedges come in a variety of shapes. They have different lofts, different finishes, different grooves, different bounces, different soles, and different weights.
For the better player, wedges are the truest scoring clubs. Every shot from 125 yards and in is hit with a wedge, including full shots, chip shots, sand shots, flops, pitches, and more. Tom Kite was one of the first players to put a third wedge in his bag, and today quite a few Tour players have as many as four wedges. Players may switch drivers or irons every few weeks – or even week to week – but wedges sometimes last for years in a player’s bag.
The wedge game is dominated by a few players: TaylorMade with their RAC wedges (specifically their Y-Cutter RAC wedges on tour), Cleveland with their CG10 and 588 wedges, and Titleist with their Bob Vokey designs. Relative newcomers (and “regular” clubmakers) like Callaway, Ping, and Mizuno are making inroads as well, typically with golfers who play the same manufacturer’s irons.
The RAC LT irons: the perfect blend of feel and forgiveness? From TaylorMade? Our reviewer thinks so.
TaylorMade’s recent “every iron is a long iron” advertising campaign has done well for the Carlsbad fraternity. Marching to the same beat as their “own the teebox” campaign, the “long iron” campaign has drawn a good amount of attention to TaylorMade’s irons. Look inside the bags of players at your local course and you’re unlikely to find too many playing TaylorMade irons – you’ll see plenty of Titleist, Ping, and Callaway. You may even see more MacGregor (if you count the hand-me-downs), Wilson, and Nike. Despite the fact that TaylorMade ranks highly in sales numbers, their irons just don’t seem to hang around in the bags of better players very long.
Then again, TaylorMade hasn’t had a compelling line of irons for quite awhile, and a good bit of their iron sales were trickle-down from outstanding driver sales… Until now. One step down from TaylorMade’s forged RAC TP line, the RAC LT promises to merge the playability of a cavity back with the workability and sexy looks of a forged blade for the above-average player.
To help write this review I asked Ed Koster, a 12-handicap golfer, to give the irons a thorough workout. His thoughts follow.
The Callaway Big Bertha 454 may not be Callaway’s top of the line driver now that the FT-3 is out, but it’s a solid everyman’s driver that’ll keep you in the fairway.
I’m a Titleist guy. I admit it. I’ve gone to counseling and it’s not helped. I’ve undergone shock treatments, withstood bribes, and watched Tiger Woods win major after major with “inferior equipment” following his move away from Titleist to Nike. I even saw Phil Mickelson shoot 59 after switching from Titleist. Still, I’m a Titleist guy.
But at the core, I’m a golfer, and one who plays fairly well. The line that separates “good enough” equipment from “perfect” equipment is a blurry one. I’m always looking for a bit of an advantage, and the Callaway Big Bertha 454 has gotten some rave reviews. Though Phil and Annika are playing the next Callaway driver (the recently introduced FT-3), the 454 promises to be an everyman’s driver – good technology that doesn’t require the ability to shoot 59 to handle it.
The Bushnell PinSeeker 1500 is a $449 range finder that measures yardage and slope. How much would you pay to have an exact yardage to every pin?
Tiger Woods has long said that the secret to good golf is always being pin high. When you’re pin high, you don’t have to worry about water hazards, bunkers, or steep slopes beyond the green. You may miss right or left, but if you don’t short side yourself, you’ll likely be putting most of the time.
Though devices such as the Bushnell PinSeeker 1500 (and the SkyCaddie) are illegal for competitive play, they’re acceptable and legal for informal and handicap play. In fact, if you attend a professional tournament during a practice round, you’ll see plenty of caddies using the PinSeeker to double-check yardages.
The Aserta Monster putter by Parente is dead-on from short range, but is it good enough from long-range to get the job done?
I have putted with a mallet-style putter my entire (golfing) life. I started out with a Teardrop putter before finally getting an Odyssey White Hot last year. I feel more comfortable with a larger putter (no comments, please!). So when I saw the new Aserta Monster putter, I definitely wanted to give it a shot to see if I could become more consistent on the greens. I quickly realized that “consistency” and the Monster putter go hand-in-hand. I was able to one-putt nearly everything inside of ten feet and even had success on my longer putts as well.
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Erik J. Barzeski, Editor in Chief of The Sand Trap, has written reviews for print magazines such as MacAddict and served as technical editor for O’Reilly for several years. He published a successful computer e-zine for four years, one of the strengths of which were solid, thorough reviews.
