Category: Review

Blast Golf Review

Has advancements in motion sensor technology made 3D swing analysis possible for the average golfer?

Blast Golf Box FrontGolf is hard (a registered trademark of this site’s owner…). Even the pros do not go about improving without some help from modern technology. For some, it may be with high-end launch monitors like TrackMan or FlightScope. For most of us, the price tag of one of those units puts them out of reach. Fortunately, it seems nowadays that more electronic products are coming out for the everyday golfer that are designed to be both helpful and affordable.

One of those products in the market is the Blast Golf, created by Blast Motion. The company is a leader in motion capture and analysis technology. They create products for a variety of sports and continue to develop new ways to use motion sensor technology to help athletes improve. For golfers, their sensor is designed to detect the movements of the golf swing and analyze it, giving an indication of how well they perform in various functions of the swing and where they can improve, all while taking high-speed video.

Having a good swing trainer at home would be a boon to any golfer who works to improve their game, but is it the real deal? Let’s find out.

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TaylorMade M2 Fairway Wood Review

Building on the success of the M1, Taylormade introduces the M2 line of woods and hybrids.

taylormade_m2_fairwayBuilding on the success of the M1, TaylorMade introduces the M2 line of woods and hybrids that feature all the benefits of the M1, apart from adjustability. Keeping with the same looks and lower price point, the M2 line targets the player looking for distance and forgiveness with a more competitive price tag.

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TaylorMade M2 Irons Review

How high and how far do you want to hit your irons?

TaylorMade M2 IronThe TaylorMade M2 irons promise to do two things that should benefit a whole lot of golfers out there: hit golf balls a long way and with a high trajectory.

Actually, those two are closely related for most players. Since the majority of us don’t swing at anywhere near the speed of a pro, getting the ball up in the air so it can travel as far as possible is our best bet to knock it past our buddies. So those two M2 promises are a crucial combination that a lot of players will be looking for.

So how well do they deliver? Read on.

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Harry Taylor Design Wedges Review

Harry Taylor is probably a name you are not familiar with, but he has been in the golf industry designing clubs for years. Now he has decided to enter the market with a line of precision milled wedges.

XR16In many ways, picking a wedge can be extremely similar to picking a putter. While the designs don’t vary quite as much (there are no mallet wedges), still there is a great deal of personalization and customization that is available to golfers today.

When I look into golfers’ bags at their wedges, I very often see one of two scenarios. One is what I would describe as a pot luck of wedges. One wedge won at a tournament, one they bought when they lost one on vacation, really, no rhyme or reason to the selection. The second scenario is an off-the-rack set of two to three wedges made by a brand name club manufacture which may or may not (usually not) have been fit for them.

The reality is wedge fitting is important. Because of the customization, mainly the bounce and flange design differences, one wedge might be better for you based on your swing over the one you’d otherwise be tempted to pick off the rack. A great deal of craftsmanship goes into a wedge. Golfers should pay more attention.

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SKLZ Golf Strong Video Program Review

SKLZ introduces Golf Strong, a new video training program specific to golfers to improve distance, accuracy and flexibility.

sklz_golfstrong_coverA little while ago, SKLZ introduced the Golf Strong Video Training program, a six-week training program designed to improved distance, accuracy, and flexibility that is portable and easy to use. The two-phase Golf Strong program provides video instruction for three training sessions per week that are 30 to 45 minutes long. Let’s take a look at the program.

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Callaway Apex Pro 16 Irons Review

Callaway has an exceptional players iron in the Apex Pro 16. Getting feedback from touring pros they have developed one of the better performing and looking irons in the market

Apex Pro 16 IronsNowadays, it seems hard to define what a “blade” is in golf. Growing up and working most of my youth around golfers, I always considered it those muscle-backed butter knives the really good players had in their bags. Playability was very minimal and you had to strike the ball perfectly in the center to get a result close to what you wanted. Since then we have progressed into a world where some of the best players in the world are playing irons that look quite different.

With that in mind, Callaway has introduced their latest player’s irons, the Apex Pro 16. These are not “blades” but irons that some of the best players in the world (see: Phil Mickelson) have had in their bags at some point in time over the past year. Callaway has attempted to please these players with molding the looks of the X-Forged ’13 irons with the newest technology and materials the world has to offer.

Did Callaway succeed? Read on to find out.

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Callaway Apex Hybrid Review

Can a hybrid be workable and forgiving? The Callaway Apex aims its sights high.

Callaway Apex HybridCallaway trumpets the Apex Hybrid as the first hybrid for the Apex and Apex Pro player, meaning folks that use the company’s top line of irons (XR Pro players probably would count, too). However, that line ranges from “game improvement” with the Apex CF 16 to the “you-better-be-darn-good” Apex Muscleback, that’s a fairly wide range, and a tall order to fit that span of abilities with a single club.

Such a club would need to be reasonably easy to hit straight, and yet still be workable. It should get the ball airborne easily and let the player to control the trajectory when needed.

Does the Callaway Apex Hybrid deliver? Let’s find out.

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Callaway XR16 Driver Review

For Callaway’s update to the XR line of drivers they have collaborated with one of the world’s foremost aeronautical companies in Boeing to help you hit the ball farther. Do they succeed, read on to find out.

XR16In the last few years golf equipment manufacturers have had to up their game in order to convince us golfers that we should upgrade from our current model. Each manufacturer is taking a slightly different route, but certainly a big focus nowadays is aerodynamics. The name of the game is reduce airflow in order to help you eek out as much distance as you can.

The engineers at Callaway went to the foremost expert on aerodynamics and partnered with them to make the XR16. They went to Boeing. In the airline industry the focus for the past few years has been remarkably similar to what has gone on in golf club design. They want to make planes lighter and they use materials like Carbon Fiber in order to accomplish this. They always want to reduce drag as much as possible to save on fuel costs as well.

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PING G Driver Review

Following the extremely popular G30 driver PING looked to design even more aerodynamics into their latest release, the PING G driver, I took it for a test drive to see how it performs.

PING GIt is often said that nature often inspires the best designs. It is evolution that often provides the simplest and most beautiful solution to many problems. So when PING engineers sat down to improve upon one of the best drivers on the market, the G30, they looked to nature. The engineers who worked on PING G driver looked to nature to inspire and improve their design; in fact, they looked to the wings of a dragonfly.

One of the key features of the extremely popular G30 was the turbulators that were added to the top of the clubhead. The features the PING engineers gleamed from the dragonfly were geared to further improve the airflow of the clubhead. More speed to help you hit it farther. The idea being that larger clubheads particularly ones that are 460cc do not need to trade off aerodynamics. So PING set out to make a driver that has the aerodynamic features of a 3 wood, but the forgiveness and power given from a driver.

For this review I was give a 9° PING G driver with an stiff Alta shaft. Let’s dive in to see if this merger of nature and technology helped me hit it any farther.

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