Category: Throwing Darts

Talking to Shane Ryan, Author of “Slaying the Tiger”

We talk to Shane Ryan about his new book covering the 2014 PGA Tour season, examine a few of the Tour’s outsized characters, and ask just how many Geoff Ogilvys is your golf game worth?

Throwing DartsShane Ryan has written about golf for Golf Digest, Grantland, ESPN The Magazine, and Deadspin, and writes about entertainment for Paste.

Ryan hosts a podcast, Friends of Tiger, and spent 2014 driving around the country from Tour event to Tour event. His first book, Slaying the Tiger: A Year Inside the Ropes on The New PGA Tour, is available today. Slaying the Tiger is an in-depth look at the present and future of the PGA Tour, with profiles of rising PGA Tour stars like Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Patrick Reed.

We sat down to chat via email to talk about the book, the PGA Tour, and Matt Every’s wife’s middle name.

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An Interview with The Dan Plan

The Dan Plan is one of the biggest and most active threads on The Sand Trap forum. In this interview, I ask Dan McLaughlin some questions from our forum members right before he heads out to knock off a few more hours from his 10,000.

Throwing DartsDan McLaughlin is the man behind The Dan Plan, a golfer striving to “test” the “10,000 hours to become an expert” theory espoused by a few. His goal? Become a PGA Tour golfer after 10,000 hours of dedicated practice.

I have obsessed over the Dan Plan right from the beginning. Well, maybe obsessed is a strong word, but I have definitely given it a great deal of thought. I was introduced to the idea by a friend who was a member at Dan’s first club Columbia Edgewater Country Club. He told me there was this guy out there practice putting everyday. His goal was to put the 10,000 theory of deliberate practice to the test. As an engineer, I was immediately drawn to the experiment.

Recently, Dan was introduced to the outstanding book Lowest Score Wins by Erik J. Barzeski and David Wedzik and as luck would have it I had an extra copy and was in the Portland area. I offered it to Dan and also the opportunity for an interview with questions coming from the forum members here on The Sand Trap. He happily agreed. Opinions on Dan here on the forum are mostly leaning toward the pessimistic side, primarily because his stated goal of playing on the PGA Tour is lofty. Calling it “lofty” is probably being nice. Perhaps Dan’s goal is closer to fantasy. As such, many of the questions target not only why he chose such a nearly impossible final target as well as why he started with one-foot putts and hit them for so long.

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Talking to Neil Sagebiel, Author of “Draw in the Dunes”

We chat with Neil Sabebiel, blogger at Armchair Golf Blog, and author of The Longest Shot and Draw in the Dunes.

Throwing DartsNeil Sagebiel is a golf blogger at Armchair Golf Blog and author whose first book The Longest Shot detailed Jack Fleck’s stunning comeback and subsequent 18-hole playoff with Ben Hogan at the 1955 U.S. Open, and whose new book, Draw in the Dunes, chronicles the 1969 Ryder Cup.

The ’69 Cup featured two highly combative sides. 17 of the 32 matches were decided on the 18th hole, and the last match of the day, which featured Tony Jacklin and Jack Nicklaus, proved to be the decider. Nicklaus, playing in his first Ryder Cup despite having already won seven major championships, conceded a missable putt to Jacklin on the final hole, an unexpected turn of sportsmanship that became known simply as “The Concession.” Jacklin tied the match, and the United Kingdom drew even with the States, though the defending champion Americans retained the Cup.

I sat down with Sagebiel over email to discuss golf history, a few the sport’s current events, and his own game.

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Talking to Andrew Fischer, Bubba Watson’s Former Fitness Coach and Founder of FishFit

Chatting with the man behind FishFit, a comprehensive golf fitness app from Bubba Watson’s former conditioning coach.

Throwing DartsFirst, thanks to all the TST readers and forum members who submitted questions over on the forum. Also, a big thanks to Andrew Fischer for the answers.

Fischer was Bubba Watson’s conditioning coach, and has a new smartphone app out called “FishFit,” which is available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

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18 Questions with PING Senior Design Engineer Marty Jertson

PING engineer Marty Jertson answers your questions!

Thanks to all the TST members that submitted these questions and thanks to Marty for the great answers. Marty Jertson is a senior design engineer for PING Golf. Jertson is also a PGA professional and has qualified for the 2011 and 2012 PGA Championships. Jertson went undefeated, 4-0 at the 25th PGA Cup in 2011, as the U.S. team defeated Great Britain & Ireland, 17½-8½.

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aboutGolf and the 3Trak Launch Monitor

aboutGolf is branching out from simulators to launch monitors. We spent a day at aboutGolf HQ and talked with Chuck Winger. See how he feels aboutGolf will compete in both markets.

Throwing DartsAnyone who watches PGA Tour golf on TV enough has seen a launch monitor in action, often describing the launch statistics of a player on a long par five or a tricky par three. Almost anyone who has been fitted with a driver or a new set of irons in the past few years has used a launch monitor to check their statistics before plunking down several hundred dollars.

The biggest name in the launch monitor market these days is TrackMan, with others like Flightscope and Zelocity coming in further back. A relative newcomer to the market is aboutGolf, long known for their simulators, who have developed a camera-based launch monitor they’ve dubbed the 3Trak, ideal for use indoors or out.

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Interview With Charlotte Campbell of Highway 18

Charlotte Campbell of Highway 18 fame dishes on time penalties, college golf, and just what the heck is a Blingo.

Throwing DartsToday’s interview is with Charlotte Campbell, who with her brother Rob, were the winning team on The Golf Channel’s inaugural Highway 18 reality show.

Charlotte graciously gave us a few minutes to share some insight on the experience of being on Highway 18, her collegiate playing career, and explaining just what a Blingo is. We hope you enjoy the interview.

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The Club Caddy: An Interview and a Short Review

It’s been an up-and-down year for David Jones since winning Fore Inventors Only, but we think it’s ended on a definite “up.”

Bag DropDavid Jones’ Club Caddy won the first edition of Fore Inventors Only. Unfortunately, it’s taken David until this month – nearly a full year later – to put in place his business and manufacturing partners and to begin selling the Club Caddy en masse to resellers and consumers.

Other folks from the show, like Gary Sherrell and Dean Thompson, have been interviewed by this site, and this time around we’re going to talk with David about the troubles he’s encountered. Following the interview, we’ll share our thoughts on the Club Caddy.

Read on to see how the winner – and his product – have fared in the year since Fore Inventors Only concluded.

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Gary Sherrell – Inventor of the ClubGlider

ClubGlider inventor and Fore Inventors Only finalist Gary Sherrell gives us the scoop on how he came up with his idea on a napkin and dishes some dirt on being on a reality show.

Throwing Darts Today’s interview is with Gary Sherrell, inventor of the ClubGlider travel bag which was one of the finalists on the Golf Channel’s Fore Inventors Only show.

Gary was nice enough to give us a few minutes of his time to share a bit of history behind the development of the ClubGlider, his relationship with Sun Mountain as well as to provide some insight on some of the other products featured on the show. We hope you enjoy the interview.

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