Bridgestone, Callaway, and Pinnacle Roll Out New Balls

New ball lineups from some of the industry’s top manufacturers aim to please a wide variety of players, with new offerings that deliver benefits to the areas of your game where you need them the most.

Bag DropAre you choosing the right ball for your game? Would you know if you weren’t? Are you playing a certain ball simply to keep up with what your buddy plays? These are all questions you should think about for a minute, especially if you’re serious about taking as many strokes off your score as possible.

If you are serious about dropping your score, maybe it’s time you seriously considered finding the ball that works the best for you. A few years back, a concept such as ball fitting was simply unheard of, though now, some say a ball fitting has become just as important to some as club fittings. If you think about it, it is the one single piece of equipment that’s in play for every shot. Fortunately, the golf ball market may the one area with the most choices, and the smallest impact on your wallet.

This week, we take a look new additions to that market from Bridgestone,
Callaway , and Pinnacle.

Continue reading “Bridgestone, Callaway, and Pinnacle Roll Out New Balls”

Boxgroove.com Review

Private club golf without the private club price.

Boxgroove.comWant to play that private course down the road but don’t know a member? Now there’s a way to test drive private courses across the country without risking the trespassing charge.

A new online service called Boxgroove.com provides access to tee times at private clubs. Boxgroove currently has 70 participating courses and over 650 members, some of whom hold memberships at private clubs and may be willing to host other Boxgroove.com members (more on that later). The company plans to be in 30 states by summer 2010 and eventually to take the service international.

If you’re like me, you love those occasions when you get to play a course in excellent condition with great greens. The problem is that I don’t belong to a private club, so I play public courses where the maintenance is generally not quite as well applied. While it’s less expensive (unless you are really racking up the rounds) to play public courses, being able to play the occasional round on a truly well kept course is a nice change of pace, one I’ve found to be more and more alluring lately.

Enter Boxgroove.com. I’d been hearing about the service on the radio here in Columbus, my home and Boxgroove’s, as it turns out. When Boxgroove.com offered a membership to let me try out the service and write about my experience, I jumped at the opportunity.

Continue reading “Boxgroove.com Review”

Volume Two Hundred Sixteen

Tiger is the brunt of some jokes, Monty needs a ride, and Q-school is down to the wire.

Hittin' the LinksHello and welcome again to Hittin’ the Links. It’s almost time for a long winter nap, but HTL has one last hurrah before vacation time.

In this final column of 2009 we start off with some Tiger news, then turn our attention to Colin Montgomerie’s driving record, and find out about Doug Barron’s appeal. Also on tap, we look at the LPGA Q-School, see how the PGA Tour Q-School is going, and do a wrap-up of the week’s silly season events. Read on!

Continue reading “Volume Two Hundred Sixteen”

PING G15 Iron Review

If the G10 provides maximum forgiveness then what do you call an iron that provides even more forgiveness? PING calls it the G15.

G15 Iron HeroWhen you are setting up to a “classic” iron, what kinds of thoughts run through your mind? For me, I imagine the silky smooth feel of the sweet spot. I visualize the ball curving through the air at will. I can almost see the ball falling to the green with just enough spin to bounce twice and then stop. However, put a blade in another player’s hands and the reaction could be entirely different. They might look down desperately searching for that microscopic sweet spot, trembling at the thought of the painful reverberations of a mis-hit.

Karsten Solheim may not have been one of those golfers who feared the sweet spot but he certainly empathized with them. In fact, PING’s innovations were so significant that in 1966 the USGA outlawed all PING irons claiming that they provided golfers with an unfair advantage (due to a bend in the shaft beneath the grip). Nearly 40 years later, the USGA may want to reopen that claim.

Continue reading “PING G15 Iron Review”

Mizuno MP T-10 Wedges Review

Some of the best wedges get even better with the addition of Quad-Cut grooves.

Mizuno MP-T 10 WedgesLate 2009 seems like an odd time to release your most aggressively grooved wedges to date, but that’s just what Mizuno is doing with the MP T-10 wedges. The wedges are similar to the company’s MP-T wedges (reviewed here) but up the ante a bit when it comes to grooves. Mizuno says their new “Quad Cut” technology provides strict control of the width, depth, draft angle, and shoulder radius of every groove.

End result? The biggest grooves and the most spin allowed under the rules.

And really, the end of 2009 is the perfect time to release aggressive wedges. Mizuno has all of 2010 to assemble and sell the clubs, and amateurs like you and I have anywhere from four to fourteen years to play the clubs.

Though I don’t advocate “stocking up” on wedges to “beat” the groove rule changes coming down the pipe, I do advocate stocking up on the latest wedges from Mizuno simply because they’re so good!

I’ve spent a few weeks with the MP T-10s. Read on to see what I think of the latest scoring clubs from Mizuno (if you couldn’t figure it out already).

Continue reading “Mizuno MP T-10 Wedges Review”

Callaway Releases New JAWS Wedges and Odyssey White Ice Putters

The new JAWS wedges give your short game some needed bite, while the new Odyssey White Ice putters might just heat up your game on the greens.

Bag DropThis week, we come to you with more clubs designed to help out your game from 80 yards and in, this time from Callaway Golf (who, in case you didn’t know, is the parent company of Odyssey as well).

The new Callaway JAWS wedges promise to give you the ultimate in spin and control in order to get on the green, while the new Odyssey White Ice putters are there to assist in rolling it true to the hole.

Continue reading “Callaway Releases New JAWS Wedges and Odyssey White Ice Putters”

Volume Two Hundred Fifteen

Silly Season is here, Lee Westwood pads his bank account, and we all need to stop littering!

Hittin' the LinksGobble Gobble Sand Trappers and welcome to the Thanksgiving Edition of Hittin’ the Links. It’s turkey time around the U.S., and you know what that means, right? Black Friday for the ladies and a quick 18 for the guys. Make sure to get that tee time ASAP!

In this edition of HTL we begin by looking at what Rory McIlroy said, then investigate who is in the final stage of the PGA Tour Q-School, and check out some opinions on Silly Season. Also, we explore the golf ball litter problem, watch the best Seinfeld golf moments, and do a wrap-up of the week’s events. Read on!

Continue reading “Volume Two Hundred Fifteen”

“Golf, Naked” Book Review

Greg Rowley writes a book giving you insight on all the “little things” that can make golf a maddening mystery. Think of it as an insider’s guide to golf, with a endless supply of adjectives for chunks and shanks.

Golf, NakedThe holidays are just around the corner and if you’re like me, you might be starting to put together a list to give your love ones on the golf-related items you want to receive (otherwise know as “Dropping a Big Hint”). While not everyone can afford to get you the latest driver, putter, or shoes there are many items that are quite a bit more economical and might in the long run make you a better golfer than the latest and greatest in club technology.

A book review probably isn’t the first thing you think of when you consider the reviews we’ve done here at The Sand Trap. While the vast majority of reviews are equipment in one form or another, occasionally a book comes along that piques our interest. One such book is Golf, Naked by Greg Rowley, which was released by Pick It Up Publishing.

Continue reading ““Golf, Naked” Book Review”

PING i15 Irons Review

Freakish forgiveness at the cost of a little feel? To mix my sports metaphors, that sounds right up the alleys of a lot of golfers.

PING i15 HeroI admit that I held out on the hybrid craze longer than made sense. I carried a two-iron in place of a 5-wood or hybrid and would use it from the tee, the fairway, and the rough when the lie was good enough to goad me into going for it.

What’s that have to do with a set of irons? My two-iron was a PING Eye2, and until I tried the i15s, that single club represented the vast majority of my experience with PING irons. Sure, I’d seen how popular the Eye2s were with players in the 90s, but I never liked the look of the excessive high toe weighting, the bulge in the heel, the thicker topline, and the general look and feel. Even that two-iron had a bit too much offset for my taste – I had to watch that I didn’t hook the thing off the planet.

Having played with the i15s for several rounds now, though, it’s obvious to me that while PING has stayed true to their roots (the i15 is immediately recognizable as a PING iron), they’ve made substantive improvements through the years and deserve consideration from a wide variety of players.

Continue reading “PING i15 Irons Review”