Nike Golf Reveals Details on New Method Putter

The secret Method to relieving the madness in your putting has finally arrived.

Bag Drop If you’ve visited our equipment forum at any point in the past, you’ve most likely seen a thread in which someone asks for putter recommendations. Shortly thereafter, you’re sure to see someone mention how a putter is a “personal choice” or “personal experience.” How much more “personal” would that putter be if you won the Open Championship or the U.S. Open with it?

Following that line of thinking, it might be safe to say that the recently announced Nike Method is so personal to Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover, their significant others might be a little jealous at this point. Nike Golf‘s putters have been somewhat of an enigma in the past few years. While it’s true that the IC and Unitized series may have had a few wild looking variations, they were generally met with good reviews, yet somehow, they never really had same degree of retail success that Nike’s woods, irons, and balls did. Nike again enters the high-end putter market with the new Method line, and this time, the performance is already validated by a couple of high-profile major championship wins. Follow as we take a quick look at the new Method putter from Nike Golf!

Volume Two Hundred Five

Daly is done for the rest of the year, The U.S. retains the Walker Cup, and Tiger wins again

Hittin' the LinksBuenos dias Sand Trappers and welcome again to Hittin’ the Links. Well the PGA Tour season is starting to wind down, there is a slight chill beginning to show up in the morning air, and soon Tiger Woods will go in hibernation. Yes, fall is here. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you. Around here this is the best time of year to play golf.

In this issue of HTL, we first look at J.D. and his plans for the rest of the year, then turn our attention to the guy who thinks Sergio will never win a major, and check out who made two holes-in-one in the same round. Also in this edition we look at Lorena taking heat, investigate what is happening with PGA Tour purses, and do a wrap-up of this week’s tournaments. Read on.

Biggest Surprises of 2009

See if you agree with my picks for the five biggest surprises of 2009.

Trap Five LogoThis season the PGA Tour has given us some memorable – or at least notable – winners. It has also given us some surprising performances, results, and standings.

We all have our favorites and not-so-favorites. But, when the ones we expect to be consistent are not, we question their abilities. All players have their good and bad days. What we can expect is there will be surprise winners, and there will be those players who do not do as well as we might anticipated.

Goodbye, Eye Candy

Recently, an agency which provides female models to caddy for interested golfers was banned from a number of courses in England. Good move?

Thrash TalkI woefully regret that it has taken me more a week to learn of the grim news. Eye Candy Caddies, a reputable British business entity which provides (theoretically) capable and attractive young women to serve as loopers is currently in the process of being blacklisted; it’s services having been banned from a number of courses in England managed by the villainous entity known as Leaderboard Golf.

Golf Talk [Episode 125]

Steve Stricker is Mr. September. Could he win Comeback Player of the Year again? 🙂

Golf Talk PodcastSteve Stricker wins in Boston and takes over #1 in FedExCup race and #2 in the world. Plus, Suzann Pettersen keeps doing her, uhhh, “stuff,” an LPGA tournament is back, Annika has a girl, and a whole lot more in this episode of Golf Talk.

You can subscribe to the RSS feed for our podcasts here or download Episode 125 as an MP4 file. For those who want to subscribe to us in iTunes, click here.

For this week’s Show Notes – links to articles we discuss in the show and additional information – just read on.

TaylorMade Prepares Penta TP Ball

After three years of development, TaylorMade Golf announces the new Penta TP, the first five-piece golf ball to reach the market.

Bag DropNormally, when choosing a ball, one takes into account that there is a subtle tradeoff between maximum distance and maximum spin around the greens. Golf ball technology has progressed so that there is less of a tradeoff, and TaylorMade claims to have eliminated it with a new ball they’ll introduce soon: the Penta TP.

Titleist has been dominant in the ball market, despite challenges, for decades. Though TaylorMade’s TP Red and TP Black were reviewed well, they did little to take away from Titleist’s market share and have been heavily discounted at retailers for most of 2009.

The Penta TP is TaylorMade’s next offensive attack.

Volume Two Hundred Four

Annika has her baby, Ernie’s still lookin’ to be #1, and it takes Tiger 13 holes to make a birdie!

Hittin' the LinksHello golf fans, and welcome again to Hittin’ the Links. Well the PGA Tour has a Monday finish this week and there is a lot of golf news out there. I mean really and truly its news all by itself when on Sunday it takes Tiger 13 holes to make a birdie.

In this edition of HTL we first say congratulations to Annika on the birth of her child, then find out what made Paul Casey miss the Deutsche Bank Championship, and see who will be the starters at the 2010 Masters. Also, we investigate who has a plan to be #1 in the world, see what LPGA tournament decided to stick around another year, and do a wrap-up of the week’s tournaments. Read on!

“How to Buy the Right Golf Equipment” Book Excerpt

An excerpt from Scott Kramer’s e-book on choosing the proper golf equipment.

Veteran golf equipment writer Scott Kramer has published a new e-book, How to Buy the Right Golf Equipment. The easy-reading book helps simplify the process of buying clubs, shafts, balls, bags and shoes – as well as buying equipment for other people, including your kids. The following excerpts are the chapters on buying drivers and putters (scroll down). For the complete book, visit amazon.com for the Kindle version or lulu.com for the instant PDF download.

What follows is an excerpt from this book.

Joe French Analysis

Working on lag can be tough… especially when another swing fault makes it nearly impossible to create it.

Swing CheckJoe French is what I would consider your slightly above average player. He consistently shoots in the mid-80s. He hits the ball an average to above-average distance. He even has days where he can hit as many as nine fairways and 13 greens. However, he has reached the point where it is time to take the next step. It is time for Joe to start consistently shooting in the 70s. With a few changes, I think we can get him there.

You could probably freeze frame at any point in Joe’s swing and identify a problem. Even at full speed you could say that he takes the club back too far inside, creates no pivot, crosses at the top, casts during his down swing, comes inside, and then nearly jumps off the ground at impact. Ultimately, making a check list of faults is not going to help Joe. Our job is to identify which problem must be addressed next in order for him to achieve his goals.

Read on to see Joe’s swing and the fixes I’ve outlined for him.