New Balls from Callaway, Putters from Odyssey

Callaway Golf wants you to join their Speed Regime with its new SR1, SR2, and SR3 balls while the company’s putter division, Odyssey, rolls out new putter models.

Bag DropWhile Titelist may be the Number One Ball in Golf, there are plenty of other manufactures that make quality tour level balls, and in many people’s opinion, Callaway has had one of those balls for quite a while. The Tour i/iz balls were very popular as were its most recent successors, the HEX Black Tour and HEX Chrome and Chrome +. With Those balls, Callaway gave golfers of differing abilities balls that would fit their game well. This year, the company is updating its ball offerings and is heading a slightly different way. Following the model that has be popularized by Bridgestone over the last few years, Callaway’s new tour level balls will come in a few different models, with each one optimized for a particular swing speed. In addition to the new premium balls, the company is also debuting its softest ball to date with the new SuperSoft ball.

Alongside the new balls are new flat sticks from the companies putter division, Odyssey. For those wanting to make a move to an Odyssey putter but not wanting to give up a milled face, there are the new Metal-X Milled putters. In addition to the new putter line, Odyssey has added to both the Versa and White Hot Pro family of putters with the Jailbird and the Hacok.

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Volume Three Hundred Seventy-One

Torrey Pines gave us a good show, though it wasn’t the one we were expecting. And the PGA Merchandise Show this year was actually The PGA Merchandise Show that we remember.

Hittin' the LinksWell, once again the Mickelson-Woods match up we were promised, fizzled. As in, neither was still playing on Sunday—Mickelson because his back acted up and he withdrew and Tiger because he went nine-over during a seven-hole stretch and missed the secondary cut. [bonus link] Still, Torrey Pines did not disappoint. The top of the leaderboard was packed on Sunday, with the winner in doubt until the very end. The Euro Tour went to triple overtime to choose a winner. And the LPGA event came down to an up and down for birdie on the final hole. All and all, a pretty good week.

Coming up next week, hope you like desert golf, the PGA TOUR will be in Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and the Euros will tee it up in U.A.E. at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Like the Champions Tour, the LPGA needs about a month to recover from their debut event so we’ll pick those two tours up later in February.

But we don’t have to wait to hit the links, so let’s do it.

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Volume Three Hundred Seventy

A double-hit. Accusations of cheating. An illegal drop. A fumble recovery that wasn’t… The rulebook got a workout this weekend. Most of it was in golf.

Hittin' the LinksOh that rulebook! Penalty strokes continue to be big stories on the tours, especially when they are assessed to big name players in big time contention. The Abu Dhabi Championship had more than its fair share of high profile penalties and near penalties.

In the U.S., the PGA TOUR arrived on the mainland, and a guy—who was ranked almost 600th in the world last year at this time—shot three 9-under rounds to outdistance the field at the Humana Challenge. Instead of his usual caddie (his wife Justine who is pregnant with the couple’s first child), he had his brother-in-law on the bag to fist bump repeatedly at the conclusion of the tournament.

This week is the PGA Merchandise show, the annual golf gearhead geekout in Orlando. Plus, we get to watch Tiger and Phil at Torrey Pines. Mickelson looked in good form at Abu Dhabi. Hopefully, Tiger comes out playing well, too, and we get a good head-to-head matchup. If not, there are another 140+ players to watch, and you’ll probably recognize most of their names. If all that fails, there’s still those hang gliders to watch. Let’s hit the links.

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Want to Improve? Check out the X Mount

Check out the X Mount – the solution to recording your golf swing (and more) with your phone.

Protosports Holster
I’m sometimes asked why I got into golf instruction, and the answer is very simple. I am passionate about the game, and by helping others, and improving their ability to play the game, I am acting as an ambassador for the game of golf, and bringing a little bit more joy to the lives of others.

One of my favorite sub-forums on the forum section of our site is the Member Swings sub-forum. In here, forum members post videos of their golf swings, drills, putting, and more, and the knowledgeable members of the forum along with my co-owner Mike McLoughlin and myself help them out.

There’s a common saying in the world of photography that the best camera is the one you’ve got with you, and more and more, smart phones these days are equipped with some pretty decent cameras capable of capturing good video at high frame rates. My iPhone 5S, for example, records 720P video at 120 FPS, and I’ve always got my phone with me.

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Is Rory McIlroy Distracted or Just Struggling?

Rory McIlroy has been christened by the media as the next Tiger Woods, but that moniker just does not fit his personality.

Thrash TalkAs a golf fan we have been trained to expect prolonged greatness. Tiger Woods hit the scene in 1997 and basically dominated golf until 2010. Jack Nicklaus before him was great for even longer. Greg Norman, Arnie before him, Hogan, Nelson, and so on. But for every golfer like those I mentioned there has been a golfer who flew onto the scene and disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. I worry that Rory may be falling into the second category.

I am sure you are thinking that I am making this prediction too early in Rory’s career. You are probably right, he may again win majors, and maybe even get the number one player title once Tiger starts to lose his edge, but my theory is that he will never dominate. For me it is a combination of things that lead me to this conclusion.

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Volume Three Hundred Sixty-Nine

Walker wins again, Oosthuizen defends, Cink gets tan (sort of), and Vijay is Vijay. What more can you say?

Hittin' the LinksHawaiian golf is great for scenery and apparently for competitive juices if the Sony Open was any indication. With an hour of play left, no less than four players were in the hunt.

Next week, the senior circuit takes over on the islands while the PGA TOUR heads stateside for the Humana Challenge in La Quinta, Calif. It’s still another week before the LPGA starts the season in the Bahamas. Off the course, the PGA Merchandise show is just a little over a week away.

Can you smell it in the air? The 2014 golf season is just starting to bud. Now we need to come up with a plan to make sure that groundhog doesn’t see it’s shadow next month. Let’s hit the links.

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TaylorMade Brings Back the TP Line and the SLDR Gets Smaller

The company’s popular line of Tour Preferred clubs is back with the release of three new sets of irons. Also, the company has released a 430cc version of the SLDR driver.

Bag DropTaylorMade is a company well known for multiple product lines and updating clubs with new releases seemingly just months after the “old” ones have come out. In the past couple of years, we have seen the R11, Burner 2.0, R11s, RBZ, R1, RBZ Stage 2, R1 Black, SLDR and JetSpeed. That’s a lot of clubs over a fairly short span of time, and something that the company takes ridicule for every once in a while. That being said, the clubs that they are producing are good quality, and if there is any sort of edge to be had, you can almost guarantee that TaylorMade is going to be the company to find it. Just a few months removed since the release of the company’s current flagship driver, the SLDR, the company has added to that line with a smaller, 430cc version of it. Also, one of its more popular lines, the Tour Preferred irons, has been updated with new versions of the MB, MC, and CB irons.

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Callaway’s New BB Alpha and X2 Hot

Callaway Golf is set to bring back an old favorite in the Big Bertha while updating last years popular X Hot line with the X2 Hot.

Bag Drop2013 was a very good year for the Callaway Golf company. In addition to having it’s marquee player win the Open Championship, the company released a couple of very popular line of clubs, the RAZR Fit Xtreme and the X Hot. The X Hot in particular did very well and many golfers ended up putting these clubs in the bag and adding more than a few yards to their drivers and woods. According to the company, the X Hot products were longer from everywhere, by up to 30 yards in some situations, but this year the company thinks that it has something even better in the X Hot’s sequel, the X2 Hot. While the X Hot was the company’s most popular line from the past year, probably the most iconic line of Callaway clubs is the Big Bertha, and in 2014 we will see the reintroduction of this line.

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PING Rolls Out Its New 2014 Line of Clubs

PING has a little bit of something for everybody this year with the i25 Series of drivers, irons, fairway woods and hybrids as well as the new Karsten Hybrid/Iron set and TR putters.

Bag DropThis month, PING is rolling out a comprehensive line of new clubs with a common theme, and that theme is increased distance. While more distance is something that everybody wants, PING has also paid special attention to making sure that the new clubs are both forgiving and consitent as well. Among the new products is the i25 lineup of clubs which include a new driver, irons, fairway woods and hybrids. In addition to the i25 series, there is also the new Karsten hybrid irons which should provide higher handicap players with both the distance and increased forgiveness that they seek. The new 2014 line is rounded out with the product that made PING a household name, putters, with the introduction of the Karsten TR line.

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