“The Upset” Book Review

Jack Fleck’s Incredible Victory over Ben Hogan at the U.S. Open by Al Barkow.

The UpsetI think of myself as a little bit of a history buff, not because I am any good at history (in fact I got really poor grades in school for history), but simply because I love to learn about it. As we approach the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, Al Barkow decided to write a detailed account of the first U.S. Open held at the famed San Francisco layout. In 1955, a little-known man named Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff that made ESPN’s list of the top 10 upsets of all time.

I found this book when I saw a preview in a magazine I was reading. As I enjoy reading books by Barkow, I was intrigued. If you have not heard of him, then I would recommend reading some of his work. He wrote a fantastic book on Sam Snead and a few others which focus on that time period. His claim to golfing fame was that he was the writer for the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf and did some of the interviews of Ben Hogan while Hogan was promoting what was then called the Hogan Tour, which today is known as the Nationwide Tour (until 2013!).

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TaylorMade RocketBallz Fairway Wood Review

TaylorMade’s RocketBallz Fairway woods are the talk of the golf world, not just for unorthodox name but also for boasting distance gains of at least 17 yards. Let’s see if RocketBallz lives up to the hype.

TaylorMade RocketBallz Fairway IconThe 2012 RocketBallz fairway wood line has received a majority of the buzz from the new products that have been released this year. TaylorMade has been advertising that the RocketBallz 3-wood is 17 yards longer than your current 3 wood. 17 yards longer? For a fairway wood? Really? When I attended a TaylorMade media day late last year I had heard the rumors of the line that would be replacing the popular Burner clubs. I thought the name “RocketBallz” was some insider joke and the actual name would be revealed during the presentation.

As we know that was not the case. RocketBallz was the name of the new line and the TaylorMade executives were proud of their new baby. They even took us outside and rolled out a carpet that was 17 yards long. The script on the carpet read, “This is how long you’re going to hit you new fairway wood”. They reported that 17 yards is what their lawyers told them they could legally claim. They hinted at players seeing gains of 20 yards and more. It was a big claim and truthfully I thought they had no chance of living up to it. In golf, a five yard gain is huge and I thought we had reached the limits to what we could do for making a club “hotter.”

But I may have been wrong, and TaylorMade claims to have re-engineered the fairway wood from the ground up to produce the hottest club in golf.

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So, How Do I Get Better at Golf?

I get this question a bunch from fledgling golfers, it has really made me think what is the best answer?

Thrash TalkI was at a dinner party a few weeks ago and the conversation with a friend moved to golf. Inevitably, because I am a fairly serious golfer, new golfers will want to tell me stories of their first par or first birdie. I will listen and think back to when I started playing golf and when it was a big deal to finish the round with the same ball. That was always a big accomplishment when I started!

The friend will then start to tell me about their game and they will ask me, “so, how do I get better at golf?” The traditional answer is be find a local professional and start taking lessons, or go work on your short game. After years of answering friends this way I have stopped, mainly because I think that is wrong answer.

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New Method Putters and TW ’13 Shoes from Nike

Nike introduces new golf shoes inspired by FREE technology as well as new members to the Method family.

Bag DropNike, still a relative new comer in the golf world, has made a name for themselves over the last decade or so by taking the time to research and develop their products properly. While not everything they have come out with has been the best looking, their products pack a lot of features and technology and the new shoes and putters from Nike are no exception.

This week we’re looking at some new models in each of those lines: the new Tiger Woods TW ’13 Nike Free-inspired shoes, and new putters in the Method line.

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Volume Three Hundred Sixteen

Tiger wins again, Lefty likes baseball, and would all you people please stop taking pictures!

Hittin' the LinksWhat better place to pick up your record tying 73rd win than Jack’s tournament. Tiger has to be pretty pleased with himself after the way he played. If you think about it he made the King and the Bear sweep this year by winning Bay Hill and the Memorial. I hope he can now make a run at the U.S. Open, since he certainly failed to impress in Augusta after his win at Bay Hill. Welcome again to Hittin’ the Links.

This week in HtL we begin with a Bubba incident, then congratulate the 2012 NCAA Golf Champions, and find out what’s wrong with Lefty. Also, we investigate the PGA Tour cell phone problems, check out Phil’s bid for baseball ownership, and do a wrap-up of the week’s events. Read on!

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Nine Holes With Jason Dufner

Checking in on the world’s hottest golfer.

ProfilesBefore this year, Jason Dufner didn’t have much going for him. Sure, he had made over $7.5 million dollars in his career, but he had yet to win a PGA Tour event and he had just 16 top-10 finishes to his name. Prior to 2012, Dufner had missed the cut in over 40 percent of the events he played and his highest placing in the FedExCup was 25th (in 2011). Add to that his major-league choke in last year’s PGA and his laughable last name, things weren’t looking up for Jason Dufner.

But this year? His only missed cut was his first event, the Sony Open in Hawaii, and he has hardly come close since. A few weeks after a solid T24 at Augusta (his highest finish in the event) where he held the 36-hole lead, Dufner broke through at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans the last week of April, carding -19 and beating Ernie Els in a playoff while also holding off world number one Luke Donald. He’s also spending time with the golf team from his alma mater, Auburn University, and quoting Kanye West on Twitter (he’s actually an interesting golfer to follow on Twitter). After two wins, Dufner leads the Tour in money earned (already having surpassed his career high), ranked eighth in the world, and I think at one point he might just have cracked a smile. Maybe.

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A Gentlemen’s Game

There are different levels of cheating, some pose problems others are just an annoyance.

Thrash TalkWhen it comes to the rules, golf is really unlike any other sport. What other sport can you name in which you call penalties on yourself? Most sports have a referee and it is almost an art to cheat until you are caught. Just watch any NFL game and watch the linemen battle it out and likely you will see holding or some other mischievous activity on every play. The NBA is the same way with all the pushing and elbowing. As long as the ref doesn’t call it, you are free to do it, even encouraged. In golf, if you are in the trees and your ball moves while you are addressing it, it’s on you to call the penalty on yourself.

This brings me to what I really want to discuss, which is cheating. In golf, cheating is typically done as subtly as possible. There is a decent amount of blatant cheating which I will discuss, as well as numerous cases of just not knowing the rules. I am forced to admit that the rules of golf can at times be confusing for the average player and this can lead to some heated discussions.

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Adams Idea Black CB3 Irons Review

We review Adams’ new flagship irons.

Adams CB3 Irons 8 ToeAdams Golf doesn’t really have much of identity right now. They’ve stopped airing the “number one hybrid on the Champions Tour” commercials (or maybe I’ve stopped watching Golf Channel at 2 AM?), and they don’t really have a repetitive nomenclature. They’re not revered for their huge revenues like Nike or TaylorMade, and they don’t have the rich history of Titleist or Mizuno.

I could complain about the naming of Adams’ clubs from now until Tiger Woods passes Jack’s record, but to dwell on that would be doing to complete disservice to the irons that Adams has been putting out recently. Clubs like the Idea Pro Black MB, the Idea Black CB2, and the Idea MB2 have been laying the groundwork for Adams’ venture into the crossover realm of player’s clubs and GI clubs. They’ve entered the world in between, where clubs can be forged from 8620 carbon steel yet still have the offset needed to get the ball into the air.

The name of the game in the category that these clubs reside is simple: you can hit these clubs. Your swing looks worse than that of President Obama? You can hit these. (And if the President is reading this, a lefty set is available.) Hovering around a 10 handicap? You can hit these. Nearing scratch golf? You can hit these golf clubs. Read on to let me convince you.

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Adams Speedline Fast 12 Fairway Wood Review

We take a look at one of the hottest fairway woods on the market.

Adams Fast 12 Wood Hero Sole (2)Short of only the TaylorMade Rocketballz, this year’s Adams Fast 12 fairway woods are some of the most hyped in the business. They have feature after feature designed specifically to give golfers the most distance, not only on-center strikes but on off-center hits as well. It remains to be seen if their sale to TaylorMade-Adidas helps or hurts the company, but in recent years Adams has been putting out some of the best woods in golf, and this year seems to be no different.

With features such as second-generation Velocity Slot Technology (which includes a slot within a slot), Speed Coat design of the shaft, and Speedline aerodynamic design, Adams is not short on innovation. Adams is calling the Fast 12 fairways woods their “longest and most forgiving” yet, and are even claiming that Kenny Perry gained 35 yards. They say that the improved slot enhances launch conditions for more carry and greater distance.

This is a lot of hype for a company that has made it’s marketing staple over the last decade “number one hybrid of the Champions Tour.” Read on to see if they can back it up.

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