1badbadger

With Colonial Country Club less than 8 miles away, we tend to get a lot of guests at our club when the Tour rolls into Ft. Worth. From the CBS Television crew to groups of Tour caddies and other industry folks, it's a pretty busy week. We also get some Tour players who come over to practice or play. One notable who spent a lot of time at our club last week was Brandel Chamblee. He was tuning up to play in the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines this week, and would come over to practice after he was done with his Golf Channel duties. I got a chance to talk with him for a little while every day, and I really enjoyed our conversations. He was very approachable, and was happy to take pictures with anyone who asked. He is very smart, and has a great memory. He did not make a big production when he arrived or bring any attention to himself. He flew under the radar. He would set up quietly on the far left or far right of the range and hit wedge shots to various targets. He didn't have a big staff bag with his name on it...just a normal carry bag with the NBC logo. He gets a lot of flack for comments he makes, but I have to believe it's part of his job...generate controversy, get people talking, create some buzz. And he's pretty good at it too. But I've actually been a fan of his since his rookie year on Tour in 1988. At the time, he wrote a column for Golf Week Magazine. One article was about the excessive amount of product Tour players get. He had gone through his closet and discovered he had around 50 pair of golf shoes, which was way more than he needed. So he made an offer to the readers...if you wear a size 8 1/2 and would like a pair of shoes, just send him a note with your mailing address and he'd send them out. I always thought that was pretty cool. I mentioned it to him, thinking he might be surprised that I remembered that article from 31 years ago, and he told me people bring it up all the time! Oh well...it was still a great experience to meet him!

Here is another guy who isn't a household name, but is an outstanding player and someone to keep an eye on. He turned pro in 2011 after a solid collegiate career at TCU. He won on the Canadian Tour that year, then played on the Web.com Tour for 3 years. He has played on the PGA Tour since 2015, and finished 92nd on the money list last year with over $1.3 million.

My daughter works for the TopGolf here in Ft. Worth. She doesn't have her drivers license yet, so I drop her off or pick her up 3-4 times/week. It's surprising how busy that place is, especially on weekends. They often have a waiting list on weekends and "holidays" (like during spring break) even with 102 hitting bays. They have a teaching pro on-staff, and I see a lot of people taking their own clubs, mostly earlier in the day. I think it's a great way for people who don't normally play golf, or who would feel uncomfortable at a traditional driving range to be able to enjoy the sport. It's not where I would go for a serious practice session, but would for a night out with friends.

If you're looking for a lighter shaft with a higher trajectory, I don't think the DG S-300 is the best option. There just isn't very much difference in those areas. You'll be able to feel the difference in flex, but the weight is only a couple of grams different and although the trajectory might be slightly higher, it probably isn't going to be enough to get the additional carry you want. This chart is several years old, but it's a good starting point to get some ideas about which shafts you might want to look into:

When did they start releasing the purse before the tournament? They used to make a point to not announce the prize money until after the tournament was over because they didn't want that to be the focus, but I noticed they don't do that anymore.

Yes, it's true that they discontinued the golf ball fitting program in 2016, which was a decision made by the President/CEO who had just joined the company at that time. He has since been replaced by the former Executive VP who started the Bridgestone Challenge originally. At the beginning of this year they announced a new version of the ball fitting program would be launched in spring in select Sunbelt markets, and expand to nationwide this summer. They will be adding approach shots data to the fittings, which is something that was talked about as far back as 2007. A lot of guys used to like to run through fitting every year to check progress, or confirm they were still playing the correct ball. We used to enjoy seeing familiar faces when we arrived at courses we went to on a regular basis! Your assessment from your testing is pretty spot-on. The B-330 Series was outstanding in windy conditions, and for some players the RX was tougher to control downwind because it didn't spin as much as the other models, which is also why you would get those shots that went long. Your comments about the RX is something I used to hear quite a bit. Players would "complain" about the lower spin rates of the RX, and some actually looked at this as an indication of a lower quality ball (not suggesting this is what you are saying Rat). The original version of the RX which was released in 2008 was a noticeably higher spinning ball than subsequent versions. This is because initially it was the only high performance model for players who had a swing speed under 105 mph. In 2010 when the RXS was introduced, the spin on the RX was reduced to create more separation between the two models. Otherwise there wouldn't be enough of a difference between the RX and RXS. So even though the RX was likely the lowest spinning urethane ball on the market at the time, it performed exactly the way it was designed to. For players who wanted/needed more spin than the RX provided, they could choose the RXS. Just a little insight.

To give you an idea of the types of scores PGA Tour players shoot, here is Phil Mickelson's USGA handicap sheet from 2013: As you can see, Phil was a +5.2 but had been as low as +7.2 (very stout). Remember, a Tour player's game has to travel. These guys shoot low numbers on courses they aren't familiar with, or they see one week each year. That's hard. These are scores Phil posted in Tour events as well as at his home course. Get this...Phil's brother carries a +3.7, and he's not even a pro! At one point around 2005 or 2006 Tiger's handicap was calculated to be +7.9. Jim Furyk had the next lowest handicap at +6.7. If they were playing in a 4-day handicapped event, Tiger would have to spot Furyk 5 shots for the tournament! Some other examples (from 2013): Aaron Baddeley +6.2; Martin Kaymer +5.8; Kevin Streelman +6.2; Paul Casey +4.6; Billy Mayfair +5.2; Chez Reavie +4.5; and Geoff Ogilvy+6.2. It's been roughly calculated that the guys on the bottom of the money list who barely keep their card are at about +4.0.

Take 2 I tried to post this video several months ago but had some trouble, so hopefully y'all can see it this time. I believe it was made somewhere around 2010 or 2011, but to my knowledge was never released. It has some very good information, so anyone interested in golf ball fittings, or those who have questions about the process, will find it interesting. One of the main points in this video is the opinion that golf balls should not be tested from the green back to the tee...that when finding the ball best for your game you should fit it the way you play it...from the tee to the green. The "green-to-tee" method has been widely believed as the best way to do it for a long time, but this video explains the merits of tee-to-green. Keep in mind that because it's 8 or 9 years old some of the data is outdated, like the number of fittings Bridgestone has conducted for example. But otherwise it's a really well done piece. After watching it, I'd be interested to hear which way you think it's better to test balls...tee-to-green or green-to-tee, and if this video changed your mind or not. Enjoy!

The hypothetical analogy I like to use is: Would you use a different driver every round? After all, a titanium head is a titanium head, right? They're all pretty close, just like all multi-layer urethane covered balls are pretty close. So if I can be just as consistent regardless of which ball I play, it won't matter which driver I use either. I think most everyone would agree that it would be difficult to be consistent or develop any confidence if you kept using a different driver each time you played. How would it affect your game if you normally play a 10.5* head, but happened to grab an 8.5* head today? Or instead of using a firm tip shaft to keep the spin lower, you picked a soft tip shaft? You get my point. You can't be consistent if you're switching around.

Clark Dennis might not be a household name, but he has been a good player for a long time. He turned pro in the late '80s and played on both the PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour. He chalked up 1 win on the Nationwide Tour, and a couple of T3s on the big Tour. He currently plays on the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour. He had 2 wins in Europe in 2017, plus six other top-5 finishes and won the Order of Merit. In Dec 2018 he won the Tour Championship on the Senior Tour in Europe, shooting -23 for three rounds, winning by 8 shots. No bogeys (63-66-64). That is golfing your ball. I've known Clark for over 15 years, and he's just as good of a person as he is a golfer.

I no longer work for Bridgestone, but I still play their equipment.

The ball has for sure been a major reason driver distances keep increasing. The part of this video I don't like is that it seems to imply that the Pro V1 was the first solid-core ball to be developed and hit the market, which a lot of players already assume is true. Titleist was actually behind a lot of other companies in the development of the new technology with companies like Bridgestone, Nike and Top-Flite (Strata) already having balls in production.

We probably lose more balls from getting plugged when the range is wet. If the range cart rolls over them they can get buried quickly. We lose some to the mowers too. I'm sure some find their way into golf bags, but I think it's minimal.

We just received a new shipment of practice balls for our range yesterday. We typically replace our practice balls every 6 months. The previous shipment was from Aug, so they were in use for almost 7 months, which is pushing it. The last few weeks there has been a noticeable increase in the number of cracked balls that I happen to see (5-6/day without intentionally looking) or ones that were just wore out. The Pro V1 was not designed or intended for range use, but I thought they held up pretty good for the first 5 months or so...much better than I expected. This is what 850 dz Pro V1 Practice balls look like: This is kinda neat...this is what a bucket of 300 new Pro V1 looks like. It's not too often that you get to rip one brand new ball after another on the range, so it's pretty fun when you get the chance: And this is what a brand new Pro V1 looks like when it's been run through the brand new ball washer which has a damaged or misaligned part somewhere. That mark cannot be cleaned or removed and several hundred balls were run through the washer before it was noticed:

Since 2000, the club I work at has hosted The Kathy Whitworth Invitational Junior Girls Golf Tournament which brings 72 of the world's best junior girl golfers to Fort Worth, Texas each spring. The tournament benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County. Some of the more notable past champions include Christina Kim, Brittany Lang, Jane Park, Paula Creamer, and Nelly Korda.