Orlando Golf Blogger

My thanks to Sara over at SkyGolf/SkyCaddie, who was kind enough to send me one of these to try out.

So far I’ve used this baby on two golf courses, Ridgewood Lakes and Black Bear Golf Club and I’ve found it to be very useful and a much needed accessory to any golfers arsenal.

Here’s a link to their website: SkyCaddie SG5

You can read the full list of features, specs, etc.. at their website, I’m going to highlight what I’ve found most useful here.

You and download up to 10 different golf courses to the unit at any given time. It comes with software that installs the drivers needed to connect the unit to your computer and I believe that it also has the 17,000 golf courses you can choose from on it. I guess it’s not that important, what is important is that they have over 17,000 courses for you to choose from. If for some reason your course is not available for download, the unit also has the ability to map out the course that you play so that it can be reused later. Now, I never had the opportunity to try that out, so I can’t speak to its accuracy or simplicity, but the capability is there.

The unit is real simple to use, once the course is loaded on to the unit, just go to your course, turn the unit on, select the course and your off.

I’ve got to say that the most valuable feature for me is the ball marking. Once your on the course, stand next to your ball, push the ball marking button, hit your ball, and when you get to your ball again, it will give you the distance of your shot.

This has been really helpful to me because I now realize that I’ve been over estimating my shots by 10-15 yards. My drives I’ve been over estimating by about 25 yards… And obviously, if you don’t have a solid, accurate understanding of your distances, it’s going to add a couple strokes per hole. Perfect example, I’m a big fan of hitting my sand wedge 50-100 yards out from the green, I love how the ball soars straight up into the air and lands with very little roll on the green. After using the GPS, I’ve worked out that the max distance I should use that club is 72 yards and once I realized that, I cut at least 4 strokes off my last score.

The unit also has a target feature, so you can see the distances to the various hazards on the course, like distance to the front, middle, and back of the left fairway bunker. This is a good feature of the unit, but in my experience, its not 100% reliable. The first course I played with it (Ridgewood) was very accurate and it included about 90% of the courses hazards, on the second course (Black Bear), it probably included more like 70% of the hazards. But, to their credit, they’re supporting over 17,000 courses, so given that load, anyone could overlook a thing or two.

Using the IntelliGreen feature allows you to see the distance to the front, middle, and back of the green as well as show you what the green looks like from your angle of approach. It’s pretty useful.

Overall, I really enjoy this unit, it boasts a 14 hours battery life with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery so you can get a couple rounds in off a single charge.

This beast will run you $429.95 and you have to choose from three different membership plans.

Birdie - $29.95/yr, gives you unlimited courses in your state.

Eagle - $49.95/yr, gives you unlimited courses in your country

Double Eagle - $59.95/yr gives you unlimited courses world wide.

Enjoy!

Dave

“IF YOU PLAY GOLF, THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE YOU’LL GET SKIN CANCER”

Ronnie Kapriske wrote a pretty good article pertaining to golfers and skin cancer. It has a pretty disturbing opening line.

Here’s the link: Burned To A Crisp

The doctor interviewed in the article said “I don’t think it’s ignorance, and I don’t think it’s inherent in being exposed to the sun longer, People just don’t care.”

Care we should, one out of every five Americans (one in three Caucasians) will develop some form of skin cancer in their lifetime. Every dermatologist we spoke with thinks the odds are even worse for golfers.

I know I’m guilty of this, always finding reasons not to wear sunscreen, excuses like I’ve got a hat, It’s not too hot out, it’s pretty overcast, etc..

I find the statistic pretty alarming, one out of five!? Why cant awesome stuff like the lottery have odds like that?

Anyway, fellow golfers, Floridians, Orlandoians, protect yourself! Check out the full article if you want to see pictures of the type of cancer you can get, just looking at the pictures made my stomach squirm…

This is the first I’ve heard of this. Your personal golf outing could be featured in the pages of Golf Digest.

Send Golf Digest the details of your next golf trip and you might get “ambushed” and be featured in the magazine.

Here’s the link: Golf Digest Ambush

This caught my attention because it mentioned Hunters Creek Golf Course. The O’toole brothers, Brian and Mike have been in contention for over 12 years. Every year they plan a golf outing and invite some of their friends and family to join them. They divide them up into teams and host a scramble tournament. Winner gets bragging rights and the cup. Mike has won the past six years and this year, due mostly in part to Brian’s amazing bunker shot, Brian won the tournament.

Read the full article here.

I like this idea, honey, if your reading (sadly she’s not…) here’s an idea for my next birthday!

enjoy!

Dave

I had the opportunity to head out to Ridgewood Lakes today, booked the tee-time through golfnow.com and it only cost me $20 bucks! T’was a very good deal!

Now, technically Ridgewood Lakes is located in Davenport but I still feel it’s close enough to fall under the Orlando umbrella. It has to be, it’s a part of the Orlando Golf Trail. For those of you who don’t know where Davenport is (myself included), it’s between Orlando & Tampa via SR 275.

I was also able to demo the Skycaddie SG 5 which I shall post about later, but man, what a sweet GPS!

Anyway, I digress… On to the review!

Ridgewood Lakes Golf & Country Club

Playing this course was a real pleasure (well, the course was, the weather on the other hand, was not!).

It’s voted top 30 courses in Florida, not really sure why it’s not a bit more specific, but hey, it allows you to decide where you want to rank the course, as long as you keep it in the top 30..

It’s also voted Best New Golf Course in USA by Golf Digest.

A Ted McAnlis design, built in 1994.

Here’s the course information

The course was a bit soggy (due to all the rain) but in really good shape, The only real blemish I saw was on the 5th green which had quite a few patches of what I call “wasteland” and yes, the term is patent pending. See below.

The course has water on all 18 holes, which in retrospect, makes perfect sense, I did lose a few more balls than usual today… For the most part the water serves as nothing more than an unforgiving OB marker, but there are a few holes where it’s a factor. My worst hole of the day was one of them, lucky #13 has three different bodies of water, with the most irritating being a little stream about 78 yards from the pin (where my beautiful fairway wood shot landed, giving me my 2nd OB of the hole…)

The other most notable was #15. a nifty par 3 with an elevated tee box and a shot over the water, has kind a pseudo Sawgrass feel to it. I believe this is their signature hole, see the picture below.

Yep, this is their signature hole not to mention the most photographed hole on their course (and I thought I had discovered a diamond in the rough, now I feel like I’m touring the tower of London following one of those beefeaters). See this quote from their site.

Hole 15 Par-3 – “Signature Hole.”

Ah, I almost forgot! #9 is a crazy dogleg left which I’m going to label as a blind hole because you can’t really see the fairway from the tee box, you get an idea but nothing conclusive enough to feel comfortable taking the shot. I’m going to make it easy on you, my lovely readers, because I care about your well being and mental health, so here’s what you’ve got to do. There’s a palm tree thats taller than the rest with an extra bushy fronds and furthest on the right almost a straight line from the tee box. Your shot, should you choose to accept it, is to hit to the right of that palm tree. It will land you in the fairway and give you a great lie for your next shot. Do not, I repeat, do not hit to the left at all, it’s no mans land and not a very fun place. See the below picture (sorry I don’t have any photo editing software, but the tree thats directly below the ed in edit is the one to hit at).

I think #7 deserves the tricky hole award. Like a moron I didn’t take a picture, but it’s a very narrow tee shot and theres quite a few oaks on either side of the fairway and their branches hang over the fairway making it almost like launching your ball out of a tunnel. One of the guys I was playing with, hit it perfectly, I on the other hand, enjoy a challenge so I took the path less traveled and hit a tree…

#16 is also worthy of note, definitely keep the driver in the bag on this one, anything over 225 off the tee is going to land you either a healthy dose of H20 or Sawgrass. You know, actually, if you decide to play this course, just leave the driver at home! Looking back, 3 wood off the tee would’ve saved me probably 5-10 strokes. Here’s #16.

It’s funny, I mentioned to the guys that I was with that I felt like this grass had fingers because it kept grabbing my club head and one of them laughed and said that his boss asked him if he had ever tried playing golf in his front yard because “that’s Ridgewood!”

I don’t really know how you would combat the grabby grass, perhaps some Crisco, Spray PAM or WD40?

Overall, I really liked the course, it was pretty challenging for me, had plenty of good and bad shots, but this is definitely the course to play if you want to work on your accuracy, it’ll definitely punish you for errant shots. The staff was very friendly and accommodating and I’ll definitely be making the hour drive to play again!

With my un-official ranking system, I give this course 4 out of 5 stars.

Let me know your thoughts!
Dave

Comments

The cool folks over at the Caesar Golf Company sent me some of these Caesar Featherie golf balls to review.

Played a round yesterday at Hunter’s Creek and tried them out. I know your probably asking why I went back there and my answer is a universal truth that we all can appreciate, “It was free!” Remember, when I reviewed the course the first time, they were aerating the greens so they gave a free round if you played, I cashed it in yesterday.

I won’t go into too much detail, but the course is looking better but still needs a lot of work and they REALLY need to adjust their sprinklers because it was about 9am and they were still going and the freaking 16th green was waterlogged and i could’ve gone swimming in bunkers surrounding the green! Bleh, needless to say I was a bit peeved because I happened to strategically hit my ball into one of these lake traps…

Back to the ball!

Here’s their website. The Caesar Golf Company

To summarize the selling points… This ball eliminates slices and hooks, improves accuracy, better roll on the greens due to the lack of dimples, great for short par 3 & par 4 courses, made for the golfer who needs better accuracy.

Hitting this ball was a very interesting experience. Pretty cool and strange at the same time. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to explain the flight of this ball and I don’t think I’ve found it yet, but hopefully I’ll get the point across. Try to visualize what your ball flight would look like if every bit of spin you put on the ball was all converted to a forward spin. The ball takes off, reaches the pinnacle of its flight and then dive bombs down to the turf. It’s really pretty cool to watch.

I took a buddy of mine with me, he’s a beginner who has a pretty nasty slice and has a very open stance with his lead foot about 7 inches back and away from his rear foot. I let him try the ball out and it completely removed his slice! I mean, I was pretty stunned at the results, and so was he.. He was still however, susceptible to shanks and duffs…. But the ball improved his tee shots and he kept most of them in the fairway.

The trade-off is straighter shots but with a substantial loss of distance. I hit this ball with my driver on a couple holes and traveled about 180-200 yards. Typically my drives carry the ball between 260-300 yards.

Putting with the ball was pretty awesome though, the ball wasn’t really affected by any breaks it encountered, it plowed through them.

The ball would be a good fit for the golfer who has a lot of variations to his/her swing, who doesn’t necessarily want to kill the ball, and who wants to play a round without having to spend 1/2 the hole looking for their ball.

I can see how it would be useful to have some of these handy for those really tight holes with very little forgiveness for errant shots or if your playing a short par 4 course or an exec par 3, these would be a good fit as well.

I read on their site they’re developing a ball called the Caesar Millie which will be for the better players. I guess we’ll stay tuned for that.

Leave me your comments!

Dave

I received this article via email. There’s some pretty interesting digs in these photos….

These are some of my favs… Below is Harry Vardon circa 1907. When I first looked a the photo I thought he was wearing a Nazi uniform… Crazy…

Here’s John O’Leary circa 1970’s disco style. The hair is awesome! I’m surprised he didn’t catch a mean case of whiplash every time he swing the club. I wonder what the inertia of that ‘do’ is?

Payne Stuart 1999 ………….

Jesper Parnevik 2002.. Love the hat, it looks like he bought a box of baseball cards and decided to turn it into a hat..

Here’s the complete article from Time magazine

The very worst in golf fashion

This is pretty interesting.

Here’s the history of the golf ball.

In the earliest days of the game, wooden golf balls were used. I found this picture of a wooden golf ball, it’s probably a picture of a ball used by the British soldiers in the U.S during World War I.

One of the earliest recorded events of a wooden golf ball being used was 1550 a.d. in eastern Scotland.

Next, in 1618, the feather golf ball or ‘featherie’ was invented. This ball consisted of several pieces of stout leather sewn together, leaving a small opening. After the stitch was completed, the casing was turned inside out. Feathers, boiled and softened were then stuffed into the small opening. They say that as much as a “gentleman’s top hat full” were stuffed into the casing. The stitching was completed and the ball was hammered into a round shape with a couple coats of paint added. These balls were extremely difficult to make and therefor very expensive.

A practiced featherie maker could produce four a day. Man, imagine shanking this ball, i’d spend the entire round trying to find it!

In 1848, the first ‘gutta’ ball was created by the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams Paterson. This was created from the milky juice or latex from a tree found in Malaysia. This material, once boiled becomes soft and impressionable, and the ball is made by rolling the boiled latex on a board. This ball was a lot easier to produce, resistant to water, improved roll and much cheaper than the featherie. Remember the Old Tom Morris & Alan Robertson split was over the invention of this ball.

Players soon discovered that nicks on the smooth surface of the ball actually produced a truer flight than a completely smooth surface. Because of this players were taking a sharp, pointed hammer and scarring the face of the ball, giving the ball an even pattern that greatly improved it’s play.

Surface textures and patterns impressed into the gutta-percha balls evolved from early imitations of feathery ball stitching to the highly detailed and symmetrical that greatly improved the ball�s flight. The best known balls were the hand-marked private brands of the Scottish club makers, such as Morris, Robertson, Gourlay, and the Auchterlonies. Many brands with a variety of patent names used the bramble pattern (with a surface similar to the berry). This became the most popular pattern of the gutta era and was also used on some of the early rubber balls.

Arguably, the most profound change to ever hit the game of golf occurred in 1898 with the invention of the rubber golf ball. It was invented by a Cleveland, Ohio, golfer, Coburn Haskell, in association with Bertram Work of the B. F. Goodrich Company. The ball featured rubber thread wound around a solid rubber core. Early gutta-percha gave way to the Balata cover that was developed in the early 1900s.

On January 1, 1932, standardization of golf ball weight and size was established by the United States Golf Assocciation following 1930 standards set by the British Golf Association for a slightly smaller ball. The weight was set at a maximum of 1.620 oz., and diameter not to be less than 1.680 in. Later. after testing apparatus was developed to measure velocity, a maximum velocity of 250 feet per second was added by the USGA. The durability and precision of today’s ball reflect not only the tremendous technological advancement of their manufacture but also the development of space age plastics, silicone, and improved rubber.

And now, an improvement to an earlier idea, (ahem) drum roll please, introducing the new and improved Caesar Featherie!!!

I’ll be receiving some of these very soon to review and i’ll do a complete write up once I test them out.

to be continued…

Reference

Being that I now have a three year old and a six day old, this is a very relevant question for me. I’ve been doing some digging around and here’s the answer.

You should begin your kids golf tutelage only if they begin to show interest in the game. (read “don’t force your kid to play just because you want a fast track to early retirement!”)

There’s no “right” age to begin your kid golfing, it all depends on the child but the range typically is between four and seven years of age. (or if your kids a boy-geniuses like mine then six days old and three years of age)

Your kids potential will not be hindered if they don’t start as soon as some other kids have.

Some of the recommendations I found are:

• get one of your kids friends involved as well so they have someone to play with if your not around
• take your kid to the driving range, leave your clubs at home (meaning in most cases the kid will only be interested as long as your interested)
• Take your kid with you to one of the local par 3 9-hole courses, bring lots of entertaining things for the kids (snacks, toys, etc..) and let them play with you for as long as they want to.
• Some say to start your kids putting.
• KISS (keep it simple st****0
• Keep it FUN!
• The backyard is a great place for your kid to start
• Don’t expect too much too fast
• If you decide to take your prodigy on the course with you, allow them to tee off, make them pick up and drop about 50 yards from the hole and allow them to putt out.
  OR
• Use the 150 stick as the flag and let your kid play to that, by doing this you cut out many of the aggravating hazards that surround the green.

Check out this video I found.

Hope this helps!

Dave

Comments

Sorry I’ve been absent for a few days, but I bring good tidings! Over the weekend my wife gave birth to our second child! He was born Saturday, June 7th, 2008 (6-7-8) at 2:50pm. His name is Kai Seiji and he came out weighing in at a solid 7 lbs 1 oz 4 grams and 20 inches!

Here’s a picture

Wonder if they’ll custom fit a set of clubs for a 2 day old?

This got me thinking about when is the best age to get your kids into golf? I started late in the game, I think I played my first round at 20. I’ve got another boy who’s three and I’m considering getting him started but I don’t want it to be a waste of time or money if he isn’t really going to retain anything. So I’ll do some research on the subject and post about it later.

Yeah, I know, before any of you say it, it’s a good thing he takes after his mother…

Leave your comments!

Oh yeah, check out this coincidence.  My first boy named Aiden Kenji was born 4-23-05 and the 2nd 6-7-08 so if you rearrange the numbers their birth dates are 2-3-4-5-6-7-8.

I think my family might bring about the apocalypse….

I was reading Frank Talk over there at golfdigest.com. He’s a pretty entertaining fellow who discusses golf equipment.

Here’s a link.

Pretty much, he’s a dear Abbey for golf where people ask him questions and he writes responses up for everyone to read.

One of today’s questions was “What is the difference between X-out balls and regular balls.” You know what his response was… (drumroll please)

Nothing that would affect the performance of the ball, X-outs are perfectly functional golf balls with minor blemishes or printing errors on the epidermis of the ball.

WHAT?!

I had no idea… I always assumed that the reason that all my balls were flying so poorly had to be due to some flaw in the balls I’ve been hitting and nothing what-so-ever in my playing ability….

<ahem>

Uhh, I just went to check the price on the X-out pro v1’s and I encountered a slight flaw in ol Franks post. It seems as if he’s only partially right, well, atleast as it pertains to Titleist.

QUESTION

What is the difference between Pro V1 Practice and Pro V1 X-out golf balls?

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We appreciate you allowing us to clarify this matter and wish you much success with your game. Thank you for making Titleist an integral part of your game, as well as the #1 ball in golf.

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the differences between Titleist Pro V1 Practice and Pro V1 X-Out golf balls.

The Acushnet Company invests significant time and effort to ensure that our products are Best-in-Class in terms of quality, performance and consistency. As such, in the rare event one of our products fails to meet USGA requirements for size, weight, velocity or any other conformance criteria we destroy rather than market such products.

As such, only products that are of a minimal defect are available for purchase. These products are available in two offerings:

1. Pro V1 Practice golf balls are conforming products that differ only due to a cosmetic blemish such as paint, ink or registration of stamping. Pro V1 Practice golf balls do not have any construction or performance deficiencies.

2. Pro V1 X-Out golf balls are also conforming products. However, they usually have a cosmetic blemish and/or occasionally have a minor physical defect that should not significantly affect its performance. More often than not, the physical condition causing the ball to be stamped as an X-Out is so minute that it is not recognizable by the player.

Both products may be used in the casual round of golf including those with scores posted for handicaps, and most competitions, with the possible exception of high level competitions invoking the Local Rule requiring balls to be on the List of Conforming Golf Balls. Please refer to the USGA Official Rules on the subject listed below for your reference:

Q: May I use a ball stamped with “Practice” or “X-Out” to play a round of golf?

A: Our present policy provides that if the List of Conforming Golf Balls or the One Ball Condition is in effect, a practice or logo ball may be used provided the other markings on the ball (i.e., pole and seam) correspond exactly to a ball listing on the current List of Conforming Golf Balls. Balls labeled with ”PRACTICE” or a circled ”P”, are essentially treated as a logo ball (such as a Mickey Mouse emblem). A player’s name stamped on the ball is also acceptable. However, the original ball markings (i.e., pole and seam markings) must be readable in order for a Rules Official to determine whether that ball is on the List of Conforming Golf Balls. X-Out balls are not permitted to be used in any competition in which the List of Conforming Golf Balls or the One Ball Condition is in effect. However, if neither of these Conditions are in effect, X-Out balls may be used because all balls are presumed to conform unless they have been tested and found not to conform or are obviously non-conforming (e.g., too small or too heavy). (See Decisions 5-1/4 and US/5-1/101).

As a result of the potential for an X-Out to be non-conforming if tested, we do not recommend using this model during tournament play.

Here’s the link.

So it looks like the X-outs can potentially suffer from defects which might indeed affect your game!!

Damn those dirty apes and damn you Frank for getting my hopes up!

I never actually purchased any X-outs before, I found a couple and used em, I dunno, I don’t think I could ever play with a ball that could potentially adversely affect my game, it’s bad enough as is, I don’t need anything else to fuel the fire!

I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter