Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for the next redition and I have to apoligize for missing a week.

For those that have no clue what I’m talking about, please refer to Little Linksters.  As a quick recap, Brendon Elliott is a local golf pro who runs a junior golf program called “Little Linksters.”  My little golf pro in the making is attending these lessons and is loving them!  Every Saturday, he has a lesson out at Lake Mary Prep.

So weeks three and four were dedicated to putting.

Week three, Brendon trained the kids on proper putting form and tempo.  They used real kid sized putters from (I believe) US Kids golf.  The method he used to teach putting, I’m calling the A-Bend-Tick-Tock.  Using the A stance the kids learned a during week two and bending at the hips, the kids are swinging to a tick-tock mantra where the back stroke was tick and the forward stroke was tock.

For the putting class, he brought out this totally awesome portable putting green that can be assembled in ten minutes..  Some guys have all the cool toys…

For the week four putting lesson, the class was indoors and the kids used the SNAG golf putters and putted at targets.

The kids seems to enjoy this more than the prevous lesson and and at the end of the lesson they even worked on chipping.  Utilizing the putting swing they learned, Brendon put the SNAG Launchers in their hands and off they went.  The biggest struggle was for the kids to remember the putting swing and not the full swing.

I’m pretty excited about next weeks lesson.  Brendon is setting up a SNAG Golf Course and the kids are going to have the opportunity to piece all their lessons together and play a round.  It’s really cool to see the excitement these kids have about playing golf, warms my golfer heart!

-Dave

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Tony over at Hooked On Golf Blog said it best.  See below link.

Guru -vs- Orlando Golf Blogger

We played a round together out at Disney’s Lake Buena Vista and placed a friendly wager on it.

We wagered Nassau Style with yours truly losing all four bets.  Below is a picture of the trophy.  A hastily signed dollar bill now in his posession

Tony is a great golfer and blogger and one helluva nice guy.  It was a pleasure having my arse handed to me….

With Brendon Elliott’s help,  I plan on taking a trophy of my own next year!

-Dave

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Many thanks to Dave over at GolfDotz for sending me these to check out.

What are GolfDotz you ask?  Well, according to the website, “GolfDotz are a new generation transfer that simply bond with the skin of the ball when firm pressure from your thumb is applied. In 5 seconds or less you are ready to play! Designed and tested by golf enthusiasts tired of the same old methods, Golfdotz is a new and unique product for serious and casual golfers alike. Are you looking for a good way to label your golf ball?”

They remind me of those fake tattoos that you got as a kid, remember the ones that had to be applied with a wet cloth?  GolfDotz has a similar consistency, it’s not really a sticker it can be molded to fit the dimples of a golf ball without distorting the picture.  I was sent two packets of the Shamrock, it was my intent to garner some good luck from the four leaf clover, but after yesterdays round, I no longer believe in luck, just a bunch of stickers and a crappy round of golf. HA!

So these ball markers are sweet!  Each pack has twenty four markers and they run you $5.99 for the pack.  They have a whole buch of designs to choose from and the application is as simple as they described it.  I think the longest part is cutting out each individual marker before applying it.  I recommend thoroughly rubbing the marker once applied so you can work out the air bubbles that can get trapped underneath.

These markers have zero profile and have no impact, positive(stupid shamrocks..) or negative, on your game.  The marker does not hinder the ball flight and withstands a good smack from a driver relatively well.  I only notice the marker wearing off on two balls.  I hit every drive with the marker taking the full impact of the driver and only two were damaged.  One of them bounced off the cart path.

Now for me, ball identification has not really been an issue, I’ve yet to find another golfer who uses the Top-Flite Gamer ball, but I can see how they could come in handy.  Really, I think the greatest selling point to these is a cheap way to add a bit of individuality to your arsenal.

Enjoy!

-Dave

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The Fellas at GolfIsHard posted this up and I had to share it.  Love this E-Trade Baby.

TGIF

-Dave

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Straight from the horses mouth, I’m now ready to play again.

After 253 days of golf sans Tiger Woods, #1 is back.

He is going to make his 2009 debut at the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship February 23rd – March 1st.

Not surprising, really, considering that he has a newborn to keep  him up at night! (ha!)

And with his return, returns the hope of increased ratings, increase advertising revenues, endorsement revenues and many within the industry that long for the attention that this “One” man brings to the game.

Me, I’m just hopeful to finally have a solid Fantasy Pick!

I will say that it has been pretty awesome to see some new faces emerge from the crowd and I hope that we continue to see more.

I am still awed at the effect that Tiger Woods has on the entire golf industry.  Everything from Advertising revenues to blog visits have suffered a decline since he’s been gone and many have been anxiously awaiting his return.

I am curious to see how he performs next week, I imagine he’s allowed very little rust to creep in, but factor in lack-o-play and lack-o-sleep and he MIGHT not be at his peek.

But, I suppose, one must also consider the sheer determination of a man like him, a man who’s willing to push his body beyond his limits to be able to strike yet another mark in the win column.

-Dave

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I was perusing the forums over at Stracka and one of the members posted up this article.

I wanted to share it with you all because it’s a fabulous article written by a page two columnist over at ESPN.com named Mary Buckheit.  She tells a great story from a daughters perspective about her father and his committment to the game we all love.

It’s a very well written and moving article.

Don’t give up on golf

-Dave

Stumbled upon this golf glossary on ole faithful Wikipedia.  Every term you ever wanted to know about golf can be found here.

Golf Glossary

Enjoy!

-Dave

All right-handed golfers beware!

World Association of Left-Handed Golfers

First Golf, next, the world!!

and if you are not inclined to world domination…yet, here’s the National Association link.

National Association of Left-Handed Golfers

(crosses fingers) now that we again have a left handed president who plays golf, perhaps we can start seeing a better selection of clubs in the retail stores.

Also, notice his shorts.  There’s been an ongoing debate about whether or not cargo shorts should be allowed on the courses.  Both sides staunchly opposing the other with no middle ground in site.

I’ve always been in favor of cargo shorts, due mostly in part to the slimming effect they have on my gluteous maximus..

Seriously, can any shorts be more accommodating to a golfer than these?  The pockets are practically designed to hold golf balls, tees, divot tools, camera, cooler with beer, pocket caddy…

I dare say that the president’s choice of trousers will drive a stake through the heart of those cargo short naysayers! 

Are you for or against Cargos?

Or should I say, are you for or against the president and the Lefty – Cargo REVOLUTION!?

-Dave

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Local Golf Pro, Jim Thorpe has been charged with four counts of failing to pay $1.6 million taxes.

If convicted, Thorpe faces up to seven years in prision and a $3 million dollar fine.

The charges filed Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 (just 10 days after his 63rd birthday) in federal court in Orlando accuse Thorpe of failing to pay taxes on income he earned in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Thorpe, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, has won 13 times on the Champions Tour. He has earned nearly $17 million combined on the two tours.

Not even one year ago, Wesley Snipes was given three years for “brazen defiance” of the US Tax Laws, and now Jim Thorpe.

Hurts my heart seeing one of the elite of the ultimate “gentleman’s” game behaving like this…

Hopefully it turns out to be a huge misunderstanding.

-Dave

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Last Saturday, I had my second short game lesson from Brendon Elliott.

If you missed the first weeks lesson you can find it here – Orlando Golf Lessons.

For a quick recap, the first week was a putting evaluation, complete with video, pictures, dixx putter stats and a review of my last 10 golf scores.

Brendon compiled all that data and came to a simple conclusion, I’m a crummy putter. 

So this weeks focus was to unlearn my crappy habits and learn some better ones.  There was quite a few things that I needed changed, the first of which was my putter length.

I picked up the putter from play it again sports about four years back.  I think I paid twenty bucks for it and it was made for a giant.   The putter was about 2 1/2 inches too long for me and because of that, I was having to hunker down over the ball and bend my elbows so that the putter rested flush with the green.

This caused my swing to be totally inconsistent and made it very difficult to control the swing speed.

The proper putting form is displayed in the image on the left.  You want your shoulders and arms to form a perfect triangle with your hands holding the grip forming a point.

This triangle should never be broken through out the putt.

You need to swing in a low arching pendulum motion and the stroke should be even with the back swing distance matching the follow through distance.  For example, if your back swing is three inches, your follow through should also be three inches.

Additionally, your swing speed must remain constant.  Another problem with my putting was that my back swing was slow and I’d muscle the putter forward to strike the ball.  This opens you up to many inconsistencies in the swing path, swing speed and point of impact.

To help me get my swing speed rhythm down, we used a four count metronome.  Two counts for the back swing and two counts for the follow through.

Another problem that I had was that after the point of impact, I was turning my body towards the target, opening up my stance and causing the putter face to open and put some unwanted spin on the ball.  This was also causing me to extend my follow through out longer and higher than it should have been.

We used the Eyeline Putting Plane Alignment System to help break that habit.

This has guide  rails that helps to keep your swing path constant.

It also helps with the back swing and follow through distances.

Brendon has measured out the perfect distance from one of the holes on the green that if you take your back swing to the left of the putting plane and end it at the right of the putting plane, the putt will end up in the cup.

The last thing we covered was bending forward at the waist until your eyes are directly above the ball.  See that black line running down the center of the training device?  You square your shoulders to the red line closest to your feet and bend forward until your eyes are over that black line.

This lesson has helped me tremendously.  After I had my putter resized, I threw on a new grip in an attempt at a fresh start.  The very next day I played a round out a Dubsdread and manages to shave five strokes off my putting game.  I feel after a bit more practice and my body gets used to the new posture, I’ll be able to shave off another five strokes easy.

Stay tuned for more vicarious short game lessons via Brendon Elliott.

-Dave

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