Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

The Little Linksters is a junior golf program in Orlando, FL (eventually nationwide! ) for children ages three-eight. My good friend PGA Golf Professional and Head Golf Pro out at Winter Park Country Club, Brendon Elliott created the program a couple years back and has made some great progress in developing the curriculum.

Little Linksters Junior Golf Program is a great way to introduce all your aspiring PGA & LPGA junior golfers to the game we all love. The concepts introduced to the children are very simple to learn and it’s delivered in a fun and interactive way combining traditional and non-traditional golf teaching methods where there’s always an emphasis on fun.

Little Linksters – Orlando Junior Golf Program Information

• Program Runs in Five Week Sessions
• Each Session is One Hour
• Two Age Groups: 3-4 Years, 5-8 Years
• Limited to 10 Kids per Age Group

CURRENTLY OFFERED AT:

StarChild Academy (StarChild Students Only) – Lake Mary, FL

City of Deltona (OPEN TO ALL!) – Deltona, FL

Legacy Academy (Legacy Students Only) – Lake Mary, FL

My four year old Aiden, attended a couple sessions last year when they were using the SNAG Golf Clubs and he loved it. You can read about it here.

Little Linksters Weeks One & Two

Little Linksters Weeks Three & Four

We’re going to be attending the new session kicking off March 6th, 2010 out in the City of Deltona.

As part of the new Little Linksters Junior Golf Program, they’re going to begin the program using the US Kids Golf Training Clubs and eventually transition over to the Littlest Golfer Clubs. They’re also going to be using Almost Golf Balls, Almost Golf Targets, The Golfers Footprint, Eyeline Golf Training Aids and few other gadgets thrown in for good measure.

The entire five week session only costs $60 per child at the City of Deltona location and the other locations are $75 per child.

If you have a child who has shown some interest in the game, or if you are looking for a way to introduce your child to golf, the Little Linksters Junior Golf Program is a great way to do so.

Let me know if you’re going to be out there Saturday, I’d love to meet you!

Played a round of Golf yesterday with John Duval, the writer of intothegrain.com. He’s (big surprise) a much better golfer than I am and was really cool to play golf with.

Infrequently and always upon request, he’d impart nuggets of wisdom on this hapless, yet hopeful, hacker.

One of the coolest things he showed me was the knockdown/stinger shot. It’s a shot that has very little loft and spin and when it hits the ground it rolls for a mile.

Coincidentally,  he’s previously written about this shot (one of this favorites), here’s the link.

How to hit Tiger Woods Stinger Shot

Below is an excerpt of the post.

As with most shots, the secret to hitting the knockdown shot is in your setup. To hit the ball lower, you have to make a few changes that will help you de-loft the club and basically turn a 5 iron into a 3 iron.

Step 1: Take an extra club or two and grip down on the club so that a few inches at the top of grip stick out past your left hand. Choking down on the grip gives you a bit more control and makes the club shorter, which reduces clubhead speed and spin.

Step2: Move the ball back a few inches in your stance. Ideally you want to play the ball just behind the center of your stance. The reason we do this is mostly to force the hands ahead of the ball and deloft the club. Be carefull not to play the ball too far back, as this forces you to make compensating moves to hit the ball solid and produces too much of a decending blow, creating backspin. The goal is to reduce backspin to the shot flies lower.

Step 3: Make a full backswing and shoulder turn. Don’t confuse the knockdown with a punch. This isn’t a punch shot. A punch shot requires a shorter backswing, but a knockdown is a full swing that flies lower, so make a normal, full shoulder turn.

Step 4: Lead with the hands. The key to this shot is delofting the club, and the setup is designed to help that. At impact your hands should be ahead of the ball and the club should be striking the ball with a slightly descending blow. You have to resist the urge to help the ball in the air by flipping it, the goal here is a low flying shot.

Step 5: Follow through low with your hands going towards the target. Tiger likes to play this shot with “soft hands”, which basically means that he’s not releasing the club aggressively. Instead he doesn’t let the right hand overtake the left on the follow through and the result is a low flying stinger, as shown below.

We played out at Eagle Creek Golf club and from the tips, I shot a 93. Which is easily ten strokes better than my average. I attributed it to a couple of factors, one being my custom fitted TaylorMade Burner Irons, another being “rising to the occasion” and playing with a one handicap golfer like John and the last being the new ball I’ve switched to. I’ve played two rounds with the Srixon AD333’s and both rounds have landed me in the 90’s.

I’m working on a post about fitted clubs, which are said to be beneficial to golfers of all levels. At first, I’d always dismiss this as a marketing tactic, but now I think I’ve seen the light. <- stay tuned for more.

Hope the Monday isn’t too harsh!

-Dave

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TaylorMade Performance Lab Orlando, Grand Cypress Academy of Golf

Last week, I had one of the coolest experiences of my golfing life. I was given the opportunity to receive a custom club fitting out at the TaylorMade Performance Lab at the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf.

Now, to most people, a custom club fitting consists of nothing more than going to your local golf retailer and hitting some balls off a launch monitor and analyzing the contact tape to see where your ball strikes. That type of fitting doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what these guys do for you.

I’d like to preface this review by saying that I really hope to be able to do them justice, but I feel my words will probably be lacking of the profound coolness that is the TaylorMade Performance Lab.

The first thing you encounter when you enter the lab is this security vault style door, pretty intimidating thing to see in person!

When I arrived, I was introduced to Travis Kent who is the manager and master club fitter at the performance lab. He explained to me how the custom club fitting works and what the plan of attack for the day would be. So pretty much, here’s how it goes…

• Evaluate your existing equipment and discuss outstanding problems you’ve been having with them.
• Don the sensor suit (my name, not theirs, I dunno if they have any really cool name for it.. )
• Swing some clubs and evaluate the output.
• Based on the data collected, build a set of demo clubs for you to hit on the range.
• After you see the awesomeness that is your golf game when you have a custom set of sticks, you practically throw money at Travis to build you a set. (literally…..no seriously)

So he took a look at my existing clubs and after a couple of poorly masked cough chuckles he mentioned that my irons are all about 1/2 inch shorter than the standard length of todays irons. We discussed my game and I told him that I suffered from a slight to moderate power fade (to be read, insane boomerang slice). For those that don’t know yet, I’m a lefty golfer so a slice for me means my shots head to the left.

After discussing my clubs and my game, Travis says, “Alright, let’s get you suited up and create your

avatar!” (Disclaimer: This part is freaking cool!!!!) So, by getting some of your vitals (height, waste and shoe size) and putting this sensor suit on you, they create your avatar.

As you can see in the picture to the right, they attach 26 sensors to your body which are read by the nine high speed (180 FPS) cameras that are strategically located throughout the room. Once you’re all suited up, you stand in the middle of the room and they turn the cameras on and take a snapshot of your body structure and upload it to be used during your fitting. Thankfully, it’s rather slimming and does a good job of masking the expanding girth..

The whole club fitting process utilizes (initializing copy-paste) Motion Analysis Technology by TaylorMade technology (MATT) to provide golfers with an experience that far exceeds anything previously available to the public.

MATT gathers vital swing information and statistics using multiple high-speed cameras. MATT distills that information to create a remarkably sophisticated three-dimensional computer-animated image of your swing viewable from every angle. MATT also executes a multitude of calculations and measurements to develop a data-driven personal club recommendation.

MATT provides a superior club-fitting and/or instructional experience by supplying club-fitters and instructors with an unparalleled level of practical data, giving them the power to analyze your swing and identify your needs with remarkable precision. Your clubs will fit better, improving your game — and your score. (end copy-paste)

For my fitting, I hit three clubs, a six iron, driver and putter. I hit about four shots with each club and after every shot we’d analyze the shot on the big projector screen they have set up. MATT captures every aspect of your swing and it can be viewed a couple of hundred different ways. Here’s a slightly complete list of the different aspects it captures.

• Clubhead Path
• Swing Planes
• Speed Planes
• Center Of Gravity
• Body Line on Shoulders, Hips, Knees, Toes, and Spine
• Face Angle
• Target Line
• Ball Position
• Head Position
• X – Factor ( Relationship between Shoulder Turn and Hip Turn)
• Shaft and Shoulder Plane
• Wrist Cocking Angle
• Shaft Line
• Shaft Deflection
• Posture Lines
• In/Out Path of Club
• Up/Down Path of club
• Hand Speed
• Clubhead Speed
• Effective loft of the club at impact
• Ball Speed
• Launch Angle
• Backspin
• Side spin
• Ball Trajectory
• Computed Distance and Roll

Here’s a video I captured of one of my swings. It’s only showing the swing planes, but you can imagine where it can go from there…

For my swing, Travis concluded a couple things; On ALL of my clubs (driver, irons, putter) my clubface is open at contact, my swing plane varies pretty significantly from the take away plane to the downward motion plane, and he surmised that it was probably due to the fact that I’ve been hitting clubs that were too short for me. So instead of going straight back and straight forward, I’m taking the club back and while doing that, I’m pushing my hands forward which is causing my head to drop a bit and then i’m pulling the club in at impact which is causing my open club face and causing me to come across the ball putting some sideways spin on it.

Not only was Travis able to identify my swing troubles, he showed me how to fix it. Soooo, real quick, totally awesome custom  club fitting session AND an Orlando golf lesson! It’s been some solid advice too.

Once the fitting is done, the system uses some sophisitcated algorithm and compares your swing to 1,500,000 others and comes up with a recommended set of custom TaylorMade clubs for you. The master club fitter then looks it over, makes any corrections he/she deems necessary and then sets out to build a set of demo clubs for you to go to the range with. The recommended driver for me was the TaylorMade R9 460, 10.5 degree loft and the clubface closed two degrees. The irons were the 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons 3I-PW -.5 degree flat.

We went to the range to hit these custom fitted clubs and after a couple swings, I was bombing them down the range. It was such an awesome feeling! Needless to say, I’ve since ordered a full set of TaylorMade Burner irons that should be arriving this week. Stay tuned for a review on those

After the fitting was over, he burned all my swings onto a CD as well as the club recommendations for me to take home. I spent a good while just replaying my swing and checking out the different components.

I asked Travis who he thought would benefit most from a custom club fitting and he said, “Honestly, everyone. Whether your a low, mid or high handicapper, a custom club fitting can be a huge benefit to you and your game.”

Alright, if you’ve managed to read down to this point, got some good news for ya! Well, two pieces of good news, the first (and most important);

If this is something you think you want to do, call Travis and mention that you were referred by Dave from OrlandoGolfBlogger, he’s going to give you a 50% discount off the price!

Here’s his contact info.

Travis Kent
TaylorMade Performance Lab
Grand Cypress Resort
1 North Jacaranda Blvd
Orlando, FL 32836
Travis@tmplabs.com
Lab: (407) 238-0577
Mobile: (407) 760-0609

The 2nd great piece of news is that at long last, I FINALLY have a newsletter! Sign-up below!
If you’re heading out there, let me know, I’d be glad to give you any other details you might need/want.

-Dave

Holy busy Friday!

I’m going to change the format a bit today and instead of a long post on a single topic, I’m going to a long post a couple of different topics.

First things first. Everyone’s Favorite Golf Ball, the Top Flight Gamer Ball is on sale at GolfSmith. They’re running a special 2 for $35! Not a bad deal at all! You can pick em up in the store or online. If you’re looking to buy, click the image below so I’ll make like $.20 cents from it

If you haven’t heard about this ball, it’s a super sweet, relatively inexpensive Golf Ball. It received a gold rating on the Golf Digest 2009 Golf Ball Hotlist. Click the link below to read about it.

Golf Digest Golf Ball Hotlist 2009 – Top Flite Gamer

and here’s a slightly dated, yet still relevant review of the ball.

Top-Flite Gamer Golf Ball

If you play or if you’ve played this ball, I’d like to hear what you think about it.

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I’ve just started reading Carl Hiaasen’s newest book called “The Downhill Lie.” I’m not very far into it, but I can tell already it’s going to be an interesting read. Within the first couple pages, there comes a scene where two guys are using golf clubs to hit toads off their front porch!

Stay tuned for a full review!

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Golf Tip of the Day – Be mindful of the leading shoulder

Recently, I’ve been hitting an unusually high number of fat shots. The divot was starting about two inches behind the ball instead of infront of it. With a little help from the world famouns Brendon Elliott, I soon realized that I was dipping my lead shoulder during my back swing.

This bad habit started when I was attempting to hone my weight shift. By emphasizing my weight shift to my back foot on my back swing I was inadvertantly dipping my lead shoulder which lead to some seriously screwed up shots. I’ve thus begun correcting this oversight but it did cost me some strokes.

So, if you’re experiencing some fat shots and can’t figure out why, you might be dropping that lead shoulder on your backswing. When you’re on the range, concentrate on keeping the shoulder up and twist more with your upper body.

Just my two cents.

Happy Friday!

-Dave

Jay Busbee over at The Devil Ball blog posted up a pretty good podcast interview with John Feinstein.

For those who don’t know about John, he is an amazing sportswriter who’s written some of the best golf books out there. I’m currently reading “A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour” and I am in awe at how well he tells a golf story. Some of it is edge of your seat stuff, where John keeps you hanging on every word. I made a comment to an associate of mine  yesterday that “It feels like I’m reading a good fantasy novel.” If you’re not a fantasy buff, than replace with your favorite genre of books.

The point is, it’s not your every day “golf book” where a bunch of players are being interviewed by the author, it’s a series of great short stories with a fair amount of golf history included in them. I have a sneaky suspicion this is going to be this year’s Orlando Golf Blogger Book of the year.

But.. I digress, here’s the link to the podcast.

John Feinstein has a new book “Are You Kidding Me?: The Story of Rocco Mediate’s Extraordinary Battle with Tiger Woods at the US Open” that was released on May 18th of this year and he discusses it with Jay on the podcast.

The Devil Ball Golfcast, episode 13: John Feinstein

Have you read any books by John Feinstein? If so, whats your take?

If you’re looking for a great, free way to improve your game, you might consider signing up for Golf Digest’s Make Me Better 2009, formerly known as the Golf Digest Challenge. Honestly, I don’t know why they changed the name, but personally, I don’t like it.

It takes no time at all to sign up and it’s pretty dang awesome. I signed up for it last year(see Golf Digest Challenge 2008) but did not  do anything with it and like most things, you get out of it what you put into it.

Once your account is created, you can choose one of these areas to focus on.

• Power
• Consistency
• Short Game
• Scoring
• GD Woman (woo, golf and dating tips……..ha……ha…..)

Each focus has a PGA Tour Professional as a role model. My focus presently is consistency and the role model assigned is the great Jim Furyk. Also under each focus there’s featured lessons that apply specifically to your focus. The lessons are taught by a whole range of industry professionals and they cover a variety of topics pertaining to that focus.

Aside from the featured lessons, there’s a progress tracker where you keep track of your rounds and various stats pertaining to the round. You set a target score and then you spend ages trying to reach it.  Click here to view the scorecard. You track things like putts, chips & pitches, GIR, etc..

As you log your rounds, GD keeps track of them and show you trends in your game, see the graph below.

The more accurately you log your rounds, the better advice they’re able to give you. When you access the progress tracker, it’ll say something to the effect of, “based on the data you’ve provided, we’ve determined that you need to work on XXXX.”

There’s also a full lesson library that can be searched by topic or by instructor.

And probably the greatest part of the whole program is a free swing analysis by some of the top instructors in the country. I went to the range on Monday, May 11th and using my digital camera, I took some video of my swing with three different clubs. I uploaded them and today I received the first analysis which was completed by Mike Richards out of Heron Bay Golf Club, Coral Springs, FL.

I was extremely impressed with the detail he put into analyzing my swing and I am very excited to try out the changes he recommended.  See below for the swing analysis of my driver and 3w.

Awesome right?

This month is a great month to get started on this because you can use this in conjunction with the 12th Annual PGA Free Lesson Month going on throughout the month of May.

Oh and please, no jokes about my swing, yes I know, it’s pretty embarrassing..

Hope you guys find this useful! Consider this my Orlando Golf Lesson of the week!

-Dave

If you’re already using the Golf Digest Make Me Better 2009, I’d love to hear from you and see the swing analysis that was done, leave a comment with a link. Also, I’m looking to get more golf instruction posts going, so if you’d like me to research something and write about it, also, leave a comment.

Saw this on the EyeLine Golf website and thought it was too good not to mention.

Your Orlando Golf Lesson of the day, how to build your own putting green It’s GREAT for the short game.

Here’s your Orlando Golf Lesson of the day!

I received this story in an email and thought it was worth sharing. I’m glad he associates one of the “big” things to golf!

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is ever ything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Have an awesome day!

-Dave

Here’s my Orlando Golf Lesson for the week.

So, I’ve been having some issues with hitting consistent iron shots.  The world famous Brendon Elliott who is the head golf pro out at Winter Park Country Club has made great strides in helping me resolve these issues.  We’ve totally changed up my stance and I’m trying to lock down the proper weight shift and swing path.

While researching all this, I came across some surprisingly good videos that have given me some things to think about.

After going through a bunch of the videos on youtube, I realized that the best videos were the ones that were created by a company called Bionic Gloves.  Now, it wasn’t my intent to give some free advertising to a company I haven’t heard of, but these guys deserve it.  In an effort to promote their product, they partnered up with a couple of golf pros and they’ve created a series of game improvement podcasts.

Viewers who are having problems with their game email their questions to podcast@bionicgloves.com. Chaz Rough picks a question to answer, sends a free glove to the questioner and video’s the answer and posts it on their website for free viewing.  They’ve recorded over 100 podcasts and should you wish, you can download them for $1.99 per.

I think they used to post all their videos on youtube, but the past twenty or so have only been available on their website, which sucks because I can’t embed them for your viewing pleasures

In addition to these two videos below, check out #112 and #113 on the podcast section of their website for two cool irons drills.

Here’s a David Ledbetter’s Set, Check & Go drill.

Hope this helps you!

Here’s some links to some other Orlando Golf Lesson posts I’ve written.

Orlando Golf Lessons – Putting

Orlando Golf Lessons – Chipping

Orlando Golf Lessons – Pitching

Orlando Golf Lessons – Sand Shots

I appreciate you visiting the site! Feel free to leave a comment!

-Dave

The 12th annual PGA Free Lesson Month is right around the corner!  Starting May 1st, 2009, PGA/LPGA Professionals nationwide are going to be giving a free 10-minute lesson to any and all who are interested!

Regardless of your age or skill level, you’ll have the opportunity to learn the basics or improve upon existing skills or problems…

You can find a PGA or LPGA professional whos participating int he PGA Free Lesson Month at PlayGolfAmerica.com

According to Golf Digest, a number of things can be learned in 10 minutes, including how to generate more swing speed, how to read breaking putts, how to chip with a hybrid golf club, how to draw the ball for more distance, how to cure an “over-the-top” swing and how to use your legs for power, to name a few.

Whether as an individual or with friends or family, PGA Free Lesson Month offers the perfect excuse to get outside, learn new skills and get a little exercise, all while enjoying the game of golf.

“By participating in PGA Free Lesson Month, consumers of all experience levels will benefit firsthand from expert lessons provided by PGA/LPGA Professionals in a comfortable one-on-one setting,” said PGA of America President Jim Remy. “As we approach the one million free lesson mark, we are pleased so many consumers have already taken advantage of this program and invite those who have not to contact a local PGA/LPGA Professional and hit the links for an unforgettable experience.”

Since The PGA of America and Golf Digest jointly launched this nationwide campaign in 1998, more than 938,000 free lessons have been given. Last year, nearly 6,340 PGA/LPGA Professionals nationwide gave more than 106,600 free lessons to consumers. Among those who participated in 2008, 54 percent were new customers at the host facility, 30 percent were women and 23 percent were new to the game.

“One million free lessons is an incredible accomplishment and a great benefit to the game of golf,” said Jerry Tarde, chairman and editorial director of Golf Digest Publications. “We are extremely proud to be associated with PGA Free Lesson Month and thank The PGA of America and the thousands of PGA and LPGA Professionals who dedicate their time to make this initiative a glowing success.”

Every golfer who takes a free lesson and sends in a Free Lesson Card is eligible to enter a sweepstakes to win a two-day/two-night golf getaway to The PGA Center for Golf Learning and Performance in Port St. Lucie, Fla., including hotel accommodations, round-trip, economy airfare, a two-day session at The PGA Center for Golf Learning and Performance and a custom-fit set of golf clubs. One hundred runners-up will receive a copy of The PGA’s First Swing Golfer’s Guide and a 2008 Ryder Cup DVD.

PGA Free Lesson Month is one of several programs designed to grow and stimulate participation in the game of golf under “Play Golf America,” a national marketing umbrella campaign that is supported by the golf industry. Play Golf America was developed by The PGA of America, with the support of Allied Associations including: the LPGA, National Golf Course Owners Association, PGA Tour, USGA and others involved in the annual Golf 20/20 Conference.

Click here for original article PGA Free Lesson Month to be in full swing during entire month of May

Leave a comment if you’ve done this before or are planning to do it. I’m curious about your thoughts on this one.

-Dave

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