Golf Blog by The Orlando Golf Blogger

I picked up a Spotless Swing Golf Towel at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show and used it during the 2010 Battle of the Golf Blogs out at Falcon’s Fire.

This is a very cool product. It is a multipurpose golf towel that’s three functions in one. The outside of the towel is used to wipe your face, hands, grips, ice off your beer, etc..

The inside is used to clean your grooves and clean your clubs. There’s a pocket on the inside of the towel that has two different textures. There’s an abrasive microbrush surface that serves as a replacement for your grooves brush and then a second surface to wipe the club clean. The microbrush surface is like a synthetic steel wool that does a great job of cleaning the grooves. I’m still mystified at how they were able to incorporate the grooves brush into the towel. At first I thought it was two pieces of cloth sewn together, but it’s not. Somehow, they were able to stitch the abrasive surface into the inside of the towel and still leave the outside for wiping your face or whatever..

One of my biggest complaints about having a towel and a groove brush on the bag is that all the time, the steel side of the groove brush catches the towel and creates an annoying tangle that usually results in a rip in my golf towel, usually on the “clean” area reserved for my face. The Spotless Swing towel eliminates that problem as well as the need for a “clean” area of a towel.. the entire outside is now reserved for that! Also, the grooves brushes suck because after a couple of uses, the steel gets all tangled together and you end up trying to clean your grooves with a block of metal with a couple of stray strands that typically prick your fingers when you’re not paying attention.

Something else I really liked about the towel is the size.  You ever experience playing golf after a big rain and when you go to wipe your clubs, you find that the tires from the cart have splashed mud and water all over your newly laundered towel? Happens to me all the time and it’s one of the most infuriating experiences. The Spotless Swing is long enough to serve it’s purpose while being short enough to stay in the “splash free” zone.

Back to the Microbrush surface, it does a thorough job of cleaning the grooves and unlike a wire brush, it doesn’t scratch up your clubs. I’m hitting the 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons and they have a beautiful sleek gun metal finish and about three weeks ago, I was idly scrubbing the grooves on my six iron with a wire brush and when I looked down at the club face, I had ruined the finish by adding a billion or so scratches.. I was relieved to find out that the towel didn’t do the same.

The towel will run you about $19.95, it comes in graphite black or classic red and they’re going to be releasing other colors down the road. The towel is machine washable, although they recommend you don’t wash it with fabric softener. There’s also a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if the towel doesn’t meet your expectations, they’ll gladly give you a full refund.

Check it out, I’m certain you won’t be disappointed.

After playing  another round with the 2009 Taylor Made Burner Irons, I can say with little or no hesitation that these irons are well worth the investment.

Granted… I might be a little biased considering spent a good little bit of $$ purchasing them..

To give a little background for those who might have missed it, back in early July, I went out to the TaylorMade Performance Lab over at Grand Cypress for a custom club fitting.

You can read about it here -> TaylorMade Performance Lab at Grand Cypress.

To quickly summarize the experience, let me tell you that I’ve become a proponent of custom club fitting and I think there’s a value to be found for golfers of all skill levels and experience.

Out of that custom fitting, I took the recommendations and ordered my first set of custom clubs. They’re -.5 degree flat 2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons 4I-PW.

These irons are bit longer than most irons on the market today. It’s taking me a bit of time to adjust to these, my old irons were about 1/2 inch shorter than most irons on the market (yet another reason to get fitted, I’d of never purchased shorter than average irons, especially considering my somewhat over-average height ). Combine those two, we’re talking almost an inch difference between the old sticks and new.

TaylorMade Burner 2009 irons were designed with greater forgiveness and longer distances in mind. Something that I thought was very cool is that the long-irons, middle-irons and short-irons were all designed separate and independent of one another by TaylorMade’s iron-creation team.

With greater forgiveness and longer distance in mind, they thinned the club face down as much as possible to make it more flexible and faster for a higher COR.

In case you were wondering, COR stands for the “coefficient of restitution” and is calculated by:

COR = ball speed after contact – club speed after contact ÷ club speed before contact

Or in simple english, how efficiently a ball bounces off the club face. A higher COR results in longer shots.

The TaylorMade Burner Irons feature Inverted Cone Technology. This technology was originally developed to expand the COR zone of TaylorMade drivers. The Inverted Cone was drilled directly in the back side of the club face resulting in drastic variations of face thickness. The end result of the Inverted Cone was more distance resulting from mishits.

The club head is increased in sized by expanding the perimeter which increases the moment-of-inertia to a higher level than any previous TaylorMade iron. A higher MOI gives the club head more resistance against rotating when it makes contact with the golf ball… or ground..

The offset of the sole was increased a bit in order to make it easier to square the club face during impact. Also, the width of the sole was increased to lower the center of gravity of the club face.

A new technology, labeled  SuperFast Technology was created and incorporated into the new TaylorMade Burner 2009 Irons. SuperFast Technology incorporates a higher coefficient of restitution(COR), higher moment-of-inertia(MOI), and progressive(longer, lighter) shaft-length, progressive(lighter) grips, and larger, more forgiving club faces. Combine all this and the end result is greater ball speed and forgiveness as you progress through the round.

TaylorMade Burner Irons are available in full sets that include 3-iron through Pitching Wedge. You can also purchase an additional sand wedge and lob wedge to complete your set.

Interested in purchasing a set? Click
TAYLORMADE Burner Iron Set 3-PW with Steel Shafts

I am very pleased with my new TaylorMade Burner Irons and if you’re in the market for some new clubs, I strongly encourage you to give them a shot.

Later folks!

-Dave

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I found BirthGolfDeath.com through twitter and Joseph Coonick (Creator/Owner) was kind enough to send me a shirt to demo. I was sent one of the “Life is Short. Play Golf Daily” Tee and I must say, it fits really well with my perspective on life! (now if only my wife could see the light!)

Now in order to make this work, I had to find the the highest paid clothing model I could find…. Look at that pizazz!

The shirt is very comfortable and stylish (at least as far as I can tell), but keep in mind, this is coming from a man who used to wear button down silk shirts with fish designs on them… (Sigh…. I miss those shirts, but thanks honey! )

It’s made out of 52% Cotton & 48% Polyester and it fits really well. It’s a lighter material so it’s, in my opinion, perfect for the summer heat. There’s a couple things I hate about a t-shirt, excess fabric (a dress t-shirt) or really heavy fabric (a t-shirt sweater) and this is neither.

As for the logo, I’m not really a big fan of skulls, skeletons, the undead or anything associated with bones. So, for me, the logo was not terribly impressive. But having said that, it’s not so in your face “badass sporting skulls” that I feel uncomfortable wearing it.

Now, I’m not saying skeletons should not be on golf shirt, they’re just not really my style. Take old John Daly for instance, I also don’t have much interest in loudmouth golf pants, but he (and others i’ve seen) pull them off …..well.

I would like to say that I think the logo is a very accurate representation of the company. Now this is probably my crazy left field deduction, but I interpret the logo like this… The cigar is representative of birth (IE “It’s a boy celebratory stogies), the golf clubs represent death…… hah! j/k, the clubs obviously represent the addiction we all crave and the skeleton golfer represents death, or atleast some persona of the end of the road. I suppose it’s also a safe interpretation to say that the cigar he’s puffing on, could also symbolize death or the pursuit of the afterlife……

Well, I suppose, enough of my ramblings. Below is the press release announcing their new spring/summer line 2009.

B.G.D. (BIRTH. GOLF. DEATH.) LAUNCHES
SPRING 2009 GOLF APPAREL COLLECTION
May 12, 2009 (Denver, Colo.) – Denver-based Birth.Golf.Death. (“B.G.D.”) has just released fresh new designs for the spring/summer 2009 season. The new designs include T-shirts, long and short sleeve polo shirts, windbreakers and jackets, each featuring B.G.D.’s signature logo of a skeleton golfer.

Many of the pieces are designed with an alternative flair, while others reflect a Zen-like golf experience, with Buddha and planet Earth featured in the designs.
“B.G.D. is golf apparel with an edge for today’s modern golfer,” said Joseph Coonick, B.G.D. creator and owner. “A unique and hip alternative to classic golf apparel, B.G.D. T-shirt designs are thoughtful and eye-catching, while the clothing is made from innovative modern fabrics to assist in keeping cool and dry on the course.”

Two recent showings by B.G.D. at the Denver Golf Expo in Denver, Colo. and the North Texas Golf Expo in Dallas, Texas have also emphasized the growing success of the company. Several designs sold out and numerous requests by pro shops, golf stores and tournaments were made to carry the B.G.D. line. Coonick, an avid golfer with a single digit handicap, personally creates the designs and is passionate about each and every new design he creates.

I was given a 15% off coupon code to pass on to you guys, it’s OB15. If you get a moment, check out their website and see if there’s anything you like.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter! Many cool things to come from it.

-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?

I thought this was a quick good read.  I’ve been using the EyeLine Putting Pendulum rod for about two months and it’s been beneficial.

I will say, at first, it’s VERY awkward but once you get used to it, it helps you develop a consistent swing path and is a very good reminder about breaking the wrists.

If you’ve got $30 bucks to invest in a training aid, this isn’t a bad way to go.

Putting S.O.S. Fundamentals

Solid - hit the putt solid
Online - start the putt on the target line
Speed - hit the putt the correct speed

The right loft gets the ball rolling and wanting to go in the cup!

The ideal putter loft at impact is 4 degrees.

That is enough to get the ball out of its depression, but not get it airborne.

Most manufacturers make putters so this loft is correct when the hands are directly vertical above the ball.

If my hands are slightly toward my back foot, then I have added loft.

If my hands are slightly toward my front foot, then I have reduced loft.

Either way … no good.

The Pendulum Putting Rod is how the Tour players (112 in 2008) check this setup position.

Use the rod, a mirror, a friend, or a coach … but make sure you are set up correctly.

Take a Product Tour of the Pendulum Putting Rod

I know it’s not quite an Orlando Golf Lesson, but it’ll help ya

Not to mention the guys out at EyeLine are freaking awesome and they’ve got a slew of putting drills and games for you to experiment with.

The venerable Brendon Elliott uses a lot of these training aids in his lessons and he swears by em.

-Dave

If you are in the market for a cheap, dependable golf GPS unit, you might consider checking out the IZZO Swami 1500 Golf GPS.

I was given the opportunity to review this unit and I’m going to tell you all about.. but first, here’s the copy and paste from the website

Simple, Fast & Accurate! SWAMI is everything a golfer needs in a GPS unit.

Featuring Insta-Lok Technology & powered by the latest SIRFStarIII chip, the SWAMI instantly calculates distance to the Front, Center and Back of the green of 12,000 US courses*.

SWAMI stores up to 10 courses at a time and automatically recognizes the course you’re playing, on power-up.

Easy to use buttons and a large display allows you to quickly cycle from hole to hole for quicker play.

The rechargeable Lithium Ion battery holds a charge for a minimum of 12 hours at a time for extended play. Finally a GPS unit, with the features you need, at a great price.

Now that that’s out of the way…

The first thing that I noticed about the IZZO Swami 1500 was the size.  It is much smaller than other units I’ve tried out and it comes with a very convenient belt clip that does not hinder the golf swing.  Most of the time, I find myself leaving the GPS in the cart because it’s so cumbersome, but not this one..

I was pretty impressed at the time it took to lock on to my position once I was on the course.  It wasn’t quite instant, but by the time I got out of the cart and walked back to my golf bag, the yardage was there on display.

Speaking of yardage, for the most part, the unit was accurate to within 3-7 yards.  Pretty darn impressive if you ask me..

The only time I noticed a larger variance is whenever I was on a tee box of a dogleg hole and the gps was calculating the most direct distance from between the green and me rather than following the hole.  This isn’t an IZZO Swami 1500 issue, as far as I know all GPS units have this limitation.

It has a pretty cool feature where it’ll recognize what course you are play just by turning the unit on, well, that is assuming you’ve installed the correct course…

The annoying part about this feature is the fact that it can take a couple minutes to actually locate the course.  But this really only affects the start of the round, when you first get to the golf course and if you’re a responsible/respectable golfer, you’ll arrive at the course with plenty of time to turn the unit on and have it find the course prior to the start of your round.

Once it’s setup, the unit is real simple to use.  You just add ten courses you want, make sure it’s charged and it’ll do the rest for you.

When you are playing the course, the default yardage is to the center of the green.  There’s an FCB button that you can press to get the distances to the front and back of the green.  The button just toggles through those three settings.

One thing it doesn’t do, that I wish it did was automatically change holes.  What I mean is if you go from the tenth to the eleventh, unless you push the up arrow, it’ll still be recording distances from your position back to the tenth green.  I suppose it’s a relatively minor annoyance, but I’ve noticed it happening to me quite frequently.

The unit sells for $149.99 and there’s an annual subscription of $35.00.

Overall, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the unit.  It’s not as sophisticated as other units and doesn’t quite have all the “fluff” that others does, for more than 1/2 the price of many of the other units, it does a pretty awesome job.

The display is large and easy to read and it’s a very precise unit.  I’ve played with it on two courses so far and I’ve had no problems.

One recommendation I have, add one more button to the unit that’ll allow us to lock a current position and track the distance from that position to your ball.  That was one of my favorite features of some of the other big names and I’d love for this to get it.

Here’s a link to their website where you can pick up the unit.

IZZO Swami Golf GPS

Hope you found this helpful..  Leave any and all feedback!

-Dave

I don’t know if you guys are familiar with Golf Digest’s Hot Lists, but they are a great source of information if your in the market for new golf gear.  They recently released their Hotlist 2009 for Golf Balls.

They tested every ball on the market, using multiple variables (player, robot and air-cannon testing) and came up with 28 balls that can claim the right to make the Golf Ball Hotlist 2009.

In order to prevent bias, they blacked out and numbered every ball tested so players would not know which balls they were hitting.

Golf Digest sought the input of golf retailers, scientists and a  panel of 22 players during testing at Ginn Reunion Resort in Reunion, Fla.

They’ve broken the results down into three categories;

Golf Balls $22 and under.

Golf Balls $22-$35.

Golf Balls $40 and up.

Each golf ball in the categories received a gold or silver rating based on, performance, innovation, feel and demand.

Because I’m such a (cough) frugal golfer, I was very interested in the $22 and under category.

I was very glad to see that my favorite ball and the ball I currently use received a gold rating.

I must be clairvoyant because I kewn last year that this was an amazing golf ball and all my praise and worship of the Top-Flite Gamer Ball was not based soley on it having such a cool name, which it does… 

(clears throat)

And I quote

“Sophisticated in its technology, Gamer achieves more performance per dollar than any ball in golf.”

Since the demand is only 2 1/2 stars, there plenty available!

Well, actually, that’s not accurate, I had to go to three different stores last week to find em.

Since then I’ve been sticking to buying them via Ye Ol Internet.  You can check out the full article here: Hotlist 2009 – Golf Balls

It’s important to note that selecting the right golf ball is an individual process and every person is different and thus what’s good for me isn’t necessarily good for you.

At the bottom of the article there’s a good video and article that’ll help sort out which golf ball is best for you.

If you’re interested, ProGolf.com is having a 15% off sale until the end of April and you can order some Top-Flite Gamer Balls for $22 (after discount and S&H)

What’s your Ball-O-Choice and where does it fall in the rankings?

-Dave

I’m sure you’ve all heard about these guys and if not, get out from underneath the rock you’ve been living under!

Eyeline Golf makes products to help us hackers improve our putting game. Well, not only us hackers, last year 245 touring pros picked up EyeLine Golf equipment.

As you know, one of my resolutions this year is to improve my short game and I’ve been taking lessons with the great Brendon Elliott.

He’s the one who turned me on to these guys and I’ve since picked up the EyeLine Putting Plane Alignment System and the EyeLine Pendulum Putting Rod.

The Putting Plane System is used by 47 touring pros. As the name might imply, the putting plane has a mirrored surface with a black line down the center. This is the line that you align your eyes to, for the correct putting posture, distance from the ball, and swing path.

It also has two adjustable rails, remember as a kid, when you and your family used to go bowling together and they had those bumpers up so you would never throw a gutter ball? Well these rails have a similar function. they train your body to follow a correct swing path and create a smooth, natural, open to close stroke.

I use this at home, on my high-speed-low-drag Target brand putting green! I’ve also had my my “next-tiger-woods” son, Aiden, practice his putting using it. His putts were better than mine, but I attribute it to his lower center of gravity….

The Pendulum Putting Rod is currently being used by 112 touring pros and was recently featured in a GolfWeek Article.  Here is the most important excerpt:

“After seeing Charles Howell III working with the EyeLine device, Mike Weir decided to pick one up, and promptly opened the tourney with 21 putts and a round of 61. Also using one: Masters Champion Trevor Immelman.”

If that’s not a testament to the effectiveness of this device, nothing is…

The creator of the Pendulum Putting Rod is a man named Brian Lackey, who works at the Johnny Warren Golf Academy and was named the 2008 Tennessee Teacher of the Year.

The Pendulum Putting Rod creates a connection between the putter and the pivot point of a great stroke, the sternum.  The benefits of using the Pendulum Rod are:

• A perfect one-piece connection between the shoulders, arms, and hands
• It helps you stay in perfect posture throughout the stroke. If you lift your head, the rod will fall from your chest.
• It gives you a consistent way to check your putter shaft angle at address. This creates consistent putter loft and distance control.
• It keeps your stroke on plane. If you take the putter back outside the line, the Pendulum Putting Rod will fall.

I’ve been using these for about a month now and combined with Brendon Elliotts teachings, I’ve knocked off an average of six strokes from my putting.  Tell me that is not awesome!  It’s no 21 strokes like Mr. Charles Howell III, but, I’m not going to complain about it..

If you’ve picked one up or are planning to do so, I’d like to hear how it’s affected your game.

-Dave

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A local golf pro/instructor/blogger, etc… Brendon Elliot asked me to spread the word on this!  Take a look and support a good cause!  Also check out the little linksters link on the bottom of the post.  It looks pretty cool and I might be signing Orlando Golf Blogger Jr. up for it

“The Children’s Miracle Network® Golf Classic presented by Wal-Mart® at the WALT DISNEY WORLD® Resort tees off at Disney’s Palm and Magnolia Golf Courses November 6-9, 2008.

For more info click here

Support Brendon Elliott Golf and the development of our “Little Linksters” Junior Program by purchasing a Good Any One Day ticket. Proceeds from the ticket sales will go to Brendon Elliott Golf and the development of our “Little Linksters” Junior Program and local Children’s Miracle Network® hospitals including Arnold and Winnie Palmer Hospitals for Children in Orlando and Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville.

Good Any One Day tickets are $20 each and kids 17 and under get in free with a paid adult. New for 2008, complimentary parking is available.

To purchase tickets, call us at 386-532-9639 or visit us at www.BrendonElliottGolf.com

- Dave

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I dunno about you guys, but I love killing time watching videos on youtube, well, atleast I did until it was firewalled at the office….   Here’s a few you might enjoy.  For the first round of videos, click here.

Sorry I’ve been so aloof recently, been busy working on a couple other projects….  If only there were more hours in the day…

This is for all you Tiger haters…. eat it.

This one is just crazy, I have no idea how this is even possible….

Little Ben Hogan action for you.

Enjoy!

- Dave

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