Did You Miss the Cut?

The party at TPC Scottsdales 16th hole never stops, except for those who miss the cut or miss the point, and there were plenty of both during a week that featured the first public comments by Tiger Woods since Black Friday and a brave first step for a Tour favorite.

Made Cut

Chris Smith. The Tour veteran returned to work last week in Mexico eight months after the death of his wife in a car crash. Forget results because the scorecard couldnt begin to touch how meaningful this first step was for Smith.

Its great to be back out here but this might be my only chance to play this year. Ive got way too much to do at home to worry about playing golf, Smith told Golf Channels Jerry Foltz.

Smith, an original in a game often dominated by the status quo, once reasoned that most other sports assign numbers to players so why not golf? Smith took 15, while good friend Jerry Kelly opted for 13. Wed like to suggest a new number for the part-time player, full-time father No. 1.

The free market. If the populace is prone to vote with their pocket books than consider last weeks Allianz Championship the ultimate market correction.

Officials at the Champions Tour event made general admission free, a risky move that resulted in a spike in attendance, from about 9,000 on Friday last year to nearly 16,000 last week, and concession sales that doubled over 2009.

By comparison, Northern Trust Open officials upped the ante for walk-up tickets by $20, from $30 and $50, and felt the pinch at the gate. Which brings to mind the old campaign slogan for President Bill Clinton: Its the economy stupid.

Pastels. We normally leave the fashion to those with better credentials, that is to say anyone that doesnt buy their coats off-the-rack, but Ian Poulters Tour breakthrough last week in Tucson was the perfect combination of style and substance.

Were not suggesting a Sunday leaderboard should resemble a catwalk, but a little color say something between John Dalys Loudmouth pants and Steve Strickers muted earth tones couldnt hurt.

Continued here:
Did You Miss the Cut?

What is Waggle Factor?

In this week’s Q&A, Frank explains swing weight and Waggle Factor and what they mean.

Hi Frank,

You recently talked about wearing a glove and how it can affect the swing weight of a club, and I imagine wearing a watch might do the same? But my real questions are: What is swing weight?How does it affect the quality of the swing or the results?And how do I know/figure out what is the proper swing weight for me?

Thank you very much

Brian

Brian,

To your first question; What is swing weight?

A great amateur golfer, Francis Ouimet, won various events which included the U.S. Open in 1913. He selected his clubs based on feel an undefined term but most of us seem to have a general idea what it means. If you waggle the clubs in your set, they should all feel the same, i.e. have the same waggle factor.

Because Francis Ouimet was such a good golfer, his clubs matched by feel– were used to develop a balance system. This was done by hanging a weight (approximately 16 ounces) on the grip end of each club and finding a common balance point (fulcrum) from the butt end for each club. This balance point was 14 inches from the butt. Thus, the swing weight system was born in about 1920 and still used today. The swing weight is not described as the amount of weight needed to balance a club but by an alpha-numeric table such as D2 or C9 etc.

Swing weight is a questionable system for several reasons. First, it implies a dynamic measurement which it is not. Second, it can be abused by back weighting or adding weight down the shaft purely to get the same or desired number. Third, it is not very well understood.

Having said this, it must be noted that pure swing weight variations in shaft length and head weight only is a good first step in matching clubs, as this is closely related to the waggle factor a term I coined because it is so descriptive.

This waggle factor should be called matching by moment of inertia (MOI). This is a much better method of matching clubs as it takes into account the weight, length and is a true dynamic measurement. If you hold a club at the grip end and waggle it, you will experience a specific resistance every time you change direction back and forth. This relates directly to the MOI of the club about the axis you are waggling it i.e. the grip.

Now turn the club around, holding its head and waggle it. You will find the resistance to changing direction is reduced significantly. The MOI has changed and it feels different. Francis Ouimet, unbeknownst to him, was matching his clubs by the MOI method the waggle factor.

Most of us know, having mentioned it several times in Q&As over the last year, that wearing a glove will alter (decrease) the swing weight of the club by about five points, but will not noticeably affect the feel of the club.
The glove will not change the waggle factor (MOI) measurably.

Brian, now that we are over that explanation, let me say that in general terms the higher the swing weight (pure swing weight), the heavier the head and the more resistance you will feel to swinging the club to generating the same head speed.

After about 400 years of trial and error we have found that a swing weight in the range of about D0 to D3 is a good number for most male golfers. Females generally migrate to about C6 to C9. This, in most cases, is because the shaft length is about 1-inch shorter than men but the head weight is about the same.

So Brian a good starting point for you as for most men — is about a D0 or D2.

I am sure we will soon be matching clubs by MOI, which uses a relatively simple scale and takes into account all those variables used in swing weight, but is a dynamic measurement and more meaningful.

Waggle your way around this one, Brian.

Frank

See more here:
What is Waggle Factor?

Video: Nike Athletes on SQ Machspeed STR8-Fit Driver

In this video, provided by Nike Golf , staff players including Justin Leonard, Trevor Immelman and Lucas Glover talk about the performance, look and feel of the new SQ Machspeed STR8-Fit driver : See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTec Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter

Read the rest here:
Video: Nike Athletes on SQ Machspeed STR8-Fit Driver

They quoted me on PGA.com – I’m famous now

My dreams of being a writer for the mother ship, PGA.com, have come true. Nope, they didn’t bring me on as a high paid staff writer unfortunately, but you have to start somewhere. While reading nauseating Facebook updates about my old high school friends who I haven’t seen in decades, transients doing nutty stuff on

Read the rest here:
They quoted me on PGA.com Im famous now

Gear Notes: Padraig Harrington’s New Putter, Retief Goosen’s New Driver, Robert Karlsson Bending Irons

Odyssey
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington won three major championships using an Odyssey 2-Ball Blade putter, but he has switched to Odyssey’s yet-to-be-released Odyssey Backstryke 2-Ball (right).

What’s unique about the Backstryke 2-Ball? The shaft goes from the golfer’s hands straight to the center of the putter, then bends into the back of the head. This puts not only the face but nearly the entire putter in front of the point where the shaft enters the head. (Get it? Back-strike.)

According to Odyssey reps, Harrington said, “It goes right where I am aiming it.” When the rep started describing the putter’s design, Harrington stopped him and said, “I don’t want to know anything about it. All I know is that the ball goes right where I am aiming, and that is good for you.”

TaylorMade
Retief Goosen had been using a TaylorMade r7 SuperQuad driver for about four years before he recently made a switch. While he has tried different versions of the company’s R9 driver, he told me, “Because I have long arms, I’m struggling to get one that can be made flat enough for me.”

While visiting TaylorMade’s truck two weeks ago at Pebble Beach, Goosen was shown the new Burner SuperFast driver. Intrigued, the South African took a few and started practicing. According to TaylorMade, Goosen doesn’t want a driver that misses left, so after every left-side miss, a TaylorMade rep manually bent and adjusted the face, loft and lie angle of the driver. Unlike TaylorMade’s R9 family of drivers, the Burner SuperFast does not have movable weights or a head that can be unscrewed and re-attached using a torque wrench.

By the time Goosen walked away with his new driver, it had been bent 4 flatter than standard. At the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, he added a 15 TaylorMade SuperFast 3-wood and also and switched to a TaylorMade Rossa Spider belly putter as well.

Meanwhile, Sergio Garcia (who recently switched to a TaylorMade R9 SuperTri driver), spent about an hour grinding the bottom of his new TaylorMade TP wedges with xFT in the company’s tour van. The 54 and 58 clubs feature TaylorMade’s removable face plate design, so Garcia will not have to repeat the exercise when the grooves on the clubs start to dull.

Titleist
In Tucson, both Rory McIlroy and Geoff Ogilvy pulled 60 Titleist Vokey Spin Milled wedges out of their bags and replaced them with 58 wedges. Sweden’s Robert Karlsson, who won the European Tour’s Qatar Masters on Feb. 2, took things even further.

According to a Titleist rep, Karlsson had been using a 47 pitching wedge, a 50 gap wedge, a 55 sand wedge and a 60 lob wedge. He ditched the 50, 55 and 60 clubs in favor of a 53 and 58 wedge and a 21 3-iron. Karlsson then had Titleist reps weaken the lofts in his MB irons by 1 so he would not have any gaps in his set.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway/Odyssey, TaylorMade, and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter

(Photos: Harrington, Stuart Franklin/Getty Images; Goosen, David Dusek)

More here:
Gear Notes: Padraig Harrington’s New Putter, Retief Goosen’s New Driver, Robert Karlsson Bending Irons

Too Much Right Side In Your Go…

Too Much Right Side In Your Golf Swing? http://tinyurl.com/y97xfh4

Adidas Golf to Reward Aces with Free Shoes

By Woody Hochswender To mark the introduction of its next-generation Powerband 3.0 shoes at the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week, Adidas Golf is providing fans with an actual reason to shout in the hole at the par-3 16th. The company will give away 10,000 free pairs of Powerbands if either Kenny Perry or Pat Perezits sponsored professionalsmakes an ace on the stadium par 3. Fans must register at the Adidas website in order to be eligible. The Powerband 3.0, which retails for $140,

2010 Fantasy Golf Week 2 Results

FANTASY GOLF WEEK TWO is in the books! Week #2 results are at the bottom of this post! Congrats to FistPumpin for the win in week #2! Contact me to claim your prize! WHERE AND HOW TO SIGN UP 1. Point your browser to Kerplookee.com. 2. Create an account if you dont have one. It is easy. 3. Click on

See the original post:
2010 Fantasy Golf Week 2 Results

Breaking the "Rules"…

Breaking the "Rules" of Putting – http://www.putterzone.com http://shar.es/mmKD3 via @sharethis

A Better Golf Swing Using Simp…

A Better Golf Swing Using Simple Improvements http://bit.ly/d60tK1

Next Page »