Gear Notes: Michael Sim’s Titleist Hybrid, TaylorMade’s New Drivers, Ping’s Irons and Callaway’s New Tour i(z) Ball

Titleist Michael Sim ( right ), who in 2009 won the Nationwide Tour money title and Player of the Year award, as well as a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour, spent some time at the Acushnet Test Facility before the start of last week's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines . According to Titleist's Blog , Sim felt that the distance gap between his AP2 9-iron and his pitching wedge was too large, so he sought the help of some Titleist fitters. By switching from a 47 Vokey Design Spin Milled C-C to a club with 48, the gap shrank from 18 yards to 12 yards. Sim also told fitters that while his 695CB 2-iron worked well on the sandy, dry courses in his homeland of Australia, PGA Tour courses demanded shots that fly higher and stop quickly. After trying various hybrids, he put a prototype 503i with a Project X 6.5 shaft into his bag and took out the 2-iron. Sim also asked Titleist reps to look at his putting stroke using the company's high speed cameras at the Scotty Cameron putting studio. “It wasnt as good as what it was last year when I went in there,” he told Titleist. “But we managed to correct that in probably 20 minutes.” Sim finished tied for second at Torrey Pines. Here is a complete list of his clubs: DRIVER: Titleist 905R (8.5) with a Mitsubishi Diamana White 83 shaft FAIRWAY WOOD: Titleist 909F2 (13.5) with a Mitsubishi Diamana Blue 93 shaft HYBRID: Titleist 503i with True Temper Project X shafts IRONS: Titleist AP2 (3-9) with True Temper Project X shafts WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled C-C (48, 54, 60) with True Temper Project X shafts PUTTER: Scotty Cameron for Titleist Newport Squareback BALL: Titleist Pro V1x TaylorMade You've had a chance to read all about TaylorMade's newest drivers, the R9 SuperTri and the Burner SuperFast . Last week at Torrey Pines, PGA Tour pros had their first chance to hit the clubs on the range. The video below, provided by TaylorMade, shows some of their reactions: Ping There has been a lot of talk about Ping Eye2 wedges recently, especially after John Daly and Phil Mickelson used the venerable clubs in PGA Tour events. The grooves on the Eye2 wedges would be non-conforming with the USGA's new rules, except they were grandfathered to be legal in perpetuity thanks to a lawsuit Ping won 20 years ago. However, Ping cannot make more Eye2 irons and wedges with the old grooves, but on eBay the clubs are selling like hotcakes. What was interesting to see at the Farmers Insurance Open was that there were 24 sets of Ping irons in play. Twelve sets were used by Ping staff players, and 12 were used by players NOT on Ping's staff, including K.J. Choi ( right ) who used a set of the company's new G15 irons . Choi, who is no longer a Nike staff player, also played with a TaylorMade r7 Limited driver . Callaway According to the company, Spains Alvaro Quiros switched to Callaway's new Tour i(z) ball at last week's European Tour event in Qatar, where he finished second behind Robert Karrlson. Callaway officials pointed out that the switch may have helped the longest hitter in Europe get a touch longer off the tee. Quiros averaged

Golfers Are Funny About Golf Swings!

Ive tried video analysis, Ive tried Golf Tec, Ive even tried getting down on my hands and knees to pray.

Yet, I still have the same inconsistent golf swing. Ive spent hundreds well, thinking about it . Ive spent thousands . well, lets just put it this way . my kids inheritance isnt what it used to be trying to find something to help me become more consistent.

We live in a society that thrives on making things simpler. Perfect example: Would you rather use Microsoft Word or go back to loading paper into a typewriter and then having to go through the hassle of starting over after making a simple mistake. (Really, I tried to type mistake wrong to illustrate my point, but Microsoft wont let me make a mistake even if I wanted to).

Make Life Simple

Yet, the Golfer thats having a hard time on the golf course seems to be looking for more difficult. Were actually thinking of changing our company name to Golf Made Difficult, but we feel if we did there would be too much demand and we wouldnt be able to keep up with number of Golfers calling and emailing us to help them make complicated swing changes.

So well keep it Golf Made Simple

Why do most people today have their automobiles shift gears automatically as opposed to manually shifting? Why dont you have a rotary telephone in your house anymore? Do you know anyone that still fiddles with an answering machine thats hooked up by a cord to your telephone as opposed to voice mail?

Yet, the Golfer isnt happy until your Instructor sits you down to analyze every movement of your golf swing. The Golfer wants to know everything theyre doing wrong in their swing. You see my right elbow at the top of my swing, is that where its supposed to be? Well Mr. Lewis, youre right, according to our highly advanced technology that can analyze every movement in your golf swing, along with determining if youre getting enough calcium in your diet it shows that your right elbow is about 2.394 degrees out of place.

In every aspect of our life, were trying to make things Simpler. Were trying to use less thought to accomplish difficult tasks. Yet in Golf the so-called Swing Gurus are trying to make things more difficult!

An 8 Step Swing? I have difficulty walking and chewing gum at the same time.

To give you an idea on how embarrassed I am about this complicated is better philosophy that has hooked Golfers to the point of me relabeling it as Crack for Golfers somebody sent me this amazing comment they found on the Golf Tec website By primarily working in an indoor, controlled environment, clients can focus on the swing process as opposed to simply relying on ball flight. By ignoring ball flight in some of (the) lessons, clients can avoid reinforcing bad habits.

Ignoring your ball flight can avoid reinforcing bad habits? Is that a joke? Are they trying to be funny? Dont tell me theyre serious. That comment may be the #1 reason that video analysis will really mess up your golf swing!

Do I smell Snake Oil?

Technology has helped us create better golf clubs and golf balls. Its helped to make the golf club out of better materials (from Persimmon Wood and Hickory Shafts to Titanium and Graphite Shafts), along with allowing us to fit you to the correct equipment to match your golf swing.

All these other complicated swing techniques that are based upon you copying Jim McLeans 8-Step Swing or the Golf Tec model swing or the Stack and Shank ahhh, I mean the Stack and Tilt swing – hasnt helped anybody (I have ever met) swing better. It might make a Golfer feel better that at least theyre doing something to try to improve but has it helped your swing to improve to the point that your scores have gotten better?

So why have I gotten into the whole gimmick swing, video analysis, you better be careful what you do next to improve your golf swing – rap? Because its that time of year that millions of Golfers cant go outside to play so they feel the next best thing is to sign-up to take golf lessons at one of those video simulator places that you can get your swing analyzed, or wile away your time with a book that explains 8 different swing moves you need to master or get on a Golf Internet Chat room thats filled with closeted, anonymous Golf Gurus with nicknames such as Golf Genius that are looked up to like Rock Stars by frustrated, desperate Golfers that will do anything not to be frustrated anymore.

My question is Do you know anyone that has signed up for a 6 lesson Video Analysis series and taken all 6 lessons? On the other hand Do you know anyone that has signed up for a 6 lessons series and only taken 4 or 5 lessons? Why is that so commonplace? Well, they bait you in with promises of Glory and after the 4th week, when youre so confused that youre scared to swing the golf club back because youre thinking about everything youre doing wrong and how you want to make sure that you do it correct something deep down inside says to you this stinks!

This is too complicated, why am I making it so hard on myself?

The Monkey is constantly swinging from vine to vine looking for answers unfortunately they believe that the more difficult the vine is the better it is for their golf swing

The Player just Tick Tocks and smiles

Are you swinging vine to vine as you grit your teeth or are you smiling?

Marc Solomon -Your Instructor For Life

www.GolfMadeSimple.com

The Can’t Miss Golf Gift Issue!

The GMS Holiday Gift Issue Each week we write about improving your golf game. This week we’re going to change things up to speak about 4 golf products you might want to look at as a gift for yourself or someone else that will make the overall golf experience better. Each week, I’m approached by companies all over the world to introduce their products to the thousands of Golfers that read Golf Improvement Weekly (now over 24,000) and the over one thousand Golfers that come to see GMS each year. And while I turn down 99.9% of what I see as not being worth the plastic it’s made of – there are some great, great products out there for Golfers. So with this being gift buying season … well, at least for guys like me that wait till the last minute – I’m sure most of the smarter people have completed their holiday shopping by now. Yet, even if you’re finished holiday shopping –I highly recommend that you look at these products. They are just excellent products that I currently use, viewed or have tested. The Back Nine – This might be the most intriguing product of them all. It’s a movie about golf. But it’s not just any movie. It’s about a 40 year old that’s around an 11 handicap that has a family, a job and …. wants to see if he can make it on the PGA Tour. And it’s a true story. Now, this is intriguing because at least once a month we get a phone call from at least one Golfer that is in a similar situation and wants to make the PGA or Senior Tour. Yet, there’s no way it will happen for these Golfers. It’s not as easy as getting to a zero handicap to make it on Tour. For the Golfer that scores between 72 and 82 from 6,600 yards – you’re really not even close. Playing well with your friends – even scoring 72 on a 6,600 yard course is not the same as playing in a tournament from 7,200 yards. Plus, just to make it to the PGA Tour – you need to go to Q School where if you do make it through the initial qualifying sites to get to the finals – you then need to play 6 rounds of golf in 6 days and end up in the top 25 by scoring around 15 under par – from 7,200 yards in Tour conditions. You really have about the same shot of making the PGA Tour as you would have making the Yankees as a starting pitcher. Saying that – I do sincerely look forward to someone making it and proving me wrong. It would be an exciting story. However, Jon Fitzgerald wanted to see if he could do it. And during his journey of balancing family, work and golf – he found out a lot about himself. When I first received this DVD back in the summer – I wasn’t expecting much. I thought it would be just like another one of those phone calls we receive from someone in their 40’s that’s an 11 handicap and wants to try to improve so they can play on the PGA Senior Tour in 10 years. And although the movie is about golf – it turned out to be about much more than that. Go to their website to see a sample of the movie and possibly purchase it. When I told Jon that I would be writing about his movie – he offered to give a discount code that he’s extending to all our readers if you want to purchase the movie. It’s really straight forward how to use it. Go to their website ( http://www.thebacknine.com ) and select the single copy of the DVD. There is a box that will offer the option of entering the code – gms4tb9 . When you click submit, an 18 percent discount is factored in. The ClubGlider – As far as I’m concerned …. The best golf product I have ever used.

‘How To Fix The Cause Of Golf Swing Problems?’

All I want for Christmas is a . Golf swing. Imagine if it was as easy as sending a letter to the North Pole.

Santa, all I want is a consistent golf game. Ive been a good ___ (girl or boy, you fill in the blank). Ive been nice to the ones around me. And yes, I have been practicing hard for the last few years to improve my golf swing. Yet, like most people I dont improve as much as I should, regardless of what I do. Please, please, please put a brand new, shiny golf swing under the tree for me this year!

Regards, Ades Perate Golfer

Will an improved golf swing just appear out of nowhere? Probably not. A consistent golf swing needs to be earned. Yet Im sure there are many Golfers that feel they deserve a better golf swing just because they have spent hours upon hours on golf lessons and hitting golf balls at the driving range.

Unfortunately for these Golfers an improved golf swing isnt only about the number of hours you have put into golf instruction or hitting golf balls. An improved golf swing comes more from the knowledge of understanding how Cause and Effect affects your golf swing.

Most Golfers are improperly taught to work on the Effect in their golf swing. Meaning: If youre told that your golf swing comes over the top (or that you have an outside to in golf swing), most Golfers are taught that they need to swing more from the inside, or that they need to swing more inside to out. Often times they are improperly told that the way to do that is to try to drop the golf club down into the slot on their downswing.

However, that doesnt produce positive results for many Golfers right away. Most Golfers struggle with this because the above instructions dont fix the Cause of the over the top movement. The only thing that those instructions do is work on the Effect.

And in fact, many Golfers dont produce positive golf shots even after hours upon hours of practice. Why? Because you cant improve your golf swing if youre working on trying to fix the Effect. You first need to find and fix the Cause.

So what is the Cause of the over the top swing mentioned above?

Well, it can be many things. For example: Is it something at set-up (weight distribution, ball placement, posture)? Is it something at the start of your backswing (too much hands, too much body, right-side of body doing too much, left-side of body doing too much, right-side not doing enough, left-side not doing enough, bad synchronization of body and arms)?

Now a lot of people might say Well maybe that Golfer is taking the club too far outside on the backswing. They probably need to take the golf club more inside on the way back.

Yet, that would still be trying to fix an Effect. The question needs to be Why is that person taking the club too far outside?

Whats Causing them to take the club back in that direction?

Its very easy for most Golf Instructors to see a Golfer taking the club back to the outside or the golf club coming over the top or not enough hip movement or not shifting weight correctly. However, truly exceptional Instructors (like my Instructors at GMS) are able to rise above that 3rd Grade level of teaching to know and understand the difference between Cause and Effect. A truly exceptional Golf Instructor should know why that Golfer is making those bad movements and they should know how to correct them.

As opposed to a lower level Golf Instructor that would teach their Golfers by saying I see your problem. Youre taking the club too far outside. You need to take it more inside on the way back.

An exceptional Golf Instructor will find the Cause by doing different tests with the Golfer. We want to find whats Causing the golf club to go outside. That way well be able to help you eliminate the problem. As opposed to most golf instruction that just teaches you take the golf club more inside. Yet thats not fixing the Cause – so regardless of how much you practice what youre told – youre going to continually get the same negative Effect.

So for example: say that we find that the Cause of the over the top (outside to in swing) was being Caused by your left-side not doing enough in your golf swing (on the way back and/or the way forward). Our next step is to find why isnt your left-side doing enough.

Is your left-side as coordinated as your right-side, is your left-side weaker than your right-side, does your right-side do too much that it doesnt allow your left-side to do what its supposed to do, is your left-side too slow, etc.

Once we can answer that then we work with you to improve the movements of the left-side of your body in your golf swing. Thats fixing the Cause! Once that person starts to learn how their left-side should work its amazing how fast that over the top move disappears! And because of that our Golfers will see consistent improvement from their very first swing. That doesnt mean their first golf swing will now go 300 yards. It means that each golf swing they take theyll see a little more improvement in their ballstriking.

However, the many Golfers that are taught to devote the next months to dropping their club into the slot or taking their club more inside on the way back so that they can swing more from the inside will continue to struggle. Because regardless of how much they try to fix this theyre more likely to find a brand new, shiny golf swing under a tree than they are to fix their over the top golf swing using the Fix the Effect method that 99% of all golf instruction is based on.

GMS works with you to find the Cause of your swing problems, correct those problems and to understand why those problems happened in the first place. Thats why our Golfers are improving. And most others are not.

The Monkey is constantly tinkering with their golf swing by jumping from Effect to Effect

The Player is smarter than that and searches out to find the Cause
Go ahead, be a Player!

Regards,

Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life

Read the original post:
‘How To Fix The Cause Of Golf Swing Problems?’

Bag of the Day: Alvaro Quiros

There are a lot of players who are long off the tee, and then there is Spain's Alvaro Quiros. In 20 European tour events in 2009, he averaged 314 yards per drive. He also hit more than 70% of the greens in regulation, which helped him to win the Qatar Masters in January and climb to No. 46 in the World Golf Rankings. Here is a list of the clubs in Alvaro Quiros' golf bag: DRIVER: Callaway FT-5 (9.5) Grafalloy Blue X shaft FAIRWAY WOODS: Callaway X Tour (13), X (15.5) with Grafalloy Blue X shafts IRONS: Callaway X Proto (3-PW) with Rifle Lite 8.0 shafts WEDGES: Callaway X Forged Vintage (51, 58) with Rifle Lite 8.0 shafts PUTTER: Odyssey Black Series i #1 BALL: Callaway Tour ix Follow David Dusek on Twitter More Quiros: Quiros accidentally hits into Tiger's group at Hazeltine Swing Sequence: Alvaro Quiros (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

See more here:
Bag of the Day: Alvaro Quiros

Golf and the economy, golf in Spain (part 2), the ruletwentyone golf towel

Click here to hear this latest episode of TravelGolf.com This Week . In this week’s podcast, host Dave Berner talks to WorldGolf.com’s Mike Bailey about how the economy will affect golf. “That’s the million-dollar question in the industry: ‘How will it affect golf?’” Bailey says. “That remains to be seen what will happen. I don’t think that we’re seeing the bargains yet that we thought we’d see with this economy.” Berner features part two of his conversation with TravelGolf.com’s Brandon Tucker about golf in Spain . Joe Borgenicht, CEO and founder of ruletwentyone, talks about his company’s new golf towel . “ruletwentyone is a new, innovative golf towel,” Borgenicht says. “It’s basically a waterproof towel designed for cleaning your ball on the green or your club on the fairway. And it folds to fit in your back pocket. So it goes wherever you go.” This podcast is supported by Arizona Golf Packages and Florida Golf and Travel .

Go here to read the rest:
Golf and the economy, golf in Spain (part 2), the ruletwentyone golf towel