Here’s a truly lousy swing-thought to jump into your head in the middle of your backswing, if that backswing happens to occur on the first tee of The Old Course at St. Andrews: Holy crap! This is the Old Course! My swing isn’t worthy!. From personal experience, I can say that a swing-thought like this can lead to a chunked tee shot and deepest ignominy on that famed first hole, along with a very high score. Ah, if only I had practiced before my round. After all, when I got warmed up, I played relatively well. The thing is, psychologically paralyzed golfers like me ... full post »

As a proud native of God’s Country, I noted with great pleasure the statistics in the August 11th issue of Golf World on rounds played in the first six months of 2006 compared to the first six months of 2005. It seems that an overall nation-wide 2.3% increase in rounds played is good news for golf in general. But in particular, my beloved home state registered the greatest increase in the country, 11.7%. Now I must admit that my little bubbling stew of pride and admiration of the quality of golf and golfers in Minnesota is spiced generously with “told-you-so.” You see, ... full post »

Earlier this year I took part in a conference call with PGA Tour player Stuart Appleby, who was promoting his fitness and swing-training device, The Leaderboard. One of the comments he made during that chat stuck in my head: “I’m absolutely positive that doing bicep curls won’t help your game.” Conditioning is pervasive on the pro ranks these days. And it seems that the emphasis on strength training is on the “core” – abs, lats, obliques, gluts, and all the other muscle groups that allow a powerful coil on the backswing and an explosive downswing. I try to keep this in mind ... full post »

I’ve remained largely agnostic about Michelle Wie. If she’s having fun and playing well, then it’s fun to watch her. If she’s not, well, then is gets a bit sad. I do believe, however, that we’re observing a pattern in both her game and her reaction to it. Wie has played badly by any professional standards in her last several outings. First, she fired her caddie. Now, she’s re-jiggering her management team. Here’s the entire, rather brief press release from yesterday: ————————————- For Immediate Release: October 18, 2006 Statement on Greg Nared Joining Michelle Wie Team at William Morris Agency NEW YORK - The following is a ... full post »

Dr. Anson Christi, two-time Fulbright fellow, former founding faculty member at the world-famous University of Aizu in Japan, and widely-published psychological researcher, has discovered a revolutionary breakthrough in harnessing golf’s ‘mental game.’ “Emanating from every human brain is a weak electrical field,” explains Christi. “EEGs show that some of these impulses are positive, and some are negative. If we amplify the positive and dampen the negative, performance of any task can be enhanced – especially those tasks that require the orchestration of complex mental and physiological processes. Golf is a perfect example.” Over the past several years, Dr. Christi has developed the ... full post »

When Izzo Golf introduced the dual-strap carry bag over ten years ago, it was hailed as revolutionary. It was indeed an improvement over the single shoulder strap, which hadn’t changed design in, oh, ever. But revolutionary? I mean come on, how hard is it to look at a backpack and say, “Hey! Let’s do that on a golf bag"? What is surprising is that no one had done it sooner. Enter Ogio’s brand spanking new Schling carrying system, which, on the other hand, is revolutionary. It’s radical, even. And it’s so new, it’s not even on the company’s website yet. But ... full post »

SMT Golf’s drivers have been in the hands of 67 long drive champions in eight different countries, across four different continents. Now one of the company’s shafts has, too. Not long after Michelle Wie missed the cut at the Omega European Masters, Stefan Weigle won the Men’s Open Division in Switzerland’s National Long Drive Championship with a 338-yard bomb in sopping wet conditions that allowed for absolutely no roll. With 67 world-wide long-drive titles under SMT’s belt, though, the real story was that Weigle’s winning driver combined SMT’s 455 Deep Bore clubhead with the company’s new EON Series Phantom shaft. Like all ... full post »