Picking the Right Golf Clubs: What To Remember

For far too many times, many a golfer has not given a thought as to which golf club in Tristate they should use. The truth is that every golf club is designed for a specific purpose and skill level, and, when used correctly, will result in a very successful performance in the field. Before you head on to the nearest sporting store you need to know a few factors that will help you pick the right club.

Shaft Material

The first thing you have to consider is the material that the club is made of. As of now, clubs are either made with graphite or steel. Though more expensive, graphite is lighter which allows you to swing it at a greater speed, resulting in a larger distance covered. Steel, on the other hand, is slightly heavier, and allows for more control over the ball. For advanced players with a strong swing speed, these clubs are ideal for letting the ball travel accurately.

Flex

The flex of the club’s shaft will determine how much it will bend on each swing. Since the flex will play a part on how accurate the ball will travel in flight, it is best to pick a club that has the right shaft flex. For beginners, the ideal clubs are those with a high shaft flex as it allows the ball to fly off without wasting its energy. There are also no-flex shafts wherein the shaft remains stiff in every hit. This will allow for a great rate of accuracy while still maximizing its kinetic energy.

Club Head

Being the one that directly makes contact with the ball, the club’s head will play a role in determining how far the ball will travel and where it lands. To determine which one is best for you, take a look at what material the club is made of. Titanium club heads, for instance, are ideal for those looking to optimize their accuracy as they are lighter. Since they are of lesser weight than other metals, titanium club heads have a wider area which allows for greater ball control.

For golfers seeking to improve their play, it is suggested to look for a golf club in Tristate with a titanium head and a graphite shaft. This combination allows for the highest rate of accuracy and ball control, making the ball fly wherever the golfer wants it to go.

The Greenbrier Bunker

From 1958 to 1992 it was a well-kept secret but even now when guided tours pass visitors through the 25-ton blast proof doors there is an aura of mystery about the bunker underneath the Greenbrier hotel. During a recent trip to The Greenbrier, “America’s Resort” and premier golf destination in the West Virginia mountains, I had the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity and learn the background on the underground hide away.

The bunker is more than two football fields in size at over 110,000 square feet and was built beginning in December 1958. Finished three years later specifically with the purpose of providing a location for Congress to continue doing business if there was a “national emergency.”

This of course was a euphemism for a nuclear attack by the USSR and begs the question of how member of the House of Representatives and Senate would be able to get out of the nation’s capital if intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads were on the way. But one has to understand it was a different time, it was the Cold War, when children were being taught in classrooms to “duck and cover” under their desks in the event of a missile attack and the U.S. kept thousands of nuclear warheads at the ready.

And there were at least three other secret bunker facilities around the country to house the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court plus military leaders.

To us today it’s somewhat amazing something of this size could be built in secret in so public a place but that was the idea, hiding in plain sight. Press announcements by The Greenbrier described the project as an addition to the hotel, the so-called West Virginia Wing and the huge area being dug as part of the construction project adding additional rooms. In effect construction of the bunker and the hotel went on at the same time with many of the bunker features such as fuel and water storage tanks, massive electrical generators and miles of piping passed off simply as necessary for a modern guest facility.

The deception of course could not stop with completion since dozens of technicians were needed to keep the secure facility in readiness not to mention man the then state-of-the-art communications systems installed. Nothing says more about the mood of the country and particularly the way the media looked at the project than the cover story for these resident workers. They were said to be audio/visual support specialists for The Greenbrier, in effect, TV repairmen.

In addition to the rooms meant as substitutes for the House of Representatives and Senate chambers there was living space consisting of 18 dormitories behind the four massive entrance doors plus a cafeteria, medical clinic, decontamination chambers and everything else Congress would need for an extended stay.

The bunker was maintained as one of America’s frontline facilities in the event of catastrophe until 1995 though the secret of its existence was revealed in an article published by Washington Post in 1992 and the government began the process of decommissioning.

Today though open to tourists the majority of the space is used for secure records storage and not open to the public.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

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Flex in Golfing: What This Is and How You Could Use It

Veterans in the game of golf will immediately tell any green horn that golfing is more than just whacking a ball till it flies to a hole. The Tristate Golfer Magazine understands that there are quite a lot of factors that will play a part in your performance in golf; one of them being shaft flex. To make most out of this phenomenon, it is imperative that you understand how it takes effect and what it brings to your game.

What is Flex?

Flex is the phenomenon in which the shaft seemingly bends itself as it bears down on a ball and then re-corrects itself once the swing is delivered. Depending on the way you swing a driver, the shaft may show no signs of bending or flex too much that it seems that something is bending it forcefully.

How does the flex exactly play in a game? It truly depends on the flexibility of a shaft. Shafts with little to no flex tend to make the ball fly lower than average. Depending on the player’s dominant hand, the ball might also fly right or fade sideward even if the trajectory begins straight. The shot might even feel like a miss even if you are certain that you have made contact with the ball.

For shafts with considerable flex, the ball might fly higher than intended and would always veer of left. High levels of flex will also make the shot feel solid or strong even though they are not. Golfers looking for accuracy and ball control might find flex to be problematic in their game.

Taking Advantage

Even if you cannot control the way a shaft flexes, there is way to make the full use of this phenomenon. If the target is 250 yards and more, it is best to look for a shaft that has little to no flex to ensure a straight trajectory. For shorter distances, you should for a flexible shaft. This will give you enough room to correct your shot if they tend to miss the target.

The next thing to consider is your swinging motion. A soft flex shaft is ideal for a swing that is smooth and flowing while a stiff shaft is best for erratic swings. Any Tristate golfer magazine also recommends using a flexible shaft for trajectories that go left and stiff shafts for trajectories that go right.

Improving Your Performance in Any Golfing Course in Tristate

 

Though it does look simple and easy on the outside, any experienced golfer will tell you golf is exactly the opposite of those. Requiring a steady hand and a keen eye, golf is best experienced whenever you let the ball fly to its intended target at all times. The question is: how can you improve on your performance in the fields? Below are a few tips to remember.

Body Position

The right posture can determine whether the shot you will take will be an on-target hit or a very frustrating miss. The key to a right posture lies in putting the body in a position where it moves with every shot. Make sure that your legs are wide apart and parallel to your shoulders to give your entire body the stability it needs. Next, keep your knees slightly bent and your back straight. This will help the body shift its weight forward as the club makes contact with the ball, resulting in an accurate shot.

Grip

Once you practiced on your stance, the next thing to focus on is the way you hold your club. For beginners, the best grip is always a neutral position wherein the arms hang loose in front of your body and their dominant hand holding the club’s handle. This position allows for near-perfect accuracy while also letting them build on their strength for more challenging tourneys.

When holding the club, make sure that your thumb firmly closes on the index finger and its tip reaching half of the middle finger. Also, you should hold the club firmly until you slightly see the knuckles in your index and middle fingers. Once you have gripped the club firmly, let your non-dominant hand rest over the dominant hand and make sure that it follows the club in every shot.

Temper

The key to a successful day in any golfing course in Tristate lies in your ability to controlling your temper. As such, golfers with hot heads tend to get progressively worse in every shot they miss due to the buildup of rage and frustration. By keeping yourself calm and cool, you are able to retain your focus and recover. 

Always remember that perfecting your golfing performance will take time and practice. By controlling the way you react to any mistake at the field, you are able to optimize your training and become a dependable golfer as soon as possible.

Remember…The Haig’s First Open Win

A cocky young professional begged a few days off from his club job so he could play in the U.S. Open and though not a “name” player the 20-year old was full of confidence. He was playing well and even dressed-the-game in a pure silk striped shirt, white flannel pants with a red bandanna casually knotted around his neck and white buckskin shoes that set him back ten whole dollars.

The year was 1913 and the stylishly garbed pro was Walter Hagen in his first venture on to the national stage where he displayed his high self-opinion while introducing himself to defending champion, “You’re Johnny McDermott, aren’t you? Well, I’m glad to know you. I’m W.C. Hagen from Rochester and I’ve come over to help you boys take care of Vardon and Ray.”

Certainly quite a beginning for Hagen in championship competition, especially against a future member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, Ted Ray, but more impressively in the same field was Harry Vardon, inarguably the best golfer in the world.

Everyone knows the story of the 1913 Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. when unknown American amateur Francis Ouimet soundly beat the English superstars Vardon and Ray in an 18-hole playoff. Most people though don’t know the brash future superstar Hagen finished three strokes out of the playoff after a triple bogey on the 14th hole in the final round.

The next year the Haig, after declining a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, made the trip to Chicago for the Open being staged at Midlothian Country Club. All was not to smooth sailing however as the night before play began Hagen and a friend decided to try lobster and oysters for the first time…a lot of lobster and oysters. Horribly sick (Hagen believed it was ptomaine poisoning) and with no sleep, he could barely walk. However he managed to tee off in the first round, posting a course record 68 that was followed closely Ouimet with a 69.

After four rounds and battling his gastronomic problems the entire time Hagen prevailed with a score of 290 which tied the lowest 72-hole Open score to that point and won him all of $300.

Hagen’s first U.S. Open triumph was life changing. It gave him the “name” and fame (he already had the personality!) to build a lucrative career playing exhibitions in addition to competing in the sparse schedule of tournaments that would eventually become the PGA Tour. By forsaking his club position at the exclusive Country Club of Rochester he became the first of the modern golf professionals, banking instead on his money making ability on the course.

Ultimately Hagen had 45 tour wins including two U.S. Opens (1914 and 1919), four British Opens, (1922, 1924, 1928, and 1929) and five PGA Championships with an amazing run of four in a row plus he played for America on the first five Ryder Cups teams and captained the sixth.

The Haig’s was a superb competitor perhaps best reflected in in one of his most famous quotes, “Nobody remembers who came in second.”

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

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“It’s So Easy Being Green”

Chrome, shiny, white, black, brass are just some of the finishes putter makers use on their flat sticks but they all have something in common, they are in contrast (sometimes vivid contrast) to the green grass of putting surfaces.

Mantis Golf however believes that’s the wrong approach.

They think the proper way is not high contrast with greens but to be green. First they introduced a mid-sized mallet model and this year have a ‘B’ Blade that like the mallet has a green finish because, as the company says, and along with the design, “…combine to instill greater putting confidence by increasing a golfer’s ability to watch the ball, not the putter.”

At 355 grams the ‘B’ Blade is right in the middle of modern putter weights and heel and tow weighting is engineered for a higher than average resistance to twisting which is a big help to those of us that don’t hit every putt dead in the center of the face. The face insert is white polyurethane and gives a soft feel at impact, a feel that is certainly confidence producing. There are two alignment aids, a white line perpendicular to the face on the top edge and a second on the head that standout nicely against the green of the head.

I tested the Mantis ‘B’ Blade thoroughly, for 10 rounds and found it very well suited to my shoulder-and-arm stroke plus there’s no question the weighting really helped when I happen to miss the sweet spot. The matte green color did seem to help my focus, more on the ball and less on the putter head though it took a little time to adjust to the different look.

Bottom line, if you are in the market for a new putter you should add the Mantis ‘B’ Blade to your short list of possibilities. The ‘B’ Blade is available on MantisGolfCo.com for $159.99 and there’s a 30-day money back guarantee.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

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Nicklaus Golf Balls

Golf’s greatest champion Jack Nicklaus has many diverse business interests and earlier this year added golf balls to his lineup of products. And though not strictly a new idea, Nicklaus is pitching them for golfers to pick the ball that suits the set of tees they play.

The idea is golfers usually playing for example the most forward set or white tees don’t especially hit the ball a long distance and have driver swing speeds of less than 90 mph. According to Nicklaus they would enjoy playing the Nicklaus White ball. It has a soft Surlyn cover and gradient core with a mantle formulated for less spin…in other words just what someone needs who doesn’t hit his or her driver over 200-yards.

The other balls, Blue for blue tee players and Black for those on the tips, have different construction to reflect the higher swing speeds typical of golfers playing the longer tee sets. The Blue is of 3-piece construction similar to the White but made for swing speeds from 90 to 110 mph while the Black is a urethane cover 3-piece for driver swing speeds over 95 mph.

As part of their ongoing charitable effort the Nicklaus Companies will donate a $1 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation for every dozen Nicklaus Golf Balls sold. Plus if shipment is made using FedEx an additional $1 will be donated.

Nicklaus Golf Balls are available for sale on Nicklaus.com and more information about the partnership with St. Jude is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhxyTaxaGGU.

ED TRAVIS | Golf Opinion & Commentary

Bunkershot.com Golf Magazine

Bunkshot.com Weekly Golf News

Golf Fashion Weekly

Golf Fashion Friday