New Brand Crush: Pahr

21 Dec

Ok, so I’m kinda fixated like a teenage girl on this new golf clothing company called Pahr. I don’t particularly like the way they chose to spell “par” for their name, but oh well. What I do love is the way their clothes seem appropriate for situations on and off the golf course, which is something I’ve always tried to figure out how to do with my wardrobe. Everything is very sporty but mature.

A particular favorite of mine is Lolita, a quirky take on the golf polo:

Lolita - White Front

White

(Images: http://pahrgolf.mybigcommerce.com/products/Lolita.html)

I really like the back, I can imagine it being very flattering on lots of women golfers, and it would look very cute with Bermuda shorts. The front is kinda funky, especially with it all buttoned up to the top in the photo, but it’s still pretty fresh. The sleeves also seem to be a flattering length — something which I always search for in a golf shirt. Gotta feel like my wiggly places aren’t being showcased due to crappy little sleeves. The sad part is that it costs $75, but that’s something us budget golfers just have to deal with I guess. They also have a great pair of pants on the site that look to be super flattering due to their straight leg, as well as a sexy little polo golf dress. I may have to  invest in all three items in order to conduct a proper review :) .

This is a brand to keep your eye on. Their collections are steadily growing, and maybe someday they’ll be able to come down a little on cost.

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Finding the Right Fit

20 Dec

So as mentioned in a previous post, my clubs broke. It’s totally killed my chances of playing in the beautiful South Texas winter temps (75 degrees, in December!!!). But, it’s given me the opportunity to get new clubs — something I was going to treat myself to sometime in the New Year anyway!

And thus, I finally got my first professional club fitting after 11 years of playing the sport. I learned quite a bit about the qualities of a club.

I had long believed that people should focus more on their swing, not on the equipment. However, now I know from hitting balls on a swing board (a black piece of plastic that helps with determining measurements for your swing), that I need a club that lies on the ground at a two degree angle. That angle helps me turn my hands through the ball at impact. Never would I have known that without a club fitting — who knows what angle my current clubs lie, but I guess that since I bought them at a big golf box store, they’re just the standard angle.

I’m now almost a full believer that properly fitted equipment is a must for playing well as an amateur. I say almost because I still need to play with the new set before I profess my love to this school of thought.

Speaking of the new set, I decided upon TaylorMade Burner 2.0 clubs with a Ladies graphite shaft, and of course the two degree angle. I’m only going to get clubs 6-SW, which I’ve decided will complement my 4H and 3/5/7FW.

They should be in soon, and I’ll update on how great they are (or aren’t, as the case might be!)

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Broken Golf Clubs

18 Nov

So check this out: yesterday I was at the range and grabbed the 7 iron to warm up.

Something felt weird , though, and I realized that the weight that is usually against the back of the club was missing — it had completely fallen out !

The same was true for my 6 and 8 irons as well. Take a look at these photos:

My pitching wedge, all intact and together.

Club without the weight.

The two clubs side by side.

You can see where the back of the club is missing the weight . When I hit the clubs, they went straight but very short. And, because the weight was now all in the shaft, they felt strange to hit. I went to see if the missing parts were in the trunk of my car, but nope — they’ve completely disappeared. Sometime between when I was at the range Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, they just popped out and ran away.

I’m a golf coach, so I need my clubs!

Therefore, I start my quest for new clubs. A task more daunting to me than buying a car. How do I even begin?

All the articles I’ve ever read about about the new golf technology has always seemed like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to me. Plus, I’ve always been annoyed with those who are obsessed with equipment — in my opinion, a great club can still only do so much for a crappy swing.

So I’ve googled the subject extensively, and one thing seems to be key: get a club with forgiveness. It makes sense, because even a good player will have misfires every now and then. So I want my mis-hits to not be total disasters.

Another thing I want done this time that I’ve been unable to do before is get a professional club fitting. My first set was a starter set from Academy; my second was one that I tried out in a big box golf store but didn’t really know what I needed, and they were just… eh. Now that golf is my job, I want the right tools for me.

I’m a little afraid of the cost, especially since I want to buy the best clubs I can. I’m not ruling out pre-owned clubs, but I also think that since I don’t want to have to buy new clubs for a few years, I need to buy the newest and latest I can get.

So let the shopping begin!

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Tiger’s New Home and Golf Compound

16 Nov

Holy. Crap.

Tiger Woods estate home and practice golf course in Jupiter Island Florids

Tiger’s new home, on Jupiter Island in Florida, has a backyard that would be any golf lover’s dream. Long enough to hit full drives from one end of the compound and with several separate greens to make approach shots to, the layout was also designed so he can practice with different types of wind.

Not to mention the palace and lap pool — I’d be happy with a double wide and a sprinkler on the end of a garden hose on that kind of land!

Here’s hoping that I’m correctly spotting a solar panel on his roof as well…

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NCAA Women’s Golf Teams On Facebook

15 Nov

Ah, Facebook. I hate how much time it sucks out of my day, but the sad truth is it makes me feel more connected to friends afar…

I can also follow some great NCAA women’s golf teams who run their own pages. As a college coach, it keeps me in the loop on how bigger teams are doing, as well as makes me reminiscent of my former college playing days.

Here are some of my faves:

University of Florida Women’s Golf

University of Georgia Women’s Golf

University of Oregon Women’s Golf

University of Iowa Women’s Golf

University of South Florida Women’s Golf

Not included: my team. Why? We don’t have a Facebook…. If I had one for us, we might never actually get any golfing done!!!

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Tried it and Didn’t Like it: Zero Friction Tees

4 Nov

Perhaps for the professional golfer, Zero Friction Tees are a good product. Designed to eliminate friction between the ball and the tee (thanks to three prongs that hold the ball up), golfers are supposed to gain more distance. The physics of it make sense —  I’m not a science whiz, but I do watch a fair amount of Myth Busters with the boyfriend — but when I use them, I just don’t see any improvement in my tee shots.

Zero Friction 2 3/4" Performance Tees 50/pack (Green)

(Image: www.zerofrictionstore.com)

I’ve been using these tees since the spring, and I think they’re just alright. With the tees I see no pronounced distance improvement. Plus, I am of the school of thought that a drive where you break the tee is a good thing… even if it’s not an important aspect of a golf swing, it does make me feel like a bad ass. These tees are plastic, so they’re often still in the ground when I finish, and that makes me feel less satisfied with a good, crushing drive. The company makes a wooden version, however, so maybe that’s a good compromise between the new technology and my love of breaking things.

So in short, I’m not saying that any bad drives are because of these tees, but I don’t think that they’re so awesome that I’ll keep buying them. So I’m back to the old school wooden tees!

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Follow Up: Cigar Guy’s Identity Discovered (ok, like maybe a month ago, but it’s news to me)

3 Nov

Remember that guy from the picture of Tiger Woods hitting the camera of Mark Pain? He was in the background chomping on a cigar and sporting a red wig, which people thought was a turban.

Smile, Tiger: Woods shoots straight at photographer Pain

While the picture spread the Web, Cigar Guy became an overnight cult phenomenon, rising to the number one Google search.  There were even Facebook marriage proposals.

I just read on the Daily Mail that his identity has been discovered: his name is Rupesh Shingadia, an investment analyst in London who lives with his parents. He was trying to dress up like his favorite Spanish golfer, Miguel Angel Jimenez, who is red headed and likes cigars.

Since then, his head has been photoshopped into tons of hilarious pictures.  Keep reading to see a few!

Continue reading →

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Golf gel for your iPhone

3 Nov

I prefer hard cases for my iPhone, but back in the day when I had an iPod classic a gel skin was a great way to protect it from scratches.

If you’re confident you won’t drop your iPhone and shatter it into a million pieces, here’s a cute tongue-and-cheek decal for you. Playing with the popular “Life is Good” brand, this gel skin decal from DecalGirl sums up a poor day on the course:

iPhone 3G Skin - Golf Cart Pond

(Image: http://www.decalgirl.com/item.view/39052)

It’s only $7.99, so it might make for a great Christmas gift for your golf lovin’ (or on certain days, hating), friend. I really like that it comes with a downloadable wallpaper for your homescreen that matches!

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I would just like to hit my woods well, please.

2 Nov

(Image: http://photos.demandstudios.com/236/4/fotolia_2325820_XS.jpg)

Over and over I read about how the fairway woods are supposed to be easier to hit than long irons — and even easier for beginners off the tee than a driver. That might be true, but for some reason I still hit low, ugly shots with my fairway woods more often than hitting them well. And when I do hit them well, it’s usually extremely hard to repeat it.

So I am focusing some more on my woods, because since I’m not very long off the tee I’d like to get myself into some better scoring opportunities.

Fairway woods tips I’ve found useful:

1. Start with the right stance — a little wider than hip width, and like you would with the driver. (I must be doing something wrong though, because I’m great with my driver and I take a HUGE stance with it!)

2. Low and slow takeaway — Aha; this must be my problem. I need to sweep it away more like a driver, and less like an iron or my hybrid. I need to make much more of a wide sweeping motion. Except I still have to hit the ball with a descending blow, like I would with my irons, because the ball is on the ground instead of on a tee like it would be on a drive. So divots are definitely still welcome with the fairway wood.

3. Don’t try to help the ball into the air — also a big Aha. I’ve lost count of the times where I’ve tried to “kill” the ball, only to have it backfire and just skidaddle a few yards in front of me (embarrassing!). Butch Harmon says to think more about making the swing and less about hitting the ball to help with this. I tell my players all the time to just let the club do the work — guess I need to follow my own advice!

I also found a drill that I’m going to try:

Continue reading →

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Golf Pumpkins

1 Nov

Ahhh! It’s already November! Lucky for me, it’s so hot here that I’m still playing….

Yesterday I got into some last-minute Halloween spirit with some baby pumpkins and a paint kit.

(copyright theforwardtees.com)

I then went and played nine frightfully terrible holes. Seriously, it was scary — couldn’t do anything with my woods on the fairway. I’m still really inconsistent with them, and what works one day makes for a totally terrible day the next.

But it helped me work on my new relaxed playing style, for sure. I tried to just let it be, work on what’s next, and not dwell on the past. It’s harder than you’d think.

I also worked on the “Think Box/Play Box” that they talk about in the book “Every Shot Must Have a Purpose.” What you do is “box off” where you’d hit and call that the “play box.” In a spot behind your ball, make yourself a “think box” where you deliberate what you intend to do. Here, you also take all your practice swings and get out your thoughts. Then, you step into the play box, set up, and play — no more thinking.

I’ve always used a “behind the ball” practice swing style, and so this mental division of space was easy to implement. All I had to do was the deliberate task of not thinking any more when I stepped into the play box. It took being very conscious of my inner workings to break that habit, as there’s usually some sort of residual “don’t hit into the water” kind of thoughts rolling around in my brain. That, however, was not even the most difficult part. The real thing making it hard for me was the chatty out of towner that I had been paired with since the course was busy that day. He didn’t know what I was trying to do, but I did notice a marked worsening of shots whenever he managed to get some statement in while I walked into the play box. Any sort of comment was a big distraction. So the think box/play box is perfect for competitive play, but I need to figure out how to make it work when I have to be social.

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