Check out Como!Come!’s new Promo Video for 2010 featuring their image golfer Kayoko. Beautiful swing, beautifully shot video… funny captions and great style! We’ve got some cool new items coming soon from Como!Come! So look for them in the pro shop!

[See post to watch Flash video]

Credits: Golf to Impress

Last week, for the first time in a decade, I dipped my toe into a round of golf where every swing mattered, every three-foot putt had to fall, and I needed to sign my scorecard (and attest someone else’s) at the clubhouse. A week later, my head is still spinning. Yet I can’t wait to dive into more stroke-play tournaments, to feed that thirst for golf that really matters.
(…)
Read the rest of My Dip Into Tournament Golf: A Whole New World (1,641 words)

© philsRHman for The Sand Trap, 2010. |
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Credits: The Sand Trap

2010 Ping Anser 2 Putter Revealed!

Lot’s of new products are scheduled to be released by Ping including a 14 new putter models under the scottsdale name.  One of our content partners Toshi of the popular Japanese blog Anserfreak was recently able to visit the Ping Japan headquarters and warehouse to see first hand what was in the pipeline.

The new Anser 2 model features a durable blackish grey finish from top viewing angles while the sole has a dark mirror finish.  The new insert is made of a Thermoplastic Elastomer and we were told that it feels softer yet has a surprising and more apparent impact sound.

We are not sure about the differences between the U.S market models and the Japan market models yet but based on the early reports it appears Japan is only reporting on the blackish grey finished versions while the U.S has the traditional silver finish in their marketing aids.

We do however expect the entire U.S line up to be available in Japan along with some unique Japan Only models that of course TourSpecGolf will carry.

Ping today held  their annual sales meeting  showing off  official images of the entire U.S Scottsdale putter line up and we will have more info in pictures in the coming weeks. For now enjoy the gallery images below posted on their twitter page from the event.

New Products include the Ping K-15 series, Ping “Faith” women’s series, Ping S56 Irons and the 2010 Scottsdale Putter line…Enjoy!

Credits: Golf to Impress

Do you dream of consistent laser-guided precision in your drives? We’ll believe it or not, you don’t need any fancy technology. You can develop pin-point, repeatable accuracy with your own in-built laser guidance system. “My own in built laser?” you might ask. Yes, my friend, it’s called the power of focus and with a little practice you can easily acquire this skill that will make you the envy of the fairway. You’ll enjoy the pleasure of seeing those balls smack your targets just like a laser-guided bomb.
Precision Strokes on The Fairway – Have you ever consistently hit great long range precision shots at the driving range only to find yourself disappointed with lack luster performance on the fairway? Your fall-off in performance is most likely to do with your mental game. With the much less structured environment of the fairway, your brain has many more distractions to contend with. In much the same way as a race car driver recovers from a skid, it is crucial that you withdraw your focus from where you do not want the ball to go, like bunkers and such and focus instead on where you want it to go.
Focus, Focus, Focus – Your brain works to render the dominant image that you hold in your head. If your image is one of not “hitting the bunker”, the bunker is the most likely outcome you will create. Instead, concentrate on where you intend the ball to go at the exclusion of all else. Choose a narrow feature of your target area like a tree branch or a distinctive patch of grass. Visualize the ball landing exactly where you want it. With intent focus and only thoughts of where you want the ball to go, you will produce your desired result. Focus, focus, focus is your key to ensuring the ball goes precisely according to your intention. With this crucial mental factor addressed, let’s take a look in the technique department.
The Chill Factor – You know, if there’s a common ingredient to superior performance in all sports, it’s the relaxation or “chill” factor. Paradoxically relaxation often overcomes brute force. It’s a key a principal underlying martial arts like Aikido and it’s the essence of what football great and recent winner of ‘Dancing with the Stars’, Emmitt Smith calls being in the “zone”. If you’re flexible and you have “give” in you body, you can more easily take effective, clear-headed, responsive action in any given situation. The same holds true for your golf. Cultivate the intention of relaxation over power in your game and focus on striking the golf ball in a relaxed, easy manner. You’ll exert less effort in your swing and you’ll be surprised when the ball travels an equal if not greater distance, then when your intent is on power driving. So chill and enjoy.
Cultivate Your Swing Plane – To achieve repeatable accuracy, you must ensure that your club-head follows a consistent path in the same “swing plane” every time. Think of your swing plane as an inclined disc that envelops the trajectory of your club. Swing planes are as unique as thumb prints. So you’ll need to experiment with your arm positioning to discover the right swing plane that works for you. Move slowly through your downswing and notice how individual adjustments of the different joint angles lead to consistency and comfort. Again, comfort is your key indicator. Remember if it’s not comfortable it’s not right for you.
Align Your Clubface – It might seem obvious but the alignment of your clubface directly dictates the trajectory of your ball. You can maximize control over of your clubface angles by ensuring that your leading wrist is flat with respect to your forearm through your downswing to impact. Don’t be tempted to snap your wrists at the bottom of your swing. It’s a common misconception amongst amateur gofers that the “wrist snap” gives more power. It doesn’t. According to Theodore Jorensen, expert on the physics of golf, this action reduces club head speed. What’s more it screws up your club head alignment. So keep those wrists flat and you’ll enjoy a great foundation for whacking the ball at the proper angle every time.
Laser Guided Precision – Yes, practice these simple strategies and enjoy a wonderful improvement in your accuracy and your scoring. Remember to think David over Goliath and cultivate accuracy over power. Chill out, get in your “zone” and be relaxed in your swing action. Cultivate you unique swing plane for repeatability. Keep your wrist flat for refined control over your clubface alignment. And finally, whack those balls with laser-guided precision when you tie it all together with the simple mental strategy of “Focus, Focus, Focus”.

Do you dream of consistent laser-guided precision in your drives? We’ll believe it or not, you don’t need any fancy technology. You can develop pin-point, repeatable accuracy with your own in-built laser guidance system. “My own in built laser?” you might ask. Yes, my friend, it’s called the power of focus and with a little practice you can easily acquire this skill that will make you the envy of the fairway. You’ll enjoy the pleasure of seeing those balls smack your targets just like a laser-guided bomb.
Precision Strokes on The Fairway – Have you ever consistently hit great long range precision shots at the driving range only to find yourself disappointed with lack luster performance on the fairway? Your fall-off in performance is most likely to do with your mental game. With the much less structured environment of the fairway, your brain has many more distractions to contend with. In much the same way as a race car driver recovers from a skid, it is crucial that you withdraw your focus from where you do not want the ball to go, like bunkers and such and focus instead on where you want it to go.
Focus, Focus, Focus – Your brain works to render the dominant image that you hold in your head. If your image is one of not “hitting the bunker”, the bunker is the most likely outcome you will create. Instead, concentrate on where you intend the ball to go at the exclusion of all else. Choose a narrow feature of your target area like a tree branch or a distinctive patch of grass. Visualize the ball landing exactly where you want it. With intent focus and only thoughts of where you want the ball to go, you will produce your desired result. Focus, focus, focus is your key to ensuring the ball goes precisely according to your intention. With this crucial mental factor addressed, let’s take a look in the technique department.
The Chill Factor – You know, if there’s a common ingredient to superior performance in all sports, it’s the relaxation or “chill” factor. Paradoxically relaxation often overcomes brute force. It’s a key a principal underlying martial arts like Aikido and it’s the essence of what football great and recent winner of “Dancing with the Stars”, Emmitt Smith calls being in the “zone”. If you’re flexible and you have “give” in you body, you can more easily take effective, clear-headed, responsive action in any given situation. The same holds true for your golf. Cultivate the intention of relaxation over power in your game and focus on striking the golf ball in a relaxed, easy manner. You’ll exert less effort in your swing and you’ll be surprised when the ball travels an equal if not greater distance, then when your intent is on power driving. So chill and enjoy.
Cultivate Your Swing Plane – To achieve repeatable accuracy, you must ensure that your club-head follows a consistent path in the same “swing plane” every time. Think of your swing plane as an inclined disc that envelops the trajectory of your club. Swing planes are as unique as thumb prints. So you’ll need to experiment with your arm positioning to discover the right swing plane that works for you. Move slowly through your downswing and notice how individual adjustments of the different joint angles lead to consistency and comfort. Again, comfort is your key indicator. Remember if it’s not comfortable it’s not right for you.
Align Your Clubface – It might seem obvious but the alignment of your clubface directly dictates the trajectory of your ball. You can maximize control over of your clubface angles by ensuring that your leading wrist is flat with respect to your forearm through your downswing to impact. Don’t be tempted to snap your wrists at the bottom of your swing. It’s a common misconception amongst amateur gofers that the “wrist snap” gives more power. It doesn’t. According to Theodore Jorensen, expert on the physics of golf, this action reduces club head speed. What’s more it screws up your club head alignment. So keep those wrists flat and you’ll enjoy a great foundation for whacking the ball at the proper angle every time.
Laser Guided Precision – Yes, practice these simple strategies and enjoy a wonderful improvement in your accuracy and your scoring. Remember to think David over Goliath and cultivate accuracy over power. Chill out, get in your “zone” and be relaxed in your swing action. Cultivate you unique swing plane for repeatability. Keep your wrist flat for refined control over your clubface alignment. And finally, whack those balls with laser-guided precision when you tie it all together with the simple mental strategy of “Focus, Focus, Focus”.

The first phase in an off season golf conditioning program is the regeneration phase. The second phase is the strength and power phase and the third phase is the preparation phase. Today we are going to focus on phase one recommendations.
This first phase will focus on getting your body ready for the more intense workouts to come but more importantly it is the time to recover from any nagging injuries or aches and pains from the season. This phase should also be used if you have never exercised or are just starting up again after a long lay off. During the season you probably spent more time actually on the golf course or driving range then you did working out.
The most common injury for golfers is low back pain but many golfers also will experience hip, shoulder, knee, elbow, or wrist pain. The golf swing puts a lot of stress on the low back due to the high rotational forces. During this training period we will avoid any rotational exercises to allow your spine time to recover.
If you have been exercising regularly during the season and you do not have any injuries you could skip this phase but I would still recommend doing two weeks of this phase. If you live in an area where you can golf year around it would be extremely beneficial to take 2-3 weeks off from the course and perform this phase. One 2-3 week session every six months should make a huge difference in your injury risk and overall performance. Now lets get into the details of phase one.
The first component is the warm-up. This is essential and should not be skipped. Proper warm-up increases the temperature of the tissue which makes it more resistant to stress and less likely to fail or be injured. A good warm-up also will improve your flexibility and mobility. The warm-up should target all the major muscle groups and put your joints through a variety of movements. Examples are walking lunge, inchworm, overhead squat, forward and backward bear crawl, and side lunge with overhead raise.
The next component would be foam roll techniques. This is great for releasing stubborn trigger points and tight muscles. Main areas to focus on are the glutes, quads, hamstrings, back, and lats. When you hit a sore area try to stay on it for about 30 seconds with small oscillatory movements. Also perform self mobilization on the thoracic spine by lying on the roll about shoulder blade level. Cross your arms in front of you to keep your shoulder blades clear and roll up and down your spine. Good thoracic mobility will decrease your risk of low back injury and increase your swing arc. You also want to work on hip mobility which is addressed partly in the warm up. In standing tighten your stomach, place your hands on your hips and rotate back and forth in a slow controlled fashion. There should not be any twisting in your low back. The motion should occur through your hip joints.
Now we want to begin some strength exercises. Never do an exercise that causes you pain. Start with about 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions. You have some flexibility here on the exercises you do. I recommend a circuit of several exercises that focus on the big muscle groups. An example would be alternating a set of push-ups with a set of pull-ups or bent over rows. You also need a good leg exercise such as a dumbbell squat with overhead press, split squat or a one leg bench squat. No seated leg extensions or curls. A couple core exercises like the bird dog, side plank, and prone plank will round things off nicely. Finish your workout with flexibility exercises. Main areas to target are the chest, hamstrings, glutes, lats, and posterior shoulder. Hold the stretches about 30 seconds. A good chest stretch is placing your hands about shoulder height in a door way and lean into the door way.
You should be able to get this routine finished in about thirty minutes. Try to get in two to three workouts a week for at least two to three weeks. Feel free to incorporate some supplemental exercises like curls, crunches, lat pulls, etc as you wish but make sure you get the main exercises done first.

Lotte Kasai Golf in Tokyo held a demo day for the new Titleist Japan VG3 Forged Iron. Like the driver which I have posted about many times here on the blog, the Japanese Market VG3 Irons are aimed at the average golfer and improving mid capper. The strong lofts (24* 5 iron) matched with low CG in the form of tungsten weights in the sole create a higher launch and more MOI. The interesting thing is that the VG3 features variable placement for the tungsten weights on the sole depending on the iron just like on the driver. I can’t wait to hit the irons to see how the different placement affects trajectory, feel and control.

The iron is most likely premium Japan forged by Endo which typically does the advanced multi piece forgings and does manufacture the VG3 driver already for Titleist as well as most of Titleist Japan’s forged irons. The VG3 is longer from heel to toe and features small offset with a mid sized top line and sole. Trajectory is on the high side and is made for distance and forgiveness which is typical for the average golfer target audience. We’re looking at a late September release for the VG3 Forged Iron which will be available with 3 shaft choices initially, NS Pro 950GH, DG S200 and a Fujikura Titleist Motore 6.0i 3 axis carbon shaft.

I’ve already asked our Titleist Japan rep to send over demos which I will test along with the new Tourstage GR Forged.  Two very good irons made for the average to quickly improving golfer. Premium forged, and top notch peformance!

Credits: Golf to Impress

In case you haven’t heard the news, it’s friggin’ hot outside! With a few exceptions, this summer has been really brutal for everyone, no matter where you live. The heat index has been so high here in south Louisiana, I’m ready to catch the next plane back to California, just to enjoy the same weather I did during the U.S. Open. Unless that’s a feasible option for you, you’re probably suffering through the oppressive beatings the sun/high temperatures/high humidity every time you step foot on the golf course. Though I can’t help you to outfit your golf cart with full blown air conditioning comparable to that of an refrigerated trailer, I may be able to give you a few tips on some equipment and apparel that might make it a little more manageable.
(…)
Read the rest of Staying Cool In The Summer Heat (1,488 words)

© jlpucheu for The Sand Trap, 2010. |
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As some of you may have noticed we’ve gotten around to upgrading our forum to the latest Invision Board which includes a complete overhaul of how the forum works and looks. While its still a work in progress getting it to work properly there are a bunch of great new features such as automatic mobile browsing from iphones, blackberries and other mobile smart devices as shown in the picture above with a simple lo fi theme.

Also included in the new forum are many social features like Twitter and Facebook. While you can definitely tweet and share posts and images now from the forum on Twitter and Facebook you can also login with your Twitter or Facebook account (if you are not already a TSG Member). This allows you to post on TSG without having a TSG account and sync your status, tweets and wall posts with forum and respective accounts.

If you are a TSG member already, you can also associate your existing forum account with Twitter and/or Facebook account by going into your My Settings > Profile > Manage Facebook Connect or Manage Twitter Connect. As you can see in the image below you can sync quite a few features besides tweets and wall posts including your avatar and profiles as well.

Another feature is now the use of threaded personal conversations whereas in the past, every PM message regardless of whether it was a reply to the same subject came in a separate PM. Now conversations keep all those messages in one thread for easy management.

Users can update other users on what they’re doing right now. Updates appear in that user’s profile, in a block on the board homepage, and in the new Status feed. Plus, status updates can now be replied to and there’s the Twitter and Facebook integration mentioned above.

Central notifications is another new feature. Users can receive notifications (via a board popup or email) of events that are important to them, such as new personal conversations, status updates made by friends, or one of their posts being quoted.

This is definitely a big step up from the previous forum version and there are sure to be bugs and issues so thanks for being patient as we work them out.  Feel free to explore and try any of the interesting features on the new board!

Credits: Golf to Impress

Who hasn’t been in this predicament?  Now I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.

I think he’s sporting the Boo Weekley Signature Collection.

Til’ next,

Credits: Average Golfer