CaddyPatch /GolfdotZ New Zealand

Ball Identification – Ball Marking Gadgets Will Become Hot Market Items

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:40:22 +0000

I am in the trees looking for my ball, a TaylorMade 3 – it is my favored choice with two black spots on it. Huh! – Found it and I can just squeeze it out onto the fairway through that gap in the trees. Great well here we go – made it (sigh of relief).

“Excuse Me” a loud voice behind me calls out. I turn around to see another golfer hunting in the same trees for his ball – only he has come from an adjacent fairway.

“Did you happen to see a TaylorMade 3 with two black spots on it – did you?!”

OOPS – maybe I hit the wrong ball or is his ball still hidden in the trees somewhere?

This is an all too familiar scene to many golfers and often the balls are not marked at all and the user is relying only the made and number.

It is the responsibility of every golfer to clearly mark their ball for future identification during the round of golf – whether it be a scribbled “M” for Mary on the ball or a array of dots or circles that only the owner will recognise. It needs to be as unique as you can make it with the tools you have at hand – a pen or marker.

Is it that Important? – maybe not so much at casual and local Club level golf – but very important where money is involved or major competitions.

When it comes to International PGA top level events it is becoming a very hot topic of discussion.

A new era of ball marking fetish is about to explode onto the world’s golfers. The PGA associations around the world have ruled unanimously that some clear and unique form of identification of the ball is required for top level events.

A number of products are now in the market to meet this coming need from indelible markers, decals and painted on using some form of stencil. Individual professional golfers have taken on personal identifiers such as Rory Sabbatini’s Dragon.

The ball mark has to survive some harsh treatment and at the same time have absolutely no influence on the performance of the ball once it is hit. Sit back and enjoy the rivalry for spectacular designs to emerge and go to your local store or online store and check out these neat new products as the arrive on the market.

Alec Tod

Director of Tod Company Limited, alec.tod@gmail.com, Sole distributors of GolfDotz in New Zealand
Visit http://www.caddypatch.co.nz for more information on golf ball markers. Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQhOKKE5WQ0&feature=player_embedded

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alec_Tod

How to hit the ball straight

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:35:22 +0000

Whist we are fascinated by the Professional of the various PGA tour eventa as they weave their magic, drawing the ball or creating a fantastic hook shots as Tiger did in a game recently – to the amazement of his fellow players, the novice to the game should start with the basics.

Many a beginner at the game and most of the high handicap golfers have felt frustrated at not being able to “shape” the ball and have put in poor cards because they are desperately trying to emulate the shots they see on television.

For anyone just starting to get into this wonderful game and who are just beginning to feel these pangs of frustration with their shot making, let’s put these “shape” shots into perspective.

What is the object of golf? I think most would agree it is to get the ball from tee to cup with the minimum of number of shots.

OK – let’s analyse that statement – how many hits with the driver – 12 on most courses. How many long fairway shots are there with wood, iron or hybrid – 12-15; depending on how many par five holes on the course.

How many pitch shots, chip shots, bunker shots (if you are unlucky enough to get into them) and finally puts?

The math works out that we need that long shape shot probably 24 times in a game – give or take one or two, which leaves 48 shots on a par 72 course for the short game. Twice as many as the long shots, so where should the learning experience be concentrated.

A low handicapper or novice golf player will start off completing a round in 100-110 shots after some basic coaching, and it would be reasonably sure to include a quite a few miss hit drives and fairway strokes trying to emulate the greats of golf.

I recently played with a 70 year old golfer who comfortably went round a 72 hole course with me scoring a creditable 86 and he never used a driver of the tee, mostly he used a mid iron but he was a master at the short game and do not have any three puts on any green.

He put it in perspective for me that the game is won on the short game around the green and the way to start people off playing golf should be with the shots that matter most – around the green.

What can be done whilst you are starting golf to minimize the frustrations most people experience – often for years on end because of the emphasis on shaping shots.

Any professional coach will start the novice off with the basics of stance, grip, body rotation and so on.

Once you have that base understanding of the swing mechanics burned into your muscle memory then resist the urge to go for the shape shots until you have a handicap of 20 – yes 20.

To get to 20 – you only have to hit the ball straight down the fairway and be very good at the short game.

OK – how do you hit the ball straight? Well “straight” comes from everything you do to prepare for the shot being aligned straight. The feet lined up to the point you are aiming at and simultaneously the shoulders fixed along the same line before you commence a backswing.

Most players who slice the ball have one or both of these alignments slightly off to the left – and when they have done that for years it becomes a built in deception to them. If you stop them as they address the ball and put a club down touching each of their toes – it is a sure bet they will be off to the left of their target. What is worse they will thank you and at the very next hole be just as bad aligning to the left because it “feels” wrong for them after years of doing it their way.

At the practice range you will see golfers put down a club and bring their toes up to it before taking a shot. They are aligning themselves up because our eyes and our engrained memory tend not to be accurate enough to do it at times and we need to re-enforce the experience by lining up the toes along a straight line .

Learn to align the feet and the shoulders and resist the tendency to pull the right foot back to get that draw which happens sometimes – but not others and there you are in the rough again.

Hit straight down the fairway with a lesser club and you will be surprised how often you complete a round under your opponent who wastes shots because his long curling drive ends up in trouble – again.

It looks good to draw a ball – but is does not necessarily win games.

At the practice range use and erasable ball impact marker like CaddyPatch to ensure you are hitting the nice straight shot in the centre of the club – the “sweet shot” where you will get the maximum distance – straight down the fairway.

Why Should the Average Golfer Use an Erasable Ball Impact Recording Device?

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:51:39 +0000

Over the years I and many other golf nuts have trotted down to the practice driving range to hit a bucket or two of balls -probably spending a few hundred dollars a year (don’t tell the wife) and probably thousands over the last decade (now I am in real trouble).

Golf lessons are great for getting the basics right and hours of watching PGA tours on television (much to the chagrin of my relatives) leaves me in admiration of, and desire for, a nice clean shot onto the green. Therefore I am a regular down at the range.

This will sound familiar to many people reading this article and I am sure that you, like me, would take advantage of any golf training aid that would help you drop a few strokes off your game. No doubt you have tried a few over the years.

Our coach can help with our swing, video our actions and comment on our grip, stance and body movements, these are all important aspects for improving our game, but the key element I needed to know was very simple…

“Am I hitting the ball right on the “sweet spot” of the club?

Then I started using a ball impact recording device and began to understand a lot more about my swing at the time it matters most – at impact. Without a ball impact recording device, there are only two sources of information which help assess the effectiveness of our swing… the flight of the ball and the “feel” as it is hit. To these sources of information we need to add a third, the exact location on the club face where it struck the ball.

An impact recording device gives you immediate feedback on where the club face struck the ball and can help you assess your swing and the proximity of the point of impact to the sweet spot of your club.

Personal research on the subject shows that the sweet spot of a club is not the same for all golfers. Club speed, back and down swing paths, shaft stiffness, squareness of the club face at impact, club design and other factors differ among golfers and their clubs. As a result, for many golfers, the sweetest spot on the club face may not be at the exact geometric centre of the club.

A device that recorded the point of impact for each swing would go a long way in helping you find your own sweet spot for your clubs. There are products on the market – some require a new application of spray or sticky paper after each hit or every three or four hits, but there is a better option…
… it was invented in the USA and uses high quality suede leather from Brazil, at only 0.5mm in thickness, it is about the same as a credit card. It is self-adhesive, it presses onto a clean, dry club – you take a shot and view the impression of the ball left on the patch.

Its major advantage, and convenience, over other methods is being able to hit a large bucket of range balls without having to remove or reapply anything since you can erase each hit as you make it. You can also use one for several hundred hits over several weeks before it needs to be retired.

Another benefit that is not immediately obvious is that the use of a ball impact patch will actually protect your clubs. Consider that during an average round of golf you may hit your five iron five or six times, whereas at the driving range you may hit a hundred balls while trying to hone your skill with that one particular club. That is the equivalent of twenty rounds of golf!

A more efficient, more discrete and more effective way to practise. It really works!

Alec Tod