Sunday, January 26, 2014

Cold Weather Golf Ball

I have always been curious about how temperature effects how fall a ball travels. I remember being told at some point that higher compression balls(softer balls like a proV1) travel further in warmer weather. Obviously this means that they don't travel as far in cold weather. From reading online it seems like lower compression balls in cold weather travel quite a bit further.This article has a good summary on how temperature effects distance as well as how it effects the spin rate of the ball. I primarily play golf in Michigan and the golf leagues I play in start and end in colder weather. In the future I'll make sure to bust out the lower compression balls at the beginning and ending of the year. Hopefully this helps you hit the ball a little further when you need it.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Golf Lessons

I am always amazed at how few golfers actually get lessons. I have tons of friends who pay $400 for a new driver but scoff at paying $70 for a one hour lesson. I took 10 golf lessons last year and have already taken one this year. I am not sure how other low handicap golfers do it without lessons. To me they are vital. I am constantly picking up bad habits that my instructor is able to easily fix. The first few lessons I took were not very effective. I decided to change my swing dramatically in order to improve it for the long run.  This meant that initially I got worse. But now that I have made the big changes I am mostly in maintenance mode. When I visit my instructor he is just reinforcing what I have been taught or correcting the bad habits that I mentioned earlier. To give an example, I visited him yesterday and had picked two bad habits. I was suddenly using a very strong grip and lining the ball up too far back in my stance. I had been practicing the past couple of weeks and my swing seemed fine but I just wasn't making good contact with the ball. After correctly my grip and the position of the ball, BAM, I was back on track again. I highly recommend you get lessons if you want to improve your golf game.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Winter Golf

I live in a cold weather state which makes golfing very difficult from November to late March. Was curious what everyone else does to keep their game fine tuned. I usually take a few lessons at local place that has heated tees. Also I recently bought a low priced golf simulator that lets me hit some shots in my basement. I am prepping for my golf leagues for next season. I have mentioned it before but I am using a website called ItsGoodGolf.com to manage my golf league. Its very easy to use has all the features I need and better yet it's free. I searched pretty hard last season to find the best free website I could for golf league management and it was by far the best. I actually found it on a similar blog to this one called MyGolfLeague.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Fall Golf

I live in Michigan which has some pretty cold fall weather.  I have found that most of the golfers I know stop golfing at the end of September. A lot of it has to do with bow season beginning, but I think some of it is burn out. Golf can be a frustrating activity and quite a few golfers are ready for a break. Day light starts to become a factor as well, since it makes golfing after work difficult. The past few years I have been trying to get my golf buddies to keep playing into November. How about you? What is your golf season and.what state do you live in?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Regripping your clubs

I recently undertook regripping my golf clubs.  I found a great deal online to get grips from 99 cents a piece. I couldn't pass up the deal and once I had purchased everything(glue, club holder, glue solvent) it cost about $30.  Removing the grips from my clubs was very easy. I just simply cut the grips off with a knife and since the grips were 6 to 7 years old most of the glue just fell right off.  I used the glue solvent to get the rest off. I recommend using a rag with solvent.  After that I applied the tape I had purchased by winding it around the shaft of the golf club.  I wet the grips and used an air compressor to help slide the grips on.  At first it didn't go so well.  I ruined the first few grips and had a loud pop when some of the grips actually popped from the compressed air.  Once I figured it out it was pretty easy. I would recommend buying two or three extra grips in case you ruin a few like I did.  Not sure if I would do it again but like most things I have to at least try it once.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Golf League Skins Games

Does your golf league have a skins game? Most leagues do. Some force everyone to participate, some allow partial participation. Either way its another way to make the game more interesting and fun. Most of the leagues that I have played in have had skins, closest to the pin, and sometimes money is given to the team or player who has the lowest net score. It allows someone to have bragging rights and lord it over his fellow competitors. It also can make someone feel obligated to buy a round of drinks if he wins all the money. Either way its all in good fun and with most leagues the fun comes pretty cheap. Usually players are able to enter with around $5 to $10. I highly recommend that you incorporate skins and other forms of friendly wagers into you golf league. Also it seems like most players split winnings with their teammates so sometimes you can win money even you play poorly.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Golf League Software

Both of my parents have managed their golf leagues for as long as I can remember. My mom uses software that looks like it's from the 80s. My dad uses microsoft word and a calculator. This year my brother is taking over managing or sunday golf league.we both agreed their has to be a better way to manage a golf league. A website online where all league members can log in and view stats. After some googling we found a few good sites but they ask charged $$. In this day and age e expect everything on the internet to be free. So we looked harder and found a great site called http://itsgoodgolf.com. ItsGoodGolf.com is the best free online golf league management software I could find. It does handicaps, lets you change the scoring rules and creates a league schedule for you if you want. It also has social aspects that make it great site for both the league manager and the league members. I highly recommend it.