The Common Golfer

Well it happened earlier than I’d anticipated (I was thinking Sunday afternoon), but Sergio Garcia has again taken the lead in a tournament only to quickly give it away.  Today, after taking a first round lead at the Barclays with a 65, Garcia shot a second round 76.  In his defense, it was running during his entire round, and if you ask Garcia he’ll probably tell you that it rained harder on him than the other players.  Or maybe it’s that the new TaylorMade Penta golf balls he’s playing were defective.  All we know for sure, is that it probably had nothing to do with Garcia’s playing ability.  ;)

I’m probably being too hard on Garcia because I am actually a fan of his.  But other than last years Players Championship, where even he seemed shocked to have played so well, I’ve learned not to get excited when I see Garcia atop the leaderboard.  All too frequently, he falters on the weekend and blames his poor play on factors that always seem to be outside of his control.  At this point, it has to be a mental issue.  Can someone please call Dr. Rotella, and book Sergio an appointment?  It’s not too late, and I sincerely hope that Garcia can overcome his demons and start to win more tournaments.

TaylorMade announced that Y.E. Yang has started using their new Penta golf ball at the Barclays Championship.  At the PGA Championship, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen tried the new ball out for the first time.  However Yang won the tournament with his old ball, the TaylorMade TP Red LDP.  Additional TaylorMade pros have now added the ball to their arsenals.

This seems like an odd time to switch balls, coming off a major championship!  Today in the first round of the Barclays, Garcia shot a 6-under 65 to tie for the lead.  That round, paired with his strong performance last week at the Wyndham, makes you wonder if he’s just playing well or if the Penta has helped elevate his game.  Do you think a Penta-playing tour pro will win any of the four FedEx Cup events?  Please comment!

Let’s preface this entry by stating how much The Common Golfer loves TaylorMade.  I think they make the best drivers, and I actually think their TP balls are better than ProV1’s (and if anyone from TM is reading this, I would love to let everyone know how the new Penta balls are, so please send me some).  But seriously, whoever designed this logo should probably be fired or at least transferred out of the design department.

TaylorMade created this “special” logo for use on their sponsored pros’ hats and golf bags this week, at the PGA Championship.  Now I can’t speak on their behalf, but if I were Sergio Garcia or Kenny Perry, I would probably be reevaluating my sponsors at this point.  I have taken the liberty of decoding the cyptic markings of the logo, and here they are:

The dream catcher and feathers in the background, are to remind us that Hazeltine National Golf Club is built on an area that used to belong to Native Americans.  According to a TaylorMade release, the name ‘Chaska‘ is derived from a Dakota name often given to a first-born male child (although for the life of me, I’m not sure why it is so prominently displayed instead of the word Hazeltine).  The red “2″ at the top of the Wanamaker Trophy symbolizes the number of PGA Championships that have been played at Hazeltine.  The ‘TH’ on the left side is for Totton Heffelfinger, a former president of the USGA who helped coordinate the creation of Hazeltine, and the ‘RJ’ on the right is for Robert Trent Jones, the designer of the course.  And lastly, the “SH” at the base of the trophy stands for Susan Hazeltine.  The lake that comes into play on the 402-yard 16th hole was named after her.

We can only hope that TaylorMade will spare us all, and not decide to publicly sell shirts, hats, etc. with this logo!

Golf’s biggest names are all joining in a global effort to make golf an Olympic sport for the first time in 105 years.  On Thursday, August 13, the executive board of International Olympic Committee will vote on which two sports they will recommend be added to the Olympics as soon as 2016.  The full committee will then later vote to make the recommendations final.  Seven sports are being considered for two available spots, the other sports being rugby, softball, baseball, karate, roller sports, and squash.

A 4 1/2 minute video was sent to the IOC last month, presenting why golf should be an Olympic Sport.  The video featured Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, and Paula Creamer spoke on the video on behalf of American golf.  In addition, to present a “global front” for what is a global game, some of golf’s biggest international stars also spoke, including Annika Sorenstam, Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb, Sergio Garcia, Mike Weir, and K.J. Choi.

First off, I’m not even sure what the hell “roller sports” are, but I’d be shocked if they were voted in.  The same can be said for squash, rugby, and karate.  However, given that softball and baseball have recently been in the Olympics, it seems that three sports are vying for two spots.  It’s odd, though, that softball and baseball are considered separate sports, when softball is basically women’s baseball.  Golf, on the other hand is one sport.  It will be very disappointing if golf doesn’t make it, and it seems the IOC could satisfy more people if they grouped baseball and softball as one.  Regardless of if golf returns to the Olympic rotation or not, it’s definitely absurd that it’s been out of the rotation for so long when you look at other summer Olympic sports (like table tennis, and beach volleyball to name a few).

TaylorMade’s new five-piece golf ball, the Penta TP, was added to the USGA’s list of conforming golf balls on Wednesday.  As a result, both Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen plan to use the ball next week at the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.  The Penta, aptly named for having five pieces, is the first five-piece golf ball to be created and is scheduled to be publicly available on December 1 (which upsets me because I won’t be able to try it out until next season).

Multiple tour players have tested the ball, and so far it has gotten great reviews.  TaylorMade also says the ball should appeal to a large number of amateurs because it has been designed to promote higher ball speed.

The cover of the Penta TP is made of a soft urethane material to promote a high-spin rate, but lower trajectory on wedge shots and pitches for more control.  The outer mantle layer, which can be found directly under the white cover, is the most easily compressed.  Of the three mantle layers in the Penta TP, it’s the fastest, and TaylorMade says it is designed to create optimal spin and flight conditions when ball speeds are below 120 mph (short irons for tour pros).

The middle mantle layer is semi-firm, and TaylorMade designed it to be compressible on shots with a ball speed between 120 and 140 mph (mid-irons).  According to a TaylorMade memo, the inner mantle is designed to create high-launching, low-spinning shots with a ball speed between 140 and 160 mph ( long-irons).

Encased under all those layers is the core, which is made from an extremely fast, low-compression material that only the fastest swingers will be able to activate.  However, TaylorMade says those who do can expect more ball speed and less spin on drives for increased distance.

I don’t know how to feel about this news.  On the one hand, as someone who desperately wants to be a scratch golfer, I can’t wait to try out anything that might help my game out.  On the other hand, was there anyone really clamoring for a better golf ball?  Tour pros can already make a golf ball do just about whatever they wish (stop, back up, curve, go low, go high, etc.).  Is there a point where equipment advancements will be stopped?  Technology will always be progressing, so conceivably golf will continue to get “easier” if the USGA doesn’t put an end to things.  I don’t mean to slam the USGA, because at least they’re starting to do something by regulating the grooves on wedges and irons next year.  But is it hypocritical to scale back one piece of equipment that promotes too much spin, while approving a different piece of equipment with the same goal in mind?

Or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.  It’s possible that a five-piece golf ball won’t really amount to much difference than the balls currently being used on tour.  Perhaps it’s more of a marketing strategy to sell more balls.  Either way, it will be interesting to see how Sergio and Retief play next week at Hazeltine.