The Common Golfer

According to a recent patent approved for TaylorMade, the future in golf club adjustability is in the shaft of the club.  Personally, I view most of the available clubs that are adjustable to be a marketing ploy and nothing else.  I can’t envision a scenario where a player, good or bad, would need to adjust the face of their driver.

If you’re a weekend golfer like I am, you need to work on mastering the one driver you have – not 12 different drivers you can potentially have.  Weekend golfers adjusting their clubs on the fly is just asking for trouble.  And on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re a professional golfer (or really good amateur) then you’re getting your swing analyzed and having clubs custom built.  Either way, there’s no need to adjust the face of your driver.  And now the prospect of adjustable shaft stiffness seems even sillier.  Can you think of a scenario where you would need this?

Regardless, thank you to the IP Golf Guy for the details.  The patent is titled “Golf Club Shafts Having Selectable-Stiffness Tip Regions, and Golf Clubs Comprising Same” and if this sort of thing interests you, here are some excerpts: Read the rest of this entry »

These pics were released by TaylorMade are of their new xFT (exchangeable face technology) wedges with an interchangeable face.  There are two available face inserts:  the ZTP Groove Face which is conforming to the new groove rules in effect next year, and the Z Groove Face for recreational players who can use deeper grooves until 2024.  The wedges will come with a torque wrench for changing out the face.

This is actually a great idea, assuming that there’s no sacrifice in performance or feel with the removable face.  It will be interesting to see how expensive the face inserts will be.  I have a “go to” wedge in my bag, that I tend to hit much more than any other club, and every year or so I need a new one.  TaylorMade is recommending that pros replace the face 4 times per year, top amateurs 2 times per year, and recreational golfers once a year.  Please let me know what you think.  Would you be willing to try these wedges out, or would you be more likely to stick with more popular wedges like Cleveland or Titleist Vokey?

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!

Today at the close of the 91st PGA Championship, Y.E. Yang became the first Asian player to win a major golf tournament and did it by nothing less than coming from behind the greatest golfer in the world.  Tiger Woods had never lost a major tournament after holding the lead through 54 holes, and now people are asking if this is the greatest upset in the history of the game.  Perhaps, but we need to talk about an unfortunate side-effect to Yang’s win…

Can everyone in the media please stop using Yang’s last name as a play on words?  If I see one more headline referring to “ying/yang,” I’ll vomit.  Not only is it annoying, but I have to imagine that it’s slightly insulting to Asian people.  If Ernie Els had come from behind to win today, would the headlines have said “Ernie makes Tiger take second place, and nothing Els?”  If Dustin Johnson had won, would the headline have read “Dustin wins and makes Tiger suck his Johnson?”  Granted, neither of those examples are funny (or appropriate), but you get the idea.

But getting back to the actual tournament…is it the greatest upset ever?  Probably not.  I don’t have any specific examples of better upsets, and I do believe that Y.E. Yang should be part of the conversation, but I don’t really feel like Tiger got upset.  I actually lost count of all the putts Tiger had on Sunday that “burned” the edge of the cup.  We’ve never seen it happen before, but even Tiger Woods isn’t invincible.  Everyone (from hacks to pros) has those days where you’re playing well but nothing will go in the hole!  We’ve just formed the assumption that Tiger couldn’t have one of those days in the final round of a major.

I hate to sound like I’m diminishing Yang’s play, because I’m not.  His spot as champion was cemented with the incredible approach shot he hit on 18.  Yang deserved to win.  I’m just saying that this was not the single greatest upset ever.  Instead, we should all be focusing on how much this could potentially grow the game of golf across the world, and hopefully Yang will not be a “one hit wonder” like so many previous PGA Champions.  But did Tiger Woods choke?  Hardly.

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!

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.