Titleist Looks to ‘Reshape Your Game’ With Launch of Two New Drivers

Titleist introduces the new high inertia 907D1 for distance with forgiveness and the high performance 907D2 for distance with playability.

Following the company blueprint for designing, validating and providing serious clubs for serious golfers, Titleist has introduced its most technologically advanced drivers to date with the launch of the highly-anticipated 907D1 and 907D2. The two new 907 drivers are designed with all the core performance deliverables that have made Titleist the driver choice of Tour players, PGA club professionals, top amateurs and serious golfers at every level of competitive golf but they have very individual designs to cater for different performance needs.

(more…)

Jack Nicklaus is confident the tournament he created will live on.

Far more than a vanity project or a way to market his name, the Memorial Tournament has grown into one of the premier stops on the PGA Tour. And there’s no reason to expect that to end once its famous, 67-year-old founder is no longer micromanaging every detail.

“I’d like to think the event can stand on its own two feet without me,” Nicklaus said Tuesday, two days before the 32nd Memorial tees off with eight of the top 10 players in the world rankings in the field. “It is set in place that I can be here or I don’t have to be here.”

Nicklaus was enthralled the first time he played in the Masters in 1959 as a callow 19-year-old amateur. He dreamed of someday leaving a legacy similar to what Bobby Jones created among the dogwoods and azaleas of Augusta, Ga. Years later, after Nicklaus become the game’s dominant player, he began to follow through on his plans.

As a kid growing up nearby in suburban Columbus, Nicklaus strolled the farmland where Muirfield Village Golf Club now sits astride upscale housing developments.

“It was not very big — it was like 250 acres or something,” he said of the land he asked several high school and college friends to look at. Smiling, he added, “It was a place that I used to come up here as a kid and hunt. I never shot anything, but I hunted.”

Investors and friends put up money and a $9 million public offering raised the funds to start building Muirfield Village in the rolling hills on the northwest edge of Ohio’s capital.

Now it is considered a jewel of golf-course design and is one of the most popular stops on tour. Dublin, which used to be a simple crossroads, has become a bustling city.

Nicklaus hasn’t won anything of note since the 1986 Masters, yet it still means something to the world’s best players that the Memorial is his baby.

(more…)

In the week that Michelle Wie returns to golf, Retief Goosen has made it clear he thinks she should receive no more invitations to men’s events.

Wie’s comeback from wrist injuries is on the LPGA Tour in South Carolina, but the 17-year-old Hawaiian will be taking on the men again at the US Tour’s John Deere Classic in July.

“The players in general feel it is not right,” said Goosen, competing this week at the Wales Open at Celtic Manor.

“If she qualifies to play in an event then fine, but there are youngsters and good players coming up who could have taken that spot and broken through.

“We all know with her playing in the men’s events that she is not going to get anywhere, so I’m not really sure what she is trying to achieve.

“If she thinks it is helping her development then fine, but so far I think it has been damaging to her game.”

(more…)

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both playing the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial tournament in Ohio for the first time since 2002, and although fans will be desperate for the pair to do battle at the top of the leaderboard, Woods has downplayed the duel.

Fans and media have long craved a legitimate rivalry between Woods and someone else, and for a while it looked like they had found one, as Mickelson won the 2005 PGA Championship and 2006 Masters.

But after ‘Lefty’ melted on the final hole of the 2006 United States, making double bogey to hand Geoff Ogilvy victory, the rivalry had to be put on hold as Mickelson went into a mini slump.

At the recent Players Championship, however, Mickelson was back to his brilliant best, blowing away the field barely a month after starting a swing renovation with new coach Butch Harmon.

Whether he has the staying power to become a long-term rival to Woods remains to be seen, and Woods for one appears to have doubts.

“Ever since I’ve been on tour they’ve been looking for a rivalry for me. I’ve had guys make different runs,” said Woods, reeling off names such as David Duval, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.

Woods noted that Nicklaus had rivalries during his career with the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller, but noted that true rivalries are sustained by long-term excellence.

“You’ve got to do it a number of times to get that reputation,” he said. “Watson and Trevino (beat) Jack, but they didn’t do it one time, they did it a number of times. Repeatability is the key. You can’t just do it once.”

(more…)

Putting is a very important part of the golf game. This can be where a game can be decided. Poor putting can add many strokes to your score. Mastering putting requires lot of patience and practice. Putting can be nerve racking even for good players especially when the game depends on it.

Below are some tips that I have put together as a guide when putting during a game.

1. The first thing to do is to stand behind the ball and visualise how you would want to execute the shot. Of course, you would have read the lie already.

2. Take practise shots to establish the rhythm in putting the ball. This is to give you a good feel of the actual stroke to be made. Feel is important in putting.

3. Pick a spot along the putt path that you visualised. Used this as an intermediate marker for your putt. This spot will help you align your shot in the right direction. Aiming to a spot nearer is always easier than the hole which is further away. This is helpful if you have a long putt.

4. Align yourself using the marking spot as a guide. Take a comfortable stance. Remember your shoulder should be aligned parallel to the direction of putt. For me, i tend to drop my arms straight down from my shoulder. Make sure you are comfortable.

5. All putts are straight. It is the terrain that will “turn” the ball along the path. Now, that you are aligned to an intermediate spot along the path, you are now ready to putt.

6. Once ready, focus on the ball. This will help in lining your putter up behind the ball. Focus on the shot and not anything else. Do not worry about the marker or the hole. Let the terrain do the rest of the job. Your job is to launch the putt along the direction determined.

The key factor in putting is the feel. And as with all golf shots, practice will help build the feel in you. Just stay relaxed and focus on executing the stroke. You should be fine. Take a deep breath and not let any distractions affect you.

Source - www.learngolfwithme.com

Tiger Woods had lasik eye surgery again, to correct his nearsightedness that arose after his first surgery back in 1999. The last time he had lasik, Tiger won his first tourney back because he thought the hole looked so big

Tiger Woods was once so nearsighted he said he would be considered legally blind without glasses or contacts. He had Lasik surgery in October 1999 after the Ryder Cup, won the Disney Classic in his first tournament back and has done fairly well since.

He realized this spring it was time to do it again.

“My vision started slipping,” Woods said after THE PLAYERS Championship. “I was getting headaches from squinting all the time.”

He said he had laser surgery for the second time the Monday after the Masters.

“Mine stayed the way it should for … what is it, eight years now?” Woods said. “That’s pretty good.”

Just as in 1999, Woods won his first tournament after eye surgery when he captured the Wachovia Championship by two shots. But that’s where the similarity ends. His victory at Disney in 1999 was the second of six consecutive PGA TOUR victories. Woods tied for 37th last week, his worst finish since missing the cut at the U.S. Open last summer.

Padraig Harrington’s prediction came true today as the longest course in Irish Open history had to be shortened by more than 100 yards.

Harrington won the JP McManus Invitational pro-am at Adare Manor two years ago, shooting scores of 67 and 63 to win by six shots and leave the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie trailing in his wake.

However, that was in glorious sunshine and with wind and rain forecast this week, Harrington correctly predicted the 7,453-yard course may have to be altered to cope with the conditions.

“I played it three weeks ago on a beautiful sunny day and it played fantastic,” said the 35-year-old Dubliner, who was among the afternoon starters today. “I played it yesterday and it was tough.

“I’m fully confident the tournament director understands the requirements so I would suggest this course will not play like what guys saw yesterday.

“A lot of shots yesterday I didn’t even play off the very back of the tees because I know we won’t be falling off the back of the tee boxes because there is no need.”

A total of eight changes were made before play got under way in Thursday’s first round, the biggest coming at the third and 11th where the tees were moved forward 40 yards, although the par-five ninth remains a daunting 631 yards.

The back tee on the 444-yard 14th will not be used all week to give the players a chance to cope with rough Paul McGinley described as “US Open-style”.

(more…)

Ten weeks to go to the Open and it looks like Carnoustie will not be quite so nasty as it was in 1999.

The stars with awful memories of eight years ago will be delighted by the words from Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Club, at the Scottish links today.

“We are not seeking carnage,” said Dawson. “We are seeking an arena where the players can display their skills to the best effect.”

At 7,421 yards, the course will play 60 yards longer than it did in 1999 and will be the longest in Open history - just 24 yards shorter than Augusta was for the Masters a month ago and only 140 yards less than the major record of Medinah for last year’s US PGA Championship.

But it is the severity of the rough that dictated the scoring last time and led to the course being dubbed ‘Car-nasty’.

While nobody knows what weather lies ahead in the next two months, there is nothing in the long-range forecast to suggest that conditions will be quite as challenging - some would say near-impossible.

What everybody most remembers the 1999 Open for, of course, is the closing triple bogey by Jean Van de Velde after he stood on the final tee three clear.

It is doubtful if there will ever be more a more dramatic finish to any golf tournament.

But when the dust settled, what everybody had also witnessed was the highest scoring in the championship since 1947 and the highest in any major since 1963.

Play-off winner Paul Lawrie, Van de Velde and Justin Leonard - almost the forgotten man of that final day - tied on six over par.

(more…)