BOMB: I know, I know--where have we been? Sorry, but after celebrating each of the New York Giants' playoff wins I was hardly in shape to blog. But now that the season is over and a photo of Eli Manning is appropriately adorning the door to my son's bedroom, we're back in business.
So, what's happened in the equipment world since the last time we put fingers to keyboard? A few interesting tidbits, actually. First thing to catch my attention was ShotLink's addition of Trackman radar stats to its bevy of information. Although still in its infancy, looking at numbers such as hang time (forgive the shameless plug, but it is the subject of my Golf World equipment column this week), smash factor, ball speed, clubhead speed, flight apex and more is nothing short of fascinating for a golf junkie.
Next up for me has been watching how well Titleist's new AP line of irons has been accepted on tour. When we spoke with the company back in November about these clubs they said they expected a number of their tour staff to gravitate toward the forged, cavity-back AP2 and even some to take a turn with the larger-headed, cast AP1. Well, a few weeks into the season Billy Mayfair is using the AP1s and players such as Ben Crane, Ben Curtis and Tom Pernice Jr. are in the AP2, along with Adam Scott—a long-time muscleback blade guy. For a company that has long been known simply for producing better players clubs, Titleist may have finally turned a corner in its equipment line by producing an iron for players that do—and more importantly, do not—have their tour cards.
And the last thing to intrigue me was something that didn't get a lot of play but in the long run may be significant. Last week before the start of play in Dubai, Tiger Woods cracked the face of his driver. Now, Mr. Wonderful went on to win the event with a backup, but lets not automatically assume everything will be fine and dandy going forward. Fact is, finding backups that are exact replicas of the original is virtually impossible. You can get close, but every head, every shaft, every grip has slight variances that make an exact match difficult. Don’t believe me? Ask Jim Furyk, who was going along just fine with a Srixon driver until he cracked it early last season. Unable to get comfortable with any of the backups produced—despite it being built to the exact same specs of his gamer—Furyk has been using a different make and model ever since. Given that, it will be interesting to see how Woods drives the ball going forward.
Now please, don't make me (and our readers) want to return to a drunken stupor by droning on about moment of inertia or specific gravity or, good grief, cis content.
GOUGE: I could get all self-promotional, but I see you've cornered the market there, so I'll move on. Let's start with what's fresh: J.B. Holmes' repeat mauling of the 18th hole at the TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course has caused all sorts of consternation among the intelligentsia (or is it cognoscenti?) that the ball is going too far again. You know what? Maybe it really is. If you’re worried about freaks dominating the game that is. Because that's what J.B. Holmes is: A freak. By my study of the numbers, J.B. hit one 385 last week. He had eight drives longer than 320 yards during the final round. He only averaged 302.5 off the tee, which dropped him out of the top 10 in driving distance average for the week. He is averaging 125 miles per hour clubhead speed, about 14 mph more than the tour average. His ball speed in 184.14 mph, which is 3 mph faster than second-place Bubba Watson. His slowest measured ball speed (182.4) would still lead the tour. J.B. Holmes could still spawn a horde of bomb-and-gouge copy cats--as long as the tour continues to set up golf courses that don't demand accuracy. What did J.B. Holmes have at the TPC that caused him fear and uncertainty? Nothing on the 18th hole, that’s for sure. But the real tragedy of Holmes' win continues to be that grotesque bastardization of the rules he uses on the greens. Say it with me now: The Belly Putter and all who use it should be banned from the game.
Another thing: J.B. might be resorting to the cheater putter because his forearm muscles have been damaged by the brute force of his swing. Check out this report from Bob Prichard at flexibility specialists Somax Sports. This is the sort of biomechanical freakazoid that no governing body could ever anticipate. It also illustrates the difficulty in legislating based on the absolute extremes. You never know the limits of human potential. Until it crashes. Usually on the putting green. It does make one wonder, though. Frank Thomas once suggested that when the USGA changed its ball test parameters and upped the robot swing speed to 120 mph, it might have to keep changing those parameters to match up with tour players' increasing potential to generate clubhead speed. I'm not suggesting a super-race of 130 mph swingers are on the verge of arriving on the PGA Tour. But the potential is there I suppose. But it all comes back to the same defense: The golf course can be made harder--not necessarily miles longer--but harder. That approach is working fine in the tournaments that matter, though.
One final thought: We've been getting a lot of complaints regarding the price of golf equipment, sparked by this year’s Hot List. While I'll be the first to admit that the golf industry is not hesitant about pushing the financial envelope, there are opportunities to trade in your last purchase for your next purchase. But don't expect miracles. Those Wilson 1200 GEs from 1990 aren’t going to trade in at $200. If you haven't bought a new set in 10 years, you're due and you're due to pay a fair, full price. But if it's only been two or three years, and you're itching to upgrade, it's not unusual to get $100-$200 back in trade. You can get $190 for some Callaway X-18 irons, which landed on the market three years ago. For crying out loud, you get $140 in trade on a set of Ping G2s, which were introduced five years ago. If you've got a top-five brand name set of irons that's 5 years old, you're more than likely to get at least $100 for it. The point is, if you want it, you have options. But don't get greedy. If you've got crap in your bag, don't expect diamonds in return. Wake up.
