November 2011: New Stuff: Golf Digest

Print
E-Mail
Feeds

Golf Equipment: golfdigest.com

Results for November 2011 Back to New Stuff Index

Take a golf lesson live, at your desk

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Comments

Those who might not have the time to take a lesson now have the opportunity to do so at their desk, 10 minutes a session, live, with a teaching professional, via the Internet.

It's called Golf Coach Direct and is the brainchild of Phil Auerbach, an entrepreneur and self-described golf nut, who has played in the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and is a 10-time club champion at Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase, N.Y.

Golf Coach Direct.jpg

"What we've found is that lessons are not affordable or they're not accessible," Auerbach said. "People have limited time for golf. They'd rather play at golf than work at golf."

Golf Coach Direct takes the time and cost constraints out of the equation. "Ten minutes, $20," Auerbach said. "You just upload your swing and pick your coach."

It's a simple process that begins with video of your swing, which can be taken with any kind of device, even a smart phone. It's uploaded to Golf Coach Direct and analyzed by your instructor, chosen from among 100 of them from around the country, with whom you communicate via webcam.

"There are four different screens during the lesson," Auerbach said. "Picture the Ayatollah, Frank Chirkinian [the late CBS Sports director] in his truck deciding whether to go to the 15th or the 17th hole at Augusta National. Not only can your coach do that, he call put up a split screen and pull up a swing of yours from a different day, or one from his own locker to compare yours with, or even put up a tour pro's swing. Our library of tour pros' swings run the gamut -- Phil and Tiger, McIlroy, Mahan, a lot of great women players. Another view is when the coach comes onto the camera itself and shows you what you're doing wrong."

The instructor also can use lines and arrows and such to demonstrate where your club is supposed to be at various points of the swing. At the conclusion of your lesson, it is saved in your locker for referencing at your leisure.

Eventually, Auerbach said, he intends to add a fitness component to it as well.

"I'm proud to say the site is working incredibly well," Auerbach said. "It's a whole new age way of thinking."

-- John Strege

Keywords:

Renegar Golf: Wedges for the 21st century

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Comments

The new Renegar Golf wedges have been 18 years in the making, but 80 years overdue, the company founder said.

Bob Renegar, a former director of research and development for the Ben Hogan Company and Pro Group (Arnold Palmer's former equipment company), said he conceived of the idea at his mother-in-law's kitchen table nearly two decades ago. He developed a prototype in 1995 that went through various iterations, including the Solus wedge.

The new Renegar Rx12 wedges evolved from those earlier models, Renegar said, and have achieved what once was thought impossible -- lowering the leading edge, while increasing the bounce on the sole.

"The product itself is a complete rethinking of what a wedge product ought to be, from the sole contour to the butt end of the grip," Renegar said. "After 80 years of the Gene Sarazen sole contour, we're opening the door to the next generation of wedge category."

The bounce that makes a wedge so effective from a bunker, developed by Gene Sarazen in the '30s, raises the leading edge, which complicates shots around the green. Renegar's mandate was to "think outside the bunker," he said.

"The Sarazen-based offerings in the marketplace right now are perfectly acceptable for bunker play," Renegar said. "There's nothing wrong with them. But the problem is that that's only about 20 percent of your short-game play."

The sole contour of the Rx12 wedges has been designed in a way that lowers the leading edge to less than half the height of traditional soles, the company claims, while actually increasing the bounce and the versatility.

The shafts were developed in collaboration with Aldila and feature a firmer tip and higher flex point. "It's a fairly heavy composite shaft [105 grams]," Renegar said. "It gives you the ability to control the trajectory."

The Lamkin grips, too, were designed specifically for the wedges. They're an inch longer with a larger right-hand diameter to allow for choking down on the club.

Renegar received a utility patent on the sole design in 2009. "That utility patent is the basis on which we're launching this company," Renegar said. The wedges are available on the company's website at renegargolf.com. They sell for $195 each and come in lofts of 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58 and 60 degrees.

The website features a video library with live shot demonstrations, among other features.

-- John Strege

Keywords:

PutterMaster: A simple fix for a wristy stroke

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Comments

Mark Immelman, brother of former Masters champion Trevor Immelman and one of Golf Digest's top 20 teachers under 40 in 2009 (he's now 41), embraces simplicity in his teaching.

"As a golf instructor, what gets me about a lot of them is that they use training aids that are intricate or difficult to use," Immelman said. "I base my entire teaching philosophy on the more simply you can apply these things the better. This was right up my alley."

He was talking about the PutterMaster, a simple training aid that attaches to your own putter and won't allow your wrists to break down during the stroke. Immelman is the director of product development for PutterMaster, which is based in Columbus, Ga.

"The whole premise of this thing is stability in the wrists," Immelman said. "It forces correct alignment of the forearms as well, which is crucial to success. The simplicity of this was very intriguing to me, and it touches on an area of the game that can have a huge effect on your score. If you putt well, your scoring is going to improve."

The PutterMaster sells for $29.99 and can be purchased here.

Keywords:

Get your own U.S. Presidents Cup polos

Monday, November 21, 2011 Comments

The shirts worn by the U.S. Presidents Cup team at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, last week were manufactured by Peter Millar, which is selling copies of them through its website for $115.

Peter Millar.jpg

Shown here is the shirt the Americans wore on Sunday, when they completed their 19-15 victory over the International team. The polos are part of the Peter Millar's cotton lisle Collection and feature the Presidents Cup logo on the left chest and an American flag on the sleeve.

The uniform shirt from each of the seven days (three practice rounds, four days of competition) is available, including the Australian green with a yellow placket that the players wore on Tuesday.

-- John Strege

Keywords:

You, too, can play Royal Melbourne (sort of)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 Comments

Just in time for the start of the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, the OptiShot Infrared Simulator has introduced Melbourne Golf Club to its library of courses available on which to play a virtual round of golf.

Its Melbourne Golf Club ($49.95) is what the company calls "a hyper-accurate replication" of the Alister Mackenzie design on which the Presidents Cup begins on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia.

OptiShot ($399.95) is an in-home virtual golf experience that can be played with your own clubs, real golf balls, foam balls that come with the system, or no ball. Four players can compete at once.

It also can be used as a practice device. Its infrared sensors calculate clubhead speed, face angle, swing path, distance, tempo, face contact and ball flight. It requires a connection to a Windows operating system.

-- John Strege

Keywords:

Golf memorabilia: 'Hand of a Legend'

Thursday, November 10, 2011 Comments

Those who might want a piece of Jack Nicklaus can at least get a replication of one -- his hand teeing a ball cast in bronze.

It is part of a new "Hand of a Legend" series by artist Jack Kimmich, who used the "lost-wax casting" process that is said to have been used for nearly 2,000 years. Only 1,500 pieces will be issued, after which the mold will be destroyed. Part of the proceeds will go to the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation and the World Golf Hall of Fame. The cost is $2,035.

Each year, another golf legend will have his hand similarly featured in the series. A spokesman for J.H.K Company, which produces the castings, would not directly identify who the next in the series would be, but that "you can probably guess who it will be."

Presumably he meant Arnold Palmer.

The casting of each golfer will be on permanent display at the World Golf Hall of Fame.

-- John Strege

Keywords:

Ms. 59's new app: 59 ways to better golf

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 Comments

Annika App.jpg

Annika Sorenstam, the only player in LPGA history to break 60 in a tournament round, has just issued a new instructional app for the iPhone and iPad for $4.99.

The app, called Annika Academy, features 59 instructional and fitness videos, the number conveniently borrowed from the 59 Sorenstam shot in the second round of the Standard Register Ping at Moon Valley Country Club in 2001.

Those featured in the videos are Sorenstam, her long-time swing insructor Henri Reis, and her sister, Charlotta, a former LPGA player and tournament winner, her trainer Kai Fusser, and Mark Bereza, an instructor at the Annika Academy outside Orlando, Fla.

There are four categories of instruction: fundamental, intermediate, advanced and professional. They includes tips on the full swing, chipping, putting and playing from the fairway.

Those who wish to sample the app before buying it can download a free version featuring five of the 59 videos. A version for the Android will be available later this month.

-- John Strege

Keywords: