Nicklaus claim: 15 more yards with training aid

A professional golfer, endorsing a product without compensation? This is what the headline on the news release said, piquing our interest.

"Powerchute Golf Trainer Receives Unpaid Endorsement from World's Best Golfer," the headline read.

Jack Nicklaus had lent his name to the Powerchute, a device with a chute-like apparatus that attaches to your club and provides resistance on practice swings. The news release states that Nicklaus reported adding 5.5 mph to his swing speed and 15 yards in driving distance. We can't corroborate the numbers, but an increase of one mph in swing speed is said to produce two to three additional yards.

At Powerchute's website, a video shows Nicklaus hitting a driver on a launch monitor, then taking several practice swings with the Powerchute. He then hit another ball with his driver.

"Ninety-eight-point-four," he said, citing the clubhead speed registered by the launch monitor. "That's five-and-a-half miles an hour over what it started at."

"I have known Jack for years i went to him and wanted his opinion about it," Jim Sowerwine, the developer of the Powerchute, said. "He swung it and absoultely fell in love with it. He said, "I haven't felt a club this light in years.'"

-- John Strege