I had the chance to hit some shots with a slightly customized Callaway FT-i square driver. This is the driver owned by my local pro Guy Lester. I don’t think the shaft or draw bias he had setup was good for me since I draw the ball anyway and my swing is probably slower than his.

One thing I noticed right off which I liked, was the feel of the club during my swing. I seemed to be very aware of the club face and it’s position almost like swinging a heel-toe weighted putter. I hit a few bad shots with it but I was only wearing my leopard Vans and I was freezing to death. BUT when I did hit it well the ball really flew.

Below is a video of Guy hitting it and making some comments on what he thinks about the Callaway FT-i. At the end of the video you see me hit it with my Vans. I edited out the bad shots…

The square drivers have hit many of the stores. You can get the Callaway FT-i square driver at my favorite online golf store, Edwin Watts Golf.

I tune into NBC today to see how the six way tie for first today would pan out. Bob Estes, Jason Gore, D.J. Brigman, Bubba Watson, Stuart Appleby and Jeff Maggert are all tied. What I find on NBC is not long drives and great short games. I did find the program “Latter Day Saints’ World Report.” Where’s the damn PGA Tour? This happens every year. My religion (golf) has been preempted by the Mormons again… ARGH!

There was a stink a while ago when players complained about replacing The International with an “invitational.” The problem guys like Rich Beem had was that invitationals have smaller fields, thus giving less opportunities for some players to win FedEx points and money.

Tiger, Tim Finchem and the PGA Tour players’ advisory board settled on 120. 120 is a little more than invitationals like Bay Hill (118) and Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament (104).

More at pga.com

My friend Kristen, a.k.a. The Golf Chick, is back to golf blogging. She took a break for a month to mourn the loss of The Goose, her K9 best friend.

Welcome back Kristen. You were missed.

Can’t resist… The Masters and Augusta National posts are on the way…

Someone at Golf Digest apparently didn’t get the Masters tickets they requested. Join the club. Augusta National will be dropping from No. 2 of “America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses” to No. 3. The new No. 2 is Shinnecock Hills. Pine Valley is the perennial and uncontested No. 1. Anybody want to get me a round at Pine Valley so I can confirm how good it is?

When asked about the Augusta ranking Tiger Woods said “Maybe they can’t draw the ball.”

Golf Digest’s top 10:
Pine Valley
Shinnecock Hills
Augusta National
Cypress Point
Oakmont
Pebble Beach
Merion
Winged Foot
Seminole and Crystal Downs

Augusta only cracks top 10

Augusta National only came in at No. 10 on their list of “Top 100 classic courses” built before 1960. #10?

I’ve been tinkering with putters, pictures and videos in the putter category this spring. This post relates to a putter’s “desire” to stay on target.

I see a lot of players who can’t keep their putters traveling on the target line. Much of this is due to the fact that they have poor technique I’m sure. But how much of that could be the putter? More than any other club in the bag, putters are very personal and very “feel” related. When I pick up a putter for the first time the first thing I do is see if it likes to be square to the target when I take my address position. I’ll hold the putter just off the ground at address lightly and then let go and see if it wants to remain square. Some putters stay square and some fall open or closed. If the putter wants to fall a few degrees open, then if you get lazy or lose concentration on your putt you may push it.

So here’s a video showing the unscientific way I like to test putters to see if they “want” to stay on the proper line:

I’m really having a lot of fun going through my golf videos and putting them up on YouTube. Here’s a video I forgot about. It’s of some guy which ended up playing as the 4th in my group. Mind you, this group’s highest handicap other than this guy was a three.

Once again all the trips I spent running to my mailbox and I never got an invitation. There’s always next year. Here are those who are lucky enough to get an invitation to play in The Masters: