Back on June 21, 2007 I wrote a review on these really cool golf scuptures by Flog Dog. They’re golf statues made entirely from Union Pacific Railroad spikes.

In my rave review my only critique was the stand:

“My 2nd critique is on the black polished base my Jones came with. There’s a big screw that comes out of the foot of the statue and goes into the base. But there’s nothing to tighten down or bolt down the statue. You can pick up the statue and possibly have the base fall right off or even worse if you grabbed it by the base the statue might fall out. The fall wouldn’t damage the statue since it’s made of pure steel, but it may damage your floor or break your toes! It would be nice of they added a bolt to the bottom of the base or something to make it a solid attachment.”

New and improved Flog Dog

Apparently the folks at Flog Dog took my critique to heart. I received an upgraded stand in the mail a few weeks ago, out of the blue. The stand (see pic) was exactly as I’d described. Great job! Now my Flog Dog golf statue is securely mounted to the base!

I’m glad to see that one of my articles was able to hopefully not only help generate some interest in a company, but that it was able to help that company improve one of their products.

Click here for the HOG Flog Dog gallery.

A few days ago I did my review of the cool new Tattoo Golf shirt. As a follow up to that review I’m doing a quick mention that Tattoo Golf makes killer golf gloves as well.

Of course the glove is black.

On the course

I’m not usually a glove wearing player, but when it’s hot and humid or the conditions are causing me to lose my grip I have gloves in the bag ready to go. The Tattoo Golf glove was very comfortable and I felt like I had really great feel and control when I used it. Plus I really dig the “all black” look, ala Gary Player or Johnny Cash. The TG glove completes the look and attitude!

Options

The Tattoo Golf glove is available in Small-XXL sizes, left hand only.

More Tattoo Golf images are available in the Hooked On Golf Blog Tattoo Golf image gallery, including pictures of golf babe Nikki Disanto.

Friday start this week which is good since I forgot to get my fantasy team set before today!

Here are the TV times for week two of the Tiger Woods, I mean FedEx Cup playoffs.

Deutsche Bank Championship
PGA Tour
Friday 8/31 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Friday 8/31 8:30 PM - 11:30 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 9/1 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET GOLF
Saturday 9/1 8:30 PM - 11:30 PM ET GOLF
Sunday 9/2 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET NBC
Monday 9/3 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET NBC

I have SO many golf products to review it’s getting crazy.

Yesterday I took my cameras, stands and a ton of golf stuff over to the course and set up to shoot a bunch of pics and video of many of these golf products. It was really hot and humid out there. About 1.5 hours into it I bent over to pick up something and I got dizzy and darn near collapsed! I think I was dehydrated.

Many golf product reviews in the queue with tons of pictures and videos so stay tuned.

My “other” site is called The Golf Space. TGS is a free golf networking and community site. I’d say it’s everything for golfers that myspace is for strippers and teenagers, only without the porn and spam…

At TGS each member (over 2300 now) has his or her own profile, blog, matchmaker, photo galleries, golf equipment list, game overview, golf stats, golf records and a zillion more items. TGS also has monthly contests and golf prize giveaways from TGS sponsors.

Anyone, even other golf networking sites, can have a free account and network themselves or their products and services. Unlike many golf forums and sites out there, I don’t “ban” people just because they have a product or service that competes with a site sponsor and I don’t “ban” people because they are or aren’t affiliated with other golf sites who consider themselves “competitors.”

1,000,000

Some time while I was asleep last night the 1,000,000th visitor stopped by The Golf Space. TGS opened during Masters week 2006, so that puts the average at about 64,000 visitors per month. That’s “visitors” and not “hits.” Hits would be in the zillions…

I’m very happy to provide a free resource for golfers like TGS and I’m very happy to see the growth since it’s all from word of mouth advertising. TGS has no paid ads out there and mostly relies on new members generated by HOG and by other member referrals.

Spam free since December 2006

During the first half year or so TGS was hacked and brought down, and some spammers got in. They were posting erectile dysfunction spam, porn spam and other garbage. I implemented several countermeasures, like captcha and the “favorite pro golfer” fields to the profiles as a result. I’m happy to say those spammers haven’t gotten through since December 2006.

Say hello

Visit my profile and get a flavor for TGS if you haven’t already:
http://www.thegolfspace.com/tony

My pal GolfBlogger has revamped most of his site with a new look and style. I have been so used to the old version over the last few years but I must say the new look is very sharp.

GolfBlogger is one of the original and best golf blogs so go check it out. Now if I could just get him to remove dead 2004 golf blogs from his blogroll so google doesn’t feed on them…

Oh man, before I say something like that I’d better check my blogroll…

For you single guys looking for a lady who is a great golfer, athletic, hot and rich:

Annika Sorenstam is engaged now. Scratch her off your list.

Titleist has released new versions of the NXT Tour golf ball, the NXT Extreme and NXT Tour. I’ve been playing both flavors for a while now. In this article I’ll be reviewing the new NXT Extreme Golf Ball. My NXT Tour golf ball review can be found here.

Titleist NXT Extreme Golf Ball

The NXT Extreme is is a two piece (core and cover) distance ball. It is geared toward players who need distance and don’t need as much spin around the greens, and who don’t want to spend a ton of dough on a box of balls ($34.00). This would likely include about 90% of all amateur golfers. The ball is extremely durable, so if you can keep it in play you’ll be able to play very many holes with it.

The NXT Extreme is so durable that Titleist guarantees you won’t cut open the ball during normal play. If you do, Titleist will replace your cut ball with a whole sleeve of new ones.

Technology

The core of the NXT Extreme is made of Polybutadiene.

From WikiPedia: Polybutadiene is a synthetic rubber that has a high resistance to wear and is used especially in the manufacture of tires. It has also been used to coat or encapsulate electronic assemblies, offering extremely high electrical resistivity. It exhibits a recovery of 80% after stress is applied, a value only exceeded by elastin and resilin. Polybutadiene is a polymer formed from the polymerization of the monomer 1,3-butadiene. ….Right.

The cover of the NXT Extreme is made of Surlyn. Surlyn is a Dupont plastic which is very strong and resistant to cutting.

Dimples

Titleist has long employed a 392 dimple aerodynamic design. Their research has concluded that the 392 dimple pattern provides more carry and distance. There are five different sizes of dimples which are arranged in an icosahedral pattern.

Staggered Wave Parting Design

New for this year Titleist has introduced the “staggered wave parting design.” Titleist balls, including the NXT, ProV1 and ProV1x series have all had a visible seam. What they’re doing now is staggering the dimples where the seam is, to gain that real estate on the ball. This has allowed more dimple coverage and even better results in carry, distance and spin.

AIM System

No longer do you need to draw an aiming line on your ball with Titleist’s new A.I.M. system. A.I.M. is short for alignment integrated marking. They call it a system but come on. It’s just a line, right? Perhaps not. The arrows and lines give you conscious and subconscious influence on aim and club path.

On The Course

I’m not a “hard” ball player typically. I prefer softer cover balls and I usually play the Titleist ProV1. My main two reasons are the spin around the greens and the pain (or lack thereof) when I hit full shots. I’ve been battling golfer’s elbow for several years and I’ve just about got it beat. But when I hit hard balls, or a bunch of range balls for that matter, my pain starts to come back.

I found the NXT Extreme to be “extremely” long. Like I mentioned in my NXT Tour review, the biggest distance increase I noticed was in my irons. I was taking aerial photos of the green as my approach shots flew right over by one or two extra clubs. Once I adjusted and went one or two shorter clubs down I started hitting greens again.

I’m not a bomber, but I can poke my drives out there on an average of 290 or so. I’m definitely capable of going beyond 300 when my timing is right and I hit the sweet spot. I found the NXT capable of drives well over 300 yards, but perhaps more importantly they were all fairly straight. With the Surlyn cover and the lower compression producing less spin, slices and hooks were easier to control.

Though I didn’t get any mad backspin I found that the Extreme stopped quite well on approach shots. Keeping in mind that this is a harder ball, I adjusted my shots around the green as well. Once I found the right touch or shot selection (like a bump and run), I found the consistency of the NXT Extreme excellent. I never ended up hitting a shot and wondering how my distance control was so bad.

NXT Extreme 1, Cart Path 0

One shot I hit on my home course, #13 hole, hit the cart path. This is a par-5, 528 yards. After hitting the cart path, my NXT ended up right at 145 yards out. I’d hit about a 380 yard drive, 80 of which was cart path. I examined the NXT for damage, but that Surlyn cover barely had a scratch. Other balls would be unplayable with an impact like that.

Conclusion

The NXT Extreme is a reasonably priced and very durable ball. It flies true, straight and long. It’s a bit too hard for my game and physical limitations with my elbows, but for the average amateur player this would be an excellent choice. I think the average Joe would hit a few more fairways and gain a noticeable bit of distance off the driver (and irons) compared to other golf balls.

For more pictures of the NXT and other Titleist products, click here to visit the Hooked On Golf Blog Titleist image gallery.