Today I play a practice round for this weekend’s awesome two day tournament. It’s one of the oldest tournaments around and the funnest AM: The Salt Lake Amateur.
Last year I shot my first round in the 80’s and pretty much shot myself out of the money. But on the 2nd day the course was set up as hard as it could be and there were 30mph winds. I somehow shot a 73 which was one of the lowest rounds the 2nd day. Even the pro asked me “how the hell did you shoot 73 out there?” That made me feel good. The 73 brought me back to 1 measly shot out of the money.
I’ve played in this tourney at one of my favorite courses for about 5 years and never placed. This year I can feel it. I’m going to be in the money. That’s the goal. I have no shot gross unless I can find a couple of 66’s in my bag somewhere. Not likely. But I just want to play well and get in the money (and have my name in the paper).
There are many reports floating around indicating that Tiger Woods is now practicing and getting ready for the U.S. Open.
ESPN
FOX
GolfBlogger
TigerWoods.com
I wonder how badly the PGA Tour’s numbers are suffering right now with relative “no names” winning every week? No Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Else, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh etc (or at least if they are playing they’re not winning..).
The final round of the first half of this fantasy season is 3 weeks away. It’s a tight race for the winner of the Nintendo DS and True Swing Golf betweeen 04_Utes (Luke), and Bedford Golf. They’re tied for first with 2548 points. 2nd place this half will receive a copy of the book “The Hole Of The Third Eye” by HOG buddy Wayne Smith.
With 3 weeks to go in this half of the season HOG is making it’s move. HOG leapfrogged from 28th to 25th place.
This week’s winner for fantasy golf is Bobbleheads. For his efforts this week he wins a Golf Dust Tune-Up Kit.
Everyone click through here to the sponsors below so they’ll see some traffic and want to sponsor our league next year!
By the way, it’s still not too late to join and get in on tons of great prizes!
The 7th and final day of my “7 straight days of golf equipment reviews” 🙂
The TaylorMade TP Red golf ball is one of two new offerings, the Black being the other. The Red is considered the higher spin and/or softer of the two balls.
I’ve been playing the TaylorMade TP Black and Red golf balls for a while now (being a top golf blog has it’s preveleges…hehe). My friends and even the local TM sales reps envy me. Sometimes I show the TM reps their new gear before they get their hands on it.
Technology
This multi layer ball has a large core made of a rubber based neodymium compound. I’m very familiar with neodymium because in my other world (the audio industry), some microphones employ neodymium magnets in their circuitry. Neodymium magnets are much more powerful than standard magnets. What this has to do with golf ball cores is beyond me but it apparently lends itself to a high COR, low compression, low driver spin and high ball speed.
The cover is an ultra thin proprietary urethane which provides tons of spin and feel. TM calls this cover “ultra thin yet very durable.” In another description they say “superior durability.” We’ll discuss that later in the review.
The red has 322 dimples. TM’s dimple design is especially effective on the back half of the ball flight, adding lift for more carry and distance. I can attest to that. I saw the ball fly a little farther than I expected.
On the course
Off the driver the Red is very long. My unscientific tests tell me it’s much longer than a standard “premium” spin/control ball. I had a period of a couple of weeks where I was knocking the Red into areas on the course I don’t normally see, about 330 yards from the tee.
When you are bombing a ball this far, you’re going to be hitting a ton of wedges into greens. I found the Red to be exceptionally responsive to my wedges and short game. I could easily hit a more controlled and less “wristy” shot and have the ball land on the green and stop instantly.
If I pounded down on the ball harder and got a little more wrist action with the wedges I could get what I like to call “Phil super spin.” I had one shot where I got too carried away with the spin on my lob wedge. The ball hit the center of the green pin high and spun back about 25 feet off the green. The next hole I carried the ball over the entire green and spun it through the longer grass back onto the green!
Green side I loved the feel of the Red. I could close down a wedge and get some over spin for a longer runner. I could put the ball back in my stance and chop it for one of those 2-3 bounces and check shots.
Off the irons the softer compression of the Red felt nice as well. You can work the ball easily and control your distance. There’s no better feeling than feeling the ball compress on the club face for that extra thousandth of a second with a 3 or 4 iron.
Critic’s corner
“Superior durability” and “very durable” are words used to describe the Red on TM’s web site. I’m going to have to disagree here. While this is an amazing ball it is anything but durable.
The day I was bombing those 300+ yard drives I was hitting many sand and lob wedges into greens. Even a 3/4 swing with my lob wedge would result in extreme shearing or shavings on the urethane cover. After 3 or 4 sand/lob wedges the ball looked like it had hit about 10 cart paths. Even the decoration (logos and text) on the ball shaved right off.
This article I wrote a while back covers a little experiment I did on ball performance when the cover is damaged. Given what that article finds, I doubt the damage to the surface of the TM balls has much of an effect on the overall performance.
Conclusion
Though it’s not the most durable ball out there, TM TP Red is a great golf ball. It’s long, workable and great on touch shots around the green. You’ll be able to pull of many great shots thanks to this ball.
Today marks the final of my 7 straight days of golf equipment reviews. I managed to clear my queue of some reviews I’ve been needing to get done. It was fun to challenge myself to find the time and energy to get them all done in a week. I’m ready to take a review break for a few days.
These aren’t all the reviews I had to do in my queue by any means. I have quite a few more to do actually. Coming up are some cool apparel items, more hybrids, several more golf ball brands/types (5 to be exact), a new golf bag and several cool “accessories” for your game.
Stay tuned. And now back to our regularly scheduled blogram.
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