I’m playing in a golf group yesterday which included a very quiet and mellow older player. During his round he was taking the plastic wrap off of his “new” irons, and hitting them very well, for the first time. We’ve all seen that before, right? Wrong.
Upon closer inspection I was flabbergasted to discover the “new” irons were a set of Ben Hogan irons he had purchased some 10 or more years prior. How cool to see these beauties in un-hit condition.
What made him decide yesterday was the day to try these irons? How crazy that a Hogan player for over a decade, me, was in the group.
Very interesting and entertaining indeed.
A fantastic golf blog related Twitter discussion happened a couple of nights ago. There was some tremendous discussion and a few important points I thought I’d talk about today. Here’s the tweet that started it below. Click it and follow all the commentary. It is great.
People have a misconception about me, and bloggers who work hard to build a reputation and following who trusts their opinion. Often people say to me “you’re lucky you get free stuff sent to you all the time.”
Lucky? Puhlease. Like Gary Player says, the harder I work the luckier I get. I have to chime in because I have a very strong opinion on this. I’ve worked my ass off on this blog for over TEN years. I’ve spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of my own dollars on web hosting, design, travel, trade shows, software, computers, photo gear… all things I use to produce what I hope is entertaining and original golf content. When I go to the PGA Show in Orlando I pay my own way. The PGA Show costs me thousands in airfare, hotels, rental cars, food. The biggest cost is being away from my super wife and my little 2.5 year old boy. So when I come back from a golf trade show with a new pair of shoes, a bag of tees, and a dozen golf balls, that is far from free. Dollars for dollars the last PGA Show netted me a $3500 pair of $129 shoes and a week’s worth of constipation.
I do not review these useless things…
If I receive a box of golf balls, a shirt, a driver, a book submitted for review here the stuff is NOT “free.” I spend HOURS researching, testing, writing, painstakingly taking photos, working on web content. At the hourly rate I charge my day-job web design and development clients that $29.99 box of golf balls would cost hundreds in my time. If it was free I might as well quit this blog thing and just spend the $29.99 and save myself 5-10 hours of trouble.
Why Little or No Negative Reviews?
If you saw my house you’d know I’m not full of it when I say I can’t go to the bathroom without tripping over a golf accessory or some golf gadget. Seriously. It is out of control. I’ve experimented with having other writers here, but I prefer to have this blog be MY blog, good or bad. Therefore it is not possible for me to review every item I receive. Maybe I could do it if I snapped one photo with my camera phone and wrote two sentence reviews about the products, but that’s not how I roll. I like to get into the products and try to translate my experiences in much more depth.
It is because of that time factor that I can’t review everything. So what do I choose to review what what do I abandon? I made the decision to try and limit most of my reviews to products I believe in and can convey a positive message about. So any product I feel is junk, crap, irrelevant, useless, or not well made or poorly designed gets no airtime.
That said, in every review I write I try to put in a critique paragraph or two if I can. I try to point out product weaknesses or ways the product could be improved.
Blogs Who Mail It In
I do have a beef with crappy and lazy bloggers who mail it in. You know the ones. They are the golf blogs who spend NO time on their reviews. Their content is a copy/paste of the PR firm’s materials and the photos are stock PR photos, or shitty photos they took in their kitchen with a couple of rotten pieces of lasagna from last night’s dinner in the background. Their poorly lit photos have the ratty carpet in focus and the product out of focus. They never played that club or tested those golf balls! They never REALLY tested it for a MONTH or more on a real golf course like I do. They’re mailing it in.
PR firms and golf companies love those types of blogs. Whatever PR stuff they send gets automatically posted. It’s like a free advertising outlet. Those sites are easy to spot because their content is the same as the others who are doing the same thing. Sorry, not here.
I have my reasons for keeping my reviews positive as I stated above. When it comes to others is that the same reason? If so, great. I suspect however that those sites are AFRAID to post a negative review for fear that their golf gear gravy train will run out.
Unfortunately the digital golf world is flooded with these sites which dilute the space and hurt the search rankings of good sites, making it even tougher for them to survive. I know. I’m one of them.
Rant Conclusion
Many golf blogs come and go. Most don’t have the balls, time, or dedication it takes to keep it going and to produce ORIGINAL content. That wedge I reviewed last month was not free. I spent dozens of hours testing it on a real golf course, taking photos, and writing about it with a passion for what I’m doing.
The day that passion is gone or does not translate to an entertaining, original, and informative outlet is the day I leave. Could be tomorrow. Could be in a decade.
Dunning Golf makes fantastic apparel items, from underwear to pants, shirts, and outerwear. The line is some of the best of the best in golf apparel. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to review Dunning’s offerings and let my readers know about this wonderful apparel company.
Today’s piece is the Dunning Solid Mesh Contrast Collar Signal Golf Polo. Yes, it would be better with a longer name, but we can only go with what they give us.
Dunning Solid Mesh Contrast Collar Signal
Style
This polo is a high high contrast green and gray. It’s hard to describe the color of green but the best way I can describe it is vibrant or perhaps electric. Despite how vibrant the green is, it is still very classy and not too over-the-top. Not sure how they manage that but they do.
When wearing this polo with a pair of gray Dunning shorts, the color scheme is tremendous. In fact, it made me want to redesign my website with the same color base? What other golf blogger has an outfit that matches his/her website?! Seriously.
This polo makes me look much better than I normally do…
Comfort/Care
The fabric in this polo is 100% polyester. I’m a big fan of “polys” and not so much a fan of cotton anymore. Polys are so much easier to care for, don’t wrinkle, don’t shrink. They last forever and are very strong and durable.
Despite being a poly, the polo is as comfortable as any golf shirt I’ve worn.
Performance
The flexibility and fit of this great polo lend themselves to a free and unrestricted golf swing. The mesh fabric helps keep the player cool and wicks moisture away.
Conclusion
Hard to write 2,000 words on a shirt review so I’m not going to try. One final word comes to mind on this one and it rhymes with Dunning:
STUNNING.
This Dunning polo would make a fantastic golf Father’s Day gift.
Yesterday we had some extreme weather conditions with massive rain and hail that was bad enough that I had to pull my car over and park under a tree to keep my car from getting dented.
About a five minute drive from where I’m sitting right now is a 27 hole course designed by Johnny Miller called Stonebridge. The bad weather hit them too. A bolt of lightning hit a flagstick at the course, frying the flag and burning a crazy scorched pattern into the putting green. See photos below, courtesy of Stonebridge.
Lightning burned putting surface – click for more Stonebridge photos
Lightning burned golf flag… click to enlarge
Now think for just a second the next time you consider playing golf when you see lighting. That 5-iron is a lightning rod.
During today’s round I thought my opponent cutting his pants off with scissors was the strangest thing I’d see, but perhaps I was mistaken. After the round I couldn’t help notice this golf cart at the cart return area. It seems that the driver of the cart left his toothbrush.
I almost left my toothbrush in the golf cart!
I’m intrigued by this. I have more questions than answers.
If someone is obsessed with brushing his/her teeth enough to bring the toothbrush to the course, wouldn’t it make sense that they use a clean one?
Does Bud Light cure gingivitis?
Is brushing and flossing with coffee effective? Espresso?
Did you know that four out of five proctologists recommend Preparation-H for their golfing patients who chew hemorrhoidal tissue?
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