Well, I’ve seen it all now. This is an amazing video of a golfer who just might be a little more crazy than me, which is saying quite a bit. No comments necessary on that. I found this video on my Facebook feed this morning, courtesy of Golf Australia.
As a drone builder and pilot, and one who uses them for aerial photography and video on golf courses, this is an awesome example of the cool material that can be captured. Most of these cuts of this crazy guy paddle surf scuba golfing are shot by some kind of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The major championships in golf are certainly the best time of year. Is it because of the green grass of Augusta and the amazing traditions at the Masters Tournament? Is it because of the intensity and difficulty of the U.S. Open? The wind and weather of the Open Championship?
No. It is the apparel scripts.
I’ve been waiting ALL winter, and running to my email box every day with anticipation of the first Masters apparel scripts. I’m thrilled to be reporting on Rickie Fowler’s apparel script, courtesy of Puma. Surprisingly Fowler is dumping the trademark “traffic cone” look and going for some more subdued schemes. Brilliant. Majestic. Tremendous. Just feast your eyes on this threadtastic apparel art:
Fowler’s Masters apparel script has no socks or underwear
I like how they put a driver in there too. Soooo cool.
But I can’t help noticing something. There are no socks or underwear in Rickie’s script. He’s free-balling it!
It could be a tough walk on those very hilly holes at Augusta National sans socks. And sans underwear? In those humid conditions of Augusta the chafe monster could be in play. I admire Rickie’s tenacity in free-balling the Masters, but I suggest keeping some DZNuts Pro Chamois cream in the bag, just in case.
DJ and Paulina Gretzky in front of a giant pig humping a barrel
Ah yes, it is April 1, 2015. April Fool’s day. There are a few golf April Fool’s jokes out there already. Perhaps the best one was the “Chris Berman Fox Golf” one, where Berman supposedly had moved to a prominent position on the Fox Sports golf broadcasting team. I know it is April fools, but some things should NOT be joked about. Golf Blogger poached my concept of golf magazines going bankrupt without pictures of Amanda Dufner in a bikini to post. If it were anyone else I’d give them hell, but John is a good friend so no worries.
I’ve been racking my tiny brain, trying to come up with a really witty but believable April fools blog post. I’m struggling. I’ve concluded that my struggles are because most of golf media and much of the golf industry, the real deal, is a joke. My Twitter, Facebook, and email streams are full of “Masters apparel scripts.” Bloggers and golf sites blindly repost that crap. Sergio Garcia’s Friday Masters pant color is not news. It does not entertain. It does not inform. It does not grow golf. It is a sales pitch which fills the golf sphere with junk, which is regurgitated over and over. I guess it gives golf PR something to work on and gives golf writers something easy to produce, rather than actually writing something original and entertaining or informative. Low hanging fruit.
I work with golf PR people and agencies on a daily basis and I do help them with reviews and articles which I think are informative, entertaining, and interesting. Sorry, but apparel scripts are none of those.
Too Much Tiger?
Twitter almost blew up yesterday because Tiger Woods’s plane was spotted at the Augusta airport. Is there a paid golf “journalist” sitting at the Augusta airport waiting to report on this? Is it the same guy who covers Tiger’s parking spot and his entrance and exit from the porta-potty? Same one who is there at the perfect time to catch Tiger blowing a big snot out of his nose? Probably.
A look at Golf.com’s “news” page a few days ago was puzzling. There were three Tiger Woods photos and a total of four articles about Woods. It is amazing to me that a player who hasn’t played in weeks, has dropped out of the world top 100, and is literally falling apart physically and mentally on the golf course, warrants so much coverage.
Too Much T&A?
Then the big golf media meltdown yesterday, the news that Amanda Dufner and Jason Dufner filed for divorce. I thought that was perhaps the best April 1 joke ever and half expected them to laughingly announce so today. The fact that Amanda Dufner is “news” makes me ill, all due respect.
Golf media is a joke, and not just on April 1.
How could I pen a golf media rant without a “most beautiful women in golf” mention? Ah yes, hot tour wives and girlfriends. Hot women in golf. Hot lady golfer Blair O’Neal shows us how to hit a bunker shot in a g-string and stilettos. Golf.com and Golf Digest have gone all out T&A for linkbait. Their readers are complaining vehemently on their Facebook pages, but those complaints fall on deaf ears because, well, there are hits. Who cares what kind of hits or if the audience is a drive-by. As long as these golf sites/magazines can report to their advertisers that x-hits happened and collect their ad revenue, producing classy material does not matter.
How about this “Keegan Bradley’s girlfriend” post… wow. Just wow. Pulitzer Prize winning material here folks:
Thankfully now that spring has sprung here at home I’ve been able to spend more time on the golf course and less time in front of my computer. That has lessened my exposure to this garbage, and thus my sanity has come back a bit from nearly jumping off the golf cliff. I’m back to actually playing and doing actual golf gear reviewing and testing, thankfully.
I was this close to shutting down my blog and disconnecting all my golf social networking ties. That’s no joke.
After this past weekend’s round I felt it was time to post my review of the PowerBilt N7 “Air Force One” DFX Tour driver. Yes, the name is more cheesy than a pound of Velveeta with cheese on top, but I don’t care.
I’ve been gaming this driver for a couple of months now and I’m thrilled with what this driver has brought to my game: distance, accuracy and confidence.
Features
The “N7” in the name of this driver represents the gas nitrogen. You see, the head of this driver is “charged” with it. So if the Terminator T1000 is coming at me, I can crack open my driver head and cover him with nitrogen. According to PowerBilt, the nitrogen charge reinforces the club face without adding weight to the club. This allows for maximum trampoline effect and the thinnest legal club face, but still has great strength. The nitrogen is also not susceptible to temperature changes so regardless of conditions it remains consistent. The result is increased ball speed, which I can’t believe I’m verifying, but I am. It sounds like such a gimmick I know. But once again, I’m about results so if the lampshade on the head thing helps my score, I’ll do it.
The nitrogen isn’t the only notable feature in the “AFO.” The body is forged titanium with the popular cup-face design. Cup-face design is very popular among many drivers. The cup-face shaped front is welded onto the body. The head is aerodynamically designed to reduce drag and allow more club-head speed.
Deep Face in the Air Force One
Speaking of the face, the AFO features a “deep” face as seen above. This means the height of the face is where much of the square footage is, rather than the width. If you hit a lot of shots thin or high on the face, this may be a better choice.
Specs
The AFO DFX is available in four lofts: 8.5°, 9.5°, 10.5°, 12.5°. All come standard with a 45.5″ shaft and a 58° lie.
There are roughly 25 shaft options available. The shaft in my 10.5 degree test unit is a Fujikura Pro 63.
On The Course
What REALLY counts is how this thing performs on the golf course. I don’t have an Iron Byron (robotic golf swing machine), nor do I have a Trackman to capture exact launch angles and spin rates. My reviews are more tactile and personal in nature than those gear-heads who are trying to get one less revolution per minute in sidespin and refuse to play driver-x because its launch angle is .000003 degrees the wrong direction. I wonder when Iron Byron will finally find the perfect club for his perfect swing anyway? Lots of places seem to test for him and not the average hack like me who hits the center of the club face a couple of times per round, if I’m lucky.
10.5 degrees of nitrogen charged titanium POWER!
The feedback this club gives is great. In golf “feedback” is the feel and sound of the club. I really like the pinging sound and on that rare occasion the sweet spot is hit, the sound is even better. You know when you nutted it. I can tell through the feel of the club when I hit one thin, on the toe, on the heel or high on the face. Most of my mis-hits on this club are toe shots. The technology helps me keep plenty of distance on those toe shots, with a slight draw.
I almost always draw this club, or hit it straight. I seldom hit it right or fade it. I haven’t tried too many times to carve a fade out of it. I haven’t wanted to mess with something which works. I’m sure eventually I will try to work the ball more, but since I know the straight ball or slight fade is pretty consistent I see no need to change anything.
Right now I’m seeing some very sizeable distance gains. I’m just about to the point of humiliating a regular golf opponent who just last year was out-driving me. Now I’m “Wal-Marting” him. He’s pretty demoralized. I have several glory stories with this driver already. I’ve driven a OVER the reachable par-4 14th at one of my home courses, River Oaks. The extra length has really made par-5’s more reachable for me. In my last round I made birdie on ALL four of the par-5’s, and just missed an eagle putt on the last one. Stats for my last round were pretty awesome. I had a couple of drives in the 330 range on two par-5’s, and a couple in the 280 range uphill. Average was 303. Even better than that was my fairway percentage, 12/16 for 75%. It’s not like that every round, but even when I’m off the numbers are still pretty good.
AFO at address…
Critiques
My only critique is a bit of a jab at the cheesy name, “Air Force One.” I often refer to my driver as “Snakes on a Plane,” another terrible airplane move like Air Force One was.
Conclusion
I get so sick of golf marketing and their “more distance” claims. Most are bogus. If they were right, we’d all need to play 10,000 yard courses and our drives would be going 500 yards. That said, I’ve picked up quite a bit of distance with this club. Is it the nitrogen? Is it the cup face? Hell, I don’t know. For all I know it is the shaft. Since I most often draw this club, the ball is probably rolling farther. Whatever the reason, I’m killing the Air Force One and hitting a very good fairway percentage.
Until I find a driver that outperforms this one my gamer driver is Snakes on a Plane… oh sorry… Air Force One.
I’ve been gaming the new Score Band Pulse golf laser rangefinder for about 10 golf rounds now. You can surely enjoy the rest of my review below, but I’ll start with saying the Pulse is by far the best value in golf laser rangefinders by a long shot (pun intended).
ScoreBand Laser Rangefinder – click to buy
What I need from a golf laser rangefinder is pretty simple: quick and dependable yardages to the pin, and whatever else I shoot with it. The Score Band laser nails the pin quickly and gives me ONE solid number I can count on. The reason I highlighted the word “one” in the previous sentence is that I’ve had other lasers which seem to play a random number game. I can shoot the pin four times and get four different numbers. Not the case with the Score Band laser. One number.
I love to use the unit to shoot no only the pin, but other very important target areas, or areas I need to avoid. I’ll shoot the top lip of a bunker I need to be sure to carry. I’ll shoot the front edge of a false-front on a green. If I see a player in front of me on a par-4 or 5 who looks to be in a perfect position in the fairway, I’ll shoot him or his cart with the laser so I can know exactly how far and what club to hit off the tee for that position.
Golf GPS’s are great, but I could not survive a round of golf without a laser.
Features
The Pulse can shoot objects up to 400 yards away, for you big hitters who are debating between clubs on a shot that’s 387 yards. The flag-lock feature is good for up to 250 yards.
Accuracy for this golf laser is plus or minus one yard.
The viewfinder is 6x magnification. I’ll often look through the viewfinder to see where my ball sits on a long approach shot.
Measurements are taken in yards or meters.
Unit comes with a carrying case. The case is a bit on the weak side, but I just put the unit in a pocket in my golf bag.
Conclusion
At $173 on Amazon, I’ve not seen a better value in golf laser rangefinders. Not even within $100 of that price. My previous laser was $299 and not as accurate.
The Score Band Pulse laser is a no-brainer. If you’re shopping for a golf laser, check out the Pulse.
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