The First Real Foot Wedge I’ve Seen

Written by: Tony Korologos | Friday, November 21st, 2014
Categories: Golf Clubs • Golf Gear

I always thought the “foot wedge” was a fictitious club. You know, when a player kicks his golf ball away from the base of the tree when nobody is looking? That’s what I thought it was. But a friend on my Google Plus posted this photo, proving that the foot wedge is actually a real club.

Foot Wedge

Unfortunately the person who posted this photo can’t tell me where it came from. I’d really like to find this company and get the foot wedge in my hands for some real product testing. If any of you HOG patrons know who makes this club, let me know.

As bad as my short game is, I’d try anything. This may be the magic club.

First Look: Volvik S3 White Golf Balls

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Categories: Golf Balls • Golf Equipment • Golf Gear
Tags: Golf Balls • Volvik

Volvik “White Color” S3 Golf Ball

Did you know that Volvik, the #1 maker of colored golf balls, actually makes a white ball? I didn’t until I found two dozen waiting on my front porch yesterday.

Volvik’s S3 “White Color” (yes they need help with the Korean to English thing) golf ball is a high performance, 3-layer ball with a urethane cover. In other words, a ball which on a basic materials and construction standpoint should compete with most “tour” balls on the market.

I’ll be putting this ball into play as soon as I can, but that may be a while. Winter has arrived here in northern Utah and most courses, if open, are frozen.

First Look: Trust Tee

Written by: Tony Korologos | Thursday, November 20th, 2014
Categories: Golf Accessories • Golf Gear
Tags: Golf Tee • Trust Tee

Trust Tee

I don’t often review or feature golf equipment which is not legal by USGA or R&A rules for stipulated or tournament play. I’m making an exception this time for Trust Tee because the person who reached out to me has been politely persistent, and is Greek.

Trust-Tee is a golf tee designed to increase yardage and reduce slices and hooks through its (illegal) cambered design. Notice in the photo that the top of the tee is slanted. Trust Tee claims to decrease slices and hooks by as much as 15 yards.

I neither hook nor slice it, so I wonder if I could use the tee to create a hook or slice?!?! That said, I do have some golf pals who slice badly. I will get this tee in their hands and see if it really works.

There’s your first look at this unique golf tee. Due to the 4-5 month frost delay caused by winter here in northern Utah, I may not be able to test and review this product until I go south to warmer weather, or until the weather here improves.

Related

Trust Tee photos

CarveOn Leather Golf Yardage Book Cover

Written by: Tony Korologos | Wednesday, November 19th, 2014
Categories: Golf Accessories • Golf For Women • Golf Gear • Golf Lifestyle • Reviews
Tags: Carve On • Christmas Golf Gift • Father's Day Golf Gift • Golf Gifts • Holiday Golf Gift

CarveOn is a company based in County Kildare Ireland which makes handcrafted personalized leather goods like wallets, books, purses, keychains, and more. CarveOn also makes a few golf related leather goods. Today we are looking at their yardage book cover, which can also double as a golf scorecard holder.

Carve On Yardage Book Cover

With its fine leather and combination of old school and modern construction, the CarveOn yardage book exudes class. Add the Hooked On Golf Blog skull logo and it goes beyond classy to a realm beyond imagination.

The yardage book cover has several customizable areas. First you can see on the front cover of the first image that there is the HOG logo, plus at the bottom you can see my name. On the inside top of the cover (image below) you can see more custom text.

Carve On Yardage Book Cover Inside

I wondered how the HOG logo would translate to this unit and I’m very impressed. The logo and customization look to be laser etched from the leather with very high precision and superb quality.

The leather itself is very plush and soft. I pet it occasionally…

The packaging CarveOn put into this is quite amazing as well (image below).

Carve On Product Box

The outside of the box is also laser etched, and the inside sports some very cool protective and artistic layers. The packaging along with the actual product would make this a fantastic holiday, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthday, or Christmas gift.

Conclusion

This is not an everyday inexpensive yardage book cover. At about $125 USD (79 pounds) the CarveOn is no for everyone’s budget. If you have the dough to spend for yourself or as a golf gift, and want the highest quality and classiest yardage book cover you can get, this is the one for you. Customization makes it even better.

Wilson 8802 Putter Review

Written by: Tony Korologos | Tuesday, November 18th, 2014
Categories: Golf Clubs • Golf Equipment • Golf For Women • Golf Gear • Reviews
Tags: Arnold Palmer • Ben Crenshaw • Greg Norman • Phil Mickelson • putter • putters • Wilson Golf

Wilson 8802 Putter – click to zoom

(In the voice of Tom Hanks) Wiiilllson!!!

The Wilson 8802 putter has been at the center of numerous major championships and great victories on many professional tours. The 8802 design has been seen in use by the likes of Arnold Palmer, Ben Crenshaw, Greg Norman, and Phil Mickelson. The Wilson 8802 is one of the all-time greats. It has stood the test of time and today is still a great putting choice. Let’s take a look at the Wilson 8802 putter.

Design

The 8802 is a heel-shafted blade putter. In english, the shaft is attached to the end of a thin putter head. This is perhaps one of the most popular designs in the history of putters. There’s a reason it is so popular, it works.

The head is milled from 304 stainless steel, a fairly soft metal. The softness produces great feel and feedback for the player, and helps the player control distance.

To perform well on modern greens and modern green speeds, the head weighs in at 335 grams.

The face of the 8802 features some precise milling patterns which are designed to produce a true and straight roll. See photo below:

Milled face on the 8802 Putter – click to zoom

Looks

Standing over this putter the player is not distracted by busy and complex designs, nutty shapes, or fancy graphic art. The look is as clean as clean could be.

The slightly matted silver finish is easy on the eyes and does not produce annoying glare which more shiny putters can produce on sunny days.

Feel

The soft 304 metal helps the putter produce a nice feel, which gives the player great feedback. Off-center putts still roll well and true, but the putter’s feedback will let the player know the shot was not on the center of the face. Center-face putts are butter.

On The Course

I’m normally a heel-toe weighted, center-shafted or center-axis-shafted putter player. So I figured the balance and weighting of this blade putter would be problematic for me. Not the case. Somehow, despite being a heel-shafted blade, the balance of the putter is fantastic. I never had an issue with keeping the face square at impact.

The face milling helps roll the ball pure and right on line. There were never any surprises with regards to the roll or the line.

Critiques

In its simplicity, there’s no alignment line on the top of the putter to indicate the sweet spot and line up the ball. There’s an element of doubt when I line up as I’m not 100% sure I’m lined up on the right spot.

The putter is only available in 35″ versions, right handed. Sorry lefties or short people! I’m not tall and I have long arms, so 34″ putters or even shorter is good for me. Because the 8802 is 35 inches I have to choke down quite a bit to perform my natural stroke.

Wilson 8802 Putter

Head Cover

One of my pet peeves is head covers. At least 18 times per golf round the player will interact with the putter cover. The last thing I want is a crappy cover which does not protect the most important stick in my bag. Even worse is when that cover is hard to use.

The included head cover for the Wilson Golf 8802 Putter is very sharp looking and does its job well. The putter is well padded and protected from dings. The soft metal in the putter makes it even more susceptible to such dings and dents from other clubs in the bag.

The cover seals via Velcro, which I’m not a big fan of. Velcro wears out over time. A better solution would be a magnetic seal. Even better would be a design which uses no magnets or Velcro.

Conclusion

The reasonably priced $179 Wilson Staff 8802 Putter is the most expensive putter in Wilson Golf’s lineup and for good reason. It is a fantastic putter with great feel and performance. The 8802 design is a proven winner through decades of victories by some of the world’s greatest putters.

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