The Sun Mountain Speed Cart is the push cart that broke the mold many years ago. It truly opened the floodgates for great push cart designs and engineering. I had two of the originals, which are still in service today. The newest model in the stelar Speed Cart line is the Speed Cart GX and i just got one in for review.
I’ve already logged probably 50 miles with the new GX. I’ll be logging as many miles as I can before the snow flies here in northern Utah, then I’ll be ready to post a full review. Remember, I post real reviews here. Not the five minutes on the range kind.
Keep the Speed Cart GX in mind for the upcoming holidays. I can already tell you it would make a fantastic golf gift. Stay tuned for the full HOG review of the Sun Mountain Speed Cart GX soon.
About a week before the HOG World Tour trip to Bandon Dunes this summer I had some fun at the lake with some friends wake-boarding. Good times and I did fairly well, but didn’t know when to let go of the rope when I was not getting up on the board. I was thus being dragged through the water. At the time I thought the only problem with that was cleaning out my sinuses with dirty lake water, but the next morning I couldn’t move my right arm. I knew something was very wrong. Two days after boating I played a gross match at one of my clubs, and managed to win but had to fight through some pretty bad pain. I was very worried because a week or so later I was heading to Bandon Dunes for five days.
I tried to get into my orthopedic doctor prior to Bandon, but he wasn’t “available” for six weeks. Hell with that. Luckily I had a regular checkup with my family doc a few days before the Bandon trip. He diagnosed my injury as tendonitis in my bicep and gave me a steroid shot. That instantly helped and I was able to do the Bandon trip with no pain.
Months later I started waking up in the night yelping in pain, and my shoulder mobility started to tank. I guessed that the shot was wearing off. It got to where I couldn’t even throw a ball to my 5-year old boy. In fact, just getting into a throwing position was no longer possible. Bad. I saw a new orthopedic doctor who checked me out and estimated that I had a torn rotator cuff. After getting an MRI that diagnosis was confirmed, and more.
I have a 75-80% tear in my rotator cuff, which a set of muscles that helps keep the shoulder in position and helps the arm/shoulder move up and down and in certain directions. On top of that I have a separated shoulder as well as a bone spur under the separation. I’ve been getting myself mentally ready for shoulder surgery and the up to SIX months of recovery time, but the doc suggested we try a non-surgical approach first. That was surprising, considering he is a surgeon. I got another steroid shot. This time it was right in the rotator cuff. Brutal needle.
So today I had my first day of physical therapy. The goal is to build up the muscle around the area to help support the tear. The tear apparently will not heal much. I was not thrilled to hear that part. But I’m going to give it a shot first. There are people who do succeed in this situation without surgery.
That’s the hope. The good news is I can swing a golf club and only a swing or two during a round hurts. The doc told me that’s mostly due to the rotator cuff helping slow down the inertia of the swing.
So there it is. Winter is coming and I have work to do with my shoulder to hopefully get it strengthened enough to support the damage, keep me golfing, skiing, and hopefully soon able to toss a ball to my boy.
Let us pray.
These days matching golf balls for a player’s swing speed is a huge part of dialing in the golfer’s equipment. Why does the hardness of a golf ball matter? Golf balls “compress” when struck with a golf club. The ball actually deforms or flattens, then springs back to shape. This springing plays a major role in the speed the ball bounces off the club face. Optimal compression equals optimal ball speed, which equals optimal distance.
Playing the wrong ball can be very detrimental to optimal distance. A golfer with a slow swing speed will not fully compress an overly hard ball, resulting in distance loss. A high swing speed golfer will lose distance hitting balls that are not hard enough to compress properly.
Okay Now What?
Now that we know why it is important to have the right compression, how do we figure out what compression our golf balls are? Up until now we have had to trust ball manufacturers to tell us how hard their golf balls are. Many ball companies offer “ball fitting,” where specialists analyze the golfer’s launch characteristics and match them with the proper ball. Naturally, each company tells the golfer their ball is the best for their swing.
Let’s measure our own balls!
In the old days golf ball compression was represented in basically three ball models: 80, 90, 100. 100 was for a high swing speed or “tour” player while 90 was for an average amateur. 80’s were good for senior or women. Modern golf balls vary far more in terms of softness; a much wider gap.
Enter ProCheck, a modern, compact golf ball compression testing device. Within seconds the user can test a ball and know if that ball is the right one in terms of hardness. Let’s take a look at the ProCheck in action.
In the photo above I’ve tested the Titleist AVX golf ball compression. It’s showing four bars in the LCD display, a medium firmness. According to ProCheck this number coincides with a swing speed of around 90mph.
In the photo above I’ve tested the Wilson Duo Soft golf ball compression. The Duo Soft is probably the softest compression ball on the market. According to ProCheck’s chart the optimal swing speed for this ball is 70mph or less.
Let’s look at a couple more.
In the picture above I’ve tested the Srixon Z-Star XV compression level. The XV is a hard ball, meant for higher swing speeds. Sure enough the ProCheck confirms this, showing the ball to be firm. ProCheck’s compression chart recommends a swing speed of about 110mph for this ball.
The photo above shows the 2018 Bridgestone Tour B XS ball compression as between soft and medium. Three bars translates to optimum swing speed of about 80mph.
Other Factors to Consider
Compression is not the only quality a golfer should be examining in a golf ball. While it is important for distance, other components of the ball construction are important for spin, feel, short game performance and so on.
Final Thoughts
The Procheck ($139) golf ball compression measurement device is a nice tool for golfers who really want to dial in their ball with the proper matching swing speed.
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s Bandon Trails Golf Course at opened in 2005. “Trails” is the creation of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, one of the best teams in modern golf architecture. The course offers a tremendous change in flavor from the other courses at Bandon Dunes, which are seaside. Instead, Bandon Trails takes the golfer on a journey through the inland dunes and unique Oregon woodlands and vegetation.
What a journey it is, in fact.
Bandon Trails Golf Course Overview
Bandon Trails is an 18-hole course which stretches out to a maximum 6,788 yards. The course rating from the tips (Black tees) is 73.6 with a slope of 130. Four additional sets of tees offer golfers of every age, gender, and skill level the opportunity to choose just the right amount of challenge.
Trails offers up a serene, secluded, quiet, private experience with no houses or buildings of any kind on the course and no parallel fairways. There is plenty of elevation change at Trails. My unscientific measurement via my legs and feet tells me there’s more elevation change at Trails than any other Bandon Dunes course, though Old Macdonald could have something to say about that.
Style-wise I’d call Bandon Trails a combination of a links and a modern parkland design, with some Coore/Crenshaw flavoring mixed in.
Tee
Tee shots on Bandon Trails present the golfer with highly visually pleasing looks. Plenty of photo-opps. Play at the right time of morning or evening when the shadows accentuate the course’s shaping to maximize the aesthetic experience. Here’s a great example below, with some great early morning shadows on the par-5 3rd hole.
Bandon Trails 3rd hole
Tee shots (not shot with a camera) don’t tend to be deceptive or tricky but that’s not to say they don’t require solid execution. Well placed shots will reward the golfer with the best approach angles and chances for pars and birdies.
The par-3 tee shots at Bandon Trails are perhaps the most thrilling group on the course, with the very strong 2nd, 5th and 17th holes offering up thrilling design and visuals.
Bandon Trails – 214 yard par-3 2nd hole
Fairway
The fairways at Bandon Trails are plenty wide and will catch most non-errant shots no problem. The fairways are all lined with native, non-short grass areas including dunes with light vegetation to hills/mountains with Oregon forest.
Most fairways feature rugged, native-style bunkering and natural waste areas. Finding those areas isn’t an instant score-wrecker. A moderately well played recovery shot will give the golfer a shot at saving par or even making an occasional birdie.
Green
The greens at Bandon Trails are fun and challenging to putt, but not too crazy. 3 or 4-putts for decent putters are few and far between.
The green complexes (the green and its surrounding areas) at Trails are quite enjoyable to play and present many short game opportunities for the golfer to be creative. Short game options around most of the greens allow the golfer to try any kind of shot, from flops to low runners to putts. The latter for me usually.
Notable Holes
As mentioned the par-3’s at Bandon Trails are very strong, highlighted by the 2nd, 5th and 17th.
The first hole (below) in the early morning looks amazing with it’s long grass flowing in the dunes on each side of the fairway.
Opening Hole
One other hole definitely worth mentioning is the thrilling par-4 14th, with its massive elevation drop from tee to green.
Behind the tee on the 14th is a plaque marking the spot where Bandon Dunes founder Mike Keiser stood and realized he had finally found the place, the “American Linksland.”
Final Thoughts
Bandon Trails is one of the best walks I’ve ever had in golf, and I’ve walked many of the world’s best. The architecture is tremendous, naturally guiding the golfer on a wonderful journey in nature, golf, and personal discovery.
Get to Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and experience Bandon Trails and the other fantastic courses the resort has to offer. It will be a trip of a lifetime, as was mine.
Related
Review: Pacific Dunes Golf Course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort
Review: Old Macdonald Golf Course at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort
Review: Bandon Dunes Golf Course
Review: Bandon Preserve – 13-hole Par-3 Course
It’s tough for managers of golf companies’ social networks. They feel that they have to pump out “engaging” content on their social networks constantly. One way they do that is to ask the never over-used questions like “who is your dream foursome?” and “will Tiger Woods break Jack Nicklaus’s major record?” From a legal standpoint they have to make sure they don’t get sued for “stealing” a copyrighted photo, so they turn to the golf stock photo websites for generic photos they can use (fee or free).
One problem. Those stock photos are produced by people who obviously know nothing about golf and many are super old.
1990 Left Handed Edition
Here’s another original, engaging question and supporting golf stock photo fail image: If you could only choose 3 clubs for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
When I see posts like this, I’m drawn…no, almost obsessed with the images. Look at this left-handed bag of clubs from about 1990. Look how awful a job they did of photoshopping out the branding from the irons on the right. There are 12 clubs. Why? Where are the other two? Where’s the putter? Where are the head covers? Why are they left-handed?
I need answers.
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