Top 10 Hottest Golf Clubs Sep 2008

Here are the Top 10 Hottest Golf Clubs for the month of Sep 2008. These were the hottest golf clubs in demand during the month of September... I haven't kept up with the monthly Top 10 Hottest Golf Clubs, but believe it or not Ping Eye 2 Irons are still #1.

1. Ping Eye 2 Iron set
2. Callaway Golf X-20 Iron Set
3. TaylorMade r7 Iron set
4. TaylorMade Burner 460 Driver
5. Titleist Vokey Spin Milled Wedge
6. Callaway Golf X-18 Iron Set
7. Ping G5 Iron set
8. TaylorMade RAC OS Iron set
9. Ping G5 Driver
10. Titleist 905R Driver

The Ping Eye 2 iron set has been in the #1 position for well over 2 years now! I guess they must be popular with all types of golfers to be able to hold the #1 spot as the hottest golf club.

The hottest golf club for this month is the TaylorMade Burner 460 Driver, which jumped from #7 to #4 this month. The Ping G5 Iron set fell from the #4 spot down to #7. Again both Taylormade and Ping have 3 of their products in the top 10.

Just in case you missed it, here's my post of The Hottest Golf Clubs Apr 2008, which is how the top 10 clubs finished for the month of April 2008.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, TaylorMade Driver, golf equipment, Callaway, Ping Eye 2

What's In Johnson Wagner's Golf Bag - 2008 Shell Houston Open

Johnson Wagner won his 1st career PGA tour event last weekend by winning the 2008 Shell Houston Open at Redstone Golf Club in Houston, Texas. Do you want to know what Johnson was carrying in his golf bag during the win?

Driver: Titleist 905R 8.5° with ProLaunch Red 65 shaft
3 Wood: Titleist 904F 13 ° with NV 85 Fairway shaft
Hybrid: Adams Idea Pro 18°
Irons:  (3-9) Titleist ZB Forged
PW:     Titleist Vokey 47° with Dynamic Golf shaft
SW:     Titleist Vokey 54° with Dynamic Golf shaft
LW:     Titleist Vokey Spin Milled 60° with Dynamic Golf shaft
Putter: Scotty Cameron by Titleist Prototype
Ball:   Titleist Pro V1x

Johnson went wire-to-wire with an opening round of 63, which was a course record. Wagner shot a 1-under 71 to finish at 16 under, two shots ahead of Chad Campbell and Geoff Ogilvy. Billy Mayfair and Fred Couples shot 66's to finish three shots back at 13 under. The win gave him an automatic invitation to Augusta, Georgia to play in the Masters. Johnson took home $1,008,000 million for the win and a great start for his 2008 season. The win also put him on the board for the FedEx Cup point race.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, golf equipment, golf products, Johnson Wagner

What's In Nick Watney's Golf Bag?

Nick Watney won his first PGA Tour tournament last weekend at the 2007 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which was played at TPC of Louisiana New Orleans, Louisiana. Chris Couch was the defending champion. Do you want to know what he was carrying in his golf bag during his win?

Driver: Titleist Pro Titanium 905R 11.5°
3-Wood: Fairway Metal Titleist PT 906F2 15°
Hybrid: Utility Metal Titleist PT 585.H 21°
Irons:  (3,4) Titleist 704.CB
Irons:  (5-PW) Titleist 695MB
SW:     Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled 56°
LW:     Titleist Vokey Design Spin Milled 60°
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport Tour 350
Ball:   Titleist New Pro V1x

Nick started the round with a 2-shot lead and quickly gave it up after bogeying 2 of the first 4 holes. But he got those strokes back in a hurry by holing out his 132-yard approach shot for an eagle 2 on the 5th hole. He finished 15-under 237 total with his 3-under 69, which was 3 strokes better than Key Duke who finished with a 2-under 70. Nick took home $1,098,000 for the win.

What's In Zack Johnson's Golf Bag at The Masters?

Zack Johnson held off a strong field on Sunday to take home the green jacket at the 2007 Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Do you want to know what he was carrying in his golf bag during his win?

Driver: Titleist Pro Titanium 905R 8.5°
3 Wood: Sonartec SS-3.5 15°
Hybrid: Titleist 503.H 19°
Irons:  (3, 4) Titleist 735.CM
Irons:  (5-9) Titleist 695CB
PW:     Titleist Vokey Design 48°
SW:     Titleist Vokey Design 54°
LW:     Titleist Vokey Design SM 60°
Putter: Seemore FGP
Ball:   Titleist New Pro V1x

Zach's only win before winning The Masters was at the 2004 BellSouth Classic. Zach was always around the top of the leader board through all 4 days of the golf tournament. He had to contend with Tiger Woods, Phil Michelson, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, and others during his final round on Sunday. He showed great determination and confidence with his golf game all the way to the 72nd hole where he almost holed out his chip.

All he could do was sit a wait with Tiger Woods still on the course. Tiger had his chances to push it to sudden death, but he needed to birdie 2 of the last 3 holes. Tiger had a tough 12-foot right to left birdie putt on 16 that looked like it was going to fall, but it didn't. When Tiger dumped his approach shot on 17 into the front bunker it was over.

Zach Johnson finished +1 for the tournament and a 2-shot lead, which ties the tournament record for the highest finishing total in Masters history along side Jack Burke of the 1956 Masters. Zack will now be able to play in The Masters for the rest of his PGA career.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, golf equipment, golf products, The Masters, Augusta, Zack Johnson

What's In Mark Calcavecchia's Golf Bag?

Mark Calcavecchia won the 2007 PODS Championship at Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead Course) Tampa Bay, Florida, which was his 13th tournament win on the PGA Tour. Do you want to know what he was carrying in his golf bag during his win?

Driver: PING Rapture 7.5°
3 Wood: Callaway Golf Steelhead III Strong
Irons:  (2-PW) PING i5
SW:     PING EYE2
LW:     PING EYE2
Putter: PING Redwood Anser
Ball:   Titleist Pro V1

This was Mark's only win since winning the 2005 Canadian Open. He and Heath Slocum started Sunday tied at -9 and playing together in the last group. They battled the entire round and it came down to the 18th hole.

Mark missed his 5-foot par putt to win the tournament and left the door open for Slocum to tie by making his 4-foot par putt. Calcavecchia thought for sure it was going to sudden-death, but Heath lipped out and the tournament was over.

Mark finished with a 1-under 70 and -10 for the tournament with 2 other players (John Senden, Heath Slocum) tied at -9. His paycheck for winning the 2007 PODS Championship was $954,000.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, golf equipment, golf products, Mark Calcavecchia

What's In Mark Wilson's Golf Bag?

Mark Wilson won the 2007 The Honda Classic at PGA National Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which was his first tournament win on the PGA Tour. Do you want to know what he was carrying in his golf bag during his win?

Driver: PING Rapture 7.5° with Graffaloy Prototype Tour X shaft
3 Wood: Cleveland Steel 13° with Aldila NV 95-X shaft
Hybrid: PING Rapture 18° with X100 DynaLite shaft
Irons:  (4-PW) PING i3 Blade
GW:     PING Tour 52°
SW:     PING Tour 56°
LW:     PING Tour 60°
Putter: PING G2 Anser B
Ball:   Titleist Pro V1x

Mark had gone 111 PGA starts before winning his first PGA event. It was on the third playoff hole, which was played on Monday, where Mark made birdie on 17 to defeat Jose Coceres. If it wasn't for Boo Weekly missing his 3-foot par putt on the 72nd hole Mark Wilson wouldn't be the winner, but Mark made the most of it and took home the vicory.

Mark finished with a 71 and -5 for the tournament with 4 other players (Jose Coceres, Camilo Villegas, Bob Weekly). His paycheck for winning The Honda Classic was $990,000.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, golf equipment, golf products, Mark Wilson

Top 10 Golf Clubs (Nov 29th)

Here it is again by popular demand. The list of the Top 10 Hottest Golf Clubs. Here are the hottest golf clubs for the last week of November.

1. Titleist 905R Driver
2. Ping Eye 2 Iron set
3. Ping G5 Driver
4. Nike SasQuatch Driver
5. TaylorMade r7 quad Driver
6. TaylorMade R580 XD Driver
7. Callaway X-18 Iron set
8. Mizuno MP 60 Iron set
9. Ping G2 Driver
10. Titleist 983K Driver

The Ping Eye 2 Iron set had a long hold on the #1 spot, but it slipped to #2. The hottest golf club is the Titleist 905R. The Ping G2 Driver has dropped to the #10 spot with the TaylorMade r7 Quad Driver holding steady at #5.

Just in case you missed it, here's my post of The Hottest Golf Clubs (Nov), which was from the first week of November.

Tag(s): golf, golf reviews, golf equipment, golf products, Titleist 905R

A 100-Mile Long Golf Ball Rubber Band

When I was about 11 years old me and my brother were always into something. One day we decided we wanted to know what the inside of a golf ball looked like. We had heard all of these stories about the core of a golf ball containing some toxic liquid and that made us even more curious.

So we took a Titleist golf ball and put it into a vice and started to saw the cover with a hacksaw. We rotated the golf ball as we cut the cover, but we cut too deep and the ball started to make this crackling sound and it looked like stuff was trying to crawl out of it. We both jumped back and waited for it to stop and it did after about 10 seconds. We got closer and noticed it looked like a million rubber bands were inside the golf ball. We realized that the golf ball was wound with one gigantic rubber band.

We got another Titleist golf ball out and this time we were very careful not to cut through the rubber band. We peeled off the white cover and saw the wound golf ball. We started to unravel the rubber band from the golf ball and it seemed like it went for ever. As a kid if you asked me how long it was I probably would have said something like a 100 miles.

Now you can only imagine what a 10 and 11 year old boy could do with something like this. One particular stunt we pulled was to take the rubber band and wrap it around the light post from one side of the street to the other. We had created a rubber band barricade that was invisible because we did this at night. We hid behind the pushes and waited for a car to go through it.

And this is when things got really interesting. A guy in a Pontiac Trans-Am was coming and he went through it and immediately stopped after it tore off his car antenna. We all started to run and he put his car in reverse... and the chase was on. We ran down this small alleyway that lead to the school. He recklessly chased us down the alleyway, but it was a dead end for him because it was fenced off and only room for pedestrians to go through.

We all laughed and stayed at the school for a little bit until we thought things were safe... and that's when we saw a car at the far end of the school driving recklessly in the parking lot. The car then made it's way on to the blacktop and then on to the field. It was the guy in the Trans-Am and he was coming for us on the school campus. We weren't laughing anymore and started to run back to where we came from. We all hid in the bushes and waited there until the coast was clear. He did come back through the street looking for us, but luckily he didn't find us.

Do you have any interesting golf ball stories to share?

Tags: golf, golf story

Scrimpin For Golf Balls

In one of my previous posts I talked about me and my brother selling used golf balls to golfers on the weekends, but what I didn't mention is how we turned it into a small used golf ball business. We initially started out selling the used golf balls that would come over the fence surrounding the golf course. We then took it to the next level and decided to go where the real money was... in the lakes inside the golf course. Of course this was something that had to be done at night because we knew the golf course wouldn't approve of us taking a dip in their lakes during the day to get the experienced golf balls.

I still remember my first experience going into the lake at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach. We wore our two piece wetsuits to keep us warm because the water and air at night was pretty cold. The bottom of the golf course lake was slimy with the mud oozing between my toes and there where crawdads as well. We made up a name for what we were doing called scrimpin. Scrimpin to us was crouching down and feeling with your hands and feet for the used golf balls along the banks under the water. We'd stuff them into the long tube socks we'd bring to carry the golf balls in.

Now there were a couple of hazards in scrimping; 1) the crawdads where very protective of the banks and now then you'd get pinched on your hand or foot. I sometimes wondered if they were protecting the used golf balls as well; 2) while scrimping we were always freaked out by what could be in the lake and we were always on the look out for "The Creature From The Black Lagoon." You know how kids are with their imaginations; and; 3) the golf course maintenance guys would occasionally come by the lake. This required us to take drastic measures. We would have to go under the water and hold our breath until they went by. Let me tell you... that water was pretty disgusting and I'm surprised we didn't get sick from it.

On a good night we would get about 60 experienced golf balls of which half were good enough to sell back to the golfers. We'd go 2 or 3 times during the week and clean them up Friday night so we'd be ready for Saturday and Sunday mornings at the golf course. We asked the neighbors to keep their empty egg cartons and give them to us. We used these as a way to present and sell a dozen of the used golf balls at a time with each dozen being of one brand like Titleist, MaxFli, Topflite, etc... A dozen golf balls would sell for $6 and we'd typically have 6 to 10 dozen for sale. So on a good weekend we could make $30 a piece, which made us feel rich having that kind of money in our pocket.

After about six months of scrimpin we decided that there had to be a better way to get the golf balls out of the lakes. And sure enough we found a better way and created an ingenious device that would do just that. My next post I'll describe in detail how me and my brother could have made millions with this device.