Monthly Archives: May 2012

Thoughts On ‘Playing It Safe’

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How many times has this happened to you: You’re midway through your round, staring down a tricky tee shot. An off-target shot either way will spell certain doom, whether your foe is water or trees or just an obstinate fairway bunker. So instead of facing up to the danger, you put the driver back in the bag and play a long or middle iron…and proceed to chuck it into the lake anyway. Or the woods. Or dribble it off the tee.

It’s the worst feeling ever. You made the “smart play” and you weren’t rewarded for it. If you had known what would have happened, you would’ve just played the driver. Surely, a big swing wouldn’t have been any worse, right?

I hate that feeling. And one I’ll do anything to avoid.

It’s easy for us to mock the pros when they can’t tell themselves to club down, play conservatively. How many times have we jeered at Phil Mickelson for not making the smart play? No really, I’m asking. I’ve totally lost count.

But I’m not Phil Mickelson. I can’t hit my 8-iron with Patriot Missile accuracy. And I’m not playing for a green jacket or a silver cup that’ll sit in my trophy case. I’m a 27 handicap that might break 100 on a given day if he’s lucky. So whenever I climb onto that teebox and see wide-open grass or a big dogleg or half of Lake Michigan, I’m thinking the same thing every time.

I’m bombing it.

I’m playing driver and I’m taking a full swing. I’ll plan out my ball’s flight path as best I can. And then I’ll step up to my ball and crush it.

I’ll try to hit the shot that I know I can’t hit. And one of two things will happen: I’ll either hit the shot of the day (and amaze all of my playing partners), or hit my third shot either off the tee or 200-plus yards from it, knowing that I didn’t cower in the face of a little adversity.

Besides, I can always buy more balls.

I’ll be honest. Most of the time, this strategy is hilariously awful. Those shots find the Black Lagoon or Sherwood Forest much more often than they find the fairway, but I don’t care. I don’t play golf to shoot low, but to have fun. And stepping outside of myself for a chance to hit an amazing shot? That’s all kinds of fun.

The next time you’re teeing up on that long Par 3 or wondering if you can carry the lake with a wedge, give that a thought. Don’t take away your chance to amaze yourself. You might be surprised by what throwing caution to the wind allows you to achieve.

And you might have a lot more fun.

Tour Updates

Zach Johnson won the Dallas-area Colonial tournament after shooting a even-par 72 in the final round on Sunday. Jason Dufner, who playing in the final group with Johnson, shot a final-round 74.

Johnson almost marked himself out of his eighth career PGA Tour win after a ball-marking error on the 18th hole. Johnson moved his original ball mark out of the line of Dufner’s putt, but then failed to replace it on the original spot afterward. Despite the error (and the ensuing two-stroke penalty), Johnson still won the tournament by a one-shot margin.

Roger Chapman won the Senior PGA Championship, but was arguably overshadowed by Hale Irwin nearly shooting his age on Sunday. Irwin, 67, shot a 68 on Sunday, good enough for third place…The LPGA was off last weekend; they’ll resume action in New Jersey at the ShopRite Classic this weekend.

 More on Zach’s win at the L.A. Times.

A New Jersey golf course designed by one of golf’s great course designers is making a comeback. The A.W. Tillinghaust-designed track at Shackamaxon Golf and Country Club in Scotch Plains suffered from underuse, fading membership and low staff morale before being put up for bid over a year ago. When RDC Golf Group put in their bid for developing the property, they promised to keep the course intact and build around it.

RDC’s efforts to save the course are coming to fruition. “I think members that have been there a really long time will say that they’ve seen a very marked and very rapid turnaround,” CEO Christopher Schiavone told the Star-Ledger.

Tillinghaust is nothing short of a legend as one of the original greats of golf course design. His work includes the famous courses at Winged Foot, Baltusrol, and the black course at Bethpage State Park.

More on Shackamaxon’s comeback at the Star-Ledger.

As golf gains more credibility as a sport and not just a social venture, the idea of “golf fitness” is gaining traction as a method for improving one’s game. One couple in Memphis are gearing their services toward golf clientele with a blend of functional training and classical golf instruction.

“I do think that there is a mentality out there that if I play more golf, I’ll be in better shape, but I think it goes both ways,” said Judi Davis, who co-owns Germantown Golf Fitness with her husband Larry. “For the most part, people think if I get in better shape, I’ll play a better golf game.”

Anyone that’s played 18 holes (even in a cart) can attest to the physical demands of the game. It’s refreshing to see this approach taken toward game improvement.

More on golf fitness at The Commercial Appeal.

Video of the Week

This is old, but might be new to you: this hilarious mock boy band created by Ben Crane, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, & Hunter Mahan in their rendition of “Oh Oh Oh” as the Golf Boys. It’s one of the funniest riffs on pop music out there anywhere, and not just from guys that play golf a lot better than you do.

From YouTube.

Show Us Your Beautiful Swing

Don’t forget that you have until the end of June to send us an image of your golf swing in action. You could win prizes from Callaway Golf and Taylor Made. Take your camera to the course and you could get some sweet gear out of it.

Swing Thought of the Week

“I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game:  it’s called an eraser.”

-Arnold Palmer

Business on the Golf Course

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Golf and Business

Business meetings on the golf course have long been romanticized. A golf outing between CEOs and other power brokers is often seen as an essential step in closing any deal. Last fall, a golf outing between President Obama and former President Clinton was seen by many in the press as a symbolic gesture of support passed from one generation to the next. Although your own golf outing with potential clients won’t be as publicized as a meeting of Presidents, it is still an important event that could make or break a deal. We previously discussed golf etiquette. But what are the important ideas of business etiquette on the course?

Uninterrupted Time
We are in an attention economy. The most important part of a golf round is that you will have four or five hours of uninterrupted time with potential clients and partners.

Time spent away from the white noise of technology has never been more important in an ever increasingly connected world. Do not waste this time by being on your cellphone, texting, or checking Twitter. Focus on the scenery, your next shot, the round…anything but your cell phone. The golf course is one of the few places where getting away from it all for a few hours is part of the business process. Use it wisely.

Focus on your behavior, not your skill
Similar to poker, play the man and not the hand. Do not be intimidated by your lack of skill. Your golf ability is not what clients are paying attention to (and similarly, is not what you should be paying attention to in potential clients). The important thing is how you handle yourself and how you handle adversity. Golf is a difficult sport that reveals character. If you see someone hit a bad shot then slam their club, what kind of business partner would they be? On the other hand, what if you see someone struggle yet play through it and maintain an even-keeled demeanor? Business has its own ups and downs. Look for the qualities you’d want in a client or partner and see how it plays itself out on the course.

It’s said that character is revealed through adversity. Golf, even for pros, is a difficult, almost impossible game to crack. The same goes for business. Who do you want to work with?  

Personal Integrity
This goes hand-in-hand with the point above. Golf is an honest game. No one’s checking your score, especially on a sunny weekend, knocking back a couple beers with clients. No one will know if you knock a couple strokes off your final score.

Another aspect of this is “playing down” to a potential partner and letting them win. Play your game – if you happen to be that much better than your group, so be it. Don’t hit miss putts on purpose to inflate your score. Anyone can spot a fake from a mile away, and at this point, you are pandering to your partners. Remember, the final score, who wins, who loses, isn’t the point of a business outing. Winning the business with genuine behavior and personality matters most.

Who Brings Up Business First?
Deals are rarely ever closed on the course itself. The time is spent more for getting to know and getting comfortable with a potential partner. It is a shared experience from which a potential business deal can draw from. It’s getting to know a stranger’s character through sport.

There’s differing opinions on who and when business should be brought up. Use the first few holes to warm up and make small talk. As a general rule of thumb, if you are hosting a client, let them bring it up first. Maybe you make the first move if you are being hosted. Above all, don’t count it as time wasted if business never comes up in the actual round. The subtext is much more important.

Professional Long Driver | Maurice Allen Interview

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Maurice Allen | Professional Long Driver

Maurice Allen began his athletic career with dreams of being an Olympic sprinter. He ended up a long drive golf champion, driving the ball 450 yards on a consistent basis. Long drive competitions are, as the name suggests, tournaments based on driving the ball the furthest distance off a tee. Allen’s talent lead to a profile on NBC News:

Allen recently sat down with Golf Balls Unlimited to discuss how he found long drive competitions, using social media to grow a fan base, and future PGA plans.

Golf Balls Unlimited: How did you discover a knack for a long drive? I don’t want you to reveal any secrets, but there must be certain things you do from a technique perspective that gives you that extra 50-100 yards.

Maurice Allen: To be honest, I discovered my talent two years ago when a local golf store owner challenged my ability to hit a golf ball. I explained to him that I did golf – I had grown up around it and was introduced to the game as a young child. So he gave me a club to hit in his simulator which happened to be a 7-iron. I took a swing and the ball went 230 yards.  He was shocked and asked if I could repeat it so I took about five more swings, all within a ten range of distance. From that moment, my long drive career began. I had never heard of long drive nor seen it on TV. I remember looking it up online as I was being driven to a local qualifier thinking that anyone who hits a golf ball 400+ must be on steroids. I competed in that local with a club given to me that day by ex-PGA tour player Kenny Knox. It was a standard length tour issue burner 8.5 loft with a s flex shaft. At the local, I hit 18 balls (3 attempts), all which were 20-30 past the leaders but I couldn’t control the 120-160 yard slice. My final ball in my last attempt rolled out of bounds by 6 inches at 387 yards and from that moment on I was hooked on long drive.

I believe speed is the factor that gives me the extra 50-100 yards. It is a God given gift that I have had as long as I can remember and I guess it just transferred over to my golf swing.

GBU: Multiple part question: You’ve been a world class sprinter, and now you’re a world class long driver. What are the differences and similarities in physical demand and preparation between the two. Secondly, is the PGA Tour on your horizon? If so, will you be making any adjustments to the way you drive the ball?

MA: I think both sports are equally demanding at the elite level. In the sport of long drive, the competition is very tough and sometimes it can come down to 7-8 inches. I’m not sure about the previous history of the sport but today if you look at the stats on most of the elite long drivers, they’ve all played some other sport ranging from the college to the professional level and I believe most have carried that same training and thought process over into the training for long drive. The major difference is sometimes I can start hitting balls in a practice session and get in the ‘trying to fix something’ zone. I don’t like about my ball flight, stance, etc., and before I know it, I look up and 6-8 hours have passed. Though that would never happen with track, I’ve been in the zone and ran for 3-4 hrs in a practice without breaks. Track workouts are still a huge part of my training in long drive.

Is the PGA Tour in my future? Yes, I would like to play on a tour, then hopefully make it to the PGA tour. That is one of my goals, for sure. I think the major thing in doing that is learning and focusing on the other skills of golf like I have with hitting the driver. The major adjustment I would make is control and getting the distance on my clubs in a better sequence by dialing back. Right now, my 60 wedge goes about 125-130, 56 wedge 135, 52 wedge 145-150, P wedge 160, and 9 iron 195. I can’t play tour golf with those kinds of distances nor gaps.

GBU: One of your Youtube videos has 15,000 views in addition to having a web presence. Long driving seems like a great fit with Youtube – it’s short, and it’s a spectacle. How has social media, namely Twitter and Youtube, influenced your business perspective?

MA: I think Twitter gives people, mainly fans, the chance to connect with me and my thoughts and the way I train. It is also great for sponsors to gain an audience to market products, news and discounts. YouTube is great because it allows potential sponsors the ability to see a long driver in action without going to an actual competition. Social media has allowed the branding market to change and I think it is fun and exciting to see where these chances will take me as an athlete and long driver.

GBU: Since this interview is for a golf ball blog, what kind of golf ball do you use? We have a couple of articles explaining the difference between a ball meant for distance, and a ball more for control. I assume you look for distance?

MA: I use the Volvik Vista is and Volvik Vista iv balls when playing. I feel these balls are great off the tee with distance yet soft enough to spin, and they have a great feel around the greens. I also love the colors that the balls come in, making the balls very stylish as well as functional. When playing golf, I don’t look for a ball with distance because no matter what ball I hit, it will be longer than average. So I look for a ball that feels good when I’m using my wedges and putting.

GBU: Last question – it’s you, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Bubba Watson on the first tee of a practice round. One thing leads to another and soon, they make a friendly wager for the longest drive. How much are you putting down on that?

MA: That would depend on the format. Is it one ball or six balls? What is the length of the grid we have to keep it within? Lastly, I have always been told never bet more than you can afford to lose. So me against the pockets of a former number one player in the world with countless PGA tours and major winner, current number one player in the world, and masters champion – it looks like what they could afford to lose is a whole lot more than what I could afford to lose. Also, let me remind you, they are very long off the tee but we don’t know how long because we have yet to place them in a situation where they can swing all out and not worry about control. I would love the chance to have a long drive challenge with myself and some PGA tour guys to raise money for charity. I think it would be a lot of fun and very entertaining.

For more information, please check Maurice Allen’s official homepage. Make sure to follow him on Twitter, and on Facebook.

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Golf Balls Unlimited’s “Your Beautiful Swing” Photo Contest

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The beginning of May marks the start of Golf Ball Unlimited’s “Your Beautiful Swing” Photo Contest. Running until June 30, 2012 (at 11:59 PM EST), this contest is an opportunity for all golfers to show off their swing in action. Take photos of your swing through your preferred platform (i.e. Instagram, camera phone or digital camera). Tweet the link to your photo to @golfballsultd and add the hashtag #YourBeautifulSwing or post your photo on our Facebook page. Photos will be judged on creativity by Bomani Jones, Josh “PUNTE” Zerkle and GBU staff, so pull out your thinking caps.

Photos will be promoted on all GBU social networks. We will be contacting the winner on the platform they used to submit their photo – either through DMs on Twitter (so don’t forget to follow us) or through our FB page (remember to “like” the FB page to be officially entered). The winner’s prize pack will include:

*A brand new Taylor Made Burner Gap Wedge
*A dozen brand new Callaway HX Hot Bite golf balls
*A Callaway Pro Vent adjustable hat

If you have any questions about the contest, tweet @golfballsultd or find us on our Facebook page. Good luck and happy swinging!

Photo courtesy of Rick Zivsak of Company Golf Lessons

How to Play Golf with Etiquette

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Golf Etiquette

Golf can be an intimidating sport for an outsider. From the country club atmosphere to the actual difficulty of mastering the game, there are several factors that may put off an individual who wants dive into the game.

Yet golf is an important part of the social and work fabric. How many times have we seen or heard of power deals made over the course? This gives people four hours of uninterrupted leisure time with their peers or a boss (although we’ll discuss the art of the golf outing as a business meeting in a future blog post). Perhaps the most important (and intimidating) aspect of the game is etiquette. Around for at least 150 years in its modern form, the game has amassed many unwritten rules which can be daunting from the outside.

Your boss invites you out for a round of golf. You want to make a good impression. So how do you behave?

Golf etiquette can be divided into two sections: personal etiquette and etiquette within your larger group.

Personal Etiquette

First and foremost, golf is a personal sport. You are in charge of yourself when it comes to keeping score. Do not cheat when it comes to counting shots. If you can’t be trusted to keep a proper score in golf, what can you be trusted with? The foundation of any foursome is built on trust. Cheating in golf reflects upon the individual more than any other sport due to its lone nature. For example, a “cheater” or “flopper” in basketball would be seen as someone who wants his team to win. These players are often glorified, or at least are rationalized as players “you hate playing against but want on your team”. This doesn’t apply to golf (especially if you have a wager on the line).

In addition to not cheating, do not lose your cool or else you’ll end up with your own Youtube compilation:

Putting has its own etiquette. NEVER walk in the line of sight of someone who is putting. In general, always putt out. Gimmes are for sitting on your couch with the latest version of Tiger Woods 2012 (we’ll get to that later).

Lastly, keep in mind that every course has a dress code starting at a collared shirt, and going more formal from there.

Within the Group

Rules within your foursome comes down to one idea: pace. Keep a good pace within your group. Not too rushed, and definitely do not slow down anyone in your group or the group behind you. For example, if and when you lose a ball in the trees, look for a brief moment, then accept that it’s gone. There’s no need to go on an Indiana Jones style adventure searching for a lost ball. If losing balls becomes an unfortunate habit, be sure to purchase used golf balls from us. Repeatedly losing new balls can put a dent in your pockets.

In a foursome, the player with the best score on the previous hole shoots first (you should know this if you play the Tiger Woods series of video games – and as an aside, Tiger Woods video games are a good way to learn some basic strategy about the game). After the first shot, it often comes down to distance with the player furthest from the pin hitting first.

If you have a pre-shot routine that gets you prepared, do it while another person in your foursome is hitting so you can hit immediately after. Do not hold your group up by taking 10 minutes for a routine:

Don’t yell at someone during their backswing, maintain silence, or else you might wind up on YouTube (in fact, if you think something that you do on the golf course will wind up on YouTube, just don’t do it):

Do not talk business on a golf course when you are playing with someone for the first time. Golf is for leisure. This is the time to get to know people. Golf is about communion in a low stress environment. Don’t ruin your group’s day by bringing in a heavy subject. Get out, enjoy the sun, and hit some balls (and do not end up on YouTube).