Tiger Woods announced his return to golf this morning. For those who have not been following the story, last week there were many rumors about his return when he was seen practicing at Isleworth. Hank Haney joined him over the weekend and rumors started to swirl about his return to the major tournament the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Tiger then hired former President Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleicher to manage his publicity and return to golf.
Here is the full story.
Oh and on a side note to hype the event even more, the Masters will be available in 3D this year for your viewing enjoyment. Did Augusta got some advice from James Cameron and his success from Avatar? YAY for ratings!
The New Nike VR Driver With A Compression Channel
Do you remember the post I did about how drivers work? Transfer of energy and all that jazz? Got mixed reviews of my technical posts and the physics involved but I will refer to one in particular here. One of the main things that make a driver do what it does is the shape of the head. Most drivers are in the shape of a parabola (A curvy “U” shape that comes to a rounded point) with different metals and face patterns all in an effort to tweak the maximum 460cc volume that is the regulated size. The parabolic shape is recognized in many fixtures all over but in the interest of the post, bridges. You see a parabola is the strongest, most efficient engineered shape designed. Mostly because of the way it manages frequency and energy. This is obviously not the only shape of drivers now days but definitely the most prominent.
I had the chance to speak with Nike about their newly designed Victory Red (VR) drivers. I thought they looked rather strange with an odd “divot” right across the sole of their “pear shaped” (parabola) driver. After speaking to the representative this “divot” is what Nike is calling a compression channel. The objective? To focus the compression of the head of the driver at impact to then more efficiently RE-institute it back to the ball at dispatch. Nike believes that this will transfer more uniform energy to the ball allowing for less unwanted spin and loss of control. I thought the technology was genius and completely logical. The channel is curved across the sole to help compensate for off center hits and ends at the end of a prominent “Y” pattern that reminds me of the back of some of the Taylormade and Mizuno irons. I assume this is designed for a more solid feel with a reduction of unwanted vibration.
Overall, I learned a lot from Nike and their design. I think this technology will be something to look for in the future perhaps with composites or mixed metals being used in the channel.
A slightly humorous side note. I was on a local course here about two weeks ago and approached a guy about his bag. Imagine a fully stocked VR tour bag with VR – TW blades, fairways, hybrids I mean the works. This guy was decked out with a VR hat, TW shirt everything Nike. I took a look at his blades and just said, “Hey! Nice Tiger Woods blades, Cool stuff you got there.” This guy looked at me and told me straight faced and seemingly angry, “NO! They are Anthony Kim!” I chuckled but when I realized he was serious, I just walked away. I assume in other languages TW stands for something like “The Winner” or something. Point is, Nike has long said they would never put the Tiger Woods name on anything sub-par. Only the very best would get the name and logo. I would be ever so happy to own those blades but ecstatic to actually know how to use them to their potential. When Tiger comes back and starts winning again, I bet this guy shows off his TIGER stuff to everyone he knows. Front-runners….
Not sure if some of you caught the special Putting episode of The Golf Fix the other week. Overall the show had many tips including the recognition of different putting strokes, how to make sure you are putting inline and controlling the motion of the putter head to manage the ball roll. All of which I think were well displayed and explained. To reinforce some additional points you may want to check out the Hank Haney videos I posted a while back. I gotta tell you, after seeing Hank at the lecture I am almost haunted by his instruction. I mentioned it before that whenever my buddy and I putt we are always leaning back with an, “OHH! So close!” as we over power and miss the hole by a good six foot just like what Hank did as he was making fun. As I putt and the ball rolls to the lower part of the hole, I hear Hank whispering, “85% of all putts go to the bottom of the hole and 100% of the golfers that hit it think they compensated enough, dummy!!” Well, the dummy part might have been added but it is in my head never the less. Excluding reading the slope and environmental challenges, if you are interested in learning about putting I have yet to read or see any more articles describing other tips than what was presented on The Golf Fix and what Hank Haney had described.
On with the post, some of you may know that what I like to do is to recognize my flaws before trying to fix them. I really like to find effective and simple indicators of what I am doing wrong so I can then narrow down the issue then try to find a good way to better my game. One of the simple points that Michael had on the episode was with a simple battery and his putter. The goal was to identify if the stroke of the putter was being
A Battery Alternative
made straight and if the “ball” was being hit at an angle with the putter. Simple enough drill, place the battery lengthwise on a green and make your stroke. If you hit the battery straight, it will remain straight and slide a foot or so. If you mis-align the putt or hit it at an angle the battery will spin. I would caution some of you with a few of the new faces of the putter when doing this drill. The new Ping NANO – Nickel impregnated face, Odyssey White Ice, Nike Method Polymer Groove putters to name a few may actually be damaged when hitting a battery. Try the eraser end of a pencil cut in half or a chapstick container to ease the mind a bit. I hit a battery and really did not like the way it sounded or felt. Whatever you end up using just try and keep the actual point of contact similar to the size of the contact point of a golf ball and make sure you are hitting on a flat surface.
Do you have any putting tips or drills?
