Golf Practice Blog

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In his interview May 24 with Doug Milne following his record-setting 19-under-par Byron Nelson win, Rory Sabbatini came right out of the gate citing his putting as a big reason for the Byron Nelson win:

DOUG MILNE: We’d like to welcome the 2009 HP Byron Nelson Championship winner Rory Sabbatini to the interview room. Wonderful final round, 6-under 64, clearly got the job done. With the win you move inside the Top 10 in FedExCup points, to No. 7 specifically, and your 64 today was the second lowest score by any winner, so you’ve got to feel obviously good for a lot of reasons. Just a few comments on where we are now.

RORY SABBATINI: Yeah, you know, obviously I knew I just needed to get off to a good start today, just hit a couple good shots, give myself a couple good looks at birdies and try and just let the round develop. You know, I managed to get off to a good start, putting the ball in the fairway, putting it on the greens and giving myself some looks at it, and then obviously things developed pretty well. It was evident again today that my putter was still on form and my short game was still performing well.

You know, I was absolutely ecstatic to get things rolling. Obviously I saw some low scores out there, and I knew I was going to have to go out there and play well in order to maintain my position.

You can read the rest of Sabbatini’s interview at PGATour.com, but what you really should be doing is figuring out what Rory does to build his putting game.

Fellow South-African Ernie Els has lent his name to the Rockroller developed by Jim Flood. The Rockroller literally helps you develop a rock-solid feel in your putting by physically extending your putter into your upper arms. After a hour practicing with the Rockroller , you will actually feel like your upper body is connected to your putter, giving you a solid and repeatable putting stroke. 

Watch the Rockroller in action here!

The month of May is PGA Free Lesson Month. Free. Lessons. Free golf lessons!

According to PlayGolfAmerica.com, in May 2008, nearly 6,340 PGA and LPGA Professionals nationwide gave more than 106,600 FREE 10-MINUTE LESSONS. You may be asking yourself, what could I possibly learn in a 10-minute lesson?

On the same website listed above, Golf Digest put together a short list that answers exactly that question:

1. How to get your backswing in synch
2. How to improve your tempo to add distance 
3. How to know if your swing is one- or two-plane
4. How to use distance control to avoid three-putts
5. How to read breaking putts for grain and slope
6. How to align your ball to be a more accurate putter
7. How to switch your focus from line to speed before you putt
8. How to “bounce” your wedge through the sand
9. How to hit high, soft sand shots to tight pins
10. How to hit the tricky long bunker shot

As you can see, there are a lot of options for you to ask the pro about when you schedule your free lesson. Obviously you won’t see in the list above “How to Play Golf”, but you can get a quick introduction into a specific part of the game that has you baffled.

This 10-minute opportunity will give you the chance to ask your pro about a specific portion of your game.  If you haven’t visited a pro in a long time, or had a bad lesson experience in the past, visit PlayGolfAmerica.com, enter your zip code, and find someone new to visit. You may just find yourself going back again some other time for a longer lesson!

Once you’ve met with your pro, you’re going to want to work on the areas of the game you worked on. Here is a short list of golf training aids from PracticeRange.com that will help you develop in the ten areas listed above:

1. Swing Tempo: allows you to calibrate the duration of your backswing, topswing, and downswing. with 1/10th of a second digital accuracy. You can set and retain your own ideal tempo to improve consistency with every club in the bag.

2. Ernie Els Tempotimer: Small enough to fit in the side pocket of your golf bag, use the Tempotimer in pre-round warm-up, before tee off at each hole, or even at home when training your swing tempo.

3. The Plane Stick: A telescoping aluminum rod enables the golfer to instantly feel a correct swing plane. The foam covered top of the rod allows contact without risk of injury or damage to equipment. Multiple setups, drills and applications covered on instructional video.

4. Eyeline Perfect Entry System: Perfect Entry System allows you to see the perfect putt. Perfect Speed, Perfect Read, Perfect Line and Perfect Entry. The System uses the combination of the Green Reading Level, Bullseye Cup and the Putting Clock

5. Breakmaster Putting Green Reader: precision electronic devices designed to train your eye to read breaking putts and get to know the breaks on the putting greens you play.

6. Eyline Putting Plane Alignment System: Use the mirrored surface to check if eyes are over the ball, shoulders are lined up, and putter face is square. Adjustable rails enable you to practice a perfect back and through stroke that is on plane. Angled rail allows putter to come slightly inside.

7. Hank Haney’s Essentials - 4 Pack DVD: These groundbreaking DVDs will help you become a complete player by teaching you to think, act, and play like a champion. Every aspect of the game is encompassed in this set that includes the bonus DVD Strategy.

8, 9 & 10. Ken Venturi’s Stroke Savers - Sand Play and Fundamentals: In this Volume 1 of the Strokesavers Series, longtime CBS Golf Analyst Ken Venturi, who educated golfers for over 30 years with a variety of golf tips, shares the secrets to execute a variety of sand shots.

Visit PracticeRange.com for the best in golf training aids, books & videos all designed to improve every facet of your golf game.

We’ve taken notice lately that many of our customers purchase certain items as a specific group. Though we present “recommended items” on the bottom of most training aid detail pages, our customers often will surf accross the entire site in order to find the three specific things that either their pro recommended or that they saw on the Golf Channel.

To that end, we have created ten new training packages that we feel will allow our customers a one-stop-shop for the most beneficial combinations of some of our best selling items. What’s more, we’ve applied a discount to the entire package that you can’t get by purchasing them separately. We’re adding new packages all the time, so if you don’t see a compilation of your favorites yet, keep checking back.

Take a look at all of our Training Combo Packages here under the training aids category.

If you have an idea for a training combo that you think would be beneficial, please feel free to contact us.

SANFORD, Fla. - I GOTCHA Ready, the preferred warm-up system of the Champions Tour, is rapidly becoming a campus staple. Pro Line Sports, the producers of the unique egg-shaped warm-up system, recently filled orders for both the University of Florida and the Texas A&M University Women’s Golf teams.

“We’re proud to be chosen as the warm-up system for these two fine programs,” said Jim Light, Pro Line Sports President. “It’s particularly fitting that we’re entering the world of collegiate golf because we relied heavily on academia to design a system that would be all-encompassing in stretching the golf muscles prior to the round and yet simple at the same time.”

Using the advice of academic kinesiologists, the product designers at Pro Line Sports came up with an egg-shaped weighted rubber device with a tapered slot that can be quickly and easily attached to any club. The key is the three different placements of the I GOTCHA Ready on the shaft of the club.

To begin the warm up, the I GOTCHA Ready is placed in the center of the shaft and swung 10 times to help promote tempo. Then using the quick & easy twist and lock design of the I GOTCHA Ready, it’s easily moved up just under the grip and 10 swings later, the golfer’s arm muscles will allow full release through the ball. The final placement is just above the club head. With the muscle memory developed by the first 20 swings and two placements, the rest of the golf muscles are properly loosened before the first shot of the round is struck.

“I think the athletes on these two outstanding teams will find that by using the I GOTCHA Ready Warm-Up System before their practice sessions they will have a much more effective practice than ever before,” said Light.

The I GOTCHA Ready is available in three weights: 8.5 ounces for men, 5.5 ounces for women and 10.5 ounces for professionals.

Visit www.PracticeRange.com for the complete line of I Gotcha Ready swing trainers as well as a full selection of golf training aids, books and videos.

Richard Oliver
San Antonio Express-News

FREDERICKSBURG — The sun had long ago nestled into the rich green hills of the Edwards Plateau, disappearing in another spectacular splash of light and color, when Hal Sutton settled into a chair in one of the rustic, cedar-scented cabins at Boot Ranch.
The celebrated golfer had a sermon to deliver. Tucked away in the bucolic expanse of the exclusive 2,050-acre resort, six miles north of the nearest stoplight, Sutton did so in a honeyed Louisiana drawl.

Click here to read the rest of this article about Hal Sutton, written by Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express News.

Shop thousands of the world’s best golf training aids, golf books and golf DVDs at PracticeRange.com and feel free to email us to request a printed catalog of our featured products.

The state of Texas has a long and proud history with the game of golf, and it’s current players and teachers are no exception.

Houston’s Jim Hardy has been named the PGA Teacher of the Year for 2007.

“Being honored like this is a very humbling experience,” said Hardy. “You always kind of hope such things come your way, but when they call to say you’ve been chosen, it’s kind of hard to believe. It’s really a wonderful thing.”“I’m so proud that it happened for the Southern Texas PGA, too,” added Hardy. “We have many outstanding teachers within our Section . . . I kind of feel that we won as a Section, and it’s especially meaningful to be in the same company as Harvey Penick and Chuck Cook as PGA of America Teachers of the Year.”

Read the rest of the article about Jim Hardy from TexasGolf.Blogspot.com.

PracticeRange.com offers two outstanding Jim Hardy titles to assist in your golf training regimen:

1. Plane Truth for Golfers
2. Master Class: Plane Truth For Golfers

Though a bit early for the holiday gift-giving season, the staff at PracticeRange.com has decided to add 2008 golf-themed wall and desk calendars to its offering of golf books. We have 12- and 16-month titles available for the 2008 and 2008-2009 calendar years, and there are plenty of options to choose from:

1. Amazing But True Golf Facts Desk Calendar
2. Golf Courses: Fairways of the World Wall Calendar
3. Golf Digest 365 Days of Golf Wall Calendar
4. Golf Digest 365 Golf Holes Desk Calendar
5. Golf Resorts Wall Calendar
6. Natalie Gulbis All-Golf Wall Calendar
7. Sports Illustrated Classic Golf Courses Wall Calendar
8. Sports Illustrated Golf Desk Calendar
9. World’s Most Difficult Golf Holes Wall Calendar

Golfers are the type of people who will get up early on a Saturday… on purpose… in order to beat the heat to the first tee, so we figured they’d be the same sort who would like to beat the holiday shopping rush.

Please visit our Calendars section at PracticeRange.com for that perfect gift for the golfer in your life.

By Katharine Dyson
Golf Press Association Contributing Lifestyle Editor

While recently playing golf on a hot sticky day with my friend, we were waiting for the par-3 green to clear.“I really have to lose some weight,” he said. “I’m trying but nothing is working.”

Click here to read the rest of this article from the Golf Press Association by Katharine Dyson.

For the best golf fitness training aids, please visit PracticeRange.com!

Of course, you had no idea it was my birthday on September 1st, so it’s ok that you didn’t get me anything. However we did have lots of orders for golf training aids over the long weekend, so I’ll consider that enough of a birthday gift from our golfing community.

I did receive an interesting email from another blog & newsletter to which I subscribe…

“Happy Birthday to you!
May the Golf Gods bless you;
With a birdie and a chip-in,
Plus a hole-in-one too!

Over bunkers and hazards,
Fly your ball in between,
May your buddies be wowed,
By your drives to the Green.”

Now with the proper inspiration, perhaps for my next birthday all of our PracticeRange.com customers can get together and write a touching birthday song and dedicate it to me.

Enough about me though. As promised a few weeks ago, with the advent of the new month we have our top selling products list hot off the presses for your review.

PracticeRange.com best sellers (in order of popularity):

1. 2Thumb Putter Grips
2. Swingyde
3. The Impact Bag
4. The Grip Coach
5. Plane EZ
6. Impact Ball
7. Dynaflex Pro Gyro
8. The Plane Stick
9.The 3-Club Tour with Hank Haney
10. Venus on the Fringe

I’m sure something on this list will help clear up that last hangup with your golf game. And remember for this time next year… I wear a medium shirt and my favorite color is blue.

Shop thousands of the world’s best golf training aids, golf books and golf DVDs at PracticeRange.com and feel free to email us to request a printed catalog of our featured products.