Who doesn’t love a good list on the topic of golf? I’ve done a number of them myself over the years. They’re fun to do, they’re a good way to dig into any facet of the game and its history, and they’re a great way to spark debate.

Who are the top five players of all time? What are the ten best tournaments ever? Name the five greatest shots you’ve ever hit. Name the five best shots you’ve ever seen. The list (of lists) is virtually infinite.

Shapiro and Sherman did some serious brain-storming to come up with most of the 100-plus lists included in the book. It’s filled with some creative, well-researched lists that are fun to read and thought-provoking.

But they did one better. They also included lists by notable figures such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Jiyai Shin, Ian Baker-Finch, Ron Sirak, Dave Kindred, Jim Nantz, Peter Kessler, and a number of others.

I can’t exactly review a book of lists without doing a list of my own. Here are a few of my favorite lists from the book:

• My Five Most Memorable Golf Shots (by Arnold Palmer). I love the fact that The King can rattle off his five best shots, some 50 years after the fact.
• Why We (Occasionally) Hate Golf. Everything great has a dark side. Golf is no different.
• Worst Bodies/Best Golfers. The fitness craze is mostly a new phenomenon. One thing that many pros shared with amateurs in days gone by was similar non-attention to physique, with some notable exceptions, of course.
• Golf’s Greatest Traditions. There are a boatload. I don’t envy the work involved in whittling the list down to ten.
• The Wit and Wisdom of Lee Trevino. The Merry Mex has always been known for his memorable quotes.
• Stuff You Probably Never Knew About the Masters. A Masters list is always a good thing.
• Golf Clichés. This list is better than most… better than most!
• The Difference Between the Pros and Us. Another one that could go on way beyond seven items.
• Biggest Chokes. It’s painful to watch, but it happens to the best of us sometimes.
• Resumé Gaps. Hard to believe The King never won a PGA Championship.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I can’t say I agreed with every item, but that’s the beauty of lists. The greatest shot, greatest tournament, greatest player, the best, the worst, it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

One thing is certain: the lists in this book will get your mind churning and you’ll come up with your own counter to many of the items. And, of course, many of the entries can’t be disputed. Or can they? There’s only one way to find out. Read it for yourself and we can continue the debate.

The bottom line is, I highly recommend this book. It’s a fun read, it will educate you on the history and traditions of the game, and will be a great source of debate among you and your golfer friends.

Golf List Mania! retails for $15. Click here for more information from the publisher.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: Golf List Mania!

In the Box

When the T2Hole arrives, you are provided with the system itself, a quick-start and set-up guide, some stickers used to customized the T2Hole (should you prefer), a carrying bag, and a DVD featuring set-up instructions as well as drills and information from Denis Pugh showing many ways to use the system to help your game.

The Basics

The T2Hole system is pretty easy to set up. It breaks down into four major parts: bars to use for alignment and stance adjustment, and two bristle swing-arms used for swing feedback (and for other nifty drills).

Here are a couple of photos showing the T2Hole system in its basic configuration:

The T2Hole, looking down the target line

The T2Hole from the player's point of view

As you can see in the first photo above, in it’s basic configuration, there are guides to help you with alignment, stance (specifically, proper distance from the ball), and swing arms with bristles to aid you in the correct swing path.

In the second photo, you can see the adjustments on the bar which let you adjust the T2Hole given your height and the club you’re using.

Configurability

At first glance, it kind of seems like a tool that helps you with relatively few things. You can easily see where it can help you get your feet set correctly, and your stance set the correct distance from the ball, and even how swinging through the brushes can give you feedback to help you get your path to be more on-plane.

But, the components can be set up in many different ways to perform many different types of drills. For instance, you can take the outer bristled swing-arm, turn the bristles up, and set it behind the ball, perpendicular to the target. Why? Because it can be used to help promote lag in your swing and to keep from releasing the club early, by making sure you don’t hit the bristles on the way down.

Or, you can put the swing-arm in front of the ball to help you stop the dreaded chicken-wing. You can use the swing-arm to make sure you stay down and clip the bristles on the follow-through to get the feeling of not collapsing your left arm and having the club head pass your hands before impact.

Here are photos of the T2Hole in those two configurations:

T2Hole with the swing arm in front of the ball

T2Hole with the swing arm behind the ball

In addition, the foot alignment bar can be angled either way to help with many issues such as promoting a hit from the inside, eliminating a reverse pivot, and hitting draws and fades.

The included DVD includes many drills that can be done with the T2Hole and Denis Pugh even points out that you can configure the system in so many different ways that there are things you might use it for that were not even envisioned in the design.

However, you don’t need to do the thinking yourself because the DVD includes drills to eliminate your slice, hit the ball longer, achieve better, more consistent contact, hit draws and fades, and even to help your chipping and putting technique.

Impressions

I have to agree that this system is highly configurable and that you can do many, many things with it to help your golf game. In general, I found it to be fairly easy to put together once I did it the first time (there’s a video on assembly included on the DVD, as well as on the website). I tried many of the drills from the DVD and I think the T2Hole system performs exactly as advertised in all regards.

On the DVD, Denis Pugh recommends working with a PGA professional in conjunction with the T2Hole and I have to agree with that advice. While you’ll be able to get benefit out of the drills that are provided, having someone diagnose your problem and target specific drills to help you is a big benefit. And a PGA professional will make it easier for you to discover other ways to set up the T2Hole that aren’t in the documentation to achieve specific results in other areas. Also, a professional can help you to use the included stickers to customize the T2Hole if you need to adjust your stance or distance from the ball if for some reason you don’t want to use the default setup (for instance, maybe if you’re relatively tall, but have short arms for your height).

The T2Hole seems generally durable and I think it will stand up to the pressures of repeated use, though I only used it a couple of times myself, in preparation for this review.

I only have a couple of criticisms worth noting. First, the system includes a putting guide which can help you to groove either a straight-back and straight-through, or arc putting stroke. However, it’s not mentioned on the assembly/quick start page that came with the T2Hole and I hadn’t watched the DVD at that point when I was setting it up. Eventually, after poking around the website, I found a video demonstrating its use. But during the first setup, I could not glean what the extra parts were for and it was a little frustrating.

Second, the T2Hole has a print manual along with the DVD, which can be downloaded from the website. It gives a lot of information about assembly and many of the various drills that you can do with the system. I understand that in this day and age, everyone wants to go green and not print a bunch of stuff unnecessarily, but in this case, especially given the price, you can’t expect to sit down and watch the DVD and then go to the range and retain all the configurations and drills and other information, so the printed manual is something you should probably have with you. And to get it, you have to print it yourself, unless you take a laptop or other electronic device to the range to be able to view it.

Overall, I like the T2Hole system. It’s a bit pricey at $139.99 but it’s fairly well-constructed and works as advertised. Given the investment we all make as golfers, it’s not unreasonable in the grand scheme of things.

If you’re in the market for a good training aid, I recommend the T2Hole Golf Improvement System.

For more information, including instructional and assembly videos, or to view the product manual, please feel free to visit the T2Hole website.

You can also click here to see all the photos of the T2Hole system that I took for the review.

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Disclosure: I was provided with a T2Hole Golf Improvement System for the purpose of this review.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Training Aid Review: T2Hole Golf Improvement System

Please note that this review contains a few plot spoilers, which are labeled, should you prefer to avoid those sections.

The Caddie Who Won the Masters, a novel by John Coyne, shares the story of Tim Alexander, an aging, inexperienced golfer who wins the USGA Mid-Amateur championship and an even bigger prize: the invitation to play in the Masters that is customarily extended to the champion of that and several other amateur events.

About the Author

As described on his website, John Coyne is the author of more than twenty-five nonfiction and fiction books, including a number of horror novels. A former Peace Corps Volunteer and a life-long lover of golf, Coyne has edited and written a number of books dealing with both subjects.

The back cover of the book also adds:

“Coyne, known for his novels of the occult, blends his skill with the supernatural and his knowledge of golf and its history to tell a Field of Dreams-like tale that brings the great legends alive again.”

As it turns out, that’s a great summary of the feel of this book.

The Plot

After winning the United States Mid-Amateur, Alexander finds himself thrust onto what can be considered one of golf’s most storied and historic stages. The Masters, first played in 1934, has been host to some of the most talked-about moments in professional golf.

Not only does the inexperienced Alexander have the weight of The Masters on his shoulders, but his wife Kerry, home in Illinois, is suffering from cancer, adding to his mental burden.

Shortly after arriving in Augusta, he is approached by a mysterious man, who promises that he can save Tim’s wife, if only he can win the tournament. With the help of a young caddie named Clay Weaver, Tim Alexander embarks on the most difficult of challenges: winning The Masters as an amateur. His doubt in himself and in his caddie make it seem like an impossible task, but the mysterious man claims that he can do it.

Tim is not concerned with the Green Jacket. His only concern is saving his wife. But as the week wears on, with the help of the mysterious man, the impossible starts to seem possible.

Reaction

It’s clear that Coyne is a golf lover, and even more, a student of the game, and especially of The Masters. The book is filled with a historic flavor that really brings The Masters to life. Not only did I have the sense that I was walking those hallowed grounds with our protagonist, but there was so much information about the history of Augusta, The Masters, and its champions sprinkled throughout that it was a real treat to read.

[Begin Spoilers]

I have one chief complaint about this book. The mysterious man that helped Tim Alexander was the ghost Clifford Roberts, Augusta National’s first chairman. Through out the week, Roberts brings the ghosts of Masters past to help out. Tim was aided by the likes of Bobby Locke, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, and others. Even Bobby Jones himself helped out with his quest to win The Masters.

That, I don’t have issue with. I found the supernatural twist made the story quite interesting and added to the historical feel of the tale. My issue is that these legends of the game stood there while Tim was playing, only visible to him, and told him how to hit shots, where to play the ball, how to play certain holes, and so on.

So, you’re thinking, “wait…you don’t have a problem with ghosts appearing to the guy, but you have a problem with them helping him out?”

Yes, I do. To many golfers, the Rules of Golf are a sacred part of its history and tradition, maybe more so than The Masters. Rule 8 prohibits a player from soliciting advice from anyone other than the player’s partner or either of their caddies. That includes long-dead chairmen and Masters champions.

As the story progressed and Tim received advice from the greats, I just found myself thinking, “Hogan would never do that.” “Jones would never do that.” And, so on.

On the other hand, I’m of the opinion that a story is the one the author wants to tell and whatever happens, happens for a reason. This is the story Coyne wanted to tell so I’m OK with that. But it did tarnish my opinion of the underdog champion. If any of us were in that situation, and had a chance to save a dying loved-one and all we had to do was cheat in a golf tournament, most of us, maybe even all, would do it. Still, there’s no glory in the win, but that’s not what Tim Alexander was seeking from the start, I guess.

Perhaps this is exactly what Coyne intended, but being such a lover of the game, I would have expected Tim Alexander to be painted in a less positive light, more along the lines of a guy in a tough situation, forced to have made a deal with the devil so save someone he loves. I guess, in a way, there was a sense of that, and the winning of the Masters was definitely downplayed, so perhaps I felt exactly how Coyne intended.

[End Spoilers]

Conclusion

I found this book to be very enjoyable to read. It really had me feeling like I was strolling the fairways with an unlikely player, taking in the history and majesty of The Masters. The plot moved well and kept me quite entertained.

Aside from one minor complaint (which I detailed above in the spoilers section), I liked it a lot. If you like to read golf fiction, especially if you love reading about The Masters, as I do, then I think you’ll like this book as well.

For more information on this and other books by John Coyne, please visit his website.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: The Caddie Who Won the Masters

For a while now, I’ve been of the opinion that golf instruction will be driven to change by the explosion of technology that has taken place over the last decade. The internet has become so pervasive and multimedia capability is in within the grasp of virtually anyone with a smart phone, laptop, or inexpensive video recorder. We can stream video and even chat face to face.

Certainly there are many pros that are taking advantage of technology, with video lessons being commonplace and with some pros even working in a web-friendly way. But, to me, there is still an awful lot of room for improvement.

Needless to say, I was enthused when I was contacted by Brant Kasbohm, director of instruction at FixYourGame.com and he asked me if I wanted to give his service a try. Kasbohm has been a PGA Professional since 2000. Click here to read his bio.

How It Works

Here’s how it works: you go out to the driving range and take two videos of your swing, one face-on, and one down-the-line. Simply hit five or six shots from each angle. From there, you go to the website, fill out a form, upload the videos (or provide links), and buy the lesson(s). Within 48 hours, you’ll receive a personalized golf lesson consisting of text and video analysis.

It really is that easy. Here are the two swing videos I uploaded that were used to build my lesson.

First, the face-on view:

And, the down-the-line view:

And here is the personalized instruction video that was provided back to me:

Along with the video, I was provided with an extensive written lesson that accompanied it. It’s too long to include here, but it’s a good complement to the video. It includes detailed description of the important concepts, along with a bunch of example videos recorded by Brant Kasbohm that demonstrate the techniques that are relevant to my custom lesson.

My Impressions

I’m of the opinion that face-to-face lessons will never go extinct. At least not until I can easily stream live, multi-angle video to my pro live from the range. Even though it’s possible to see most, if not all, of what needs to be seen to give an effective lesson, there’s the issue of the immediate feedback provided by a pro standing on the range as I hit shots.

That aside, I’m pretty impressed with the service that FixYourGame.com provides and there is definitely benefit to those who choose to go this route.

First, the price is excellent. For $19.95 per lesson (or $29.95 and $49.95 for a series of two and five lessons), it’s much more affordable than the $35-$150 that you’re going to pay a pro to stand there with you on the range. And you’re getting instruction from an actual PGA Professional. Special offer for Life in the Rough readers: mention that you were referred by Life in the Rough, buy one lesson, and get a second for free.

Also, the lesson was comprehensive.  The swing issues that were identified are valid, and the corrections were easy to understand. The video analysis was quite helpful and the linked video tips from the text portion of the lesson were an excellent complement.

The service does have some advantages over traditional range lessons. For instance, you do things at your own pace. Take video whenever you feel like it, and there are no appointments with pros to make or keep. Another benefit is, the lesson remains online for you to review at your leisure. Personally, that’s a benefit that can’t be understated. I often have trouble recalling things from recent lessons because the information fades over time. With this service you can refer back to it whenever you like.

Overall, I like the service a lot. It works well and Brant Kasbohm provided an excellent lesson from my videos. Personally, I will continue to do face-to-face lessons because I feel like I respond better to the instant feedback. But FixYourGame.com is great if you don’t want to pay the price of traditional lessons or if you want a PGA professional to have a look at your swing as a quick check-up, or if you just don’t want to do face-to-face lessons for some reason. Best of all, there’s a 100% money-back guarantee, if you don’t improve.

I had a good experience and I recommend giving it a try, especially if you’ve been put off by the cost of traditional lessons.

For more information, visit FixYourGame.com. Don’t forget, as a special offer for Life in the Rough readers, FixYourGame.com has offered a two-for-one deal. Mention that you were referred by Life in the Rough, purchase one lesson, and you’ll receive a second one free.

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Disclosure:

I was provided with a complementary lesson for the purpose of this review.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Instruction Review: FixYourGame.com

Well, the folks from Starter Coin think they’ve brought order to chaos. They call it “the gentleman’s way to start the gentleman’s game.” The Starter Coin is a two-sided, well, coin, with markings to indicate the order of play. Simply gather your foursome around, flip the coin, let it land and the markings do the dirty work of establishing teeing order.

On one side, the Starter Coin contains the word “Honor” in the center, written as an ambigram (I’ll leave that one for you to Google). On the reverse, there is a standard magnetic removable ball marker in the center, with one of several possible phrases. Mine says, “the proof is in the putting,” but there are several others, including my favorite, “your honor, your honor.”

The coin is very well made. It’s nice and heavy, and clearly not some cheap, glorified poker chip. If you’re the type of person that likes to use a ridiculously huge ball marker, then the coin will work well for that. You can see the size of the Starter Coin in relation to a golf ball in the photo above. If that’s a bit much marker for you to handle, there’s always the embedded marker. It’s kind of like those huge yachts that are so big that they actually have smaller boats riding on them.

The Starter Coin is definitely a classy accessory. The green and white color scheme is perfectly complemented with gold-colored, raised text and accents.

The Starter Coin sells for $12 with free shipping. Visit the website for details. In addition, check out the Starter Coin album in the Life in the Rough photo gallery for more photos of the Starter Coin.

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Disclosure: A Starter Coin was provided to me for review purposes.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Accessory Review: Starter Coin

Stan Utley is something of a rarity, having played golf at the highest levels, including being a winner on the PGA Tour, and having gone on to a very successful teaching career. He has been recognized as one of the 50 greatest teachers by Golf Digest (he was named 6th on the list in 2010) and he counts among his students, many players from the PGA Tour, Champions Tour, LPGA Tour, and others.

As the title of the book suggests, Utley tries to get away from overly-mechanical teaching to unleash the talent within players. The following excerpt from his website summarizes that philosophy.

To teach the “Art of the Short Game” using a fresh and unique approach. It is my desire to move beyond the jargon and mechanics of the short game and tap into the creativity, imagination and feel that all good short game players possess.

Chapter List

To give you a feel for what is contained within, here’s a listing of the chapters in the book.

1. How Can You Score with the Swing You Have?
2. What Are Your Short Game and Putting Handicaps?
3. The Three Basic Shots You Need to Know Today
4. The Three Hardest Short Game Shots, Made Simple
5. Short Game Strategy
6. Bunker/Trouble Shot Strategy
7. The Putting Strategy Guide
8. Tour School
9. Inside the Shotmaker’s Bag
10. Quick Reference Guide

Impressions

The book gets off to a good start with a foreword by Jim Hardy, a teacher who you’ll find right behind Utley on the top-50 list, and a teacher for whom I have great respect. Hardy kind of sets the tone for the book, not only with his high praise for Utley’s methods, but by preparing the reader to be ready to be shown how to “quit fighting your feel and and get out of your own way,” to be shown that “you can do incredible things around and on the green.”

While you’ll find some mechanical instruction in the book (chapters three and four, for instance), much of it is a refinement of mechanics, preparation, mental approach, equipment configuration, and so on, to help you discover the artistic side of golf.

As far as mechanical instruction goes, Utley discusses six shots that he believes you need to master to have the best shot at scoring. Those are: the basic pitch, the basic bunker shot, the lag putt, the 30-50 yard pitch, the shot from rough, close to the hole, and finally, the long bunker shot. Utley walks through his philosophy and technique for each of those six shots, in detail.

He also covers some ground that was a little familiar to me in the realm of the mental and course management segments of the game. He stresses things like preparation and commitment to every shot, and being a process-oriented player instead of being a results-oriented player.

Conclusion

I’ve come to believe over the last few years that there is no one-size-fits all in golf instruction. I genuinely believe that. Our minds all work differently. We have different capacities for analytical thinking. We have different temperaments. We have different bodies, different tempo, different things we want to get from the game.

As such, this book doesn’t really hit home for me as much as it will with some of you. And believe me, there are some of you reading this that will absolutely love this book and will benefit from reading it.

I don’t mean that to be a criticism of the book, per se. It’s well-written. It covers interesting and important topics. And there’s no question that Utley is one of the best teachers in the game.

My own brain is just not as receptive to an artistic way of thinking. Maybe that’s something I need to improve. In fact, it’s a place where I’m trying to expand my horizons in things other than golf by taking an interest in things like photography and oil painting.

For me, Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible and his Putting Bible are the gold standard for short game and putting instruction because they turn on the little imaginary light bulb that floats above my head (you do have one of those, don’t you?). I’m very receptive to the scientific leanings of his books.

Style aside, I do find Pelz’s books to be about as comprehensive as possible in their respective areas. After reading them, I feel like just about every conceivable thing relating to putting and short game are covered. Utley, on the other hand, aside from having some fundamental differences from Pelz on basic technique, focuses his instruction in areas where he believes players will reap the most benefit, so you’re not going to see every kind of shot covered. But, that’s kind of the point.

In fairness, Utley does have other books which cover putting and short game, which I have not read, but I think it’s fair to assume that there’s a much more comprehensive coverage in those books. After all, the point of this book is simply to teach you how to score better, not to teach you every shot in the book.

I did find some valuable material in the book, especially since I’m trying to expand my artistic side, but I’m going to continue to look toward Dave Pelz for the technical side of things.

My basic recommendation is this: if you’re the type of player with an artistic side that likes to play by feel, or if you’re someone who simply wants to move in that direction, I think you’ll really like this book and will get a lot out of it. If you’re like me, and like a more analytical, scientific approach, you might not identify as much with Utley. I still think there’s some value in reading it, but you might come away like I did, with the feeling that I expanded my knowledge, but without a spark being lit to explore the concepts further.

No matter what your style, though, you will definitely find at least some useful information in the book, though some of it might be ideas you’ve heard elsewhere. There’s not really anything ground-breaking contained within, but it’s the sum of the parts that becomes Stan Utley’s blueprint for helping you score better.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: The Art of Scoring

Instead, these books provide a humorous take on the seedy under-belly of the game. Cheating, lying, and gratuitous (though well-deserved) violence fill the pages of these books, which aim to parody the myriad of self-help golf books on the market today.

The material contained within could have only come from the depraved mind of a person who has been playing golf far too long. If you’re reading this, it most likely applies to you too, so wipe that smile off your face. I’m trying to become a pro over here, why am I associating with you people?

Aww, who am I kidding?

I like good golf humor as much as the next guy. If you can’t laugh at your own golf game then I’ll do it for you. These books are easy to get through, probably an hour each if you put your head down and go. Or, they could entertain you during numerous trips to the can, depending on your fiber intake, of course.

Here are a few chapter titles which might pique your interest and give you an idea of where I’m coming from:

• How to Get More Distance Off the Shank (Chapter 7, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• Using Your Shadow on the Green to Maximize Earnings (Chapter 9, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• Where to Buy Golf Pants with “Drop Pockets” (Chapter 10, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• How to Enjoy Your Partner’s 129 (Chapter 27, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• The Importance of Realizing That Most Golfers Are Bad Golfers (Chapter 32, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• When to Suggest Swing Corrections to Your Opponent (Chapter 39, How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt)
• What it Means When the Only Way for You to Hit a Good Ball is to Step on a Rake (Chapter 2, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• What to Do When Your Pause Becomes a Seizure (Chapter 9, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• When to Approach the Clubhouse Instead of the Green (Chapter 12, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• The Importance of Carrying a 95° Wedge (Chapter 16, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• How to Handle Your Caddie’s Hysterical Laughter (Chapter 26, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• Body Blocks and When to Use Them (Chapter 34, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• Why You Should Hit the Ball on Your First Try (Chapter 42, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)
• Why You Should Never Exaggerate Your Scores by More than 10% in Either Direction (Chapter 46, When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever)

The bottom line is, golf is supposed to be fun, but it can be funny, too. These books put a smile on my face, probably because there’s a little too much truth in them. I’ll probably never deliver a 9-iron to the solar plexus of of a complete jerk, but next time I tee it up with one, you can bet Chapter 13 of How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt will be right there at the top of my thoughts.

I found both books to be enjoyable, and I think you will too. If you bask in the glory of your own bad golf, then these books might provide some comfort in knowing you’re not the only one. Or maybe the comfort comes from knowing that others are suffering too. I’m not sure.

Either way, most importantly, don’t think you’re going to get away with using pants with “drop pockets” against me, because I’ll be watching.

For more information, please visit the 4Putt website.

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Disclosure: A copy of each book was provided to me by the publisher, for review purposes.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: When to Regrip Your Ball Retriever and How to Line Up Your Fourth Putt

After having been under a crunch at the day-job, it was obvious that I needed another. My brother planted the seed that we should go to Myrtle Beach again, the destination of my previous golf-getaway. With his brainwashing taking hold, I started my planning.

The plan was hatched, reservations were made, and we headed south. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was the destination. My brother Tony, our friend Keith, and I loaded up our rented SUV ready for 4-nights, 3-rounds of golf madness. We decided to keep it relatively short because we left the weekend before Thanksgiving and wanted to get back in plenty of time before the holiday.

We had a great time and I thought I’d let this post serve as part course review, part vacation guide, and part travel log. I’m amazed at how low the overall price was.

The Courses

This time around, we decided to play two new courses and one course we played last time we were in the area. We chose Pine Lakes based on a little write-up we saw in Golf Digest right before we started planning. River Club, down in Pawleys Island, is the course we played previously and liked it enough for a repeat. Our third choice, Caledonia, is one of the gems of the region. We wanted to spend some bucks to play a high-end place and we weren’t disappointed.

Pine Lakes

One of the cool things about Pine Lakes is that it was built in 1927. Of course, the current course has undergone a complete restoration and things have undoubtedly changed a lot since then, but it certainly still has the feel of an old course.

One of the lasting impressions I have of the place is the gorgeous clubhouse. It has a definite old country club feel to it.

The course is well-maintained and plays 6675 yards from the back tees. I felt like the holes had a lot of character without feeling “tricked up” like you might see in some modern courses in resort places. The use of bunkers and other design features help to maintain the classical feel of the course while still providing a challenge.

At the time of year we went, the rough was pretty short and was becoming dormant. The fairways and tees were in nice shape. The greens were also in good shape. The course did show some signs of the extreme summer heat that blanketed the area only a few months back, but it certainly wasn’t a detraction.

Click here for more information about Pine Lakes

River Club

We played this course eight or nine years ago last time we were in the Myrtle Beach area. The three of us liked it enough to play it again. Last time I was there, the layout felt a lot more tight, with homes along many of the holes. However, this time around, I’m in much greater control of my game, so it wasn’t an issue.

Generally, the course is challenging, with water on a majority of the holes. I personally find a couple of the holes on the front nine to be a little lackluster, but the rest of the layout is fun and interesting.

Without a doubt, the 18th hole is a dramatic finisher. A dog-leg par-5, long hitters can cut across the water for a shot at eagle. Standing in the 18th fairway gives a wonderful view of the clubhouse in the distance (the photo above is actually taken from the 9th hole).

Again, there was evidence of the oppressive heat from the recent summer. The River Club showed a little more leftover heat stress than Pine Lakes did, especially on the greens. However, the course was still very playable.

Click here for more information about River Club.

Caledonia

I’m struggling to find words to describe the beauty of Caledonia.

Originally, the property was an old plantation. The golf course is fairly new, opening in 1994, but it feels like it has been there for 200 years. When you enter the gate, you drive up an avenue lined with 150-year old oak trees. Right up to what they describe as an antebellum-style (pre-Civil War) clubhouse. While certainly not that old, I would immediately believe it if you told me it was.

The course itself has been named in various top-100 lists, including some from Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, and Golfweek. The holes are wide open, with plenty of room for errant shots. I can only recall two holes where homes could be seen. And holes internal to the property are separated by enough distance that there doesn’t feel like there’s any danger of interfering with the play on other holes.

I can’t recall any holes that I didn’t like for one reason or another. The website says the course “has been described as having ’18 signature holes.’” I have to agree with that statement. Whether it’s the 18th hole that has a dramatic approach over a lake toward the clubhouse, or the 7th hole with a giant, old tree guarding the right side of the green, every hole has something to offer in terms of challenge and aesthetic beauty.

The property is filled with stately, old trees, covered with Spanish moss. In wooded areas between holes and the like, the ground is clear from debris, so there are fewer places where balls can become lost.

The manicuring of the course was on a level I’ve never seen before (keeping in mind, I’ve never played any of the famous big-named courses). Virtually everything from tee to green was immaculate. The turf on the greens was so tight-knit that fixing ball marks felt like trying to work with actual carpet.

There was little or no evidence of the harsh summer like there was at the other two courses. It’s easy to see why when you look around and see an army of workers hand-raking bunkers, spraying tees, watering holes, etc.

Click here for more information about Caledonia

The Stay

As consumers, we really benefit from the fact that Myrtle Beach has an off-season that’s not exactly a poor time to visit. Going there in the second half of November, we definitely risked having some foul weather, but it was gorgeous. However, that, coupled with the shorter days, means that many people won’t make the trip at that time of year.

Consequently, we were able to get a two-bedroom suite at the Holiday Inn Express in Murrell’s Inlet for $88/night (which is the AAA rate). It was a beautiful, well-kept hotel, and yet the parking lot was over half empty every night.

We kind of noticed similar situations at restaurants and on the golf courses themselves. Our tee times were in the 12 o’clock hour and none of our rounds took longer than 4 hours and 15 minutes. Once or twice, it seemed like we might have been the last players of the day, which was great with us because we could move along well while not feeling rushed when needing to search for a ball.

We ate at a variety of places while we were there, but my favorite remains TBonz, a steak joint just above Myrtle Beach International Airport (with another location in the northern part of the region). It’s a nice place with a great atmosphere and they sure can cook a steak.

Conclusion

From beginning to end, this was a great trip. We played three courses that we liked at lot, stayed in a great hotel, and definitely felt the fact that we were there in the off-season, both with less crowds and lower prices. I basically booked the hotel and tee times around three weeks before the trip, with no trouble getting any of it coordinated.

Overall, the cost for golf and hotel was around $400 each. Add in the cost of a rental SUV, gas to drive down from New Jersey, and the cost of meals, and we were in the neighborhood of $600-$700 or so for a 5-day trip. In reality, a good chunk of that was for Caledonia which cost $140 each. Had we chosen to play a more run-of-the-mill place, the price would have been noticeably less.

If you haven’t taken a golf getaway to Myrtle Beach, I highly recommend it. It’s an affordable time in a great location. I’m looking forward to getting down there again. Hopefully, I won’t wait another decade to do it again.

Here are a few more photos from the trip. For even more, visit the Life in the Rough photo gallery.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

My Fantastic Voyage – Of Golf

Since then, there have been countless magazine articles, blog posts (you can check out my Stack and Tilt category if you don’t believe me), and even an instructional DVD set. There has been much debate about the swing and it has even been discussed during national golf broadcasts.

I’m not sure why, but it took a couple of years for Plummer and Bennett to follow up the original Golf Digest feature and subsequent instructional DVD set with this book.  However, if you’re serious about the Stack and Tilt swing, or are even seriously considering giving it a try, then this book was probably worth the wait.

It amazed me in 2007 how many weekend players adopted the swing with relatively little information to go on. After all, the Golf Digest article was only a handful of pages. I even tried it myself based on that limited information. The need for more knowledge was kind of filled with the various subsequent outlets of information on the swing. Unfortunately, none of them is a really good substitute for a book.

Though the DVD instructional set was quite detailed and informative, the price tag was too steep for many people. This book comes in at less than a third of the price, and in my opinion, is more packed with detail.

The book starts with an initial overview of the swing and the theories behind it. From there, it takes the reader through the phases of the swing, including setup, backswing, downswing, and follow-through. After that, a detailed comparison of the Stack and Tilt versus the conventional swing is given. It finishes up with some more theory, drills, common faults and fixes, and a primer on how to track progress.

Though the book isn’t long (at a little over 200 pages), it is packed with plenty of images that demonstrate the concepts, and contains a lot of detail that is quite helpful to aid in understanding the swing and all the theory behind it.

One of the things I like about this book is that it provides a ton of technical detail while still being quite easy to read. For this reason, I think it serves the widest array of people possible – those who crave technical knowledge as well as those who might just have a casual curiosity about the Stack and Tilt swing.

One thing that Plummer and Bennett did with this book that appears in hindsight to not be such a great idea, is that they really hung their hats on their stable of PGA Tour players. Included in the book are blurbs both about and even from the handful of players that have become synonymous with the Stack and Tilt swing.

At first thought, that would seem like a great thing. Unfortunately, included in that group of players are both Aaron Baddeley and Mike Weir, who both have abandoned the swing since the original printing of the book in late 2009, and have returned to their previous traditional-type swings.

I know that pros are always trying to improve their swings, their equipment, their mental state, and so on, so it’s not unusual that players would try a swing and then revert back to their old ways, but it just rings hollow to read testimonials from Weir and Baddeley about how the swing has helped them, all the while knowing that they left it behind.

That aside, I still think this book has a ton of merit. There’s still debate out there as to whether the swing itself has merit, though. I’m one of those people that thinks it does. I don’t know that it’s the answer for everyone, but I’ve heard directly from so many people that have had success with it, that I’d be a fool to think otherwise.

Given that, my verdict on this book is that it’s excellent for anyone thinking of trying out the swing, or for anyone that has been playing with the Stack and Tilt swing but that would like to gain more refined knowledge about the concepts.

So that leaves one burning question. Does the book do a better job getting players using the Stack and Tilt than the instructional DVD set? The answer is yes and no. Both have their merits. For instance, the book has a great deal more detail. On the other hand, the DVDs provide plenty of visuals of the swing in motion, something that still photographs in a book don’t quite match.

If I was going to adopt the Stack and Tilt swing and if I was given the choice of either buying the DVD set or buying this book, I would definitely buy the book, for two reasons. For one, the book is a fraction of the price. Secondly, the book is packed with a lot more detail. Don’t get me wrong, the DVDs are quite detailed. It’s just that it’s not possible to put the same amount of detail as you can into 200+ pages in book format.

Overall, this book is a winner to me. Even though I don’t use the Stack and Tilt swing, I still like to read books like this. Especially after hearing critics come down on the concepts as being “radical” or otherwise wrong. Plummer and Bennett turn that around masterfully, though, with plenty of examples of great players from the past doing the things that they tout as Stack and Tilt fundamentals.

If you’re a Stack and Tilt player or if you have an itch to give it a try, I recommend this book to you. I think it will definitely help. Or, if you’re like me and just like to read about swing theory, I think you’ll like it too.

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Disclosure: A copy of this book was provided to me for review purposes. I received no other compensation for writing this review.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: The Stack and Tilt Swing

That’s precisely what The Story of Golf delivers. This three hour documentary has an ambitious purpose. Namely, it aims to adequately cover a sport whose rich history literally spans centuries.

Hosted by Golf Channel personality Rich Lerner, The Story of Golf starts at the very beginning, exploring the birth of the game and moves forward through time covering changes in the game that include everything from advancements in equipment to the various stars to the lesser known but equally important figures that have had a lasting effect on the game.

The big names are given ample coverage: Jones, Hagen, Nelson, Snead, Sarazen, Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus, Woods, and others. But many of the other issues of the game are touched upon: gender and race issues, the evolution of equipment, architecture, golf in the digital age, and much more.

Aside from Lerner’s narration, the Story of Golf is told through a lot of historical photographs and footage, as well as various interviews with many experts who have knowledge of the history of golf. Information and anecdotes are shared by journalists, editors, publishers, authors, players, historians, officials past and present from golf’s ruling bodies, TV commentators, course architects, and many others. Their experiences and insights really add to the telling of The Story of Golf.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Story of Golf. If you’ve been coming by for a while, then you probably know that I love golf and while it doesn’t come up as much, I love golf history. The Story of Golf is well-produced and is packed with tons of historical information (much of it from the current era, so, maybe “future historical information” would be a good description for those segments).

Without a doubt, it’s the most complete picture of the game of golf that I’ve seen told in a documentary format.

I really liked watching The Story of Golf and I highly recommend it. If you didn’t get a chance to see it when it originally aired on Golf Channel, I recommend picking up a copy on DVD or Blu-ray. Or, if you wait a while, maybe it will show up on Golf Channel again.

If you’d like more information about The Story of Golf, please click here to visit the website.

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Disclaimer:

I received a complementary copy of The Story of Golf for review purposes, but was not compensated in any way for this review.

© 2007-2011 Life in the Rough. All Rights Reserved.

DVD Review: The Story of Golf