Tag: Equipment

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Clothes with SPF?

Have you ever heard someone ask for a tip and the other guy responds with “wear sunscreen”.  Haha, very funny, but boy it’s getting hot out.  This year, because it’s kind of a pain to put on a ton of sunscreen on, I decided to try wearing long sleeve shirts as long as possible.  It’s still working even with 90+ heat in a lot of places!

Long sleeves have a few benefits.  The first is of course keeping the sun off your skin.  This helps keep your risk of melanoma lower, keeps your skin looking younger, and keeps you from getting a crazy farmer tan.  Seems good all around.  A second benefit is that it’s supposed to keep you cooler.  I’m not sure about that one, but everyone wears long sleeves in the middle east so there must be something to it.

I have two different approaches to my long sleeves.  First, there are long sleeve shirts made out of moisture wicking, breathable material.  These are a great option and very easy to find these days.  The other option is a pair of sun sleeves.  These are tighter and designed to cover just your forearms and extending under your short sleeves.  Sun sleeves are also made out of high tech fabric, but allow some breathing room under your short sleeves.    Plus, you can take these off when you go inside!  Here is a picture of a sun sleeve made by Sun Mountain.

Sun Sleeves made by Sun Mountain
Sun Sleeves made by Sun Mountain

The other thing to consider when buying your golf shirts is their UPF, which is similar to SPF for sunscreen.  It stands for UV Protection Factor.  Clothes inherently have some UPF because they block the sun, but companies are impregnating clothes with a sunscreen like substance to increase your protection from the sun.  This seems really smart and makes a lot of sense!  Some clothes even have their UPF rating right on their label, so keep your eye out.  Generally the UPF will run from 30 to 50 on average.

Anyway, hope those thoughts on sun protection are useful.  Hit ‘em long and straight, but don’t forget to protect your skin from sun damage!

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How often to replace your golf club grips

I just bought new golf club grips online.  I bought an entire set of Winn DSI grips.  I bought them online because they’re cheaper and because I could get exactly what I wanted.  I love getting new grips because they feel so great in your hands.  They give you confidence with every stroke and help you make a consistent stroke every time.

You should replace your grips every 12 to 24 months depending on how often you play.  However, make sure to inspect your grips regularly for any ware or tear.  On the other hand, even if you haven’t played much, if your grips are old they may become hard and slippery as well.  In any of these cases you also may want to change your grips.  Also, try to replace the grips on your entire set at the same time.  This will help your consistency with different clubs.

Plus, new grips make it almost feel like a new set of clubs, which is always fun!

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What is bounce?

We’re not talking about Tiger Woods and the commercial where he bounces the ball on his wedge and then hits it out of mid air.  Have you ever tried that?  It’s fricken hard.  Anyway, bounce on a golf club is usually associated with wedges like a 60 degree lob wedge or a sand wedge.  It refers to the angle on the sole of the club.

Bounce is important for several reasons that greatly impact your short game.  First of all, bounce is very important on sand shots.  This is what keeps the club moving through the sand instead of digging deeper.  This helps you move sand and the ball on top of it.  If you listen to bunker shots that the pros take, you can hear a ‘thud’ before the ball comes out.  That’s bounce at work.  It happens when you hit the sand with the sole of the club (bounce) instead of the leading edge of the club.  Next time you practice a bunker shot, hit the sand a few times without a ball.  Try to make that sound and you’ll notice how easily the club moves through the sand.  Remember don’t hit the sand with the leading edge of the club.

Bounce is also important when chipping.  Phil Mickelson is known to grind down all the bounce until it’s gone.  This is so he can get the maximum loft on the wedge.  It makes it tougher to hit because the club will dig into the ground if you don’t hit it perfect, just like in the sand.  On the other hand, if you have too much bounce, you may tend to hit it thin or skull it.  For example, I had a 60 degree lob wedge with 7 degrees of bounce.  I hit it great, but when I got a new wedge with 11 degrees of bounce I skulled every chip because I had to hit it differently.  I went back to a club with less bounce and my chipping so I could use the stroke I had learned over the past several years instead of trying to relearn a new chipping stroke.

So that’s bounce.  Hopefully, you can use it to your advantage when you buy your next wedge and your up-and-down’s will put some…bounce… in your step!

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You CAN buy a better golf game

I was having dinner with some friends in Honolulu last weekend, when they asked me about my game. I was there for a bachelor party and it was early in the evening so I still remember exactly what happened. I gave them an update on my game and told them that I shot 77 the previous weekend. They were all very impressed, but I assured them that that was out of the ordinary for me. Then a friend of mine since my last told me that he was still playing the same clubs from almost 10 years ago. He had an old Callaway big Bertha wood that is about the size of the five wood these days. I told him he needs to buy new clubs. It would improve his game.

Technology can change your game. The technology to the companies are putting into today’s clubs is head and shoulders above what they did 10 years ago. At least 10 years ago the irons were cavity back and had started becoming more forgiving. However, the driver technology has changed exponentially. Take for example the size of the driver. I was playing golf in Honolulu during graduate school with the same guys when the first 460 cc driver came out. I demo’d one for a round and they teased me and called it a “cartoon” driver. It didn’t look big when I went into my stance, but when I hit correctly the ball flew pretty far. Who’s laughing then?? 🙂

Even today’s low-end clubs have improved greatly. You can buy an entry level set golf clubs for $200 or $300 and they will be more forgiving than any clubs from 10 or 15 years ago. I have some friends who still play with blades that their father gave them! Those clubs are probably 30 years old! How can you expect to play great with those? It’s like another handicap. In any case, I don’t mind so much if we play for money. Ha ha. But if you’re going to play a lot and want to get better at the game, you may want to consider a new set of clubs. And while you’re at it, get them fitted. It’ll help, really. Plus it’s always fun to buy new clubs!

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Sky Caddie

Imagine my excitement when I ripped the beautiful wrapping of my Christmas gift and revealed a brand new Sky Caddie SG2! It was a fantastic day! I knew I’d be taking that to the course and all my friends would be so jealous! It was great! So I immediately opened it and plugged it in to the computer. With Sky Caddie, you pay for the unit and for a subscription to the various courses. You can sign up for courses in your state, the country, or the world. I signed up for all courses across the country. Of course, the unit didn’t have enough memory for all the courses, but I found the ones I wanted online and downloaded them to the unit.

On the course, it was great. There are some courses that aren’t mapped out completely and you just get distances to the center of the green. You may not get distances to bunkers or trees or water on those courses. But there are lots of courses that are completely mapped out and can give you all this information. It really helps with shot selection. By knowing the exact yardage, it gave me a lot of confidence with each shot. And very importantly, when I was hitting from the adjacent fairway or the rough, I was still able to get accurate distances to the green. It was a huge help and I couldn’t play without my Sky Caddie.

These days there are even more updated versions with more capabilities. More courses are mapped out with detail. As an amateur, sometimes I get really wrapped up in my swing, but in reality course management and the short game are possibly more important for scoring. The Sky Caddie really helps with these aspects of the game. And it’s so cool to show people!