Who are the best drivers on Tour and what equipment do they use?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
According to Mark Brodie, whose book “Every Shot Counts” presents a new way of measuring stats. Driving distance is more important than driving accuracy. The old way of measuring driving prowess was “Fairways Hit,” which Mark Brodie proved wrong. Brodie found that the long hitters had a distinct advantage over the shorter hitters even though, the shorter hitters hit more fairways. Golf Digest Stix gives us the best drivers on the PGA Tour who lead in “Strokes Gained Driving.” As you can see, they all hit the ball a long way. What does this mean to you, the average golfer? Go to the range and work on hitting the ball further, not straighter!
PGA Tour: Stat Leaders
Nearly every major championship puts a premium on driving the ball well. But it’s even more so at Oakmont Country Club for this week’s U.S. Open. The course is not only long—avoiding the long, thick rough makes distance and accuracy off the tee critical to contend. In 2007 Angel Cabrera averaged 310.9 yards off the tee (ranked second for the week) and hit enough fairways to rank T-3 in greens in regulation. Look for a similar performance from this year’s champion, with the following five players—who rank at the top of the PGA Tour’s strokes gained/off the tee category—among the most likely candidates.
Few players on tour can match McIlroy’s prowess off the tee. The four-time major winner uses a 45.25-inch Nike Vapor Fly Pro driver set at 9.5 degrees with a Mitsubishi Diamana S+ 70 XTS shaft and Golf Pride New Decade Multi-Compound ribbed white/black grip. Prior to this year’s Northern Trust Open in February, McIlroy (above) adjusted the loft of his driver plus 1 degree (from 8.5 to 9.5 degrees) in order to create more spin to help him draw the ball more.
As one would expect with an individual as unique as Watson, his Ping G driver isn’t exactly standard-issue. For starters, the 9-degree pink clubhead is set at 7.5 degrees, and the “dragonfly” technology on the crown (areas where the crown is made thinner) is black. Though one of the tour’s longest hitters, the True Temper Grafalloy BiMatrx x-flex shaft (which is graphite with a steel tip section) is on the short end of the spectrum at 44.5 inches, which Watson says offers him greater control of his tee shots. The grip is oversize with 11 wraps of tape on the top and 13 wraps on the bottom, set 10 degrees open. Watson will use this club as he tries to improve on his fifth-place showing at Oakmont in 2007.
Bubba vs. The Drone – Who will win this shootout in the Sky!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
You just have to watch Bubba Watson trying to hit a drone out of the air to realize just how good these guys really are!
While being asked a series of questions, Bubba was still able to focus on the job at hand and take that drone down! This is a great drill to sharpen your own concentration. Ask a friend to fire questions at you while trying to play some shots on the range, and finally on the course. You will be amazed at how much your concentration will improve!
Thanks to Golf Digest for this entertaining video!
Bubba Watson nails a drone with the perfect shot, all while answering our hard-hitting questions like whether he’s team Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers and if he prefers grilled cheese or burritos?
5 Great Shots from the PGA Championship – Check out #1!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Last week’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straits was such an exciting tournament.
Everybody forgot that Tiger was even playing! The amount of excitement generates the possible win by Jason Day captures everyone’s attention! Men’s golf is in a great place right now, and with Jordan, Jason, Dustin, Brandon, and the rest of the young guns, I look forward to many, many years of exciting golf. PGA TOUR brings you the 5 best shots from last week. #1 will absolutely blow your mind! Check it out!
Bubba knocks a shot next to the hole, from a par-4 tee box!
Rory shows his skills from the pond…
And Jason Day sinks a 50-foot birdie putt.
Check out these incredible shots from the PGA Championship this weekend at Whistling Straits.
Social Anxiety makes Bubba Watson Unpopular – Really?
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Bubba Watson has a strange and unique personality.
He is seen berating his caddie one moment, and, after sinking the winning putt at a tournament. And can be seen hugging and crying on his caddie’s shoulder the next.
Well, come to find out, Bubba is socially inept and feels extremely uncomfortable in crowds and social situations. That explains a lot.
Bubba Watson acknowledges the crowd after putting for birdie on the 18th green to win the Northern Trust Open on Feb. 16 in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Bubba Watson became a household name when he came out of nowhere to win the Masters in 2012.
The 36-year-old has played some great golf since then, but he hasn’t made many friends. Watson’s caddie, Ted Scott, tried to explain some of the misconceptions about Bubba in a recent interview with Golf Digest.
According to Scott, a lot of Watson’s issues with rubbing people the wrong way stem from the golfer’s battle with social anxiety.
“When we started together in 2006, Bubba had already rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. I had friends who called me and said, ‘Man, that guy you’re going to work for is a jerk.’ And my impression the first week was, ‘I don’t know about this guy.’
Bubba to remove the Confederate flag from General Lee!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
I believe that some people honestly don’t see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of hate but as an important part of their heritage.
The Confederate flag is looked upon by many as a symbol of hate and racism. Time for a change!
However, a huge part of the southern population connects it to a time in history when whites had rights, and African Americans had none. Their ancestors suffered terrible indignities during the period when the Confederate flag flew high.
Let’s pick a different symbol of southern heritage that doesn’t offend our brothers and sisters deeply. Life is about makings others happy, whenever possible.
I love that Bubba Watson gets it! He tweeted recently that he will paint the American flag over the roof of his famous General Lee, the iconic car from the “Dukes of Hazzard” TV show. The car has always had the Confederate flag on the roof.
Bubba Watson will make some changes to his “General Lee.”
So let’s move forward, all Americans, forget the hate and prejudice, and grow a strong country together!
The top 5 PGA Tour golfers with the shortest tempers!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Losing your temper on the golf course is never pretty, and it never accomplishes a thing!
But I have seen my fair share of club throwers and club breakers, and on almost every occasion, the player feels slightly embarrassed after the deed, even if he/she doesn’t act that way! Here is a slideshow of PGA Tour golfers who fit this category. Henrik Stenson was the one who really surprised me. He always seems so cool, calm, and collected. I liked his toss, though.
If you play golf, you’ve almost certainly teed it up with one guy or gal who frequently becomes unglued. And here’s the thing: Your games of golf don’t matter.
Imagine if that person was, say, missing out on a few hundred grand thanks to a missed putt or losing out on the prospect of collecting a paycheck for the week entirely.
Such is the situation for the PGA Tour’s best. Thus, in a high-stakes, high-tension environment, sometimes these guys needs to let off a little steam in the form or, say, a torrent of expletives or a club tossed with abandon.
Here are five of the PGA Tour’s finest who need to spend some time in timeout.
Top 10 Emotional Victories on the PGA Tour (excluding Majors)
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
We all tend to get emotional when watching a sad movie (Love Story ) a sports movie (The Champ ) or an animal movie (Lassie) But winning a golf tournament?
Come on! But yes, these golfers go through hell and high water to get to where they want to be, and when they get there, it is an emotional feeling. Check out the top 10 emotional victories brought to you by PGA Tour.
Check out the top-10 emotional winning interviews on the PGA TOUR (excluding majors) featuring John Daly’s return to the winner’s circle in 2004 and Bubba Watson’s inaugural victory.
Bubba Watson’s Top 5 Masters Shots – Even his Caddie did not believe #1.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Bubba Watson reminds me of Seve Ballesteros. He has that masterful imagination that sets him apart from the rest of the pack.
Not only does he have this great imagination, but he has the ability to create those shots he sees in his head. Even his caddie is left gasping at some of the fantastic shots he has played at Augusta. Here is Ted Scott’s (Bubba’s Caddie) account of the top 5, as it appeared in GOLF Magazine.
A Tour caddie for 15 years and himself a scratch golfer, Ted Scott is hard to impress. So it speaks to Bubba Watson’s sublime shot-making skills that the two-time Master’s winner regularly makes his longtime looper’s jaw drop. Scott counts down the five most amazing Masters shots Bubba ever hit — and No. 1 isn’t what you think!
#5. 2014, Final Round, Par-5 15th
Shot: 181-yard 6-iron cut approach over water
“Last year everybody freaked out about this [choked-down 6-iron second] shot through trees and over water. The hard thing was hitting it far enough to carry the water. TV made it look super scary, but we had an angle to the trees to where even I could have hit it through. Could I have hit it over the pond? Doubtful. Bubba’s distance control — to hit a cut that starts low and lands on the back of the green, down the stretch on Sunday — was impressive. He made par, which is all you need with a three-stroke lead.”
#4. 2012, 2nd Round, par-4 7th
Shot: 161-yard 9-iron approach through trees
“Bubba’s tee shot ended up in the right rough. The pin was in that front-right bowl. Trees were in the way, so he couldn’t hit a big ol’ hook to get it on the green. I encouraged him to hit a low shot into the front bunker. He said, ‘What about that gap there?’ I look up at a 10-foot-wide circle way up in the trees about 50 yards away. Now, the farther away the gap, the smaller the target. And hitting it though there had him aiming right of the green, so if we don’t cut it, we’ve got nothing for the third shot. But I don’t argue with Bubba if he’s confident — it’s like telling Picasso he can’t paint a painting. He hit a 9-iron cut shot through the gap to about six feet from the pin, straight up the hill. Skillwise, it was amazing.”
It was a firm lie, ball above his feet, and he had an opening. He just had to hit it hard and hook it, but doing it in a playoff and winning makes it more special. I equate this shot to Tiger making that six-footer on No. 18 to get into a playoff with Bob May at Valhalla [in the 2000 PGA Championship]. It was the high-pressure circumstances, more than the pure skill, that made it amazing.”
The “Top 25” Viral Golf Videos start – #1 #2 and #3.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Here is the first in a series of 8 “Viral Golf Videos” I will be posting over the next few days. The first 3 give you a taste of what’s to come.
This week – Some amazing teamwork for a cool trick shot! You’re welcome says Bubba Watson at Mini-Golf Backward shot! And Rory’s misses Joe Demagios Record of 56, with 55 10 footers in a row! (The same putt and using a putting mirror)
Be sure to visit tomorrow for the next 3!
1. Great friends, Incredible team work, and amazing execution! Thanks to Zachary Christman and Eric Angeles for submitting to us.
2. Bubba seemed more excited to hole this putt than he was to win a second green jacket.
3. We’re not sure the exact distance (Six feet? Eight feet?), and we know this was just practiced for the Tour Championship. Still, McIlroy nearly matching Joe DiMaggio’s magic number of 56, holes 55 10 foot putts in a row! Just another example of why he emerged as the clear World No. 1 in 2014.
Padraig Harrington Does Happy Gilmore – Bubba ain’t smiling!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
The recent winner of The Honda Classic in Florida, Padraig Harrington, entertained us differently at a 2014 tournament.
The PGA Championship was held at Valhalla and featured a long-drive contest during a practice round. You may remember that Bubba Watson protested this contest by hitting a quick shot with a 3-iron, which disappointed the crowd and made him look foolish.
Fortunately, Padraig Harrington is a very likable fellow and was happy to delight the Valhalla audience with a memorable shot.
Take notes, Bubba Watson. This is how you lighten up.
Watson made news Tuesday at Valhalla — site of this weekend’s PGA Championship — when he refused to participate in a long-drive contest during a practice round. Instead of unloading on one drive at the par-5 10th hole, Watson pulled out his 3-iron and hit a quick tee shot in apparent protest.
Luckily for golf fans, Padraig Harrington didn’t take himself too seriously. The 2008 PGA Championship winner embraced the contest, as he channeled his inner-Happy Gilmore.
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#4. 2012, 2nd Round, par-4 7th
