It’s that time of year again! Need a special gift idea for a golfer in your life? Create something truly unique with their favorite photos on some Photo Ball Markers. Create a custom magnetic hat clip, necklace, brooch, divot tool or keychain. Check out this post from last year for more info.
Discount Code: At checkout, use the promo code “GOLFCHICK” for an easy $5 off your order. Happy shopping!
What do you draw on your golf ball to identify it as yours? I’ve been known to draw dots on mine, initials, or use Golf Dotz. These days, I’m using my Tin Cup martini stencil to make my ball my own. These handy little stencils will make great stocking stuffers or even a nice Christmas gift in these tough times. Of course, Tin Cup has a great sale going on with a discount running from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, and the selection just keeps growing!
What’s your favorite symbol, logo, school team or cause? Tin Cup probably has you covered. If not, they also do custom stencils! (hmm… I wonder if they can do a Golf Chick logo!)
I like my martini dry, not at the bottom of a lake.
If you have read much on this blog or follow my twitter feed, you probably guessed I’d have the martini stencil. I’m kind of predictable in that way, I suppose. Clearly I don’t have the patience to draw them with multiple pens and make it look like an actual glass with liquid and olives and everything. Also, I figure as soon as I spend that much time drawing on a single golf ball, it’s doomed to wind up at the bottom of a lake at its very next opportunity. This thought leads me to presume the naming of the product included consideration of that famous scene at the end of the movie Tin Cup in which Roy McAvoy hits ball after ball into the lake on the last hole at the U.S. Open. Yes, I realize the product is literally a sort of tin cup, but I won’t believe there’s not more to it than that. 
I thought the whole stencil idea was a fun one but until I tried one for myself, I had no idea how much detail they could achieve! With the fine point Sharpie pen, it’s amazing how precise the images turn out to be. I never imagined that little olive pick would turn out so sharp. You can see some more of that incredible detail in this pic of a group of some of the other standard designs they offer.
There are several other designs I want but I think my next one is going to be that jolly roger. Or maybe the wine glass. Or maybe the dog. Ahh, I’ll probably end up with all of them. Heehee. They also come in themed packages, and with a handy little pouch to keep it clipped on or in your golf bag.
Want a 20% discount? Get one when you purchase anything on www.tin-cup.com from black Friday through Cyber Monday. Plus, you’ll get free domestic USPS shipping on purchases of $39 or more. Have fun shopping and getting that perfect little gift for your favorite golfer. Might as well throw one in for yourself while you’re at it. Which one’s it going to be?
I received my HomeStriker Training Golf Ball in the mail, and was immediately confused by the contents of the package. I was under the impression that I would receive a state of the art, space age interpretation of a golf ball that mimicked the feel and flight characteristics of a real golf ball. Then, I open the package and find a brand new Nike golf ball, with what appears to be a handkerchief superglued to it. Two things immediately occurred to me when seeing this… #1 – why in the world would someone attempt to super glue a handkerchief to a golf ball, and #2 – the miniscule amount of physics that I do understand says that this handkerchief will slow the golf ball at an incredible rate after being struck with a golf club.
The day I received this package, it was about 35 degrees, cloudy, and windy. But, I was determined to smack this concoction around, and immediately grabbed a 6 iron and went to my back yard. I tossed the HomeStriker on the ground, and scared to death about my neighbors windows, took a half swing at the device. A pure strike, with about half effort, resulted in a well struck golf ball with realistic feel that traveled roughly 15 yards. I chased the ball down (not a lot of work) and gave it another half whack…. another 15 yards, but those 15 yards were the result of a normally 90 yard swing. Still scared, but with a renewed curiosity, I decided to take a full swing at this contraption. Still not fully trusting it, I went to my front yard, where I paced off 30 yards from the street to myself, having been told that 30 yards is the flight limit of this practice aid. Thankfully I waited until an unsuspecting car passed, as a full lash at the HomeStriker resulted in a 40 yard launch of the handkerchief adorned golf ball. After retrieving the ball from the street, greeting my across the street neighbor, and thanking my well written home owners insurance policy that I didn’t hit any passing cars, I realized that the test shot was considerably downwind. The 40 yard shot was the absolute limit of my power, and the feedback from striking a real golf ball was refreshing.
After taking a few more swings, I began to evaluate this practice device. My initial reaction, and the reaction that I was going to stick with, wasn’t a great one for the HomeStriker. I have unlimited access to a practice facility, and the ability to hit practice balls at most hours of the day. Sure, it was great that the practice ball had the feel characteristics of a real golf ball, but it has nothing close to the performance characteristics. I can’t practice a draw, fade, hook, cut, low, high, etc etc shot with it. It seemed like a novelty at the time, with no real benefit to someone like me, who’s lucky enough to have unlimited access to practice facilities. So, after a few strikes, I gave up on the device and tossed it in my golf bag and forgot about it.
Some background on me, I love the game of golf, I love everything about it, except for the individuals that like to play golf in the mornings. I love the game, I love my friends, but I also love to sleep. However, in the interest of being able to play with my friends, I sacrifice some sleep on the weekends and play golf with my buddies on early morning weekends. If the tee time is 8:00am, there’s a good chance that the other 3 guys in my group will have teed off already as I show up on the first tee at 8:02, tired, hungover, and in no condition to be making a full driver swing on the 470 yard par 4 first hole of my club.
As much as I hate waking up early, I hate the “breakfast ball” even more. If you’re so concerned about hitting a good one off the first tee that you want a mulligan of the 1st tee, show up early enough to warm up on the range. I’m neither concerned enough about hitting a good ball off the first tee, nor do I really want to show up in time to warm up. I assume bogey on the 1st hole that early in the morning, and figure that extra few minutes of sleep will probably help me make birdie on the 2nd hole to get back to even par as much as it will allow me to make a par 4 on the 1st hole. I love sleep.
The weekend after testing the HomeStriker and tossing it into the black hole that is my non-tournament bag, I happened to show up to the course a few minutes prior to tee time. As my faithful bartender was making me a Baileys and coffee (it was october after all) I had a few minutes to kill, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to head to the range to hit 2 warm up balls, and practice putting at that hour of the morning seemed ridiculous. I dug into my bag to find a tee, and came out with a handful of HomeStriker. The proverbial lightbulb went off in my head (granted it was early and cold, so the lightbulb wasn’t as bright as it should be, but in any event it was a lightbulb). I’m too lazy to head to the range to hit 2 warmup shots, but I hate watching my fellow competitors hit 2 off the first tee. Well, I’ve got a “golf ball” that no matter how hard I hit it, will only go 40 yards, which I can tee up and launch off our practice green, retrieve and hit back towards the original spot. Anyone that’s ever attempted this knows, that no matter how much you take “warm up” swings, if you’re not hitting a real golf ball it just isn’t the same. So, I tossed down the HomeStriker, and gave it a few whacks. This device immediately solved my issues. I don’t have to take the time to hit 2 or 3 range balls prior to my early morning round, and I don’t have to wake up 5 minutes earlier to facilitate that warm up. I can do some basic “1st tee stretches,” tee it up, and hit a few warmup shots prior to my 1st tee shot.
If this was prior to an actual tournament, I’d head to the range to warm up, hit different shot shapes, heights, clubs, distances, you name it. But this is my weekend fun play, I’m not going to take the time to do my proper warm up. The HomeStriker allows me a few swings, hitting a real golf ball, prior to my round. The golf ball is retrievable, reusable, and I don’t have to worry about breaking neighboring windows or bombarding fellow golfers with an errant warmup shot.
So, what is my opinion of the HomeStriker Training Golf Ball? In all honesty, I don’t see it as a “training golf ball”. A training aid, to me, allows someone to see shot shapes, heights and distances and allows the golfer to learn what each particular swing does to the golf ball. The HomeStriker, no matter how much I tried, won’t hook, draw, cut, or slice. I believe a true training aid needs to let the player see and experience those shots and the swing variations that create them. But, do I think the HomeStriker has value in the golfing world? Absolutely. It has proven to be an invaluable warmup tool in my previously contracted and neglected weekend off-season warmup routine. To this point, nothing can replace the experience of striking a real golf ball prior to a round, whether it be a full warmup session on the range, or a few quick hits on a HomeStriker Training Golf Ball. With the proper expectations going into a HomeStriker Training Golf Ball purchase, I believe it has a place in the game.
***Editor’s Note/Disclaimer: WARNING! This post contains the “S” word. Read at your own risk. TheGolfChick.com assumes no responsibility for any negative effects that reading this material may have on your game or your life. ***
I’ve been watching the new Golf Channel show called Chasing the Dream, and it’s invoked some unexpected emotions and opinions from me. So much so, that I’m going to blog about it. In case you’re not familiar with the show, I’ll give you, my faithful readers, a brief synopsis. Golf Channel has found two professional golfers, each with a dream to make it in the professional game, and is following them during the 2012 season to see if they can reach their dream.
The two golfers come from vastly different backgrounds, which adds an interesting element to the show. One individual, Chris Anderson, is a former touring professional who even made it to the big show for a few years in the mid 2000’s. He has 3 professional wins, 2 on the Golden State tour, and 1 on the Hogan/Nike/Buy.com/Nationwide/Web.com tour in 2004. According to the show, Chris gave up the game to run his family’s forklift business in 2009, with the new responsibility of raising a young family. After a few years away, the “what if” bug has infected him, and he wants to give it another go. The other golfer, Robbie Biershenk, is a struggling driving range pro with an older brother (Tommy) who’s already made the PGATOUR. Robbie, who calls himself “Shank,” owns a roadside driving range, struggles with failing equipment and mounting bills, and gives the occasional lesson to make ends meet, all while living in the shadow of his brother. (Full disclosure – The word “shank” is a contagious disease to me. His nickname makes me hesitate to even watch the show. For anyone who’s ever had a case of the hosels, broken every club in their bag over their knee while standing on a driving range for hours, bashing ball after ball at a 90 degree right angle, barely able to see through the tears streaming out of their eyes and the blood dripping from their hands, that word needs to be removed from the English language. In fact, even saying that word at the course I grew up on would get you kicked out, and potentially beaten up by the geriatric retired men who felt even more strongly about that word than I do. I will be referring to him as Robbie, and will attempt to not let his truly awful nickname influence my opinion of him or the show.) Robbie feels that to to truly succeed in life, he has to succeed on the PGATOUR.
I’ve been watching this show for 3 or 4 weeks now, since its debut. In all honesty, my initial reaction was anger towards these guys. I had planned, and began writing, a scathing narrative chastising these guys for being ignorant and irresponsible, blindly chasing a dream that so many of us have, but are either too logical or frightened to pursue. And then, I watched another episode, and another…and I started to sympathize with their struggle. Those guys are chasing a dream that so many of us have, but are either too logical or frightened to pursue. Now I have 2 contradictory opinions about their pursuit, and after weeks of internal debate, cannot decide which side of my own argument to take.
Argument #1 – Wide Eyed Optimism
Both Chris and Robbie have a dream. Lots of golfers have the exact same dream, and some of those golfers have considerably more talent. Playing professional golf at an elite level takes more than being able to shoot good scores. Shooting those good scores, on increasingly difficult courses under smothering pressure requires hours of instruction and dedication to the art of striking a golf ball. Lots of players can hit good shots, but very few have the time and energy to devote to perfecting that art. Assuming a player has the time to dedicate, even fewer of those players have a body that can stand up to the number of golf swings a full day of practice requires. Robbie and Chris have incredibly long odds, and I commend them for not giving up. Both of them have careers, Chris even has a family to support, but they are both willing to make the mental, physical, and emotional sacrifices required to not let their dreams die. Their wide-eyed enthusiasm is refreshing in an increasingly adult world filled with commitments and responsibilities. They refuse to give up, and are an inspiration to every one of us who will always ask “what if” when it comes to potential golf careers. They know the odds are stacked against them, and while they don’t have the ability to dedicate 100% of their lives to playing golf, they are making due with what they have. They are practicing smart, focusing on what needs attention at the time, rather than their entire game every day. I genuinely hope they succeed and reach their goals.
Argument #2 – Are They Crazy?!?
What are these guys thinking? For every golfer who’s made a career playing the game, a thousand have failed. At some point, it’s time to grow up and accept that just because they want something, it doesn’t mean it will happen. Both of these guys are around 40 years old, 20 years older than the most recent crop of hopeful touring pros. 20 years older than the guys with no bad memories, and no crushing defeats, and no responsibilities waiting for them outside of the ropes. Chris and Robbie had their shots, now its time to accept the fact that golf wasn’t meant to be, and they should move on. These guys are splitting time between careers and golf, neither getting their full attention. Too much of that, and both will suffer. Guess what, we all have dreams, we will all go to our grave with a giant “what if” hanging over our head, but at some point we have to grow up and cut our losses. Give up already.
I don’t have any idea which side of my own argument to take. The cynical part of me thinks these guys need to get a clue, accept the fact they just don’t have it, and move on with life. The child in me thinks its great, these guys have thrown caution to the wind, risking all they have spent their lives building on the chance they catch lighting in a bottle at the exact right time. Each episode is like watching a train wreck with a new girlfriend. On the inside, wanting to see carnage and destruction, with no hope for survival and one heck of a story to tell the local news crew. All the while, telling the new girlfriend what you’re watching is awful and you hope everyone gets out safe. This is normally where I’d have some sort of conclusion statement, summarizing my thoughts. This time, however, I have no idea what I think. No idea at all.
Sun makes me happy. Being able to golf year-round is one of the reasons I live in “sunny Southern California.” The ending of Daylight Saving Time every year saddens me. It marks the beginning of the end of twilight golf for the season. I know – people have real problems, and I feel guilty feeling depressed about something so innocuous while people and communities are still trying to survive the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But this is a golf blog and this is a golf problem. And, hey – people are playing football and gambling on the games and life goes on all around us.
So, I’ll allow myself this annual pout.
While I’m at it, I figured I could add something you may find useful in this time of unimaginable trouble. In case you haven’t seen it already, this nifty tool is simply called Sunrise Sunset, and gives you that and more for your choice of golf course! It’s pretty handy for personal use or for club pros and golf course web designers. It tells you when the sun rises and sets, gives you local twilight times and other settings you can customize. I love finding such handy info on a course’s website! If you’re looking to find (or set) twilight rates and hours, this is your tool. Right around when the time changes (like today) you might be wondering when it’s going to get dark at your favorite course and whether or not you’ll have time to play after work before the sun goes down. This can help.
The site has specific course information for a massive selection of USA, Canada, and England (I’d be surprised if your favorite course isn’t there), as well as major cities in other countries. You can see in the first image the options you have once you’ve chosen your course. The other image is just a clip of the calendar I created here. Give it a try for yourself and have fun squeezing in rounds if you’re lucky (and smart) enough to live in place that hasn’t been buried in snow yet!
My next (scheduled) pout will occur on December 21st, the shortest – and saddest – day of the year, irrespective of circumstances, of course. You know, that painfully dreary winter solstice right when I’m thinking it’s almost time to start my last minute Christmas shopping. And, as the dreadfully upbeat people like to tell me, that just means every day after that will have more and more daylight. Pththtp!! 😉 Leave me alone. You can’t fix this. That is, unless you can make it so that daylight saving time becomes permanent. Then I’d love you long time. Day or night.
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