Pinoy Golfer Blog

Bettinardi Signature 3 The Bettinardi Signature 3 is all about aesthetics and feel. This timeless design is a classic blade putter machined out of a single piece of Bettinardi’s proprietary Double Aged Stainless Steel (D.A.S.S.). The Signature 3 features the Bettinardi trademark honeycomb face milling to assure the flattest putting surface possible. I am drawn to this putter because the very first putter I ever played with, a MacGregor Tommy Armour Silver Scott, is this head shape. I have many good memories of my rounds with it but also remember what an uncompromising piece of work it was. Putt the ball well and you can do no wrong. Putt poorly and you won’t have a place to hide. The... Read More

The 14th at Marapara It’s unusual for me to write about a golf course that I haven’t played but I’ve been victim to the unfortunate circumstance of having visited the Negros Occidental Golf and Country Club on two occasions as a journalist covering a tournament there instead of as a competitor. I did manage to play the more intriguing back nine during the 2005 PAL Interclub and spent three days on the course as a rules official on the recently concluded ICTSI Negros Occidental Championship so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the golf course. That disclaimer aside, my mother’s family has its roots in nearby Silay City and I later learned that my grandfather, Aguinaldo Severino Gamboa... Read More

Odyssey Golf is the number one putter manufacturer in the world. They put more putters into the hands of more golfers than any other putter manufacturer in the world for one simple reason; their putters work and work well. Skeptical? The next time you watch a professional golf tournament on TV, sit up and take note of how many of the pros on the telecast are gaming an Odyssey putter. A lot right? Right. The Black Series Tour Design putters are Odyssey’s top of the line; precision crafted and milled from soft 1025 soft carbon steel with direct feedback from some of the best golfers on the planet. The #1 Wide Model features a compact heel-toe weighted blade in the Anser/Newport style with a... Read More

Although Nike Golf’s product line has expanded to include everything that you could possibly want or need, their core product in my eyes will always be their golf shoes. After all, athletic shoes are what got this company started in the first place and through savvy, good management and a bit of luck, Phil Knight and company have grown Nike into the largest athletic equipment company in the world. As a runner, I first happened upon their waffle trainer in the late 70’s and logged many miles in half a dozen pairs of them. As a basketball player I’ve worn out about my fair share and in each case the shoes displayed comfort and support that was second to none. The launch of the Nike Lunar... Read More

It’s been quite a while since TaylorMade Golf produced a forged iron for its ardent admirers and now it’s got three; the MB (a muscle back blade), the MC (a forged muscle-cavity back) and the CB (full under-cut cavity back). Since all three are Tour Preferred or TP class irons, they all require a measure of skill to use effectively but as we’ll see later in this piece, the CB reaches out to a demographic heretofore untouched by anything TP. Professional golfers and top amateurs are just like the rest of us; they want golf clubs that will allow them to play their best while being somewhat forgiving of their miscues. There is quite a bit of variance in these tastes as ultimately individual... Read More

Hot off the net - Fairhaven, MA (May 20, 2011) – Acushnet Company announced today that its parent company, Fortune Brands, Inc., has signed a definitive agreement for the sale of the company to a group led by Fila Korea, Ltd., the owner of the Fila brand globally, and Mirae Asset Private Equity, the largest private equity firm in Korea. Acushnet Company is one of the largest golf equipment companies in the world with annual sales of more than $1.2 billion in 2010. Its premium and storied brands include Titleist, the #1 ball in golf and a leader in high performance golf clubs, and FootJoy, the #1 shoe, glove and performance outerwear brand in golf. “The Acushnet Company has long been the trusted... Read More

A while back we featured the Callaway Diablo Octane driver; a high performance club which featured a titanium clubhead with a forged composite crown, a collaboration between the R&D teams of Callaway and automotive supercar manufacturer Lamborghini. Forged Composite is a revolutionary new material one-third the density of titanium, yet features a greater load carrying capacity per unit mass in bending, making it lighter and stronger than titanium. The adage goes that is some is good then more is better; meet the Diablo Octane’s big brother, the Callaway Razr Hawk. The Razr Hawk uses Forged Composite in 67% of the clubhead allowing Callaway’s engineers to precisely control wall thickness... Read More

When I got a Burner Superfast 2.0 driver as a long term test unit from Tour Master Golf (TaylorMade’s local distributor) I must admit that I felt a bit of a let down. At the launch of the R11 and Burner Superfast drivers at Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, I spent most of my range time trying to figure out which configuration of the R11 would work best for me. After all, I was very, very happy with my R9 and having had a lot of success with it, I naturally looked forward to spending quality time with its successor. There was no way I should like the Burner Superfast 2.0. If just flies in the face of everything I prefer in a driver. My drivers have faces that sit open at least a degree and... Read More

I jumped onto the hybrid bandwagon early on with the TaylorMade Rescue Mid; I had real issues with my fairway woods back then and the hybrid proved to be a real boon; the near iron-length of the club made it much easier to hit and it yielded close to my distance with a well struck fairway wood. Then later on, as my game progressed, I decided that I’d be better off with a pair of fairway woods. Additional length of any shot is like sugar to flies for any golfer and I was no exception. I eventually realized the folly of this decision when I discovered that I was avoiding playing my 4-iron (even after going to a very forgiving set of irons) every chance I got. I chance upon a You Tube video that... Read More

We were at a tournament and after the day’s play I made the rounds of the sponsor’s tables to see what they had on display. I was dismayed to find this fellow in the same area as some of the major OEM’s. If you look closely, you’ll see that he has clubheads purportedly from some of the major OEM’s; a white TaylorMade Burner 2.0 head is clearly visible in the third shelf from the top of the display case on the left. He’s also selling them all CHEAP. Now for the Pinoygolfer looking for a bargain, these might seem like a good deal, but you have to know that these heads are all counterfeits. Fakes. Buy one and you’ve been duped. How do we know? Well, first... Read More

In an earlier post I detailed my experiences with the new Titleist D2 and D3 drivers. I couldn’t get them out of my mind since the session at the Logcomm driving range so I decided to go out and get one for myself. The first problem was which one to get? Initially, I was attracted to the D2 because it was more forgiving. I’ve been in the mode to get clubs that are more forgiving recently since a) I don’t spend nearly as much time practicing as I should and b) getting on a bit in years, I need as much help as I can get. But after some soul-searching and consultation with my good buddy Jovi Neri in Cebu, I decided to go with the D3. I am and always have been a high-launch, high... Read More

Nike Golf is introducing two sets of forged VR irons for 2011 – VR Pro Combo and VR Pro – that are slick, eye-catching updates of previous Nike design concepts. Several companies, including Nike, are focusing much of their product development on consumers who carry low handicaps or dream of doing so. Indeed, it’s a perfect time to be a skilled player. Nike’s two new forged models, for example, will be followed in the near future by TaylorMade’s introduction of three forged irons. For 2011, it is clear that forged irons are making a comeback. Many golfers have followed Nike closely in the nine years since the Swoosh first appeared on golf clubs, and what they witnessed at times was... Read More

The never ending search for distance off the tee has led the industry towards longer and lighter drivers. Cleveland Golf has been one of the leaders of this movement with the sub-300 gram DST drivers which were very well received by the discerning members of Pinoygolfer.com as well as the Philippine market. Advances in technology and the use of even lighter materials has pushed driver weights further down than ever before without the deleterious effects of previous iterations. Welcome the Cleveland Launcher Ultralite drivers. The Cleveland Launcher Ultralite Series consists of drivers of three weights – 310-grams, 290-grams and 270-grams; each model engineered for unique performance and feel... Read More

I’m a hot rodder at heart. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking something that’s available to all and making it your own. As a young man with a passion for automobiles, I spent more than I should have on performance and cosmetic accessories to get my cars to look and perform as I wanted. As a cyclist, I wasn’t content to purchase a bike off the rack; instead I purchased tubing, lugs and dropouts from Italy and had a local craftsman build the bike of my dreams to my exact specifications. As a golfer, I’ve often taken the same road but often times it’s out of necessity. My preferences in golf equipment have always run a bit counter to the norm. While most are looking to lighter... Read More

The Callaway Jaws wedge with conforming grooves in the foreground A while back, it came to the attention of the United States Golf Association that the skill of driving accuracy had become a much less important factor in achieving success while playing golf than it used to be. USGA analysis of statistical data measured by the PGA Tour since 1980 shows that historically, driving accuracy was similarly correlated to winning as putting. Beginning in the early 1990’s, however, driving accuracy became much less important. In the early part of the 21st century, the correlation between driving accuracy rank and winning rank had reached a very low level. It was the era of what was then called “bomb... Read More