Jaacob Bowden's Swing Man Golf Blog

Jamie Sadlowski Swing Vision

2008 RE/MAX World Long Drive Champion Jamie Sadlowski

Tiger Woods Needs to Clean Up His Act

by Rick Reilly

Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair. Outgrown a body that was mostly neck.

When will he outgrow his temper?

The man is 33 years old, married, the father of two. He is paid nearly $100 million a year to be the representative for some monstrously huge companies, from Nike to Accenture. He is the world's most famous and beloved athlete.

And yet he spent most of his two days at Turnberry last week doing the Turn and Bury. He'd hit a bad shot, turn and bury his club into the ground in a fit. It was two days of Tiger Tantrums -- slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience.

Read more...

Tour Yardage Books

by Jaacob Bowden

Have you ever wondered what's in the little books that you see the caddies and Tour players on TV holding?

They're basically just yardage books, course guide books, or whatever you want to call them...much like what you would see in the same books that you yourself can buy at most golf courses. 

One of the main differences, though, is that they are hand drawn.  Typically, what happens is that each Tour has a guy(s) that go around and scout out all the courses.  Using lasers, they mark down distances to objects from the tee box, carry distances over bunkers, etc.  At each tournament, the players and caddies can buy one of the hand-drawn booklets for around $20 each.  Usually, the bottom page is hand drawn, and the top page is left blank so that players and caddies can write down notes about how to best play the hole...or maybe how far a certain club goes up or down the hill relative to it's normal distance.

Here's what one looks like:

Golfers Have Clothes Laid Out for Them

by Bill Pennington

As Tiger Woods prepares to putt on the 18th green this weekend at the British Open, he will assess many variables: the speed of the green, the grain in the grass, the wind, the slope, even the moisture underfoot.

But there is one thing about Woods at the 138th British Open that has been set in stone for more than a year: the color and design of his shirt, pants and hat.

Read more here....

Three Good Questions Annika Asks Herself When Between Golf Clubs

1)  How's Her Ball Striking?

If she's deciding between a 6-iron and a 7-iron and she's not feeling particularly sharp, she would go with the 6-iron.  When it's tournament time, she says it's not time to play for maximum distance.

2)  Where's the Trouble?

If she has to fly a hazard (water, bunker, etc) in front of the green, she picks the longer club because she doesn't want the added pressure of trying to create more carry with the shorter club.

3)  Where's the Flag?

Because of some of today's big greens which could mean a 3-club difference from front to back, she'll go with the longer one when the pin is back...and the shorter one when the pin is up.

Be Careful of Loft

by Jaacob Bowden

Often times when I'm out playing I'll have my playing partners ask me what iron I hit in to a green.  I'm sure you've probably asked or experienced this too.

I just want to remind you that when this happens, to not take it to heart too much when you hear what iron the person used.  The reason is that you never know what the loft of the club might be.  For example, Ernie Els says that he currently uses a 45 degree Callaway Tour Authentic X Prototype Pitching Wedge (PW), the PW that I use from 1iron Golf  is 47 degrees, and the PW that is offered by Maruman Golf is 42 degrees. 

You can bet that the Maruman wedge probably goes the farthest.  However, if you were to bend each of the three clubs to the same loft, they probably would all go about the same distance (since loft is the primary determinant of how far the ball goes).  This would hold true for nearly all manufacturers irons.