Well, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed us by, if you haven’t already begun shopping for Christmas gifts, you probably don’t celebrate this highly commercialized holiday! If you have a golfer on your Christmas list, here are some ideas for this joyous giving season:

A Box of Golf Balls

This is an old standby that generally works for any avid golfer. I would just caution, if you have a SERIOUS golfer on your hands, be sure to do a little sleuthing and find out what type of ball they play. Nothing like spending $40 on a box of Nike Platinum balls, to find out your Christmas golf buddy is a Titleist snob. For the recreational golfer, I’d have a look at the Srixon Trispeed balls I reviewed earlier in the Summer, or you can’t go wrong with a $15.99 box of Top-Flite D2s. For the female golfer, check out the Srixon Soft Feel balls for ladies.

Golf Glove

Another traditional standby gift for an avid golfer. Players generally go through at least a couple of these a year, so it’s a pretty safe, inexpensive bet. I generally play with FootJoy SciFlex gloves, which can be had for around $15 each online. Rock Bottom Golf sometimes has a 3 pack of them available for around $8-$9 a glove. If you are ordering online, just be sure you get the right size! While a little more pricey, if the person you are gifting suffers from arthritis, check out the Bionic Glove, it’s a little pricey, but it will be sure to please.

Golf Books

Ok, so I’m still in the process of completing a review on this, but for now, two words: Tour Tempo. Check it out, simply amazing. The book has all you need to get started, including an audio CD you can listen to while practicing. You can take it a little further with a complete Tour Tempo package which includes the book, a dvd and a tour tempo player device. I posted some pictures of the player not long ago. First day after using this thing, I went from shooting in the mid to upper 80s, back down into the 70s.

Alice Cooper’s Golf Monster is an amusing book that was a pretty quick read. It has some interesting insight into Alice Cooper’s life and his obsession with golf. Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game is a great choice for the golfer who loses it on the golf course. You know him, he screams and yells, chucks his clubs at his bag…if you know someone like this, get them this book.

Golf Sunglasses

We will be featuring more in depth reviews of these products soon, but sunglasses are a great idea for the golfer that may not already ‘have it all’. Peak Vision and Tifosi Optics both make wonderful products. The Peak Vision glasses are in the $150 range and are top notch quality. While the Tifosi Optics glasses target a less expensive market, the $50-$70 range, but still provide a nice product.

Golf Clubs

If you’re looking to spend a nice chunk of change, you can always look into some actual golf clubs. Now, the only reason I would avoid this would be that clubs can be hit or miss. Unless the person you are buying for has come out and said, “I want a set of Nike Sumo irons“…I would be careful with this gift. Just because you never know what they are going to like feel/playability wise. A better bet may be a gift card to your local golf shop. Let them go try out the clubs, find what they like and get fit for them. If you’re dead set on getting something large and expensive, and your golfer likes to travel, read my review of the Ogio Mammoth. Now THAT would be an awesome gift!

Enjoy the Holiday Season!

Last weekend I had a rough time mentally, playing at a new course. I hit a few poor shots early and started getting self-conscious about my swing. Do I look like an idiot? Are these people I’m playing with laughing at me? What’s wrong with me? Have I completely forgotten how to swing a golf club? Something started feeling weird at the top of my backswing…just felt out of position all the time. It was a vicious downward spiral.

You quickly begin to beat up on yourself. You’re going to screw this one up too, aren’t you? Why the heck am I out here? I just paid $100 to torture myself. Really sad when I reflect back on it. Though, it wasn’t the first time. And I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world to have experienced such self defeat.

I got a copy of the Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game from the iTunes store ($18) and copied it on over to my iPod. I have a 45 minute commute to work (each way)..so I have plenty of time to listen to audiobooks…unfortunately I haven’t found too many interesting golf related ones. Zen Golf and Golf and the Spirit have been the only decent ones I have heard to date.

The audiobook contains selected chapters from the complete book, and is pretty fast paced. Coming in around 5 hours, it certainly is an ‘abridged’ reading of the 224 page book. (There is an unabridged version of the audiobook on amazon.com for $29.95) Listening to an audio book while driving, it is quite easy to get distracted and lose your place. However, Zen Golf seemed to grab hold of my attention and hold it hostage for the vast majority of my lengthy commute each day.

The book focuses on some Zen/Buddhist methods for clearing ones mind and not taking the game so seriously. It is very easy to let your thoughts take over your body, and Zen Golf gives you some great tips to use to help simply notice those thoughts and let them pass…rather then letting them consume you. Parts which were of the most help to me: breath counting, letting the intuitive mind take over and firing the evil caddy.

I won’t go into complete detail on this, as it was quite lengthy, however let me touch on the breath counting. Between holes, walking between shots, waiting for partners to hit their shot, or waiting for people in front of you to do their business, I am sure you have found your mind wander…perhaps to negative thoughts. Zen Golf gives some simple techniques for dealing with these thoughts. One of them I liked was counting your breaths. Count each breath..in and out…in sets of 9, until you can get to 72. Whenever a stray thought takes over…stop…start again from the begining. You’ll have a hard time with that initially, but you’ll get the hang of it pretty quick…and find yourself doing it when some negative thoughts creep in.

Let it Fly. Dr Parent describes two minds in his book, the Thinking Mind and the Intuitive Mind. The Thinking Mind is what brings all the mechanical swing thoughts into the equation. It brings the doubt as well. The Intuitive Mind knows how to swing the club effectively. If you can hand over the process of swinging the club and sending the ball to your target to your Intuitive Mind…your swing will be free of the encumberments of the Thinking Mind. This is totally me at times. Getting to the top of the backswing…doubting my swing, am I in the right spot? Am I going to mess this up too? I needed to hand the job over to my Intuitive Mind. Zen Golf suggests coming up with a phrase or keyword to let your body know that thinking is over, now it’s the time to send the ball to the target. For me, I used Let it Fly. I have tried it out at the driving range a few times (generally where I find myself questioning my swing the most) and have been pleasantly surprised by the results. When I told myself to Let it Fly, I really felt like I was just freely swinging the club and launching the ball off to my selected target.

Firing the Evil Caddy. There’s an amusing part of the book which goes through a little scenario. Imagine a caddy that tells you “Don’t screw this shot up too”, “Oh god, here we go again, don’t embarrass us here with a big slice off the first tee”, “Getting nervous already, geesh, your hands can’t stop shaking..let’s just go home now.” What would you tell a caddy like that? You’re Fired..of course! Can you imagine someone talking to you like that? Craziness. Well, how many of us tell ourselves things like this when we start struggling on the course? Fire that evil internal caddy. Send him on his way.

There are a TON of other great ideas and things to consider in this book. I certainly cannot cover it all. I plan on picking up a copy of the complete paper back book as well, perhaps even having a look at the putting related Zen Golf book. If you find yourself beating up on yourself or being easily distracted on the golf course, do yourself a favor and give this great book a read (or listen!). I’ll be playing tomorrow afternoon, we’ll get to see the new attitude in real action soon enough!

The book covers the following areas in detail:

• The Grip – He advocates a Strong Grip
• Setup, Stance, Posture and Alignment
• The Takeaway – He offers a great little drill for nailing this
• Backswing
• Impact
• Follow Through
• Course Management

He also provides a detailed 4 week practice guide that will, no doubt, get you hitting the ball more solid very quickly. Some of the drills are pretty common, some of them I have not seen before and have been quite helpful to me (particularly drills pertaining to the takeaway). Some of the advice given I have not taken, like the strong grip he promotes. For me, personally, I already hit a slight draw with a pretty neutral grip. If I try the grip suggested here, I end up overcooking things, and hit some vicious hooks. However, if you currently battle a slice (like most people out there), this grip will definitely get you on your way to hitting the ball straight, or even a little right to left.

His backswing drills have helped me confirm that I’m doing things the right way. Turning, not sliding. And I got a few more drills for working on my impact position. My major problem these days is trying to turn too far (which he discusses), to the point where I take the club way beyond the line, and end up pushing the ball. If I stick to turning to the point where my shoulders stop…I generally strike the ball pretty well.

As an added incentive, Michael offers free personal help via email (which I did take advantage of, asking a few questions about the grip, etc) and a free video lesson to anyone who purchases the book. He is also working on putting together a chipping and putting book, that will be made available free to those who buy his current book.

If you find yourself confused by the golf swing, slicing everything or not getting the distance you think you should be getting: Do yourself a favor and check this book out. The lessons in the book are written in a way that is very easy to understand and are augmented by numerous well marked photographs of Michael performing the action or drill. The drills themselves are very straight forward, and if you put the time in to give them a try, I’m sure you’ll see an improvement in your game. So check it out and start killing some bogeys.

Would you like your product or service reviewed? The Deep Rough is always willing to provide a fair and honest assessment of your golf related product or service. This Showtime Golf review was paid for via reviewme.com.

Certainly looks to be an interesting book. I’m heading to Utah later this week, so perhaps I’ll stuff it in the backpack for some airplane reading. The back jacket has a picture of Alice Cooper and Jesper Parnevik, so it must be a good read

They also sent me a slew of oobgolf hats:

Sage

White

Black

They look like great hats. I’ll be sure to sport one next time I hit the links. If you’re interested in doing some golf course reviews or spreading the word about oobgolf, join their Street Team and they will send you a hat for free.

Tags: oobgolf, alice+cooper, golf+monster, jesper+parnevik

He got some great pictures of:

• Him and Ashlee from the Big Break
• The New Taylor Made Burner Driver
• The New Taylor Made Super Quad Driver

There are about 35 more pages of pictures in the HOG Gallery, be sure to have a glance through them, great stuff!

On another note, since the wedding, my commute has increased somewhat dramatically. Not an awful thing, it has given me some more time in the car to listen to some books on CD. Most recently, I finished listening to M. Scott Peck’s, Golf and The Spirit: Lessons for the Journey. I will not go into a complete review now, but suffice it to say I was captivated by the book. It is more a discussion of life’s journey of spiritual growth than the typical how-to improve your golf score prose. If you are at all interested in spirituality and how it can be related to golf, or if you often find yourself just chugging through your golf rounds thinking only of your score, be sure to check it out.

Tags: SuperQuad, Burner, Shling, PGA+Merchandise+Show

If you are a Ben Hogan fan, this is a great piece of history. So much has been written about him but there are few moving images as detailed as this. Clem has limited footage but there are a few great moments both on the range and around Augusta. The video is only 23 minutes, much of it repeated in slow and then super slow motion – so it’s really quite pricey for the content. I would also recommend turning off the sound, the commentary is distracting. All in all, this is a wonderful video of possibly the most powerful swing in the history of golf.

Is it worth the money for 23 minutes of video? If you’re fanatical about the one plane swing, and Ben Hogan, I say definitely. Otherwise….I might pass.

Jim Hardy has written a true masterpiece of golf instruction. His approach holds much more benefit for the amateur than the professional. In fact, the only reviews that are critical come from instructors or others who think they already know the golf swing. Unfortunately, like Atkins vs. Ornish, one method may work for one person, but be poison to another. Of course, every golf instruction article reads like it holds universal appeal for all golfers. Jim Hardy cuts through all the nonsense, mystery and confusion. He gives two sets of fundamentals and recommends that you choose one or the other; the worst thing you can do is mix and match the two sets of fundamentals in an endless search for some combination that will work.

Armed with the knowledge Mr. Hardy provides, you can even get something out of golf magazine articles (that usually contradict one another – sometimes within the same issue) because you can often tell whether they promote a one-plane or two-plane method. For example, anything ever written by Jim Flick makes perfect sense for two-plane players and is harmful for a one-plane player.

This is definitely a must have for anyone still confused by the mysteries of the golf swing.

This book was recommended to me by several serious golfers. Though a bit dry reading and very dated from a graphics perspective I still found it enjoyable.

Not exactly the book that will get you started in golf from my perspective. A better book for that really is Golf for Dummies which will take you through the grip rather quickly with better images but far less detail and then move you on to the course to play.

Hogan’s style is rather verbous. Great for forming mental pictures but may leave you wondering if your image matched the “ideal”. if not, you may be leaving the club face open on impact. Not a good thing.

Still – I would consider this a must have book for any aspiring golfer, and given the price…and length of the book, you can’t go wrong.