Hey Bartender, Gimme an Orange Whip....

No it's not a cocktail...or a "cover band" from Ohio....Instead it's a unique new golf training aid that I have been using for the last couple of months. It's really called an "Orange Whip", and was invented by Jim Hackenberg, a PGA pro.. It's popular on the PGA tour too - currently used by Vijay, Justin Rose, Pat Perez, Scott McCarron, Matt Kuchar, and many others. (see below for info on how you can win an Orange Whip Trainer courtesy of Bushwood CC and the fine folks who make the Orange Whip)

According to Jim, " The Orange Whip is the ultimate golf swing trainer and fitness tool for today's golfer and athlete. It is versatile, dynamic and the most effective swing aid on the market. Consistent use of the Orange Whip will improve your golf swing and provide an essential core-muscle workout. The elegant design combines a counter-weighting system and flexible shaft that work together to promote the natural golf swing motion unique to each individual. The Orange Whip will help you find your ideal swing plane, create "tour pro" lag, achieve perfect sequence of motion, and promote balance that's supported from the ground up. Your strength, flexibility, and swing speed will increase, and your shot-making will become more accurate and consistent."
Now that you have heard the marketing pitch, and seen the "street cred" offered by the PGA players, I'm going to offer you Bushwood's take on the Orange Whip. I came across this device at my local golf emporium - the proprietor watched me take a couple of swings with my 6 iron, and suggested I give the Orange Whip a try. He handed it to me with a set of three simple instructions:

1. Take a golf grip, and swing so as to move the orange ball (located at the business end of the trainer) as slowly as possible.
2. Keep your belt buckle in front of the white ball (located at the base of the handle)
3. Keep said white ball ahead of the orange ball throughout the swing.

Pretty simple,huh ? Well, I took about ten swings with the whip, until I had perfected the three components above. Then I took my 6 iron, stepped up to the launch monitor/video setup and took a few swings. The difference was staggering - instead of my old jalopy of a swing - I was now on plane with good tempo and a swing which my lower body lead my upper body into. Needless to say, I bought the Orange Whip (retail is $109, I think...). I've been using this training tool regularly since then, and the changes in my golf swing are nothing short of amazing. Here are just a couple of the more obvious developments which I attribute solely to the Orange Whip:

• 20-25 yards longer off the tee (no shizz here,folks -I mean it)
• An extra club to club-and-a-half on all of my irons - for example,I've picked up 20 yards on my PW (I've gone from hitting a club more than my longer hitting buddies to hitting a club less than them most of the time).
• My swing actually now looks like something you would recognize as a golf swing, rather than a meth head really nervous person trying to kill a rattlesnake with a 9 iron.
• After watching a million hours of golf on TV, and listening to the announcers talk about "LAG" in the same glowing terms as one would describe Scarlett Johanssen's, um, torso, I finally understand what "lag" is and can create it in my swing.

Seriously, the Orange Whip is an amazing tool - simple to use and understand and one which will cure a myriad of ills for most hackers like me. Thanks to the folks at Orange Whip for creating a really great training aid.

Oh, and to show you how cool they are at Orange Whip, Jim has agreed to give away one of their amazing devices to a lucky reader of Bushwood. To enter the contest, just drop us an email at bushwoodcountryclub@gmail.com with your name,address, and a couple of sentences about why YOU should be the winner of an Orange Whip !

TaylorMade r9 Review - IT ROCKS !!!

The long awaited BCC review of TaylorMade's bangin' new driver, the r9, is finally complete. Since this was such a revolutionary product, I took a LOT of time testing and evaluation this club - thus the delay in completing my evaluation. If you have read this blog for very long, you know that I am a long time believer in TaylorMade's big sticks (see BCC's review of the r7 Limited here). I've tried Ping's G10, a few Callaways, Titleist, and Nike - but for me (and seemingly a bunch of guys who get paid to play), TM totally has the driver game wired. So wired in fact, that they continually churn out new gear at an astonishing pace - but, I digress.

About the r9:For those of you who don't know much about the club, it combines the "Movable Weight Technology" of the r7 series with a new feature - one which allows you to move the clubhead on the shaft. This allows you to rotate the clubface into 5 different settings - from 2 degrees open to 2 degrees closed. For a pro, this functionality is nothing new, as they can get their clubs "bent" to fit - but for the rest of the mere mortals,this a completely new feature. The r9 comes in a variety of lofts and is equipped with a rockin' Fujikura Motore shaft. For more on the technological intricacies of the r9, just go here.

Intro: I've played TM Drivers since the 90's , and since late 2008, I had been playing the r7 Limited, and really,really liked the club. So much so, that I went into the "evaluation" of the r9 fully expecting this to be a fairly short process. I figured I would hit some balls on the range, play with the adjustments, complete a few loops with it in my bag, and come back and write the review. Well, that's where it started to get interesting...

First Date: Out of the box, my first thought was that the r9 is a very good looking club. The head cover has some nice,updated graphics, it is plenty durable, and overall very well finished. The head of the r9 is relatively similar to the r7 Limited, with a bit of a "triangle" shape. The black metaflake pain looks nice - nothing too flashy there. One kind a weird thing I did notice - the little alignment aid seems to be off-center, closer to the heel of the club...not a big deal, but something I thought odd. The new r9 logo is prominently displayed on the bottom of the club. Adjusting both the weights and the face angle are simple, and are accomplished with a special tool that TM provides with the club. As previously mentioned, a Fujikura Motore shaft, all dolled up in TM Red,Black, and White comes standard in the r9 - a kick azz upgrade for certain. IT comes in a variety of lofts, and mine is a 9.5 degree version. Another nit - with the popularity of the Golf Pride Multi decade compound grips, it seems that TM could give some thought to stocking those on the club ( I put a white one one mine to match my set - it looks shweeet), as it currently comes with a TM branded grip.

Making My Move: So my first trip to the range with the new bat, and I was excited. A few practice swings and I was impressed with how solid the club felt when hitting nothing but air...hard to describe, it just felt good. I had been fighting a bit of a hook off the tee, so I decided to take advantage immediately of TM technological wizardry - I whipped out the wrench and cranked the face 2 degrees open (max setting), but left the weights set on "neutral". 10 swings later, and I had yet to hit a drive left... a good sign. However, I was not happy with the ball flight ( a bit to high), so I adjusted it back to 1 degree open. It only took 3 shots, and BANG, I knew I was onto something. Based on this, I decided to take my new toy to the battlefield. The first hole at my home track has always been a challenge to me - the fairway is super tight, and I had long struggled with pulling this shot left. BANG again - right down the middle, high and straight as an arrow. 18 holes later, I had hit 10 fairways, and only missed two of them to the left (one a bad miss, the other only slightly in the rough). Initial Thoughts - This evaluation will take longer than originally planned. I was very,very impressed.

3 weeks later, I have played 7 rounds of golf and continue to be impressed. The adjustability has really helped me (I've not changed the setting of 1 degree open) fully release on my driver swing and not worry (too much) about going left. Meanwhile, I have consistently hit the best drives of my life. Distance, trajectory,ball flight - it's all there. However, one of the really amazing things I have noticed about this club - and something that I have NEVER been able to do consistently or predictably, is "work" the ball. Whether it is the club, my confidence, my swing, or some combination thereof - I can now hit a draw reliably when needed AND hit a fade. Now, for those of you scratch golfers out there (HOLLA, Shane B.), this may not sound like a big deal,because you have been able to do this forever. ..but for a mid handicapper like myself this is a pretty big deal.

Not content to write this review with just my assessment, I let a buddy use it this weekend (he normally plays a Ping G10). He immediately started bombing it - first 4 holes he used it, 4 split fairways, way long. By the 6th hole that he used it on, he was ready to buy one at the turn !

Here are my ratings by "category":

• Sound: Consistently receive comments on how "solid" the club sounds, which I have never gotten before (including on other TM gear). Very pleasing overall. Grade:A+
• Distance: I'm killing it and so are my buddies. I know they say the r9 460 is longer, but I'm hitting it onto the downhill lie sections (which is further than you'd like to be) on a lot of par 4s so far. It's a bomber. Grade:A+
• Trajectory: With the multiple adjustments, you should be able to fix this to your liking. I certainly was, with only two adjustments. My only advice - go slowly o the adjustments, make one at a time, and make them in the smallest increments possible. Grade:A+
• Grip: As mentioned, I wish they would offer the Golf Pride Multi Decade Compound grip - the white one or the red one would look great on this club. The stock TM grip is sufficient tho. Grade: B
• Other: The movable weights and adjustable face angle are simple,well constructed, and easy to understand and use. No complaints there. Grade: A
• Overall Performance: I won't belabor this - this is the BEST DRIVER I have ever played. I like everything about the club (ok,ok, except the grip...but that is so minor).

Will He or Won't He ?: This is a great club, and a huge advance in golf technology. If you are in the market for a new driver, do yourself a HUGE favor - give the r9 a long,serious look. I've never had so many people borrow a driver, hit it, and absolutely LOVE it as with the r9. If you are already a TM fan, just go buy it....it completely rocks. Grade: A+

Postscript - Check back soon, I'm hoping to do a review of the TM r9 Fairway wood as well !!!

Frogger Golf - Better than a Sham Wow, No Nasty Stripper Beat Down Required...

If you watch very much Golf Channel programming, you have probably seen your share of infomercials/commercials pimping the latest new golf invention. Hell, TGC even had (has ?) a show focused on new golf related inventions. Even the industry gets in on the game, as each year the annual PGA Show awards a "product of the year" to some deserving outfit. Recently, I've seen several ads from a company called Frogger Golf - makers of the the Amphibian Towel and BrushPro that I thought were pretty cool. When I started checking this out a little closer, I saw that these guys have won the "Best New Product" at the PGA merch show for the last TWO YEARS RUNNING. That's right - the "Brush Pro" won in 2008, and the Amphibian Towel won in 2009. Now you know that we here at Bushwood run with the winners, so I felt compelled to check their gear out. I contacted the nice folks at Frogger, and my gear was soon on the way - The BrushPro, The Amphibian Towel, and The Amphibian Ball Towel.

About the Gear

Frogger's three products are all focused on one pretty simple premise - keeping your clubs and ball clean. They are all available in a variety of colors.

What We Thought

• Nice packaging on all three products - clear, easy to understand instructions for replacing the brushes,groove cleaner, etc.
• Pretty cool that they offer replacement brushes and groove cleaners - not a lot of truly reusable golf products out there.
• The BrushPro is a great product,period. The handle is easy to handle (good), but may be a little large for some (deal with it). It comes on a retractable leash, and attaches to your bag with a sturdy carabiner. The brush also has the aforementioned retractable groove cleaner - a nice metal gizmo that works a lot better than a tee. As mentioned above, both the brush AND the groove cleaner are replaceable. Also available is an all-nylon brush which you can slide on that's great for cleaning off your shoes or bag - a nice touch. Another nice touch is that all of these add-ons come in clear plastic storage boxes for secure storage. Grade : A
• The Amphibian Towel comes in two flavors - The "regular" size which attaches to your bag, and is for cleaning clubs, grips, etc; and the "mini" size, which is designed for cleaning your golf balls. The mini also comes with a small carabiner and can be attached to your belt loop (not my look, but if you want to rock it like that, go for it). Both towels work the same way - their design is allows you to keep the inside wet (for cleaning stuff) and the outside dry (for drying stuff off). WHAAAA ? Well, that's what I thought too. The towels are built like a envelope that's open on two sides, and the inside is a different,separate piece than the outside. To make them "work", simply wet the inside (I used 24 oz. of water on the larger one, and about 4 oz on the smaller one), and let the water get absorbed by the inner layer. As crazy as that sounds, it works. The large towel, which I attached to my bag as a replacement of my regular towel, worked very well - and kept my clubs clean all day. The inside stayed wet, and the outside stayed dry - as promised. The smaller towel, or "ball towel", was useful all day long - I just carried it to the green with me, and it did a great job of keeping my ball clean. I did have to re-moisten it mid round, but that is no big deal. Overall, I was pretty damn amazed that these products worked EXACTLY as the infomercial said they would (unlike the Sham-Wow - suck it, Vince) . The quality of the materials is very high - clearly the guys at Frogger Golf are in it for the long haul, and care very much about making a high caliber product. Grade : A+

My overall impression of the company and their products is very high. When you check them out (and you will want to), remember that they are a small shop - so be patient of you don't get a chirpy voice from Mumbai on the first ring ( actually, I got the Founder when I called - who is a super dude), just leave them a message or drop em an email at info@froggergolf.com. They will respond, and I think you will be delighted with their products.

Gotta run, Big Break PEI is coming on tonight - and I just know that Brian is gonna melt down hard...

Ever buy a (Fake) Golf Club on ebay ?

I will be the first to admit that I am a frequent buyer/seller of golf equipment. Sometimes new, sometimes used, sometimes from my local shops, sometimes online. I probably fall into that category that people call an "equipment junkie", but I prefer to think that this is just a part of me staying current on what's happening with my favorite hobby.

Anyway - there is a story here, so let's get started with it. Like many golfers, I carry a couple of hybrids in my bag. Unlike many golfers, it took me FOREVER to find some hybrids that I could actually hit. I tried (I am not kidding here) at least 10 different hybrids - Adams,Callaway, Ping, Titleist, Cobra, TaylorMade, Sonartec, etc.... Finally, I found a model that I could play - the TaylorMade 2007 Burner. Once I realized that I really liked these clubs, and considered how blazingly fast TM releases new models, I started to think that maybe I should purchase a "back up" set of these. When TM did indeed release the successor to the "original" Burner hybrid, I tried them out, and found that I liked the originals better. This sealed the deal for me, and my search for a backup set was on.

I decided that I would wait a little while for the new model to proliferate, thus reducing the prices of the "originals". I also decided to purchase the clubs on steel shafts, as I wished to upgrade to UST aftermarket shafts. Ultimately, I located a 3h and a 4h from two different, high volume, reputable sellers on eBay. I was able to buy both clubs for a total cost of $150 bucks - all in all a pretty sweet deal. Once I got the clubs, I inspected them and they looked great - brand new, perfect condition, still in the plastic. I was very satisfied with these products from two sellers, each of whom had over 3,000 positive feedback remarks on ebay. I then took them to my local GolfSmith store for the new shafts to be installed, and was very pleased with them when they came home.

Here is where the story gets interesting.... about 2 months afterward, I was switching my clubs from one bag to the other. For some reason, I laid the "original" 3H alongside the "backup" 3H and noticed something funny. The clubs looked noticeably different when compared side by side. Closer inspection revealed that "the backup", which I purchased from (sellers name redacted), was taller and had a different curve to the sole than the original. Puzzled, I compared the 4H set - SAME EXACT RESULT. I checked out the graphics, paint, serial number configurations - and it all checked out... but they were clearly different. A quick trip to my favorite local golf store for an inspection, and a call to TaylorMade with the serial numbers confirmed my suspicion - I was the proud owner of two counterfeit TM Burner hybrids. See the picture below for a comparison of a REAL TM product (left) with a counterfeit (right).



The amazing thing about this whole deal is that (1) I bought them from two different sellers, (2) I bought them from highly reputable, high volume sellers, and (3) both of the fakes looked EXACTLY the same. Somewhere, there is a factory cranking out a lot of very authentic looking, but fake golf clubs, folks... I have since destroyed the fake heads, and PayPal was super cool in handling the situation - full refund, no questions asked. I wish there was some great,revealing, enlightening moral to this story - but there is not. All I can offer is "caveat emptor", - because there are a lot of crooks out there...

Equipment Review - TaylorMade R7 Limited

Intro: In late 2008, TaylorMade introduced (yet another) addtion to the R7 family - the R7 Limited. Being a long time TaylorMade fan/user, I was curious, but also a little puzzled. Curious, because I have played a several of the R7s (the original, the 425, and lastly the SuperQuad), and puzzled because the description of the club (and it's supposed benefits) just did not make a lot of sense to me. Couple that with the fact that I had switched to the 2008 Tour Burner (not to be confused with the 2008 Burner, or the 2009 Tour Burner, etc....UGH !!!), which I was quite happy with - and you have total mental chaos. All these emotions led me to basically ignore the R7 Limited for several months.

The Courtship: During that time, I also started to get a litte pi$$ed at TM - I mean, they only released 4 different NEW drivers in 2008, right ? Anyway, Christmas came around, the spirit of the season softened my inner grinch - and there I was, standing in my local golf emporium holding (and admiring) a TaylorMade R7 Limited. Even though it lacked the solid black "stealth" look of the SuperQuad, it started to appeal to me. The longer, I looked at it, the more I liked it - and in a few short moments, I was the proud owner of a new R7 Limited.

About the Club: The TM R7 Limited has a fairly pronounced "triangle" shaped head, which is a bit of a departure for TM. It comes in a variety of lofts (8.5,9.5,10.5, and 11.5), and is billed as their "best movable weight driver". The head is a nice subdued black, with a silver face and sole - and some pretty cool R7 graphics on the bottom. TM says that the movable weights allow for up to 35 yards of ball movement, based on your settings. Perhaps the best feature (aside from the movable weights) is a bangin' shaft from Matrix. The Ozik XCon is sweet for a stock offering - no upgrade needed. Oh, and Sergio Garcia used this club to win two events in 4Q 2008, just after it was released.

In the Real World:- Looks: The Matrix Oxik XCon shaft is a cool red color, that almost glitters in the sunlight. The black head does not glare unreasonably, and the silver bottom masks wear marks nicely. The silver face also does not show tee marks, and any "sharpie" markes are easily cleaned off with a damp rag. Headcover is solid black, with cool red and white accents. Grade: A

- Sound: As you have come to expect from TM, the sound is a pleasant one - not the dull thud of a Titleist, or the high pitched noise of a Nike or Cobra. I found the noise to be only a little bit more "pingy" (no pun intended) than the G-10 or the TM Tour Burner. Grade: B+

- Distance: Very pleased with the distance - somewhat longer than my Tour Burner, which was my longest driver thus far. Grade: A+

- Trajectory: Loved the medium trajectory offered by the 9.5 degree head and the stiff Ozik XCon shaft. Previously, I had struggled to find a shaft that assisted in keeping the trajectory down, but this one seems to really be the ticket. Grade: A+

- Grip: The TaylorMade rubber grip is so-so. I suggest replacing with the same grip you have on your other clubs as soon as you find time to (that is my personal pref, anyway). Grade: C

- Other: Movable weights, as you may expect, really DO work - I was able to make tweaks to correct for those days when I seemed more likely to pull my shots to the left. After experimenting several times out, I settled upon the neutral setting as I got more acccustomed to the club coming through the hitting zone. However, if you fight a fade, the "draw" setting will definitely get you back in the fairway. Grade: A

After the Honeymoon:Overall, I rate the club highly. It is long, straight, controllable, and I love the trajectory offered by the shaft/head combo. I predict we may actually see an anniversary.... Grade: A

P.S.- In case you have not watched any golf lately, TM has announced the "R9" will be released on 3.20.09 (ahhhh, the ides of March...). Early word is that it has both movable weights AND adjustable face angles (open/closed). Sounds a little wacky to me - more on this club as info becomes available.