Reader Comments: D2, Yip and Shank

Filed in archive Golf Wanderings on May 9, 2007

Courtesy: Top Flite

I'm passing on some reader comments today on a couple of recent posts.

I had written about Top Flite's lame web campaign to convince golfers to purchase their D2 golf balls.

In short, the campaign creates a "macho guy" hype around the ball more reminiscent of WWF than golf.

At any rate, Dave, a steady reader of Eagleparbirdie had this to say:

"I remember reading once that some instructors recommend that playing the forward tees for a couple rounds at the start of the year is a great way for men to get their feel back after a long winter. You are less inclined to pull out the big stick & play bombs away; you concentrate on your short game etc. I think it would take a REAL man to try and play the forwards with the new D2......Of course he would be playing the forward tees in a foursome with the MAXIM girls!!!"

Ataboy, Dave!

Mark read the post and it hit a nerve with him.

"I agree. Extremely silly. BUT, they are appealing to guys out there who cannot or will not spend $60.00 on a dozen "premium" balls, who play golf for the day out with the boys and the winner is the player who consumed the most beer during the round.

These are not serious golfers. They [Top Flite] are marketing to guys who... want to think that they are striping it 320 but are really hitting it 220 into the bush on the right side. We have all either played with them as a single, know them or have been stuck behind this group some time in our years of playing the game. This advertising is not for the traditionalist. It is for the once, twice a year go-round guy or the golfer who just plain doesn't know any better.

Top Flite have fallen flat trying to sell this ball for many years. I wonder why? Wonder what name it will be sold as next season? Have the "balls" to learn the game, play the game correctly and with the proper etiquette for the wonderful game that it is. This ball gives the true meaning to calling a ball a "stone". Garbage campaign for a garbage ball. If you can't or won't spend on a "premium" ball, go for the tier down. Like the Titleist NXT. Finding a good ball suited to your game is like finding that great bottle of wine for $9.99."

Well, that's pretty much to the point.

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the yips and shanks. I had read Kristen Williams' fine column at World Golf about her friend and his issues with yipping his short putts.

Kristen offered a little clarification about how yips can apply to the full swing, too.

"I think there may be the occasional shank that comes from over analyzing and making a bad swing, but there are also full swing yips. It's the same kind of repetitive motion physical problem that causes it. And like the putting and chipping yips, it can get worse as it sinks into one's psyche. From what I can tell, slumps, bad rounds, weak mental games, fear shots and simply bad swings are sometimes incorrectly blamed on the yips. I three-putt pretty often but I don't have the putting yips. I'm just not a great putter - YET!"

There is always room for improvement in the game, isn't there?

I'll leave the final word to Dave, again (geez, Dave, don't you work?) who passed on this amusing but enlightening comment.

"Peter Jacobsen told a story once about playing in a pro-am with a very successful surgeon. Off the tee this gentleman's swing was wild and fast with predictable results; around the green he was skulling chips & rocketing putts past the hole. He gripped his clubs like a lumberjack with an anger management problem. Jacobsen asked him 'Is this the sort of touch & feel you have in the operating theatre? If it is, I'll go elsewhere'. Us average players can all lighten up on the course, get out of our own way and see better scores. When it comes to the pros, it could be a different problem...I guess that's how Bob Rotella makes his living."

What a game.