www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

Swing Weight? A friend who is a very good golfer once asked me what is the swing weight of a certain club and I drew a complete blank. I have since talked to many people about swing weight and few knew the meaning much less the significance of it. So, I embarked on a journey of discovery both theoretical and practical. I have even spoken to club fitters (or maybe some are not club fitters, they just change shafts and grips). So What is Swing Weight? Swing Weight is an expression of a club in terms of its feel, its head weight in relation to the entire weight of a club and its performance based on the timing of its release. It is liken to say lifting a bag of rice and that weight is thought of as the resistance in being lifted. That is the equivalent to the swing weight of a golf club and its resistance in being lifted and then swung in a circular movement. In technical terms, it is called the "Moment of Inertia". When a club gets longer, you will find that it fee...

Great Drivers & Long Drive Champions Tiger Woods drove his BMW into a gas station one day and as he was getting out from the driver's seat, a couple of tees fell off onto the seat from his pocket. The pump attendant, an old man saw those tees on the seat, was curious and enquired what they were. So Tiger replied: "Oh, those are tees that you use to hold the balls when you drive." And the old man, thinking for a moment, shook his head and said: "Damn, these people at BMW really thought of everything!' More on Tiger, he has been playing badly of late and I read that his putting was horrendous. Unfortunately, I'm playing just like him (but not the same score) and it is getting me impoverished but at least he gets to play in the competition for a few days so he has a chance to recover whereas I have to do so in only one day not knowing when the next game is. Sigh! This is not fair right? So, in the near future, I would like to change the game even for...

Dogs run after cars and can chase them around for hours on end probably due to their curiosity in the revolving wheels. Men's chase after skirts and spherical objects and their pursuance for everything and anything remotely spherical is historical and has since spawned into all kinds of ball games. If it takes guts to try out games, it certainly takes balls to play them! If people with dimples are deemed to be good looking, then the humble golf ball is the prettiest and most handsome of all time for it has not one or two but hundreds of dimples. There was a time where we would have 22 players chasing after a leather soccer ball and as they say as you grow older, the balls get smaller. Life is an irony. It Takes Balls To Play! There was a time where any golf ball looks the same to me so why do people talk about how a golf ball feels and behaves is beyond my comprehension. Some would ask if I play the Titleist "Pro V 1" and my usual retort was that the only P...

(Second picture shows the Cleveland (L-R) CG14 Gelback @ 60 degrees, 588 Tour Action Gun Metal @ 56 degrees & CG10 @ 52 degrees).   The Golf game is not as gruesome as say bull fighting where matadors kill bulls and shout "Ole!" or vice versa. Of course the bulls' "Ole!" shout does not sound the same to human ears. Sergio Garcia and Jimenez have picked the right game. A tourist at a restaurant in Spain saw someone at another table enjoying an exotic dish and so he told the waiter it looked delicious and wanted to order the same. The waiter came to him later "here's your order of bull's testicles Senor". After chomping away, he ordered the same dish in advance for the next day as it tasted so good. Sure enough the next day came along and he delightfully chomped away and mopped off the entire plate but can't help noticing a difference and remarked to the waiter: "how come the balls are much smaller today than ...

Relation of Swing Speed, Ball-Speed and Distance Sometimes among golfers, you hear talks about Tiger Woods' swing speed going up to 180mph. This is incorrect. Once, a person told me that his swing speed is more than 150 mph, I choked and gasped for air for a moment. He was a hard and long hitter no doubt but there is no way he could top 150 mph. If he could do that, then Tiger Woods and John Daly are all wimps. What they meant is possibly his ball speed and not swing speed. Tiger's swing speed is at 125mph. Of course at times, it may increase to 130mph or drop to 115mph depending on him while John Daly could top 135-140 mph anytime. G olf legend Sam Snead, who also hit thunderous drives in his prime said: "I never saw a man who could take a club that far back and drive that well for that long. But if that swing ever comes unglued, they will never find the ball." To give you a measured perspective of swing speed in relation to carry distance, please see below: ...

Which Putter? Decoding The Mystery This is the most important club in your bag as you will use it 40-50% of the time in a round of golf. How it stacks up in terms of length, grip, shaft orientation, loft and lie angle are all important criteria. Correct length helps in positioning your eyes over the ball while proper lie angle allows the club to lie flat and helps in alignment. A putter that has too much or too little loft will push the ball up or cause it to bounce. Over sized grip can cause awkward feel while those that are too thin will encourage too much wrist movement. Though looks are important, it is only secondary as it only helps in confidence building. Colours and graphics are cosmetics for aesthetic reasons to entice you so that a fool and his money is soon parted. Not so for the rest which I shall emphasized below. Price and Quality Is the price of a putter related to its quality? Yes, very much so as they say, you pay peanuts you get monkeys. You can get on...