http://jaystuller.com Great Golf and Travel Writing Wed, 02 May 2012 23:26:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The major golf monthlies are absolutely chock full of illustrated tips, fast-frame photographic features of perfect swings, and page-after-page on ways to improve one’s game. From Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons to Tiger Woods’ How I Play Golf, books of advice are perennial solid sellers, with Dave Pelz and Phil Mickelson each covering the short game, while others devote entire tomes to Zen, positive thinking and perfect putting. Players travel to golf academies and spend gazillions ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/instruction/966/about-golf-the-complete-butch-harmon After a long and almost fierce resistance to producing any driver with a head larger than 390 cubic centimeters, Miura Golf just released a new 460 cc model.  As with so many other developments by the Japanese club-maker, the design offers most of the advantages of a large-headed club, but has aesthetics that give it a compact look not often seen in today's toaster-sized driver heads.   Called the SIT-460, for Strong & Ideal Trajectory, the all-titanium is ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/equipment/961/miura-golf-gets-big-with-new-460-cc-driver The crunch of metal spikes on a pro shop’s concrete porch was once one of the coolest sounds in golf, right up with a ball plunking into a cup. But when soft spikes emerged in the 1990s, players and courses quickly embraced the footwear evolution.  Decidedly easier on the feet, shoes with plastic spikes also provided good traction and better still, didn’t tear up putting surfaces. Courses around the world banned metal spikes and as The ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/equipment/938/check-those-spikes-and-pick-up-your-damn-feet After 20 years of adjusting off-the-shelf putters to properly fit his students and clients, PGA Teaching Professional Norm Alberigo and the Providence Precision Golf Group (P2G2) are introducing the revolutionary new P2G2® TopStrike® Putter, a club that corrects deficiencies common to nearly all other models.  Featuring patented technology, the clubhead’s center of gravity is high and forward on its face, instead of near the bottom. Energy from a P2G2 stroke is thus transferred directly to ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/equipment/913/revolutionary-new-club-turns-art-of-putting-upside-down In early February TaylorMade Golf introduced the first and only five-layer Tour ball, called the Penta TP5.  Each of its five layers is reputedly engineered to improve performance in five key shot categories - - off drivers, long irons, middle-irons, short irons and partial wedge shots.  And like the high performance balls now offered by competitors - - including Titleist’s Pro V-1, Bridgestone’s 330 series and Callaway’s new Hex Black Tour - - the Penta ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/equipment/906/my-pals-test-taylormades-new-penta-tp5 I've been to the Palm Springs area several times during the past two decades, for a family-oriented Thanksgiving weekend, for a friend's 60th birthday and on a couple of short golf/business trips.  However, after seven rounds of golf in five days, evenings spent at several of the most distinctive  restaurants in the Coachella Valley, getting a massage at Two Bunch Palms and watching Kessler and Wallach get an old-fashioned shave at the La Quinta Resort's ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/885/last-call-for-the-golf-road-warriors-palm-springs Getting paired up with strangers on the golf course isn't quite as risky as a blind date, although on occasion I've considered chewing my leg off to get out of the trap of a nightmarish cart partner. Most of the time, however, you end up with pleasant people. But then there's the rare match-up that's a downright delight, where personalities mesh, long putts roll in, laughs are shared and most important, you find coincidental connections ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/golf/instruction/869/a-foursome-of-gold-at-silverrock In a tragic case of collateral damage, a significant number of Callaway Hex Black Tour golf balls were harmed during the production of Golf Road Warriors, Palm Springs. We apologize to our readers, sponsors, partners, venues and golf-ball rights activists, and offer our sincerest regrets. These were clean, new and innocent golf balls, tender and without a scratch of guilt or smudge of sin. They will be missed. Yeah, but what really honks off a GRW ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/uncategorized/858/dealing-with-the-diablos-descendent After the Golf Road Warriors closed out the Terra Lago golf course long after the sun set behind the Coachella Valley's western mountains, we headed back to dinner at the ultra-cool IW Club in Indian Wells, where the banisters up the long and winding concrete staircase are covered in leather, rooms are partitioned by frosted glass, and the menu has a perfect blend of steak, seafood, fowl and more.  Before that, on the deck outside ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/uncategorized/846/when-you-wish-upon-a-star Today the Golf Road Warriors had a remarkable day on the Indian Wells Golf Resort's Player's Course.  Joined by a couple of colleagues from the Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Authority and one of the young professionals from Indian Wells, we went out in two carts.  As is custom, we headed out in our sponsored AUR shirts that were packed in our TravelPro Luggage, Callaway Clubs, Hex Black Golf balls, and with real time match ... ]]> http://jaystuller.com/golf/uncategorized/850/indian-wells