Grade•a•Ball: If you'd like to make more putts!

One of the most compelling bits of golf legend, and one that's actually true, is Ben Hogan's practice of floating balls in a bathtub full of warm water and epsom salts. He would spin the balls and mark the spot that came to the top. Then, he'd spin the ball again to make sure that the same spot didn't settle in the same position.

This was a simple and fairly effective way of determining if a ball was balanced. Now, we'd all like to hope that modern golf balls make tests like this and tests of a ball's sperical nature irrelevant. That would be a poor assumption...

I saw the Grade•a•Ball system a while back and it got me thinking: Would these guys actually go to the trouble of making something like this if every ball was round?

So, I got a hold of a Grade•a•Ball to see for myself. I was impressed and a little dismayed. While none of my new Titleists failed to pass easily though the green plate, a number of the only slightly used balls in my bag had to either be forced or simply could not be made to pass through the green ring. Into the shag-bag for those pellets.

The Grade•a•Ball is so simple yet it performs what should be seen as an essential task. It allows a player to be sure that his scoring tool is true. Talk about basic...everyone needs one of these in their bags. The Grade•a•Ball also makes it easy to scribe a neat line around their ball (the kit includes a little red mini-Sharpie). While I'm not a really big fan of lines on balls, I did use the feature to mark some balls for practice on the greens.

Do you want to make more putts? Buy a Grade•a•Ball and be surprised.

Putter Review: Kevin Burns / TourStage TYPE-III

Kevin Burns has always been a fascinating putter maker. He told me the story of Craig Stadler's use of one of his putters during a televised tour event. It seems that right at the moment Stadler took the putter back, the network went to a close-up shot of the putter's cavity. When the putt fell, millions of viewers had the name Kevin Burns etched into their minds, at least for a while.

While the exposure was a boon for a while, the popularity of the Kevin Burns line never really took off. Even now, with Burns' putters being sold by Precept under their premium line, TourStage, Kevin Burns continues to labor in relative anonymity.

As savvy as Precept is in the marketing of the balls, they appear to be feeble when it comes to selling the TourStage line of clubs, at least in the US. I had to go through some serious international hoops to get a hold of my sample.

Though my choice in putters always seems to gravitate toward an Anser style head, I wanted to try the TYPE-III because it looked so elegant in pictures. It reminds me of the profile of the classic Odyssey Rossi II. You really have to have a Kevin Burns putter in your hands to get a sense of its quality. Of all the putters that I have seen, A Kevin Burns, more than any other, conveys the sense that it was made by a true master of milling and engineering. Each curve is smooth by design while surfaces like the heel, toe and face are finely textured. The black finish would appear to be a powder coat that should be quite durable.

The TYPE-III, with its matte black head and stark white sight-line is a breeze to align. It looks so essential and natural along side all of the contrived looking "putters of the week" that are designed to aid in creating a line to the hole. The Burns has a tidy look that is matched by its smooth, crisp feel off the ball. The head seems on the lightish side which contributes to its snappy feel. I found that the putter provided a fine ability to smoothly stroke the ball rather than hitting at it.

I don't know if Kevin Burns putters will ever achieve the repute that they deserve. At my age I know that life can be like that more often than not. Still, I doubt that it will bother players who have been wise enough to get their hands on one of his designs. My onoly hope is that Kevin Burns will keep doing what he knows so well. The man makes a superb putter...

Wie Withdraws from John Deere Classic, but...

...she'll be OK to play in the Women's US Open. Where would this blog be without the slick-savy of Team Wie? Let's see, the John Deere Classic is July 12-15 and the US Women's Open starts June 28. Wait a minute, that's before the PGA event! Team Wie wants us to believe that Wie's wrist will actually be healing while preparing for and playing in the US Open but that it won't be healed enough for her to play in the John Deere Classic two weeks later. Here's hoping that Team Wie and the Wiester herself steers clear of undergraduate logic classes when she enrolls at Stanford this fall.

Though logic isn't her forte, Wie is well versed in Orwellian Newspeak. What's worse, she's getting better at it all the time. I feel sorry for her in a way. Sometimes I get the sense that she has learned all the wrong lessons from Tiger Woods and none of the right ones. Tiger is prone to incisive speech, but he is a very sharp and guarded speaker. He rfarely says anything that comes back to haunt him.

Wie lacks the verbal skills to spin her words the way her level of media exposure requires. She comes across sounding out of touch and blasé or, worse, defensive and self-entitled. The sad part is that she doesn't think anyone should notice.

Whether it was her self-serving bail out of Annika's event or her illogical doublespeak about her injured wrist, she's just not a straight shooter.

More of Wie than I want to see...

I've been seeing more of Michelle Wie than I've wanted for years now. But of late, Wie has become more interesting, if more tragicomic. The latest woes of Wie involving her mysteriously stubborn wrist injuries and her sudden, seemingly self-preservationist withdrawal from the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika were especially enlightening.

Team Wie are cunning if not wise. They must have had a sense just about the time Wie made a 10 that serious damage to her mystique was happening right before their eyes. The specter of her shooting an 88 and losing the rest of her exemptions was simply the final straw that led them to protect the franchise.

Up and coming players really owe Wie a debt of gratitude. She has become the poster girl for how not to behave when the world sees you as a phenom. There has been so little that Team Wie has done right that any aspiring player has only to take the opposite course of Wie to stay on the right path. Witness the superb amateur record of Morgan Pressel and the quickly developed professional polish of Paula Creamer to see that there are many ways to grow into fame and success but that Wie has chose none of them.

Sitting at her press conference at the McDonald's LPGA she reminded me of no one more than O.J. Simpson. The denials and obfuscations have become her first and worst instinct. While Annika appeared cool and collected while she questioned Wie's withdrawal, and the sudden recovery needed to start preparing for McDonald's LPGA, Wie was sweating like Nixon, her eyes hidden under the pulled down brim of her hat.

It is so very hard to feel anything but disdain for Wie. She has enjoyed ao many advantages yet she behaves, and seems to think, so very badly. For all of the qualities of Tiger Woods that can rub a person the wrong way, no one can question his fortitude and devotion. He earned every accolade and has never acted as if he were entitled to them.

Wie clearly doesn't understand or seek those qualities. She wants to ride her image and talent rather than build upon them. Her own personal dreams like playing against the men as she puts it, seem to supersede an interest in golf's essential fairness. The fact that she would like to play in the Masters because she wants to denies the honor that comes with playing in the Masters because one has earned the invitation.

Tiger Woods broke down walls and changed the face of golf with his game, Wie just wants to find keys to the back door and resents people like Annika for noticing.