The Luxury of Leather: The Tour Laced from GripMaster USA

A while back I picked up an old putter. OK, it wasn't really old in terms of years but it was old in terms of design. It's a classic Bullseye and for some funny reason I really hit the ball solidly with it, and it feels like butter. It just looks so very clean behind the ball that it has actually found its way into my bag. Thing is, that there's just something not right about having a common rubber grip on a club like this.

Fortunately, I know a lot of very hard core collectors and one whom I trust a great deal told me about GripMaster. After looking at all of the many versions of leather grips at their web site I decided to try a Tour Laced in Redwood. Now, I don't get easily excited by golf equipment. Too much of it goes into and out of my hands, but I really found myself looking forward to the arrival of this grip.

It was worth the wait. The leather is smooth and the lacing on the back of the grip is precise and unobtrusive. The leather rides on an rubber underlay which makes installation pretty much as easy as with a conventional rubber grip. That said, you do have to be just a bit careful. Leather is far less forgiving than rubber and you'll only get one chance to get it right and you'll be very unhappy if you stain the leather or manage to dissolve the GripMaster logo with spilled grip solvent.

Of course, I have put on more grips than I care to remember so mine went on with no problem. You? Be careful and don't come crying to me if you foul it up (if you're careful it will go on just fine). Ah, the feel! It only took me one ball to feel the difference. Leather not only feels good on the hands it feels good on impact. Smooth, soft, yet solid.

This grip is really something of a revelation. I knew it would look the part but I really never figured that it would work so well. Who knows, maybe leather is the rubber of the future? I'm sure the folks at GripMaster USA would like that and maybe you will too.

Pro-Align: Spend the Off-Season Improving your Putting

Most golfers think they'll do something over the off-season to improve their games. Maybe they'll do some work at the gym, or perhaps they'll work on some swing changes in the garage. Most likely, they'll just sit around the house thinking about what they should be doing to get better. I know, I've been there...

When looking to get better, virtually every golfer I know will focus on the full-swing. But, what about that crazy place where we spend most of our extra strokes?

Getting better at putting doesn't have to be boring, or even all that time consuming. About 10 years ago, I decided that I was simply missing too many putts and that there was no reason for my confidence level on the greens to be so much lower than it was on the rest of a golf course. For me, better putting was found in a couple basic rules that I was breaking without knowing it. Once I followed those rules, my putting improved immediately and has been fair to good ever since.

The Pro-Align is a very clever tool that can help you to follow the most basic rule of putting, to aim the putter at the intended line of roll. It comes in a handy carrying case that has now found a comfy home in my golf bag. It is made from injection molded plastic so its very lightweight and durable. The Pro-Align is easy to assemble and once you get it together you'll very likely figure out how to use it for its basic function without reading the instructions.

Still, I think you'd be wise to read the excellent instructions provided at the Pro-Align web site. Suffice it to say that there is more than one use for the Pro-Align. For me, it is an invaluable indoor tool that allows me to keep my ability to aim the putter on my intended path. Really, it's that simple. Over time, as my stance or posture varies, or as I use a shorter or longer putter, I find that my abaility to aim the putter degrades. It helps a little to stand behind the ball and to see the line but the Pro-Align retrains me in mere minutes.

Beyond helping with aim, the Pro-Align helps me to stay-in my putts. It does this when I use the orange dot at the end of the beam as an instant line-check. If I keep the orange dot as the secondary focus as I'm over the putt and then make it the primary focus as I (hopefully) watch the ball roll directly beneath it, I can keep from being too intent on the hole while I should be concentrating on my stroke. This may sound complicated but it's really just about trusting your stroke and letting the Pro-Align help you do it.

About the only aspect of the Pro-Align that I'm not too sure about is the laser. The funny thing is that it's the one feature that I thought I would like the most. First of all, it's only for indoor use (for obvious reasons). Second, once it's mounted on the Pro-Align it's hard not to gently tweak the aim while pushing the laser's button, thereby skewing the aim slightly. Since the whole point to the laser is accuracy, that's a rather ironic problem.

That nick-pick aside, the Pro-Align is a very inexpensive and easy to use device that will help you to make more putts. So what if you don't get to the gym as often as you'd hoped this winter? Buy a Pro-Align and spend your winter in the comfort of the great indoors working on your putting. Come golf season, you'll be making a making a lot more putts.

First the Noose, Next the Muzzle?

2008 is the year that drug testing comes to golf, something unimaginable only a few years ago. It also seems that this will be the year when rampant political correctness will finally take hold in this most civil of games. First, we have The Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman hit with a two week suspension for joking that young players may have to resort to lynching Tiger Woods in an alley. Now, Golfweek has gotten a taste of PC for depicting a noose on the cover of the very issue that contains their report on the Tilghman/ Golf Channel Affair.

Lost in all of this is the question of judgment. Last week I wrote about the fact that given time to deliberate and act fairly The Golf Channel instead opted to pander to the partisans and pundits rather than stand by one of their most respected commentators. This week shows that Golfweek's judgment is a little dodgy as well. One has to assume that there were more than two heads in the room when they chose the Noose motif for the January 19th issue.

I judge Golfweek less harshly than The Golf Channel for some of the same reasons that I think has made Tilghman a scapegoat. The folks at Golfweek had no ill intent when they chose the noose. Their mistake was to see themselves as above the fray as reporters. While I am not sure they were correct, I can understand their thinking. By contrast, The Golf Channel's actions were self-preserving, nothing more.

The fact is that only Tilghman's actions are wholly understandable. As a human being who is paid to talk she made a poor choice of words. I can only hope that the bold fraternity of golf writers don't find it all too easy to reach for the muzzle next.

The Golf Channel Fails Us All

The Golf Channel has suspended Kelly Tilghman for a slip of the tongue comment about players lynching Tiger Woods in an alley. Of course, neither the golf world at large, or the Golf Channel, are exactly paragons of courage so I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. Still, this new low for the Golf Channel is truly reprehensible. Remember when The King saw fit to can Peter Kessler? That was downright noble behavior compared with this...

The Golf Channel is treating one of their most even handed announcers as if she had engaged in a Michael Richards-like N-Word laced tirade. Whom did she harm? Who took offense? Not Woods, that's for sure. His camp was quoted as saying, "This story is a non-issue. Tiger and Kelly are friends and Tiger has a great deal of respect for Kelly. Regardless of the choice of words used we know unequivocally that there was no ill-intent in her comments. This story is a non-issue in our eyes. Case closed." Were there any calls of complaint from actual Golf Channel viewers or just the hack pundits who come out of the woodwork at times like this?

Worst of all, the Golf Channel is caving in to pressure from the likes of Al Sharpton, a man whose sole reason for living is to get himself on TV as often as possible, while adding nothing valid to the debate. Being an actual reverend with an actual congregation would be far too much like work for Sharpton.

Instead of standing behind Tilghman the Golf Channel has sold their soul and sent her to the back of the bus with a two week suspension. Their actions are nakedly self-protecting, nothing more, and should be repudiated.

I am sure that Tilgman wishes that she'd simply substituted the word mugged for lynched, but things happen when you're on the air and making a split second choice of words. The Golf Channel has no such defense for their mistake. They had the time to judge and to deliberate but, in the end, they chose the easy way out and failed us all.