Author: Jayson Karnafel

Jayson Karnafel (or "Moose" as his friends call him) is a hard-core golf enthusiast and is Currently a Moonlight Tour Member. Jayson has been playing golf avidly for over 10 years, but since graduating from the Golf Academy of America, he has taken his golf game to new heights. This past year Jayson, has also pursued other career interests while avidly working on his game and giving lessons to developing golfer. He vast knowledge from his golf education and experience on the course, make him an excellent contributor and valuable partner at the new Golferzine community.

Adams Hybrid LS XTD

This is a great club for a low handicapper as it was designed for tour players. The speed slot on this club really allows the player to feel less resistance on the swing of the club creating a pure hit. The move towards hybrids is real. I wasn’t sold on it and still had a 3 iron in my bag until last October before I hit this club. The shaft that I have in mine is a project x shaft. Here are the specs.

Specifications: Adams Speedline Super LS Hybrid
Model Loft Lie Length SW Hand Flex
15 15º 56.5º 42” D2 R R S X

2014 FootJoy DNA Golf Shoe Review

The feel of putting on a pair of golf shoes has changed over the years. Golfers in their 30’s or older can remember the days of the old steel spike, where every step you would take gave you the sensation like you had nails on your feet. Today, the golf shoe can be more comfortable, even lighter, than most basketball or training shoes.  After all, shouldn’t golf shoes feel comfortable?  Afterall, golfers are spending more than four or five hours in them, walking around and constantly being on your feet,  We are even asked to make an athletic move with the golf club, all while attempting keep your balance during the golf swing.  When it comes to the golf show, I’ve been a loyal FootJoy customer my whole career.  I recently purchased a set of the above shown FootJoy DNA golf shoes and they are amazingly comfortable, so comfortable they feel like they are molded to your feet.  There are some drawbacks however.  

Basics & Some Tips For Hitting Bunker Shots

Most golf courses that people play have all different types of sand.  The different types can be noticed by the “grain” and how deep (or full) the bunker is.  Most high end facilities will have real fine grain sand that is nice and fluffy and will have their bunkers filled deep. Unlike other places on the course you cannot test the surface before you actually hit a shot.

So, what’s the best approach to this?  It’s the intention of this article to help you identify what to look for.

When hitting from the beach, the first thing you want to pay attention is the kind of lie that you have; whether it’s plugged/sitting-upuphill/downhill.  Plugged lies are most commonly referred to as fried egg lies (or egg yolk lies).  The most important thing to focus on when hitting this type of bunker shot, is to make sure you dig your feet in so you can get under the ball. A lot of players do this but what they forget is the more you dig yourself in the more you have to choke up on the club to level out the swing plane.  Therefore, if you dig in a full two inches, you’ll want to choke up on the club a full two inches.

The hinge (or wrist cocking) in the bunker is different than what a lot of people are used to because the proper bunker you need to break your wrists earlier to make sure you come in steeper than a normal swing (taking sand first).  Here is a good drill to use (but only when hitting from a practice bunker), With the butt end of your club, draw a line in the sand an inch or two behind the ball.  This will help remind you to hit behind the ball (allowing the club to get under it) in order to let the sand take it out.

Longer bunker shots call for more of ball first then sand first (hitting less behind). But this is also one of the more difficult shots in golf. For any shots that require more than 50 yards of flight out of a bunker, you should try and pick it clean as if you are on a tight lie.

Some Helpful Things To Remember:

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  • The more you dig, the lower you should grip down (or choke up) on the club.
  • Pay attention to the lie and make sure you hit behind the ball on green-side bunker shots.
  • If the course has a practice bunker, hit some shots drawing different lines to adjust the ball flight.
    If the practice bunker options is available, it’s a good idea to make use of it and get a feel for the sand before hitting the course.

Cleveland 588 RTX Wedges Review (Perl / Rotex)

The CB version is also available for mid to high handicap golfers, offering added forgiveness but still providing you the spin and stopping power of the Rotex design.  The 588 CB is also popular among lower handicap players as well. 

Rotex is Cleveland’s title for their milled pattern of grooves in different directions, providing spin on longer shots where the impact zone is near the toe.  The Titleist spin milled grooving hasn’t been as successful, while Cleveland has been getting praise from a wide range of golfers.

See Cleveland’s advertisement video on Rotex;

One of the main things to pay attention to when purchasing this club is how much “bounce” you want. For those unfamiliar, “Bounce” is the width of flange on the bottom of the club.  If you play a lot of golf in the south and are used to tight lies, less bounce is more likely the way to go. It is much easier to pinch the ball off a tight lie with less bounce.  If you play a lot of golf up north then more bounce will more likely act like your friend. 

Cleveland offers several different bounce and lot options for the 588 RTX wedges.

See this chart from Cleveland for more detail on the

cleveland-588-rtx-options

Hitting Shots On the Center of the Club Face

The sound of making a crisp golf shot is a better sound then pulling up from 40 feet and hearing swoosh (this coming from and ex basketball player).

Golf always was one of my favorite sports but the more I play, it is the sounds that are more pronounced than ever. I love the sound of hitting a crisp bunker shot that lands 2 feet from the hole and just stops; not only the swoosh from the sand, but the thud that the golf ball makes on the green (and its pretty sight of it stopping). I was at Bay Hill this week, more as an observer of the golf swing; watching some of the best in the world hit shots on the range shaping every club they had in their bad while looking for tempo at the same time.

Alignment sticks are what helps achieve most of the optimal sounds that PGA tour stars can create; from driver down to the 60 degree wedge. The key is “swinging down the line” as they call it.

On your back swing most PGA teaching pros will say close the face and swing to the right, well there are few people who know that that feeling is. I am here to help you understand different ways of getting that feeling.

  1. Take alignment stick 1 and place is down your foot line…-If you are trying to hit a draw, close off your stance and put an alignment stick down from your front foot to your back foot (notice this will have you aimed right of the target line)

    -If you are trying to hit it straight then aim straight at your target and put the alignment stick down.

    -If you are trying to hit a cut then open your stance and put the alignment stick down from back to from (notice this has you lined up left of target line)

  2. Take alignment stick 2 and place it in the ground in front of you.-If you are hitting a draw put the stick in the ground down your foot line in front of your front shoulder about 5 yards and try to hook the ball around the stick back towards the target line. This will allow you to create lag in your golf shaft and it will properly load, this along with the right swing path will create a draw shot.

    If you hit a straight ball and don’t want to shape it that is fine and a lot of golfers wish they had a straight ball in their bags they could pull out when need be. But the position of straight on still is the pace to use the alignment stick 2 to shape the ball it will help you create a cut by starting the ball left of the stick or draw right of the stick.

    When hitting a cut, you can pull across the ball and have it cut back to the target line but you must make sure you hit the ball down your foot line.

The alignment stick 1 is to give you an idea for when you are off the course to still have the visual view of swinging down your foot line.

The alignment stick 2 is there for verification your swing path is correct.