Selecting a Good Golf Ball

A good golf ball will certainly help a good golf swing lower your scores. Question is what is a good golf ball? Many beginning golfers lose so many balls in there quest to play the game that they don not care what golf ball is used. However as we all progress in our skill levels we become aware that some golf balls do work better. The problem is that the many golf ball manufactures provide so many choices that it is hard to make an intelligent selection.

Selecting the best golf ball for your skill level and golf swing can be as important as the selection of golf clubs. Golf ball manufactures use many types of compounds to make ball covering and core. In addition there are solid cores, dual cores and multi-cores to add to the confusion. In addition there are a lot of different dimple patterns available each designed to overcome air resistance and influence spin characteristics. For instance a ball with lots of back spin will have more carry. Some balls are designed to be more forgiving when you miss the sweet spot. If you have a good golf swing there are balls designed for the pros that are unforgiving but allow for more control. The biggest problem is that there is no real uniform way to judge one golf ball against another.

Titleist golf balls are rated for use by the skill level of the player. The Titleist Solo NT is their most popular ball and is designed for the recreational golfer. Its two piece construction that includes a cut resistant cover is both forgiving and durable. At the other end of the Titleist golf ball line is the Titleist ProV1 that was just used to win the US Open. This ball is designed for the professional or very serious golfers. It is a three piece ball that has enhanced aerodynamics, softer feel and more controllability. It is also much less forgiving when impact is off the clubs sweet spot. As you can see much of the description provided by Titleist and other golf ball manufactures is relatively subjective.

In addition you will discover that a golf ball that plays great for your golfing partner may not work for you. All this adds to the confusion of selecting a ball. If you have a consistent golf swing you can go the range and try a number of brands to find what works best. This may be expensive but probably the only way to be sure that you have the ball or balls that work best for you. If you undertake such an endeavor make sure you take lots of notes as you proceed through various brands. If you do not have a good consistent golf swing then things get a little more complicated.

A good teaching golf instructor that is or has provided you with golf instruction may be able to assist you in selecting a good golf ball to fit your golf swing and playing style. Each golf instructor has his or her favorite golf balls they use for instruction purposes. More than likely these are the most forgiving golf ball available. If your golf swing is inconsistent or you are relatively new to the game of golf this may be the best choice for you. Continued golf swing instruction and experience will help you develop a good golf swing over time. In time as your skill level increases you will be able to try different brands and judge what golf balls work for you. Selecting a golf ball [http://www.good-golf-swing.com/selectball.html] is important. In the mean time a more forgiving golf ball will make the game of golf more enjoyable and that is really the reason we play.

James Kesel, MS, is the publisher of Discount Golf Vacations [http://www.good-golf-swing.com] website. Providing information on selecting a golf ball [http://www.good-golf-swing.com/selectball.html], putting tips, golf training aids, golf instruction and the latest and best golf ebooks.

Golf Gifts For 2010

Here are some fantastic ideas for golf gifts you can give family and friends that are crazy about golf. Many people have a hard time choosing a suitable gift for the golfer in the family or a fellow player. Included are ideas for every budget and will bring smiles to any golfer's face!

If you have got a sports nut or a business owner to shop for, consider giving a golf gift of logo golf balls. They will enjoy playing with golf balls that are personalized for them. The sports fan in your family will proudly display the logo of their favorite team. Any business owner won't mind the business name, logo, and contact info being discovered by other golfers. Typically, a dozen custom logo balls are available for a small premium over the regular price for that type of ball. An average price will be $20-$50 depending on the ball, and usually there are discounts for quantity.

The next step up in budget offers a couple great choices for the golf gift. The first to consider is a GPS System for yardage, which is an electronic device that tells a golfer accurately how much distance there is to the target. The SkyCaddie from SkyGolf is a very popular device and has some great features. This model comes in at $299, and is quite user friendly and easy to use. Also available is the UPro from Callaway Golf is more state of the art and is thinner and lighter than the competition. The UPro would make a great golf gift and retails for $399.

The second golf gift to consider for a moderate budget is some golf training. Even the most skilled golfer in the family would take advantage of some professional golf training. The beauty of golf is that there is always room to improve, even at the highest levels. A package of three or five golf lessons will give any golfer an excellent opportunity to sharpen their game or revisit fundamentals. Interview a few local professionals or ask friends that play for a recommendation to a PGA Professional, then choose one with experience and a good reputation for golf training and teaching. Lessons will start at about $50 to $100 per session; however you can normally get a better rate if you purchase a package of three or more.

A golf gift for the larger budget is a vacation golf package to a golf resort or golf destination. Every golfers dream is to take a vacation where they can eat, sleep, and play golf without distraction. Golf packages will normally include at least one round of golf each day, as well as accommodations and some meals. Look for a place that has multiple courses, which will provide some variety and more overall enjoyment. A few resorts to consider buying a golf package as a gift are Pinehurst in North Carolina, Destination Kohler in Wisconsin (Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits), as well as the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. The top golf resort and golf gift of a lifetime is a golf package to Pebble Beach in California. Though golf packages can start as low as $500, that amount will barely cover one round of golf at some of America's top golf resorts! There are some fantastic deals available, but the truth is you can not go wrong when giving the gift of golf. A country club golf course will normally have about half or two thirds of the traffic a public golf course will have. If you play your golf during the week, it is not uncommon to buzz around the course in less than four hours and have no problem walking right on to the first tee. On the weekends, there are less conflicts reserving the tee times you want.

Colleen Lilly is an avid golfer with a passion for excellence. She is the author of the Golf Master Ebook http://proficient-golf-play.info "Hit the greens like a seasoned pro, Become a Golf Master!" Colleen is a blogger who writes about transformational energy healing. Healing the Mind Body and Soul. Healing yourself begins the healing of the world, one person at a time. Follow Colleen's Transformational blog at http://www.yourmindbodyandsoul123.com

How to Correctly Practice Swing Drills Golf Experts Use to Improve Their Confidence on the Course

The most effective practice drills golf tour player's and leading amateur golfers use are the drills that are designed specifically to help them to make the transition from the practice tee to the golf course as easily and quickly as possible.

In this golf instruction article I'll explain how performing a golf practice drill correctly will significantly improve your chances of taking it to the golf course without the usual prolonged distress usually associated with golf swing changes using what I call the "5 D Success Formula."

The less complicated a change to your golf swing is, the faster you can adapt to the changes on the golf course. The biggest challenge facing any golfer is the fear that the change to your golf technique will leave you in a kind of "golf swing limbo" where you can't go back to your old golf swing, and you haven't got enough trust in your new golf swing.

So the more elements of a golf swing you have to focus on to improve your technique the more destructive it is to your golf confidence. Quite simply, if you're thinking about more than one swing thought as you swing the golf club you will more-than-likely fail to execute your golf shots with a high degree of precision and consistency.

A helpful way to understand this is to recognize two important factors in changing your golf swing with golf practice drills. One is the actual drill itself and the second is its level of complexity. When you focus on performing one simple training drill like cocking your wrists before you swing your arms back is a relatively easy exercise to accomplish.

However when you attempt to combine two practice routines at the same time, the complexity level jumps up significantly. Basically the complexity of the drill sky rockets for every additional component you add to your training drill. The simplest example I can share with you is the golfer who performs a particular technical drill on the driving range and at the same time attempts to hit his golf shot accurately to a target.

It might seem harmful-even easy to do and yet it is arguably the single biggest reason why amateur golfers struggle to make the transition from driving range to golf course. The whole idea behind performing golf practice drills is to facilitate a change in your golf technique faster and more effectively than just hitting golf shots and attempting to change your technique through repetition alone.

Golf practice drills help you to change a portion of your technique and integrate the change smoothly into your overall technique. The key is to reduce complexity, increase competency which ultimately leads to increased golf confidence on the golf course.

So how do tour pro's practice their drills? Very carefully, and by concentrating on one piece of the puzzle at a time. Tour pro's have discovered through countless hours of practice on the driving range that attempting to focus on performing a drill and trying to hit a perfect shot at the same time is the equivalent of speaking on your mobile phone whilst driving in traffic.

It's difficult to do, dangerous, and the outcome is not likely to be helpful in the long run.

The best type of practice drill is the one that helps you to hit your golf shot straighter and more solidly time and time again. This seems logical enough and yet it's surprising how many golfers practice drills that are not compatible with their particular problem.

For instance a golfer might be practicing a split hands drill where you hold each end of the grip with a gap in the middle to help facilitate the rotation of the club-face through the impact zone to straighten a persistent slice shot.

The problem in this example is that often this drill is used to try and fix an over-the-top downswing, whereas this type of drill is actually designed for the bottom of the swing, as opposed to the top of the swing which is where an over-the-top down swing problem originates.

You can waste a lot of hours toiling away at golf practice drills that are incompatible with your particular swing needs.

Here is the "Five D Success Formula" which is a practice drill framework you can follow that will make certain that you're on the right track as you go through the golf swing change process.

1. Decide specifically on what aspect of your golf stroke needs to be improved e.g. is it a top of the swing change or a bottom of the swing change?

2. Design your golf practice drill to get to the root cause of your swing problem by identifying its cause-effect relationship and its influence on your golf shots.

3. Dedicate the time needed to the change process by ensuring that you schedule a specific amount of time each week to focus on your practice drill repetition.

4. Detach yourself from the results of your drill. The idea is to perfect the drill not the ball-flight, so it's likely that your golf ball in the early stages of the change process won't be behaving like you want it to.

5. Delay the urge to use your new swing change on the golf course until you have complete confidence in it. Too often golfers hastily employ their new technique to the detriment of their performance on the golf course.

By following this practice drill framework you will keep your focus on habituating the most relevant part of your golf swing technique. You will need to repeat the practice drill you've chosen at least one thousand five hundred times before you start to reach the stage of development called "unconscious competence."

This is high trust stage of golf swing performance where you can hit golf shots without thinking about how you hit golf shots. Don't be put off by the amount of repetition required; you cannot achieve this superior level of performance without at least this amount of repetition so just give yourself the time to do the drill work.

Twenty five correctly performed drills per day for sixty days in front of a mirror at home and you'll have incorporated a new part into your golf swing technique. If you want to achieve it faster than that you can perform fifty repetitions three times per week for ten days and you'll create the same effect.

Either way, you should memorise this simple mantra; "repeat regularly to re-train and retain."

The positive side of performing your golf practice drills regularly is that they will lead you directly towards a great deal more golf confidence and ultimately much improved performances on the golf course which will translate into lower golf scores and far more enjoyment.

Lawrence Montague has been one of Australia's leading golf teaching professionals for more than twenty years and owns one of Australia's top golf schools at http://www.goldcoastgolfschool.com.au based on the Gold Coast in Queensland. He also co-owns Pro Tour Golf College, the only pro tour prep college for aspiring male and female golfers who want to play golf on tour based in Perth, Western Australia.

You can visit his popular golf instruction channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/golfconfidencepro where he has produced more than thirty free high quality golf video lessons to improve you golf game.

A Kauai Golf Vacation Provides the Perfect Hawaii Golf Vacation Destination

If you are a golfer looking to take your golf vacation in a tropical paradise, then a Hawaii golf vacation on Kauai will fit your plans to a tee.

Kauai is the fourth-largest, northernmost Hawaiian island and boasts the most beaches per miles of coastline. What really makes the island special - besides its world-class golf courses - is that ninety-seven percent of Kauai remains undeveloped. Because of this, Kauai is known as the "Garden Island".

Golf courses on Kauai are not just a pretty postcard image to send home to friends and family. Golfers will find that Kauai golf courses utilize this natural beauty to produce challenging layouts along with amazing backdrops. Course designers like Jack Nicklaus and Robert Trent Jones Jr. seamlessly meshed fairways and greens with tropical valleys, ocean cliffs, lava formations and rock gardens to produce beauty and beast.

Course designers also took advantage of the pacific climate. Many long par fives become reachable to golfers who lack Tiger's power by making the most of the northeast tradewinds that are ever present on the Hawaiian Islands. However, this advantage can quickly become a disadvantage. When these tradewinds reverse direction and become Kona winds, those long holes become very long holes.

Beauty and challenges are not the only traits Kauai golf courses have going for them. The golf world also recognizes the island for its high quality of golf. Three of the top five golf courses in Hawaii are on Kauai. In fact, Kauai is not only known for some of the best golf courses in Hawaii but also in the world. The Poipu Bay Resort Golf Course is home to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and is rated as one of the top eighteen golf courses in the United States. Princeville Resort and Kauai Lagoons Golf Club also received awards and high rankings from Golf Digest. High-handicappers should have no fear however, as golfers of all skill levels will find a playable golf course on Kauai.

The proximity of many world-class golf courses to each other is another reason a Kauai golf vacation is so enjoyable. Because travel time is short to each of Kauai's golf courses, golfers will be able to get in a couple of rounds and still have time to enjoy many of the island's outdoor activities. If you love hiking, biking, snorkeling, surfing and other outdoor activities, then this is the island for you. At a minimum, plan a visit to the Waimea canyon or trek to the top of the Makawehi Lithified Cliffs. Then at the end of the day enjoy a drink on one of those fabulous Kauai beaches.

With the perfect year-round climate for golf, first-class accommodations and golf resorts, world-class golf courses and undeveloped tropical environment; a Kauai golf vacation is the perfect golf vacation.

Discover more Kauai golf courses and Kauai golf information at our site. Enjoy your Kauai golf vacation.

Copyright 2005 Evans Putman - http://www.PerfectGolfVacations.com All Rights Reserved. Reprints allowed see below.

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Golf Carts- Not Just For Golfers Anymore

According to new research, more than 60% of cars in the USA North America travel less than 15 miles per day and nearly half of drivers travel less than five miles away from home. With gas prices climbing higher every day and air being polluted with gas emissions, a golf car is the most environmentally friendly vehicle out there. With all the golf cart accessories available, golf carts can become one of the most stylish and eco-friendly vehicles on the road.

Golf carts are widely used in university campuses where they transport people, goods and equipment, and are even used in cases of medical emergencies. They are also used in quiet neighborhoods, at large sports events by the personnel, and of course, on golf courses by golfers. Many golf carts are purchased by disabled people who appreciate the higher speed and safety of golf carts compared to those of power wheelchairs.

Driving a golf cart is extremely economic. It costs around one cent per ten miles to operate an electric golf cart. It's also ten times cheaper to maintain and repair a golf cart than a car. However, not many automotive giants readily leap into the golf cart market, claiming that there is currently no demand for golf carts.

Still, more and more neighborhoods, especially in resort areas or those surrounded by golf courses, switch to golf carts to access malls, movie theaters, schools and restaurants without having to ride on the highway. In university campuses golf carts can be used only on designated streets and paths. Golf carts, as neighborhood electric vehicles with a proper license can travel on roads with posted speed limit of 35 mph.

Golf carts were introduced in the 1950s and later became popular thanks to golf visionaries such as Billy Dolan. With golf carts, golf greatly evolved as a game. Smaller, more efficient and nicely designed golf carts with cute stylish accessories such as custom wheels and seats, lift kits and even programmable speed controls, golf carts are becoming safer each year.

As a vehicle, golf carts can have three or four wheels. They can be powered by electric or internal combustion motors. The most famous golf carts manufacturers include Cushman, Club Car, Daihatsu, and many more.

Among the most popular golf cart accessories today are lift kits that add clearance to the golf cart which help with accessing rocky places and bumpy roads. Many lift kits include off-road tires that can be used on the golf cart making it a rough little off-road beast.

Another popular golf cart accessory that is in huge demand in colder seasons is a rain curtain. These curtains can be snapped to the car frame to sit permanently on the car body, or they can be clipped to the car with hooks and removed in warmer seasons.

Many golf cart accessories basically do nothing except add some flare. Racing-style aluminum pedal kits, graphic and even 3D camouflage, custom steering wheels will add a stylish touch to any golf cart.

Golf carts are slowly spreading beyond student campuses, golf resorts and retirement communities. Well-designed and safe golf carts may soon be as common on city streets as scooters and bikes.

Kathryn Whittaker has an interest in Sports and Golf Carts, for more FREE information and articles please visit Golf Carts Resources