Great golf gear from Taylormade

"The year we had was the biggest in the 500-year history of people selling golf clubs," said Toulon, a Madison native. "We made more money last year than every other golf equipment company in the world combined."

At the 59th PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January, TaylorMade rolled out its new product line in an elaborate exhibition space that was many times bigger than those of its competitors.

The company followed its success of 2011 by generating another big buzz with the introduction of its RocketBallz fairway woods - white, of course, and purportedly as long as many drivers on the market.

Golfers can check out RocketBallz, along with equipment from other manufacturers and products and services from dozens of exhibitors, at the callaway razr x irons Greater Milwaukee Golf Show presented by the Journal Sentinel, Friday through next Sunday at the Milwaukee County Sports Complex, 6000 W. Ryan Road in Franklin.

Companies such as Callaway, Ping, Cobra and Cleveland have new-and-improved products, too, but all eyes are on TaylorMade, which appears poised to do to the fairway metal-wood market what the R11 did to the driver market.

Founded in McHenry, Ill., and now based in Carlsbad, Calif., TaylorMade topped $1.5 billion in sales last year. Its formula for success is building big-bucks marketing campaigns around cutting-edge products wielded by touring professionals (who are paid handsomely to sport the company logo).

"Our company was founded in 1979, and the thing Gary Adams always talked about was the power of the best players in the Taylormade Burner 2.0 irons world," Toulon said. "It's called the pyramid of influence."

The R11 was the dominant driver on the PGA Tour last year and the R11S - a bigger, better version - promises to be No. 1 this year.

"We grew almost 25% over 2010 and we believe we're going to grow 25% again this year," Toulon said. "We're now the largest iron company in the world and by the end of the year we expect to have 35% market share. We're the No. 2 putter and the No. 4 golf ball."

But the driver, Toulon said, is the "engine" that drives the company.

TaylorMade developed and brought to market the first adjustable driver and the third-generation R11 added features so that the golfer could essentially custom-fit the club to his or her swing.

Unlike most driver heads, which are black or dark and are largely indistinguishable from one another, the R11 was instantly identifiable to TV audiences tuned in to discount golf clubs PGA Tour events.

Because it was so unconventional in appearance, the R11 could have been a flop. But golfers flocked to golf shops and retail outlets to buy it.

The other part of the equation was that the R11 had to deliver on its promise of improved performance.

"We're not going to take a chance with performance," Toulon said. "It's difficult to look Sergio Garcia in the eye and tell him, 'This club performs better,' and then it doesn't."

Woods was pleased with his full swings down the stretch

Snedeker and Stanley were the second-most-compelling American pairing after Tiger Woods, a three-time champion, and Nick Watney, who's won two PGA Tour events since Woods‘s last official tour victory in 2009.

Watney eliminated Woods, 1-up, in the match that resembled a log-rolling contest. Watney never trailed following the 10th hole and played steadily while Woods fought and fought to help keep his balance before stumbling for the 18th.

I respect greatly what Tiger is doing in this Titleist MB 710 Forged Irons  game and then for the bingo, so I’m very happy to move ahead, said Watney, that will face the former world No. 1 player Lee Westwood.

It would have been a very stand-up match, no gamesmanship or anything like that, Watney said. It was only hard fought.

Woods, who's won 33 matches in 12 appearances within this event, led only once or twice, after No. 4, and was two down with three holes to try out before making an elemen to win the 16th hole. He stuck his approach shot at No. 18 but pulled a 5-foot birdie putt that could have extended the match.

I was fighting the blocks for hours on end with my putter, said Woods, who had previously been happy with his full swings around the stretch.

I didn‘t miss an individual shot taylormade r9 supertri driver coming in, which can be good, he explained. And that was fun heading to the ball that well. Unfortunately, I recently didn’t come up with a putt when I needed it.

As Woods examined his last putt, all activity for the practice green involving the 18th hole along with the clubhouse ceased. Steve Stricker, who gave Woods a few discount golf clubs recommendations on the greens whenever they played an exercise round Tuesday, gingerly made his distance to a patch of cactus so he might get an improved look at Woods‘s putt.

Dustin Johnson, who had joined Stricker in the Round of 16, is 6 feet 4 inches but has not been tall enough to find out above the crowd ringing the back of the green, so he stood about the seat of your golf buggy.

Woods had to fight all the way to beat Spaniard

Els, a sweet-swinging, three-time major winner whose putting problems have sent him tumbling out of your top 50 in the World rankings, took benefit of Donald's poor form and error-prone performance to wrap things up since the 14th hole.

"I'm unclear where to start," said a visibly disappointed Donald, that is only the third top seed to reduce inside event's opening round. "I just didn't play perfectly. It's disappointing.

"I gave away way too many holes and made way too many Titleist 910F-D Fairway Wood mistakes. You can not do that in match play against anyone, not to say Ernie."

"There's always hype in the event the No. 1 player is playing no. 64 seed," said Els. "But Luke and that i took it for what it was.

"I think he do not think he wanted to play me and I sure as hell didn't need to play him in the first round, that is operate exercised."

While three-time Accenture Match Play winner Woods was required to fight all the way to beat Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 1-up after beginning by losing Taylormade Burner 2.0 irons the initial two holes, Charl Schwartzel and Bae Sang-moon won their opening matches almost as comfortably as Els.

Schwartzel, the reigning Masters champion, eased past big-hitting American Gary Woodland 4&2 and unheralded South Korean Bae upset Britain's Ian Poulter, this years Match Play champion, 4&3.

This while World No 3 Lee Westwood was beating Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts 3&1 and World No 4 German Martin Kaymer was thumping Australian discount golf clubs left-hander Greg Chalmers 4&2.to participate the 32 winners who advanced to Thursday's second round.

Hickory Golf Championship by wooden clubs123456..zx

In the salute to prospects stars of the 1920s and also the history of golf, 24 players appeared Monday for the second annual United States Professional Hickory Golf Championship. They walked the venerable 1922 Tom Bendelow course, carrying small bags of wooden-shafted clubs.

Men in ties, caps and argyle socks and ladies in skirts and trendy hats played low bump-and-run shots in the greens. They used clubs with names like mashie, brassie, niblick and jigger stamped in to the tiny club heads, some irons looking much more straight Mizuno MP-58 irons razors than golf clubs. They tinkered with replica rubber projectiles in the 1920s have a tendency to landed at least 10 yards in short supply of typical targets.

It's like we entered into a time machine, said Kevin Weickel, the 2011 North Florida Golf P.G.A. pro of the year and the tournament director from the P.G.A. Tour' Children's Miracle Network Hospital Classic in Orlando. ?¡ãYou almost see the ghosts of those old pros scattered round the first tee.

He added: ?¡ãSome of such old trees were here back in 1925, and they were an integral part of that tournament. Looking around today, celebrate me wonder if this sounds like my field of dreams.

Mike Stevens, the tournament director along with the club pro at MacDill Air Force Base in nearby Tampa, decided to bring a hickory golf tournament for the area after he won titleist 910H hybrid the 2005 and 2010 National Hickory Championship and competed on the planet Hickory Open in Scotland, where hickory golf is popular.

Since the majority golfers tend not to own hickory-shafted clubs, he also asked Jay Harris, a retired dentist in Vermont who collects the vintage clubs, to deliver clubs for contestants. Harris took 40 teams of hickory clubs with him, giving players in the case an opportunity to practice with them per day early.

Like Stevens, Harris is surely discount golf clubs an ambassador to the game's history. And the man says he wants golfers to know more to do with the roots in the game.

Baseball fans know their history, i really would hope that golfers have a involvement in their game, said Harris, the winner of the 2008 United states of america Hickory Open championship.

It will require players more enamored with the romance from the game's rich history compared to the repetitive act of muscling shots on 7,400-yard layouts to appear with an event this way. Just like they did on the 1925 Florida Open, contestants faced training measuring less than 6,400 yards.

Mickelson is the only player to have an eagle putt on the 587-yard hole

He holed a 30-foot birdie putt for the long par-3 fourth hole, then really got happening the rear nine.

After having a tough pitch to 12 feet that led to birdie on the 10th, Mickelson had 297 yards to the hole on the 11th and made a decision to hit driver, an attempt he'd not tried in months.

It came off perfectly and climbed on top of the front edge of the green, making Mickelson the sole player on an eagle putt around the 587-yard hole, which played callaway diablo edge irons into the wind. The pin was all the way back, away from a sizable hump in the putting surface, which gave Mickelson saving money light.

``I didn't think it had been likely to necessarily be reachable into that wind, however i was able to hit a minimal drive off the tee that scooted along the ground, and I felt like only could hit another of those using a driver I can get right up from the green,'' Mickelson said. ``I felt like it was worth the risk to attempt to scoop one up.''

Mickelson made his lone bogey when his chip behind the 16th green ran 7 feet beyond the cup, anf the husband missed the putt. On the 17th, his wedge Ping Anser Forged Irons  rolled returning to 7 feet for birdie, though the putt slid by for the left.

He faced another quick chip around the 18th, nevertheless it dropped in with perfect speed.

``It wasn't one I used to be really working to make,'' he explained. ``It was quick, it absolutely was downhill, and that i was required to play discount golf clubs or five feet of break, so it's not merely one you are trying to find aggressive with. I became looking to get good speed and then try to let it feed while using break, and I got fortunate, obviously, that it went in.'' 

Mickelson is the ninth player in PGA Tour history with 40 career wins

He finished up with a two-shot win over Wi, who four-putted for double bogey about the opening hole and never recovered.

             

Mickelson, who finished at 17-under 269, became merely the ninth player in PGA Tour history with 40 career wins. This was special for several reasons, along with the thrashing he gave Woods was but a small sector of computer.

His wife, Amy, flew up to the weekend and gave him a pep talk Friday while it's raining at Monterey Peninsula when Mickelson was going Ping K15 fairway wood nowhere. He ran off five birdies, got in to the tournament and grabbed a victory he didn't see coming.

Just as much as Woods covers his game staying close, Mickelson felt exactly the same way. His last win was the Houston Open last April, and even though he thought he was putting well, his scores didn't reflect it

"It's one of the more emotional victories personally than I've had, and the reason is I've had some doubt these last couple of Ping G15 Fairway Wood weeks, in the scores I've shot," Mickelson said. "Having these great practice sessions, I started to wonder if I'm going to be able to carry it towards the the game. Which means this provides me with lots of confidence and erases the doubt."

The very last shred of doubt came around the 14th, a diabolical green that turn birdies into bogeys without caution. Woods hit a wedge that took place the side from the green, requiring two chips to have about the green. He earned bogey.

"He erased all doubt and said, 'Let's get discount golf clubs aggressive to make birdie, we want one more here,' " Mickelson said. "It got me aggressive and into a positive mind-set."

Wi, who started the last round having a three-shot lead, birdied his last two holes for the 72 and his fifth runner-up finish on tour. It was the 3rd straight week how the winner began a final round no less than six shots behind a 54-hole leader opting for his first tour victory.

"I fought back and hung in there, as the four-putt about the first hole, I had been really shook up pretty badly and my strokes were pretty iffy at best," Wi said. "I hung in there all day. My time should come."

Stanley and Levin are just the latest examples of players

Defense wins championships. Sportsmen bark the axiom in to the camera. Baseball managers impress it upon their players. Basketball coaches preach it ad nauseam.

We hear it continuously in those other sports. The intonation is that scoring is important, but preventing the opponent from points are in the highest discount golf clubs priority with regards to winning.

If we've learned anything recently, it's that defense doesn't win golf tournaments. Stanley and Levin are merely the most recent samples of players who led, then did not claim the hardware, however the list is lengthy and varied. The truth is, last year, just  TaylorMade RocketBallZ Fairway wood under 50 % of all 54-hole leaders didn't win 1 day later.

All of these brings about the $1 million and perhaps, a few stacks of bills more question: Why?

One, it's difficult to win, said Woods, the master of a 48-4 career PGA Tour record when holding the 54-hole lead. Being a frontrunner, everyone's kind of chasing you. You're in a position where if you do produce a few mistakes, it's alright because obviously you've got  TaylorMade R11S Driver shots to experience with. ?- But it also depends upon how many guys are chasing you, too. In the event you an entire wolf pack behind you or one or two guys, it's really a completely different deal.

I think for me personally, personally, I've been enthusiastic about in that position. I realize I've played well to acquire there, so just attempting to perform same things I did to have there and hopefully it will be enough.