The IGN Network has a new review of the Tiger Woods 2005 game for Playstation. I was impressed by the 2004 version, which I bought midway through last year. This one is supposed to have taken the best features of that and made them even better.

I did a demo with the Callaway Fusion Irons the other day at a local golf shop. And although I (obviously) didn’t play a round with them, I’ll give my first impressions.

When I first picked them up, the clubs felt light to me. I suppose that the graphite shafts and the composite parts of the head were responsible for that. However, with a couple of practice swings, the light feeling went away. They felt fine. Better than fine. I thought that I could “feel” the clubhead extremely well.

Unlike many previous offerings from Callaway, these clubs have a nice, precise look at setup. The topline is much thinner-looking than the bloated Big Bertha irons. I’ve never bought into the idea that a larger topline inspires confidence. They just look like bricks on sticks.

I was able to cleanly pick the ball off the astroturf from the very first swing. Ball flight was about what I wanted—not too high, with good distance (for me, about 155 with a 6 iron). The feel at impact also was very nice—every bit as nice as my graphite shafted forged irons.

Now, being very hard of hearing, I can’t accurately tell you what they sounded like, but the proshop guy asked me what I thought of the sound. So I have to assume that they either sound perfectly normal, or that there’s something weird going on that I couldn’t hear.

All in all, I think that these clubs bear looking into. If you’re gong to get a new set this year, you should take a look at these.

It doesn’t happen very often, but a man on a Texas course was killed after being struck by a golf ball. It’s a warning that we should remember to stay well behind the person hitting the ball.

Story here.

Here’s an end of the week golf joke for you:

A young man had recently joined a new golf club and after a couple of weeks of playing the course was looking for some action. That’s when noticed the Oldest Member.

Aha, thought the Newest Member. I’ll bet I can win some money off this guy.

He strikes up a conversation with the Oldest Member who very candidly reveals that he has a good game, but has trouble getting out of deep bunkers.

At this point, the Newest Member thinks that he has the old guy, since the course is full of deep pot bunkers.

The two agree to a match and a bet, and tee off.

After the front, the two are all square. The Oldest Member isn’t long off the tee, but he is very straight, and his wedges and putting are deadly. He had gotten into a couple of shallow bunkers, but managed to escape them very well.

That’s ok, thought the Newest Member. The worst of the pot bunkers are on the back nine.

The match stayed even through the next eight. Each man played his own game, and managed to keep pace with the other. Finally, on the last hole, the Oldest Member fell short on his approach shot and landed in the deepest bunker on the course—known as THE WELL.

Knowing that he had the Oldest Member right where he wanted him, the Newest Member hit a safe shot short of the green and the bunker, and then pitched the ball onto the green. One putt for par; two for bogey at worse. Either way, the old guy was stuck in THE WELL.

Gingerly, the Oldest Member worked his way down the sides of the bunker. He took his stance, and then hit an almost vertical shot, which cleared the steep walls, landed softly on the green and rolled into the cup for a birdie.

Stunned that he had lost the match, the Newest Member said: “I thought you had trouble getting out of the deep bunkers.”

“I do,” replied the Oldest Member. “Give me a hand. I can’t get out of this thing on my own.”

A company in Tempe, Arizona called Engineering Science Analysis Corp., is now applying its aerospace expertise to the golf world. Engineering Science will use its computer simulation models to test various clubhead designs before even a prototype is built. The programs will account for

materials, loft and lie angle, size and launch angle of a clubface, spring-like effect and center of gravity. With that information, they can determine the forward, lateral and vertical speed the club will produce, and spin rate, which results in hooks and slices.

“We can even tune the acoustics so that the club produces a certain sound when the ball is struck,” said ESA Vice President of Engineering Carl J. Poplawsky, “and we can do it without going through the entire process of building the club first. What we do is compress product development.”

Within a matter of hours, club specifications can be changed to predict the performance of a different model. The simulations also have been useful in expanding the “sweet spot” of clubs, which makes them perform better on off-center hits.

Its amazing stuff. The full story is here.