Slippery Frog

Grade: A

I'm not sure where to get this product now. I bought it as a kit a few years ago from Ralph Maltby's Golfworks, but he no longer carries it. Powerbilt also had a branded version, but it's no longer on their website.

As I said, I built it a couple of years ago, but had never really tried it until this summer. I stuck it in my bag on a whim one day, and used it five times in the first round. It's stayed in the bag for more than a month now.

The Slippery Frog is essentially a 3 wood head on a double bend putter shaft. Nice and heavy, it has a huge, polished, rounded bottom and 26 degrees of loft.

You have to park a certain amount of pride to use this club. People will look at you funny and ask "Is that legal?". It is -- or at least it was. Low handicappers will snort until they see you use it to punch a shot off a tree root flush against the trunk, under the overhaning branches to the middle of the fairway 100 yards away.

You can use this thing in dozens of different situations. Here are my favorites:

1) Chipping from the "frog hair" (hence its name). Line it up like a putter and give it a short stroke. The ball will pop up and hit the green running. The only problem may be too much backspin.

2) Punching the ball back onto the fairway from a bad lie. There's nothing worse than deciding to make the safe play -- punching the ball back onto the fairway, and then not making it. Tight lies, roots, tall grass -- all can ruin a punch. But not with the Frog. It is the safest play in the book.

3) Lobbing the ball out of a sand trap. With a full swing, I can loft this thing more than a hundred yards out of the sand.

4) Punching it out from under a tree. Deloft the thing by pressing the hands forward, move it back in your stance, and whack it seventy five yards down the fairway.

5) As a desperation move. When nothing else is working, you can't miss with this club. Becuase it's so short, it is deadly accurate, and with a full swing from the fairway, you can hit it 150 yards. I once finished the last three holes in a round using this club exclusively. Nothing else was working that day. I parred a 5, a 4 and bogied a 3. (O.K. My putter was working fine).

The only reason this thing doesn't get an A+ is that I'm not sure where you can buy it. Maybe EBay.

Grade: B

I bought the lob slider when I was having some problems with my short game earlier in the summer. I was chunking my sand wedge on those close-in shots and thought that this would help.

It did. In fact, it's nearly impossible to hit a fat shot with this thing. The ultra-wide bottom glides through grass and over dirt. It take some getting used to, but once you figure it out, it makes lob shots as easy as pie.

I'm not carrying it in my bag anymore, though. I worked out most of my problems with the sand wedge, and use my imagination to create other shots with other clubs. I use my 7 wood to do those short hops that the lob is good for, or chip with a 9 iron. If I really need to lob it, I open my sand wedge up wide open.

The lob slider is a one-trick pony. What it does, it does really well. But I require my clubs to do more than one trick. It gets a B for its lack of versatility.

Snake Eyes Compressor Fairway Wood Head

Grade: A

Fairway woods are an amateur golfer's best friend. I put together a set of 3, 5, and 7 woods with this head, using Graffaloy Attacklite Fairway Wood shafts. I used Lamkin Crossline grips.

The Compressor Fairway woods are built with the same technology as their big brother, the Compressor Driver. Based on a Zevo design, the woods are held under 12,500 psi of pressure using an internal cabling system. This is supposed to keep the head from deforming at impact.

I think the system works. I hit these fairwoods farther and more accurately than any I have tried before.   As a point of comparison, I also own a set of Adams Tight Lies GT, and have played with an number of others, including offerings from Titleist, MacGregor, Cleveland, Cobra and Golfworks.

Like their big brother, I hit the fairway woods twenty yards longer than others I have used. Unlike the driver, however, I have managed to maintain my accuracy with these throughout the season. My ideal shot -- a high fade -- has stayed with me through good times and bad. I've never been able to hit a draw with these, but that's just my swing. I'd guess that there is no draw bias at all on these clubs.

All three fairway woods hit the ball high off of nearly any lie. The 3-wood is my go-to club off the tee. I hit it as far as any driver I own (with the exception of the Compressor, which I can no longer keep in the fairway).

The three wood was the instrument of my best shot of the summer: I had 230 yards to the green on a par 5.  (I had flubbed the second shot out of the rough with a 4 iron).  The hole has bunkers guarding the left and right front, and an elevated green. I hit it solidly and in a perfect fade. It sailed left, curved back over the left bunkers, and dropped almost straight down into the hole. My third career Eagle. The greenkeeper mowing the lawn nearby applauded.

If I have any complaint about the clubs, it's that Golfsmith does not make a 9 wood in the same line. Given current trends in clubset makeup, every manufacturer -- component or OEM -- should include 9 woods as a choice.

One other complaint: the tension device screw on the bottom of the club gets gunked up with turf and dirt. I wonder why they couldn't fill the holes with some sort of plastic plug.

The lack of a matching fairway wood and the screw hole are the only things keeping these from an A+.

Snake Eyes Compressor Ti  Driver Head

Grade: Incomplete

Like most golfers, I've got a shed full of drivers. Even though I know better, I'm convinced that a new driver will produce better results.

The Fire Forged Compressor Driver is based on the old Zevo Compressor design, which Golfsmith bought last year. The head of the club is held together under 12,500 psi of compression, using an internal cable system. This is supposed to keep the head from distorting at impact, keeping the ball straighter, and transferring more energy to the ball.

I put this club together with a Snake Eyes Fire Forged driver shaft in an R Flex.

For me, the results on this club are mixed. It is certainly the longest driver I have ever hit -- at least 20 yards longer than the next longest. I attribute this to the compression technology.

However, I have had trouble developing any sort of regular tendency with it. At the beginning of the season, I hit it with a high fade -- my normal shot. Then, it was a low screamer on a rope to the left. Lately, though, I have been slicing it off the fairway; so badly, in fact, that I have abandoned it in favor of my 3 Wood.

Much of this is probably the gradual disintegration of my swing over the summer. I'm now in a phase where only my short game stands between me and quitting golf altogether. Still, the thing does not inspire my confidence.

One bad thing about it: the sound. It makes a horrible, very loud, popping sound at impact. People on the teebox one fairway over will turn around to see what happened. When struck just right, it sounds like an automobile hitting a tree. Of course, when hit just right, I hit it 280 yards.

I'm going to have to give it an "incomplete" for a grade. I think I like it, but I just don't know for sure yet.

Since thegolf season in Michigan is coming to an end, I thought I'd dedicate this week to reviewing some of the equipment that I have made and used.

Snake Eyes Strike Line OL RH Putter Head
Grade: A+

I really haven't been in the market for a new putter for some years -- ever since I bought my Scotty Cameron. But this was an unusual design. So I thought I'd give it a try. I put in a standard steel putter shaft and cut it to 36 inches. It has a Lamkin pistol style cord grip.

After two rounds, the Cameron was in the shed.

This is, without a doubt, the best putter I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot. (I like to go to Golfsmith and spend an hour or two trying every putter on the rack).  The extreme perimeter and backweighting provided by the curved steel bar keep the ball right on track. The center shaft allows me to get my head right over the ball, giving me a good view of the line.

When others have tried it, the first thing they notice is that its heavy -- really heavy. But I find that the weight encourages a smooth, shoulder driven stroke. No flipping the wrist with this brick

The wide bottom also helps. I never skid or stab with this club.

I dropped my handicap three points this summer, and I'm sure it's due mostly to my putting -- especially since my swing has gone south for the last month or so. I'm confident that if I get the ball anywhere on the green, I'm one -- at worse two putts away from the hole. Others at my club have commented on what a deadly accurate putter I am.

I don't tell them the secret.