Ridiculous golf item of the week. Its at Golfsmith.

Battery Operated Windmill Ball Return

The Swing Setter by David Leadbetter is the latest device that promises to fix your swing faults.

I tried it out at Golfsmith on Saturday, and I’m not sure that I get it. It has a molded grip to help you set your hands, and a couple of magnetized weights set at either end. The upper weight apparently is supposed to release when you set your hands in the proper position at the top of the swing, and the other is supplsed to release when you release your hands at the bottom.

I think.

I’m not sure what this teaches you that the more venerable Medicus Dual 2000 doesn’t.

Heh. Heh. You can use this Drink Caddie to sneak your own beverages onto those courses that charge you an arm and a leg for drinks, but that prohibit you from bringing your own.

Strike Alert

Grade A

I seriously believe that this is one device that every serious golfer needs to have—especially if you play those more modern courses where the paths take you far, far from the clubouse. On several courses that I play regularly here in Michigan, the holes are so isolated amidst vast forests that you couldn’t hear a warning siren if your life depended on it—and it does.

The Strike Alert has two kinds of alarms—an audible one (which I can’t really hear) and a visual one in the form of a series of lights across the top of the pager-like device. The lights tell you whether there has been a strike, and the number of miles away.

It clips easily either on your belt, or on your bag.

I’m not sure how it works, but I know that it does. I was playing on my favorite northern Michigan course on a marginal weather day when I noticed the lights signaling that there had been a strike within 6 miles. So I hurried in (I walk, and it was a ways back.) I no sooner had come in sight of the clubhouse than the course’s alert siren went off.

I have also use it to monitor the course on any number of bad weather days while coaching high school golf.

Its been a good buy. You can get it at Golfsmith.

This has to be the goofiest training aid I’ve ever seen. I have no idea how it could possibly help you—even if you are a fan of A.J.

AJ Golf DaBat

The Synca Swing Analyzer is a device that clamps on to your golf shaft and electronically records data about the timing of your golf swing. You can then later dump the data from the device into your PC for analysis.

It looks like a good idea, but I wonder if the weight of the device on the shaft wouldn’t, in and of itself, throw off your timing.

The humble tee has gone through a lot of tinkering lately. One of those that I’ve written about before is the Brush-T.

Now the Sabre Tee comes along.

The idea of this is that it positions the ball back away from the stem of the tee,  allowing you to hit the ball first before hitting the tee. The manufacturer claims this offers less resistance and greater distance. Its also got a tether cord so you don’t lose the things. (This is a good idea. A couple of years ago, I bought some newfangle plastic tees that I promptly lost when they popped into the air after I hit them.)

I guess that the tee is the last frontier of golf technology.