Jim McLean apparently is endorsing this new golf training device, which uses audio feedback to let a golfer know when the swing is on plane. The Swing Flutter attaches to a attaches to your golf shaft and apparently makes distinctive sounds depending upon how it is swung. Interestingly, there’s not a picture of the thing on their whole website. Makes me wonder if its so simple to reproduce that you wouldn’t have to shell over the $29.95 to get one.

SwingFlutter.

Update: You can get the 2007 Calendar here: Sophie Sandolo 2007 Calendar Update: You can find information on Sophie Sandolo’s 2006 calendar here. I get a USGA calendar every year with my membership. I’ve also gotten golf calendars from various relatives. But NOTHING like this one. Sophie Sandolo is a player on the European Ladies Tour. With six top ten appearances, she’s no Anna Kournikova, but its still a bit much from a lower-tier player. But then, if you’re a lower tier player, maybe this is what you have to do to make a living. You can read a more detailed article here. If you want a little cheesecake with your golf, but your better half won’t let you have the Sandolo calendar, you could try Natalie Gulbis’ less revealing one, which you can get at Its Already Signed 4 U.

US Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman has selected Corey Pavin and Loren Roberts to serve as co-captains for the 2006 event. I don’t think it’s going to help. As Jamie Diaz noted in a recent issue of Golf Digest, US players are slowly being eclipsed by international stars. Twenty six of the 48 PGA events last year were won by non-US players. And, Diaz says, after the big three of Mickelson, Woods and Love, the rest of the top players are “plodders” who “ply their trade on a tour that rewards middling finishes with riches.”

I posted similar thoughts earlier this year. I maintain that the selection system is broken, and that the captain—or captains—should be free to pick young, hungry players, instead of jaded pros for whom second ... or fifth ... or twentieth ... in a regular tournament is ok becuase it means a decent payday.

Here’s a one page summary of this week’s Sony Open, which is notable for its prime-time coverage, and the participation of teenage phenom Michelle Wie.

When I want to practice putting indoors, more often than not, I use the “upside down cup” method. I set a plastic cup on the carpet and aim at that. But if you want to go high end, The Links Putt system is the thing for you. The company says that:

The 3 metre long, fully portable green weighs only 17kg and is also available in 4 and 5 metre lengths, with the polypropylene fibre surface rolling the ball at 9 to 10 on the stimp meter, in keeping with the average speed of putt on British courses. The surface is supported by interlocking, lightweight EPP (expanded polypropylene) panels, providing a smooth but easily portable base. The real science of the design comes to bear in the contouring element of the putting green, which allows the golfer to create 15 basic contour options, with thousands of others achievable. Straight uphill or downhill, left or right breaks, valleys, rollovers and any permutation of these can be practiced at will.

  I’m interested in what you have to say! Add your own review by clicking on the comments link below.

I found this surfing the web, and had a couple of thoughts. First of all, this has got to be one of the most unfortunate names for a putter I’ve ever heard. Imagine pulling it out of your bag, when one of your partners asks “Hey, what kind of a putter is that?” And then, you’ve got to say “Its a Feelgood.”

Not good.

Second, I wonder if it’s legal. I was under the impression that putters had to be wider than they are deep.

Still, it’s an interesting variation on where putters seem to be going these days. Put as much mass as possible low and back behind the strike point. Earlier this year, I wrote about a less unfortunately named, and legal, putter using this principle here.

The major US golf organizations, including the USGA, PGA Tour, PGA of America, LPGA and Augusta National have pledged to work with former President George Herbert Walker Bush to offer funds for relief in the southeastern Asia tsunami disaster. Bush, Sr., an avid golfer, has been asked by current President George W. Bush to work with former president Bill Clinton to raise private US donations.

The Bush family’s connections to golf go way back. The “Walker” in both President Bushs’ name is for George H. Walker, former USGA president and namesake of the Walker Cup. George H. Walker was the current president’s great grandfather. President Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush,  also had served as USGA president.