More Golf Tips from the Northern Trust Open (with Vijay Singh)

As promised, here are some more tips from Riviera Country Club's driving range.

Today we're devoting this space to the World's Number Four golfer, Vijay Singh.

Before we begin let's talk about what people know about Vijay:

1. He practices all the time.
2. He loves to give tips to his fellow pros.
3. He seriously guards against hitting the ball to the left.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, his driver is NOT six degrees open. More like one or two, which isn't uncommon on Tour. Where this six degree open thing came from, we don't know.

His bag looked like a Cleveland Demo Day. The HiBore XL was in there, the Monster, the Launcher. Singh won with the XL last year, but it looked as though he wasn't sure which driver would make it in his bag this week.

Vijay's swing is old school. It's long and fluid, which suits his 6' 2" frame. This helps him swing like water and extend:

Check out the following two photos:

The key lesson here is how Singh's follow-through mirrors his downswing (you'll also see his follow-through match his backswing when it's halfway back). His wrists are hinged in the first photo and a millisecond from doing that in the second photo.

Note how in the second photo his right arm is starting to rotate over his left? His right hand is, as Harvey Penick would say, "shaking hands with the target." If you have trouble squaring the clubface, you need to shake hands with the target.

Above we see Singh not only taking perfect divots on Riviera's driving range, but also in a perfect position halfway back. How do we know it's perfect? His clubshaft is bisecting his bicept. Now, run to a mirror and do this so you can set your club on plane.

Singh tees off today at 12:12pm PST.

More tips from the range tomorrow.

PGA Merchandise Show Day One

Photos (and a little bit of text) from Day One of the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show:

Ashworth (recently purchased by Adidas) has a new line that's made from "High Def Cotton." What's that? Classic looking shirts/shorts with modern day materials. Here's what they look like:
Sunice (also part of the Ashworth deal) has a pretty cool feature on their Typhoon and Hurricane pants. It's an exterior club wipe near the cuff. Perfect for those wet days when you want to remove grass and mud from your clubface:

The Typhoon jacket features a removable ball wipe that tucks inside the jacket pocket. Clever, eh?
Adidas' fall '09 (I know, we're in winter, but consider this your sneak peek) collection is all about "three stripes." You'll see Sergio wear this on Tour this year.

And "Formotion," which is 95% Coolmax, 5% Lyrca. It also fits closer to your body (there's four inches less through the chest). When you see it on a hanger, it'll look kinda strange. Why? Less fabric.
Speaking of Adidas, their eyewear guru, Rocky Fresh showed me a few other Kundo models (we feature one in our Buyer's Guide, due out in early March):

And the women's Adilibria half rim shades. They come with a full custom tri-fit temple and a double snap nose bridge (SPX, not traction grip because that gets caught in women's hair and absorbs cosmetics).

There's the University Stand Bag ($125). It's small, lightweight (less than 4 lbs) and virtually indestructible.
And the Prevail cart bag ($149)...

...that can withstand an Adidas rep jumping up and down on it:

Now that's durable!

Not to mention the aG stand bag, which is a version of Sergio's tour bag. Here are the two side by side:
I never knew that the eighteen dots in Puma's golf logo represented 18 holes. Duh.

Regardless, their new duds are sure to be a hit with the hip, young golfer kids and the post J. Lindenberg crowd.
Probably the only clothes that you can wear on the course and at the club.

And who can argue with the blackjack table they had set up inside their showroom?

Sun Mountain is introducing their Micro Cart ($239) this March. It comes in four colors and features a cup, tee and ball holder.

The four-wheeler weighs just 13 pounds and folds down into 52 cubic inches

Sun Mt. also has a new stand bag, the 4.5 lb "four 5." Get it? Four. Five. If you don't, here's a blurry photo to help, um, clarify:

Cleveland Golf may have lost the Fidra brand, but that doesn't mean they're out of apparel. New this year is the Cleveland Classics line.

What's the coolest part? They're made from recycled water bottles. (Well, at least 37% of it is.) Here's another blurry photo that shows a couple of their new offerings. Next year, I'm bringing a tripod.
Other sightings at the show include Cleveland's CG14 camo wedge...

...and a camouflaged Boo Weekley

Ecco's new kicks
And the coolest electric car I've ever seen: