Clubs and Courses

The new Ping G10 drivers arrived today and are on display.

There are two models: a standard version and an offset version. Both models come in a range of loft and shaft options and priced at $299. Here is a summary of the design features:

• 460cc titanium

• Larger perimeter head size increases MOI

• Taller face profile and deeper crown

• Thin, variable face geometry

• Internal weight pad positions CG for low spin, high launch

• New PING-designed TFC129 shaft

A taller face and deeper crown produce a higher moment-of-inertia for greater forgiveness and increased ball velocity.

You can learn more about the new line by going to Ping Golf

The PGA Championship is scheduled to start Thursday at Southern Hills CC in Tulsa, OK. Tulsa in August is awful regardless of what's going on, which is either drought or drench. This year it's been drench.

So hot and steamy becomes hot and VERY steamy, and at 100 degrees predicted for all week, just watching the game will make you feel hot.

Chicago has its share of hot and steamy days in the summer—this week has been particularly bad—but temps are rarely over 90. I bet 60% to 70% of the Western Opens have occurred during mostly nice weekends. The weather for second weekend in August is even more likely to be nice, which it's predicted to be this year, too.

The PGA Championship should certainly be scheduled in Chicago more often than it is, especially since the Western Open no longer exists. There wouldn't be any problems with sponsorship, player interest, weather (most of the time) or course offerings. There are at least ten great courses in the Chicagoland area that could host the PGA Championship—and I'd include the southern end of Wisconsin to sweeten the deal.

The top players have to play the PGA Championship and will have to play it in Tulsa where heat, humidity and barometric pressure will cause the golf ball to go longer and spin less. Whether that affects scores remains to be seen. Whether the players handle the heat is another matter.

That wouldn't be an issue in Chicago.

In the July 7 edition of Golfweek I read that Russia has only 27 holes in the whole country. 27 holes!!! This is a country with 9 time zones, covering 6+ million square miles, every kind of weather and land mass you can think of, and only 1 ½ golf courses?

I don't believe it.

There are a lot of wealthy Russians who have bought up big chunks of prime real estate in London, have summer houses on the Black Sea and Golfweek is implying that these guys don't play golf? Or don't play golf in Russia? There's something fishy about this—I'd love to hear the source of this factoid. Anybody know the truth?

More numbers, no lies: In the U.S. Women's Open not a single Nike club was used, and only four players used a Nike ball. That seems amazing to me. Granted, the LPGA is losing audience left and right, and Michele Wie is still on the sidelines, but I'm shocked that Nike has no women on its tour staff. I wonder why.