Golf Year in Review from Golf Lessons Online

SITD WebBanner RealityOfPuttingRev Golf Year in Review from Golf Lessons OnlineGreetings from your home for golf lessons online.

Well the 2011 Golf Season has come and gone and I just wanted to give you my take on the season that was.  So here are my favorite and notable memories of the 2011 Golf Season around the world.

The Majors are always my favorite tournaments and this year they had a little something for everyone.  The Masters looked like it was going to be a runaway victory for Rory McIlroy until he collapsed on the back nine at Augusta to let all kinds of other contenders back in.  A brilliant round by Charl Schwartzel including birdies on the final 4 holes gave him a victory that likely didn’t get the credit it deserved for how fantastic he finished.  Proving that there really is no point in getting down on yourself for losing Rory McIlroy went on to win the US Open in convincing fashion and foreshadowing to the world that he may be the next great one to take over from Tiger Woods.  The Open Championship (which we over here refer to as The British Open) gave us a stunning and heartfelt victory for Darren Clarke.  He played brilliantly, especially in the last round under typical Open conditions of rain and wind to win by 3 strokes over Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.  Anyone who knows a little about Darren Clarke’s life can’t help but cheer for this victory for self-proclaimed ordinary “fat” golfer from Ireland.   And finally the PGA Championship had a great story of it’s own with Jason Dufner coming so close to his biggest win ever before falling in a three hole playoff to Keegan Bradley who won his first major and was busy proving this year that he is a significant player in the world of golf.

Among other notable events of 2011:

Luke Donald became the first player in history to win both the US PGA money title and the European Order Of Merit in the same year.  Really a tremendous acomplishment showing extreme consistency every time he tees it up and secured him the Number One spot in the World Golf Rankings going into 2012.  The question now will be can he win a major!

Adam Scott had a big year, highlighted by his biggest career victory to date at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.  Unfortunately for him the win was overshadowed by a petty and vindictive display by his new caddie, Steve Williams, who seemed intent on making that day more about him than about his player.

In the President’s Cup matches the US handily defeated the International Squad at Royal Melbourne.  The big news was Tiger seemingly finding some game again and streadily getting better as the week went on.  The Internationals couldn’t match the quality of golf that the US brought and notably had a couple of hometown Australian players having disappointing performances.

Speaking of Tiger Woods he actually got back in the winners circle in 2011 at his own Chevron World Challenge.  While it is a significant accomplishment and may signal a return to form it has to be noted that Animal Kingdom beat more horses in the Kentucky Derby than players Tiger beat at this “silly season” pre-holiday tournament.

Sergio Garcia also had some very good results in 2011; most notably back to back wins in tournaments in his native Spain in the fall.  Here’s hoping that he has put his game back together and has found something in his putting to be a consistent challenger again in the majors.

In contrast to the unexciting  President’s Cup finish, the Ladies Solheim Cup matches were absolutely phenomenal.   The US and European ladies gave us a terrifically exciting event and a finish that hung in the balance right until the end with the European Ladies coming up big down the stretch and winning huge points in a series of matches that weren’t decided until the final hole or two.  Congratulations to the golfers on both sides for terrific and classy play that again points out how women professional golfers don’t get near enough credit or viewers for their high caliber of play.

Bill Haas generated some great drama as well for us during the Fedex Cup finale.  Just when it seemed that he was out of contention during a playoff against Hunter Mahan in the Tour Championship by hitting into the water on a par 3 he pulled off the most dramatic shot of the year.  With the ball in the hazard adjacent to the green and just barely poking above the water he was able to get enough club on the ball to splash it up not only onto the green but to within 3 feet for his par to extend the playoff.  He then won the playoff on the very next hole to win not only The Tour Championship but also The Fedex Cup and it’s massive 10 Million dollar payout!

 

 

 

 

 

Luke Donald Wins Big ! Golf Lessons Online – Mental Training?

drive for show banner728x901 Luke Donald Wins Big !   Golf Lessons Online   Mental Training?
 

WOW!  Incredible golf by Luke Donald in the final round of the Children’s Miracle Network Championship at Disney including SIX birdies in a row to start the back nine and shoot a 64 to win by two.  The incredible thing is he wasn’t even going to play at Disney until it became clear a couple of weeks ago that he needed to win to earn the PGA Tour Money Title.  So he goes in knowing he needs a win and he plays a great final round to do just that.  With it he may be able to set history as the only player to win the PGA Money Title and the European PGA Order of Merit in the same year.  Fantastic stuff that rivals some of the best golf and records that  Tiger played in his prime.

Over in China Martin Kaymer shoots 9 under in his last 12 holes to card a 63 and win the WGC event sponsored by HSBC.  Incredible stuff to edge out Freddy Jacobsen who looked like he would cruise to victory.

     And great play by Sergio Garcia  to win  two European Events in Spain in a row.  I’ve never seen Sergio putt as well as he did the last couple of weeks.

         Today I wanted to highlight the use of Mental Conditioning or Mental Training to improve your golf game.  I started using this a bit last year and found some success but this fall/winter I’m really going to go full bore with a proven mental training program.  I have always been able to hit a lot of quality golf shots during a round but would usually lose focus or confidence or whatever and start to hit some terrible shots as well that would turn a really fine round into an average or worse round.  So I’m committing to the Renegade Mental Golf Program and am exciting about some excellent results that I’m already seeing.  It cost me $57 but has lots of great tools and exercises to be able to walk to the first tee no matter who you are playing against and be confident you will play your best.  Look for my review of the program in the list to the right of this article or click on this icon below to go straight to the Renegade Mental Golf program:

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Tour Championship, Solheim Cup and new stuff at Golf Lessons Online


WOW!  What Fantastic golf this weekend.  First the ladies-The Solheim Cup pitting American ladies vs Team Europe.  The final day single matches were outstanding and filled with drama.  Christie Kerr having to withdraw at the last moment due to a wrist injury set the US side on it’s heels a little but they battled back tremendously and looked like they would retain the Cup until a couple of matches turned round on  holes 16-18.  Caroline Hedwall came back against Ryann O’Toole and Suzann Pettersen birdied the last 3 holes to take a full point away from Michelle Wie.  The excitement was palpable and a great deal of credit to the US women for playing tremendous golf and showing a lot of class in defeat.  I really liked the play and tenacity of Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie and Ryan O’Toole.  Despite the loss this was possibly the best outcome that could be hoped for at The Solheim Cup, a competitive event with the Euro’s winning in close fashion will only go to strengthen the legacy of these matches in the future.

The Tour Championship and Fedex Cup:  After the excitement of The Solheim Cup I thought the men’s Tour Championship was going to be a bit anti-climatic and for a while it seemed that would be true.  But then the leaderboard was so tightly packed with Bill Haas, Jason Day, Luke Donald , and Hunter Mahan all with a chance to win that it became very compelling.  And to get to a playoff for all the marbles between Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas the interest was high but the finish was amazing.  Bill Haas hits it into the water on the second playoff hole and everyone was scrambling to figure out the Fedex Cup permutations with Hunter Mahan winning when Bill Haas hit his ball out of the water to less than 3 feet to extend the playoff and win it on the next hole.  What an amazing finish and it gave Bill Haas  The Tour Championship, The Fedex Cup with it’s $10million bonus and makes him the leading contender for Fred Couples captain pick for the Presidents Cup matches.

 Tour Championship, Solheim Cup and new stuff at Golf Lessons Online

Golf lessons online – The new Ping iPhone/iPod putter app

gsg banner3 2 Golf lessons online   The new Ping iPhone/iPod putter app

Hi everyone and welcome again to the golf lesson online review site. Home of your honest and unbiased looks at a variety of the most popular golf online lesson programs and products.

A few random thoughts I wanted to pass along.  First, being a bit of an electronic and tech addict I rushed out to get the new Ping putter cradle for their new iPhone and iPod app that records all the details of your putting stroke.  Ping has this figured out pretty good, the app is completely free from the itunes store but the cradle that mounts your iPhone (or iPod) to the putter costs about 30 bucks.  But it seemed so cool that I just had to have one so I downloaded the app to my phone, bought the cradle and mounted my phone perfectly on my putter and went off to the practice green to try it.  Well I can now tell you that I putt with a slight arc stroke, average about 2 degrees open at impact and my tempo is about 1.8 on their scale.  All of which means….?   I felt by measuring each stroke I could tell what happened when I made a good putt versus a bad one.  In truth, I can judge a good putt much more accurately by feel that by using this app, and also I found by being so conscious of my stroke and trying to repeat it so much that I became way too mechanical and hit more bad putts than good ones.  And the real kicker for me after spending the $30 was that the cradle is little more than a one piece plastic phone holder with Ping written on it.  Honestly it looks like it is worth about $5 because it’s made by Ping, I would expect any plastic manufacturer anywhere could make knock-offs for less that 2 bucks.  In fairness to Ping they say this app will be useful when choosing which one of their new putters will match your stroke best and I didn’t evaluate it for that purpose, I just wanted to see how consistent I could make my stroke and if that would show results in my putting.  Well, my opinion sadly was to return the cradle and get my $30 back because I’m a better putter without this tool than with it.

 

Congratulations to Adam Scott for his terrific play to win the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, but a big thumbs down to Stevie Williams for putting himself in front of his player and somehow making an important victory  for Scott the forgotten story.  Instead Stevie made sure this was about him saying things like:  “…I’m a pretty good front runner…” and “…this is the biggest victory of my career…”.  Right, like we all believe this was bigger than all the Masters victories or US Opens.

First of all,  last time I checked Stevie Williams hasn’t hit a six iron into the green on the 72nd hole of a tournament or sunk a putt for million dollar plus prize money.  He carries the bag and keeps his player in the game and offers advice.  Certainly I don’t want to minimize the importance caddies have to their players; most of the greatest golfers have very long standing caddie relationships but really, does anyone think that Tiger would not have one all those majors if he had some other competent and compatible caddie on his bag!  Bottom line is Tiger made Stevie Williams rich and then Tiger let him go and Williams likely has reasons to be upset about the way Tiger treated him at the end.  Personally, I don’t think that justifies him taking the spotlight away from his new player who just won the most important event of his career in convincing fashion.  I seriously question now how long this Scott/Williams team will last because Adam seems like such a classy person and I think that any sympathy that Williams was getting for being dumped by Tiger may have been hurt by him acting like a jackass on his new bosses biggest victory day!

drive for show banner728x901 Golf lessons online   The new Ping iPhone/iPod putter app

Whenever I watch the majors I get a new shot of adrenalin and motivation to kickstart my golf game to the next level. And so far for 2011 it has been going pretty well, I have been using techniques from both “The Simple Golf Swing” where I upgraded to their video lessons and from the World Class “Drive for Show” series. After only about 2-3 weeks of implementing these changes, I have really improved my alignment and swing plane and started to lengthen my swing with confidence to give me back a lot of the distance that I thought age was taking away. My last couple of rounds have me hopeful that some added length off the tee and consistency with my irons and scoring clubs will really help lower my golf scores. (Last 4 rounds shot 84, 79, 82 and 80-which are all better than my normal rounds earlier that ranged from the mid 80′s to low 90′s).  And there are still a couple more of the golf lessons online products that I have found to be terrific but I really want to focus on only doing one or two programs at a time so I can really groove the changes in.

And I’d also like to let you all know that the feedback I’m receiving on the reviews for 2011 has been very good. Seems like the most popular products to buy judging from all the feedback I’ve gotten have been The World Class “Drive for Show” and “The Simple Golf Swing”. I’m not surprised considering that when I reviewed all 60 products these two plus “The Reality of Putting with Steve Elkington were right near the top of my list of products that really gave me great instruction and good value for the amount I spent.

Finally, I do have a favor to ask of all of you. Please review as many of the posts I have below on this site to see how the review process is done and why you get only honest and unbiased reviews of golf lessons online products. And if this does help you decide to buy any of the products would you please make sure you use the menu on the right and go through the links on this site to get the information on each product-this really does help us keep this site current and make sure the feedback stays helpful for all of us golfers. You also receive some extra bonuses that you wouldn’t get otherwise and I am always trying to increase the number and quality of the bonus products that we have to give away.

Thanks and enjoy your golf ! Don

-”The Reality of Putting with Steve Elkington”SITD WebBanner RealityOfPuttingRev Golf lessons online   The new Ping iPhone/iPod putter app

Masters Week from golf lessons online review site

Hi, what a great week for sports fans of all types and here at golf lessons online things are really starting to heat up on the golf beat. There’s the start of the MLB regular season, the NHL and NBA are gearing up to the playoffs, March Madness NCAA concludes with a championship game, and closest to my heart-The Masters Tournament.

When I was in Vegas at the start of the year I was able to get some good odds for Graeme McDowell to win the Masters (around 40 to 1 I think), so I’m sticking with him as my pick. Excited to announce that I’ll be on Twitter, tweeting reports on the Masters so follow me here if you want to stay up to date on what’s happening at the tourney: http://twitter.com/qualcomllc . (That’s providing I can figure out the whole Twitter thing!)

Thanks for your consideration and good golfing, have a great spring and enjoy the Masters! Don

Golf lessons online – unbiased and honest reviews.

Hi golfers, Don here,  welcome to our new and improved Golf Lessons Online Review site.  Also known as “Is that golf swing instruction  program or golf swing lessons product really worth the money I’m about to spend on it !” My goal here is to give you quick details and my opinion about many of the latest and most popular golf instruction or golf lessons online programs.  Read my “About me” page to find out how long I’ve been doing this and I hope you find this the best place to look for honest and unbiased quick reviews on the golf training aids in the marketplace for 2011.

We see alot of these products available today and it’s often hard to differentiate which ones are best when many advertise the same things:  …”lower your score by 7-12 strokes”;  “…break 80 the easy way”‘; “…never miss another 3 foot putt”; and so on.  How can you pick the best program to help the golf swing?  Well, what I’ve done is to review about 60 of the latest products out there in the past year-I’ve done many by myself and many with other golfers I trust who review things the same way I do, and I oversee all the reviews.  We do this by actually purchasing the product and then following it exactly as it’s laid out to see if it really does what it claims.  The gold standard of my review process is based on VALUE. Some of these programs are less than $20 and some might be over $100, but regardless I evaluate to see: 1) Does the product actually work?  2) Is it good value for the amount I spent on it?  Basically if a golf lessons online program can answer yes to both these questions then we’ll recommend it to you.

Well, after quite a bit of time reviewing all 60 products, there ended up being only about 10 or 12 that I can honestly recommend.   Some of the 60 or so golf lessons online programs are just plain bad or don’t come close to give you value for the money spent.  Some are actually a bit laughable; so we’ve filtered through all the programs that promise “the perfect golf swing” and arrived here.  What you’ll find here are only the programs and products that we recommend based on our unbiased reviews; (I don’t have the time or money to fight off the legal teams of those other products that we’d have to publically criticize or ridicule.)

I’m guessing you came here because you are looking to improve your golf game and like me you’re willing to spend some good practice time to get alot more consistent and play better golf.  I think that’s the bottom line for all of us.  We want to enjoy our golf more and get more out of our golf game.  So go ahead and check out the golf lessons online programs and products we’ve recommended.  Remember that all the products you’ll find in the menu bar on the right are recommended.  (My personal favorites on the recommended list so far were:  “The Simple Golf Swing” and “The Reality of Putting” with Steve Elkington and the “Drive for Show” program).  But it does depend on what area of your game you are looking to improve and all of the golf lessons programs that we list are very good.  We will continue to add items to the recommended list as we find new ones that meet our criteria.

I hope you enjoy looking through our reviews and hope you find something that interests you, thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll bookmark this site and come back often.  If there are any new products you would like us to review in the future drop me an e-mail and I might be able to look at the product later this season.

Thanks, and good golfing !  Don Stewart

Golf Lessons Online Review – Do I really need that golf instruction aid?

     Hello, Don here, thanks for visiting the new and improved version of the Golf Lessons Online Review site. If you have read the “About me” page you’ll know that I’ve been providing honest and unbiased reviews of the latest and most popular golf instruction aids, online golf lessons, golf swing instruction programs and numerous other products you may find that promise to improve your golf game. Golf has been a passion of mine for over 30 years and I’ve been reviewing many of these products for over 15 years now. This 2011 website is completely updated with the most recent products and we’re very excited to bring these reviews to you. Among the new products is a new putting system from Steve Elkington that I was really impressed with. To access the reviews simply see the menu bar on the right and if you don’t feel like reading blogs such as this, go ahead and start looking and good luck in your quest to improve your golf.
     But alas, along with some very promising online golf lesson programs also come alot of duds. I know it seems like common sense but don’t you think that when someone comes out with the latest E-Book promising the perfect golf swing that they could at least use a spell checking tool! You really wouldn’t believe the number of products that we get to look at that seem like they were written or recorded in somebody’s basement. Now that doesn’t mean that these products won’t work. In fact I did find one gem of an E-Book series that really can help the short game. And that’s precisely what we try to accomplish-to separate the wheat from the chaff so that whichever online golf lesson program you are considering we will point out its strengths and weaknessesso you can hopefully make a better decision about whether it’s worth your money. You will find out that I am very value oriented – many of the products we recommend will be much less than $100. Including a fantastic deal on a complete set of DVD’s, books and bonuses that is easily worth a couple of hundred dollars but is marked down to under $70 and I’ll give you a secret tip to save $40 so you could get it for under 30 bucks! It really is one of the best buys when it comes to golf lessons online or golf instruction aids. For a product over $100 to get a positive recommendation it has to really be something special since I still think that spending a significant amount of money might best be put towards golf lessons from a certified teaching professional.
     What you won’t find here is reviews of the worst golf online lesson programs. Not because I wouldn’t love to have a little fun showing just how incredibly laughable and bad some products are but because I’m not part of some big company with a legal department and the like. So I do have to be a little careful about one of these marketing companies coming after me after a strongly negative review.   So, sorry to say I can’t have fun telling you about the guy who’s incredible program included a chance to win an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 Masters. I’m guessing one of his bonuses is a time travel machine to go back in time!
     We’ve actually reviewed some 60 different golf instruction aids or online golf lesson programs for 2011 and I feel very confident in saying that we’ve come up with a list of the dozen or so best ones.

     So thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the honest and unbiased reviews of online golf lesson programs and golf training aids. Feel free to add this site to your favorites so you can check back for updates. And, good luck in that elusive search we all have for the perfect golf swing.

Enjoy your golf !  Don Stewart

Launch of improved Golf Lessons Online Review Site

Hi there, well it’s finally here , the launch of the new Golf Online Lessons Review site. We are busy putting the final touches on all of the golf instruction programs that will be featured here. The official release date for all the reviews of the swing instruction products that promise the “perfect golf swing” is set for March 15, 2011. A few weeks before the Masters tournament (which is really the official start of spring for the golf world) and just in time for all of us in the northern half of the country to be thinking about dusting off the old clubs.
Whether it’s golf lessons online, golf swing tips, golf instruction aids or just golf swing drills, we are very excited to be bringing you a lineup of reviews of the hottest and most current products available for 2011. It looks like we’ll have reviews on about a dozen of the most popular online golf lessons and programs available today. Among the products you will be finding reviews on are: The Break Par Blueprint, Better Golf Right Now, Renegade Mental Golf, World Class Golf Coaching Program, The Golf Swing Secret, 5 Keys to long Distance, the Golf Swing Speed Challenge, How to Break 80, Swing Man Golf, Chipping Fundamentals E-Book, and The Reality of Putting. Plus we will be adding more reviews as new products come to market. And if there are any products you think are interesting you can always email us with suggestions.
If you happen to be reading this in early March and are ready to buy one of these products and the reviews haven’t been posted in the menu on the right then all I would say is WAIT! Really, another few days shouldn’t make the difference and by checking out the honest and unbiased reviews we have here you might save yourself some money. But if you happen to be reading this after March 13, 2011 and the reviews are posted for any or all of the golf lessons online or golf instruction programs in the menu to the right then rest assured that they are current and up to date.
If you haven’t read my previous blogs check out the “About me” page to see how we come up with the golf lessons online reviews. And remember the prime consideration is that you receive good value for any money you spend because if you’re like me you will be willing to commit time to your golf game as long as you can see improvement in your golf swing, short game, putting, or whatever you decide to work on.
Good golfing! Don Stewart

Welcome to Golf Lessons Online Review

Hello, Don here and welcome to the new and revamped Golf Lessons Online Review site. I hope that you will all find this to be the first and best place to come for golf swing instruction and golf training aids and programs. The goal is simple: we will provide you with honest and unbiased review opinions on the latest and most popular golf instruction programs found online. Once you check out our comprehensive review of the golf instruction programs that we feature here,  you will be able to better decide if it is the right golf swing instruction program for you.

Lets face it, there are alot of these programs available today on the internet and some of them promise the perfect golf swing all for 3 easy payments. In our experience at least half (and that is being generous to the marketers of these programs) offer very little value to the golfer. If you want to learn how to play golf or how to improve your golf swing there are a few common sense things to consider before you spend any money. First, actual in person lessons given by a qualified PGA teaching professional are always a great idea. Secondly, there have been many great golf instruction books and manuals written that are available and can give some great guidance. Notable authors that I recommend are Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus; the books may be a bit old but the advice is timeless. And finally, the wealth of materials and programs found online offer some tremendous opportunities to golfers of all ages and levels to improve their golf swings and enjoyment of the great game. But, the double edged sword of course is that there is alot of chaff among the wheat on the internet.

This is where we come in at the Golf Lessons Online Review site. We filter through many of “the perfect golf swing” promises out there and give you only honest and unbiased advice on the pros and cons of the golf swing instruction programs before you invest any money in them. Is that E-Book worth $15.00? Is that 12-DVD set a good value at $127.00?  We all want to improve our golf games and there are many online golf instruction programs out there that can help a great deal if you know which ones are the best value! And that’s where we focus-is there good value for the dollars you may decide to spend-because if not, you may as well keep your money and spend it at the golf course.

Good golfing! Don

Hey if you want to check out my golf review services or if you prefer to look for a local Certified Golf Teaching Professional instead, you can also do it by clicking here Golf lessons online and visiting Thumbtack which is a great new service to find local businesses close to you!