But at the end of the day it was only good enough to get Oosthuizen into a playoff with Bubba, who made a shot even more dramatic.  Watson hit into the trees on the second playoff hole and appeared to be in big trouble.  After seeing Oosthuizen come up just short of the green with his approach Bubba hit one of the most amazing shots ever seen.  He found an opening through the tree and hit a wedge through the gap that hooked some 30 yards right and landed middle of the green and spun to within 15 feet of the hole!   Even jack Nicklaus has commented  “That will go down as one of the great shots ever played in the game.”

Just a quick post to update this phenomenal accomplishment for the 23 year old.  Rory used a stellar short game where he seemed to get up and down at least 8 times on his final 18 to shoot a 1 under score on a very challenging PGA National golf course at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  What made it even more impressive was staring at a leaderboard that showed Tiger moving up to second place in the tournament with a 62.  Quite likely Tiger’s most impressive round of golf in several years and definitely a warning to all the other players that Tiger is back!

With his win Rory takes over the coveted number 1 world ranking and it may signal an era where it looks like competitive golf is very much alive and well and it will take excellent play for anyone else to overtake him in the next few years.  Rory becomes the second youngest player to hold the #1 ranking (after Tiger woods of course).  With so many good players seeming to be hitting their stride this looks like a very interesting few weeks shaping up with next weeks World Golf Championship at the Blue Monster at Doral and the Masters only a few weeks away.  Be interesting to see if Phil can get in the mix again when he tees it up with these guys.  Another great sidenote was the terrific play of the journeyman Tom Gillis who made a great birdie putt on the last hole to finish tied 2nd with Tiger and earn himself a substantial payday.

With the start we’ve had so far to the golf year things are shaping up to be very exciting!!!

Good golfing,  Don

To recap so far there have been three winners crowned who, respectively, found themselves 8, 7 and then 6 shots back of the lead entering the last round of play.  Most phenomenally was the win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open by Kyle Stanley who started the last day 8 shots back of the 3rd round leader Spencer Levin.  What is spectacular about that comeback was that just 7 days earlier Kyle Stanley lost at Torrey Pines in a playoff to Brandt Snedeker who started the last round 7 shots back.  The collapse by Stanley was complete when he took an 8 on the 72nd hole to fall into the playoff.  Any of us who have swung a club in any type of competitive match could feel his pain.

Recently the first really big event of the year was the WGC Match Play event at a gorgeous course just outside of Tucson, AZ.  I’ve played the course at Dove Mountain before and absolutely love it.  It looked through the week like Lee Westwood was the most dominant player but in the end Hunter Mahan defeated Rory McIlroy in the final to be crowned champion.  And very deserved as Mahan ended up birdieing almost half of his holes in the last 2 1/2 rounds he played.  Amazing stuff!

And not to be outdone there was another fantastic finish at The Mayakoba Classic in Mexico.  It didn’t get much attention as it was opposite the WGC Match Play event so there is certainly a diluted field but it was a terrific ending.  Veteran Robert Allenby unfortunately stumbled to a double bogey on his last hole to fall into a playoff with rookie John Huh who had finished much earlier in the day.  The playoff went 8 very tense holes where each player had chances to win but in the end the rookie prevailed and John Huh is the newest winner on the PGA Tour!

Greetings 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!

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:

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.

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!

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”

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

     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