Valentine's Day Special
Our Valentine's Day package is back!  From February 1st-14th, you can purchase 4 Anytime Rounds for just $100.  Makes a great gift for you or your loved one. 

*Limit 2 packages (8 rounds) per customer.

PGA Tri-Cities Chapter Expo will be held at the Meadowview Conference Center on February 26th from 10am to 5pm.  Discounted Rounds and Merchandise will be available!  We hope you can attend and stop by our booth.

Thacker Dominant in Football League Finale

After two long months of waiting out the weather, the Superbowl was finally held on January 29th.  J. Thacker and the Dallas Cowboys defeated K. Riner and the Indianapolis Colts 82 to 67 to take home the inaugural title.  Congrat-ulations to both of them for a terrific season!

Football League participants will compete in a "Tough Man" tournament on February 5th to determine the superior conference between the CNFC and CAFC.  Thacker and Riner will be captains for each side.

Plan Your Trip to the Final Four!

We would like to invite you to participate in the inaugural March Madness league. 

Just fill out your bracket and play golf! 

Starting March 1st, play as many times as you can, front or back nine.  We will count the best score for each hole.  Bogeys are worth 1 point, Pars 2, Birdie or better 3 points.  Your golf points plus points awarded for bracket wins de-termines your total score for that round. 

Divisions are separated by handicap.  Prizes will be determined by field size.

Sign up today!

Golf Tip of the Month

Beware the Vultures
By Adam Dean, Assistant Professional

As the 2011 golf season approaches, manufacturers are gearing up to increase the sales of their new product lines.  Golf technology has increased rapidly over the last two decades, and there are many great new products out there - mostly by well-known golf companies like PING, Titleist, and Callaway.

The new year also gives the vultures an opportunity to take advantage of un-suspecting golfers with claims of more yardage, more spin, and lower scores. 

A full array of clubs, balls, accessories, training aids, and even new swings will be unveiled over the course of the season.  Many of these are outstanding, but there are also those which are unbelievable.

So how can you tell the difference between the real deal and the gimmicks?  Well, the best way is to examine the claim.  If the product makes a reasonable claim to improve your accuracy or score, it may be worth a shot.  If the claim is outlandish, you can be sure that they only want your money. 

Golf technology is so advanced and the competition so close between the top companies that most new ideas have been tried.  Therefore any product that claims to have a giant advantage should be avoided.

For example:  if a new putter claims to cut your putting strokes in half, forget about it.  Only you can accomplish that goal, and it will take a lot of practice (and may be im-possible.)

Yardage is the most popular claim.  You will never add significant yardage with a new driver head, unless you currently use something from the 1980s.  In fact, a properly fitted shaft does far more for your distance than a head design.

Perhaps my favorite gimmick from the past couple of years is the "stack-and-tilt" swing.  From what I have been able to gather, there are currently two versions of the stack-and-tilt.  One version keeps your weight centered over the ball; the other emphasizes a circular swinging motion as opposed to swaying.

Both methods are flawed in their own way.  The no-weight-shift approach is something that you won't find in any other sport.  Can you imagine a quarterback keeping his weight centered as he tries to throw, or a baseball player trying to hit a pitch without stepping into it?  Sure they can both propel the ball forward, but they will never get the best result.  If you analyze tour players who "made the switch," you will invariably see weight shift, which is why they can still hit the ball 300+ yards.

On the other hand, the circular swinging approach is something that is already taught by virtually every PGA Professional.  The idea is simply to shift your weight by turning your hips is a circular motion instead of sliding them backward and forward.  While this may give the appearance of "keeping your weight centered," there is a definite shift.  So what are they selling?

It is always a good idea to consult one or several PGA Professionals before investing in any expensive new equipment or swing phi-losophy.  This will save a lot of time and money over the years.