Golf is Hard TV

Sitting here trying to get excited about watching the 2nd round of whatever tournament they are playing this week on Tour. Mickelson (Phil, I think), isn’t even on page two of the leaderboard, yet during his interview after the second round he’s talking about how he can come back to win. The Tour is doing everything possible to create drama, and ratings…Tiger, please come back soon!!

There is much hype and drama being created here at GIHTV however. In addition to offering new, cool and helpful golf products in 2010 at a substantial discount from retail, we will be giving away a limited number of some items on the last Sunday of the month in which we introduce them. This is what will become famously known as the Sunday Scramble.

The Sunday Scramble is not:

• Steve Stricker trying to get up-and-down on Sunday to win a tour event
• A weekend tournament at your local club
• The guys trying to get out of the house after a day of watching football before your wife (or husband) gets home from shopping
• Peyton Manning trying to escape the pocket before being crushed by New Orleans linebackers

The Sunday Scramble is:

• A regular feature on www.golfishardtv.com where we GIVE AWAY cool new golf products, and/or offer them at substantial discounts, beginning the last Sunday of every month starting in March
• The first piece of equipment is the new Heavy Putter http://www.heavyputter.com/, free to the first 10 GIHTV fans that answer really tough (not) trivia questions (you will be able to purchase them here thereafter as well).
• A way to show off to your friends that you are hip to the latest in equipment, apparel, gadgets and the best golf websites

What you should do now:

Stay tuned for details about the big Heavy Putter giveaway and tell your friends what we are up to. GIHTV in 2010 will be very exciting and informative, don’t miss our weekly videos…beginning soon!

Oh…and good luck!

Tags: golf giveaways, http://www.heavyputter.com/, new golf products, putters, Sunday Scramble// Category Golf Equipment, Golf is Hard TV, Uncategorized // Add Comment »

It’s season 2 of Golf is Hard TV! We kick off the new season with some chatter about Tiger, the new grooves and generally catch up with you. We’re are excited for season 2! Look for a future blog post that will highlight some of the top shows form season 1 (2009) and lots more to come. Meanwhile, catch up with us right now and help celebrate season 2 of Golf is Hard TV!

We talk a little about Tiger, tell us what you think by leaving a comment, or take our quick poll.

Tags: grooves, season 2, Tiger Woods// Category Golf is Hard TV // 1 Comment »

For the average golfer, I’m wondering if all this talk (and sales of new clubs) of the new groove specification  is even worth a blog post. Probably not, as you are about to find out.

I’ve read 2  or 3 forgettable articles about the new grooves and listened to some talking heads on The Golf Channel yap about how our favorite PGA players will have to adjust quickly. True as that may be, I’m afraid that it’s a bunch of hype for us average and  high handicap golfers.

I’ve spent way too much time obsessing over which clubs I wanted to buy, which balls to hit and whether I’ll go with a cap or a visor, and which brand or logo’d shirts to go with for a given round.

I’m going to make the bold statement, right here on Golf is Hard TV that grooves are simply not something that average golfers need to concern themselves with. Not now, not tomorrow and if we know what’s best for us, not ever.

Why in the world would we want to make golf HARDER? I’m in favor of making golf easier. Shorter holes, flatter greens, bigger driver heads and cheaper beers and burgers at the 19th hole. Those are the things I think are groovy…

Got anything to say about the new grooves? Leave a comment!

Tags: grooves, irons// Category Golf Equipment // Add Comment »

Ok… you can just ignore this.. the gnomes (err, the groundhogs) are doing some maintenance and are upgrading the blog to a new version (Wordpress 2.9.1) and testing some new cool plug-ins… if it worked, you are reading this!

If it worked, this post should also show up auto-magically on tumblr, Twitter and Delicious! Let’s hope so…

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As I was thumbing through the New York times, I came across the obit section and the headline “Bill Powell, 93, Who Faced Racism With a Golf Course” caught my eye.

In reading the obituary, I was amazed to read about this man, who I had never heard of before and his love of golf. Powell was an amazing guy and certainly loved the game of golf. He died last week in Ohio after being “shunned” from the sport that he loved for more than 60 years.

According to the P.G.A, Powell was the only African-american to build, own and operate a golf course in the United States. Can that be right? What year is it again? What stunned me ever more was that Powell built his course a year before Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier and did it in an era, according to the obituary when the P.G.A.’s own bylaws prohibited nonwhites from membership.

Powell got financial help from two black physicians and a loan from a brother and bought a parcel of land. He opened a 9 hole course, then expanded to 18 later on. Clearview Golf Club of course welcomed golfers of all races. The P.G.A. should have been paying Powell for advice, even then.

I’m thrilled I stumbled on to this obituary, it’s a good reminder of the challenges we (human beings, not just one race or another) face and a better reminder of what it takes to accomplish your own goals in life. If I ever get to East Canton, Ohio, I guarantee I’ll stop by Clearview Golf Club to play a round and say hello.

RIP Bill Powell.

Tags: PGA// Category Life, PGA // 3 Comments »

First, Thanks Marc for a killer New Year’s Eve party last night, great people, great food and a house full of nice kids.

For all of you folks out there living in a cold, snowy winter climate, remember that you can continue to improve your game without even touching a club. Putt and chip around the house during the winter, exercise 3-4 times per week, stretch your golf muscles (very important), review our episodes about grip, posture, putting and chipping. Incorporate some of these thoughts and you will continue to improve your game all winter long. Oh…and as you are going to sleep, think about hitting good golf shots.

We were chatting about childhood experiences last night and after reminiscing about all the wild, crazy and at times dangerous stuff we did, the topic of golf came up. “What’s the craziest thing that you ever did on a golf course?”, Marc asked. The story I chose to tell went something like this (all names have been changed to protect the innocent):

It was a slightly warmer, sunny winter day in February back in 1985, all the snow had melted and the smell of golf was in the air (what does golf smell like in February in New England you ask? In my house it smelled like fresh pasta sauce simmering for hours with meatballs and hot Italian sausage permeating throughout…on Sundays anyway. Back to the story…there was a really nice, haughty, private country club in town that you could only play if you were fortunate enough to be a member. My friends and I were not that fortunate, but we did have the major golf itch going and our sticks were shined up and ready to go. We joked about sneaking on the play the country club, the jokes progressed to plans, which later became reality.

I don’t remember many of the shots I hit during that 7-hole round except for the 1st swing with a driver. It was 40 degrees, I was wearing a heavy jacket and hadn’t touched a club in months, I thought that just making contact would be good enough. It went about 200 yards, somewhat straight. Good enough. The adrenaline rush caused by our mis-adventure made it seem even better. Oh yeah…one other thing I will never forget, my buddy Jerry had to run off into the woods to relieve himself (I still can’t believe he had a roll of TP in his golf bag!).

Email us your golf stories folks, we will gladly publish them.

We hope your New Year is healthy and happy and you get to play a bit more golf.

Coach Dave

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This article got us a little heated today. Titled ‘Bunker Mentality‘ it’s a bit of a rant about how our president should give up golf because it’s a dying sport and that golf is somehow a “leisure activity that screams stodgy, hyperconventional Old Guard.”

Perhaps.

Here’s Golf is Hard TV’s perspective instead. Golf is anything but a dying game. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with the outdoors, friends and family. It’s about challening yourself to a crazy hard game just because. As for the President of the United States, please give the man an opportunity to focus on a small white ball once in a while, just to clear his head a little!

All that said, the article points out that “the number of Americans who golf has fallen by four million.” It also points out that “men once free to spend all weekend on the links are now expected to help shuttle the kids to soccer (excuse me… coach soccer!), walk the dog (he’s so cute!), and generally pull their weight on the home front.”

You got us there, not that there is anything wrong with paying attention to your family on a regular basis. We coach, we shuttle and we generally try to shoe-horn in our golf obsession. It is what it is we say.

As for our president, so long as it’s a balanced obsession, like ours, we say tee it up man!

// Category Golfers // Add Comment »

Dear GIHTV Fans,

We want to thank all of you for your support and loyalty throughout this incredibly remarkable year. We have made friends from around the world; more proof that golf is a sport of all ages, races, backgrounds and levels of ablility. From golf club owners, to industry folks, to beginning and advanced golfers looking for a bit of help and support, we thank you all. Hopefully we have provided insight to all.

Here are some 2009 highlights from Golf is Hard TV:

• Basement golf: putting and fundamentals made easy
• Watching golfers: a realistic look at what we are all doing out there
• Golf social networks: Marc’s opinion of the best
• Instruction: All the basics, archived on our site. More to come with real golfers
• Tashua Knolls: Our home course, interview with Bobby Brown, club fitting with
• Ron Nihoff
• Creating Passion: Teaching new golfers (Pauline and Kate), more to follow. If
• you want to be featured on this segment, let us know.
• Equipment: A look at the new Heavy Putter and interview with the inventor
• Gadgets: Our critique on funky golf items
• Q & A: Your questions, our answers

Why else do we consider this to be a remarkable year?

• Michelle Wie won
• Tom Watson didn’t, but made us all believe
• Tiger lost (dude, why did you get married? see Jeter’s website)
• The Yankees won (yay!) and the Red Sox lost (ugh!)

Things to look forward to in 2010:

• More “watching golfers”
• Creating new passioniate golfers (you are invited)
• Customized video analysis – send us your video and questions
• The “Foursome” – average guys trying to get in a round of golf
• Instruction kept simple and achievable
• New topics
• Beyond golf: max your day, keep your family happy, stay in shape, cook a great meal, get in better shape, lose weight, upgrade your tech life, have a killer lawn, coach kids’ sports, home projects, save money and tons more stuff as we think of it…

// Category Uncategorized // 2 Comments »

How did I miss this? Had you seen this? Awesome.

Tags: Awesome Stuff// Category Golf Jokes, PGA // Add Comment »

We do appreciate the guest blog post from Mikael below, more evidence as to why golf is hard, and why we as instructors can make it that much more difficult. Although some of what he offers is helpful, his “#1 Golf Tip for Beginners” actually contains so many tips and thoughts that even I was confused. This is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish here at GIHTV, which is, keep it simple and achievable. Not a slam on our guest blog, we just want our fans to be clear as to the source of instruction here at GIHTV. Be confident knowing that you can find what you need here broken down into various simple instructional episodes. Just click on the links on the left.

Marc and I are jacked to move into our second year. We have learned a ton from you and truly appreciate our thousands of fans. Keep an eye out for an interesting look at the golf world and beyond in 2010. If there is anything you would like us to address in ‘10, let us know. Send an email, comment on our site, or attach a video. We answer all.

We wish you all a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and New Year!

Thanks again for your interest in GIHTV!

Coach Dave and Marc

Tags: Season 1// Category Uncategorized // 1 Comment »