Can a tee REALLY cure your slice?

THE answer is 'no', of course. An out-to-in slash across the ball will produce a slice no matter what your ball is teed up on.

Incredibly, there was a device - nothing more than a tee with a fuzzy top to it really - a few years ago which claimed it could straighten out your banana shots. We all know, though, that only a better swing can do that. There isn't really an easy answer, although drivers with off-set faces can give some assistance.

No, the only solution is lessons from your local PGA pro and subsequently plenty of work on the range.

This is where tees CAN help. Maybe not to devastating effect but, as they say, every little helps.

I was at Wentworth this week with the team who run Power Tee and a very nice day it was too. It's difficult not to have a good day there, if truth be told, but nevertheless mixing with genuine, enthusiastic and sensible people in the golf industry is rather more rare than you might think.

It was instructive as well as enjoyable. We warmed up using Power Tees, which for the uninitiated is an automatic teeing system which is used on driving ranges.

You hit your ball off a tee (which can be adjusted to four different heights) and then within seconds a new one is teed up at exactly the same height.

You never have to touch the ball, you never have to bend over to tee it up and indeed you never have to take your hands off the grip. You swing, you hit the ball, you watch the flight, you wonder what you had done correctly (or not) and then you prepare to hit another.

It is less tiring than teeing it up yourself and enhances muscle memory. So you can stand there for hours doing nothing but repeating the swing your pro has encouraged you to adopt. We all know that is how how cure a slice...

Power Tees are being installed at driving ranges up and down the country every day. it's one of those things that you can't help but feeling will become part of the golfing furniture in months and years to come.

If you want to try the system out for yourself, visit www.powertee.co.uk to find your nearest range.

By Chris Bertram

The great handicap debate

Nobody can play to their handicaps. Or at least not unless they are playing at their home course. Otherwise, short of holing out a couple of times with a five iron, it's scores of between 28 and 34 points all round.

And that's before we even start thinking about strokeplay formats.This, to me, indicates that the handicap system is unduly flattering. I don't really think the point of handicaps is to make us all think we're better than we are. Rather, they should tell it like it is.

But take the case of your average 24 handicapper. He struggles to amass 30 points all year round until it comes to the August Stableford when the sun is out, the greens are true and the fairways running.He makes a couple of birdies and a bunch of pars, for once avoiding is usual disaster holes, and runs up 46 points.

For this he gets pulled three shots.The rest of the year is spent earning 0.1s back until he eventually peaks at 24. The next month it's someone else's turn. And the one after that somebody else's still.The result? Grunts and whispers about bandits.But these people ignore the rest of the field on any given day, who are getting their customary 31 points.

So what would I do about it? Well, I'd like to see a system where a group of travelling club players could go to another course and atleast a third of them would get, say, 35 points or more.

I don't see a handicap as indicating your best-possible round, more your average one. I'm convinced this would be fairer when it came to matchplay as well.But who would go for a system which would involve almost everyone's handicap rising by at least a couple of shots?

It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas for all those ego-filled golfers no longer able to claim their Tiger or single-figure status.

So what, I say. Let's do it. And let everyone play off a handicap they have a chance of matching on more or less any given day of the year.

By Dan Murphy, editor

Handicaps - the ultimate test of vanity?

IN the offices of NCG we have our very own handicap board. It is, as you might imagine, the source of much amusement, controversy and interest.

It is regulated by Editor Dan Murphy and, it has to be said amid all the complaints, he is as honest as he is a fine judge of ability (although to be cut five strokes in one fell swoop is surely harsh?).

The handicap committee sat over the weekend after plenty of action on the course in various parts of the country produced some surprising scoring.

Feature writer Mark Townsend, usually off around 10 depending on the smoothness of his putting stroke, breezed his way around two lengthy courses in little more than three over. he then popped down to the 2010 course at Celtic Manor and hit the ball so far he had caused the design team to rethink some of the holes (that statement is, remarkably, not entirely without truth).

Others played moderately while the previous Thursday's regular match at Howley Hall had required the tweaking of a couple of more employees.

Thus, the composition of new handicap board was eagerly anticipated. It got me thinking, why?

Is it because people are desperate to get a few more strokes and help to victory the next time we play at Howley? or do they want to see their handicap fall in recognition (granted, merely in the mind of Dan, the strongest player - off two) that they are improving?

Do some people want to be recognised as the best, or second best player? Do others dread being recognised as the worst?

I concluded that I could make no firm or accurate conclusions. The best I could do was think that everyone was different (hardly an earth-shattering revelation) and that different people had different motivations.

Fascinating stuff though. There is little in golf that isn't, I find.

By Chris Bertram

Fancy an Augusta punt?

The next couple days promise to be some of the most challenging on the 2008 golfing calendar. We're not taking here about swiring winds, chilly breezes or lightning greens rather a needless necessity to go berserk with the bookmakers.

Every year, as Augusta rolls round, I kid myself that there is no need to add to my enjoyment of the Georgia spectacle with a string of outsiders. Best to just sit back, put my feet up and spend four nights in front of the box cheering on a European win. For the 19th successive year I have come up short.

Rather than getting behind our heroes from the K Club I will be charting, in the minutest of details, the progress of Argentinian Andres Romero, Korean KJ Choi, American duo Steve Stricker and Jerry Kelly (runner-up in Puerto Rico in recent weeks) while also keeping a keen eye on how Sean O'Hair is faring in the Best US finish market without Tiger Woods.

Just for good measure I have also backed any Australasian winner at 8-1. Curiously any Australian champion was quoted as 9-1 which says little for the chances of New Zealand's Michael Campbell.

There are a few which will always cause concern, those that we may have had in mind for the last few months but then just fall out of favour at the last minute. In this category we have Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald, Justin Rose and Aaron Baddeley.

Still time though and the above is just for starters. Last year, having only had nine single bets, I lumped on Robert Allenby, without a win in the States since 2001, after a par-birdie start and may well be sniffing out a price on dear old Arnie should he rifle one down the 1st. My goal this year is to steer clear of any more visits to my online turf accountant...at least until Saturday morning.

Good luck to all those punting this week

Mark Townsend

Monty’s Ryder mission

COLIN MONTGOMERIE’S first target in 2008 was to collect enough ranking points to squeeze into the field for the Masters. He looks to have failed there, barring a late invite) but it wasn't for the lack of trying.

Now he turns his attention to ensuring he’s in the Players and subsequently looking forward to the Major which has brought him most success, the US Open, and his favourite Major, The Open.

His whole season, though, will be played against a backdrop of one week in September - Ryder Cup week.

Whether Monty makes it to Valhalla or not looks to me like the story of the year, once Tiger’s Grand Slam dream expires, as it surely will (won’t it?).

It would be a great story in any set of circumstances but extra spice is provided by the fact his former foursomes partner Nick Faldo is Europe’s captain.

Quite what Monty was thinking of when he a) wasn’t a perfect team member on Faldo’s side at the Seve Trophy and b) returning fire when the GB and I skipper criticised him is beyond me.

All it has done is make the chance of another Ryder Cup appearance, the thing which gives him most pleasure in life, less likely.

Personalities aside - and let’s be frank, there are some huge personalities involved here - the key question is this: would YOU select Monty for the European side if he fails to qualify automatically?

Would you remember that he plays like a man possessed in European colours and select him despite indifferent form over the past two seasons?

Would you summise that, while Monty appeared scared of Tiger during their duel at The Open at St Andrews in 2005, if they were drawn together in Sunday’s singles at Valhalla the Scotsman would be giving an interview an hour before they locked horns in which he pretty much called the margin of his pre-ordained victory.

Or would you be thinking that his time has come. That he’s not one of Europe’s best 12 players any more. That his putting – the key to success in matchplay - is awful. And that he might not be the best team man.

If you’re Nick Faldo, would you pick him?
Chris Bertram

Wet wet wet

I’VE been the butt of many jokes in the NCG offices so far this year. Nothing new in that I suppose, but this time it has surrounding the lack of time I’ve spent on the course in 2008. Usually I’m getting stick for disappearing for three days on urgent business which simply has to be conducted on a collection of Irish links.

However the extensive surgery which has been conducted on my swing has meant I’ve not been as eager to take to the course this year. A Bank Holiday weekend meant I could resist the urge no more, albeit there were no NCG colleagues within a 200-mile radius of the venue (I played in Scotland).

The morning was notable for two things: a) that I was right to delay any intra-NCG action and b) how my equipment coped with the horrendous weather. It was absolutely throwing it down and, combined with a stiff breeze, made for exacting conditions (which provided a ready excuse).

What was remarkable was the fact that as I peeled away the layers in the clubhouse at Colvend following our round, I was totally dry. A few thank-yous are therefore in order. First, well done Nike for producing shoes which genuinely are waterproof. Don’t forget it was only a decade ago when such a claim was, frankly, a lie.

Secondly, to Galvin Green. With due respect to the likes of Proquip and Cross, both of whom offer terrific waterproof garments, GG kit is simply brilliant. Waterproof AND lightweight – a fabulous combination.

I knew most of that already though. What was a real surprise was the way my gloves coped. It was the first time I’d worn Nomis gloves and it was a revelation. I’d heard good things from NCG’s equipment editor (who gets all the goodies first) but had never had the pleasure.

Quite simply, if you are known to find yourself playing in rain (i.e. everyone) invest in a pair of these. I say pair, because, finding myself the owner of a right and a left, I ended up doubling up. I might have looked like Petr Cech but I could thrash a fairway wood out of the soggy rough and remain in contact with the club. Very surprising.

It left me thinking that any fair-weather golfers ought to be ashamed of themselves. There really is no excuse these days (and yes, that is a dig aimed at NCG’s Advertising Manager!)

Chris Bertram (not pictured)

Alex Cejka doesn't need clubs

The German PGA Tour star showed his talent by shooting his best round of the week using borrowed clubs...

We often hear about tour pros only using the very best equipment available and then spending hours working with the experts to make it perform just the way they want it so it was heartening to hear about Alex Cejka's experiences at last week's Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

The German, who plays full time in America, missed the third-round cut and promptly headed back to his home in Las Vegas.
Then he heard that, due to weather delays, the cut was not being used so he was scheduled to play the following morning after all.

Cejka caught a flight to Houston, in Texas, then rented a car and drove through the night. He arrived back at the course with less than an hour to spare before his tee time. His clubs and golf clothes, however, were back in Las Vegas.

He borrowed some trousers, bought a shirt from the tented village and a glove from the pro shop. A Callaway staff player, he had to settle for some Titleists from the rental facility at TPC Louisiana. The putter came courtesy of the club's general manager, who offered Cejka use of his Scotty Cameron putter.

Remarkably, Cejka posted his best round of the week, a one-under-par 71. That gave him a finish of T75, which was worth almost £6,000 and 47 FedEx Cup points.

"The first 150 miles of the drive I was really tired," said Cejka. "I bought about six Red Bulls to keep me going. The first couple of holes were good, so I think the Red Bulls pushed me through it."

By Dan Murphy
Editor