The Golf Club: May 10, 2014
BOSTON (CBS) - On this episode of The Golf Club, Hardy filmed a TV show in Barbados for the latest episode of Golfing The World. Plus he checks in with our good friend Erin Henderson of Callaway, Brian Golden of Sandy Burr CC and much more!
Hardy kicked off the show talking about his new television venture with GTW and what it was like last week in Barbados.
For those of you who are unaware, GTW is essentially a golf travel show. Maybe you've seen it on Comcast SportsNet or other cable outlets across the country. Well Hardy met up with the guys from the show last year and they were gauging his interest for an upcoming episode.
Hardy said "YES' before they could even finish the sentence.
He found out a couple months ago he'd be going to Barbados, and just this past week he was stationed there for a few days while filming.
This was Hardy's first ever "quintessential golf trip" and the locale of Barbados is interesting in that it's quickly establishing itself as a "must-visit" golf destination. It's not as well known as Hilton Head, Pebble Beach, Florida, Arizona or any other typical landing spots, but that's something Barbados is trying to change.
Hardy talks about where he stayed (which wasn't too far from Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren's wedding venue -- awkward), encountering monkeys on the cart path, the beautiful views of both the Caribbean and Atlantic, and much more.
Listen below:
Tales From Barbados
While in Barbados, Hardy sat down with Roger Beale -- the director of golf at the Royal Westmoreland Resort.
Most of us couldn't point Barbados out on a map, but it's a tiny island country north of Venezuela in South America. Because it's a country in the southern hemisphere, 2,000 miles away from us here in Boston, the courses are much, much different -- specifically the grass.
Beale touched on that with Hardy:
"We're a hot season grass, Bermuda to be exact. It's even slightly different than what you'd find in Florida because you can have a little bit of a dormancy with the cool winters you can maybe get in northern Florida -- here we don't ever get that.
"I think the coolest we've ever had here is 18 degrees...Celsius (64 Fahrenheit) -- and that's nothing. Grass grows here 12 months a year, 24 hours a day. You absolutely have to be familiar with the greens [golfing in Barbados]," said Beale.
Listen below for the full discussion, including Beale's upbringing and some of the special features at his resort:
Director Of Golf Roger Beale
Next up was our friend Erin Henderson from Callaway, back on the show this week to discuss the improvements made to the Apex iron.
You might be wondering to yourself, "Callaway Golf makes the Apex? I thought Ben Hogan Golf made those..."
"Callaway purchased Hogan years ago when we purchased Top Flight golf balls from Spaulding, and so we've recently sold off the Hogan brand but we kept the sub-brand of Apex," said Henderson. "The reason is there are golfers out there, like myself, whose first set of irons that I paid for with paper route money, was a set of Hogan Apex blades..."
"Which, by the way, you had no business hitting, and neither did I when I had my Apex blades. But that's what the players played!" joked Hardy.
"They looked good, they felt good, but they didn't have the forgiveness that today's club does. When you hit it it's so pure, and that's what this Apex now is all about. This is a technology club. This is a distance club. This is a forgiving club that just happens to be a forged golf club that's gonna look and feel really good."
Henderson says the Apex can't really be pigeon-holed into one specific category of clubs, whether a player iron or game improvement iron, and that it almost defies categorization in that it overlaps and can help golfers of any skill level.
Listen below for the full discussion on the Apex clubs:
Erin Henderson From Callaway
PGA professional Brian Golden of Wayland's Sandy Burr Country Club was the final guest on The Golf Club with Hardy Saturday morning.
Golden has trained such celebrities as Sports Hub personalities Tony Massarotti and Jon Wallach. Mazz is a good player, while Wallach still requires a little bit of work according to Golden.
A big thing Golden teaches his students is noticing the connection between swing speed and balance.
When you're on the driving range, or going through your pre-shot routine, he finds it wise to take the club and go three-quarters back and swing three-quarters forward with your feet almost touching to give you a good balance sense. That short motion will tell you if you're swinging too fast.
Another tip of advice, and it sounds so cliche, is just to play golf one shot at a time, because golfers are all basket cases waiting to happen.
"The most important shot is the next shot. What happened in the past is done. The players I've worked with, that approach helps," said Golden.
Listen below:
Brian Golden Of Sandy Burr CC
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