Watch these two videos as Mizuno Golf Master Instructor Dr. Gary Wiren puts his teaching skills to a unique new test, analyzing the swings of Chicago White Sox Outfielders Carlos Quentin and Juan Pierre, and see how well their skills transfer from the baseball diamond to the golf course.

Carlos Quentin
Chicago White Sox Right Fielder Carlos Quentin is known for being a power hitter, as one of Chicago’s most-consistent power hitters. Truly a fan favorite for his slugging prowess and his affable and laid-back demeanor, Quentin has earned nicknames “TCQ” (THE Carlos Quentin) and “Q-perman” which is carried out in-stadium through Superman-like imagery of Quentin brandishing a “Q” on his chest like the classic American superhero.

Juan Pierre
Chicago White Sox Left Fielder Juan Pierre arrived at his Mizuno Golf fitting session in Arizona having never picked up a golf club in his life. In an amazing display of the natural talent of an elite athlete, Pierre was immediately hitting the JPX-800 6-iron more than 190 yards consistently. Find out how a Pierre is able to generate so much power for someone who has never played golf before. Truly amazing!

Want to see more Major League Baseball Players? Visit mizunochallenge.com and take part in the JPX-800 Swing to Win Challenge for a chance to win one of eight hundred prizes including the grand prize – a dream foursome with a guest and PGA Tour stars Luke Donald and Jonathan Byrd.

Make sure to “like” the Mizuno Golf North America on facebook.

About Dr. Gary Wiren

Mizuno Golf Master Instructor Dr. Gary Wiren is a golf educator, a Master member of the Professional Golfers Association of America and a former national PGA staff director. Dr. Wiren is also one of only three people to be inducted into both the PGA Hall of Fame and World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame.

mizunochallenge.com

We’ve all been there before on the golf course, with ball in a green-side bunker on a uphill lie thinking to yourself, “how do I play this shot?”, “What type of swing do I make?”, etc. That’s what the iPhone and iPod Touch app Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro aims to solve, by providing expert advice by PGA professional Kevin Streelman to amateur golfers.

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According to the Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro website, “more than 90%” of the problems that amateur golfers have stem from improper set up. Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro breaks out each of the 50 shot types grouped by category into four sections: Shot Summary, Strategy, Kevin’s Tip, and Video.

How it Works
When you launch the app, you see an overview of hole on a golf course that has labels for each type of shot based on location: Tee, Fairway, Fairway Bunker, Rough, Water, Pitching, Chipping, Green-side Bunker, and Putting. On this screen there is a golf ball with a star where you can view shots that you flagged as your Favorites for quick reference.

After you select the shot type location, you are taken to screen that lists the various shots for that location. For example, if you select Rough, you’ll be presented with four types of shots from that location, like Ball in DEEP ROUGH. You then click on the shot type and it will display the Shot Summary screen.

Shot Summary
The Shot Summary screen is the high level summary of how to approach the shot you selected. Information on this screen includes, Club, Stance, Alignment, Ball Placement, Clubface Aim, Hand Position, and Swing. This is probably the most practical screen of the four options to use while playing on the golf course, because you can scan the information very quickly without slowing down the pace of play. The information presented was very clear and easy to understand. The only area that could be improved upon is providing some type of help on “open stance” and “closed stance.” Not all golfers know the difference between the two, maybe adding in parentheses (aim body right or left of target).

Strategy
When you have a little time before your shot, the Strategy screen provides strategic analysis to solve what they call the “90% problem: shot setup. In easy to understand language, Kevin Streelman provides Analysis and Strategy for the shot type. In the Analysis section Streelman tells you about why you want to hit the type of shot your about to attempt. In the Strategy portion of this screen, Kevin provides context for how and why to make the shot your about to attempt. My only problem with the Strategy screen is that it wasn’t clear to me that you could scroll down further to read the rest of the text, because there was to no visual cue for a scroll bar, etc. I’d like to see something like that implemented in a version update. There were several times, I missed reading the rest of the analysis or strategy, because the text got cut off.

Kevin’s Tip
Kevin’s Tip screen is an expanded version of the Strategy screen, but with Kevin providing more of his playing experience and swing thoughts for a shot. One of my favorites is for a Stinger Tee Shot, “When it’s breezy, swing it easy..”

Video
The last screen in the Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro is the Video screen. The Video screen has two types of high-definition video featuring Kevin Streelman explaining and demonstrating how each shot should be executed. Each shot has regular speed video (audio and video), and a slow-motion version so you can study the technique being executed. I did find the video section to be helpful and the videos do load and play very quickly, but the video quality is not true HD (720p). While the video quality is really good, the iphone 3g and 3gs can only support 480 x 320 output on the screen. A cool enhancement for a future update would be multiple camera angles for the slow-motion videos, like facing the golfer and down the line.

Is Golf Like a PGA Tour Pro worth $4.99?
$4.99 might seem like a lot of money for a golf instruction iPhone app, but it’s a cheaper alternative than playing in a pro-am, which would cost a lot more than price of this app. The videos in both in real-time and slow-motion are what make this app worth the money in my opinion, because seeing how to execute a shot is a lot easier to learn and understand than by reading about the technique alone.

What do you got to loose, except maybe lowering your score?

Golf Like A PGA Tour Pro with Kevin Streelman iPhone App $4.99

I’m always looking to improve my golf game and remembering the steps for a new drill or tip can be a bit of challenge. Yes, you can tear out the instructions from the magazine you saw it in, but you run into a few small problems, it either gets wet or you loose the sheet of paper. This is where the latest offering from Nuru Golf: Practice Drills and Tips, looks to solve these problems by creating a deck of cards that are printed on ultra-thin plastic and won’t fade or run when they get wet.

The Golf: Practice Drills and Tips is printed on ultra-thin plastic that won’t smudge when wet or fade if exposed to the sun, like what happens to paper. The deck is made up of 30 drills and tips so you can practice like pros and are very portable only measuring (3.5” x 2.5” x .5” ) and kept together by an o-ring. The deck is so compact that you can take it with your golf bag or put them in your shirt pocket. If you forget to bring the deck with you, you can always access the deck digitally via your cellphone. To access the deck online you register your deck with the unique serial number that is included with the deck. I was unable to review this functionality, because online access to the Nuru Golf: Practice Dills and Tips was not available. I hope I get to test this feature out at a later date, because I would find this to be another reason to buy this deck.

The deck is divided into 7 sections:

• Practice and Playing Essentials (Cards 1-2)
• Swing Mechanics (3-9)
• Balance (10-11)
• Power (12-13)
• Accuracy (14-15)
• Chipping/Sand Shots (16-21)
• Putting (22-26)
• Troubleshooting (27-29)

Each practice drill or tip title appears in the upper right hand corner, on the front each card. Every card lists the Drill Objective, a basic illustration, and what equipment you may need for that drill. Additionally some of the cards feature a “W” icon, which denotes drills that can be done indoors (high ceiling may be required) during the winter months. And some cards also feature an “A” icon, which are drills for advanced golfers. On the back of each card are the detailed directions for how to do the drill.  One of my favorite cards, is Know You Distances, because it shows you the average distance for each club for both men and women driver-sand wedge, and you can record your distance next to those for your convenience. This way you no longer have to guess how far you actually hit your golf clubs, you only have to glance at list to find out.

What I liked about these cards is the small form factor of the deck, which makes them easy to carry around in your golf bag. I also liked the fact that they won’t fade or smear. It would have been nice to test the online version of the drills on my iPhone, because that’s probably one of the most appealing features of the deck in my opinion. To have access to the cards, no matter if you have them with you or not is a really nice feature.  The one improvement I would hope for in the next version of the Golf: Practice Drills and Tips, would be to include mini-tabs for each section, so you can easily skip to the section your interested in, without having to look at the card numbers. Overall, I think Nuru has made a solid first generation set of practice drills and tips, and make it easy for you improve your golf game.  Like the Nuru message says, “Practice better. Play better” and pick up a deck today.

Nuru Golf: Practice Drills and Tips retails for $10 (which includes shipping)