[View with PicLens]

Tom Watson is know for having an effortless golf swing that has helped him win eight major championships and 68 professional victories, over the last 40 years. It’s the golf swing that all golfers admire and wish they could replicate, but struggle with grasping the fundamental concepts of the golf swing.

The Timeless Swing by Tom Watson, sets out to showcase Watson’s effortless swing, in a no-nonsense easy to understand  straight-forward instruction, that is beautifully illustrated and photographed by award-winning Golf Digest photographer Dom Furore.

Each chapter has images that are clear and concise, with just the right amount of instruction, that is easy to grasp. The Timeless Swing is broken down into seven chapters: Key Concepts, Pre-Swing Basics, The Swing, Be A Shot Maker, Swing Younger, Drills for a Better Swing, and The Timeless Swing.

Peppered throughout the book are personal anecdotes to emphasize the concepts to the reader. These “Watson Moments” will give you the insight into when his  was challenged and what he did about it.

One of those moments was at the ’86 Masters, where Watson had to hit through a narrow slot between two pine tree,  similar to Phil Mickelson’s 6-iron shot from the 2010 Masters.  Watson, needed to make run to try and catch up, and instead of  laying up, he hit a 4-wood out  of the trees off of loose pine needles. The key for hitting such, keeping a steady head throughout the shot.

The Timeless Swing is an excellent book for beginners who want a great reference for learning the fundamentals. The more experienced player, will also benefit from the advanced  techniques, like separating the upper and lower body, learning to control and work the golf ball, drills, and more.

If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift or just want probably one of the best golf instruction books to come out, since Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons, pick up a copy of The Timeless Swing.

The Timeless Swing $23.99 (Hardcover 224 pages)

Nike Golf Schools & Junior Camps named Jeff Ritter their new national director of instruction on Monday. Ritter, who has directed Nike Camps in multiple locations for the past ten years, will also serve as the on-site director for the camp network’s flagship location in the Monterey Peninsula.

“Jeff is a great fit given his passion and dedication to junior golf,” explains Jason West, vice president of Nike Golf Schools & Junior Camps. “He is widely considered one of the bright, young minds in golf and we feel his message will have a positive impact on our campers.”

Ritter will work closely with Nike Golf Schools & Jr. Camps internal staff on integrating technology, nutrition, fitness and sports psychology into the camp curriculum for the company’s current network of junior golf schools and camps. He will also direct six weeks of camp at the flagship location in the Monterey Peninsula, starting in the summer of 2012.

“I want kids to understand that there’s a formula behind sustainable high performance in golf and life,” says Ritter. “Kids love to be inspired and want to achieve great things. Our program shows them you can have fun and reach any goal at the same time.”

About Nike Golf Schools & Junior Camps

Nike Golf Schools & Junior Camps (NGJC) is a division of US Sports Camps, Inc., America’s largest sports camp network. NGJC offers junior overnight and day camps, and advanced player schools at over 80 locations nationwide. Since 1994, more than 140,000 junior golfers have participated in the camps. To learn more about Nike Golf Schools & Junior Camps, please visit www.ussportscamps.com/golf.

About Jeff Ritter

Jeff Ritter is the founder of the Jeff Ritter Golf Academy located at The Raven Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a former instructor with Golf Digest Schools and the acclaimed Dave Pelz Short Game School. A consistent presence in the world of golf media, Jeff’s articles appear in Golf Digest Magazine, Golf Tips Magazine, Golf Infuzion Magazine, Golf Punk Magazine in the United Kingdom, The A Position and the Arizona Republic. He has also been seen and heard on ESPN, FOX Sports, FOX Sports Radio, Sirius XM Radio and The Golf Channel. In 2010 Jeff was named by Golf Digest Magazine as one of the “Best Young Teachers in America”. His latest book “Your Kid Ate a Divot! Eighteen Life Lessons From the Links” is available at Barnes and Noble.

For more information on Jeff Ritter, please visit www.jeffrittergolf.com.

At last weeks Deutsche Bank Championship, Phil Mickelson switched his putter to belly putter which a lot of pros have been using lately on Tour with a lot of success. Phil’s belly putter is a Sabertooth with a White Hot XG insert. It is 45 ¼ inches long with a lie of 70 degrees. It has also been custom weighted to put more weight behind the face. A tungsten weight insert was machined to bring the putter up to the required belly putter head weight.

Last week, Phil worked with Austie Rollinson (Odyssey’s Principal Designer) here at the Odyssey Putting Lab in Carlsbad. There was one Sabertooth putter made for Phil. In fact, the putter that Phil is using was in the office of the main designer of the Sabertooth, Tom Hilton. Tom happens to be lefthanded, which is fortunate because there are not many lefthanded White Hot XG Sabertooth putters lying around these days.

Prior to building Mickelson’s putter, Rollinson consulted Odyssey PGA Tour rep Johnny Thompson, who was responsible for developing the putter spec used successfully by Keegan Bradley. (Obviously, Mickelson has played with Bradley recently and during practice rounds this year and has seen the putter up close.) After Rollinson and Mickelson spent some time in the Odyssey Putting Lab in Carlsbad this week, Rollinson made a couple of small changes to the putter, so Phil’s gamer is slightly different than what Bradley plays. Rollinson did make Phil a different belly putter—an Odyssey D.A.R.T. model—a few months ago that Phil tried at home before getting the Sabertooth last week.

www.odysseygolf.com

[View with PicLens]

A group of Callaway custom fitting experts has finally caught up on sleep after recently spending five days trekking around Alaska offering a series of rare demo days to golfers in the last (golf) frontier. The trip culminated with a 24-hour demo day at Anchorage Country Club, made possible due to nearly 24 hours of daylight in Anchorage at this time of year.

Along the way, the Carlsbad, California-based team provided custom fittings to more than one thousand golfers and saw huge crowds turn out for demo days at five different courses from Palmer down to Kenai. They covered 300 miles and ran 53 hours of demo days—including stops at two military base courses, Eagleglen Golf Course and Moose Run Golf Course.

“The week in Alaska was an amazing experience for our custom fitting team and our customers in Alaska,” said Pete Stamatis, Callaway’s Director of Custom Fitting & Events. “Of course, the scenery was breathtaking, but we were amazed at the passionate golfers we came across on the trip. They have a short golf season but when the golf season hits they come out in droves. One gentleman told us he played 168 rounds of golf during his 4-month golf season in 2010.”

The 24-hour demo day at Anchorage Country Club took place on July 8th and 9th featured an Odyssey Putter Clinic, live music from local bands, food (including breakfast) and beverages on the range, and a “kick off” happy hour that began the round-the-clock golf party at 6 p.m. the 8th.

“Every community we visited up there was so hospitable towards us, and the fishing at the end of the trip wasn’t bad either,” Stamatis added. “The acceptance of our RAZR wood and iron line and Diablo Octane drivers and fairway woods was incredible. The trip was so successful that our customers have asked us to return in 2012 and you better believe we are already looking forward to next year’s trip.”

www.callawaygolf.com

Find out what styles from Fila Golf Stacy Lewis will be wearing at the 2011 LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans.

www.filagolf.com

To celebrate Father’s Day starting at 9:00 AM EST, TaylorMade will take over the front page of ESPN.com and give away an R11 driver every 11 minutes all day long.

That’s right. Every 11 minutes, someone will win an R11 driver!

http://es.pn/r11every11

As you may have heard, American Express is offering cardmembers exclusive amenities aimed at enhancing their event experience at this week’s U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD.

10 channels of live video & 10 channels of live audio of the championship (including the live telecast from ESPN and NBC)

• Real-time leaderboard and player statistics
• Hole flyovers and maps
• Live commentary from ESPN Radio
• A live Twitter feed of the U.S. Open conversation happening around the course and across the nation

FanVision, the world’s only provider of personal, live in-venue broadcasting,” will be expanding its presence on the remainder of the 2011 PGA Tour, including availability at the Presidents Cup. FanVision will start its first full PGA activation in 2012 and expects to be available at a significant portion of the 2012 PGA Tour events.

www.fanvision.com

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 Los Angeles Dodgers Pitchers Chad Billingsley and Jonathon Broxton, along with Chicago White Sox Relief Pitcher, Chris Sale. And find out how well their skills transfer from the baseball diamond to the golf course.

Chad Billingsley

During his Mizuno Golf custom-fitting session in Arizona, Billingsley showed that speed and power applied both to his pitching and his golf game, registering a swing speed of 94 mph on Mizuno’s Shaft Optimizer and gaining 16 yards with the JPX-800 6-iron over his previous 6-iron.

Jonathon Broxton

What may be surprising is that this 300 lb mountain of a man, possesses a golf swing that’s as smooth and picturesque as they come. A 5-handicap and arguably the best golfer on the Los Angeles roster, Broxton displayed a level of finesse at his Mizuno Golf custom-fitting session that belies his “full-tilt, full-time” approach to pitching.

Chris Sale

Sale was introduced to golf at an early age and played on his high school golf team back in Lakeland, Florida. The fact that Chris “has game” was on display during his Mizuno JPX-800 Challenge and custom-fitting session in Arizona.

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

To celebrate the week of the U.S. Open, Nike Athletes (Paul Casey, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink, Francesco Molinari and Charl Schwartzel) competing in this Major championship will be sporting a new limited edition color (white/red) of the popular Nike Lunar Control footwear.

The Nike Lunar Control is comfortable, light and stable, all ingredients that add up to perfect golf shoes…ones that win major championships. Nike Athlete Charl Schwartzel wore the limited edition Lunar Control featuring the color green for his 2011 Masters win.

While there may be a limited number of this version of the shoe available, there are no limited to the performance that they offer.

• Lunarlon foam cushioning for dynamic support, optimal ground feel and lightweight comfort.
• Flywire saddle utilized high-tensile strength fibers to wrap the midfoot for lightweight structure and targeted support.
• Waterproof performance leather makes for a full-grain leather shoe that will withstand wet weather conditions.

www.nikestore.com