Golf Lab Masters Week: Activities, Events and Featured Products

$50 and $100 Incentive Coupons

The Best Week of the Golf Year for most of us is Masters Week.  This is the week that starts golf season in the East and Midwest.  Will Masters Excitement help you improve your game this spring?

If you missed our special offers from weeks past – do not despair.  “Measure, Test and Adjust your Adjustable Driver” is a continuing offer.  We added the Accurizer Test, the Driver Optimizer Test and an hour of entertainment for $75.  Why not know the loft and face angle you’re playing?  If you’re leaving distance on the table, why not know how much?

We’ve now delivered over 30 Accurizer test fittings.  Results are becoming predictable.  For most players, backspin comes down about 500 RPM.  Smash factor goes up.  Most of the time we combine a little length trim – usually a half inch to help improve control.  All that is accomplished real time with our on-site workshop.

Each step gets measured.  Players who are sensitive about the length of their driver can test with a surrogate.  Contrary to the conventional wisdom, many players increase distance with a shorter driver.

Most of the Accurizer fittings result from “word of mouth”.  Players install the Accurizer.  Their playing partners notice that they are hitting straighter drives.  The playing partners come get their Accurizer the next week.  If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard about the Accurizer, it is because it is a new product, not in distribution.  It will not be for sale until next month through Golfsmith.

Here’s a link to the original description The Accurizer

Accurizer for Woods

Link to the Accurizer Website

If you don’t want to go through all the rigmarole, just come by and we’ll install an Accurizer while you wait – $60.  No appointment required for simple Accurizer installation.

One other interesting result is that three Accurizers that came back were all from Nakashima drivers.  If you had any doubt that the Nakashima was low spin – for three out of three players who installed the Accurizer to bring them back because the ball wouldn’t stay in the air is a precise indication of low spin.

Get your Next Accurizer Free

We’re working with Balance-Certified to find out just how good the Accurizer might be.  That includes a video to help get the word out.

If you buy an Accurizer and love it – if you’ll tell your story on camera we’ll install your second Accurizer free.  (You’re going to need two more for your fairway metals.)

John Ruark and the “Next Level of Putting”

Our special offer for Putting Club last week was “bring a friend for free”.  The emphasis was on the basics:  aim, stance, stroke, putter adjustment and an introduction to thought management.

We’re offering another option.  The Next Level of Putting introduces a completely original method to create your own pre-performance routine based on research from Dr. Lanny Johnson author of “There’s More to Putting than Meets the Eye” and Dr. Joan Vickers “Quiet Eye” findings.

Dr. Johnson contributes an innovative alignment technique incorporating positioning the right index finger down the shaft with the face aligned with the target.  The scientific term is “proprioception”.

Dr. Vickers contributes studies of “how athletes see”.  Much of her work has now been translated to golf.  There is a specific way to trace the line to the target with your eyes to produce best results.

If you’re looking to take your putting to the “next level” – call for an appointment.  John is at the Golf Lab Fridays and Saturdays.  He will accommodate our “bring a friend for free” offer – $75.

Friday Mornings at Mariner’s Point

We finally broke the code on the wedge fitting process.  Our testing was not severe enough.  The breakthrough was to develop a testing scenario that allows the high bounce Edel wedge designs to work their magic.

If you’re going to practice wedges, don’t find the lushest, thickest, greenest grass you can.  Any wedge is fine from a perfect lie.

We started working shorter pitches out of divots.  That’s a good test.  You can’t pick a 60* wedge out of a divot.  Then we found a little bare dirt.  Finally, we went to the bunker.  That’s a good rotation.

The key to understanding the Edel wedge line is that the ENTIRE LINE is high bounce.  Even the lowest bounce Edel wedges are higher than most of the highest bounce wedges from other makers.

For the last several years, all of the artistry in wedge design has gone into sole grind and groove technology.  A few years ago, all sand and lob wedges looked the same.  The sole was the venerable “Sarazen Grind” – extremely good in loose sand but not much good out of divots and bare dirt.  There is a good description of the limitations of the Sarazen Sole on the website of a wedge designer that shares some design philosophy with Edel.   Here is link to Reneker Wedges where they discuss that: Problems with the Sarazen Grind

Scratch was the first boutique wedge company to begin to match a players “angle of attack” with sole grind.  The adopted nuances that included shaving the heel, toe, leading and trailing edges.  By narrowing and re-shaping soles, wedges became playable at high “initial” bounce angles.

Edel’s innovation was teaming up with Mike Adams to create a “wedge fitting process”.  As administered successfully by Adams, the method is to first make sure that a player’s swing “activates the bounce”.  Adams is adamant to “never fit a flaw”.  That will require a change of technique by players who are used to positioning the ball back in their stance and picking pitches and chips.

Once swinging correctly, the player hits through a fitting sequence of eight progressive bounce angles to determine which produces the best “interaction” with the turf.  The perfect wedge swing makes a sharp, descending blow without “digging”.  A little “squeak” from the fringe or “thunk” from a bunker indicates a good match.

The beauty of the line is that it “makes sense”.  Edel coding matches a sole grind and bounce with a catchy name:  Sweeper, Picker, Nipper N, Nipper W, Pincher, Trapper, Driver, Digger.

We have two Friday morning wedge fitting sessions a week.  Mariner’s Point at 8:30 and 10:30.  If you come to the 8:30 session you can stay until noon for extra practice.  That’s a good way to get your short game off to a good start.

Edel Wedge Fitting:  $75 for 1.5 hours combined fitting and practice.  Reservation required.  Call Bob Pegram (650)654-1770.  This is the best deal in golf and there are only four slots per week.  Private wedge fitting sessions can be scheduled for any time at Mariner’s Point.  $150 – one or two players.

“Over the Top” Attitude

Very few readers know much about David Edel.  I’d like to change that.  In my opinion, David is the most important independent American golf club designer.  My opinion is based on what he has accomplished over a fifteen year period.

In the late 90′s David convinced Henry Griffits – at the time the dominant custom club line that supplied PGA Professional fitters – to offer a custom putter line.  The concept was to fit by aim.  Testing shapes from blade to mallet and details like hosel shape, offset and alignment markings resulted in a fitting system designed to help a player aim “inside the hole”.  The Edel fitting system permits over a billion individual variations to assemble a fitting model that is then reproduced faithfully in a state-of-the-art machine shop.

A personally fitted and built one-of-a-kind putter was novel at the time and gained a little momentum until the project ran into cost and selling price problems.  The high end got a little too high.

Griffits eventually backed out of the custom putter market.  David persevered.  His goal?  The most precise, most adjustable putter he could imagine.  Simply put:  the best it could possibly be.  Those guys always go over the top.

Edel putters are totally customized from head shape and hosel design to custom, interchangeable face plates to adjust loft and multiple weight options.  Custom made Edel putters with two extra face plates and a weight kit sell up to $1000.  Edel is the only custom putter maker that offers interchangeable face plates to adjust loft.  I don’t blush to describe an Edel putter as a “precision machined instrument”.

The Golf Lab is the exclusive Edel Putter and Wedge Fitting Center in San Francisco.  Edel Putter fittings are $75.  Any Edel putter owner from any vintage     who would like to check original specifications can make a no-charge appointment to measure and re-test for aim and stroke.  Just one of those “over the top” services that we are proud to offer with Edel.

 

Link to Edel website

“Morning at the Muni” – Mosher Makeover

We’re good to go Wednesday morning’s right after 8:00 AM – Leith Anderson and Scott Mosher – victim of the “Mosher Makeover”.  We’ve been in hiatus for bad weather and still won’t play in the rain but this Wednesday we’ll be at the Muni ready to go.  One spot still open.  Call Bob.

Link to “Mornings at the Muni” video

Two Free Junior Fitting Slots this Week

As part of our continuing support for juniors – we have two openings for “Junior Competition Fittings” this week.  If you know a competitive junior who hasn’t had any help, give Bob a call for details.

Thanks for Reading

We’re selling golf clubs.  We have the best performers of the season picked out.  If you book a fitting and decide that a new club is in order, here’s a little incentive for you to make your appointment before the end of the month.

$50 Coupon for any club purchase, reshaft or service over $100.

$100 Coupon for any club purchase, reshaft or service over $500.

Best regards,

Leith Anderson and the Golf Lab Gang