Times Are A'Changing

It's about time, finally we are getting some warm weather, however it will only be short lived. It is just a tease to make us want to get on the course even more.

Last week was the Kansas City Golf Show held at the Overland Park Convention Center, there was a nice turn out by Golf Companies and courses. As most would expect the busiest section of the show was the testing area. Here players could get a few swings in on the latest clubs on the market and see what will help their game the most this year. It was great to see all the golfers out getting ready for the 07 season.

One of the newest and most intriguing training aids that I saw is the New Swingspeed. This aid is a piece of metal that has the perfect grip on the end of the stick; the other end has three donut weights. You can adjust the weight to your liking. All you do is swing this 16 ½” stick anywhere you like to work on your swing. The Swingspeed will add distance to your game and the reason I like it the most is because it works out and builds the muscles you use the most while playing golf. I have had a SwingSpeed for about two weeks now and I have been using it twice a day. I was very sore after the first day; it really gives you a great workout and helps with all aspects of your golf swing. I am looking forward to seeing how it has helped me, this week when I get to tee it up in Texas. John Richman from Kansas City is the President for the company and he uses it before he plays each time, he says that it gives him a great stretch before he goes out. I am all for this product, I think that they have hit a home run here, there are no negatives to this, if you can not make it to the gym or just want to work on your swing, what a great way to help build your golf muscles and also teach those muscles memory. Go to the website http://www.swingspeed.com/ to check this out. If you are interested in one of these and I think all golfers should be, then e-mail me at shovis@mogolf.org and I will get it dropped shipped to you at a lower cost than you can get a golf shop.

When you have a slow moment and want something to do, go the MGA web site and click on Rafs rules. Take his rules quiz to polish up your rules knowledge before the season starts. Do not forget that March 5th is the magic day when the applications will be online for players to enter all events at once. So make sure that you mark that date down.

On a sad note, the golfing community lost a great member this past weekend. Ron Goodwin, a MGA Director and also a KCGA Director lost his battle with cancer. Ron gave a lot of his time to course rating, forecaddying and also being a rules official. Anytime you had a question about a rule, all you had to do was ask Ron and he knew it right off. I am sorry that I only got to work with him for a couple of years, however in that short time I learned a lot from the man. He is going to be greatly missed. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the Goodwin family.

PGA Show Afterthoughts & MGA Tournament Info

Amazing, that is one word I would use to describe the PGA Show last week in Orlando. That was my first experience at the show and I will make sure that it is not my last. If you are a golf junky, like me, you could spend hours in the show and still not see everything there. As most of you already know, square is the new shape of the year for Drivers. Callaway had there new square face driver at the show and it took a couple of times looking at it before I got use to the shape. Anything and everything that you could imagine related to golf was at the show, if you ever get the chance to go or if you are a club professional you need to go. It is something all golfers need to see once.

All I can tell you is to just keep telling yourselves, ‘May will be here before long and this awful cold weather will be gone.’ This is just not fun anymore!! I hate even going outside to get in the car. However, watch July roll around and we will be complaining about how hot it is. But right now, I say bring it on.

We here at the MGA are getting Ready for the BIG DAY, MARCH 5th, that is the day all you players can start entering the events for the upcoming year. That is right, you can enter everything at one time now and will not have to worry about missing deadlines, just pay by credit card or print the applications out and mail them back in to us. Also, right now if you go to the schedule page of the web site, you can click on each event for the upcoming year and it will give you all of the cost for each event and the entry includes. On the entry page you will see that we have blocked rooms at certain hotels for the players this year, so make sure that you take full advantage of this.

The Senior Series is running on full go, we have already over 50 members signed up for the great new Series, so if you’re a senior player do not miss out. Get your application in and get ready for the upcoming year.

Stay warm and make sure you have March 5th circled on your calendar; I don’t want you to miss out on the great golf events this summer.


Take care and thank you again for your continued support of the MGA.