The guys at Bob Burns sent us this “No Bananas 460cc Driver” for testing, and guess what? It was really incredible. At first we thought that it might just be another cheap nock off of the Taylor Made Movable Weight Technology, but we couldnt have been more wrong. Bob Burns truly delivers a high quality and original product when it comes to the No Bananas Driver. We tested it on some of our worst local slicers, and the results were beyond impressive. They were all able to see instant improvements. Their slices turned into fades and straight shots right before our eyes.

Normally we focus on high end equipment, and this driver is no exception. It comes with a new decade style grip, and nice quality shaft, and an awesome monkey head cover. On top of all that, it really will improve your ball flight if you repeatedly slice or fade the ball. Don’t let the funny name mislead you. It’s an awesome club, and you have to try it to believe it!

Eighty to 90% of golfers tend to fade, push, or slice the ball off the tee. Primarily, two factors cause a slice. The clubface remains open at impact, or the swing path is outside-in. The anti-slice technology of the Bob Burns No Bananas Driver can eliminate the slice from your game forever. The design elements center-of-gravity location, face angle, shaft flex, lie, and hosel offset are geared to help you square the face through impact and provide the additional weighting, placed inside the toe and heel areas, expands the sweet spot and reduces clubhead twisting. The amount of left-to-right spin imparted on the ball decreases dramatically, and the result is straighter, more accurate shots. The two-inch deep, incredibly thin face achieves maximum trampoline effect, while conforming to the USGA legal COR limit. Available in both offset and non-offset 310-cc forged head models, the exclusive No Bananas Driver is guaranteed to help you hit longer and straighter. It comes with a Magilla Gorilla head cover, and No Bananas fairway woods and irons also are available with oversized heads and anti-slice technology.

Testimonial

Richard Warnke from Greensboro, Ga US

It works!! My slice has been corrected and I have much more confidence off the tee. I seem to have given up a little distance but it is worth it to be in the short grass rather than in the trees. I would recommend this driver to anyone who has struggled with a sweeping slice.

Check out their site at BobBurnsGolf.com

Pings first ever production forged iron is here! The 2010 Ping Anser Irons are expected to be released to the public next fall. They are made of 8620 carbon steel with a partial tungsten sole.  They also have a larger then average sole width and offset. Really excited about these clubs. Can’t wait to hit them!

It’s not everyday that you encounter a smaller golf company that really puts out a quality product. And it’s even more unusual to find a smaller golf company that has built an excellent relationship with it’s customers. The Bob Burn’s Golf Company does all of the above.

We cannot say enough positive things about our experiences with the Burns family. They focus on every detail and they truly produce quality products that are consistent with the best of the best in performance and technology. They also offer a more individual and personal experience that some of the larger golf equipment companies cannot provide. And they do it for a much more reasonable price.

This week will be posting several Bob Burns Golf equipment reviews, and we just wanted to start it all off with a little background on the owners and the company. Please continue reading to learn more.

Intro

With its headquarters (pictured above) located just north of Appleton, Wisconsin, Bob Burns Golf is a family owned and operated business founded in 1975 by PGA Master Professional and recognized teacher of the game, Bob Burns. The Golf Learning Center is committed to manufacturing and selling golf equipment that does not infringe on the patents or trademarks of other manufacturers. The company designs and manufactures its own lines of custom-made golf clubs, including its line of No Bananas Anti Slice golf equipment; but the company also sells refurbished clubs & sets of irons, in particular, that have been completely refinished, re-polished, re-shafted, and re-gripped. The company prides itself on year-round service to the golfing public, personalized lessons for both beginners and advanced players, and individualized attention to custom club-fitting, club-repair, and modification. Their pro shop features a wide variety of golf merchandise & clubs, of course, but also apparel, accessories, training aids, books, videos, and golf club components. Their teaching and club-fitting facilities and practices take advantage of the latest in swing-computer and launch-monitor analysis.

The Story

In its early years, Bob Burns Golf was a one-man operation dedicated, in part, to the repair, modification, and restoration of golf clubs but also to instruction and, most notably, perhaps, to the manufacture of custom-made clubs, including woods cut and handcrafted from unfinished blocks of persimmon or laminated maple. (Click “Continue Reading” below for more)

During the 1980’s, the company’s reputation grew steadily, and its founder was invited to offer courses and seminars on club-design, manufacture, and repair at the likes of Ferris State College, the Tommy Armour Golf Co. (then called the PGA Golf Co.), and the Ben Hogan Co. (then a subsidiary of American Machine Foundry or AMF). By the early 1990s, the company’s business had increased even more appreciably, as fewer and fewer golf-course shops offered services in club-repair and modification or custom club-fitting, and as increasing numbers of sporting goods stores concerned themselves solely with retail sales. As other club-making companies abandoned the production of traditional, wooden clubs, Bob Burns Golf was able to purchase from Wilson Sporting Goods many of the machines Wilson had used in making them. And even today’s in this era of mass-produced cast irons and metal woods’ Bob Burns Golf uses some of those machines in maintaining its original lines of business, in club-repair and refinishing, and by filling occasional orders for custom-made, traditional clubs from golfing aficionados around the world.

By the late 1990s, the PGA Master Professional and teacher had been joined by his two sons; and by 1999, the family had completed construction of its present headquarters with extensive outdoor facilities for teaching and practice (a crescent-shaped range with six target greens; a putting green; and a separate, bunkered green for learning and improving the short-game)’”and indoors, a full-service pro shop (with numerous models and sets of Bob Burns Custom Woods, Irons, Fairway Metals, Hybrids, Wedges, and Putters on display); an elaborate and complex workshop for club-making, restoration, modification, and repair; and an area for teaching and practicing in inclement weather (a space replete with hitting nets, swing computers, a launch monitor, and many teaching-aids, some of them conventional, others proprietary and ingeniously distinctive).

By the turn of the century, Bob Burns Golf was designing and manufacturing its own lines of metal woods and contemporaneously engineered irons, wedges, and putters. And very shortly, Bob Burns’ life-long interests in custom club-making and teaching would come together in the now famous No Bananas Drivers the result, in essence, of his sympathetic experiences with the incorrigible outside-in swings of so many of his students.
The success story of the No Bananas Drivers began on a snowy morning early in 2005, when Mike Stachura, the equipment editor of Golf Digest, called Bob to ask if he would be interested in having the No Bananas Drivers tested against other anti-slice and draw-bias drivers at the Digest’s laboratories in San Diego. “Do you think your clubs are up to the test?” Stachura asked. Bob replied, “Yes, of course”; and immediately shipped off a dozen drivers for testing.

When the results of those tests were published in the June, 2005 issue of Golf Digest, they set off what would soon become a worldwide media-buzz. The Bob Burns No Bananas Drivers had proven best at reducing slices. Golf Digest called them “The Ultimate Fix.” Within months, other major publications were requesting one or another model of the No Bananas Driver for product testing. Fairways and Greens Magazine called it ‘the real deal’; Luxury Golf and Travel, ‘A Dynamite Driver.’ Since 2005, it and other clubs in the No Bananas line have been featured in Golf Illustrated, PGA Tour Partners, Avid Golfer, Golf World, Golfing Magazine, Golf Range Magazine, and Florida Golf Magazine. In fairly short order, the buzz occasioned by the No Bananas Driver brought to Bob Burns Golf over twenty accounts worldwide, including those with GolfSmith, the world’s largest online golf retailer, and with the upscale specialty catalogue, Herrington.

In 2006 and early 2007, the company completed its No Bananas line of clubs and accessories which now includes four sizes of drivers (in seven models), as well as weight-adjustable fairway metals, irons, and hybrid clubs.

Tiger stood up there with a 10-page pre-written speech and apologized to the universe for his infidelities. Was this necessary? I don’t think so.

First, in my opinion, Tiger doesn’t owe anything to anyone in this world, except his family. His indiscretions, vulgarities, or whatever he decides to do in his personal life, have nothing to do with his abilities as a golfer.

If you are one of those people that think he was a role model, or should be viewed as one, you’re stupid. He never claimed to be. You assumed it because he’s good at a game that has been associated with gentlemen (also ridiculous).

And don’t even give me that crap about golf giving Tiger everything. Make no mistake, TIGER gave golf everything! More than half of golf’s excitement in the past 10 years has come from Tiger. And if you think he owes his sponsors for “all of the money that he’s made,” you’re stupid.

Tiger has made THEM insane amounts of money through exposure and branding. And those sponsors pay him to increase their business, nothing more. Then they hypocritically drop him, claiming that’s not the image they want to portray. Way to turn your back on a guy whose success you’ve ridden for the past decade. A guy that you’ve touted as your money-making puppet.

Anyway, back to the apology speech. Needless to say, it was just more of a confirmation that Tiger really is a robot. It would have been so much smarter if he went outside the words of the speech a little bit.

Or if he didn’t look directly into the camera to make important points. All that did was make it looked coached and fake. Then again, he didn’t owe that apology to anyone other than his wife and kids.

But it was obvious that he knew that. Maybe, it was a necessary rouse for the crazed media and naive public. Either way, I would have liked to see some honesty. But it doesn’t make me appreciate Tiger any less. I’ve always thought of him as the King of Golf.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The IDEA Pro Black CB1 Irons will be available April 1, 2010. The sole grinds are supposedly really nice. We will update with more information as it becomes available.

[pics via golfwrx.com]

Behold, the TaylorMade R9 SuperDeep! Were extremely excited about this new driver. It’s the successor of the R9 510 TP and comes in a sweet black finish. At address the SuperDeep looks like a 410cc-420cc driver, when in fact it stands tall at a beefy 460cc’s. The sheer depth of the face is what makes this club look smaller than it actually is. It’s also the deepest face TaylorMade has ever produced, but were not exactly sure how many millimeters yet.

The new Taylormade Super Deep driver is setup to provide a medium trajectory, but it’s new MWT and FCT technology will allow for a total of 448 setup combinations. These combinations will allow you to alter the variable spin and variable launch. It’s also got 8WMT weights that will provide a total of 56 different center of gravity positions.

The Super Deep will come standard with the new Aldila R.I.P shaft that was selected and adjusted to feature a more tip stiff design, which helps maintain the launch angle through impact. It will be released to the public in March and available in 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 lofts. Can’t wait to hit one! And we’ll let ya know when we do!

[Pics Via golftoimpress.com]

We’d love to hear from you! Comment below or join our forum.

Great article by Matt from The 20th Hole Golf Blog:

Throughout my time working on this blog, I’ve tried to be as positive as possible about golf and everything golf related.

However, after attempting to watch the Golf Channel’s coverage of the AT & T Pebble Beach Pro-Am today, I have to say that it 100% sucked. It was awful. Terrible. Atrocious.

First of all, they would show one or two golf shots, show some guy walking his dog on the beach, cut to commercial, show one or two shots, show kids making sand castles, cut to commercial. Same thing over and over.

I get it. Pebble Beach is the most scenic golf course in the world but how about maybe showing some actual golf.

Second, how about showing the professionals. For some reason, they did not show any shots by first round leader Dustin Johnson or any of the other leaders with the exception of David Duval. They only had cameras on Pebble Beach apparently. No shots by Phil Mickelson or any of the other leaders that everyone actually wants to see.

Instead, who do they show? Chris Berman, one of the worst golfers ever, as well as one of the worst golf commentators ever, taking pathetic swings, chunking shots, and taking five shots to get out of the bunker. Berman then acts as if he is mad at his poor shots. Ridiculous display. They also enjoyed showing Pederman from Seinfeld more than any professionals.

Even funnier is when Jim Gray interviewed Berman after the round. He asked Berman if playing Pebble Beach would help him when he does the ESPN coverage at the U.S. Open in June. Uh, no Jim, he shot 175 today. He can offer no insight whatsoever as to the strategies the players will use. One thing is for sure, if Berman does the coverage, I will have my mute button on the entire time.

Read about others not amused by Berman here and here. After one minute of browsing, I’ve found there are many Berman haters out there but that is besides the point for now.

Why is the golf channel showing terrible celebrities play rather than the professionals? It makes absolutely no sense.

Officials from the USGA and Ping met yesterday in Dallas to discuss the use of Ping Eye 2 clubs on the PGA Tour. Can you believe these people get paid to have such ridiculous meetings? All of this groove craziness is enough to make your head spin. At least we don’t have to deal with it directly – like the pros on the PGA Tour. Actually… that would be awesome! Just being on the PGA Tour would be well worth the groove nonsense. Am I right?

USGA President Jim Hyler issued the following statement today:

“We met with representatives from Ping yesterday. Our conversation with Ping regarding the status of the Ping Eye 2 irons on the major professional American tours was productive, and we are hopeful that a solution can be found that respects and reflects the best interests of golfers and the game.”

Ping Chairman & CEO John Solheim also issued a statement today:

“We had a productive meeting with the USGA yesterday regarding the Ping Eye 2 groove debate on the PGA Tour,” said Ping Chairman & CEO John Solheim. “I’m encouraged by their willingness to openly discuss some of the challenges the golf industry faces relating to equipment issues. We left the meeting with an understanding we would continue to seek a solution that benefits golfers and acknowledges the importance innovation plays in the game.”

Srixon recently launched the new Z-STAR and Z-STAR X Tour Yellow golf balls. According to Srixon, numerous studies have concluded that yellow is the most visible color to the eye. They also claim that green is psychologically calming to the brain. So at address these balls are supposedly helping before you even make a swing.

PGA TOUR professionals Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, as well as a worldwide contingent of professional golfers are currently playing the Z-STAR and Z-STAR X series of golf balls. Tour victories for the Z-STAR ball series include Henrik Stenson’s victories at the 2008 Nedbank Golf Challenge and the 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup, as well as Tim Clark’s win at the 2008 Australian Open, John Rollins victory at the 2009 Reno-Tahoe Open and Jim Furyk’s win at the 2009 Chevron World Challenge.

The Z-STAR and Z-STAR X Tour are Srixon’s new premium golf balls, and will cater to all types of players looking to improve distance, spin, and feel. They have the ever popular ultra-thin urethane cover that is easily destroyed by a wedge, but provides great feel. They start shipping to retailers on April 1, 2010 with a MSRP of $39.99.

Becuase of the success of the Victory Red irons and wedges, Nike has decided to extend the line into hybrids, woods, and drivers.

Nike worked closely with it’s sponsored professionals to develop the new VR line up, which is considered to be much more traditional looking than what Nike currently offers in their Summo models.

Nike Victory Red Hybrids

The new Victory Red hybrids were created with the mid to high handicapper in mind. They offer a substantial amount of workability and distance. Engineers at Nike decided to open the face slightly and move the center of gravity forward, allowing for this increase in forgiveness, distance, and workability.

“We have accomplished what we wanted to with these hybrids. We wanted to achieve a higher launch angle with significantly less spin. We’ve done that through altering the face angle and finding the proper center of gravity measurements.” – Tom Stites, Director of Club Creation for Nike

The new Nike VR hybrid also features a 455 Ultra Thin steel face with a Split Compression Channel, for more distance across the entire clubface.

Loft options range from 15° up to a 24°, with all but the 15° available for both right-handed and left-handed players.

The Nike Victory Red Hybrid will also come with a standard Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, Nike Golf Crossline grip, and a suggested retail price of $203.99.

Nike Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Fairway Woods

First, and maybe most importantly, the new VR fairway woods are much different than last years SQ Dymo fairway woods. The most noticeable difference is no square headed option, which is great because those were gross. However, if you’re looking for the forgiveness of a square head, Nike will be releasing it’s Machspeed lineup shortly.

Secondly you will find the added STR8-Fit adjustable(32 different options) technology that was only seen in previous 2009 SQ Dymo STR8-Fit drivers. The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also feature the 455 ultra-thin steel face and Split Compression Channel for added distance, similar to the new VR Hybrid, and actually a variation of the new Victory Red Driver.

“Our athletes prefer a smooth sole design for optimized playability on tight fairway lies. In order to achieve that, we split the compression channel on the sole to provide improved performance from every lie.” -Tom Stites

Loft options range from 13° strong 3 wood (for righties only), 15° 3-wood, 17° 4-wood, and 19° 5 wood.

The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also come standard with an Aldila Voodoo shafts(A, R, S, or X flex) and a suggested retail price of $299.

Victory Red Tour and Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Drivers

As you can see in the pictures, Nike has created two versions of the new VR Driver – the 420cc VR Tour(right top two pics) and the 460cc VR STR8-Fit Tour(right bottom two pics). Again, the most noticeable difference from past drivers is that they look more traditional, and basically badass. No more crazy yellow or boxy heads. Just smooth clean lines, with a techie graphical look on the sole of the head. It’s seems as though Nike really did listen to the feedback from players, and as a result created some incredible new drivers.

Both drivers sport Nike’s new Compress Channel Technology, which can be seen in the form of a red channel that stretches across the sole of the club. And like we said before, this compression channel creates a more consistent compression across the entire face of the club,promoting more distance.

The other very noticeable difference between the two clubs is the lack of STR8-Fit(32 different options) Technology on the 420cc head. We can only assume that Nike wanted to create a model for two kinds of players. The ones that like the big head, latest technology, and adjustability – and the ones that prefer a smaller cleaner head. Brilliant in our opinion.

Nike will offer a few different size variations with the VR STR8-Fit Tour as well, as the 8.5° and 9.5° are a 440cc head, while the 10.5° and 11.5° are 20cc larger at 460cc.

The STR8-Fit comes standard with the Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, while the VR Tour comes with the Project X graphite shaft. Both are available in Regular, Stiff, and X-Stiff flex profiles. Suggested retail price on both models is $479.99. Nike is also offering their “Signing Bonus” program, where upon the purchase of one of their new products, you’re given credit to purchase other products such as apparel or balls.

We’d love to hear from you! Comment below or join our forum.

Mizuno just recently released the MP-630 and MP-630 Fast Track Drivers, both of which are considered “Tour Ready.” The MP-630 Fast Track will have 45 adjustable trajectory settings through 16 grams of movable weight. And the standard MP-630 will be the same driver, just with neutral settings and no adjustability. In our opinion Mizuno did a great job with this tour performance driver. Whether you prefer a clean, super solid look, or a techy adjustable head, they’ve got you covered.

The MP-630 Fast Track driver allows for 45 different trajectory settings through its use of two adjustable 8-gram weights. These settings include the ability to adjust left and right properties, increase or decrease spin rates, and higher or lower launch angles. If thats not enough technology for you, they’ve also added a Hot Metal Ti-9 Titanium face with CNC CORTECH design provides maximum ball speed and an increased COR area for unbelievable distance. The MP-630 Fast Track also features a player preferred head shape and is frequency tuned to increase solid feel and optimal sound at impact.

The standard MP-630 driver is also “Tour Ready” and has a player preferred pear shaped head. It also has a low, shallow COG(center of gravity) for medium-low spin and penetrating yet workable ball flight. The Hot Metal face of MP-630 is sheet forged 6-4 Titanium with CORTECH design which provides explosive distance and maximum control off the tee. Mizuno also used Modal Analysis and wavelet transform, of recorded impact sound data to produce a pleasing powerful sound at impact.

Both the MP-630 and MP-630 Fast Track drivers will be offered in right hand with a 64 gram MRC Fubuki shaft, engineered exclusively for Mizuno, and the Golf Pride M-21 Round grip. The MP-630 will be available in 9.5º and 10.5º, and will retail for $299.99, and the MP-630 Fast Track will be available in 8.5º, 9.5º, and 10.5º, and retail for $499.99. Custom options are available through Mizuno’s Custom Club department. Mizuno will begin shipping the MP-630 drivers in February.

This is one of the few times we can absolutely say that you will get what you pay for if you purchase one of these drivers. Because of the extensive R and D and adjustability features of the Fast Track, Mizuno has created two products that players won’t have to worry about replacing for a very long time.

Srixon just recently announced their new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour Golf Balls.

As far as we can tell, Srixon is trying to mimic the successful strategy of the PROV1 and the PROV1x from Titleist. The new Trispeed ball is meant to be a premium distance ball that can meet the demands of many different types of players. It features a 3 piece design in which the outermost layer or the “core” will be a little thinner in comparison to past models. Again, this design sounds very similar the the PROV1 with the thin Urethane covers. They are really the best performing balls on the market, but the only downside is that the thin covers don’t last very long. At least Srixon seems to acknowledge this by referring to their new Trispeed balls as premium.

The Trispeed Tour will be very similar in design to the standard Trisbeed ball, but will feature a harder core that will only see it’s best performance from a player with a faster swing speed. The core uses Energetic Gradient Growth core technology to optimize driver distance and greenside spin control.

Like we said before, the new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour golf balls seem to directly target the PROV1 and PROV1x market share, and they might be worth a try for the slightly less expensive price tag. The new Trispeed and Trispeed Tour golf balls will begin shipping immediately to retailers and will carry a suggested price of $29.99. So slight discounts beyond that price are highly likely as well.

This is our most recent Spy Chick Of The Month for February.

We would like to know what our readers think. Should we keep posting Spy Chicks Of The Month, or is it becoming a tired category that just takes away from the other golf posts? We happen to think it’s an awesome idea, and we would like to keep posting them. But let us know what you think.

Normally we like to keep SpyGolfer.com a little more edgy and exciting than your average golf blog. But from time to time we get complaints. So once in a while it’s nice to hear from our supporters as well.

Here’s a hilarious example of a recent email complaint we received:

“Rob should be fired for using the word Pissed in his article about the USGA golf rule concerning grooves. I have grandchildren who use the computer and shouldn’t have to see the word PISSED as part of headlines to his article. This was in poor taste!” – Ed

Can you imagine how “PISSED” Ed would be if he saw our Spy Chicks Of The Month? Maybe hot chicks don’t bother him as much.