Great Golf Balls of Fire!

As much as you might enjoy a good snowball fight (or not), when there’s a cold snap you don’t want to get stuck playing with a snowball instead of a golf ball. When it’s cold outside you can put on a jacket, hat, and gloves, but what can you do about your golf ball? Did you know that for roughly every ten-degree drop in temperature a golf ball loses 3 to 5 yards in distance? Golf balls just don’t travel as far in cold weather. Luckily, some balls are specially designed to maintain their performance regardless of temperature. Two factors affect your cold-weather golf game: the outdoor temperature and the temperature of your ball itself. Cold air is denser than warm air, which causes more aerodynamic drag on the ball. In other words, in “thicker” cold air more energy is needed to get the ball moving and to keep it going. Cold weather also means that your golf ball will be colder than when you’re playing in beautiful, seventy-degree weather.

What is it like to go golfing in a winter wonderland? For many courses around the country, winter means bare trees, icy waters, and greens white with snow. But winter golf doesn’t have to be like that—there are some places, even in the wintertime, where the land is teeming with wildflowers, the grass is as green as ever, and a cool ocean breeze is welcome on a sunny day. We picked our five favorite courses all over the country where you can play a round year-round.

What tricks do you have in your golf bag? In the world of golf today, many players look to instructors to help them analyze their swing and to learn new tricks through practice techniques and technology—turning a high handicap golfer into a scratch golfer. While knowledge about the swing is useful, practice is the ultimate key to shaving strokes off of a round! To up your golf game, we’ve put together some useful tips to help you get the most out of your time at the driving range: To start, loosen up! Before swinging your first club, always take the time to stretch. Stretching helps you avoid developing tense muscles that can lead to back aches and cramps in your hands or feet. Here are a few suggestions for your stretching routine: rotate your shoulders, flex your joints, stretch your back, and roll your wrists and ankles. For more inspiration, check out this one-of-a-kind warm-up routine from 21-time European Tour winner and stretching enthusiast, Miguel Angel Jiménez.

Our first post featuring five incredible shots (Part One Here) was so popular that we found five more to show you. Here are five more shots that you can’t miss! 5) The late eighties were tough on Greg Norman. He earned only one major in 1986 after leading all four tournaments after three rounds. But in 1987, it looked like he might finally break through with his first major win on US soil. That is until a young 29-year-old Larry Mize came along and played his way into a playoff with Greg Norman and Steve Ballesteros. How Larry Mize won his first and only major is nothing short of Masters’ history.

It’s September 20, 1969, and the match is all tied-up—wait a second, what is Nicklaus doing? Tying his shoe? No, it appears that Nicklaus has just picked up Jacklin’s marker, conceding the putt that would have finalized the tie, allowing the American team to keep the Ryder cup! The crowd of several thousand was silent when Jack Nicklaus, an American, chose to concede and secure the tie instead of letting Tony Jacklin, a Brit, take the putt on the off-chance he would miss it. America, already in possession of the cup, was allowed to keep it.

Have you ever seen a golf shot and thought, That was incredible? Did you want to share it with everyone you know? Well, that happens all the time at the LostGolfBalls.com office, and here are five of the most incredible shots that we think you need to see.

In the neighborhood of East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia, a paper boat sails towards the first island green ever built in America. On the sixth, East Lake Golf Club’s signature hole, the southeastern breeze blows the boat onto the edge of the green. The boat is not made of newspaper. No, if you unfold it, you’ll discover your invitation to the 2014 Tour Championship. The Tour Championship, a stroke play, par-seventy tournament, is the final event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It is for an exclusive group of players: only the top thirty qualify to compete. The Championship is the pinnacle of the season and conclusion of the four-tournament FedEx Cup Playoffs. The Tour Championship will start on Thursday, September 11 and end on Sunday, September 14.

It was about six o’clock in the morning. The sun had not yet risen, but there were already a thousand people in line. In the darkness of jittery anticipation, the headlights of a bus rounded the corner. It had come to take the crowd of avid golf fans, including the winner of a pair of two-day tickets, to the big tents and an immaculate course–the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky for the 2014 PGA Championship.