Jason and his mom, Dening. Image Credit: ABC Sometimes the game of golf is more than just wins and losses. It’s about people, and at the professional level it is sometimes easy to forget the players are chasing glory but they are subject to every day experiences that test their resolve beyond just their ability. A good example of that happened last week at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play when defending champion Jason Day withdrew during his match and indicated in a teary-eyed media conference that his mother Dening is battling lung cancer. He said she was diagnosed in January, 2017 and given only a year to live.

Image Credit: The Sun News There are few people in the world of golf that know as much about balls as Dean Snell. You might even label him the Guru of Golf Balls. Two years ago, he founded Snell Golf with a business model committed to developing premium golf balls at affordable prices. Dean has almost 30 years in golf ball research and development, 40 U.S. granted patents and a successful background in plastics engineering. He spent 18 years at TaylorMade Golf Company in a variety of capacities, including Vice President of Research & Development, overseeing a team of engineers and was responsible for the invention of several key ball franchises including TP Red & Black, Penta (golf’s first five-layer ball), Lethal and the TOUR Preferred line, which are played today by Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Justin Rose among others. He also led the design of the Noodle, Burner, RocketBallz and Project A golf balls designed to perform for average players.

Some people believe golf comes down to the club in your hands and the execution of the shot, but Howard Glassman and Tim O’Connor take the approach that the mental side of the game is equally, if not more, important. Glassman, a professional broadcaster by trade, and O’Connor, a golf performance coach, launched a podcast called Swing Thoughts in December 2015. It is dedicated to the mental aspect of golf and has become so popular that it has attracted some key sponsors, including TaylorMade.

As one of the premier manufacturers of golf equipment worldwide, Wilson Staff is constantly creating products to meet consumer demand, including balls, particularly the DUO line. As Wilson notes in its 2017 Product Guide: “Whether you need ultimate urethane playability, aggressive green side spin or long, straight distance, DUO not only delivers on performance, but what sets it apart is its great soft feel. Play the 55 compression DUO Urethane, the 35 compression DUO Spin or the world’s softest DUO at an amazing 29 compression. Demand to play the world’s softest. Demand DUO.” In the guide, it describes DUO as “the ball that started it all. Still the softest. Longest. Straightest.”

Image Credit: Golf Digest Golfers are always experimenting to improve their game, but when the top-ranked professional women’s player in the world does it, well, that’s quite unusual and people take notice. So when Lydia Ko played for the first time in 2017 in the Australian Open, a tournament in which she has had considerable success in the past, and finished tied for 46th, it only underlined some of the decisions – and the criticisms – the 19-year made in the last few months.

Image Credit: PGA Tour Some random thoughts for the golf world: Jordan Spieth looks be to be back in form from two years ago after a somewhat disappointing season in 2016. His four-stroke win in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was stunning, if only because he came into Sunday’s final round with a resounding six-shot lead and essentially had to play cautiously or, according to his caddie’s suggestion, “boring golf.”

Getting a grip on your golf game has literally become more important than ever. Oversized grips have changed the game, and it’s certainly become a major topic. Like anything, once something has some kind of success, it becomes more popular.

Image Credit: PGA As Jon Rahm made a 60-foot putt from off the fringe to register an eagle on the final hole of the Farmers Insurance Open – a shot that would lead to his first PGA Tour victor – did you notice the brand name of the ball? It was a TaylorMade TP5x.

Image Credit: Forbes The news about Tiger Woods attempting to return to competitive golf on a regular basis, coupled with the equipment he is using, are generating a huge buzz in the industry and, to an even bigger extent, the mainstream sports world. When one of the greatest stars of this generation is coming back after what was considered a possible end to his career because of injuries, combined with the fact he is 41, people take notice. This is 21 years since Woods took the golf game by storm and then went through a roller-coaster of events on and off the golf course.