Image Credit: Jeff Gross/Getty Images Good on the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews for acting quickly to change the rules that will limit the use of video evidence to affect the outcome of an event. How many of us truly felt for Lexi Thompson, who entered the final day of the ANA Inspiration tournament with a three-shot lead with six holes to play and suddenly found herself penalized four strokes for committing a violation the day before in the third round? Yes, she broke the rules by marking a ball and then replacing it an inch away from the actual spot. But if not for some TV viewer alerting the tournament officials, no one would have known. Think about it, with all the tournament officials, none of them spotted the innocent mistake.

Image Credit: Bryan Bros Instagram If there’s one thing that Wesley Bryan has learned it’s that golf can be fun if golfers can allow themselves to break away from the norm and get wild and crazy. While it was interesting watching Bryan record his first PGA victory with a win in the 2017 RBC Heritage, I found it more appealing learning about the trick shots he has done with his brother George.

Image Credit: PGA No matter how many times I watch the Masters, I am always amazed by the ebb of flow of man versus nature, and man versus fate. As I look back on the 81st Masters, there are images that are stick in my mind for a whole bunch of different reasons. The ceremonial opening tee shots became far more emotional in the first tournament since the passing of the legendary Arnold Palmer. You could see the emotion on the faces of Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus as Billy Payne, Chairman of Augusta National, so eloquently talked about the man known as The King.

Image Credit: SB Nation Every year since 1960, the Par 3 contest at Augusta National is an interesting prelude to the Masters. It is full of fun and frivolity, in stark contrast to the seriousness of the Masters, which has announcers talking in hushed, reverent tones. There has never been a player who has won the Par 3 contest and the Masters in the same year, although Raymond Floyd came close in 1990, losing the Masters in a sudden-death playoff to Nick Faldo, who won the coveted green jacket for the second consecutive year. Floyd’s attempt to record the Par 3 and Masters win came undone on the second hole when his iron shot went into the water. Had he won, it would have been the first player to win a Masters in four consecutive decades.

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.