3Balls Staff
319 Manley Street
West Bridgewater, MA 02379

To the team at 3Balls.com,

My name is Captain Sean Richardson, and I would like to thank you all for the amazing support you have shown my unit, and my soldiers. In December of last year, my company of more than 100 individuals deployed to Southern Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. We are a MEDEVAC company that provides aerial medical evacuation to injured Americans and Afghans. The Soldiers in my company consist of pilots, crew chiefs, and medics. Beginning in February, the Armed Forces Network began to air golf events as the PGA tour kicked back into swing. That was roughly three months into our deployment, and when the reality of being away from home really began to sink in. One of the many things the Soldiers really began to miss was golf. Being an avid golfer myself, I was very lucky to be assigned to a company with others who shared my passion. We began watching golf and trying to make up for what we were missing back in the States by playing Tiger Woods on X-box, but that just wasn’t cutting it.

Having grown up working and playing in the golf industry for most of my life, I made an attempt to reach out to individuals who might be able to help us bring a little bit of happiness to an otherwise dreary place. Almost immediately I received a response from none other than Ed Smith, my “Uncle Eddie”. I was excited when he wrote me back asking for my address, saying “I’ll see what I can do”. About a month and half later, my Soldiers came down to my office after getting the mail. They told me I had better come upstairs because I had quite a few packages. When I looked at the label and saw the return address was 3Balls.com, I couldn’t help but smile. To give you a visual, I would compare my reaction to when Ralphie from A Christmas Story, reacting when he saw the box for his Red Rider BB Gun. As I began to open the packages that were filled with clubs and balls, more and more soldiers began to trickle into the room, gripping the clubs, practicing swinging, and asking for lessons. Even though there is not a blade of grass for as far as the eye can see, the packages you guys sent brought a little bit of home to the desert.

After dividing up the clubs and the balls equally, they were sent out on the next helicopter flight to the other Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) that my team is based out of. Everyone did what we could to get their golf fix in. We immediately set up make shift driving ranges and began to hit the balls into camo nets, tarps or whatever else we could get our hands on. I just want you all to know that because of your sincere generosity, you brought smiles to the faces of the men and women that defend our nation every day. Thank you so much for your support, we will never forget this.

Sincerely,

Sean R. Richardson
Captain, US Army

Here are some photos:

See our selection of Callaway RAZR Fit Drivers HERE.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR SELECTION OF DIABLO OCTANE I-MIX DRIVERS

1.  The Price.  Starting at $69.95, these are really really good drivers.  The technology in them is just as good as the newest drivers on the market.

2.  The Options.  You have a ton of choices.  Loft, length, shaft model, shaft flex, etc.  Heck, even at this price you could afford to buy two just to find out which one fits you best.  There are even a ton of exotic shafts to choose from…Rombax’s, Fubuki’s, R.I.P.’s, Voodoo’s, etc.

3.  The Look.  Obviously everyone has their own opinion on what driver looks the best.  The Diablo Octane does have a unique look, but in my opinion it appears very “hittable” and screams confidence.

4.  The Condition.  We have a variety of conditions to choose from on these.  Our LIKE NEW condition is almost always pristine and you will have trouble distinguishing it from brand new.

5.  You Deserve It!  Spoil yourself.  At this price you won’t even feel too bad about it.  Show it off to your friends and ask them how much they think you paid for it and then blow them away by saying $69.95.

I Want My Ex Boyfriend Back Fast /05/GDWspeedgolf.gif”>Cool: A three hour round of golf.

Not Cool:  A five hour round of golf.

Cool:  Getting really good golf lessons from a really good golf pro.

Not Cool:  Getting really bad golf lessons from a really bad wannabe golf pro.

Cool:  Waiting a few extra seconds for the group ahead of you to move up, “just in case you hit a great one”, and then hitting it right to where they were before they moved.

Not Cool:  Not waiting for the group ahead of you to move and hitting into them, even if it was the best shot of your life.

Cool:  Following the course’s cart rules and not driving too close to the greens and tee boxes.

Not Cool:  Parking right next to the green or tee box.

Cool:  Being honest and admitting that you can’t find your ball when hit in a rough area.

Not Cool:  Claiming and hitting a ball that you found “close to where yours should have been”.

Cool:  Shaking the hands of everyone in your group after your round is over.

Not Cool:  Putting out on the 18th (unhappy with your score) and ignoring the rest of your group while huffing and puffing on the way to your car, throwing your clubs in the back and slamming the trunk before spinning your tires out of the parking lot.

Cool:  Having a great time on the golf course, having a few laughs and maybe even some fist pumps.

Not Cool:  Having SO much fun that the entire golf course can hear your overpowering laughs and yells as if you were making a hole-in-one on every hole during your round.

Cool:  Having the best round of your life.

Not Cool:  Letting everyone in your life hear about that best round of your life everyday for the entire year.

Cool:  Having a cool GPS or Rangefinder to tell you that the pin is 227 yards away.

Not cool:  Using a GPS or Rangefinder when you are 25 yards away.

Cool:  Having fun!

Not Cool:  Not having fun.

I Want My Ex Boyfriend Back Fast

Greetings golf fashionistas. As the immortal LL Cool J would say, “Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years”.  Well, months actually, but who’s counting.  I know many of you have been wondering why I have not been blogging much, or at all, recently.  And I wish I had some long elaborate story about travel around the country for work or for fun, but the truth is, I’ve just been very lazy.  Part of it is my day job at 3balls.com keeps me more than busy, and part of it is my home computer is from the turn of the century, like 2002, so it doesn’t run very efficiently.  But, no more excuses.  With my 1 year blogoversery coming up, yes I did just invent a word, I’m dusting off the blog skills and writing a gem.  Or trying to anyway.  Plus, we had a major rules hullabaloo this weekend didn’t we?  So lets get into the fray and back in the swing of it.

If you are an avid reader of this blog, and I’m sure there are 1 or 2 of you out there, you know that I have a rules interest AND a fashion interest.  But I focus mainly on the clothing side, because its more fun.  Typically, rules issues that arise are very controversial and often heart breaking.  This was the case in this past weekends Sybase Match Play Championship on the LPGA Tour.  The article from ESPN.com can be found here: http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/7951895/azahara-munoz-wins-sybase-match-play-controversial-semifinal-win-morgan-pressel, as well as a commentary from one of the “professional” blog writers here: http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/7952900/no-middle-ground-morgan-pressel-slow-play-penalty.  I’ll try not to bore you with all the specifics, but basically, Morgan Pressel, a teen-star who has had some ups and downs on the LPGA Tour, was penalized for having a slow time on the par-3 12th hole, which she won to go 3-up in her match, and the penalty was loss of the hole, which put her back to 1-up.  That in itself would be a rules decision worth writing a blog about.  But its gets even worse.  On the 15th hole, with Pressel still 1-up on Azahara Munoz, she accused Munoz of touching her putting line, which would be a penalty.  The LPGA looked at the tape, determined it to be inconclusive, and assessed no penalty to Munoz.  She made her birdie putt, Pressel missed, and the match was square.  Azahara won the next two holes and the match.  Then everyone broke into tears, and understandably so.  The icing on this whole mess is that Munoz and Pressel are both good friends, as it states in the LPGA Tour media guide and both women have admitted to.

Now for the important part of this, MY take on the two incidents.  First off, I have always and will always say rules are rules.  (The ESPN.com article says it one or two times as well, but they stole it from me.  Im still waiting on my check).  Pressel was slow, and they were on the clock, and thus a penalty is well within the rules officials discretion to use.  But quite frankly, it seemed unjust and unwarranted.  For 1 thing, Pressel changed clubs before her tee shot on the par 3 as the wind picked up, a very natural response to the situation.  2nd, they were the last of 2 semifinal match play matches, so they weren’t holding anyone up.  There was no group behind them.  Yes they warned the group before the 11th hole, but groups get warned all the time, and never, ever get penalized the next time they play slowly.  It just seemed very petty and unnatural, and the 2 hole swing was clearly deflating for poor Morgan, who had virtually no time to collect her thoughts before teeing it up on the next hole.  Unless she wanted ANOTHER slow play penalty.

The 2nd incident was confusing for all, but it seems Morgan thought she saw a rules violation, no one else saw it, and thus it could not be penalized.  Not the 1st time, wont be the last.  Sour grapes was the first thought that popped into my head, but I don’t think that was the case, thought Morgan was clearly a little steamed by that point in the match.  Either way, two ugly incidents took away from a great, exciting week of golf featuring rising LPGA stars, and the game is a little bit worse off for it.  In my humble opinion.

Next time we meet, hopefully we will have something better, more fashionable?, to talk about.  Until then, remember, as ESPN.com would say over and over again, RULES ARE RULES!!!

• A lightweight stand bag.
• A comfortable pair of shoes.
• Comfortable golf clothing (especially socks).
• GPS and/or a rangefinder.

In my opinion, those items are fairly essential to enjoy a round of walking (with the exception of the GPS/rangefinder perhaps).  If you are looking to walk more rounds of golf, here are my suggestions, all of which can be found here at 3balls.com.

Bag

Titleist Lightweight Stand Bag

If you are going to be carrying your bag, it is a must that you find one that is light and that has dual straps.  It is also nice to find a bag that can adequately hold everything you need it to.  Remember, if you are going to be walking, you’ll be keeping everything you need in this bag (no baskets or dashboards like in a cart to hold things).  However, you don’t want to overdo it looking for a bag with a TOO many pockets and compartments.  That adds weight.  This Titleist Ultra Lightweight Stand Bag is the exact bag that I have been using the last two seasons.  Extremely light. The only thing that I would change is I would love to have one more club separator.  Three or four would be nice, but it is still great and I use it all the time.  I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to walk more.  You hardly even notice it on your back.

Shoes

Footjoy Dryjoys Tour

Picking a pair of shoes is always a tough choice, especially for golf.  In my experience, golf shoes never feel the same on the course as they did when you tried them on in the store.  Usually they get broken in and everything is great, but every once in a while you’ll get that one pair that just doesn’t want to cooperate.  I like to try out different brands, but I quickly realized that Footjoy shoes rarely hurt my feel.  I haven’t owned too many other brands, so I can’t comment much on them.  I have several pairs of Footjoys.  The ones that are best to walk in, in my opinion, are the Footjoy Dryjoys Tour and the Footjoy FJ Sports.  Both are very comfy and I haven’t found any others that I’d rather walk in.  We have several colors/styles to choose from for each.

Clothing

Adidas ClimaLite Solid Polo

Nike Dri-Fit Tech Pants

Nike Dri-Fit Essential No-Show Socks

One thing that can make me wish I had taken a cart and not walked is the clothing I am wearing.  I have no doubt that most of you have been there before…uncomfortable shorts, a heavy collared shirt, and socks that do nothing for your feet.  Those things have a bigger impact on your score than you probably realize.  Being comfortable from the first tee until the 18th green is crucial.  Obviously the material you choose is based a lot on where you live/the climate you play in, but I think most people would agree that clothing designed specifically for golf is usually the best way to go.  Socks are possibly the most important part of your golf wardrobe.  Socks designed specifically for golf are usually designed with walking in mind as well as the correct length for stylish and comfortable golf.  Here are a few items that I would suggest taking a look at if you are in the market for some real golf clothing.

The ClimaLite shirts by Adidas are amazing.  If you haven’t experienced one before, you are missing out.  These are what golf shirts are supposed to be like.

These Nike Dri-Fit Tech Pants not only look great they feel amazing too.  Honestly, try a pair of these, you’ll wonder why you ever wasted your time wearing something else.

Socks are critical.  There are several nice golf socks out there, but these Nike Dri-Fit Essential No-Show socks are the ones I recommend.

GPS/Rangefinder

Leupold GX-4i Rangefinder

Golf Buddy World GPS

I see more and more golfers utilizing GPS devices and rangefinders.  I love seeing it as long as it is necessary (using a rangefinder when you are 20 yards away is a bit excessive).  It tends to speed up play a bit (less time walking off yardages or searching for sprinkler heads) and it has a big impact on a players score.  For walking purposes, I think it really helps eliminate extra or unnecessary walking by giving you the exact yardage and not forcing you to walk off distances.  Strangely enough, it can also help you find lost balls.  If you are searching for your drive and you look at your GPS and it tells you that you are 330 yards from the tee but you typically hit the ball 275 yards, you need to back up.  The idea that it will help lower you score also shows that it speeds up your round (less shots equals less time).  I’ve used both GPS and rangefinders.  I like them both about the same.  Here are my suggestions.

The Leupold GX-4i Rangefinder is small and very accurate.  I’ve used this model before and it is very quick and easy to use.  It is extremely easy to hit the flagstick and also easy to find the yardages to other parts of the course such as water, trees, bunkers, etc.

As for GPS, I like the Golf Buddy World GPS.  It has a great looking screen and also very easy to use.  I really like having a GPS when I play new courses.  It gets frustrating standing on the tee having no idea what the hold really looks like.  This GPS can easily fix that.

So, whether you decide to walk or ride is up to you.  Just keep in mind that walking has many benefits such as being cheaper and exercise.  I also find it much more relaxing strolling down the fairway rather than zipping down it in a cart.

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