New Golf Ball Reviews

The most important review in the golf industry is the annual Golf Digest Hot List. Every year Golf Digest goes out and tests and reviews all of the new products for the coming year. The reviewing is mainly done by a panel of golfers that do not work for the magazine, they are just regular golfers. The testing is done by the Golf Digest Team with a robot.

When they are done testing and reviewing the new products, they then rate them as described HERE. Each category is divided into a Gold and a Silver level based on the product's average score across the five Hot List criteria. Gold products earned an overall grade of 96 or higher on our 100-point scale. Silver products earned an overall grade of 92 to 95 on our 100-point scale.

The 5 Hot List Criteria are: Buzz 10%, Performance 40%, Technology/Innovation 30%, Function 10%, and Value 10%. Below is the Rating System:


Well let's just say that our products knock the "Ball" out of the park! Callaway/Top Flite Golf was the leader with 4 Gold medals and no Silver. Here are the counts:

	Gold	Silver
Bridgestone	3
Callaway/TF	4
Titleist	2	3
Nike		1
Srixon		2
Precept	1	1
Wilson	1
TaylorMade		4

Our TOURi and TOURix balls were Function and Technology Leaders in the +$40 Group.


The HX Hot Bite was the Function and Performance Leader in the $20-$30 Group.


And ,the ball that maybe should have been a Callaway, the Top Flite Gamer lead in the Function and Technology Category for the Under $20 Group.


As you can tell, I am very proud of the products I have helped develop, and it is awesome to see them get such rave reviews from the media. Now lets hope that the golfing public will realize how good these balls are!

If you want a copy of the Golf Digest article, just let me know, I have a pdf copy of it.

NATER

New Callaway Golf Balls!

So the balls that I have helped design, test, and given the thumbs up to have officially been posted to the redesigned Callaway Golf Website.



If you go to the Golf Balls section here:
http://www.callawaygolf.com/Global/en-US/Products/GolfBalls.html

You can scroll through and read about our new balls. There is also a small video about each ball from my boss's boss, V.P. of Golf Ball R&D, Steve Ogg.

It's pretty cool to see products out on the market that I know I was one of the last few to give it the final thumbs up. Plus they are kick-ass golf balls!

Nater

Palm Springs

Since my work deadlines were on Monday the 22nd, I decided to surprise Karen with a trip to Palm Springs on the 27th and 28th. So after spending close to a week in the house due to the fires going on around here, we finally got out of town.

It was a smooth 2 hour drive into Palm Springs. The quick way is a little 2 lane road that takes you up over the hills.


We rolled into Palm Springs and it was a nice 87 degrees out... I had booked a room at the Westin Resort and Spa at Mission Hills.


Our room was large and was awesome. We threw on our bathing suits and hung out at the pool. It felt awesome to be laying out in the sun and the fresh air was a nice change after a week of smoke.

Later in the evening we headed down the road for dinner. We went to this awesome steak house! We had a plate of Fillet Mignon wrapped in Bacon, Seared Ahi Tuna, and freash Scallops. It was ssssoooooo gooooooood! The place was called Fleming's Steakhouse, it was a little bit expensive, but it was my style of place and the food was totally worth it.

On Sunday the sun came out a little bit more and it really started to heat up. We went to go get some coffee in the morning and it was already too warm to sit directly in the sun being in street clothes. So back to the pool...


After a couple hours there, we decide to pack up and head home. The drive was a little faster than the way here so that was nice. We did come back through a fire in Temecula though. As of right now, I don't think there are any fires left. Or at least I am not hearing about any.

It's pretty sweet that we can hop in the car and in less than two hours be relaxing in Palm Springs!

Nater

Wednesday Morning Fire Update

Well the sky is much more clear this morning. Here is the current Fire Map.

It was a grey sky with orange/red sun light all day yesterday. I did get out to go to the store and here are a couple of pics:

Ash on my car, it comes down like a lite dusting of snow.

And here is the Carlsbad Evacuation Center that has opened up across El Camino Real from us, in the mall parking lot.


A shot of the grey ashy sky.


And then as the sun set it went from a red/orange to a bright pink.

Anyways the fires have been dying down today. I should be back at work tomorrow. As of right now there is something like 500,000+ people evacuated, 300,000 acres that have been burnt, and 1300 building destroyed.

Nater

Tuesday Morning Fire Update

Okay, interesting night. We stayed in the Advisory Evacuation Zone all night. This morning at 6:30 though we fell out of it as the evac zone still stays to the south and north of us. Here is the updated Fire Map:

(Red is fire, purple is mandatory evacuation, pink is advisory evacuation)

The morning is fairly strange looking, the sky is orange and there is ash lightly falling from the sky. It looks like dusk buts its 10am.


The wind was suppose to pick back up again, but it is still really calm here in Carlsbad. The San Diego Tribune has started a great blog that is keeping people posted as soon as the news arrives. You can see it here: http://sosdfireblog.blogspot.com/

I will be going out today to pick up some groceries, so if I see anything interesting I will take some shots and post them here.

Nater

Monday Night Fire Update

Well as of right now we are ok, and should stay ok. The fires are to the north and south of us. Here are a couple pics from our balcony.

South:

North:

And right now we barely fall in the Advisory Evacuation Area, but we feel really safe since the fires are still miles from us. Here is the current map:


But if we do become a mandatory evacuation area, we will have to go. So if we do have to evac we will head for Emmy's, in LA, most likely... But unless the winds pick up and change direction, I just don't see that happening.

Nater

A Fire Pic From Home

Here is the view from my back balcony.

New Fire Evacuation Area:

The wind is blowing due West still, so as long as the wind keeps blowing that way we should be fine.