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The Rife Putters Two Bar mallet is quite an enticing piece of accessory. It features numerous technologies that include the likes of adaptable speed weighting, lie aline fittings and roll groove faces. The very feeling that one gets after attaching the sweet pot on the two bar mallet sets the tone for a pleasant experience. The sound of association is very crisp and the grip is quite firm. This simply means getting the best out of both worlds. This is exclusively made for those who prefer vibrations along with some stiff sound. The colour of the putter is ice blue-grey and the shaft can either be straight or double bended. There are a couple of silver bars that stick out from the back of the Rife Putters Two Bar Mallet. A troika of weights is what the adjustable speed weighting system is made up of. The weights screws down without hassles into the hollow bars.

Both the centres in the Rife Putters Two Bar Mallet engulf the golf ball. There is a white sightline that splits both bars and also the sole’s length. Visual features of this device are really endearing courtesy the fact that the cue is three dimensional and the design of the two bar blade model. The horizontal grooves located on the Rife Two Bar Mallet putter face are used for gripping and lifting the ball. There is a DVD that contains every instruction regarding its operation and use. Adjustments are demonstrated and so are weighing and dislodging. It is a big asset to the game and its use will work wonders on your golf performance.

Robert Rock the 32 year old professional golfer and an affiliate member of the European tour since 2003 has 9 top ten finishes to his credit. This well seasoned Englishman was in for a rude shock when the Irish amateur Shane Lowry edged past him to win the Irish Open in a dramatically intense game that took place in Drogheda on Sunday. The 22 year old Lowry became the third amateur to win the European title. Rock ended up with a score of 69 while Lowry had a total score of 71. Swedish Johan Edfors shot the best round at 68 when the play was suspended for 5 hours because of high winds.

Even after the play resumed the conditions were still very rough. The Englishman said that, “It was still very windy. You had to stay focused on every shot. The slightest mishit shot and you were punished.”

However Lowry’s amateur status meant that he could not claim the 500000 Euro cash prize that is awarded for winning the tournament. Due to this Rock was awarded the top prize and automatically qualified into the top ten for the Dubai game. The lucky Rock cannot only but some more elite golfing equipment, like the Srixon I-701 iron set, but he could even help himself to a new sports car. However this loss came as more heartbreak to Rock who finished as the runner up a third time in this entire season. Rock secured the second place at both Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2008 and the BMW Italian Open that was held last week.

These second place finishes might be a case of bad luck or even poor play but Rock is determined to secure a victory and etch his name among the true masters.

Tragedy was the order of the day when the Welsh born amateur golfer Ben Enoch died in a car crash on Thursday the 30th of April. He was a runner-up in the 2008 Welsh Amateur Golf Championship.

This nineteen year old lad who showed tremendous promise was on route to attend a golf tournament in England when his car struck a trailer in Hertfordshire. The accident proved to be fatal and came as a shock to most people. This talented Welsh golfer was a part of the England and Ireland boys’ team that beat the continent of Europe last summer. His elder brother Rhys is golfer too and a part of the Great Britain and Ireland squad. Ben was supposed to attend the East Tennessee University later in the year on a full golf scholarship. This tragic incident could not have happened at a worse time.

“Our thoughts are with the family at this terribly sad time,” said Richard Dixon, the chief executive of the Golf Union of Wales. “Ben was one of the most promising golfers in Wales, a bright and vibrant personality in our teams. He had a chance of getting into the Walker Cup team this season, such was his talent, and would surely have represented Great Britain and Ireland at some stage before enjoying a career in professional golf.”
Many golfers in the circuit along with friends and family are in a state of disbelief and have still not come to terms with this heartrending loss. The Cornwall’s men’s team, on which Ben was a part, played their match dressed in black and held a two minute silence in remembrance of the young golfer. Every member of the Cornwall team seemed to handle their golf club well and they further honoured Ben by winning the match. With the tragic and sudden demise of Ben the golfing world lost a promising young talent.

It was announced on Monday that Muirfield in Scotland would play host to the 2013 British Open. This makes it the sixteenth time that The Open, the oldest of the four golf majors and the only one held outside the US, will be held here on this Scottish course situated near Edinburgh. Nick Faldo assumedly England’s most prolific golfer won two out of his three titles on this course. Other golfing legends like Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson have all won the Claret Jug at Muirfield.

The last time the Championship was held here was back in 2002. Ernie Els, Thomas Levet, Stuart Appleby and Steve Elkington came together to compete for the first time in this tournament. Ernie Els and Thomas Levet were tied over four holes until the South African ace overcame and outplayed the Frenchman to win the Claret Jug to add to his two US Open victories. According to tradition The British Open is always held by a seaside links course so that the winds can play a vital role in influencing the points of the competing players. Indeed, the winds add even more difficulty and finesse to the game of golf, making players rely less on their golf clubs, like the Wilson Pro staff driver, and more on their skill. David Hill, director of championships at tournament organisers the Royal and Ancient Club said: “We are delighted that The Open is returning to Muirfield, an outstanding championship course that consistently produces a very worthy champion.”

Turnberry another Scottish course is going to hold the Open this year in July. St. Andrews will be holding the open next year marking 150 years of the tournament.

The British Open, as it’s known outside the UK, is the Open Championship that has the honour of being the oldest and the only major championship in men’s golf outside the USA. The actual Open is played on the weekend of the third Friday in the month of July for four days. But in reality it’s far bigger.

It actually involves approximately 2500 golfers fighting it out across five continents in the qualifying events that spread over seven months. It’s like the first half of the year is spent in getting ready for the actual Open in July. All this started in 2004 when concept of International Final Qualifying (IFQ) was introduced to give opportunity to players from across the globe to gain direct entry to the championship.

This year’s qualifying started with IFQ-Africa held on 3-4 February at the Royal Durban Golf Club in South Africa. This event gives the chance to 3 golfers from a field of 96 to get direct entry to the Open in July.

This year’s aspirants at the Durban Golf Club had a predominance of players from South Africa with a few from England as well. But the IFQ-Africa was won by Marc Cayeux of Zimbabwe by a single stroke. The second player to qualify was South African Jaco Ahlers who squeezed in with an outstanding last round of five-under par 65, which incidentally was the lowest score of the tournament.

The third one to make the cut was 31 year old Jeremy Kavanagh from England. He had a good first round and an average second round which helped him tie at the 2nd position and sail through to the July event. Jeremy went through mixed emotions at the end of qualifiers and expressed himself saying, “I feel a bit shocked and the feeling has not sunk in yet,” and he further added, “(I) don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

Interestingly, the Open had been held at 14 different golf courses since it was first played in 1860. Although Tiger Woods has won the Open Championship three times already, he has yet to truly dominate it, and the player with the most wins (6) played nearly a century ago. The 138th Open Championship to be held this year will be played at Ailsa Course in Turnberry, Scotland.

St Andrews Links in Scotland is rightfully called the ‘Home of Golf.’ It has been six centuries since the game first evolved at this very place. This year this place and the whole of Scotland have become a centre of attraction because of the call made by Alex Salmond and Sam Torrance to all the fans of golf from the around the world.

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister and Torrance, the famous golf legend, have urged golfers from the around the world to visit Scotland in the Year of Homecoming. The expected turn out is 8000 golfers and the boost to Scotland’s economy could be as high as ?15 million.

Golf is one of the very key themes of Homecoming programme which is designed to attract descendents of Scotland back to their motherland. Golf is rightfully part of the programme as Scotland is looked up as the spiritual home of golf.

For this purpose, Drive it Home initiative was established to promote sport and the first phase of the campaign was quite successful. The first part involved a free four-ball game at one of the 100 courses and as it turned out thousands of golfers from the targeted nations of US, Canada and Sweden registered for it.

The second phase is expected to be launched later in the month of March. In this phase more than 500 golf clubs spread over whole of Scotland are expected to take part. Going by the response to the first phase, the second can be expected to be bigger and better. It would be a fitting tribute to the place that gave the world the beautiful game of golf. Well for everyone who can, it’s time to get in shape (maybe try working out on a treadmill like the Carl Lewis MOTY 5) and make your way to the birthplace of golf for some legendary games. For those who have yet to make the pilgramage, this year’s gathering represents when of the best times to go.

Notwithstanding his young age, teenager Rory McIlroy kept his cool and went on to win the Dubai Desert Classic by just one shot. In the process the Northern Ireland national defeated Justin Rose of England by one shot and Henrik Stenson of Sweden by two shots.

His maiden win in European Tour events did take a long time in coming though. It came after 45 unsuccessful attempts but still was as sweet as it could be. And it was relieving for him too considering he had lost twice in playoffs, in Hong Kong and Switzerland.

For the youngster in his last year in teens, towards the end the victory looked so near and yet so far. By the time just four holes were left to play, he had managed to extend his lead to five shots. The victory did come eventually but not without many a tense moment. Going into the last hole he had already dropped three shots and had a lead of only one shot.

On the other hand, the Englishman could have forced a play off by going just one better but Rose missed his 12 footer birdie putt and Rory was able to finish off victorious for a well deserving win. Even Rose recognised the teenager’s win by acknowledging that he, “really deserved to win.”

Rory had many more things to cheer for too. His parents were there to watch him win and he became richer by $ 416,660, which should help pay for plenty of deluxe golf club sets like the Cleveland CG Gold Irons set. There was something for the record books too with Rory at 19 years and 273 days becoming the seventh youngest ever winner in the history of European Tour.

The Masters Tournament this year is in all likelihood to witness one of the most prodigious talents to have graced the game in recent times after the great Tiger Woods made his mark a decade back. Ryo Ishikawa, the 17-year-old Japanese phenomenon has already been issued an invitation to appear in this year’s tournament which only indicates his growing stature. That he is incredibly talented shouldn’t be a doubted as has already won an amateur Japan Golf Tour event at the tender age of 15.

He is already the second highest ranked golf player in Japan, ranked 60th, behind Shingo Katayama, who is 34th and is widely hailed as the Japanese Tiger by the Japanese media. It is this rising profile that has prompted golf officials in America to offer him two exemptions to play in the States- the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club and the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

Ishikawa is however not the youngest Masters entrant ever, for that record belongs to Tommy Jacobs, who was all of 17 years, 1 months and 21 days when he competed in the 1952 Masters. Ishikawa will be 17 years, 6 months and 23 days when the competition starts. Nevertheless, he was the surpassed the existing record by a good distance when he won the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup in 2007.

The player can really take the opportunity that is coming his way, and stamp his name in golfing history for eternity. He is not letting down his supports though since turning pro last year, as he won his second Japan tour event in November to firmly proclaim his arrival. And yeah, he is immensely popular as well, and it can only be said that he has all the qualities that are the trademark of a true champion. Only time will tell whether he achieves the same success as Tiger, with record breaking wins, millions in endorsement deals and his own video game, like Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009, but at least Ishikawa definitely has time on his side. His fans adorably call him ‘Hanikami Oji’ meaning Bashful Prince”- which he truly is!

Setting the course on fire, Pat Perez went on a world record spree at the Bob Hope Classic being played at California, when he shot a 9-under 63 on Thursday to become the first player in the PGA Tour history to play a 36-hole stretch in a tournament in 20 under. The outstanding performance also put him two strokes ahead of his rivals, and given the form he is in at the moment golf enthusiasts can expect more fireworks in the coming rounds.

The player, who started the championship with a 61 in the first round, followed it up with a bogey-free birdie second round during which he hit nine birdies on the trot, to end the second round firmly at 124 of the 90-hole tournament. During the course of this unprecedented display he not only lowered the PGA Tour’s existing record par for consecutive rounds, but his 36-hole total is also now the new benchmark for the lowest ever to begin a tournament. We’re not sure what kind of exercising or conditioning Perez is doing, whether or not he is lifting weights, rowing with the Reebok i-Rower row machine, or doing anything else special, but clearly the man is on fire. The tournament is still interestingly close despite the exploits of Perez as the top six players are separated by a narrow margin of four strokes, which gives each one of them a realistic chance of wining the competition.

Briny Baird is actually breathing right at the neck of the tournament leader and is just two strokes behind him. It helped that the player maintained his solid first round 63, with an identical score in the second round to have a total of 18-under 126.

Other players in the reckoning are David Berganio Jr., who had a 64 for a total of 127, apart from Tom Pernice Jr. (63) Chris Stroud (63), Richard Johnson (65) and Jason Dufner (65) each of who have a 16 under score.

Zach Johnson scored a thrilling victory over long time rival David Toms at the Sony Open, Honolulu, to record his second victory in six starts. The victory was a sweet one for Johnson because the rivalry between the two goes back to when they were partners in the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal, and it was Toms who generally walked away with the honours. But as fate would have it, Johnson finally managed to change the tide in his favour though not before facing some anxious moments when he blew a three-shot lead to allow Toms a definite chance to outwit him.

Johnson however maintained his cool and played some deft shots to score a two-shot win over Toms and late-charging Adam Scott. The victory also improved Zach Johnson’s record to three straight years with a PGA Tour victory, and considering the season is only two weeks old- the omens are looking good for the player.

The sea-saw battle between Johnson and Toms had the crowd’s on the edge of their seats, and it finally took a mammoth effort from Johnson to stop a valiant Toms. It was really golf at its best, and Toms despite the loss would feel happy that he made the winner toil hard for his victory.

Johnson was high in his praise of Toms, and said that the player was hitting some great shots and that it was not that he (Toms) lost the match, but more aptly he (Johnson) won it.

Meanwhile, Toms acknowledged that he was beaten by a better player, and said that it was difficult to dislodge the player when he is in such terrific form. Indeed, Johnson must have spent extra time working out on an elliptical machine like the YorkFitness X202, because he was in peak physical and mental form. Johnson finally finished at 15-under 265 and earned $972,000 for the victory, which incidentally is the fifth of his career.