In developing the new putters, PING golf engineers relied on 3D scans of the original Anser and Anser 2 to analyze the subtle contours and radius details that Karsten personally shaped into the designs using his mill and hand files. Each of the new models is engineered with that same attention to detail and performance that has made the Anser the winningest model in golf history.

The putters will be available in golf shops in March.

PING Golf Chairman & CEO John Solheim, who helped his father build the original Anser model in the family’s Scottsdale, Arizona garage as a teenager, said the goal was to strike a balance between advancing the game’s best putter technology and giving golfers a sense of the Anser’s history. “Karsten’s groundbreaking Anser design was genius because of how well it performed and how different it was. Golfers had never seen anything like it. He hand-shaped every detail of it until it was perfect in his mind. The Anser changed putter design forever, and it still influences putter manufacturers worldwide 50 years later because of its unparalleled success and popularity.”

The new putters get their name from PING’s True-Roll (TR) face technology. The precision-milled face design provides unmatched ball-speed consistency, the key to holing more putts and reducing 3-putts.

Like the original, the new Anser model includes a sound slot in the sole and appeals to golfers who prefer no alignment line, more rounded heel and toe contours, and a slightly thicker top line. It offers a manganese bronze PVD finish.

The Anser 2, distinguished by a stainless steel blast finish, has a single white alignment line on the flange that simplifies aiming. Its heel and toe contours are less rounded than those of the Anser and its top rail is narrower.

Technical specifications:

TR 1966 Anser
– 340g, 17-4 stainless steel
– 35″ std. length
– True-Roll face technology
– Fits slight arc stroke type
– Manganese bronze PVD finish
– Stepped shaft
– Lie angle adjustable +-4º
– PP58 midsize black grip
– U.S. MSRP: $162.50
TR 1966 Anser 2
– 340g, 17-4 stainless steel
– 35″ std. length
– True-Roll face technology
– Fits slight arc stroke type
– Blast finish
– Stepped shaft
– Lie angle adjustable +-4º
– PP58 midsize black grip
– U.S. MSRP: $162.50

To find out where to buy Ping Golf products and Ping Putters in Hong Kong, visit the Tour Spin Golf Shop.

The post Ping Golf Issues New TR 1966 Putters 50 Years After Founder’s Original Anser appeared first on Golf in Hong Kong.

Vista, Calif. – Nov 23, 2015 – Fujikura Golf, recognized for designing and producing the world’s best performance golf shafts, continues to succeed across the globe and this weekend’s victories at the DP World Championship and Race to Dubai exemplifies this.

“Fujikura Golf congratulates the winner of the DP World Championship for his outstanding play and for cinching the Race to Dubai. What a remarkable achievement! The company also wants to thank him for his ongoing usage of Fujikura Golf Shafts,” commented Fujikura Golf Marketing Manager Stephanie Hartgraves.

Fujikura Golf Shafts provide the best quality custom golf shafts used on tour – actually on all tours worldwide. In addition to the win at the DP World Championship and the Race to Dubai, Fujikura Golf Shafts were played this month to win the European BMW Masters, the PGA Tour Cimb Classic, the LPGA Tour Blue Bay and the Turkish Airlines Open.

November also provided another first for Fujikura Golf as the company was connected with the recently awarded Web.com “Player of the Year” title. This talented recipient and golf professional plays a Fujikura Golf Shaft in ALL of his woods. “We at Fujikura are honored to be associated with this title. This Web.com professional had one of the most remarkable Web.com Tour seasons to date. We look forward to watching him compete next year on the PGA Tour,” added Hartgraves.

In addition to these accolades, Fujikura Golf had two PGA Professionals play a Fujikura Driver Golf Shaft to close a Top-10 finish at the RSM Classic and four LPGA Tour Professionals played a Fujikura Golf Shaft to secure a Top-10 finish which also included a tie for second place. Fujikura driver and wood Golf Shaft usage increased by a staggering 19% in 2015 over 2014 on the LPGA Tour.

About enso® Technology:
enso® is an advanced, proprietary technology that measures actionable, pre-impact club data to facilitate the design of the most accurate and powerful golf shafts for all golfers. It was developed in 2009 with then partner Vicon Motion Capture Systems as a state-of-the-art high, speed 3D motion capture measurement system which measures the club (head, shaft, handle) at sub-millimeter accuracy prior to impact. Fujikura has gathered years of data over the past five years measuring different swings from all types of golfers and now is using this intelligence to deliver the head to ball ratios FASTER and more efficient than ever before. Fujikura is the only shaft company with this innovative technology.

About Fujikura Golf:
Fujikura is known for designing and producing the world’s best performance golf shafts which is credited to their engineering team, enso® technology and the professional tour support the company receives from the PGA, Web.com, LPGA and Champions Tour. These critical components have contributed greatly to Fujikura garnering the #1 Driver Shaft, #1 Wood Shaft, #1 Hybrid Shaft used on the professional tours.

The company is also distinguished as a primary supplier to many national golf club brands offering both proprietary and brand product shaft designs. Fujikura products also can be custom fit through its network of over 900 Charter Dealers worldwide. Custom fit shafts are used by 100% of Tour professionals but Amateur and everyday golfers can take advantage of this same opportunity to fit their unique swing profile. In fact, 99% of golfers fit with Fujikura Shafts instantly gain more yards.

Buy Fujikura Golf shafts at Tour Spin Golf

The post Fujikura Golf Shafts Used in Race to Dubai appeared first on Golf in Hong Kong.

Firstly, this is our first drone, we’re not into RC aircraft and really only purchased it for aerial video. Deciding on what drone to buy depends somewhat on what you’re going to use it for. There are three versions of the Xiro Drone, the Xiro Drone “normal”, the Xiro Explorer V, and the Xiro Explorer G drone. We’re reviewing the Xiro Xplorer G, which is the one that has a gimble you can attach a GoPro to. The Xplorer V comes with a camera, but shooting just 720p it’s not really up with the times with most of the better drones today capable of shooting 4K.

Looks
The Xiro Xplorer G Drone is probably one of the best looking drones we’ve seen, it’s sleek, streamlined and the green on black makes it our favourite looking drone by quite a long way. It’s got a very low profile which also makes it look kinda cool, the legs are moveable, so you can fly it without a camera and put the legs up, or if you’re using the camera you’ll need to attach the slightly cumbersome gimble which holds the gopro. Like Jessica Alba, even with the legs down and gimble attached, it still looks good. The propellers are black and again, it just looks good. If you take the propellers off, you can hand carry the Xiro Xplorer G Drone with ease (the battery is removeable). We’ve hiked for around 45 mins hand carrying this drone with no problems (not including wind – more on that later).

Performance/Ease of Use
The Xiro Xplorer G Drone is very easy to fly unless you have no coordination, in which case no drone is going to be easy to fly. With absolutely no experience, our first time was made even easier by the comfortable remote controller and the simple setup. Under normal conditions, the Xiro Xplorer G Drone pretty much does what it’s told. Where the problems arise is with connectivity. We’ve crashed the Xiro Xplorer G Drone three times, twice due to just losing connection between the remote and the drone. Unfortunately, it crashed into concrete walls on two occasions but on a postive not, it survived both crashes, but not without some repairs.

The lose of connection is a real worry, and when they say always fly the Xiro Xplorer G Drone in open areas, take that seriously because you don’t want to lose control of the Xiro Xplorer G Drone in a crowd of people (unless it’s full of Donald Trumps). Common sense says that applies to all drones, but we haven’t heard too may reports of other drones losing connection and the drone wandering off wherever it sees fit. The more famous DJI Phantom 3 Professional has addresses this issue and Xiro needs to also address this issue very quicky.
The Camera Experience

Yes, the Xiro Xplorer G Drone can accommodate a GoPro, but other than tilt up and down, you won’t be able to control it. Any video will need to be turned on prior to take off, and photos are out of the question. The Xiro Xplorer G Drone is NOT a photographers drone or a videographers drone. Basically you’re flying blind and perhaps the biggest letdown of the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is that the propellers will fill up to half your video capture if you leave it in the upright (horizontal) position. To get the propellers out of the video, you need to tilt it down, which cuts out most of the sky, so what you end seeing is a lot of ground. The GoPro can point all the way down, but even then you can see the legs of Xiro Xplorer G Drone when it gets a bit windy. So if you’re looking for a great drone for video/photos, again, the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is definitely not the drone for you.

The Gimble is quite easy to attach, but getting the GoPro in is not an easy task, and getting it out is downright difficult. Annoyingly, you will inevitably find yourself turning the GoPro on, and the video on and off trying to get the little sucker out. The last time we removed it from the Gimble, the GoPro had new names beginning with F, C and A. It can also make marks on the GoPro. We don’t care about this, but those looking to keep their GoPro in the best of condition will need to worry about this.

To test the Xiro Xplorer G Drone in varied conditions we took it up Dragon’s Back. In what we would call windy conditions, it faired okay, but in strong winds, it gets blown about and makes any kind of video impossible, as well as the landing extremely difficult (we crashed it trying to land it in high winds on top of a small mountain). The manual says not to use it in winds above Cat 4, but unless you have a very vast open, flat area to land, we don’t recommend using it. Upon crash landing, the Xiro Xplorer G Drone was still useable but now has a bit of a dent in it and the propellers are looking a bit sad. The Xiro Xplorer G Drone comes with a spare set of propellers, but as the beat up propellers don’t seem to affect the flight, we’re saving those for a big crash.

If you do crash the Xiro Xplorer G Drone some of the cables may come lose and you’ll need to do some repairs, not that easy, but not that difficult either. We must mention again it’s survived three crashes so the durability of the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is pretty good, but the reasons for the crashes are the main concern. Unless you are particularly incompetent and or stupid, it’s difficult to crash the drone when you’re connected to it. Once you lose connection, the Xiro Xplorer G Drone has a mind of it’s own and will wander off like a lost dog anywhere it feels like, with you behind the control looking like a complete slapper if anybody happens to be watching. And if there’s people around, they will watch, almost like you’re having a shag in public, except with a drone they’re not afraid to get up close and even cop a feel. But I digress.

Battery life on the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is below average, they state up to 25 minutes, but we get about 13 minutes average, sometimes as low as 8 minutes and rarely higher than 15. There are some quite strict lipo battery rules you’re supposed to adhere to, and which we’ve followed, but driving any distance to fly the Xiro Xplorer G Drone and getting 10 minutes fly time is a little ridiculous.

The cost is RMB3,999, about USD$6,030, that’s about half the cost of the DJI Phantom 3 Professional, but there’s a big caveat. The support of the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is basically non-existent. Repeated emails go unanswered and as Xiro is a new company, it’s not going to get better anytime soon. It’s also based in China with very little documentation in English and if these guys are going to compete with the big boys, they need to get their act together and fast. Perhaps they are just targeting the mainland, which is fine, but they’ve gone to the effort of having their website in English and made some instructional videos in English, but they won’t last long if they’re not willing to reply or engage customers. That’s a shame, because this drone has potential but people aren’t going to buy it if they know they won’t get any support after they buy it.

Conclusion
As other reviews of the Xiro Xplorer G Drone have stated, this is a good “first drone”. It’s easy to fly and if not for the numerous lost connections, would be even easier. If you’re just wanting to experiment with a drone and aren’t too concerned with taking high quality unimpeded video and can live with the fact you won’t be able to take any photos, then this is the drone for you. However, if you’re into Photography and looking to take some cinematic-esque video then the Xiro Xplorer G Drone is not the right drone. The next drone we buy won’t be a Xiro Xplorer G Drone, or the Xiro Xplorer V Drone or anything from Xiro as their customer support is non-existent.

We’ve tried getting in touch with Xiro to see if they wanted to address some of our comments, but no surprises, they ignored us. UPDATE: As of today, there website is down. Not a good sign.

Coming soon we’ll have another drone from China we’ll be reviewing and hopeully that’ll be more positive.

We’ll also give the DJI Phantom 3 a whirl and have the review up as soon as we’ve had a chance to test.

The post Xiro Xplorer G Drone Review appeared first on Golf in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Open Golf Championship may not be the most prestigious golf event in Asia, but it’s one of the most well-known amongst Pro’s and many of golf’s greatest champions have won the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship. These include Greg Norman, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Tom Watson, Petter Thompson, Ian Woosnam, Padriag Harrington, and of course four-time winner Miguel Angel Jimenez. The Hong Kong Open Golf Championship has also been won by Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Bernard Langer and kiwi Frank Nobilo, so the winner will join an elite list of champions.

This year, TaylorMade players Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose have been confirmed for the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship which will be a huge boost for the event and likely to bring in many more spectators and create more buzz at the event. It’ll be interesting to see how Dustin Johnson plays the short composite course at the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship this year as he can drive it well over 350 yards.

Dustin Johnson had this to say about the Hong Kong Open Championship “I’m excited to be making my first trip to the UBS Hong Kong Open Golf Championship. I’ve heard some great things about the tournament, and that the Hong Kong Golf Club is a real classic golf course with a rich history and tradition. You look at some of the names who have won the tournament – guys like Norman, Watson, Woosnam, Langer, Olazabal, Montgomerie and McIlroy – and you realise there is a great history there. Those are the kind of trophies you want to get your name on.

I’m also really looking forward to visiting Hong Kong. As golfers we are very lucky to have the chance to travel the world playing the game we love and when you get the chance to visit cities as exciting as Hong Kong then it’s difficult to say no. It’s going to be an exciting trip.” He’ll want to win the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship after his major misses this year.

Rose, of course, is a Major Champion having won the 2013 U.S.Open and becoming the first Englishman since Tony Jacklin in 1970 to win an American national open. A truly global player, Rose has won seven times on both The European and PGA Tours, as well as picking up titles in the land of his birth, South Africa; as well as Australia and Japan.

Rose said: “Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities in the world and Fanling is a great golf course. The tournament is close to the end of the Race to Dubai so I liked the idea of putting another tournament on the schedule near the end of the year to give myself as good a chance of possible of winning the Race to Dubai when we get to Dubai at the end of the season. I missed the cut by a shot in 2011 but I loved the course. I remember I made a late run of birdies to almost make the cut, but then missing that cut actually enabled me to spend a weekend in the city and really get to know and love the place.

We stay in an awesome hotel in the middle of town and there are just so many great restaurants and so much to do – when you are away from the course you always feel you are somewhere very special and unique. But hopefully this year I can improve the golf side of things. Fanling is a very traditional, tree-lined, tight course. It’s not long but a great test of golf and not easy as the winning scores usually tell. It’s also great to have UBS back on board as title sponsor – they have a great association with the tournament and we are delighted to have them back.”

For more information about the Hong Kong Open Golf Championship click here

ADVERTISING

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