REVIEW: TourStriker Pro
One of the biggest issues with my golf swing is my inability to maintain the proper impact position on a consistent basis (hands ahead of the ball). I am by no means in the minority with this issue, especially since most amateurs tend to release the club too early from the top of their backswing, thus losing valuable yards thanks to a poor transfer of energy to impact. In short, I'm a "scooper" or "flipper" with my irons.
The TourStriker training club is designed to help golfers of all levels learn and maintain the proper impact position. The TourStriker is available in multiple styles and makes for golfers of all levels: Regular model, TourStriker Pro, TourStriker Pro X, Women's and Juniors, and even a wedge series. The main difference among these designs is where the "sweet spot" originates and lies on the club's face. From the TourStriker website:
The Tour Striker and NEW Tour Striker Pro training clubs have been created not to care about your swing style or shape. The distinctive designs have little clubface below the "sweet spot" like a traditional club (Figure - below right). The clubs have been designed so you intuitively teach yourself how to deliver the "sweet spot" of the club to the ball like an expert ball striker. Transferring the feel learned to your traditional clubs is an easy step!
Easy step, eh? I wanted to see if this was true, so I went to my local Golfsmith and picked up the TourStriker Pro, which is designed for players with a handicap of 10 or lower. After purchasing the club for $99.95, I made my way to the driving range and started hitting a few balls first with the TourStriker and then with my irons. After a full bucket of balls, I basically had the following impression of the TourStriker:
PROS: First and foremost, the club feels like a normal iron in your hands in terms of weight, however addressing the ball is certainly "odd" at first thanks to the specially-designed clubface. Swinging the club felt natural for the most part as I began to get used to hitting balls with the TourStriker. This took me a little while, of course, as the first few shots were anything but ideal.
I will wholeheartedly admit that the TourStriker works as-advertised. If you release the club too early from your backswing or attempt to "lift" the ball off the ground, the club will be very unforgiving. Hitting the ball anywhere other than on the miniature clubface will result in either a fast worm-burner or a simple topped shot dribbler. After a few swings and even a grip change, I was able to keep my hands forward on more than half of my shots, resulting in a true ball flight similar to what a proper 7-iron should fly for me... and perhaps even a little further.
CONS: For the less-experienced or higher-handicapped players, making proper contact with the club might come as an accident. In other words, the player is tasked with playing around with his or her swing until a proper ball flight is achieved then asked to duplicate this result. The problem? If you are a newer player who may not have an engrained muscle memory skill, this can be very difficult to duplicate on a consistent basis. The TourStriker website does offer a few drills for players to use on the range, and I highly recommend using these drills to get started. Finally, the TourStriker is best used on a mat or completely even surface; hills or an uneven tee area may cause the bounce of the iron to react in odd ways when hit.
All-in-all, I am pleased with the TourStriker product. I plan on making a few additional trips to the range with the club to work on my impact position while will hopefully translate to more distance and control with my irons.
