Opinion & Analysis

Fall Ball! Yes, I’m talking golf

Published

14 years ago

Oct 5, 2012

Brian Chipper

By Brian Chipper

GolfWRX Contributor

Illustration by Joel Holland

It is fall in America. This means cool nights, football, and leaves everywhere on the golf course. For most of us, this means that our golf ball is now buried, behind, or directly on top of one of these leaves.

So how do we stop the atrocity of losing a golf ball in the fairway? Okay near the fairway. Okay, okay in the rough but it flew over a lot of the fairway.

Could the color affect the chances of us finding the ball? This past year, having a neon yellow ball has become trendy. Unfortunately if your course has: Fallgold Ash, Harvest Gold Linden, Ginkgo or Sugar Maples, your score is going to balloon.

At the local pro shop I have also seen a fair amount of blaze orange golf balls. Do they stand a chance in the fall? Well, if your course is dotted with Sugar Maple, Autumn Blaze Maple, American Beech, Cimarron Ash, or Red Maples, you are going to have a bad time.

Ok what about purple? Sugar Maple, Japanese Maple, Sienna Maple, and Red Maples will make your day quite annoying.

So maybe they made the golf ball white for a reason: New Bradford Pear, May Day Tree, Redspire Pear, White Flowering Dogwood, and Aristocrat Flowering Pears will beg to differ.

Pink, yeah I know, it is so unmanly to hit a pink golf ball. Well don’t worry, you may have an excuse as: Pink Flowering Dogwood, Okame Cherry, Kwanzan Flowering Cherry trees have been known to hide your hacks. But really? Get over it is just a pink golf ball. Natalie Gulbis uses a pink golf ball and will hit you with one if you don’t accept it .

Am I calling everyone to rush to their golf course and start up the chainsaw to any deciduous tree out there? Yes, yes I am.

Okay no. No, I am not. I could make a plea to the golf ball manufactures to go back the late 1980’s Ping half-and-half colored golf balls. But that is so passé. And with your luck every variety of color tree is on your golf course.

I’m calling out the golf manufacturers to go ahead and take the jump to a golf ball with a small GPS chip in it and an App to help locate the ball. Make it expensive; $10 a ball, it doesn’t matter! If they can make a hockey puck glow on TV in 1994, it is hard for me to believe that we are not near golf ball GPS technology today.

Heck, connect the ball to my Facebook Account, Twitter, whatever (as long as it doesn’t publicly give my score with it). I’ll gladly look at an ad or two if enables me to keep enjoying the golf this Fall.

Signed, disgruntled by my lost ball in the fairway today, okay rough. Whatever, I’m not taking a penalty stroke for this!

– Brian Chipper

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Opinion & Analysis

AVL: My U.S. Amateur local qualifying experience

Published

6 days ago

Jun 5, 2026

Andrew Von Lossow

This past Monday, I played in the U.S. Amateur local qualifier at Rock Creek Country Club in Portland, Oregon. A full tee sheet from 7:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., the top 11 scores would make it to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying.

I teed off at 10:48 a.m.. With the 7:30 am tee time, you can get a feel for the leaders’ pace, and they were off and running on the challenging setup at Rock Creek.

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Getting to the highlight of the round on the par five 17th, a drive up the left side and 212 yards left to the front hole location. I took out a 5-iron with plans of middle of the green. The ball ended up 8 feet left of the hole, pin high. A slight downhill putt dropped in for an eagle 3 on the 17th. With the cut line looking to be anywhere from -2 to even par. This was the boost I had been waiting for all day.

With making par from the trees on 18, it was time to wait for a potential playoff with a posted score of one under par 71.

Three hours later, it was playoff time. 8 players for 6 spots. I made par on the playoff hole, which was good enough to advance to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying in July. USGA qualifiers sure deliver on all of the emotions in golf!

Club Junkie

Building my 2026 gamer WITB: Ranking the contenders and new putter projects – Club Junkie Podcast

Published

7 days ago

Jun 4, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

The annual What’s In The Bag build is underway, and on this episode of Club Junkie, Brian breaks down the clubs currently leading the race for a spot in his 2026 gamer setup. From drivers and fairway woods to irons, wedges, and shafts, he ranks the equipment that’s performing best and explains what’s separating the front runners from the rest of the field.

Brian also heads into the workshop to discuss several putter projects currently on the bench. From head options and shaft choices to build ideas and testing plans, he shares what he’s working on and which putters could become serious contenders for the bag this season.

If you’re a gear junkie who loves equipment testing, club building, and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect setup, this episode is for you.

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Club Junkie

Tour Edge Exotics mini driver review + TaylorMade Spider ZT Max first look – Club Junkie

Published

2 weeks ago

May 28, 2026

Brian Knudson

On this episode of Club Junkie, I put the new Tour Edge Exotics Mini Driver to the test and break down the performance, forgiveness, distance, and where it fits compared to a traditional driver or strong fairway wood. If you have been curious about adding a mini driver to the bag, this one is worth a look.

I also dive into the new TaylorMade Spider ZT Max putter that was recently spotted and discuss the growing zero torque putter trend. Plus, there is a closer look at the new Project X Titan Yellow shaft showing up on the PGA Tour and what makes it different from other profiles currently out there.