Had a wonderful time in the Murcia region of Spain from March 7th to 16th for 7 days of golf with Dom Group CEO Steve Thom.
We played:
- Roda Golf - Friendly off the tee with small challenging green complexes, a nice start for a first course - Las Colinas Golf & Country Club - A DP World Tour Qualifying Venue, extremely windy when we played - Aguilon Golf - The driving range was unfinished, club house mediocre, pace of play slow, and course design needing some work…but it had beautiful mountain and sea views and might've been the most pretty course of the trip (see photo above) - Saurines De La Torre Golf (3 times) - Our favorite course of the outing, will nearly always find your ball in this walkable desert style course, we both finished with our best rounds here with a 6 birdie round for me - El Valle Golf - The best club house patio views of the trip and we both drove the green on a par 4 on this course (see photo below)
The Golf Fitness Association of America is now 2 years old and I'm honored to have been selected again as a 2-time award winner in the Off-Course category for my work in golf fitness and swing speed training.
If you're interested in increasing your swing speed, head over to Swing Man Golf and get started with one of our swing speed training programs today!
It's my 47th birthday. Thanks to everyone who reached out by phone, text, email, social media, etc.
It started out with a lox bagel, cookie, and coffee at James Oliver in Corktown, followed by some errands, a tarot session with Zoe Villegas, a natal chart and human design reading with Michelle Fedrizzi, dinner at Mumma Maria's House in West Village with my wife Jen, and a mini birthday cake at home while watching the season finale of "Welcome to Chippendales".
Last year I spent quite a bit of time at Belle Isle Golf Center, providing both consulting and volunteering services to the new operating group.
This included things like:
Providing personalized golf instruction
Pruning trees/bushes for beautification, enhancing golfer experience, providing natural advertising, ease and practicality of grounds maintenance
Making recommendations for signage, golfer education, instructional and fitness programming, course design, merchandising, landscaping, volunteer programming, range design, parking lot fixes, location of resources, etc
I also got their local golf fitness professional, Mike Snyder, certified in Swing Man Golf's swing speed training program.
Since last year, Mike and I have stayed in touch.
A few weeks ago, my wife Jen and I went over to visit Belle Isle and also play their 6-hole short course. While we were there, Mike told me he had to show me this new piece of fitness equipment. I said sure…and we went in to his private studio gym. However, at first glance, nothing in particular was standing out that I hadn't already seen. He then pointed out a small device attached to his power rack and he told me it was a portable cable machine called ANCORE (pronounced like boat anchor).
For those of you that are familiar with Swing Man Golf's swing speed training programs, you'll know that band and cable training are a common piece of the training, in part because the bands and cables allow you to move through so many different planes and to really mimic your golf swing. I'd use bands with people for basic training at home…and add in cables for more advanced training if a person had access to a gym.
When Swing Man Golf was launched in 2007, when someone asked for a band recommendation, I would usually point them to anything that was compact, light weight, didn't take up much space, and was color coded or labeled in some way such that you could stack or combine the bands to increase strength over time.
At some point, I met Blake Kassel of Bodylastics resistance bands. Blake was really nice to me and I also thought he made a great product. So, for a long time I recommended his bands to people I trained, both amateurs and pros. I still actually have and use these bands when I train…and they are the ones that you see in the below video that I made in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic.
Anyway, Mike showed me his ANCORE…and once I tried it, I was immediately hooked for several reasons.
Small Size
First of all, was its size. As I said, when I first walked in to the room, I didn't even see it. A fully loaded ANCORE is only about a foot long. That makes it a great option to have in an at-home fitness setup when space is a concern.
Lightweight
Second, is its weight. An ANCORE is about 9 pounds, which doesn't make it as lightweight as the Bodylastics resistance bands. However, that's still light enough to make it easily portable for whatever reason you need it to be portable…and, of course, 9 pounds is significantly lighter than having a full cable machine rack like you'd typically see in a gym.
Maneuverability
Third, is the ease of maneuverability. Although they do have fixed wall mounts and a sliding track mount, I particularly like when there is even more flexibility built in to a device to really personalize the position, which you get with the rack or strap mounts.
High Quality
Fourth, is the quality. That's pretty self explanatory, but for me if I'm going to buy any product, quality is something I really appreciate. I'm pretty simple as far as my needs go and I don't carry around too much extra weight in my life, so to speak. However, for the things I do choose to keep around, I want those things to be nice…and I'm willing to pay more if necessary to have a solid product.
Interchangeable Resistance
Fifth, is the option to easily change the resistance to different levels. Going up in strength and resistance over time without losing speed is a key component to increasing power. Each ANCORE model can easily be adjusted from 5 pounds to 55 pounds (or 65 pounds if you get the Plus option).
I'm in the minority of strength. So, personally I was a little concerned that I would max out the resistance too quickly in training. However, if you have a Dual ANCORE Pro, you can just put each one right next to one another and work with two ANCORE's at the same time.
Optional Speed Work
Lastly, is the ability to work at speed. To increase power, you either need to add strength without losing too much speed, increase speed without much loss in strength, or ideally increase both strength and speed. The ANCORE's allow you to add resistance, as mentioned, but also to go fast, if desired. Sometimes it's not easy to do this with a normal cable machine. The weight plates end up crashing around and making a bunch of noise. An ANCORE is designed to stop moving forward when you do.
All that being said, I ended up getting in touch with the company because I wanted to recommend their products to my own audience.
In full transparency, I will make a commission off your purchase and you should therefore take my recommendation with a grain of salt. But if you'd like to give them a try, enter in coupon code JAACOBBOWDEN in their shopping cart to get 50 bucks off.
That's a win for all. They'll make a sale, I'll get a kickback, and you'll save $50 on all ANCORE models while achieving more speed and distance…which, of course, lowers your handicap and scoring potential.
Finished T-76th at the Michigan PGA Professional Championship from August 15-17th, 2022 at Prestwick Village Golf Club in Highland, Michigan.
This event was also a qualifier for the 2023 PGA Championship and 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Many thanks to the sponsors and supporters of the event including Club Car, ROLEX, Cadillac, Titleist and Footjoy, Nike, TaylorMade, Callaway, Golf Channel, and the PGA TOUR!