SWING THINGS.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Help, or Hype?

That is the question faced by golfers pondering the purchase of any of the hundreds of golf training devices on the market.

Take anything you can possibly do wrong while hitting (or putting) a golf ball, and there are sure to be several devices designed to help prevent it - or at least show you what you're doing wrong.

Cures for the common slice are sold via TV "infomercials" with the same breathless banter that pitchmen for slicer-dicer kitchen appliances use at county fairs.

Hit it farther! Hit it straighter! Putt like a pro! Amaze your buddies!

There are swing trainers that look like giant Hula Hoops, Rube Goldberg-ian swing trainers with ropes and pulleys, swing trainers that look like Tinker Toys, and swing trainers that resemble strait jackets.

But then you'd have to be just a little crazy to spend good money on something like that, wouldn't you? Or would you?

After all, in the movie "Tin Cup," driving range pro Roy McAvoy (Kevin Costner) scoffs at the bag of swing aids student Molly Griswold (Rene Russo) brings to a lesson ("I ordered all these from the Golf Channel," she says proudly).

"A waste of money," huffs McAvoy. "Paraphernalia for lost and desperate souls."

When his own swing develops a sudden case of the "shanks," however, McAvoy dips into Griswold's bag and tries several gadgets all at once. "There could be something to this pendulum thing," he mutters with a golf ball on a string swinging back and forth in front of his face.

Laugh if you will, but the movie "is making fun of something that is actually very useful to people," said former Eugene resident Gary Wiren, the Professional Golf Association's "Teacher of the Year " in 1987 and a regular on both the Golf Magazine and Golf Digest lists of top golf teachers in the U.S.

"There is a lot of improvement than can come with the use of training devices because you can't get better in golf without feedback," said Wiren, who lived in Eugene from 1962 to 1972. He was employed as sports event manager at the University of Oregon, where he also earned a doctorate in sports science. (Wiren also taught at the "Register-Guard Golf School.")

Recently described as "the godfather of training aids" by Golfweek columnist James Achenbach, Wiren is the inventor of the "Impact Bag," a teaching device popular among golf pros. He is also founder of Golf Around the World, The Teaching and Training Aids Company. His company catalog, at last count, lists 108 different training aids.

And please don't refer to them as "golf gimmicks or gadgets."

"We don't accept that term," Wiren said. "We say we only deal with learning tools and teaching devices."

Everything in his catalog, he insists, is a legitimate source of feedback - and, thus, of help - for golfers.

Feedback traditionally comes in the form of a teaching pro telling or, in the case of video lessons, showing the golfer what he needs to correct, Wiren said.

"Golf is the only sport where you don't have a coach at every practice to give you feedback," he said. "You take a lesson and then you go to practice what you learned. But who's giving you the feedback? Just the ball. That's all right to a certain degree, but it doesn't tell you what is causing it to do what it's doing."

A "wonderful example" of a simple but effective training aid, Wiren said, is the Tac Tic Wrist, a thin metal plate sewn inside a leather sheath that straps to the left wrist of a right-handed golfer. The metal band makes an audible click if the wearer flexes his wrist - a no-no for effective chipping and pitching.

"You can feel it and you can hear it, so it's giving you auditory and kinesthetic feedback," Wiren said.

"If you chip and it goes 'click,' you know right away that's not it; when you hit the ball and you don't hear anything, then you've made a correct swing."

Wiren's own contribution to the golf teaching tool marketplace is the Impact Bag, which he says helps "monitor the single most important moment of the swing - impact."

Wiren's company has sold more than 40,000 Impact Bags (a $39.95 suggested retail item) "mostly to golf pros and teachers," he said.

The Impact Bag has several uses, he said, but the most important is allowing the golfer to understand what his body and the club are doing at the moment of impact.

"When you hit a golf ball, because there is very little resistance, it's hard to monitor the position of your body and the club shaft," Wiren said. "You can be swaying and not feel it."

When the club slams against the bag (stuffed with rags or towels), however, "you can see if your left arm is straight, if your club shaft is down, if your head is still behind the ball and if your right wrist is still set a little bit."

Golf teaching aids have been around for a long time. Wiren, who is also a major collector of golf-related items, has in his collection a formed grip dated 1910. It's very similar to some of the current products designed to align the hands and fingers on the golf club properly.

Wiren said products accepted for the Golf Around the World catalog all must meet five criteria - validity, reliability, durability, simplicity and salability.

"In other words, they had to work properly, and there had to be a genuine value for what a person paid," he said.

Often, the price is driven up by the cost of the instructional video that most products come with, not the cost of making the item itself, he said.

Wiren didn't discuss his company's sales figures, but products claiming to help golfers shave strokes off their games have become big business.

For example, Kallassy's "Swing Magic" - featuring a sliding split-handled grip - had almost $30 million in sales in one year, according to a report in one golf magazine.

Of course, the company spent $1.5 million per month on 30-minute televison spots.

The big infomercial push over the past year has come from The Inside Approach, designed to combat slices caused by "casting" and "coming over the top." It is endorsed by Jack Nicklaus.

"Typically, what drives a lot of the training aid sales are infomercials," said Alan Whalen, manager of Fiddler's Green golf shop in Eugene. "We can look at our sales figures and almost tell what's been on TV.'

Most of the products touted on television aren't all that helpful, said Jerry McDermott of McDermott's Golf School.

"They're all about marketing," McDermott said. "They're fun to watch, but it's all marketing."

The problem with most training devices, he said, is that what they get the golfer to do "doesn't translate into hitting a golf ball on the golf course under pressure."

Adrenaline and "what's going on inside your mind" are the biggest problems for most golfers, he said. "If they can come up with a product to take care of that, then they'll have something."

McDermott does use one teaching tool regularly - a video recording and playback machine, which students can use to compare what they "felt" they did during a swing to what they actually did.

McDermott says he also keeps on hand a "Pro-Tater," a short, weighted, angled club used to demonstrate proper forearm rotation.

At RiverRidge Golf Course, the teaching center staff has several helpful instructional aids to choose from, according to head pro Al Mundle.

Among them are a "Swing Trainer" (a large hoop that guides a swinging club along the proper plane) and a Power Swing Fan.

"We've found that to be very good - it helps develop clubhead speed, which is necessary to hit the ball out of your shadow," Mundle said.

"We also utilize mirrors" so people can see their position at various points in the swing. And the Impact Bag, which Mundle says is "a very helpful tool for people to learn the feeling of release and where they should be at impact."

Mundle also has a Medicus, the hinged club featured on infomercials. "I don't use it very much. We have other things I like better," he said.

The main thing about training aids, however, is to make sure you pick one that actually addresses your swing fault.

For example, the Inside Approach is designed to block an outside-in swing that causes the ball to slice.

There's nothing wrong with Jack Nicklaus' swing, "but the first couple of times Jack used the Inside Approach," Wiren said, "he couldn't get his clubhead underneath (the foam bar) because his swing path is fairly steep."

TOP-RATED TRAINING AIDS

The five equipment editors of Golf Digest magazine recently evaluated golf training aids. Their top-rated items, with "street" prices, follow:

Inside Approach, $80: Editors' Choice Award with a score of 100. Corrects the over-the-top move that afflicts so many golfers.

Mark O'Meara's The Perfect Grip, $25: Highly recommended. Score: 98.3. Ingrains correct hand and finger positions on club.

Jimmy Ballard's Swing Connector, $60: Highly recommended. Score: 96.0. Looks like a torture device, but forces golfers to feel a tighter, controlled swing.

Player's Image, $50: Highly recommended. Score: 95.7. Best way to see how your turn looks without a video camera.

The Momentus, $80: Highly recommended. Score: 95.1. Heavy club with fitted grip prevents bad moves in the golf swing.

Power Swing Fan, $50: Recommended. Score: 90.6. Swinging golf shaft with wide fan blades provide resistance and help build swing speed.

Swing Jacket, $120: Recommended. Score: 90.3. Special vest keeps arms and body connected throughout the swing.

DreamSwing, $300: Recommended. Score: 90.1. Pole and ropes force backswing and downswing to stay on plane.

CAPTION(S):

Gary Wiren demonstrates the Impact Bag, which helps golfers analyze the position of the clubface. Wiren, the PGA's Teacher of the Year in 1987, is a former Eugene resident. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard The Medicus hinged club breaks down if the golfer doesn't swing correctly, as Adam McNamar of Fiddler's Green demonstrates. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard The`Swing Jacket,' works to keep a player's arms and body connected throughout the entirety of the swing. Brian Davies / The Register-Guard There is a plethora of golf training aids on the market, such as these offered by Gary Wiren's company.