At first I was skeptical...

A colleague at work gave me a gift certificate to Golfsmith (How thoughtful-thank you, Kelly!) and I decided to use it for something that I've been curious about for a long time, but was too cheap to spend my own money on...(there, I admitted it...)

No, I didn't buy one of those silly Trion-Z magnetic voodoo bracelets that's now endorsed by David Leadbetter (David, David, David....c'mon...), but I DID spring for one of those ubiquitous Golf Channel infomercial-staples, the Check-Go.

For those that have not been GLUED to the Golf Channel during the morning to see this infomercial, the Check-Go is a smallish piece of equipment that spins a single golf ball really fast on a small turntable inside a plastic cage, just like a Spin-Art at the county fair.

The idea is that once the ball reaches its top velocity (several thousand RPM), you then touch it with a marking pen and draw a line on the ball to mark the perimeter line of the ball that identifies its balance point, and the ball will then theoretically roll more true on the line of your putt, and not be affected by imperfections in the manufacturing process which will cause the golf ball to "wobble" on its way to the cup...plus, it gives you a nice aiming line as an alignment aid.

Needless to say, I was skeptical. I figured that modern manufacturing techniques would produce balls that are produced consistently, with centered cores, perfectly round exteriors, and no imperfections in weight and balance, and I figured that this was another "Inspector Gadget" golf gimmick...

Not any more...

Well, I took Kelly's Christmas present, and bought one of these little fellas at Golfsmith in Woodland Hills, CA about a week after Christmas, and I've been using it for the past month.

I have to admit - I think there's something TO this product! I have noticed an improvement in the way that my putts have been tracking, and most telling - I have noticed that almost every time, the line on the ball ends up on the top of the ball when it comes to rest in the fairway! That tells me that the ball DOES come to rest with the "heaviest" part of the ball "down" when it comes to rest on its own, and that there IS something to identifying its balance point and using the configuration of each ball to assist your putting stroke!

One of the most INTERESTING parts about using this tool, is the movement of each ball that you notice as the ball is spun up to speed. I tested an entire box of golf balls by aligning the alignment mark on the exterior of each ball with the anticipated "draw line" of the Check-Go, and was AMAZED at how much variation there is from the start position and the finished "draw line" on 90%+ of the balls in a couple of boxes. SOME of the golf balls actually rattled off the plastic cage, they were so unbalanced!

I was also amazed at how true the balls roll along the draw line when I strike them squarely (which is pretty frequently). I've noticed that my biggest putting bugaboo is basic line selection (alignment) and distance management, not striking the ball off center, or push/pulling the ball, and the majority of the time the balls WILL track truly on the "draw line". Fewer balls tend to drift mysteriously "off line", and the number of putts per round have decreased by about 10%, and I'm scoring more in the mid to upper 80's per round, and fewer rounds in the 90's.

Granted, it's still too early to tell if this phenomenon is a fluke or not, but for now, I'm enjoying my rounds more, and the way that more putts seem to find their way to the cup, or much closer to it, and it's also a good feedback device to see that "draw line" when it stays solid as the ball rolls towards the cup. The Check-Go puts a line COMPLETELY around the circumference of the golf ball, unline the "Line-Em-Up" device that I previously used to draw a line on HALF of the ball...

For now, I'd have to say that the Check-Go is a worthwhile investment, and has helped lower my score by helping the golf ball to stay more truly on-line with the putting stroke, with fewer "drift balls"...