Improvements Make “The World’s Greatest Golf Gizmo” Even Better
By Leonard Finkel
Though they look absolutely round and symmetrical, no golf ball is ever perfectly in balance. Allowable tolerances make it impossible to consistently manufacture a perfectly balanced ball. That’s why the original Check-Go, an amazingly effective balancing device manufactured by Technasonic Electronics, has been so successful. It spins any golf ball at up to 10,000 revolutions per minute, the ball gyrating to find its optimal balance point, settling into a position it will return to time and again.
Simply put, by identifying the optimal balance point and striking the golf ball along that line, drives, approaches and putts will all be straighter. By using Check-Go, a player can determine for himself the best point of balance for every ball put into play. A perfectly balanced ball will not come to rest at the same point. I tested hundreds of golf balls from every major manufacturer, and each ball tested returned to its initial equator, every time.
Short Game Expert Dave Pelz Agrees
Dave Pelz attests to the fact that balance definitely affects the ball as it rolls on the green. The short game guru has been saying for nearly 20 years that many balls are out of balance, sometimes enough to affect the roll and result of a putt. In research conducted at the Pelz Golf Institute, he calculated that when a ball’s center of gravity is off by just a few thousandths of an inch, it could cause a short putt to miss the hole. Not finding the balance point surely puts any golfer at a distinct disadvantage.
A New & Improved Check-Go PRO
Based on feedback from the more than 1 million original Check-Go users, the latest model improves on its predecessor in several important ways. First, there’s no more guesswork involved in terms of how long a ball must spin to find its optimal balance point. The original Check-Go instructions stated that a ball needed to spin for approximately 20 seconds to find the balance point. Now a flashing LED light on the Pro stops blinking, verifying that the rotating ball has found its optimal balance point. The second improvement is the new concave indention on the unit’s bottom. A cleaner, bolder line can be drawn on the circumference of the ball by removing it from the spinning mechanism, and placing it into this specially designed cup. The tooling is more precise on the Check-Go PRO, which makes marking the ball clearly that much easier. Lastly, the Check-Go PRO has a sleeker, more ergonomically efficient design. It’s truly a marriage of form and function.
Roger Gunn, Tom Lehman and Steve Pate
Roger Gunn is the 2002 Southern California PGA Teacher of the Year, and works with well-known Tour players including among others Steve Pate and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman. “I don’t get excited about too many things, but the Check-Go was definitely the product of the year. It’s simply the world’s greatest golf gizmo. I had to have one myself within 30 seconds of seeing it work.” Gunn asserts that it is a proven fact that a balanced ball rolls truer and save strokes, and if even if the Check-Go saves only one 0r two shots per round, the accumulated strokes saved is enormous.
Gunn showed the unit to Tom Lehman and Steve Pate. They were both impressed with the Check-Go, and each requested one. “Tom likes to line up the ball logo to the target when putting,” relates Gunn. “Srixon is a well-balanced ball, but you never know quite where the true equator is going to be. He got in the habit of spinning every ball with the Check-Go, and using the ones where the equator lined up with the logo.”
Leonard Finkel is the author of The Secrets to the Game of Golf & Life and former editor in chief of Golf Journeys Magazine. His work has been featured in almost 200 publications including Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Golf Illustrated, Golf Tips and Player Magazine. He has written more than a dozen cover stories for Golf Today Magazine. He has written extensively about golf and travel and has added poker to his writing repertoire. Finkel also works as a marketing and public relations consultant. His specialty niche is writing advertorial copy. Prior to his career in golf, Finkel owned a chain of retail stores and a consulting and import company based in Asia. He attended the University of Utah.