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Master golf pro hits the big timeBob Burns gets rave review for line of drivers By Pete Bach (January 7th 2006) GRAND CHUTE — Jim Long doesn't slash his way off the golf tee anymore. Not since he started hitting with a No Bananas driver from custom club maker Bob Burns.
"It works even for a bad golfer like me," Long said. "My ball always went right."
Burns, a master golf professional and club maker, has designed a driver billed as a sure cure for the common slice, a problem that pushes shots to the right in an arc.
"We've sent clubs all over the world," said Burns.
Burns figured he has sold hundreds of No Bananas drivers at $300 apiece.
Sales of the driver with its forged titanium clubhead soared after rave reviews were published in the July 2005 issue of Golf Digest and their recent 2006 Hot List. Burns expects sales will take another leap after he exhibits his line at the PGA merchandise show in Orlando later this month, the world's largest annual golf exhibition.
He plans to add new products to the No Bananas game-improvement line this year. Full iron sets, fairway woods and hybrid utility clubs will complement the driver that features a closed face and offset hosel technology to counter the common slice.
Fairways & Greens magazine added to the kudos in its October issue, outlining the results of a month's worth of testing by one of the publication's "notorious" slicers. According to the review, even the most obvious out-to-in pass resulted in barely more than a 10-yard fade, little enough to keep the ball within playable bounds. The article did carry one caveat: an occasional on-plane swing will pull the ball to the left.
Burns brought more than four decades of teaching to his craft, and if you ask him he'll be more than willing to explain in technical detail why the specially designed, custom-made club is as forgiving as it is on the links.
The face of the club acts like a tennis racket and has a trampoline effect on impact, he said. By teeing the ball up high and swinging up through it, the golfer experiences an effect that produces a higher launch and more distance because not as much backspin is created. The ball hangs in the air longer and rolls farther when it lands.
Burns is quick to say his enterprise could not have achieved such success without the loyal support he's enjoyed over the years from Fox Valley customers like Long and another of his big fans, Jim Hoeller of Appleton.
Hoeller replaced the Big Bertha driver in his bag with one of the first No Bananas clubs Burns produced and saw a drastic improvement in his game.
A helping hand
Up to 90 percent of amateur golfers tend to push, fade or slice the ball when they tee off, a problem that usually lands them in trouble — deep grass, water hazards or trees. Two factors cause it: the clubface is open at impact, facing right for right handed golfers, or the swing path is outside in. Bob Burns' No Bananas drivers are designed to compensate for the problem and consistently produce straight drives that remain in play.
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