I hit about three shots with my new Tour Striker, and I have to say it helped my game immensely.

First off, I knew what the Tour Striker intends to do, so when I first hit with it, I greatly exaggerated hitting down on the ball. Needless to say, I took three strokes with it last weekend when I was in Sauk Centre, and all three shots were perfect.

That didn't play over to the course very well until the last two days. But first, a little background.

Before I bought the Tour Striker, I read a ton of reviews on it. The two most compelling reviews I read had golfers who were talking about how they were trying to fix a "flip" in their wrists. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the heck they were talking about. Now, I know. Because I've been fighting one myself. And I didn't even know it.

I've been conditioning myself to hit down on the ball for quite some time with mixed results. First and foremost, I added a good 20 yards to all of my irons. My first reaction was that it was awesome. However, it turns out that I was hitting the ball just a little bit thin, and the reason why is because I have been flipping my wrists at contact. It's almost like I'm afraid of hitting the ground even though I know I'm supposed to hit the ground. And I was taking a divot, so I figured all was well.

On my last couple of rounds, I really worked hard at taking that divot, and I've taken some monsters. The result? My shots are about 20 yards shorter, but they are starting to become accurate as hell. Wow...I'll take that any day of the week. Plus, when they hit the green, they are not only sticking....they are rolling backwards. WTF? It looks like I have to start getting used to taking more club again.

But here is the kicker. And I didn't realize it until tonight. The flip occasionally pops back up again. It happens when I'm not concentrating on taking the divot. There is just so much to think about on a golf swing, sometimes I forget a piece. And the results? When I "flip" my wrists, not only do I overshoot greens...but they go left and they go right and they go anywhere but where I want it to go.

So on my first go at the range with my Tour Striker, I hit three perfect balls by exaggerating what the Tour Striker was intending to do. I put the Tour Striker back in my bag thinking I had wasted my money on a piece of equipment that was showing me how to do something I already knew how to do. After playing a few rounds after my first go-round with the Tour Striker, I've come to the realization that this is going to be a tool I'm going to get some good use out of in the upcoming weeks just to train myself to not flip my wrist. And until I get rid of the flip for good, I'm going to go back to it.

Right now, I feel like I have the potential to get my handicap into the single digits by the end of the summer. I'll let you know how that goes.