Tour Tempo: How would you like to hit the ball farther and straighter, and lower your golf score in the process? Too good to be true? Apparently it’s not for those who choose to purchase the hottest training device in golf – the Tour Tempo. Yes, it’s as easy, literally, as “one, two, three.’’

According to John Novosel, the inventor of the Tour Tempo player and author of the book by the same name, his new device is all about the rhythm of the swing, or tempo. Reading the book definitely unlocks what Novosel calls “the genetic code’’ of golf, but his pocket-sized device – the first and only digital music player for golf – helps ingrain the philosophy.

“I didn’t set out to unlock what we believe is the DNA of a consistently good swing,’’ Novosel said. “But once we discovered it, we needed to find a way to communicate it so that every golfer could find their tempo, increase their club head speed, and ultimately find the consistency that we all lack.’’

Without getting too technical, the Tour Tempo’s swing tones basically take each golfer from “one’’ (take away) to “two’’ (downswing) to “three’’ (impact). Learn how to make each move smoothly and according to the tone, and you’ll be a better golfer.

Novosel recognized through his studies that touring pros swing quickly. As a rule, their elapsed time from take away to impact falls somewhere between .93 seconds to 1.2 seconds. Novosel quantified the tempos with a series of audio tones that are laid down into a musical beat, so that any golfer could listen to the tempo of the pros – the Tour Tempo – and sync their swing accordingly.

What’s your tempo? If it’s like Jack Nicklaus, you listen to the 24/8 tempo. If it’s like Annika Sorenstam, you tune in to 21/7. Interestingly, Tiger Woods’ tempo was 24/8 before this year, when he went down a bit to 21/7, according to Novosel. Or, if it’s even slower, there is the Bobby Jones version at 27/9.

All of those ratios refer to frames per second that are used in editing video. There are 30 frames per second. So, if a golfer swings at 24:8 then his ratio is 3:1 and his elapsed time from take away to impact is just over 1 second. (The same for 21/7 and 27/9.)

While it sounds complicated, the musical beat that a golfer begins to pick up by practicing his swing with this latest gizmo in golf is not. If you can count “one, two, three,’’ you too can learn from the Tour Tempo.

Evidently, people are listening as the book, which was co-authored by Sports Illustrated’s John Garrity, has been reprinted four times now. “Tour Tempo’’ costs $24.95, and for those who believe what they’ve read, the Tour Tempo player device costs $99. For more information on the Tour Tempo, visit www.tourtempo.com.

ON TOUR

New hip: Peter Jacobsen, a long-time favorite at the FBR Open, has informed the Champions Tour that he will have surgery this Saturday in Naples, Fla., to replace his left hip. Jacobsen, who despite the painful hip is No. 17 on the senior money list this year with $685,844, said he expects to return to competition in November.

Calc ailing: He’s the defending champ at this week’s Canadian Open, but Ahwatukee’s Mark Calcavecchia may not make it to the starting gate. That’s because Calc experienced pain in his left shoulder spreading across his pectoral muscles two weeks ago, and underwent an MRI last week. His status is day-to-day.

NOTEWORTHY

On tap: The U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship is set for Saturday through next Thursday at Forest Highlands in Flagstaff. In all, 10 golfers from Arizona will take part in the national championship, including Paige Peterson of Chandler and Joe Wordon of Mesa. This will be the 13 th tournament hosted in Arizona by the USGA.

Advancing: Steve Dallas of Mesa and Phil Shumway of Phoenix led the qualifying with a pair of 3-under-par 69s this week at the local U.S. Senior Amateur qualifying at Moon Valley Country Club in Phoenix. Dallas and Shumway advance to the U.S Senior Amateur at Victoria National Golf Club in Newburgh, Ind., which takes place Sept. 16-21.