New clubs

Two weeks ago I had a club fitting session for a new set of irons. The irons have been made 3 degrees flatter and fitted with a lighter regular shaft.

Well they finally got delivered this weekend and boy do they look sweet.

Pulling out the 3-iron

I'm looking at getting a new set of Titleist AP2s and considering leaving out the 3-iron from the set.

I use my current 3 only as a layup club on par 5s and I pretty much have no chance of hitting the green from outside 160m.

I do have a hybrid but I'm not comfortable with it. Perhaps more prac time with it is what I need.

Time to swallow my pride and let the pros use 3-irons. :)

The search for new sticks

So I'm on the lookout for new irons at the moment. I've been playing well over the last few months (handicap going from 17 to 14) and I feel that 8 year old irons might not be giving me the performance and forgiveness that I need.

The Titleist AP2s are at the top of my list at the moment. I've always liked irons that provide feedback and reviews seem to indicate that the AP2s do provide this as well as forgiveness. Luckily for me, my home club's pro is a Titleist rep and has a set of demo AP2s which I can take out next weekend. They are stiff shafted and I think I'm more of a regular player but it'll be interesting to give it a try.

Windy day

It was a pretty rough day of golf for everyone on the weekend with blustery 2 club wind all day.

And it showed in the results with only 2 people breaking par out of about 100 players.

I shot a pretty shonky 86 and that pretty much shows that I need more practice for the coming winter.

I've hit some good form over the last 2-3 months with a few top 10 and top 20 finishes (I think there is a 2nd place in there somewhere too) and my handicap has dropped from 17 to 15.

Although I've played well, I haven't really played good enough to win a comp. I think this is more to do with bone-headed decisions rather than bad executions.

It's a stroke comp this weekend and although it's mentally tougher than stableford, I am looking forward to it.

Here's hoping that I finish the round with the same ball that I start with.

Big hitters

I think I'm grouped on saturday with a guy that hits his drive about 300 meters.

Should be fun :)

Going in the right direction

Had another good round on the weekend with 39 points. A top 10 finish and some cash for the kitty.

Felt that I hit the ball well today but my stats show that it was a terrible ballstriking round. Go figure.

Another good round and the handicap might get trimmed down.

That's not how you play golf...

There are training tools ... and then there are 'training tools'.

What the heck is this guy doing?



... he can come over and sweep my yard. :)

My new ride

This is my (bags) new ride. It's a Clickgear 3.0 push buggy.

Thought I'd spend the prize money that I've accumulated over 3 years. I still had to cough up some of my own cash but this sure looks the biz.

It folds up into a tiny package and looks pretty easy enough to push for a round.

Looking forward to giving it a run next week.

Finally shot under my handicap

Well after over a year in the golfing wilderness I finally broke my handicap with 40 points on the weekend. Good enough for outright 2nd (and $60).

It was a pretty solid round with no birdies and just a bunch of pars. My handicap is still on 17 and I'm comfortable with that.

Hopefully I can win/place in a few more comps and win more money to go towards a new Clicgear push cart. :)

Also got RareBirdie visiting in a few weeks and I'm looking forward to getting a round organized at the club. The greens should be fully recovered from the vandalism (punks!) incident and the work on the changerooms should be complete.

Need to see a pro for a lesson

First drive went onto the adjacent fairway and old dudes took money from me. That pretty much sums up my day.

Taking a week break and that lesson can't come quick enough.

Such a promising start...

This is the scorecard for Pornpong Phatlum at the Australian Open. 

http://www.pga.org.au/individual-leader-page/76887/613

Poor fellow, he started the day with a birdie but is now sitting at 15 over after 15 holes.

Handicap blowout

After the hiding I received on the course over the weekend, my handicap has blown out to 16.

And if I shoot another bad round it will be up at 17.

It's crappy but at least it will give me a good chance of placing well in future comps. :)

Club Open Competition

Well after 2 days of grueling golf it's finally over. I finished the competition at 101st. Disappointed with that result but I played some truly shonky golf. Our 4 ball also got the tough end of the draw with a very stiff 2.5 club breeze on Saturday which died off for the afternoon players. And of course the following Sunday morning was calm but breezy for our afternoon tee off.

I can't blame the weather for my result. A combination of nerves, slick unreceptive greens, weather and truly terrible golf contributed.

I think the greens were just unfair and they received a lot of criticism from the players after Saturday. I hit one if my better 5-irons into a green and the ball pitched at the front before rolling (uphill) past the hole and into a bunker. The results spoke for themselves with just one person breaking par that day. The greens got plenty of water on the Sunday morning and they were much fairer then.

There were a host of new faces around with a lot of guns from other clubs competing. It was a bit intimidating on the range with most people striping baby draws into a stiff wind. One guy was in a bright blue outfit with a thick white belt - to wear a getup like that, you better have some serious game to back it up. I even saw guys on the Sunday walking around with their own caddies. Next time I'll ask if my brother would like to lug my bag around. :)

Back to back stroke games are tough and I'm mentally and physically spent. Looking forward to taking a few weeks off from the game to spend time with the family.

Club Open Competition

This weekend is the clubs' open competition. It's a 2 day stroke event and it cost me $40 to enter. Hopefully I can win prizes worth more than that.

I've got a morning tee off on saturday and an afternoon tee time on Sunday. Looking at the fixtures there are quite a few players from other clubs who have entered too.

My game last week was a shocker where I only hit 2 fairways. I was fighting a massive hook all day. Hopefully some time on the range Saturday morning will sort that out. :)

Yay for long weekends.

I'd normally get two games of golf in on a long weekend but it was just one game this time. Such is life with a new baby :)

35 stableford points and a decrease of my handicap to 14 made for a decent outing. I was pretty happy with the way I finished. Needing extra points to finish the 9 on handicap I closed with three 3's.

I'm looking at entering the Hartfield Open. A two day stroke event and hopefully my game is starting to come together.

Highlight of the day: pull hooking my drive on the 17th 20meters off target into thick bush. Finding my ball! Then punching out and making an up and down from 100m for par.

Shooting under my hc

It's been two weeks straight where I've broken my handicap. But my golflink results don't reflect that because my markers have made mistakes on my scorecard.... It's really my fault for not checking correctly though.

Anyway from the screenshot below, you can see that I'm starting to run out of good rounds to use in hc calculation (they take your ten best from your last twenty rounds).

The last round I played was decent enough. My play with the woods was great but it was the iron play that stopped me having a great round. I finished the front 9 with 20 points but only managed 17 on the back.

Oh well, another week and another opportunity to have a good round.

A good score at last.

No not a score where I break my handicap but one where I play to it. Compared to how I've been playing over the last few weeks, a score of 14 over is awesome. But the strange thing was that it didn't feel like a good round at all. I was driving the ball everywhere but the fairway all day. One of those rounds where you shot better than you played I guess.

For some reason I was hitting my tee shots with too much of an "uppercut". I'll have to try and shallow out my swing for next week.

Laugh of the day goes to my dad who grinded down his SW to make it lighter. Thus removed the bounce from it and caused a few fluffs from the bunkers.

Also made my one birdie on a par 5 where my ball didn't get to touch the fairway. This is a bizarre game sometimes.

Untested tweaks?

I've missed two weeks of golf due to wife/baby commitments and a cold. My last game wasn't too bad with 33 points (I had 16 points in the game before that... eep!)

So I'm coming back this week in the middle of the club championships where it's a stroke play event and the course is probably playing harder than usual... and after two weeks off. Can you say big numbers?

And to add a spanner in the works, I'm thinking of trying out a slight tweak to my takeaway with an earlier wrist cock to try and get more clubhead speed.

Aim for this weekend - shoot under 100 :)

Barnbougle Dunes

I know that I'm quite lucky to be living in Perth where we have good weather all year and some great courses to play on but the topic of having group golf holiday came up with some buddies a few weeks back and I can't help nut get excited at the opportunities available. There are some great courses right on our doorstep here in Australia and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania looks to be one to play if I ever get the chance.

http://top100golf.blogspot.com/2010/05/barnbougle-dunes-golf-links.html

Sent from my iPad

US Open

The US Open is on at some whacked out time in the morning and I plan
on watching it. Apparently my wife has informed me that I will be
doing the graveyard shift with our 5 week old bub tonight. So with the
golf and the World Cup on tonight - is there any need to sleep tonight?

The Driving Range Beefcake

Spend any amount of time on a driving range and you're bound to come
across a range of characters. One guy I came across yesterday I will
call "The Driving Range Beefcake". This is the guy that knows he can
hit the ball a long way and likes to 'flex' for others to see.

I don't try to listen to other people talk on the range but Beefcake
was talking loud enough for the people around to hear. Telling his
friend that he doesn't practice with his driver until he gets it right
(not sure how he will ever get it right if he doesn't practice with
it) and that he is happy to hit 2-iron off the tee all the time.
Friend then states that it'll be easier to hit driver and short irons
into the tee. Beefcake says that's not an issue because he hits 2-iron
250m and proceeds to tee it up. I'm not looking but I hear the swish
of a club and an ugly clunk sound, followed by laughter and his friend
saying "that was a pure shank dude".

As I pack up to leave I take another look and this guy is built like
some underworld hard man. He's swinging so hard that my back hurts
just looking at him. I have to say that he was making good contact
with the ball and that they were probably travelling about 200m. Who
knows if they were going straight.

I salute you Beefcake and your awesomeness. :)

Sent from my phone

Another shocker

.... is this starting to be a common thread on this blog? I've really
been struggling for the last couple of weeks with my game. Well it hit
a new low on Saturday with me shooting 9 points on the front. To add
insult to injury, I also put a ball in the lake and broke my 5-iron on
the front.

It's not often that I've felt like packing up and going home after 9
holes but that's how I've felt for the last two weeks. I have no idea
what's going to happen with each shot. I hit several worm burners and
I also hit several fat pork chop divots. High slices and duck hooks
with the driver also thrown in for good measure. My swing feels very
tired and weak.

Not knowing why you're playing badly can be really fustrating. So I
headed out to the range on Monday to try and get in the groove again,
and apart from a few bad shots most of them were ok. I hope that my
game holds up this weekend.

The 5-iron is currently being repaired. It must have rusted slightly
inside the handle (or maybe I've just abused it too much) but it broke
on my downswing. Lucky it happened inside the grip which held it
together and didn't result in a flying rod.

I did flirt with the idea of getting a new set of Mizunos or Titleist
irons but it's probably not a good idea with a baby due in the next
week. :)

Sent from my phone

FIGJAM

Watching Phil Mickelson hit that shot on 13th from the pine needles
was awesome. The sound of club and ball was like a whip being cracked.
Why can't I get a sound like that?

It's probably why I hit 6-iron 140m and Phil hits it 190m.

Great tournament overall an it's too bad KJ Choi couldn't make more of
a charge. I've got his signature on a hat of mine and was looking
forward to it's value going up. :)

Sent from my phone

LOL ... gold!

So close...

... to my first win at the club.

Stableford was the game of the day and I had a pretty average start
with bogey, bogey, par, bogey. I thought it was going to be a bad day
out on the course but I then birdied the next hole and finished the
front nine at 2 over and 23 points.

The back nine was more of a struggle as I failed to keep up the
momentum and was forced to scramble a lot to score some points. I was
pretty happy at not wiping any holes and finished with 17 points.

40 points only got me tied for second place with five other guys and
that went down to fourth place on countback. It still got me a $30
voucher which is better than nothing.

I've also been hitting my long irons pretty sweet and have been able
to hit the 170m par 3 green two weeks in a row now.

Handicap took a dive and I'm now off 12.7. It's probably a good time
to peak before the birth of our first baby as I might be away from
golf for awhile. :(

Sent from my phone

Found my swing again

Went out last week after about a month off from playing 18 holes and my front 9 was a shocker. Went out with 45 and 2 shots back from my dad. I was hitting big cuts with the driver and even hitting it onto adjacent fairways. Not fun at all!

Not sure what was wrong but I felt very disconnected from my swing. Made a few tweaks on the back 9 and I then started to hit them straight (and long) again. Managed to make 4 pars in 5 holes and things were looking good.

I was tied with my dad on the last hole (a par 5) and only had 100m to hit the green on my third shot. I proceed to hit the fattest shot ever which didn't make the green and I finished that hole with a 7. Call me Greg.

Highlight: Making birdie on the 200m par 3
Lowlight: Driving my ball OB on the next hole

Alex Miceli Rips into Tiger

Thankyou Stephanie Wei for uploading this gem..

Alex Miceli Calls Tiger Gutless from Stephanie Wei on Vimeo.

Bandit?

The winner from Saturdays competition shot a 64 nett. A 10 handicapper
who played two over off the stick. Who knows if this bloke is a bandit
or just a guy who had a really good day.

I should really give him the benefit of the doubt, but having recently
played with a genuine low handicapper who was initially given a high
handicap makes me a bit sus.

Perhaps the club handicapper has changed to the bloke who started me
off on 11.

Grrrrr!

Sent from my phone

Driver troubles and early starts

Decided on an early tee off at 6:45 am so that I could make a 12:00
lunch. I finished 18 by 11:00 and was home 20 mins after that. I do
love being a member at Hartfield - online bookings for tee times and
course marshals to keep up the pace of play is awesome.

As for my actual game, it was terrible. My handicap recently went down
to 13 despite some patchy play. I think my scrambling is what kept me
from blowing out. But yesterday couldn't be saved. Started off pretty
well with a front 41 off the stick. I then 3 putted the 10th and
scored a triple on the 11th. It was hard to get the momentum back (I
think I'm a streaky player) and I finished with 88 / 75 net.

With birthdays and birth classes for the rest of this month stopping
me from playing comps, i've got plenty of time to work at the range.

Sent from my phone

Go Geoff!

Keeping an eye on the PGA tour website. Hoping that Geoff Ogilvy
notches up a win to start off the season with his new Titleist sticks.

One behind sabatini who is currently 10 under for the day... Crazy!

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One of those days ...

... where I struck the ball great (most of the time) all day, and I scored on every hole (stableford). I had a bunch of 3's on my scorecard and yet I ended up with only 36 points. It's one of those games you have where it fells like you played much better than you scored. To make matters worse, the course CCR was 71 - so I actually played one worse than my handicap. 

I hit 11 out of 14 fairways (78%) so there was nothing wrong with my driving. My GIR was probably about 50-60%. 

So how would you rather play - scoring worse than you played or scoring better than you played?

My preference is to score worse than you played. I might walk off the course confused about my score, but that's better than walking off frustrated with a shonky golf swing .... imo :)