New equipment!

Well it's not quite as exciting as it sounds. We've had two weekends
where the temperature soared to 38 degrees. I played golf on one of
them and was throughly beat after the round.

Something that wasn't performing up to scratch was my drinks. They
would just stay cool for the first few holes and then turn into a warm
energy drink...ick!

So this new bag will hopefully keep things cooler and me fresher
during the round.

Melbourne Visit

I flew to Melbourne 2 weeks ago to visit Rare Birdie. The purpose of my trip was to catch up and play a round of golf with an old buddy ..... oh and to see some guy called Tiger at the Australian Masters.

I arrived on the Friday and being 3 hrs behind with my body clock I didn't know how I'd perform on my Saturday round at 4:30am Perth time. I'd be playing at Yarra Bend Golf Course, a public 18 hole course just a few km's from Melbourne central.

Looks pleasant enough when you arrive.


A hole with a downhill approach. There were a few shots like this where there was a big dropoff at the back of the green. Something to think about when making the approach shot.


[EDIT] One other thing that was enjoyable about 'the bend' were blind tee shots that had to be struck over hills and trees. It just adds a little bit of the unknown when you can't see your ball land.

It was quite an enjoyable round of golf and the course was in pretty good condition. The greens were better than what you'd find at most public courses. I managed to shoot 42 points (equal first) that day and part of that was due to a well behaving driver.

Well that was 2 weeks ago and I haven't touched my clubs since I got back, but I'm hoping to have a good round tomorrow with some of the form I showed at 'The Bend'.

Funny Callaway Commercial

Setup issues

Spent some time at the driving range on the weekend to try and sort
out some issues with my game. There were two issues to address:

1) big hooks with the driver
2) high fades with the irons

Started with my irons first and a lot of my shots were ok. They still
had lots of height but just a touch of fade. But I did notice that I
wasn't taking any divots. It was then that I noticed that I had a lot
of shoulder lean away from the ball. Tried making my setup a touch
more horizontal and the change was almost instant. Shots had a better
trajectory and I started taking some nice divots. Such a small change
to your setup can sure make for significant change in ballstriking.

My next item was the hooks with the driver. Didn't make too much
progress with this problem. There is a pretty good chance that I'll
lose a bunch of balls the next time out :)

Sent from my phone

Shocker

Had a shocking stableford round on the weekend. It started badly with me turning up 'late' - the groups were actually teeing off 10mins early.

So I had to tee off immediately without even a stretch. Never got into a rhythm for the whole day and my shots were very erratic. Moments of brilliance followed up with truly hacker golf. I lost 4 balls that day, and got to the last hole with one ball left. 

At least my new Reebok "Play Dry" shirt performed well and made me look like a good golfer.

$1 Million Dollars!!

Back from a break

Having had 2 weeks off after the club champs, I came into today not knowing how I would play. I started off well enough with a birdie on the first hole from the greenside bunker. And the rest of the 9 was pretty solid with the irons and putting. It was just the big dog that was misbehaving. A straight drive would be followed up with a wayward one. I guess after some time off I was going to be rusty and it showed in my driving.

Unfortunately I finished the day 2 over my handicap (which has gone up to 14).

Highlight of the day - the Caddyshack burger I had at the 19th. The homemade beef patty was delish!

Club Championships recap

Our club championships were held recently and I was very excited in the lead up to it. It was going to be my first ever club champs, and I knew that the course would be setup for an extra challenge. Playing the course last year (for my card) just before the competitions, I found that the course was playing really long, the pins tucked into corners and the greens were super slick. So that was what I expected this year. The comp would consist of 3 rounds stroke play, then a cut of the top 12 from each division going through to the final round of stroke. I was playing in B-division and my game was average at best leading up the the first round.

Round 1

The day was cold and wet. We did get sunshine for our first tee shots, but the rain soon came after that. And I found myself standing over my shot with hail coming down by the 4th hole. The greens were soggy, I was wet and cold, I couldn't feel my fingers but I was enjoying it for some reason. I didn't play the front 9 well, going out with a 45. But the back 9 was better with quite a few pars. In the end I finished with a score of 77 nett. It was one of those strange days where you feel like you've played well, but it just wasn't reflected in your score. I thought that it would be pretty hard to make the top 12 with a starting score like that.

Round 2

Another cold and wet day was what we played in, but I was still determined to enjoy the day and not give up. It was a solid round with good ball striking and not too many mistakes. It felt good enough to be under par but once again the score didn't reflect how I thought I played. Perhaps I think that I'm better than I really am :)

I finished the day with 73 nett. 6 over for the tournament seemed like a lost cause but having a quick look at the scores of everyone else in my division put me somewhere in the top 20.

Round 3

So being in the top 20 gave me a glimmer of hope. I thought anything under par might give me a chance and I went out with confidence. Once again the round felt great, and I thought that I played my best round in a few months. But for some reason I finished the day with 73 nett ... again! 

I didn't think my 3 rounds were good enough to make the cut but I was suprised to find the next day that I had made the cut. Perhaps I pulled off a Steven Bradbury of sorts. Anyhoo... excitement all round!

Final Round

I turned up knowing that I was probably about 6-7 shots behind the leader and that it would be a pretty hard task to get near that. Our group were probably the guys "making up the numbers". :)

The day started better than expected with a chip in birdie on the first hole. Not bad at all. I finished the front 9 well with a few good pars. By the 10th hole I was 4 under my handicap, and I thought that I might even have an outside chance of top 3. But my good run ended with a 7 on the 11th. I had 2 more 7's coming home and that really hurt. Another birdie on the 17th reduced the hurt but the damage had already been done.

I finished the day with another 73 and 2nd in my division. Not sure how I finished overall but it sure was a wild ride.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience. The pressure of stroke play over 4 rounds, the tough conditions and the solid golf played will not be forgotten.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, hoping that I can carry the good form through and lower my handicap.

Being a man!

A big thankyou goes out to Rare Birdie for implying that I'm a wuss
for not wanting to play in wind and rain.

Well I went out there and had a pretty good game. Struck the ball well
and finished one under my handicap. Eventhough I left a few shots out
there with some bad 3 putts and loose shots. Still good enough for
10th on the day. :)

Sent from my phone

Rain forecast

Rain is forecast for this weekend. Now do I be a man and play in the
rain or do I wuss out and stay home?

I really want to get in some much needed competition rounds under my
belt, but not if it's going to be a wet and windy day.

Right now I'm leaning towards not going. Decision would be much easier
if channel 9 would do a decent job of broadcasting The Open
Championship.

Sent from my phone

My national ranking

64820..... According to golflink. Not sure if that is good or not but
I'd sure like to improve on that number.

Stuart Appleby king dork?

I think Appleby is a great golfer. But this is the pic of him on the
US Open iPhone app.
What the!?

Bucket of sand

This is the bucket of sand you carry around to fix up your divots from
the fairways. I only used it once today. Not sure what went wrong but
I shot 22 over (9 over my handicap).

Monthly mug

I had a good stableford round 2 weeks ago and because of that managed
to take a stroke off my handicap.

So I was just hoping to shoot my handicap at the monthly mug strike
event. My round actually turned out quite well and I managed a gross
score of 82 for a nett 69. Good enough for 4th and two shots from the
win.

The handicap has dropped to 12.7 and my confidence is on a high.
Here's hoping that I can continue the good form :)

Sent from my phone

Padraig Harrington Puts Happy Gilmore to the Test

3rd place

With my local course having sanded greens I decided to play with a
group of guys at Glen Iris. The competition was stroke and I managed
to finish 3rd (out of 12) with a gross score of 83.

I had a pretty bad front 9 with 8 bogeys in a row. I blame the slow
greens and Titleist DT Carry ball I was using. Compared to my one
remaining DT Roll, the Carry had too much of a high ball flight for
the windy conditions. So I switched to the DT Roll on the 9th and
proceeded to play the last 10 holes in 3 over.

I can't wait to get through this box of DT Carry's that I have.

Round highlight: hitting the back of the green on a par 5 in two with
a big drive and a pure 3-iron

Round lowlight: walking off that green with a bogey 6 :(

Return to Glen Iris

With my home club greens being sanded I've decided to play with a
social club of Burmese guys this week.

The course will be Glen Iris. I played a solid round there a few weeks
ago with just the last few holes spoiling the card. It's not a
difficult course so I'm hoping to do well.

I started hitting some bad hooks off the tee last week, possibly
trying to hit too hard. I'll be trying to keep my swing smooth and
steady this time out.

Sent from my phone

Tiger coming to Australia

OMGWTFBBQ!!!!

Tiger Woods is going to get paid $3M to come and play a tournament in
Melbourne later this year.

My first thought was to book some airline tickets to go and watch the
tournament. Then I realized that I'd have to fight through massive
crowds in crazy Melbourne weather to catch a glimpse of tigers ankle.

I think I'll stay at home and watch the tourney on tv :)

Sent from my phone

A new skill to practice

You want how much for that jacket !?!?!

With winter around the corner I've been thinking about getting a new rain jacket and this was on the top of my list Adidas Clima Proof Storm/.

But then I found out that the price would set me back upwards of $400.

I sure hope they are cheaper on eBay.

iPhone publishing test

My new bag and hat

Back into it.

Well after a long hiatus / slack off. I'm blogging again. Prompted to by myself and Rare Birdie.

What has changed since the last posting? I've joined Hartfield Golf Club, a private course (open to the public Mon / Tues). It's a much harder track than Collier Park being longer and having harsher bush to contend with.

My usual fade that served me well was no good at Hartfield. My tendency to try and go for much needed distance just resulted in big slices with even less distance. So it was with great excitement that I made a booking with the resident pro for a lesson. In just one short 30min lesson, he was able to have me hitting straighter shots without that weak fade. My main fault turned out to be shoulders that pointed left of the target.

So I've been working on getting my shoulders aligned with the target, and making my takeaway path more inside the line. These two changes have really made a difference with my shots.

So good that I hit 73% of fairways on the weekend. This is all well and good but I think I really need to make an improvement to my game between the ears. Brain fades and really ugly swings are putting me in deep trouble. Losing balls and generally wiping 3-4 holes on stableford comps.

Anyhoo, stay tunes for more ramblings this year.