Amazing Round

Well I played in the Monthly Medal round this week and my game was at another level. I sometimes go though 3 or 4 stretches of good holes where I can get a run of par's, but I sustained this level for most of the round. I played the front 9 in +1 with 8 pars. My only bogey came on a 180m par 3. Unfortunately I played the back 9 in +8, with seven of those shots occurring on two par 3's. Two bad swings really cost me, and I didn't recover too well from those shots. I did bounce back from the two bad holes nicely with a par and a birdie.

My 68 was good enough for a 3rd place. The first place medal was easily within reach... :(

The new driver was again brilliant, I hit plenty of fairways and I don't remember hitting so many wedges into greens. The rest of my game felt pretty solid too.

Some stats:

• Par 3's: +9 (ouch!)


• Par 4's: -1


• Par 5's: +1


• Fairways: 11 / 13 (84%)


• GIR: 9 / 18 (50%)


• Putts: 32

All in all it was a good day out. I've had a taste of what it's like to almost play par golf.... and I like it. Hopefully I can keep up the good play.

Shot selection...

Thinking about the last game I played, I've realised that I hit 9 bunkers that day. It's way too much and some of those bunkers could have been easily avoided by better club selection.

I think I need to try and maybe hit 3W off some tees and lay up on some par 5's the next time I head out.

I'm sick of raking bunkers!

FT-3 In Play

Finally got to put the FT-3 into competition play today and boy was it impressive. My first drive of the day was a 260m hit straight down the fairway. +8 on the front 9 put a lot of pressure on the back for me to shoot my hc. But I was on target by only being +10 after 16 holes .... what happened next can only be described as a "Van de Velt" like collapse. I played the final 2 holes in +6 (double bogey and quadruple bogey). Walked off the last hole feeling pretty empty and stunned at what happened. I think parring the last two would have got me 2nd place in the comp.

As for how the driver performed..... brilliant! I'm starting to get some solid shots in and they are going 250 - 260 m. I'm hitting to spots on the course where I don't normally reach and find myself hitting more wedges into greens.

Now if only I could learn to chip and putt, I might be able to get my hc heading in the right direction. :)

FT-3 Review

Well I got hold of my FT-3 earlier this week. From the time of purchase on thursday night, it only took 4 days to arrive. FedEx... you rock!

I took it down to the driving range to compare it with my Hawkeye VFT. Both clubs were 9' regular shafts.

The first thing I noticed with the FT3 was the sound .... not a 'ting' sound like other titanium drivers but more like the sound you might get if you struck a ball with a can of coke ... !? It's a little bizzare but I'm getting used to it. The look of it at address isn't too bad compared with some other 460cc drivers, the head is big but doesn't look monstrous.

I got the draw weighted driver and it did produce nice baby draws with the ball flight, but I didn't get as much roll as I expected. It is still possible to hit ugly slices and duck hooks but I feel like the club is still more forgiving than the Hawkeye. I could still hit small fades with a weaker grip, good to know that I'm not stuck with a draw.

In terms of distance... it's hard to tell but I believe on average the FT3 is probably longer than the Hawkeye. My longest drives still seem to come from my older driver and draws with the Hawkeye seem to have much more roll.

I still haven't used the FT3 on the course but hopefully I'll get a round in this coming weekend.

New Toy on it's way

My wife and I headed out to the GolfBox annual carpark sale. It's quite a hyped event and I was hoping to snag myself a cheap Callaway FT-3 or FT-5. Well there was one 10' FT-3 available at the right price, but it was a soft flex shaft... not quite suited to me. And the FT-5 drivers were all around $600... boo :(

Wifey was a little disappointed with me not getting a club and urged me to try online ...... yeah I'm one lucky guy :)

So after trawling eBay and finding nothing, I came across http://callawaygolfpreowned.com/. About 30mins later, I've got this baby coming in....

Putting Routine

I've been struggling with my medium to long putts for the last few rounds. The main problem being my length. I've been putting on a good line but I've been leaving the ball very short of the cup. But a quick 9 holes on Saturday arvo had given me renewed confidence.

I think that I got too fixated with getting the right line that I've forgotten about trying to get a feel for the length. Now I setup and get aligned first, then just focus on the cup to get a feel for the distance.... and it worked with no 3 putts for my 9 holes.

Looking forward to my next full round :)

Broken Sunglasses

I broke my sunglasses at the end of my last round while pulling them off my hat. One arm somehow got caught and was pulled apart from the frame. It was pretty distressing because they were my beloved Oakley O Frames which have served me well on the course over the last few years.

Looking for a replacement pair on the interweb yielded no love. They are no longer made by Oakley, nor is anyone selling them on eBay. :(

But now I've got this baby on order....

HALF JACKET® XLJ


No guarantees on how much it will help my golf game... but at least I'll look good hacking through the rough.

Madness

I played a round of golf in scorching 37 degrees today .... and so did a lot of other people.

We all must be completely bonkers mad!

I have a suspicion that most of us would probably do it again next week if we had the chance :)

Nothing spectacular out of me today... just shot to my 12 handicap.

3 Sticks What????

The club game of the day was 3 Sticks Golf. We can carry 3 clubs plus a putter and get to tee off from the forward tees. It was something different and I was looking forward to it. The clubs I decided to carry were:

• 3 Wood - Decent distance off the tees, and I get to use it on the par 5's. Also good for punching balls out of the rough


• 6 iron - Gives me better results than my 5 iron and I can always de-loft it for extra distance


• 8 iron - Probably too strong as my last club, but I felt more comfortable with this than a 9 or PW

I had a lackluster front 9 with a stableford score of 16. I thought the back 9 would be a struggle, but I turned my game around with 7 pars for a 21 on the back 9. My total was only good enough for 5th, but my score of 37 was the best I've ever shot in stableford.... and only with 4 clubs. Maybe I should leave the driver and half the set at home the next time I play.

It was great having to improvise on each hole and it has given me new confidence in playing different types of shots with my clubs.

I'm looking forward to my summer of golf. :)

Breezy!!!

It was the golf clubs annual Country Cup today and the game was stableford at Secret Harbour. It's a links style course next to the beach and littered with pot bunkers.

I've had a pretty crappy time with stableford games this year, not once have I shot over 30 points. But today was a nice change :)

I had a pretty solid game for most of the day, with a 17 on the front and a 16 on the back. The back 9 didn't end too well with me scratching the 16th and 17th holes. I think I would have finished 3rd for the day had I at least got a point on each of those holes. Once again my driving was pretty good. I only missed 2 fairways all day (not by much) and managed to unleash a (wind assisted) 300m drive.

A 33 point game isn't too impressive.... but we were playing in a 2 to 3 club wind. Strong enough to drown out someone talking to you.

On a side note... if you think driving into a tight fairway littered with pot bunkers and a strong crosswind is scary. Just take a whizz in snake infested bushland. Every shot after that will seem like a piece of cake. :)

An Extra 15 - 20 Meters!!

Nothing adds more distance to your drives, than a 4 putt on the previous hole.

On a related note... my usual golf club is having a demo day on the 15th. Very exciting stuff, but unfortunately I just found out that a buddy from my home group is having his bucks day then. :(
Hopefully there will be time during the day for me to hit the range for an hour or so to hit some new drivers.

Christmas Treat

Well it's the time of the year where I start to think about new equipment. Once again a new driver is on the top of my shopping list. I've been resisting the urge to get a new driver due to the fact that I've been hitting my drives fairly well. So why change? Well I'm curious about what the new technology in drivers can do and I've scored myself a new job so a treat for that would be nice :)

Some sticks on my radar:

* Callaway X460 - Pretty traditional shape and easy on the eye.
* Callaway i3 - Good performance according to some reviews, and it has been superseded so I might be able to pick one up for cheap
* Cobra L4
* TaylorMade Burner or R7 CGB

I've usually struggled with hitting big headed drivers due to it just not looking right in my eyes. It was probably all in my head anyway. So I'll hopefully get to try some out over the next few weeks to get an idea of what is out there.

Freeby

I've got another game with the club tomorrow... but this time it's free. Courtesy of the club... as long as I turn up to the AGM on time. They are providing a free game for everyone that turns up to the annual meeting.

As for the state of my golf game... the last game I played at Burswood Park was a shocker. I lost 4 balls .. and 3 of them were on one hole. But I'm still quietly confident about tomorrow.

Christmas time is coming around again, and the wife has suggested that I get myself something golf related as a treat. The usual thoughts of a new driver or a set of irons come to mind. hmmmm.... lots of possibilities. I'll see how my game goes this weekend ... if my driving is shocking then a driver might go to the top of my list. :)

If it ain't broke...

Had my second game with the club since returning from my Japan / chickenpox holiday. And I have to say that it was a good outing. The conditions were tough... light rain with gusty swirling winds. I punched a 5-iron into the breeze from about 120m away and it still ended up short of the green.

The front 9 was tough and I finished it at 8-over. But the back 9 was completed in just 3-over.. :)
No birdies were made during the day.. although I had 5 good opportunities for them. It was all good enough for a 83 gross and 71 nett. Just enough to sneak into 2nd place in the day's comp.

It was one of my better driving days with just one missed fairway.... and I was looking at new drivers in the pro shop before the round too! Guess I'll be sticking with my trusty Callaway Hawkeye :)
I also had a great putting round with no misses from within a meter (one of my weaknesses is short putts)

Hopefully this will make my handicap head in the right direction..

Wet n Wild

This was what the course looked like when I arrived there on Saturday morning. It was wet and windy. We had rain going sideways just a few minutes before I took this shot. Although the day seemed unforgiving, I was looking forward to the challenge of playing in some windy conditions.

It had already felt like 18 holes after only the first two holes. The weather turned real nasty just after our tee shots, and my pants were soaked by the end of the 2nd hole. I was +2 but it felt like -2 in those conditions. Fortunately for us, the worse was over. The only thing left to battle for the rest of the day was heavy winds and a player in the group that took at least 10 waggles before committing to his shot......zzzzzzzzzzz.

The Good: Handicap down to 11
The Bad: Using my handicap up on the front 9

Stack and Tilt?

Checked out the GolfDigest website tonight and there was a swing article dubbed "The New Tour Swing". Now I'm not always buying into the latest swing tips and tricks these golf mags dish out as they can sometimes seem like they're selling snake oil. Are you going to swing a broom around to get a feel for "sweeping your drives"? I've yet to see anyone pull a broom out of their bag at the driving range.... and I don't want to be the first.

Going back the the picture. It's Aaron Baddeley at the top of his backswing. Nice and compact, but his upright spine angle is far from conventional. I've always thought that you should angle your spine away from the target and it's something I've been working at doing recently. It's been working well for me, but this new Stack and Tilt theory is intriguing.

I'm not going to overhaul my swing anytime soon (It's been working for me recently), but this new swing is different and if it's going to help with better ballstriking with my irons then I'm willing to give it a shot.

Perhaps the next time I head to the driving range after shooting a score in the 90's would be the time to try this out :)

Balls, balls, balls....

The club comp this weekend was a game of Par. You get a "+" for breaking your handicap on a hole and a "-" for going over. I finished the day on +4, which roughly equates to a 79 off the stick. Enough to win the comp and a $27 voucher for my next round. yay!

It was looking like a bad golf day for me when I hooked my first 4 drives into trees. But some scrambling saw me come out with only two bogeys. Once I got my drives straightened out, the rest of my game clicked and I managed to get around the course without too much trouble. The putter was also behaving and I didn't miss too many putts. I got this strange feeling half way through the round, where it seemed like the hole was bigger than usual and that all my putts had a good chance of hitting their mark. Most of this game is played in your head. Must be also why it's so maddening when things aren't going right. :)

I also came away with 4 new balls (2 birdies, 1 ctp, 1 long drive). It should have been 5 but some doofus lost one of the cards for closest to the pin.... It was probably me because I carried all the markers back to the club. :P

The club Winter Cup starts next week and I hope to carry some of this form into that competition. I've been told that my handicap will be 11 the next time I tee off so it's going to make comps a little harder.

49 Inches!!

I headed out for a round of 18 with a buddy of mine. It was nice to have a round with him as he hasn't been able to get out much since having a little baby. I'm trying to hold off on children as long as possible.. :)

I also carried my bag for the round... I gotta try and do something about my gut since finding out that I'm 0.1 into the overweight territory of my BMI. It's not too bad.. but my feet are aching at the end of the day. Caused by carrying the golf bag 18 holes.. or carrying my bigger gut around.

We joined up with two guys and one of them swung like Earnie Els. His drives looked so effortless and easy. They were big hits that had a nice little draw to them, and travelled about 280 - 300 meters (I felt so inadequate). We asked what his secret was and he handed me his driver.... it was almost my height! :O

Turns out his shaft is 4 inches longer than standard @ 49 inches :O

Handicap Drop

After last weeks big game, my handicap dropped by 3 shots to 12. It's heading in the right direction, and it's going to be tough to get it down further. I am feeling pretty confident with my game at the moment. It's got nothing to do with my driving or iron play, but my shortgame. I might not be hitting many green in regulation but I feel like I can get most chips close to the hole.

As for my game this week.. I finished with an 85 for 1 over the handicap. Not too bad considering I had three double bogeys on the front 9.

Oh yeah... driver shopping might be back on the agenda later this year :)
I'm not necessarily looking for more distance (although that wouldn't hurt) but a little more forgiveness.

Positives this weekend: Handicap down / didn't get drenched / free game of golf
Negatives: hurt my left wrist fixing a leaking tap at home :(

Back to the 70's

Yes.. I have shot a round in the 70's after 6 months of hacking away. 76 to be exact, +5 over the card for a net score of 61.
More than enough to give me 1st place for the day. For my troubles, I got a $27 voucher for Collier Park... enough to cover my next round. :)

I worked hard (30 mins before tee off) on my putting and chipping to try and avoid the short game debacle from my last outing. Glad I did, because my driving and iron play was pretty average. I kept most of my drives on the short stuff, but failed to hit many greens in regulation. The short game saved my round.

I haven't had a chance to play with the big hitters in the club until today. I got grouped with 3 of them. Their casual 'safe' drives go out about 230 meters (about where I max out), and when they decide to rip it... it's another 20-30 meters further out. Pretty scary playing with these guys... but I managed to keep my ego in check and stick to my game.

-ve's : didn't take any of my good ballstriking from the driving range to the course / left 2 makable birdie putts short
+ve's : $27 voucher / return of my short game

I'm starting to like this game again :)