First of all, I enjoyed your Trap Five monograph. Very well written. Good luck to your buddy!
I've only taken up the sport this year myself, but already I've discovered:
1. The basic tenet my dad taught me when I was a kid learning to race motorcycles and complaining that all my buddies had better machines than me applies to every other sport I've taken up since, including now golf: "Technique beats technology". Always.
2. Golf is about penis size, not golf. Go read the "
How Long Is Your Average Drive?" thread in these here hallowed forums if you need confirmation. On the course itself, I have yet to play with anyone other than myself who will safely punch a shot out of the woods to the middle of the fairway rather than try for a death defying shot to the green through a 4 inch slot between two trees 50 yards away. They all think they're Moe Norman. (But to be fair, I play with bigwigs at my company who are used to having large figurative penises. It must carry over.)
3. Despite my adament assertion in #1, technique is often not enough. Sheer dumb luck has thwarted (or rewarded) me more than once - like during my last round where I hit short into a pond....right onto the back of a turtle! The ball ended up carooming onto the green, coming to rest 10 feet from the hole.
4. Again, despite my firmly held conviction stated in #1......it's
great having nice equipment anyway. Hey, we've all got an id that needs feeding, right?
Tom
Bag It:
3-Wood
Wishon 525 F/D, 13*, Matrix Studio 65gm, Golf Pride Dual Compound
Hybrid:
Wishon "321", 24*, MSF 85 HB, Winn DSI
Irons:
Wishon 770CFE, Matrix Studio 74gm, Winn DSI
Putter:

DFX 2-Ball
Some big, honkin', ridiculous overkill of an Ogio cart bag with more pockets than I have teeth. But my boss made me buy it because he got embarassed when I showed up at his glittering private clubhouse with my tiny, but functional , Bag Boy Sunday Bag.