Allow myself to introduce...myself...

Myself…

Hello! I’m new to the fourm. I found this place after a web search and now that I’m not a newbie member I can introduce myself.

I currently reside in “sunny” San Francisco, CA and have lived here most of my life. I went to school here, and attended University (both times) here in the Bay Area. I’m currently a graduate student so I have a lot more time over then next year or so to play golf and it looks like I’ll be continuing my graduate studies for an additional 4 years or so which translates into lots more golf.

I started playing in high school, quit when I went to college (Jr. year) after very badly tearing my Rotator cuff and labrum and badly injuring my wrists (go easy on the weightlifting is all I have to say).

I bounced around with the game a couple more times in College, but would always end up in pain and quit. I spent much of my time with a club hitting at the range. However, within the last few years I discovered:
Graphite shafts for Irons (I just refused to play them before b/c of a perceived lack of control)
Yoga & Pilates
Slowing my swing speed to avoid hurting myself again (I was a 100MPH swing when I was in my late teens early 20’s)

And the combination of these three got me back into the game regularly. I try to play 18 at least once a week and get out to a local chip and putt a couple of evenings a week to work on my game.

When I couldn’t play with consistency I shifted gears in two ways. First, I became a club maker and club fitter for my buddies and some people I know. I still build clubs, and handle my own shafting, gripping, adjustments and assembly work. I recently (as in last week) put together a set of clubs for my younger brother who is a scratch golfer (age 25) and We’re going to the range after work tomorrow to try them out, see if he likes the MOI matching or if he’d rather just go back to the traditional length increments and then we’re off to play 18 and see how he likes them.

I can often be found building drivers out of component parts bought off of ebay and modifying them over and over, just to learn more about club performance and design. I like to buy old clubs and mess with the shafts, recording performance characteristics and tweaking them to achieve different results.

Second, I started refinishing classic clubs. I spend a couple of nights a week working on classic maple and persimmon headed woods. I repair and refinish them and either sell them to finance my hobby of fixing them (cyclical, I know…), give them to friends (I just built a large wall display for a set of Ping woods for a friends office) or play with them for a while and then sell or give them to friends. I guess these are my moment(s) of Zen, in a workshop, wearing goggles and sanding, polishing, etc. to my hearts content.

I’m glad to have found such and active forum and I hope I can add some insight or at least not sound like an idiot!