saturnnights

I saw a long thread in another subforum entitled: "Equipment Obsession" I read through it and found it interesting - mostly because I'm one of those who suffer from equipment obsession with everything I do. In the case of golf however, I opted for an inexpensive start. It's probably because of my other obsessions (musical gear, astronomy gear, home workshop gear) that I decided to go the inexpensive route with golf until I've proven that I'm worthy of more expensive equipment. My wife and I decided to do this golf thing together, so we talked with some local pros and decided on both a primary golf course (nice driving range, inexpensive fees, friendly old-timer employees) and an instructor. Our instructor also fits clubs and since we're tall (I'm 6'5" and my wife 5'11"), he made us a set with longer shafts, appropriate for our reaches. He used Trident club heads and an assortment of other parts for shafts and grips. The whole shebang wasn't super cheap, but I'm happy overall with what we have in our bags. He also guaranteed them for life and all adjustments are free. Anyway, for us, not knowing the difference between an expensive set of golf clubs and a baseball bat, this is working out very well. Someday in the future, if we seem to be getting better at this, we can look at upgrading (or not - depends). How many of you play with relatively inexpensive clubs? I see signature lines with clubs listed, but it seems that there's a tendency to list clubs if they're better-known brands, but not otherwise. Cheers, Mark

My wife is having the same sort of problem with her left pinky (she's a right-handed swinger). Her instructor told her that it's because she's gripping the club too tightly. She's been trying to loosen her grip and thinks that it may be helping...

I used to run years ago and before each run, I'd stretch out. If I didn't, I'd be VERY sore. I think I'll start stretching and warming up for golf now that I'm no spring chicken. I suspect that maybe I should've been doing that and maybe if I'm careful from now on, I may be okay. I was, after all, using muscles that just weren't used to what I was expecting from them Thanks for the sympathy though - I really needed some!

Yikes... Now I'm getting worried - about the "chronic" part I've got to think about this and figure out whether I should actually go see my doctor - not a fun thing. I suppose that if I can get in tomorrow, I'll go. If not, I'll wait until Monday and consider it then

I just go and watch my wife now - it's pure misery to watch and not play Judging by how I felt then and now, I'm estimating that I won't be able to swing for at least 3-4 more weeks. That puts me into September and around these parts, the weather is pretty unpredictable starting in September. I may just be out for most of the rest of this season.

I kinda thought there'd be an entire subforum for dealing with the aches and pains of golf, but I guess I'm just a wuss? Anyway, I've been out of commission for over two weeks now. I don't know how or why, but I managed to injure something in my rib cage while working out at the driving range. I wasn't even doing anything crazy - just swinging my irons to figure out my average distance for each when at some point, I felt a twinge in my rib cage. I figured I must've pulled a muscle or something so I finished up my bucket of balls (my biggest mistake, I believe) and went home. By the next day, I was crippled - it felt like I'd been shot. Every movement hurt and sleeping was almost impossible without sleeping pills and Motrin. That was two weeks ago yesterday and I haven't swung a club since. The pain is bearable at this point and I can sleep pretty well. I'm scared to death of swinging my clubs any time soon for fear of bringing back the injury. So there, I'm just looking for sympathy Cheers, Mark

Hey All! I'm an approaching-middle-age newbie golfer. I took golf as a PE credit back in my college days and I've been known to take part in company-sponsored golf scrambles (very pathetic, but free beer convinced me to try). I took a single lesson last year from a friend who is a pro instructor, but then she moved to another state and I was forced to find another. This year I convinced my wife that it would be fun if we learned together (she'd never swung a club). She was dubious, but agreed to a lesson with a pro. She was hooked immediately and so now, both of us are taking lessons. We had a local pro shop make us a fitted set of inexpensive clubs and we've been swinging ever since. That's my story - now I'm off to read some of the old posts Mark