Kellfire

That won't be our starting XI this season. Brown will play ahead of Rafael when both are fit and hopefully Anderson will retire from professional football. I can see Rooney being shifted to the left quite often to fit Owen up front. Foster looked lost in preseason at times, I think PIG has been in better form but VDS is still our number one and rightly so. Ireland would walk into our team as an attacking midfielder. By the way, you can read my musings on things Man Utd related on my blog at - www.justoneofthoseteams.co.uk

As a Northern Irish man, Rory McIllroy looks like a potential world beater and a very good player already. Also have a lot of time for Padraig Harrington.

Think you're doing them an injustice here. Elano is worse than Robinho in the going missing away from home stakes. Ireland and Barry are both VERY capable players. I'd have Ireland at Man Utd in an instant. Very young and very influential already. De Jong is also a very talented player.

Matuidi looks good in France but it's hard to tell if he'd step up to the rigours of England. Let City do what they want, it could well end in tears as it usually does. They've bought players with attitude problems who have wanted out of their respective clubs (Tevez, Adebayor and Barry) for money and will lack the drive should it all go wrong.

That's got absolutely zero to do with the rivalrys.

Anderson is woeful and I wish people would accept that. His second touch is a tackle, his passing is terrible and his lack of goals can't be ignored, even if he did score a stunning free kick against Boca.

I started a new job recently and just got my first pay cheque in, so decided it was time to put my money where my mouth is and replaced my TM Rossa Monza Corza with my first new putter. For the past few months I've really wanted a Ping Anser, I find the simple lines so appealling after a couple of years with the TM and was all set to hand over the money after a lot of putting with it. Then, I had one final look around the shop and spotted the Odyssey White Hot XG1 and thought it was worth a try and I am so glad I did. I'm not a great golfer but the feedback from that boy was fantastic. The added weight over the Ping made my putting stroke feel so much smoother and I seemed to get the ball rolling much quicker. About 30 minutes of side-by-siding the two putters only solidified my decision and I handed my money over there and then. I'm now the proud owner of the aforementioned Odyssey. They're just beautiful putters!

Would those of you who use a range finder recommend them to a beginner who is starting to get consistent shot length?

They need their breaks. Asking them to concentrate for 45 minutes in a row is a tough ask. JOKE!

The guy who was advising me knows his stuff. He was open and honest and wasn't trying to push the more expensive sets I demoed and in fact did steer me towards two of the cheapest sets I was playing with. I will definitely try the stiffer shafts before I purchase but I'll use the launch monitors on the day I go to buy to tell me the cold hard numbers to help me decided. I'm very interested to hear if anyone else has been in a similar situation though, where their feel suggests different clubs than the numbers.

In your opinion but it's by far the biggest sport in the world.

I guess I'm saying though that perhaps it only feels bad because it's all that I know.

Di7s are perfect to learn with.

Anyone saying any US sports is again woefully out of touch. Some South American football derbies are up there. Galatasary v Fenerbahce in Turkey. Rangers v Celtic in Scotland. Man Utd v Liverpool in England as mentioned. The Warsaw derby in Poland. Virtually every big derby in Eastern Europe... All of those make any sporting rivalry in the US look like childsplay.

I'm a high handicapper with a low swing speed. I've not had it measured but I can just tell from watching others that I've the low end and I focus more on having a consistent tempo. I currently play with Ping Eye2+ and they have a stiff shaft. They always have and still do feel right for me in terms of staff stiffness. I feel the stiff shaft gives me more feel. I'm currently in the market for more modern irons, my first "new" set and I've hit a few and I'm getting on quite well with a couple of sets. One thing that sticks with me, though, is that regular shafts feel too flexible for me. The guy in the shop told me that I should be looking to play regular shafts to get the most out of a slower swing speed but it just feels loose to me, like I'm not in complete control and that there's lag in the shaft (don't get me started on how horrible I think anything with a graphite shaft feels, including drivers). Should I take their advice and stick with regular shafts, assuming I'll adjust to the new shaft and it'll feel right after more and more practice or should I get my new irons fitted with stiff shafts and stick to what feels right for me?

Ping Eye2+ Still the best after all these years...

I'm starting to think more about what golf ball I want to use. Think I'm going to get a few different mixed bags of use balls from ebay (Nikes, Titleist, Srixon, Bridgestone etc) and see from there which I like the best then move on to new balls when I make my choice.

Well, I did bite the bullet and tried out a few clubs at the shop. I'll start with the funny stuff. During the time there I tried out some Mizuno and Ping player irons. That was not fun! Driving the ball so low and it was just terrible golf. But onto the more serious stuff... I demoed three sets - Wilson Di7s, Taylormade Tour Burners and Ping G10s. Didn't spent a whole lot of time, it was just a preliminary try out really to get an idea. The Ping probably felt the nicest but they're also by far the most expensive at £499 fitted. The Wilsons and TM aren't far behind and both played nicely as well, at £249 and £299 respectively fitted. Going back in maybe at the weekend to have a more extended hit with them and use the machines in shop to measure my stats like launch angle, swing speed and so on to see if I can get any more info that helps me pick and also probably going to add Nike Ignites to my try out list as they're a nice cheap club as well. Also had a good practice with putters and my heart is currently telling me to get the Ping Anser but I'll decide on that when I get a chance to play it side-by-side with my current Taylormade putter. Really excited to get back in and try them out for longer and try more clubs within the sets.

Totally wrong. Beckenbauer isn't nearly as big a name and wasn't nearly as talented a player as Maradona. Biggest sports star ever wouldn't be an American, sorry to burst your bubble. Given the media storm around his entire life, it probably is David Beckham.

No, other world rankings are based around more sound results. For example, Federer doesn't earn his ranking points by only playing players like Jonas Bjorkman as Tiger has to compete with pretty much all the top players in the world at every major.

I like slightly understated clubs. I love the colour scheme and logo on the Ping G10s... Also these Wilsons for the same reasons...

Crouch isn't England's top scorer, he's decidely average. The world rankings mean little, the USA are far from the 12th best team in the world. They're suited for the USA because they generally play such poor teams.

There are literally none near me that I can find. Golf in the UK is on a much smaller scale.

No GG over here, sadly. My local shop is American Golf. http://www.americangolf.co.uk/

You make good points. I'll bite the bullet and go in some day soon, I think.