Hacksaw

It is. Vijay's fabulous run after his 40th birthday is over. Els, Toms, Leonard, Verplank and Calcavechia are likeable players but not immune from impending decay.

driver - 12 3 wood - 15 5 wood - 21 3 iron - 23 4 iron - 26 5 iron - 30 6 iron - 34 7 iron - 38 8 iron - 42 9 iron - 46 pw - 50 sw - 55 Mine are more traditionally lofted.

What helped me most was strengthening my mental approach through the lessons contained in a book called Going Low by Patrick Cohn . Before reading the book, I was struggling and frustrated with my game. My scores were climbing towards 110. Afterwards, I broke 90 for the first time and later scored 84. During that period, I was streaky. If I didn't have the right mindset, the double bogeys resurfaced. Yet, if I created confidence and focus, pars (and birdies, too) abounded. Harnessing that day-in-day-out, is a path to true acheivement.

I got lucky one day and hit it 291 yards (as measured by two course workers) when I was twenty years old. I was playing the fifth hole alone, hit my drive and thought nothing of it. A friend who was alone on the tenth green, directly behind me, started jumping up and down, saying, "You hit that huge, huge." He raced over and tore down the fairway to check out the position. He was so excited and drew the attention of the workers. I'm down with long drives, but sweet approach shots do it for me. They now come rarely as my game has fallen off.

I hope that you enjoy yourself. That's the important thing. For almost everyone, golf is a recreation; the goal is pleasure not making the cut to feed your family. Relax and have fun. The more you play and practice the better you'll become. No one will think any less of you as a person because your swing isn't as smooth as Erie Els'.

I've worn FootJoy to date, but this month I purchased 2 pairs of the Etonic STGT on sale and look forward to trying them on the course.

I'm willing to play if my hands and arms don't shake in of the cold. The courses I normally play closed a couple of weeks ago and should open in early to mid April. It's -3° right now. When I was in my late teens, I played in all kinds of rain and (stupidly) under ominous skys and, thankfully, lived to tell about it.

Golfer: Jim Furyk Non-golfer: The Great One, Wayne Gretzky

If I killed my first two shots, I'd be about 150 yards away.

When lost.

I'm very consistent with my wee small headed driver (c. 1990): 195-205 yards.

Usually: Moosehead, Heineken, Sleeman's Honey, Stella, Keith's. Occasionally: Sam Adams, Lowenbrau When travelling, I like to try local microbrews. At home, I'm rather predictable.

I just replaced my John Letters Calculus with the Ping i10.

Congratulations on progressing so swiftly. Hopefully, you've been fitted properly. Your static measurements indicate than you are smack in the middle of Ping's new purple colour code (1.5° flat), but there are the dynamic considerations. It can't hurt to get a second opinion for fitting. I purchased the i10 irons after trying numerous irons. My swing speed with driver matches yours. I had less success with the stronger lofted irons such as the R7 and Cobra FP. With my moderate swing speed, perhaps with the i10s, height and distance were easier to obtain. Mizuno, for additional feel, makes great irons. Playing with the BB, I'm sure that you've hit the X-20 (Tour).

In December's Golf Magazine , in a story on Villegas, David Feherty describes most Tour players as "...content to just make a few million dollars and get laid..." The fact is that many of them are young and good looking with money to burn and time on their hands. The few times I've hung-out with baseball players or guys from other sports, they've been fairly down-to-earth but there's usually that moment late in the night where the pretty women will be asked, "Do you want to go someplace?" Then it's such me and the trainer or pr guy. As for living like rock stars, a friend of mine was formally married to a lead singer of a big rock band. From the stories I've heard from her, comparatively athletes are corn fed choirboys.

5 wood 6 iron 8 iron GW Putter

The Ping G10 is a good iron, as is Callaway's Big Bertha 06 (it is being replaced by the new 08.) Adams offers good value. Try as many as you can and don't be read too much into brands or ability labels (game-improvement vs. super game-improvement.) Understand your strengths when selecting.

Until venturing into a local store 2 weeks ago, I had never even tried another putter (I've had my light blade for 16 years.) The mallets I tried were comfortable, but I opted for a blade with a flange . I'm normally very pleased with my line, but leave too many putts short. I'm looking forward to trying the new one but can't right now for the snow on the ground.