In-com-plete

I have the GW and SW that match my set of irons. They're Cobra 3100 I/H's. My PW is 45*. So I have the 50* GW, the 55* SW, and a CG14 60*.

I play in a my plants 9 hole match play golf league every week. I'm about the same player I was 5 years ago when I started the league. Shoot practically the same score every weekend now as I did 5 years ago. But for some reason, on this short course we play in the golf league, I wasn't putting up good scores. In '05 & '06 I was averaging 45-46. In '07 I decided to keep the D in the bag and start hitting my 3 wood. That year, I averaged a 42.5. In '08, only pulling out the driver on #4, I averaged a 40.67. Last year I averaged 40.75. Like I said earlier, this course is short. It's not really tight, just has a lot of strategically placed OB and heavy brush everywhere. I just got tired of penalty strokes making my score look bad. So keeping the D in the bag and using my 3W didn't really make me a better golfer. It just made me a smarter golfer.

I didn't lose site in one eye, but I don't have any depth perception. I had two surgeries on my left eye when I was a kid and somewhere along the way the ability for my eyes to work together vanished. Never understood this until I was in HS and couldnt' hit "real" curveball for the life of me. Turns out it was that I couldn't tell the ball was actually dropping away from me. Would swing about a foot over the ball every time. But one thing that did really help my golf game was buying a rangefinder. I now know how far I hit each club and can tell exactly how far I need to hit each club. And I use it inside a hundred on atleast half my shots. Pretty much hit the same club inside a hundred to. I think it just helps me "dial in" my wedge.

I bought a PS 1500 TE on ebay for $315 about 6 months ago. Like 2 days after I bought it, I bought the LR 800 for $250. I only bought it cause it was so cheap and I knew I could re-sell it for more. Turns out, I liked the LR 800 a lot better. Even though it didn't have the whole "Pinseeker Technology", I never had one problem picking up the flag with it. But everything was just clearer with the Callaway/Nikon. And it was about 2/3 the size. Sold the Bushnell to a buddy of mine a week after I bought it.

I'm a one-a-year kinda guy. I'll get about a half dozen legit chances. Last year my eagle came in a scramble. And I did putt first BTW. But still, it's not even like really getting one when it's in a freakin' scramble.

Years ago as friends or people I'd just end up getting paired with would talk about how I "should play this ball" or "should get this shaft" or "should buy this club". I'd just laugh it off and tell them I lose too many balls and aren't good enough to play that Titliest Professional or buy that Great Big Bertha driver. Then I'd beat them. Not that I was this great golfer or anything. I just didn't think I was good enough to spend major jack for equipment. Now I'm a firm believer that equipment does matter..... to an extent. I started playing with my grandfathers old MacGregor Golden Bear Irons, Austad woods, and any ball I could find. Often times I played with range balls. But I could hit that wedge 100 yards, the 7I 125 yards, and the 5I 155 yards. Played with that set for a year or two and when I retired that set I was pretty much a bogey golfer. Maybe a little worse. Then I bought a set of King Snake irons. 130 for the wedge, 155 for the 7I, and about 180 for my 5I. Started playing better balls (which I got out of the pond between 13 & 14 on my home course). But that summer, I consistently shot 85 and rarely touched 90. Sure some of it had to do with me just getting better. But alot of it had to do with equipment. I hit a wall a few/four years later and figured it was time to upgrade the irons. Too bad that didn't help. Still averaged about an 82-83. I actually had bought the real Cobra irons but didn't like them as much as the knock offs. Then, a few years ago, after I didn't hardly play for 3 years, I was back to a bogey golfer. Rarely touched 87 and topped 100 quite a few times. Then, a year and a half ago I bought these 3100 I/H irons and instantly I was better. They have twice the sweet spot so all those miss hits rarely come into play anymore. And the difference in distance is crazy. 150-155 for the wedge. 175 for the 7I. 195 for the 5I. All that being said, I firmly believe the clubs I'm playing now allow me to shoot 1 or 3 strokes lower than if I was playing with some old beat up clubs. But I'm not one of those equipment fanatics that has to have the latest and greatest. I have no idea what the difference in shafts do. What "launch angle" I have. What my ball is spinning at or whatever. Hell, a good friend of mine that I play with alot is always asking me what he's doing wrong. I don't freakin' know. All I know is how to hit my clubs with my baseball type swing. If I start fading or slicing the ball I need to roll my wrists more or finish lower. If I start pushing everything I'm just opening up too early. That's how I fix my problems. The way I see it, to each his own.

Probably a 4. 200 is in between my 4I and 5I.

I have a friend that's the same way. He always shot pool and a gun left handed but is right handed. And for the threadstarter, I switch hit a little growing up but mostly so I could bunt from the left side. But I never played golf 'til after high school. When I played softball it really screwed up my golf swing. And vice-versa. I haven't played softball in years, but when I did I just batted left handed. And if I have a son, I'm gonna teach him to bat left handed but golf right handed. For the obvious advantages.

I don't really know who introduced me to the game. The first time I played it wasn't really a full round or even a full 9 holes. It was about a month after I graduated HS ('95), a few friends and I "played" just so we could get beer off the cart girl we knew. About a month later I played my first actual round. It was at my family reunion down in Florida. I shot about a 125. And that is a very loose 125. But I do remember getting one par that day. The next day we played a scramble and my uncle gave me a ton of tips and I got 2 pars by my self. By the end of the next summer I was a 17 handicap. The following summer about a 14. The next, a 12. 10 years later...I'm a 12.

I used to throw clubs all the time. But August of '06 was the last time. I was playing horrible at The Crossings. My second shot on #13 I shanked my 9 iron OB. I dropped right there and topped it. I tried to throw the club at the ball I'd just topped and the grip stuck to my hand. Plump! Right into the middle of the pond to my left. Learned my lesson.

I play in a golf league at work. It's a 9 hole match play format. We're allowed to roll our ball in the fairway but I rarely do. Only if it's on hardpan or in a divot. But a couple years ago I played this guy who hit his ball near (aka in) the water on the right side of #2. I walked about 10-12 feet up the pond from the cart when he called out he'd found it. I remember turning around and I could see it from where I was standing! It was propped up in the rough. Suuurrre you "found" it. Man did that tick me off. But little did he know about this little thing called karma. Beat him 4-1. And then beat him 5-1 again last summer. I have this friend that I've never beat. We've probably played 40 rounds together but only a half-dozen in the last 7-8 years. Last year we played together for the first time in a couple years and once again he beat me. That's fine. And it's fine if you talk a little trash after doing so. Even/especially if it's by 1 or 2 strokes. But to take 2 mulligans, fluff your lie in the fairway, rough, and bunker (twice) and beat me by 2 strokes. Then talk trash. That's uncool man. But my day will come. Oh it will most definitely come. And when it does, that will be the last round of golf we ever play together.

Back in the middle of February I took a long weekend and went down to Florida to get a few rounds in. I had already decided to track my shots this year. Fairways, putts, club distance, putt distance, penalty strokes, and just about everything else. So I kept a little pocket notebook with me so when I got back I could enter all this into my spreadsheet. I must have spent 3 hours tweeking that thing and it was just such a pain the way I had it set up. So I did a little searching on the internet for a cheap user-friendly program I could track all this stuff with. Well, I couldn't find anything. But a couple days later I was looking up rangefinder reviews and I came across an iacas post with this thread linked in his signature. That led me to the Scorecard site and I bought it right then. Used sandtrap and the other code they give you for filling out the survey and it came to $21.55. I've only got 3 rounds entered right now but I can already tell it's killer. I've told my dad and uncle about it and am pretty sure they're gonna purchase it once the season picks back up.

$125 - Bag (Callaway) $250 - Driver (905T) $360 - Woods (Steelhead Plus 3, 5, 7) $300 - Irons (3100 I/H 3-PW) $185 - Wedges (50*, 55*, 60*) $100 - Putter (Odyssey WH #8) $80 - Shoes (Footjoy) $315 - Rangefinder (Bushnell 1500 TE) $1715 Technically, the putter was free as it was a birthday present. I was gonna buy it but my dad said he'd buy it as a present instead. And my 60* wedge only cost me $25 as I used a $50 gift certificate from winning a scramble tournament to buy it. So I really only paid $1565 for the stuff. And you could knock off $120 for that 5 wood that just sits in the back seat of my car. It never even makes my bag unless I just go to the range.

I was on #15 at Pendleton Golf course . Playing the blue tees I hit a freaking bomb down the right fairway. As you can see, there's actually 2 fairways on this hole with rough down the middle. Anyway, the ball was just right of this giant tree that splits the fairway. It hit in the fairway (which was hardpan) and bounced left a little as the fairway's sloped that way. I get up to my ball and I'm 149 out. 513-149. 364 yards! But I couldn't believe I just hit Driver-PW into a par 5. Missed my 12 ft eagle putt but got the birdie.

Just bought 2 rangefinders of E-Bay in the last week. Got the Bushnell 1500 TE for $315 and the Callaway/Nikon LR 800 for $265. That's with shipping and they're both brand new. Now I'll compare the two, keep the one I like the best, and sell the other....on E-Bay.