QWKDTSN

I have noticed this 100%.

My Sinn is almost impossible to scratch. The watch is tegimented (a special process which makes the surface incredibly hard). I wear it every day while working on helicopters and often have my arm wrapped around turbine enges, reaching to the back of the avionics rack, etc. with the watch banging against all kinds of things. I have been wearing it through the roughest abuse for over a year and it looks absolutely brand new - no exaggerations. I realize that wearing a G-Shock or Fossil makes much more sense to people that don't have a fascination with watches like I do but I get a lot of satisfaction in looking at my wrist and knowing that I'm wearing a high-quality, high-technology automatic timepiece. The way I look at it is, if you own a high-end car, you still only get to drive it a couple of times a day. If you own a high-end watch, you can wear and enjoy it 24/7 (and it costs a lot less than a nice car!)

I golf solo probably 75% of the time. I would prefer to do it a little more because I tend to score a bit better. When golfing by myself I have all the time I need to think and relax. When playing in a group with another two or three players, my short game really, really suffers because there is an increased sense of urgency. I think everyone would want to kill me if I took as much time reading my putts as I do when I am playing by myself. Golf is all mental and I have a hard enough time battling me vs. the course without having three other people milling around watching me... I am definitely not mentally tough enough yet to play as well in a group. I put too much pressure on myself.

Scotty cameron is a swinging door putter guy... I think he only designs toe weighted putters but I don't know 100%.

I hit them back to back, I really wanted to like the Vokeys but the Clevelands stole my heart from the get go. They are larger and rounder, and have a razor thin topline in comparison to the Vokeys, which look small, hard to hit, and awkward. They have a very slightly different lie from one another and I found the Clevelands simply felt better to swing, as well as looking better to my eye. I have noticed an immediate improvement in my ability to stick the ball to the green with my CG12s. I'd heartily recommend them to anyone.

Check these guys out, they are an Australian company that makes sunproof clothing. They have a variety of hats that will block 98% of UV rays. Pretty good looking. There is a crushable golf hat in there. http://www.coolibar.com/men-s-hats.html

Trying to be like Tiger, huh?

Count me in! Watching Rocco play golf makes me happy. I wish I could look as happy as that doing just about anything. I was watching some of the highlights from the CVS charity tournament today and Rocco just looks like a man in his element. He may not have won the US Open but I think every person who watched that tournament came away with a newfound respect for what a competitor could be. Tiger is 'the greatest' but in comparison to Rocco, he is like a tournament-winning robot - Rocco simply showed himself to be a humble, happy competitor. Guys like Rocco and Paul Goydos, who, similarly, lost The Players this year due to some bad luck to a younger, more athletic competitor, are really special golfers, and they're definitely worth rooting for.

Hi guys. I was just reading the thread about the new Nike wedges in the Tour Talk forum and golf_junkie27 made a post as follows: http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthr...t=13640&page;=2 This made me think about a couple of things. One, I was looking at Nike SQ drivers at the pro shop the other day. I noticed, while looking at the shaft for the flex specs, that it carried a sticker: "Head made in China. Shaft made in China. Assembled in China." I recently bought two new Cleveland wedges (boy do I love 'em!). When I was at the store I noticed that the exact same wedge was available with two different shafts: One a True Temper wedge shaft and the other a Cleveland 'TrAction' shaft. The one with the TT shaft had a sticker: "Head made in China. Shaft made in USA. Assembled in USA." While the TrAction shafted model's shaft was made in Taiwan. I was buying both a 56 and 60 wedge, and the only way I could have both wedges with matching shafts was to pick the one made in Taiwan. (The 'shaft guy' at the shop assured me there was no difference between them.) At least Cleveland is doing assembly in the USA, though some of their parts are still made in various parts of Asia; From what I have seen Nike's parts are all from China; And I would not be surprised if 90% of golf gear is made in China, Thailand, or Taiwan. I cannot be a snob because I am currently playing a basic set of clubs that was bought from Wal-Mart and was 100% made in China; This was a basic cost-saving measure because I had absolutely no idea I'd become as immediately hooked on golf as I did. But with the options readily available, I will always buy gear made and assembled in the USA first. Are there any gear companies 100% born and built in the USA? Do all manufacturers use shafts from Asia? For that matter, are the big golf grips made in the USA - If I were buying what I thought was an 100% American made club, would I be surprised to find that the grip was made in China? In today's world I'd like to support a homegrown company first. What do you guys think about this subject?

I have never hit them back to back but I am a believer in the G10. it is going to get a serious look when I shop for a new driver next season.

I played today with a Gamer and it is a great ball, but I shot my two best rounds with a Pro V1x. I have a whole dozen Gamers that I bought a while back and I don't want to just put them aside to buy Titlei$t$, but I really have confidence in the V1x and we all know how mental golf is. I would say the Gamer is pretty close to Pro V1/V1x - about as close as TF can get it and still keep it cheap.

I have to give Cleveland a thumbs up simply for making one of their bags in camouflage. One of the members at my club has that bag and it is soooooooo cool looking.

Played a 95 which I am very disappointed in myself for. I opened the day shooting awesome shots on the first few holes and feeling really great. I was all set to play some bogey golf. I opened bogey-bogey-bogey-par-par-bogey. Then when I got to the second par 5 (hole 7) the whole day blew up. I skied the ball off the tee, and it went straight up, hit a cart path, and ended up 30 yards straight left of the tee box. I went on to post an 8 on that hole and nothing went right after that except for one birdie on the back 9. That was the only hole I managed to one-putt for the day. Nothing wanted to go in. Lip-outs left and right. I kept giving myself chances to get up and down and blowing them. I had a bunch of blow up holes that I spent a lot of time in the rough, and on the last hole I went OB to post two penalty strokes. It felt like an 85 round when I started, dammit! http://www.geocities.com/qwkdtsn/rou...080623-p4.html

Congrats! I broke 90 for the first time in the past week too.

I am absolutely in love with the OGIO Ozone stand bag and cannot wait to buy it for next year. It barely weighs anything and has many of the nice basic features of the OGIO line. The Edge and the new Nexos are absolutely jam-packed with features but weigh so much more than the Ozone and the Vaporlite bags that they are not for me. If you have a push cart or ride in a cart often they are your best bet. OGIO definitely has the innovations in the bag market.

Bought my two Cleveland CG12 wedges. I really wanted to like the Vokeys but they did not look right at address. Too small, too thick of a topline, oddly shaped. The CG12 in black was just right. It lay perfectly, has a beautiful shape, and feels awesome. I tested it against the Vokeys and the CG14 with the gelback insert. Already my short game has improved noticeably since buying them!

You need to come up with some putting drills. I too find putting incredibly boring unless I have some way to make it rewarding. I find I really start having fun practicing putting when I am doing well. The way to do well is to gain confidence. Set up 10 balls around a hole at 3-4 feet and tap them in. Keep going around the circle a couple of times. Then trail those same 10 balls in a straight line away from a hole from 3 feet all the way back to 15-20 feet, keeping consistent spacing between them, and tap them in one after another, working your way further and further from the hole with each ball in the line. You will find that 10-12 foot putts start feeling really easy when you do this. Another member had a great drill that is similar, set up a dozen balls in a cross pattern around a hole - 3 uphill, 3 downhill, 3 sidehill L/R, 3 sidehill R/L. Work on it until you can get all 12 into the hole in a row - if you miss one, set them all back up and start over. A big tip is to bring an iPod and just relax. I was hurt for a couple of weeks and spent a lot of time putting because I couldn't swing a club due to my bad back. It was great to have an excuse to work on my putting, because normally I would get bored. Not being able to do anything else really made me focus on my putting.

Shot 98 at the Cedars at Dungeness course in Sequim, WA, it was very much a casual game with much alcohol consumed during the course of the round, so that score is only estimated! I am not using it for handicap purposes! I will be calling tomorrow to complain, as I paid for twilight golf (after 4:30 PM, play until it's dark) and they turned the sprinklers on the course at 7:30 PM.... we were on the 13th hole and the sun did not go down for almost another two hours). It was a fun course with VERY fast greens and very tightly mown fairways. Unfortunately I won't recommend the course because it's hard to feel welcome when they go ahead and turn the sprinklers on while people are still out golfing. I'll stick to my home course.

I used to go through 15 brand new Topflite balls a week. Now I have been playing the same Pro-V1x for a week.... I haven't lost any balls in a long time. That's one big factor in lowering my score! About time to retire that ball... But I just have such a hard time paying $4 for a stinking golf ball. I have 9 Top-Flite Gamers left over still... I should put them in play but I don't have as much confidence in them as in the V1x.

I bought a pair of Nikes from a local store. They were all that was available in my size (13). They were very comfortable and I enjoyed them - very sneaker like and good for hiking over the varied terrain of my home course - but I wore them in the wet once and they were ruined. My feet were soaked and the shoes smelled absolutely horrible even after letting them dry out properly - I can't even put them in my car for 20 minutes without the shoes stinking up my whole car. I bought a pair of Footjoy Reelfit shoes with the BOA lacing system and couldn't be happier. They are not quite as comfortable as the Nikes, but they have a more classy look while still being modern looking, and the lacing system is awesome. I have worn them in pouring rain and my feet have been perfectly dry. They have a 2-year waterproof warranty, which is great for golfing in the PNW. I wish I had never bought the Nikes in the first place, as they have just been sitting in the garage and I might as well just throw them away.

The D2 Feels are good and the Gamer is a little better. Either way they are a fine ball and much better than normal Rock-flites.

You need Footjoys Reelfit shoes son! Set it and forget it. The BOA lacing system is awesome!

"Even if you make a mistake and hit it too hard, you will hit the pin and make birdie with this wedge!" I think it is cool that Nike makes some forged wedges... I just bought my Clevelands and love them but have to wonder how they'd feel if they were forged!

I clean my clubs as required while walking the course. About every couple of weeks I pull the clubs out of the bag and scrub them down with soap and water to get any lingering dirt out of grooves and logos.

I had minor trigger finger in my right pinky from using an interlocking grip... Probably improperly. When I first woke up in the morning (during the bleary still half-asleep stage) I could not bend it.. it would lock and unlock.. Then loosen up as I worked the joint. I switched to overlapping grip and no longer have any issues. I also tweaked my back and neck pretty well. I was unable to play golf for a couple of weeks. Now I have adjusted my swing and no longer have any pain... thank goodness.