Kingfisher

It seems Titleist account for more than 30% (on average) of the putters on the PGA tour: http://www.titleist.com/players/equipment_counts.asp This suggests that there should be more than 18 users?

Kudos to SpoiledRotten and golfro for telling it like it is and not sugar-coating it. I'll bet there were many more thinking exactly the same but biting their tongues.

Another poster gets slaughtered for his claims of inhuman distance. I'd have thought by now that most forum users should know better than to post how far they think they hit the ball. Why do folks feel compelled to come here pounding their chest like king kong whenever they hit a decent drive?

This is one point I agree with you on 100%, it's definitely going to be tougher than ever! I can't wait for the season to get started after the disappointment of the world cup!

Well, to address your geographical concerns, I was born in Hope Hospital, which is a couple of miles or less from Old Trafford, so I guess that justifies my choice of team on the grounds of proximity? Unless you're a nipper, City were at Maine Rd, not Eastlands when you were born and by the way, Droylsden is in Tameside not the City of Manchester. I'm not sure what to say about your obsession with scum but it sounds like a throwback to the days of football hooliganism. Sure there are rivalries, but some of my friends are supporters of the other team and I don't view them as scum. Each to their own I guess. Money. Granted, City now have a very wealthy sugar daddy and this has attracted a lot of media interest, so of course people are talking. It's just a bit of hype. Money alone does not buy success - case in point City spent ~120million quid last year and what do they have to show for it? Many other teams have tried and failed to buy their way to success, because they didn't have the right ingredients in place. The fact that City have suddenly acquired some deep pockets simply means is that you end up paying over the odds for average players (read Lescott, Adebayor, Robhinho) who deliver nothing. Just because there is money there, it doesn't mean that big names will come running, in fact City have been linked with a whole host of names who have either moved somewhere else (where there's a better chance of success) or stayed put. You need to have a solid foundation in place, a good manager and also an owner who trusts the manager to make the right decisions. Does City have any of these 3 things right now? The answer is no - if City win nowt this coming season (highly probable), they'll be looking for yet another new manager! As I said in my earlier post, no doubt City will be in the mix this year, but I really don't see them challenging at the top. At least there'll be a couple of entertaining derby games for y'all again

This is probably the easiest way for the OP, if the course is within bike distance. Just leave the clubs at the course and ride there each day and no need to ask mom to help out. Alternatively the thing about doing the household chores sounds like the next best option and those days that you have to ask mom for a ride in the car, make sure you at least make breakfast for her. Anyway, what's this thing about 7.30-8.00am being early? That's a lie-in for some of us!

I was thinking the same thing! I can understand how the shape would help if you wanted to dig the ball out of the rough, but on a tight fairway lie it looks like it wouldn't sit very well?

Generally I would agree with some of this, but wouldn't go as far to say that I despise it! I have visited and/or played several of the courses that the OP mentions and can vouch for their pedigree. I have been to St Andrews on a couple of occasions to watch golf, but have never played, so I can only speak from a spectator point of view. Sure, St Andrews is the birthplace of golf and no doubt when you're walking around the place you can almost feel the history - perhaps some golfers get a little too caught up with this and it masks the fact that the course is not the greatest. To the man on the street, the Old Course resembles a barren wasteland and on a bad day (weather-wise) it is plain inhospitable. I would recommend to reserve your judgement until you've seen it for real, or better still, played it. Last year I had the choice of playing at either Turnberry or St Andrews. Eventually I opted for Turnberry mainly because it was the Open venue in '09 but also because there was far less saga involved getting a game. I played with a couple of Americans who told me that they'd been on a golf tour and had played several 'premier' courses during the week. They said that St Andrews had been the one they were really looking forward to, but after their game they said it was a bit of an anti-climax. Despite what I've seen and heard, St Andrews remains on my list of 'must-play in my lifetime' courses - it's just not top of the pile! I guess ultimately it's horses for courses, what one golfer rates as the best course is not necessarily what another golfer might rate as the best.

His first round was top drawer and those strides he was wearing put Poulter to shame. I'd like to see Daly up there on Sunday, as he's one of the few truly exciting players on tour, but I fear if he blows one hole badly his head will go down and that'll be end of story.

Sean, your uncovered driver looks more like a G10, than the Callaway Hawkeye in your sig?

Nick, bitter blue much? Now a red will throw his 2 pence worth into the mix, so the readers will get some balance. As you are probably aware, Manchester United began life as Newton Heath FC back in 187? and subsequently changed their name to Manchester United in the early 1900s. I can assure you that the Newton Heath area is firmly within the City of Manchester area, thus the name Manchester United was perfectly justifiable - at the time MUFC was born, they were located in the same 'Manchester' as your team. So, it seems that Manchester United was born in Manchester and is also older than your club of choice. Only later on in the early 1900s did they move to Old Trafford, which although is within the borough of Trafford, is still within the geographical boundaries of the Greater Manchester Metropolitan area. Sadly, although "you don't go anywhere near them" I reckon you're very much amongst us, because I suspect (from the golf courses you play) that your home (and probably place of birth) are geographically closer to Old Trafford than they are to either Eastlands or Maine Road? As for the part about Manchester United being "scum", I'll put this down to envy. It must be frustrating to watch your local rivals dominate, whilst your team haven't won anything for 34 years? Come on Nick, since your team made it back to the top division, your biggest games of the season have been derby games against United! Despite splashing the cash on new players this season, I still don't think MCFC will be challenging at the top, sure they'll get a couple of results here and there, but finish above United / win anything?

The TV show springs to mind - "My name is nike_golf and I am not smarter than a fifth-grader!" He's not the only one though. Once, one of my American colleagues (i.e. working for the same company as me) asked me which part of China Singapore was loctaed in

Already done by those cheeky rascals over at Bang Golf... 525cc... and 600cc...

What looks better should never, ever, be your primary consideration. What you should be looking at is what plays better - for you - which one do you hit better? I have not hit the Titleists, but I found the Mizunos nice easy clubs to use and quite powerful (I believe they have a 2deg stonger then std loft). In terms of appearance, the Mizzies are undoubtedly a better looking club than the Titleists. Still, having said that you should not rely on what people here say, YOU should try BOTH before you buy either of 'em.

Huh, only $6 for 9 holes - what are you expecting, Augusta National? You should quit complaining! lol

Skin cancer is a problem that is to real to ignore. One of my buddies was diagnosed with skin cancer and although he made a full recovery, it screwed his life up somewhat. Here is Asia everybody uses sunblock without fail and ususally in many of the private golf clubs they'll provide sunblock in the locker rooms, although it's not the best quality! I've used several brands, but have found the better ones to be the 'sport' versions where the lotion tends to be less greasy and more sweat resistant. I've found the neutrogena brand to be amongst the best I've used, but have also used banana boat and copper tone. I'm not sure about the US,but in Europe I'm certain they're not allowed to be specific with the labelling of SPF - anything claiming to be higher than SPF50 can only be labelled as SPF50+, because there's a fair bit of debate about the real level of protection some of the higher SPFs actually offer. Just recently I invested in a long sleeved Skins compression shirt, which is SPF50 rated, which means I don't bother applying sub block to my arms. The shirt is also supposed to help reduce muscle fatigue (I'm undecided on this up to now), and keep me cooler in the heat (this is confirmed), which is usually around the 95 mark. Expensive, but definitiely one of the smartest investments I have made for golf gear.

Good to hear that there's been some happy endings with these fake club cases on ebay! The fact that the sellers refunded without much of a fight says that they pretty much knew they're trying to rip people off. I think the moral of the story is that if a deal appears too good to be true, then it probably is!

There, you answered your own question

I think what the OP is trying to say is that, despite being a 20.1, if you can't raise your game enough to compete against a 2.1, then you are toast! I'm not sure where on earth he got this idea from - perhaps he doesn't have any golfing buddies, so needn't worry about giving / taking strokes?

This is correct, but be careful not to confuse the score on your card (in a tournament for example) with the score used for handicapping purposes. I don't think there is any "highest score" one is allowed to take on any hole? An extreme (and unlikely) example - Let's say a 0-9 handicapper had a very bad day at the office and shot a triple bogey on every hole - this would be the score he writes down on his card and enters into the tourney. However, when it comes to handicapping, ESC would reduce it to a double bogey on every hole - a difference of 18 strokes. I believe most clubs' handicapping systems should (those I have come across do) take care of the ESC adjustment automatically, so the golfer just needs to submit whatever he score he played. The ESC adjusted score is not the one that is considered for the purposes of the tourney.

So why do you bother maintaining a handicap?

Playing most of my golf in hot n humid asia, I normally carry 3 or 4 gloves in my bag and feel the need to chnage at least every 9 holes, sometimes more. I'm a slave to leather gloves, as I've yet to find a synthetic one that fits properly or affords good feel. Once the gloves get a bit beaten up - they don't normally tear but tend to lose their shape / suppleness - they are relegated to my driving range bag and I replace the downgraded one with a new one. I guess on average I replace 1 glove a month. Also, gloves tend to last a bit longer if they are looked after - try not to leave sweaty gloves festering in your golf bag - once you get home, let them breathe a little!

If what you say is true, wouldn't knocking a $400 putter (actually they tend to run less than $300), and dismissing it as a gimmick also be asinine and short-sighted - particularly if somebody believes such a putter helps them? Personally, I'd have said a putter that has several inches of drainpipe on the back (read: Nickent Pipe) of it is more of a gimmick than the TM Ghost or a Scotty Cameron....but that's just me

Dude, do yourself a favour and go buy some decent used golf clubs from a store or from ebay - there's no shame in buying second hand clubs. Once you've buried your new clubs in the ground a few times, they are used also. You'll get decent clubs, and will probably save yourself some time and cost in the longrun.

We've touched on this before, but I am convinced that many of the claimed distances some amateurs come up with are erroneous based on the way they arrived at the alleged distance. For a kick-off, a (supposed) 300 yarder in the woods / water / on another fairway / OOB* (delete where appropriate) is not really a 300 yarder worth talking about. In my book, a nuked drive should finish on the short stuff, or not so far of it, so all these fellas who claim olympian distances but can't hit it straight should put a sock in it. Also, for every drive one of these guys 'duffs' 250yds, it means he has to hit the next one 350yds to bring his average back up to 300yds Second, the old dog leg chestnut. I ran into a guy the other day bragging how he drove over the back of the green on a par 4...just because the regulation distance was ~350yds he suddenly assumed he'd hit a 350yd missile. This hole happened to be a pretty severe dog leg and the 'tiger line' to the green was only around 250yds, so whilst he undoubtedly hit a nice drive, 350yds it was not. Upon hearing this it took the wind out of his sails a little. A case in point is the 15th hole of the Celtic Manor 2010 course (Ryder Cup venue). A couple of weeks back the European Tour played there and almost all of the players were easily driving the green of this 377yd hole (real life, not Sandtrap), furthermore some of the longer hitters were using 3 woods to find the green. The secret was not equipment, swing speed or steroids. It was merely a big old dogleg, which is no doubt something that Joe Amateur tends to forget about when he's chest-thumping in the bar after the game...