Big Padrigo

Haven't posted on hear for a while but as I have an official handicap again for the first time in 4 years and am playing regularly again figured good to talk about it too! Played the Silverburn course at Royal Aberdeen for my works Bi-weekly "Monday Medal" this week. Was in 3 bunkers and got up and down from all of them. First two sand shots were pretty special and deserve a mention (3rd was average but made a 25 footer). First was at the first, probably 20 yards to the pin and left it 5 feet away, with an uphill putt, hit it perfectly, just text book bunker shot. Second was at the fourth, only about 5 yards to the pin so no green to work with but landed it in pretty much the only place I could and it trundled down to the whole to leave me a tap-in. Course the real irony is that I have just myself a new wedge.... Dilemma now as to whether I retire my old one!

I have played both, though not in any kind of way that would be valid for scientific research. My initial impressions are that the e7+ is firmer than the e6+. Certainly felt this on chips and putts. Similar behaviour with fuller shots in terms of stopping on the green. I felt that the e7+ travelled a little further, though I don't like the feel as much as the e6+.

love the detail, when you put a lot into writing a post, good to know someone is reading them!

I don't think I can remember a round of golf when I didn't think, oh if I putted like I did yesterday I would hgave broken 80 or if my driving was like last week's I'd have broken 80, every single time there's always some part not as good as it could be. When it comes to practise the only area where I feel multiple benefits is full and partial wedge shots. Seems like getting the feel on those shots, and the hand-eye co-ordination has knock-on benefits for my whole swing.

Has anyone done one? There's one near me next week and I though I might go if people on here have found it a worthwhile experience.

I have played a 60 for about 18 months and I like it. I have had the opportunity to practise plenty with it so I know what shots to use it for. There are rounds when I don't use it same as there are rounds when I don't use my 56. The wedge I use most is my 50 GW. Never used anything higher, but I'm pretty confident on full and partial shots with the 60 so don't see why I wouldn't hit a 64 reasonably well also.

My dad and brother and I played today and there was a lot of sharing of clubs going on. Obviously they have travelled a long way and didn't have their own gear. Meant that we were able to have a reasonably competitive game today, if I didn't share my gear they would have been hitting 10 year old drivers, etc.... Would I let someone else I know play with my gear, in alll honesty, probably yes. A complete stranger, nope.

Just finished, beautiful day here, in the low 70s, strong wind, but that's hardly a surprise. Shot 42-42 for an 84. Had the best ball striking round with my new irons, hit 10 GIRs. Made two mental erros, one off the tee, took too much club and went in a creek, the other I tried to do too much out of a fairway bunker. Those two holes cost me 5 shots, the other 16 I was 7 over. Anyways the big culprit today was my putting, had 5 3-putts and didn't get it going until close to the end of the round, did make a 30 footer for birdie though. Yep without the 3-putts I was under 80....

I'd say go with a medium bounce in the 56 wedge, like 10/11 degrees of bounce, give you some versatility

I love my 4 hybrid and it gets a lot of use, particularly those longer shots that you want to land softly. A lot of the pros have been covered but from my persepctive I think the 4h is a great club for difficult lies; downhill and sidehill in particular.

Ok putts 32.67, fairways 63.1% and GIRs 26.87%. Hmm not that far away...

Mine is 33.44% according to Scorecard. Ok now I'm wondering why you're playing off 6 and I'm off 13!! What's you average putts per round?

Got a couple of birdies yesterday, played a beautiful lob wedge about 80 yards on one hole to leave a pretty straightforward 10 footer for the bird. However the best shot this week was a 50 foot putt between tiers for birdie on the other hole. The putt is tricky, as it was uphill onto the top tier, but then after cresting the hill it goes downhill. Judged the speed perfectly, would have been a matter of inches away had it not gone in, very satisfying to see it drop.

I've been using ProV1s pretty exclusively for about 9 months. The main reason is for greater control with the short game. Greens are so fast and hard where I play that you need all the help you can get. I have used a single ball for the last 3 rounds, it's pretty beat up but still performed well. It'll get thrown into the practise pocket now. I do think that I'll probably not need to use these balls if playing somewhere a little softer around the greens, when I move back to Ireland for example. The other ball I really like is the TaylorMade TPLP Red, really liked the feel of these off the putter.

This is what I do in this kind of situation. i'd rather not play a full 18 than wait for people who have no intention of letting me through. The concept of letting faster groups through seems totally alien to some folks. The whole point is to enjoy yourself, waiting around endlessly can totally spoil the fun. Also playing through isn't always the easiest thing to do, you naturally rush and can mess up your concentration that way as well.

Just wanted to add that my 84, as posted earlier, was good enough to get me best gross in the competition I was playing. Very pleased.

sure, not sure that I get envy, but I do check out what my playing partners carry. I'm usually most interested in bag composition; how many woods, hybrids, wedges etc, and what their wedge set up is.

Played a strokeplay tournament at my club today. Shot an 84, waiting to see what that where that will finish but pleased with my round. Missed some short putts, but made a couple of hail mary putts as well, so evens out. Short game was rock solid and long game, considering I had my first bout of the shanks on Wednesday was very serviceable.

I'll probably make you sick but I pay $15 for 30 minutes, it's a discount rate as part of the overall club membership. And the pro is great, knows my swing and can generally fix most things in a matter of minutes.

I have size 13, fairly wide feet. Footjoy, nike and ecco all work good for me and not in wide sizes either.

Shot an ok 87 today. Much better than my 93 on Wednesday when I had a bout of the shanks. A quick lesson yesterday and some hard work on the range meant that my ball striking is back to where I want it but all the time I spent on my full swing yesterday meant I didn't have a chance to work on my short-game and putting and it showed today! Really only had a couple of bad holes... so no complaints from me.

I always wear my contacts on the course, much less hassle than glasses, especially given the humidity down here.

I've owned a redwood anser for about 9 months and absolutely love it. I tried quite a few, including the black series, bettinardi and Scotty's. Of all the putters I tried I liked the redwood the best. The feel is great and the anser style is the classic blade style, its the original and there's a reason why so many have copied it.

I remember reading somewhere that the average handicap in the US is 16.2, hasn't changed in 20 years despite all the technical advances in equipment