chingali

Currently my home course is about 2km away from where I live in a straight line or 4km by car. Due to work commitments I'll be moving house in a few weeks and will be living less than 2km's drive from the course I grew up playing as a kid. No excuses for me not getting out and practicing before and after work!

No mine never match in terms of brand or model, I buy whatever I like the look/feel of with whatever loft/bounce/sole grind configuration I am after. However, they DO always match in terms of shaft model and flex (DG S300) and the grips always match the rest of my clubs within reason and the swingweight is ALWAYS D7. The swingweight often poses problems, in the past I have had to use massive amounts of lead tape, use small amounts of lead tape, drill and plug with tungsten inserts to add weight or drilled holes in them or ground the back (or sole if needed) to reduce weight. Sometimes I have bent them to increase or decrease loft, in case you haven't worked it out yet I am a bit pedantic when it comes to wedges!

I ALWAYS practice with alignment aids. I used to use clubs but for the past 10 years have used 2, 3 or 4 old shafts depending on what I am working on. I remember when I was first learning my teaching pro would always say to me, "You aren't going to hit it if you aren't aiming at it properly".

You know that you're old when.... The putter you are using (which you bought brand new) is older than the rest of the people in your foursome. Happened to me today.

I've been using a Nokia 5140i for the past 4 years, I bought it because I have always had trouble with phones surviving in golf bags and with me in general. As a phone it's pretty ordinary however as an indestructible phone it is truly excellent. It sort of has a rubber casing, it's not waterproof as in drop it in a bucket waterproof however it has been completely drenched inside my golf bag many times and even left out in the rain on a table in the backyard for a few days and never skipped a beat. I have even dropped it from varying heights on to hard surfaces too many times to remember, it's a bloody tank! The biggest problem with it, the rubber casing whilst making it durable makes it VERY difficult to SMS/dial numbers!

From a decent lie with no wind and the pin in the front half of the green it's a solid SW 55*. Last time I did my yardages (2 months ago) a solid SW was spot on 102 yards. Otherwise with no wind, it could be anything from SW, GW through to an 8 iron depending on lie and pin position. Given the way it's blowing outside at the moment - solid 30mph+ with gusts over 50mph tomorrow morning I might be hitting a 6 iron!

These are annual totals - equipment expenditure is just a bit of a guess. Membership : $1100 - 2 x courses Equipment Purchases : Say $400 a year for the odd used wedge/driver here and there Balls : $200 - I usually buy AAA used off eBay Gloves : $150 - I buy 6 or so every 6 months Shoes : $150 - I get a new pair every year or so - they last if you look after them Food/Beverages : Not much, I usually only drink water and take my own snacks but I'll have a beer or two AFTER comp rounds on the weekend so say $200 Tournament/Comp Fees : $1500 - I play a lot of comp rounds at the courses I am a member of and also enter in to a lot of state level tournaments, occasionally I'll try to qualify for national amateur/open events Clothing : $300 - I'll buy some pants or a new shirt or pullover from time to time, never anything expensive. So all up about $4000 a year - better not let the wife see this post!

I think a reasonable dress code is certainly in the good of the game. No jeans, no t-shirts, everything neat and tidy. If you don't like the dress code at a certain course you can always go elsewhere. To me the way a person is attired for a round of golf says a bit about them, if a person can't respect a dress code then they are perhaps going to be lacking in other areas of their demeanour.

I currently hold one (66 par 70) and have held course records at 3 other courses, one of them I held twice. It's actually difficult to own a course record here in Australia, just about all of the courses I have been a member of will only recognise a score as a course record if it is made during a competition round from the back tees. At most courses down here that only happens once a month during the monthly medal and for four rounds during club championships plus if a big event is held at your course. So add it all up and there is usually only about 16 to 20 days a year where your course record score counts. Then you will have times where a bunker is out of play due to say storm damage, and that means they won't count that round either (I shot a course record or I thought I had once and two bunkers I didn't go anywhere near where out of play that's why I know!)

It takes as long as it takes. If you are unsure of the way things are going with your practice, go and have a another lesson to make sure you have understood correctly what you need to be working on and that you are actually doing it.

As I have mentioned a few times on these forums, staying cool under pressure has a lot to do with having been in similar situations before. If it is your first time playing the 18th to win a small tournament, then of course it's new territory for you and you won't have worked out YOUR OWN way of dealing with the situation and you will probably fail. Get yourself in contention a few more times and I'm sure you'll work out a way to get the job done. Once you have worked out a way for YOU to close out the final hole(s) of small tournaments when in contention, you will move on to bigger ones where you will most likely go through the same things again. Keep on putting yourself in contention and your success rates will improve as you get used to what you are feeling. Unfortunately for most of us it is a step at a time process. Anyway, congratulations on getting yourself in to a position where you could win in the first place, you've done it once so obviously you will do it again, next time with more success!

It's surprising just how well you can play with just one club, even more surprising how well you putt with an iron. When I was a kid myself and three mates the same age (we all ended up going through the NSWPGA apprenticeship scheme) used to go out to the course we were members of every second Thursday afternoon and play "call the hole". You could only use one club, which one was up to you and you could only bring one ball and it was a couple of dollars each winner takes all. How it worked was, we'd meet on the first tee and toss to see who got to "call". The winner would then call which green we were playing to, so from the first tee we might be playing to the third green. Whoever had the honour after the hole was completed got to pick the next tee location (could be from a greenside bunker or a nearby tee) and they got to pick the green we were playing to. If you lost your ball, it was over for you - otherwise you kept playing until 9 "holes" were completed and added up the score and the winner got the cash. There was some strategy involved if you had the call, I always took an 8 iron so I tried to work out where we were going based on my best chances with that club, the other guys took 5 irons, 7 irons etc so they would try to pick "holes" that suited them. Keeping in mind that the course had a fair bit of water on it and you only had one ball so with an 8 iron it was pointless picking a hole with a 175 yard carry from the tee. So, if you are a 12 handicapper and wanted to play me over 9 holes off the stick and I only got to use one club, make sure you don't start bogey - double because I'm probably going to beat you.

If it rains as heavy as that where you live and you can get out on the course during the downpour, have a look at where the water collects on the greens and where it runs off to and stick it in the old memory bank. Sometimes just watching where it pools and runs to can take the "what the f^*k?" factor out of putts that apparently break uphill, because of course they don't.

Here's something to try when practicing. Pick a few balls up and toss them underhand and try to get them as close as you can. Now chip your ball from the same spot, it gives you a good idea of the feel of the shot plus you can see how much trajectory will affect the amount of roll. Try throwing a few high and few low. One thing I bet you do naturally without thinking when throwing the ball is land them on the green not on the fringe.

My current driver (have been using it for 3 years) was built by my clubfitter at 43.5", and no I'm not a midget I'm 6'1". I have found that if I go any longer I don't hit the ball in the middle of the clubface as often, and hitting the ball right on the sweetspot is worth more to me in terms of average distance than a few more mph from a longer shaft. Even with this length shaft - considered quite short by modern standards I carry the ball 260yards with a medium to high trajectory. And yes I do know my average carry distance, the 17th hole where I play once or twice a week has a water carry of 252yards from the back tees and I can happily stand there all day and clear the hazard very comfortably, the carry isn't even something I think about. Even better more often than not I'll be in the fairway. So why not try your driver with a slightly shorter shaft, get it cut at say 44.25" to begin with because it's easier to remove a bit than it is to put a bit back on.

Yes St Michaels is a bit expensive as is NSW if you can manage to get yourself a game on either of them. If your handicap is just over 7 as in your profile, get rid of another 3 or 4 strokes and have a go at playing in some of the Vardon and Open events around Sydney. Just about all of them are accessible by public transport (I did it over 20 years ago!) and you get to play at some of our better tracks you'd otherwise never get on, and usually at a reduced price too. Plus you know the competition is going to be good, no 27 markers in these events Here is a link to the 2008 NSWGA Fixture list - http://www.nswga.com.au/files/7FOMBN...ure%20List.pdf

Is your family any better off if you have 68? Is your family any worse off if you have 107? Will someone die if you make a triple bogey? Will the bank repossess your house if you hit 3 in the water on the 12th? If you answered no to all of the above then hooray you do have a grip on reality, therefore you should be able to comprehend that golf is just a game and should be enjoyed as such.

Where is the best place to be if you don't hit the green, short or long? If you can work that out then I think you may have your answer as to which club to use. If the trouble is long, bang away as hard as you like with the 3 hybrid, if the trouble is short hit the 5 wood.

I used to use Titleist Balatas and a little bit later I used the Maxfli DDH Balatas for a few years and yes they were soft. One of my party tricks if I gave a mate lift to the course was to leave one sitting on the dash of the car while out playing to let it heat up and then on the way home chew the cover off it. Not too good for the teeth. If you really managed to get through the cover and in to the elastic winding the thing would go off like crazy and spin rubber band material everywhere! As for the new wedges chewing up the covers, trust me the old ones did a great job of it as well. I'd usually change ball every 3 or 4 holes during competition rounds.

Have a look at these, Long reef - http://www.lrgc.com.au/welcome/index.mhtml NSW - http://www.nswgolfclub.com.au/guests/index.mhtml St Michaels - http://www.stmichaelsgolf.com.au/welcome/index.mhtml Belmont - http://www.golfinpictures.com.au/belmont/index.htm

Yes I saw it and yes I agree, it was a very very nice moment. Trust the good old BBC to show it to us, much nicer to watch Camillo and Greg having a little chat than to see more useless tips or stocking filler crap. One thing to keep in mind, they are the best golfers in the world but they are human just like you and I.

I said 7 iron because whenever I go practice I end up hitting a LOT of 7 irons - always have. I usually take a long iron, a short iron, a PW and a SW with me when I am practicing and I work my way through all of them but if I am working on something I'll stand there and hit 7 iron most of the time.

Perhaps you should be pointing out this fact to him and not us?

Here's my take on it, Low handicap golfer - Someone who rarely (1 round in 10) has higher than 78 Mid Handicap Golfer - Someone who usually scores in the area of 80 to 90 High Handicap Golfer - Someone who struggles to break 90 (1 round in 10) I don't worry too much about the difficulty of the course - you still have to hit fairways and greens and get up and down when you don't whether it's 6400 or 7000 yards in length.

I think there are about 18 Aussies playing this year, got to be a chance of one of them getting up I reckon!