chingali

Yeah well I'm betting that the panties, stockings and suspender belt he has on underneath would have to be pretty colourful then!

Perhaps he had sustained some sort of injury? I am certainly hoping that is the case.

I'd suggest taking at least 3 or 4 days off work! When I had mine done it was done as simple day surgery, I was done in the morning under local anaesthetic not general as it was the specialists recommendation and I walked out about 30 minutes after the procedure figuring that everything was just fine - which it was for about another 2 hours until the anaesthetic wore off. The next few days were spent lying on the couch watching TV and wishing for the world to come to a sudden end, it kind of hurt a bit more than I had anticipated to tell you the truth. I had it done on a Friday because I had the weekend off, but I didn't end up going back to work until about the following Wednesday and at that time things were still a bit more "tender" than I would have liked. All up though about a week or so after the procedure everything was fine and back to normal and I have no regrets whatsoever. My best advice to you is the advice given to me by my doctor when I asked him who he recommended to do the procedure. He told me that there was this person and it would cost this much and he was a new specialist, another person was a bit more expensive and had been around for a while and the third person was very very expensive but all he had done for the past 20 years was vasectomies and that kind of thing. He mentioned to me that it's one thing to get the best price when having your house painted but it's another thing entirely when the person you are paying to complete the job will at some point have a scalpel in one hand and your nuts in the other!

I sort of though the exact same thing but didn't want to bring it up!

Very very nice! I always loved the look of those things, I had a few friends that used them during the 90's and they are a fine looking club. If you think you have what it takes to use a set of them then by all means try them, but you'll want to be catching everything right out of the middle. Given your current handicap maybe you might want to ditch the longer irons from the set and replace them with hybrids for a bit more forgiveness, the 2 and 3 irons from that set aren't the sort of things you'd want to catch thin on a cold morning, you'd be wringing your fingers for the next 5 minutes. Something else to keep in mind, if you look at the lofts on those clubs they are very traditional so don't be surprised if the 9 iron goes the same distance as your current PW so you may need to put some thought in to your wedge setup to work around it. Very nice clubs, if you can use them well then you'll earn a lot of respect!

Yes it most certainly is. It doesn't matter what you say or how hard you try to justify the action of walking off either to yourself or to those around you, there is NO excuse. You start it. You finish it.

I agree - play by the rules or don't call it golf! Another option if you think that your opponent has been unfairly affected by some outside agency that caused him or her to fluff their shot is to simply knock your next one a few feet sideways thereby evening up the state of play. I have done it a couple of times in the past in similar situations. It's not always about winning you know, how you win or how you play are far more important in the overall scheme of things.

The ping Tour wedges are made from 17-4 stainless steel so I would be surprised if they were worn to the point of needing replacing after 150 rounds plus practice. If you want to try some other wedges in the hope that they will give you more spin then go right ahead and do so, but don't do it because you think your current wedges NEED replacing. The only way I could see them being well worn after 150 rounds is if you were practicing bunker shots with them for a few hours every day. The abrasiveness of sand will increase the amount of wear by quite a large margin.

I try to keep the same grips on all of my clubs but it never works out that way. I do however always have the same type of grip on all of my clubs, for as long as I can remember I have always used cords grips so whilst sometimes I will have different brands or models, they are always cord and they are always the same size. I do my own regripping when required and when I buy some new grips I generally get about 20 of them in the same brand and model, the last few times they have been Lamkin soft cords. About once a year I regrip the lot including any clubs I swap in and out. Because I practice with my wedges and 6 and 7 iron a lot, they get regripped probably twice a year so they sometimes end up different, plus if I buy a new driver or 3 wood for example I'll keep the same grip on it if it is the correct size and type so over the course of a year you end up with odd grips here and there.

I usually play once or twice every weekend and then I will get out for nine holes (sometimes 18) about three times during the week. For the past 12 months I haven't been practicing much as I have been busy with work but that is about to change in the next month. In about a month I will be changing jobs and moving house, my partner will be working about 10 minutes away from me and she starts at 6am and I start at 8am. Fortunately there is a golf course right inbetween us so my plan is to drop her off at work and then I can go hit balls between 6.15am and 8am every weekday and still make it back to work on time! Even better, we both finish work at 3pm so after picking her up and driving us both home during the upcoming spring and summer months I can get home and then still have time to go out for 18 holes every day after work With any luck I'll have the old handicap down to zero for the first time in nearly 20 years come this time next year.

Just have fun and enjoy yourself, there is nothing to worry about. Make sure you tell the guys you are playing with that you are putting in your first handicap card and if they are like most club golfers they will be nothing but helpful. One thing you might want to do some time in the forseeable future is grab a copy of the rules (should be available from your club) and make sure you have a good grasp of the basics. Once you understand the basics it makes it very easy to grab the book out of your bag and look up anything out of the ordinary or not understood as and if needed. You will find the rule book is grouped in to logical sections loosely based around what you think of as the basics.

I can do it for hours if I want to, there was a time when I used to practice it all of the time, it wasn't something I practiced intentionally, it was just something I did. When I was a lot younger there was hardly a time when I didn't have a club in my hands and sooner or later the idea to do this crap just comes to you. I can still do the between the legs, the behind the back, off the shoe, hit it high and spin around and catch it, I can stop it dead by catching, never tried the catching on the back of the neck though like in that video! These days when I play I often see people doing it, 20 years ago though it was a pretty rare thing to see someone having a go at. If you want to try something really difficult, try doing it with your opposite hand. I used to have a friend when I was a kid and he could do it with a wedge in each hand and he'd go two balls, one on each wedge, I even saw him do a wedge in each hand and a ball on both and he'd switch the ball from one wedge to the other sort of like juggling. Another one he could do was flip the ball up in the air, spin his wedge over and get a bounce or two off the back of the hosel then catch it with his wedge and keep going. Mind you he wasn't a great player, I think he spent too much time on the wedge juggling act!

I have found it and lost it so many times over the last 25+ years that I don't have the space (and the internet still has plenty of room left on it) to list them all!

Both of those shafts you have listed are meant to give a medium trajectory and "similar" overall weights (listed as only 8gms difference) so providing the loft of both drivers and the head type is similar which they sort of are they should launch reasonably similar. My best advice is to take both drivers to a clubfitter and get on a launch monitor, that is the only way to find out what is really happening without just guessing. Probably the first thing he will do is actually measure the loft of both drivers, as they do sometimes vary a bit from what is stamped on them. If you really just wanted to try a low launching shaft, the Diamana White Board is probably about as low as you can go without getting in to anything really exotic or priced at the ultra high end of the scale.

Try either of the following > http://www.titleist.com/locator.aspx?bhcp=1 > http://www.taylormadegolf.com/retail_locator.asp

http://www.clubfitter.org/ would probably be a good place to start for you. Being an Aussie I don't really know much about your associations however the site looks to be fairly reputable. The other place to find the info you are looking for is to ask the better players in your area, that's how I found the guy I use. You could also just use the yellow pages and call around a few places.

The more you play the less the nerves will be an issue for you, it's all a matter of conditioning. When I first started playing I'd have the same problem, teeing off in front of people I didn't know, after a while the issue disappeared. Then I began playing in club competition and I'd get nervous for the first few holes, after a while that too went away. Next up was playing interclub events where you'd have a few people following you around and that initially made me nervous but yep eventually it was something I got used to. To cut an already long story short I ended up being able to play in front of hundreds of people and not even notice they were there. Mind you, I don't know if I'd have ever got used to TV cameras, luckily? a lack of ability and laziness with practice meant I never had to find out

I agree completely, however those Graman lime green things do look bloody good! Next time I'm up in Sydney I'm going to see my mate (been my clubfitter for 15 years) and see if he can find me one that suits...

It's quite common to have a steel shaft in your fairway wood. If you wanted to try something in a different flex why not go for something in lightweight steel? Something like a Dynamic Gold SL is a bit lighter than a traditional steel shaft and quite cheap compared to graphite. How exactly do you know that you are on the border between a regular and stiff shaft, are you just guessing or have you been to a clubfitter? If you haven't been and seen a clubfitter, you may well want to. He can make sure the shaft you are going to get is correct first time, sure it may cost a few dollars more to get fitted properly but if it saves getting it wrong once it has paid for itself in both dollars and more importantly the usability of the club for you.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news however less loft won't stop you "popping" it up and hitting the ball 50 yards. "Pop Up's" are caused by making contact with the ball with the leading top edge of your club and more or less loft won't change a thing.

Now you are getting on the right track. Driver loft isn't the only contributor to trajectory although it is the main one, shaft kick point is the other one. Maybe try something like a Diamana White Board shaft if you are looking for a lower trajectory. Something else to keep in mind, the stated loft on the driver may not actually be the loft. It can vary up to a degree or so either way so whilst your head says 9* it may actually be 10*. A good clubfitter can measure the actual loft for you and match it to what you need. I was lucky enough to get inside a tour van a few years ago and saw a whole bunch of TM heads (510 TP's) lined up on the bench and they all had stickers on them with the measured loft and it WAS different to what they had stamped on them. I have at various times taken drivers I have purchased off eBay to my clubfitter and he has measured the loft and never has it been spot on accurate.

Nah, what I'm saying is not to look at cheap knockoffs or copies, but clubs from the better component manufacturers. They aren't the same thing, the component manufacturers are manufacturers in their own right. They do their own R&D; and their equipment generally isn't cheap, in fact it can be almost as expensive as buying from Callaway, Ping, TM etc!

Or here's an even better idea, go to a good clubfitter and get yourself on a launch monitor. You may end up finding that your best launch conditions are with a combination that is surprising even perhaps nonsensical to you until you see the numbers. Just remember to keep an open mind and think about what they suggest. And by a good clubfitter I don't mean go to your local retail outlet, I mean do a bit of research as to who is the best clubfitter in your local area. You can research it on the internet or you can go the old fashioned route and ask the better players from your area who they use. A good clubfitter will recommend what they think is best best based upon your action and the numbers you post on their equipment.

Stick with your name brands if you like, but there is nothing wrong with the offerings from the better component manufacturers like Bang and SMT. Ever had a look at what the long drive guys use?

Have a look at some of the component head manufacturers like Bang, Alpha or SMT, they go as low as about 4* and all of them have a few models available as low as 6*. Good luck getting them in the air but if you want to have a go they are available.