aleski

My normal speeds are around 100mph with mid-irons and around 110mph with the driver.

The Redwood-series is amazing. I fell in love with the ZB and Zing -models a few weeks back. Having just bought a new Odyssey, I didn't buy, but I'm looking for good deals online and will probably buy the ZB during the autumn.

I'm right there with you. I just started playing after 8 years, walked to a golf shop where they claimed if I were to invest on new equipment, driver would have to be at the top of my list. So, I got myself a new Callaway Diablo -driver, since I was never extremely consistent, nor confident with my old driver. Diablo worked fine for a while, and true, mis-hits don't cost me as much as they did before, but recently I've found the big head hard to accelrate. I'm sure I'll get there, but for now whenever I have to hit a narrow fairway, I'll go for my 2- or 3-iron. Overall, my swing feels better than it did 8 years ago, but swinging the driver feels awkward and my confidence-level with the driver is nowhere near where it should be.

One sees this a lot. Perhaps it's supposed to ensure sufficient shoulder and hip turn. However, instead of a few ripping motion a few minutes before you start, proper stretching and exercise should bring about better results.

I do a 30-minute yoga-routine focusing on the big muscles in my back and thighs before leaving the house.

In Japan, over the past five-or-so years the price of golf has significantly went down. I paid some USD35-60 per round there (incl. lunch & full use of the facilities). Anyways, it was great fun, although the coping with yardages, being used to the metric system, was a challenge of its own.

Same here, apparently I somehow reconstructed my swing without hitting the ball once. The fact that I'm in a better shape physically certainly doesn't hurt either...

I used to hit a slight fade with every single club in the bag. So, I took an 8-year break from golf and now I hit slight draws. So maybe some 5-6 years off-the-course, depending on the fade, could do the trick.

For some reason, I haven't had to deal with sidehill lies that often. To be honest, I don't really have a fixed gameplan for coping with one. I played my worst round of golf a some 7 weeks ago in Japan with my father-in-law. The fact that it was the first time I've played 18 holes in some 8 years didn't help, but neither did the fact that the course entirely different from what I am accustomed to: Every second shot would be from an uphill, downhill or sidehill lie and I hit them fat, thin left and right. Now that I'm back home playing on the flat, former farming lands of Southern-Finland, I have other shots that have me terrified walking to the ball. I chunk my chips from the sticky foregreens and roughs here. On par 5's that require a mid-iron lay-up in order to get me within 130 metres or so, I am usually able to hit it well enough to carry the required distance but for some reason I manage to develop a mighty draw or hit it straight but right from the target resulting in an approach from the rough.

I gave this some thought just the other day. Currently, I have three wedges in my bag: a Titleist 52* Spin-milled Vokey, a 56* Fourteen the Wedge Low bounce -wedge and a 58* Titleist Vokey. Around the green, I got best results with the putter - whenever the conditions were suitable for using it. And whenever the putter was out of the question, I noticed I was closest to the flag with my 56*. I was able to hit it high and low, to spin it (or stop it) and roll it from 50yds and closer. I could probably add a few shots to my repertoire if I used all the three clubs around the green, but I noticed that on the course I was at a loss going from one to another and would hit really get my yardages (or rather metres) wrong. I simply needed a go-to-club to simplify my game for the time being. The 52* comes in handy chipping from the rough.