MGP

There are a bunch of them, even online services that will proxy bid for you for a small fee. The one I use is called Auction Sentry. I've had it for quite a while and it works great for me. It wasn't free but was really cheap, about $10 if I remember correctly. It's paid for itself many times over in the past couple years. Google: Ebay Bidding Software

My 52º gap wedge is the most used club in my bag next to my putter.

I believe this is probably true. Last year my subscription lapsed for about 3 months before I renewed it for my SG3. The courses I had loaded all still worked and the only thing different was a nag screen telling me to renew my subscription when I first turned the unit on. After I got past that it worked normally with the 10 courses I had already loaded on the GPS.

I have bought a lot of stuff from rockbottom golf, some on their website (preferred) and some on ebay. I've never seen any obvious shill bidding. I do use a "sniper" program though so a lot of times I'll have my bid go in with about 15 seconds left on the auction. I won an awesome zippered neoprene driver cover last month for $.01 plus $5.99 shipping. The same driver cover here in the golf stores is $15+ so it was a good deal.

Hah, that response always makes me laugh. You are not paying for the satellite signal, you are paying for the accurate mapping of oh, about 25,000 courses. It's like paying for a library card to a library with 25,000 yardage books in it. To me that's a great deal and Skygolf does a great job of continuously adding new courses and updating old ones that might need it (course changes, etc.). I find it interesting that people will bitch about a subscription fee that costs about that same as a dozen premium balls or who have $400-500 drivers in their bags. I guess it's all perspective but I find my Skycaddie SG3 indispensable, even on my home course but especially on a course I've never played before or play infrequently. I play enough golf that I don't mind coughing up $50/year for that.

Most of my shortened drivers play in the C8-C9 range. It doesn't bother me in the least and I can't even tell the difference unless I swing one of the longer drivers then immediately swing a shorter one. Even then the difference is minimal and hard to detect. I've built, trimmed, modified and weighted a lot of my friends clubs. Most of them can't tell the difference between C8 and D1. They can tell the difference between more center face shots and less though...

My course is semi-private (A membership club that is open to the public but not cheap). $205/month for unlimited golf, includes carts, with no spending minimum, no initiation fee, 27 Holes, driving range, practice facilities, (3) pools, tennis courts, workout facility. It's a great layout and a real bargain. The course plays fast too. Last Monday my buddy and I walked on and got a tee time right away. The round only took 3:30 and it was a nice spring day. It's mostly a golf club and pretty much everyone is there primarily to play golf. They also are part of a management company with 38 courses that members have access to. There is a sister course across town I am going to play next week. Shawnee Golf & Country Club

Right on. Most golfers play shafts that are too long in both their drivers and fairway woods, mostly because of marketing hype. The Skinny on Longer Clubs

I play all my drivers at 44.5" If I absolutely need to put a drive in play I'll still sometimes choke up a bit from there too. I actually hit the 44.5" driver farther on average than a 45" or 46" driver since I get much more consistent clubface contact.

It's kinda one of the reasons I play less expensive irons and build my own clubs (aside from finding it relaxing and being able to easily customize them). I can get replacement heads cheaply enough that if one gets chewed up or seriously damaged I just replace it. I'll usually buy a whole set of heads if they are being obsoleted or phased out, usually at a dirt cheap price.

I just don't like the styling, I prefer something a little more traditional looking. Any of Hireko's own branded clubs I've seen (Acer, Dynacraft, etc.) have all been very good quality. I would expect the Caiman clubs to be high quality as well. I also should mention that Jeff Summit, Hireko's technical director is a very respected club designer in the industry.

I'm not a big fan of the Caiman clubs, but Hireko is a very good company and I play a set of their Acer XP905 Pro irons. Really good clubs regardless of the price -- excellent quality and finish -- most people who see them think they are much more expensive than they are. Hireko has great customer service too. If you like the clubs I'd say go for it.

Depends on how deep it is. If it hasn't torn the paint up down to bare metal then use an automotive deep scratch remover like Meguiar's Scratch-X to rub out the ball mark. Then wax the head with a good quality auto wax. It will shine it up just like new. I've fixed several heads this way. If it does go to the bare metal then some people use a black sharpie to just "paint in" the marks. Personally I think this is OK but looks kind of cheesy. If it doesn't bother you then it will at least cover up the bare metal and look OK. The best way to fix really deep ball marks is auto touch-up paint. Fill in the scratches/gouges with the paint. Do several layers of paint if it's really deep. Don't worry about the paint being uneven, it will be no matter what you do. After it's thoroughly dried, lightly wet sand the painted area with 1000 grit then 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper. After it's smooth it will have a dull finish and light scratches. Hit it with scratch remover as above. Then wax the head. When you are done it will look pretty much brand new. You can buy all the supplies at any good auto parts store. Good luck!

I really need to get back to Michigan this summer. I'm originally from around Muskegon and I have a cousin that lives in Kalamazoo. I'd love to get out and play Gull Lake View. That's one of the great things about Michigan, there are tons of good and great courses to play.

If it's bent, it's toast. Once a shaft is bent it loses all it's structural integrity. If you keep playing it you may find the head and part of the shaft flying farther than the ball and possibly hitting and damaging something or someone. Get it replaced.

Yeah but it was Confederate money...

Sure it can be done, it's a relatively easy club repair job. I'm not positive but pretty sure that TM used Dynamic Gold shafts in those clubs. That will run about $10 for the shaft, $5 or so for a replacement TM grip (but you could get any grip you wanted), $1 or so for a new ferrule... that's $16-20 for parts plus labor. $35 seems pretty reasonable to me.

I build a lot of clubs and have done a few dozen putters. I wouldn't mess around with your old putter. Just get a new shaft and grip. The shaft will run you about $5 and the grip... well that's up to you, could be as cheap as $1 to $10 or more. You'll need a few other supplies regardless. Shafting epoxy (do not use regular epoxy, it's harder and more brittle and takes much much more heat to breakdown if you ever want to remove the head), some wet/dry sandpaper to abrade the shaft tip. You'll want to clean the putter hosel well and possibly abrade the inside of it too. A final cleanup with some acetone or isopropyl alcohol before you epoxy it together. None of it is all that hard, it's just paying attention to detail. If you take your time and do it right you'll have a really nice club when you are finished. If not, not so nice... You might want to go here and watch the videos to see what you are getting yourself into: Golfsmith Clubmaking Videos

Good answer. On my home course the 7th is a par 4, 267 from the whites and 311 from the blues. Yep, almost looks like a par 3 on the scorecard. It's one of my favorite par 4's though because the design is devilish. The fairway landing area is really wide, probably 60 yds... but... there is a deep rocky creek that runs across the front edge of the green. There is also a massive, deep bunker that guards the entire left half of the green. The green is only about 15-20 paces deep and slopes pretty severely from back to front and has a steep hillside as a backstop. The only bailout area near the green is to the right and chipping from there is an adventure as you'll end up hitting a slick downhill-sidehill chip that runs to the creek or bunker. Big hitters that try to drive the green risk going long and having a downhill chip from the back that's almost impossible to stop on the green. Drive placement and approach angle are everything. It's a great little hole. I've seen everything from eagles there (rare) to 7's or 8's. Par there is actually a pretty good score. Lotsa bogeys and doubles.

I have about a 12 handicap. If it wasn't for chipping and putting it would be 20+.

This is my new home course as of last fall. Thankfully the course is a lot better than their website! I love it there, it's about 10 minutes from my house and it's a great layout. Shawnee Golf & Country Club

The grooves are the same as any of the top quality wedges. I spin them as well as any of the big name wedges. I like the shape and grind on them too. I have 3 different sets of the Watson wedges from the 2006 chrome wedges, a set of Watson gunmetal wedges and a set of the 2007 Watson satin wedges. I love the 2007 satin finish wedges and those have been in my bag for over a year. I have hit almost all the "big name" wedges and still prefer the Adams Watson wedges. About the only thing I don't like about Adams clubs is the grips they put on them -- IMO opinion they use cheap grips. First thing I do when I get them is to change to Tour Velvet grips and all is well. I like the Vokeys and TM RAC TP satin wedges but the Watson wedges are a bargain that flies under the radar.

Exactly. I have the RAC TP Satin wedges and three different sets of the Adams Watson wedges. I like the 2007 Satin Watson wedges the best and that's what I've been gaming for the past year. They look the best at address to me, I like the bounce and sole grind and most importantly I hit them really well. I'd say the RAC TPs are my second favorite wedge and if I had to switch that's what I'd use.

I've been playing Acer XP905 Pro irons for about a year now. They are great irons, similar to Callaway X-20 Tour irons. Hireko has great service and their products are all pretty solid. Some of them, like the XP and XK series are top notch and finally being recognized as such.

I am totally done with UPS. I ordered some parts for my business the day before Thanksgiving with UPS Red (Next day) delivery. Paid about $35 extra to get it next day. Of course the next day was Thanksgiving so it really meant Friday. Friday morning I roll into the office about 7:00am and check online tracking -- "OUT FOR DELIVERY". Woohoo!, I'm going to get my parts. The UPS guy normally shows up here about 12:30 so I waited patiently. Time went by then finally about 1:00pm I decided to check online tracking again -- "12:00 PM THE RECEIVER IS ON A HOLIDAY. DELIVERY WILL BE ATTEMPTED WHEN THE RECEIVER RETURNS" WTF???? I was sitting there waiting and the UPS guy just never showed up! Then the capper... I was steaming mad having paid for next day service and UPS not even attempting to deliver it to me. Bear in mind I have received literally 100's of packages from UPS at this same business over the years. I decided to call customer service... big mistake. UPS has an automated phone system where it is impossible to talk to a human being. Ditto that for emailing customer service. From now on it's Fedex baby... Oh and just for grins (sorry for those of you who have had packages -- especially golf equipment -- abused by UPS):