Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Erect-A-Driver..


You guys probably know that I'm fairly loyal to Callaway. It looks like Callaway is now offering the OptiFit Driver System. Basically the fitting professional will have access to 13 FT-3 heads and 23 shafts from the major shaft makers (Aldila, Fujikura, Graphite Design, Grafalloy, UST, Mitsubishi Rayon) for 299 possible combinations. According to Equipment section, Golf Digest May 2006, the OptiFit system includes 2 different clubhead models (Fusion Ft-3 AND the X460) along with 30 shaft options.

These shafts can be quickly switched in and out of the driver head based on customer preference. The retailer/fitting pro can switch out the shafts with a special torque wrench that is used to attach the shaft into the head of the driver. The demo driver the customer eventually selects will mimick exactly the one that will be created for them in the final result according to Callaway.

When I first read about this I got a little ahead of myself and thought that we would be able to buy these special shafts and the driver head with the torque wrench and then mix and match for our own use..now that would be the ultimate..who knows..actually why don't they do that?

Well, Nakashima Golf has done this. Their HTEC driver features a removable CNC milled-aluminum hosel allowing clubmakers to change any shaft in seconds, EVEN after you purchase the driver. The swingweight is ALSO adjustable by using a 10, 12 or 14 gram screw to secure the 460cc forged two-piece titanium head to the hosel. Basically, you would demo the driver and then walk out of the shop that day with your favorite/ideal combination. There's no need to order since the demo club becomes your own and no possible difference if it had to be created like Callaway's Opti-Fit.

After comparing the two though I'd have to say Nakashima has the edge. I just love the idea that the driver and shaft combo you go with can be altered and even re-altered again and again..now this is serious innovation.

Monday, April 24, 2006

My New Toys..


Well, with a little help from a good friend, I was fortunate to get my hands on one of the newest golf gadgets. It's the Bushnell Pinseeker 1500 w/slope Laser Rangefinder. I was testing it out around the house and it's pretty awesome. I was debating whether to plunk down the money to get this but I got a deal that I couldn't resist.

Besides taking accurate measurements from point A to point B (tee box to flag stick) it can take "real-time" roving yardages at various objects you point at as well as give you the yardages based on the slope between you and the target..how cool is that. For example, if you're looking at a 150 yd. shot but the green is elevated the rangefinder will compensate for this and give you a distance with this taken into effect.

I guess this particular one, with the slope feature, is "illegal" to use in tournaments but I'm not a regular tournament player anyhow and the slope feature is just too cool.

The other toy I got was a Scotty Cameron Red X. I saw, once again, a deal to good to pass up on the "SwapShop" at 4gea.com. Do I need ANOTHER putter..no..but it was purely an offer I couldn't resist. Hopefully I'll get it before this weekend for me to try both out this weekend.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

I owe $4..


I ended up shooting an 85 and my friend shot a 101 and by our wager I owed him $4 (less the $1 for him going one stroke above 100). I really didn't keep an eye on him to see what he was shooting but have a feeling it was a tad further north of 101.

I was more involved in my game than anything and since his brother in law (also a beginner) was with us I just asked him after each hole what he shot. He was having a hard time anyhow bickering with his brother in law about what each other shot.

I did finally break the evil curse of playing bad when I play with less experienced players. Reflecting on this though the 4th person in our group, a single walk-on, was about my skill level. I was actually playing off of him, so the reason why my head was in the game..maybe the curse isn't really lifted..yet.

I'm actually playing in my first tournament at Oak Quarry next Saturday. I've never played there but I heard it's a beautiful course. It sounded some what serious since they asked what my index was. It's actually for a charitable cause but they're giving away some prizes too.

I just found out that Vijay Singh is going to be on "The Apprentice" on NBC tonight. Looks the the winning team will get to play with Vijay, and "The Donald", at the Trump National GOlf Club..how cool is that.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Aeration Conspiracy..


Looks like all the courses in my area are aerating and just letting everything grow out including the fairways..I guess it's that time of the year. I was debating whether or not to play tomorrow but will. I did last week and I just remember the greens were so shaggy..it just felt like a big practice round..and I played pretty good too. It was no use reading breaks but rather distance control. This was probably how they played in the old days anyhow.

One thing that worked in my favor was EVERYHTING checked. Well, not because of some PGA caliber tour spin I imparted on the ball but the greens had so much sand/seedings that it just killed any forward momentum of the ball once it hit. Hopefully it will be a little better tomorrow.

I'm playing with my co-worker, the same one cutting his teeth from my previous post, and it's kind of leaving me a sick feeling again. I've really made a mental commitment today to get into my game and play good. He, once again, wanted a wager on the side. We decided that for every stroke he goes over 100 it's $1 per stroke and for every stroke I go over 80 the same. It seems like a fair bet but from my previous outings with him I play so bad when it's just me and him. We'll see.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Free Callaway X-18..not


I was reading the latest issue of GOLF (May 2006). It's the ClubTest2006 issue. Anyway I saw a pretty enticing offer. It looks like there's a credit card, Upfront Rewards Visa (Universal Savings Bank), that is giving away a set of new Callaway X-18 irons ($800 Callaway Gift Card). What's the catch right? Well, it looks like you have to transfer over a $5000 credit balance and maintain $3500 in balance, with them, for 18 months. Looks like they've also offered similar offers before.

Doing the math it looks like it's NOT A DEAL! $3500 X (9.99% + 2.24%, added to prime rate - 12.23%/mo.) = $42.80/mo. in interest alone. $42.80 X 18 (months required to fulfill the agreement) = $770.49 YIKES!! Well, actually it probably is cheaper than if you buy it off the rack from a golf store, just you're not paying tax, but you can probably get around that if you negotiate/haggle with them anyhow.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Who's Your Caddie..


If you're interested you may have the opportunity to caddie for Billy Casper in the 2007 Masters .

I got bored today and have included a couple games you can play on the sidebar area under "Fun Stuff", sorry for the lack of creativity for a title. I'm actually kind of picky when I play internet games but these looked rather cool. There are a bunch more from the same site that I've linked to. Actually, I believe the site that is hosting the games, http://meph.eu.org/penguin.php, were the originators that introduced the ever popular YetiSport "Penguin" games..I really love all these.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Not Bad..


I played last Saturday morning with a co-worker from work. He started playing this year and still cutting his teeth out on the course. I'm a firm believer that if you play with bad players it rubs off on you. We ended up just playing the back 9 because there was a tournament going on. I just don't know what it is but when he and I just play as a two some I start mimicking his game..just bad shots followed by more impressively bad shots.

It got so bad at one point he tried to give me a tip. I looked at him as if he was speaking some foreign language. I'll gladly take advice from a better player but not from one who still considers moving the ball from bad lies and hitting a ball without checking if it's his. He wanted to play for money and I just rolled my eyes..Calgon take me away. It was the worst I've played in a while. I just wasn't into it. For some reason I just can't get serious when I play just a back 9. I ended up playing 2 to 3 balls per hole just for practice and fun..if it was that.

I did get to finally try out the new HX Pearl. It does have a unique pearl-luminescent cover to it. It definitely is a "harder" ball than the softer HX Blue that I'm used to playing. It was noticeable pretty much on all my shots. One thing I didn't like was that it seemed to come off the face a tad quicker than the HX Blue. I'd say it's in between the HX Blue and the HX Hot. I've ordered the HX Red yesterday. It's supposed to be a tad harder than the HX Blue but still a soft 3 piece. If it comes by this weekend I'll give you guys a report of it also.

I played again on Sunday with my normal playing partner. He and I play about the same and I played pretty good. I was only 7 over for 13 holes but we ended early since he wasn't playing good and that we promised our wives to get home early..I had some easter egg painting duties left.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Ta-Daaah!!

Well, actually I finished it last night..impatient. The Testor's paint seems to dry fairly quick and it probably helped I used my wife's blow dryer on it. It came out much better than I imagined and have a newly found attraction to it now.







I was reading that the Testor's paint may not hold up that well under play. That's alright, I was thinking the next time to go with a hot pink. I also found out they sell these paint pens which would make the job even quicker, cleaner.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Facelift for my 588..

After reading a few "how-to's" on other various golf forums (GolfWRX and TourSpecGolf..to be exact)I decided to take the plunge and "soup up" my old Cleveland 588 RTG 56 deg. sand wedge. Actually, I don't think I would've done it but I was with my wife, she was shopping for Easter stuff, today and we were at Michael's, arts/crafts store, and it turned out they had a bunch of Testor's paints.



After looking at all the colors they had I decided to go with "Flat Yellow". I wanted a little color to go against the natural patina of the wedge. Here's the process:

1. I removed all the original paint..the majority of it was already gone do to use. I ended up just picking the rest out with a tip of one of those utility razors. I heard they sell some goo (solvent) that will take the paint off of anything..which sounded way too scary for me to attempt to use even in the first place..saw bad things could happen.

2. After the paint was all out I cleaned it with some soap and dryed it out with a blow dryer..I'm impatient.

3. I brought out a few toothpicks, round kind, and dipped a little bit of the tip into the paint and then carefully dabbed it into the cavity of where the old paint was.

4. I took out the blow dryer again and started to cure the paint..impatient..but now it's just sitting in a corner of the room drying out on its own.

5. (Tomorrow) Take a wool pad and rub off any of the excess paint..maybe even go over it with a little Acetone (wife's nail polish remover)...WA-LLA!

*IMPORTANT: If you plan on doing this in the house wait until your wife leaves the house.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Taxes..


I was getting ready to play a round last Saturday but this little bug in my head was telling me not to..I haven't done my taxes. I made an effort to dedicate the whole morning in doing my return. I was running into a few problems with the online TurboTax program, but was able to debug it and ended up finishing it Sunday night..hooray.

I received the Callaway HX Pearl's but wasn't able to use them so I'll have to give you guys a report after I play this coming Saturday. I did get to examine them close up and they have this interesting pearl luminescence shimmer to it. The cover seems a little harder than the HX Blue I'm used to playing though.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Go Ben..

I'm not going to go into all the hoot and holler with the start of the Masters..there are numerous other sites/blogs that can and will do a much better job than I can even attempt, for example these guys, but what I am extremely excited about is that one of my favorite golfers, Ben Crenshaw, is tied for 8th with a -1 finish today.



I really don't know what I can really add to all the other information you can dig up or by visitng The Masters site. Besides all the drama of the lengthening..again..of numerous holes (holes 4,7,11 and 15 to be exact) here are some quirky tidbits about Augusta National:

Average age: 72
Average handicap: 13.2
Jobs: Corporate titans, politicians, oilmen and golf legends.
Duds: Green jackets at all times in the clubhouse. But never, ever, off club grounds.
Youngest Member: Jeff Knox, 41
Richest Member: Bill Gates (net worth $46.5 billion)
Best player: USGA president Fred Ridley (1 handicap)
Former guests: Celine Dion, Mike Shanahan, John Elway, Sandra Day O'Connor
Total Members: 300
Cost: $50,000 (compared to $350,000 for a membership to Trump National)
Membership: Invitation only
(courtesy of GOLF magazine)
1st golfer to be shot at in Augusta: Tom Lehman (read the story here). I'm sure there will be a future trivia question about who Troy Willis Smith is.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Singing Hills..

Sorry for not keeping up with the posts but I was just feeling out of it last week and things at work were hectic. I didn't even get to play last week but I did play Saturday. One of my buddies was having his bachelor party in San Diego and golf was part of the festivities. The course that they chose was Singing Hills, but I believe it's now owned and operated by one of those gaming casinos and now it's called Sycuan Golf Resorts..or something like that..anyway I'll still be calling it Singing Hills.

"Singing Hills" has two 18-hole course and then a 18-hole par 3 course (Pine Glen). I thought we were going to play the good course, Willow Glen, but the guy in charge of the bachelor party said it was on Oak Glen..bah. Willow Glen is much more prettier and better designed. All the holes on Oak look the same..but he did manage to get us a good price on the green fees and after not being able to play all of last week I really didn't care at that point.

We all played from the white tees and I ended up shooting a 93. I was satisfied with it being that I was just putting horribly with just too many 3 putts for double bogeys. I was getting out of the tee box unbelievably that day. I only had 2 holes where they went stray but with the lack of water on this course I was able to bring it back in.

My best shot of the day was from a fairway bunker about 120 yards out. My tee shot had ended up here but it was a very clean lie. I decided to take an additional club and went with my 9 iron. I hit it super clean and it came out perfect. I landed about 3 feet away for birdie and 2 putt, story of my life, for par.

I was playing today with the Callaway HX Tour and I must say it is slightly longer and stays on line a little better than the HX Blue. Since I'm running out of my HX Blue I'm going to probably switich to the HX Tour or Tour 56 which I hear is a tad softer than the regular HX Tour. I ordered a box of the new HX Pearl from GolfGods. I'll give you guys a report after I try them out.