Golf Thread

Off to play Conway, Aberdovey and Royal St Davids this weekend on the West coast of Wales. The weather means it should be a true links golf experience! Just ordered some HLINK golf waterproofs as my 15yr old Galvin Green set seem to have shrunk in the wash over the years! :D Off out golf trolley shopping today, looking at Powakaddy CT6 EBS, don't need anything fancy as I've already got GPS and it fits the bill for folding down quite small.

Sounds good :) I played Aberdovery and Royal St. Davids in March last year, enjoyed Aberdovey but Royal St. Davids had like 3 holes closed, two temporary tees and 1 temporary green because of the weather so was a bit let down. It was 7-9 that was closed entirely, can't remember the other holes affected, some interesting stuff in what we did play but be interested to hear your thoughts of the whole thing.

My only complaint about Aberdovey was that unless you go out of your way I think around the 12th you never really look out over the coastline, especially since playing several other links courses I did appreciate those views at times. But as far as the golf goes I enjoyed it for what it was (flat-ish, out & back type links)

If you've got a spare day I can reccomend Porthmadog as well, that was the third course we played and I really enjoyed that, front 9 is parkland-ish and then switches drastically to links for the back 9, and a hilly/brutal links at that :p

I keep looking at electric trolleys too but think I'd want remote and then you're at ~£1000 or so and that just seems like a lot! :-p
 
Had a lesson yesterday, focus was to have a much more vertical takeaway with a steeper shaft which then naturally moves the club shallow on the way down. Works quite well but it's the polar opposite to my normal inside takeaway over the top move; seeing good progress at the range trying to get rid of it, hand path is now consistently slightly above plane rather than looping massively over the top but the shaft is a lot shallower, if that makes sense? Gives me a nice little baby fade which seems to be my natural shape
Literally exactly the same as what I’ve been working on for a good while now I can rehearse the steep takeaway perfectly but actual swing is still abit shallow and inside so frustrating.
 
Our Club away day on Friday - Cathcart Castle. 36 holes.

Autumn Outing Shield 18 hole stableford in the morning, then texas scramble in afternoon.

Still not hit new clubs on grass yet! only inside on the sim!! :eek: :eek: ...

Weather looks "okish" at the moment
 
Hit some golf balls over at Carus Green driving range, first time in over 4/5 years ermm yeh haha they went like this; 1 hit pure, a couple thinned the odd air shot and then hit a pure shot again. I wasn't good when i last played mid 20 something handicap. Just couldn't settle on the grip , my body wasn;t rotating and my arm was bending.

Despite the issues it was still good to be hitting some golf balls. I sold my stuff a couple of years back to help with spare cash for moving house but no i'm alright financially wouldn't mind picking it up again. I was surprised quite how expensive things like drivers are now but tbh i used to use my 5 wood more than a drive so..

Has much changed in tech? I used to have Titleist Ap1s, Callaway Epic Woods, Ben Ross wedges and a Ping ball picking up putter. If not much has changed i could probs buy the Callaways wood/driver, wedges and then maybe some different irons all second hand relatively cheap.
If not a new set i'm looking at £1500ish i'm guessing.

Thoughts?
 
If you’re going to be playing golf on a weekly basis then new might be the way to go, custom fit. Then again, are you going to hit the ball any further with a high handicap. Personally I’d buy used and invest your money in some lessons.

Apart from my 60 degree wedge all of my golf clubs are used, and I bought them about 10 years ago. Arguably my woods could do with being replaced, but my irons are still in great condition.
 
@JustBen I'd say tech-wise at the top end of the bag anything within 6-7 years will more than hold it's own against today's offerings. e.g. Callaway Rogue ST Max is about 4 years old, Taylormade SIM 2 Max is the same I think and they're both as good as anything. There's been very incremental improvements but I think the tech for distance has been pretty much maxed out the marketing has shifted to forgiveness in recent years

Irons in recent years are getting hotter / higher launch and lofts are generally getting stronger e.g. so a 7 iron today in some sets might have the same loft as a 5 iron from 10-15 years ago. Again, I'd suggest anything from Ping within say the last 7 years won't be massively different from the current ping irons.

Just depends how much you want to spend really, and if you're likely to want to upgrade within a short time if you get the bug again
 
No golf for me today but had another good result last week in the medal finishing 2nd with a 79 / net 70 in fairly atrocious weather so I was chuffed to bits, albeit unfortunately it was a case of the one that got away as I lost 4 shots in the closing holes with 2x doubles out of nowhere on the 16th / 17th after missing GIR both times and making a complete mess of the greenside wedge shots.

Still blown away by the Spider ZT, absolute gamechanger considering the struggles I was having beforehand e.g. I had 3x 2 putts on 3 of the most difficult positions I could have put myself in on 3 of the most difficult greens, and also rolled in a couple of birdies plus some great up and downs, buzzing.

Today went through to SGGT to cash in a voucher and had a look at my wedges, vokey sm10 54 and 58 on the way
 
Cathcart Castle yesterday

Stableford in the morning - Texas Scamble in the afternoon.

Good day out - nice course, tough greens, not too long. Ideal for 36 holes (saying that knackered today!!)

New irons felt nice - never got to us 3/4/5 irons....Didn't play great, niggling back pain at the moment so being a little cautious swinging.

Nice clubhouse, good food - nothing to fault for a day out.
 
If you’re going to be playing golf on a weekly basis then new might be the way to go, custom fit. Then again, are you going to hit the ball any further with a high handicap. Personally I’d buy used and invest your money in some lessons.

Apart from my 60 degree wedge all of my golf clubs are used, and I bought them about 10 years ago. Arguably my woods could do with being replaced, but my irons are still in great condition.
I went custom fit with my driver last time which did get what i wanted at the time. I used to use to have the full bag and use most but maybe some of it was overkill i guess.
@JustBen I'd say tech-wise at the top end of the bag anything within 6-7 years will more than hold it's own against today's offerings. e.g. Callaway Rogue ST Max is about 4 years old, Taylormade SIM 2 Max is the same I think and they're both as good as anything. There's been very incremental improvements but I think the tech for distance has been pretty much maxed out the marketing has shifted to forgiveness in recent years

Irons in recent years are getting hotter / higher launch and lofts are generally getting stronger e.g. so a 7 iron today in some sets might have the same loft as a 5 iron from 10-15 years ago. Again, I'd suggest anything from Ping within say the last 7 years won't be massively different from the current ping irons.

Just depends how much you want to spend really, and if you're likely to want to upgrade within a short time if you get the bug again
I'll be aiming to keep spend on equipment to a minimum and more towards lessons. It's good to hear not too much has changed, looking at used clubs there's not to much between them and the brand new older versions so https://www.americangolf.co.uk/449434.html for example is reasonable priced. Irons look around£430-500 for an older version which ok. Looking at around 1200-1400 for everything i think, i'll likely get some bits together in an online basket and take it to one of the local golf clubs and see what they can do.

This course :
is about 10 mins walk from me and cheap membership
 
Had some interesting golf recently, signs of light at the end of the tunnel, maybe... :p

Yesterday I played Cumberwell Park, they stuck us out on the White and Par 3 course which I didn't mind and the weather was lovely! Front 9 went pretty well, even with a blowup mess on the 2nd for a triple I got a birdie and ended on +5 which is always good :D Back 9 was pretty bad though, a combination of some really tough pin positions, the wind picking up and just generally finding it hard. The wind especially though, I've found with my new irons the good bit is they launch so much higher and spin so much more, the downside is into wind that hits the distance so much more than my old game improvement irons and really haven't adjusted to that properly yet. Gonna need to work on a soft/'chippy' shot with the longer clubs to get the distance with lower launch/spin for the wind...

Then today a fun comp at my local where I shot 41 for 20 points, the one bad hole I still got 1 point on but again was a case of misjudging the wind affect leaving myself in a bad spot. Overall though a decently solid round of golf so happy with that :)

Lots of golf coming up as well! Cumberwell Park again tomorrow then up to Scotland for Kimarnock Barassie, Dundonald Links, Prestwick St. Nicholas and maybe/hopefully playing with booyaka on Thursday. Then starting to head down south again stopping at Leasowe golf club for Friday before heading to see my family in East Sussex where I should be playing with my nephew on Saturday... Then some rest perhaps :eek: :p

@JustBen as mentioned second hand is worth a look, if you've got a local shop they might have a section, mine does and has expanded a lot over the last few months with loads of options at reasonably decent prices. Or if going new things like the Rogue ST you linked to are still really good woods/clubs for a significant saving over the latest and greated :) Also you don't need a full set, especially starting out, you mentioned really liking your 5 wood previously, you could consider skipping the Driver for now and just getting a 5 wood, easier to hit and can still play a decent round with that as your longest club. Then if/when you get back in properly get the Driver then...
 
Got some bits todays;
Tight Lies 3 Wood, great headcover for the age
PXG 0311P irons 4-SW (missing 6 iron) They're in black, they're an old set but will do
Wilson infiniti putter- As new
Balls
Tees
Glove
All under £500 so quite happy with that.

Was looking over 1k for stuff new so will use the spare on lessons, stand bag and a 5 wood. First lesson this Friday :)
 
@JustBen what model of putter is it? I've got two of the Wilson Infinites, the Windy City which is the blade and the Buckingham which is one of the many mallet styles :p Great putters though, especially for the cost compared to the bigger brands, love the look of the blade but do tend to use the mallet as it is just that bit more fogiving...

Cumberwell on Sunday was a decent round for me, scored 36 points for tied second (but not 2nd on countback if that makes sense), two blobs but other than that pretty solid golf.

Played Kilmarnock Barassie yesterday as mentioned, bit less solid, 2 blobs again but also 2 triples (think at least one of those I did have 2 shots at least) and 4 doubles so meh, 32 points, could've been worse I guess. Nice course, some decent views, crazy how close all the courses are here though, had one of the Gailes courses just the other side of the train line and at one point saw a flag from a Dundonald green just over the dune/bushes.

Dundonald Links today, kinda the one I am/was looking forward to the most but mostly just because I've seen it a bunch of Peter Finch videos :p
 
@JustBen what model of putter is it? I've got two of the Wilson Infinites, the Windy City which is the blade and the Buckingham which is one of the many mallet styles :p Great putters though, especially for the cost compared to the bigger brands, love the look of the blade but do tend to use the mallet as it is just that bit more fogiving...

Cumberwell on Sunday was a decent round for me, scored 36 points for tied second (but not 2nd on countback if that makes sense), two blobs but other than that pretty solid golf.

Played Kilmarnock Barassie yesterday as mentioned, bit less solid, 2 blobs again but also 2 triples (think at least one of those I did have 2 shots at least) and 4 doubles so meh, 32 points, could've been worse I guess. Nice course, some decent views, crazy how close all the courses are here though, had one of the Gailes courses just the other side of the train line and at one point saw a flag from a Dundonald green just over the dune/bushes.

Dundonald Links today, kinda the one I am/was looking forward to the most but mostly just because I've seen it a bunch of Peter Finch videos :p

Enjoy mate - Love Dundonald - you've got a solid day for it weather wise.

Some great holes, BIG greens, great clubhouse for food as well.

You'll see Western Gailes from the 15th Green... Also the hole alongside the railway is great - If the pin is up the back good luck!!!
 
Had a last minute week off last week - so played golf every day!

Aimed to play at a different course each day, as I've got a little bored of my home course. So - played 6 days out of 7, 6 different courses. Averaged just over 15 over par for the week's play, including a couple of chip in birdies, some awful shots, but also some consistency as well. Looking forward to playing Burhill next week with @Maccy :cool:
 
@JustBen what model of putter is it? I've got two of the Wilson Infinites, the Windy City which is the blade and the Buckingham which is one of the many mallet styles :p Great putters though, especially for the cost compared to the bigger brands, love the look of the blade but do tend to use the mallet as it is just that bit more fogiving...
I got this one: https://www.wilson.com/en-gb/product/infinite-mich-ave-wg1p0332 it's like a chunky blade putter.
Trying to pick a bag is challenging as there's so many options, i had a Titleist StaDry bag last so might just get what i know i suppose!
 
Sounds good :) I played Aberdovery and Royal St. Davids in March last year, enjoyed Aberdovey but Royal St. Davids had like 3 holes closed, two temporary tees and 1 temporary green because of the weather so was a bit let down. It was 7-9 that was closed entirely, can't remember the other holes affected, some interesting stuff in what we did play but be interested to hear your thoughts of the whole thing.
So, Conway was nice, stayed dry for the whole round. Nice course, layout was good, fairways were in good condition as were the greens, some big patches of gorse and managed to rip my leg open so i looked like a casualty of war. Views were nice. Would definitely go back there again. We didn't play Aberdovey, the heavens opened friday night and didn't stop until saturday night, the club said it had standing water on a lot of greens and fairways, with a chance of lightning thrown in. St Davids was nice, course in good condition, some standing water out around 7-9 on the fairways and some bunkers filled with water, but was still playable. Greens were good but slow after the rain, the last 4 holes felt like we were playing a different course, far more linksy than the rest of the course which was pretty open.

We stayed in Porthmadog and noticed the course there, might go back and try it, we've been offered the to reallocate our Aberdovey tee time to another in the next 12 months, however it's a bit of a trek just for that, might just get the green fee back and look at possibly Scotland early next year as it's been a few years since we have done anything up there.
 
Have a lads weekend / society that I am partially in charge of sorting out. Courses are booked but we need some fun way to bet against each other. I will do the obvious Winner gets part of the pot and closest the pins, but I wondered if anyone had in fun ways to play the day, little comps, silly things you can do. Anything really that you've done on a society that you'd recommend.
 
When we have a decent turn out we do hidden partners, put 2 players together but no one know's who they are partnered with, then at the end of the day the best pair get a prize, makes sure people cheer each other on as they don't know who they might be partnered with.

Front 9, Back 9, Overall winner. Helps spread the prizes out, if someone wins all three, then have a rule that states you can only win one 9 + overall, then next best for the other 9 (for those societies who have a 50 point winner...... :D )

Best 2 points per hole from each 4 ball.
 
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