I Broke 40! (Over 9 holes)

I've been averaging rounds in the low 50s and high 40s over the last few months during my early morning rounds of 9. I've put it down to being stiff and the ground being wet at 4:30 in the morning. After today, I can no longer use that excuse.

This morning's round started off with something that I just wasn't used to - instead of my usual early morning slice into the trees, I fired off a drive with a slight draw that landed 250 meters in the middle of the fairway. A poorly hit 9 iron that landed me short of the green and a lousy chip saw me starting off the round with a bogey. That was better than my usual early morning starts.

A heavily faded drive on the following par 5 still saw my ball on the fairway, followed by a 3 wood and lob wedge to get to the green in regular saw me paring the next hole. The 190 meter par 3 immediately after that should have been a disaster. Hitting my 4 iron fat I just managed to avoid the water, coming up 60 meters short of the green. Punching up with my lob wedge still didn't see me finishing up on the green. Thankfully, my faithful pitching wedge chip and run saw me hole the ball from 5 meters away saving par.

The following par 4 was equally entertaining, with a hooked 3 wood into the trees 180 meters out from the green. I needed to hit another low hook to launch beneath the tree canopies, turn it around a tree to avoid the water, and get it to the green. It didn't come off as planned.

The ball hooked perfectly - too perfectly. It took off like a rocket and turned sharply, finishing up underneath another tree 15 meters away from the green. Some conservative play saw a chip and run with my hybrid onto the green for a safe bogey. Still, two over for four holes - I was pretty happy with that.

A straight forward par on the next hole was followed up by the third most difficult hole on the course - a par 4 dog leg to the right with a lot of water on one side and some trees on the other. Playing conservatively landed me to within a 5 iron of the green, which was rather unfortunate. The day before I'd snapped my 5 iron in half when it struck a tree at the end of a swing. For some odd reason I went with the aggressive choice of hitting my 6 iron as hard as I could - and landed the ball 10 feet from the hole. A birdie and 1 over for 5 holes!

Which was immediately followed by a bogey when I found the bunker on the next par 3. Another par immediately followed on the longest hole on the course and I was on track for a 2 over. Some silly play on the 18th saw me coming up short of the green and finishing up with a bogey at the end of it all.

39! Amazing what a little bit of faith and confidence can do for your game!

Found - One Golf Swing.... Almost

It's almost summer down here on the Gold Coast. The sun is up nice and early and these days so instead of writing blogs in the cold and dark, I've been on the course every second day at 4:30 am searching for the golf swing that I misplaced twelve months ago. I feel like I've almost found my swing now, mostly because I've been told by someone who should know that it was never really lost.

In fact, my swing is fine. It's not too steep, my weight balance and transfer from my right to left is fine, and my wrist lag on the whole is okay. I just come a bit to much outside to in when attempting to hit the ball hard (the irony being that I hit straighter and further when I don't try and it hit hard) and my balance on the balls to the heels of my feet are a bit out - too much weight on my heels at the finish. Who would have thought?

So, the upshot of all this is that I've stopped worrying about trying to fix a swing that apparently there isn't too much wrong with. Instead, I've focusing on not trying to hit the ball to hard so I don't come off plane, and my heel toe balance. These problems, are all mental ones to do with trying to hit the ball as far as I can.

In summary, there's nothing wrong with my golf swing - there's just something wrong with my head.

Golf Club Design - The New Trend of Irons

When it comes to the latest technological improvements with golf, the thoughts of most people immediately turn to the golf driver. Others might think of putters, or fairway woods and hybrids. However, when it comes to new developments with the humble golf iron, they seem to be far and few between.

Times are a changin' though and in the last few years more radical designs have been built into both Game Improvement and Player's Irons. In the search for the ultimate combination of having the forgiveness of a game improvement iron while possessing the feel of a Player's blade, new techniques have made their way into the manufacture of the humble iron head.

Perimeter weighting has given way to a range of radical shapes, all designed to create a lower and deeper center of gravity to help get the ball into the air more easily. Advances in manufacturing techniques have allowed designers to move beyond merely adding metal to the extremities of a club head to create a range of designs that optimise the positioning of the center of gravity to make the golf iron much more forgiving on mishits than the designs of the past.Callaway's X-22 irons are an example of a less than traditional cavity back shape.

Meanwhile, the use of multi-material construction, originally the domain of woods and drivers, has been making significant inroads into the head of the golf iron. While the concept of incorporating different materials into the club head of an iron has been around for a few years, today's focus is to use multi-material technology to not only increase a club's forgiveness, but to also significantly enhance an iron's feel. Mizuno's recently released MP58 incorporating a forged titanium insert is one such example.

As a new generation of golfers makes their way into the ranks of the game, people are beginning to get used to the more radical designs of today's irons as the norm. No longer are they beholden to the more traditionalist looks of the blade. And as this trend continues, you can expect to see even more radical golf clubs, all built with the purpose of increasing our enjoyment of the game, to continue.

You Can't Get Better At Golf By Playing Golf

It's been a while since my last post. I've had a bit on at work leaving me too exhausted to do any writing when I get home in the evening. It's also spring here in the land down under, which means the sun rises much earlier. The benefit? I'm able to get up at 4:30, zip down to my course for a quick round of nine holes, and be home by 6:30 before the kids are out of bed.

Some of you might know from my blogs this year that I've been battling a wrist injury in my left arm. The hows and whys are in the past but after six months it's finally healed enough for me to start thinking about playing "normally". By that, I mean that through the last six months my body has attempted to protect my wrist by shifting my swing so I would impact the ground as little as possible. Think snap hooks with my short irons and bad slices with anything that's attached to a longish shaft.

These particular changes have made golf hell for me, particularly in the last couple of months. Where I was beginning to shoot in the mid to high 80s at the beginning of the year, my game has progressively become worse. At one point I couldn't shoot below one hundred. I would have made Tiger Woods proud with my club throwing technique.

Anyway, my wrist began to feel better about three weeks ago and with the sun coming up earlier, I figured that I could get my game back easily. I'd just play a few more rounds a week. So for the last three weeks I've been getting out three to four times a week. At least two rounds of 9 and one to two rounds of 18.

My game didn't improve. No matter how much I wanted my old game back, it remained elusive, just on the fringes of my game on the day. I would hit one or two brilliant shots. The remainder, however, well, let's just say my club throwing technique continued to improve.

Last week I began to wonder how I managed to improve my game to the point where I began to break 90 regularly. Change in swing? Nope. New clubs? Nope. New putter? Nope. Hitting golf balls at goal posts down at my local park. Maybe.

After another disastrous round on Wednesday morning I dragged myself down to the park and hit golf balls back and forth across the park. Shot after shot went left, then right, followed by burning across the ground at high speed.

And then something clicked. My 9 iron came back and twenty balls flew straight and true, with the trajectory being exactly how it should be. Coming back the other way and my sand wedge finally had stopped hooking.

The following day, I played my usual round of the end of the week 18 with a friend from the office. After a shaky start which consisted of double bogeying the first two holes, I finished the front 9 with a 43. The back nine was worse after we ran into the back of a shotgun start, with the group we were following taking about 15 minutes to finish a hole, destroying my rhythm and concentration. At the end of the day though, it was a 91. A far cry from where I had been.

The blindingly obvious hit me that morning. Playing golf on a course doesn't give you the opportunity to correct a problem and drill it into your swing. Any change you make while playing a round really doesn't have the opportunity to ingrain itself into your swing on a permanent basis. Like anything we do, the only way to make something permanent is through repetition. And that's just something you're not going to get during a round of golf.

So, if you're serious about improving your golf, make your swing changes on the driving range, or somewhere where you can practice the same swing until your muscles remember how to do what it is that they need to do. If you don't practice off the course, don't expect to improve too much.

Mizuno's Free Irons on Facebook Competition

If you're a fan of Mizuno irons and you're a member of Facebook you might be pleasantly surprised to hear that Mizuno is offering to give away a free set of new irons to celebrate the launch of their latest releases. To be eligible you'll need to join or be a member of the Facebook group Mizuno - Nobody makes finer irons in golf and then provide a reason in 20 words or less as to which of the new set of irons you would like and why it would best suit your game. The winner will be chosen by Mizuno's European Marketing Manager.

In case you were wondering (and if you're a Mizuno fan, you probably weren't) the new releases include the MP-68, a blade for the very low handicapper, the MP-58, the first of Mizuno's forged player's line to use multi-material construction to provide a combination of feel, forgiveness, and workability for the low handicapper, the MX-300, an iron designed for the mid-handicapper and the MX-1000, for those golfers that need as much help as possible to maximise distance and ball flight.

In terms of how these new irons fit into the line up, the MP-68 effectively replaces the MP-67, positioning it as the iron for those who want maximum workability. Meanwhile the MP-58 replaces the MP-57, offering more workability than the MP-52 but more forgiveness than the MP-62. The MX-300 is a new offering in the Mizuno line up that sits in between the MX-200 and the MP-52, becoming the most workable of the MX line up of irons. The MX-1000 also is a new offering, falling in between the MX-200 and MX-100 and utilises a lot of the technology incorporated into Mizuno's MX-700 series of woods and hybrids.

The competition ends on 30 September 2009. What I've found interesting so far is that despite currently having 1,275 members in the group, to date there have been less than 100 entries. Now, you might think this is a good thing and that I'm nuts to be publicising the competition, potentially dashing my chances of scoring a new set of irons to replace my father's inherited 9 year old MX-20s (which replaced my 2 year old Cleveland CG4s after I fell in love with the forged feel). However, in the time old tradition of golf, I believe in an honest and fair competing ground. And given that Mizuno is putting themselves out there and offering such a great prize, I thought they at least deserve as much publicity as possible.

And in case you're wondering, I'm hoping to snag a set of the MP-58s. I love the solid feel of a blade but definitely still need a level of forgiveness in my game - and I'm trying to increase my ability to work the ball. They might be just a tad too much iron for me right now, but I figure it will help me improve my swing in any case.

Did I mention that the titanium insert looks really cool too?

Good luck to any of you that decide to enter!

Attitude on the Course

Well, it's been a little over a month since posted anything. To say things in the office have been a bit crazy would be an understatement. As a result, a few things had to be parked on the sidelines for a little while - my blogging happened to be one of those them.

During this last crazy month in the office though, I decided to try something new. Instead of becoming mildly stressed out about everything that was going on, which apparently everyone else in the office was doing anyway, I decided to do the "Hakuna Mata" thing - No Worries. That's not to say that I wasn't doing an exceptional job of whatever it was that I needed to be doing. It just meant that I didn't stress out about things that looked really difficult to do on the surface.

And to top that all off, whenever someone asked me how I was, I would answer "I'm excellent!" in the most genuine and enthusiastic voice that I could muster. The reaction I would get was in a word, priceless. People were so surprised that I was as happy as I was that I couldn't help but enjoy the reaction. As a result, I've actually been enjoying work at the moment, despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges that were going on. This positive attitude helped me stay energetic, focussed, and enthusiastic throughout a difficult time in the office.

I bring this up because I have often wondered what sort of attitude to bring to the golf course. Is it the competitive, determined, all or nothing attitude that uses anger to drive performance that I should play with - aka the Tiger way of playing? Or should I try a more relaxed and positive attitude, irrespective of what happens, to try and and maintain the right from of mind through a round - I think Mr Padraig Harrington might be a good example of this.

At this point I'll be honest and say that my natural competitive streak (which everyone tells me I seem to have in spades) means that when my game starts going a little bit wayward, I tend to use anger to drive my game. That includes doing the occasional Tiger club toss. It's not only a natural behaviour for me (or my sons for that matter), but it has been reinforced by my father who despite being a really low handicapper in his youth has also been known to toss a club 50 meters down the fairway.

The interesting thing is that doing the old Driver toss rarely helps to improve my game. In fact, more often than not, holding onto the anger and frustration (in another language that could be misinterpreted as focus and determination) often leads to my errors on the course continuing.

In contrast, I've always found my best scores have come from when I've been playing with a more relaxed and positive attitude. That's not to say that I'm not focussed. Far from it. Having the right attitude makes me feel more energetic which in turn allows me to focus more on what I have to do - not what I might have just done.

And it's been particular evident in the last few games that I've played. Whereas I've been shooting in the high 90s over the last few months, in the last month with my more relaxed attitude my game has steadily been winding itself back into the mid to high 80s again - somewhere I haven't been in more than a year. The most interesting thing I've noticed with the I'll call it "non-competitive" atittude is that when I make mistakes, be it one shot or an entire hole, I'm able to move on from it a lot easier and get my game back on track soon after.

That's not to say that using the extremly competitive attitude on the course won't work for some - it certainly seems to work for Tiger in most cases. However I believe in the for the vast majority, most people perform better if they have a positive attitude, irrespective of what they're doing or what might have gone wrong. Carrying a positive attitude frees up your mind to the possibilities of what might be, instead of dwelling on what's just happened.

After all, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, so the title of the book goes. And you just might find that you enjoy your golf a bit better too.

Getting Kids Into the Game - The Importance of the Right Clubs

My ongoing challenge to get my youngest son keen and enthusiastic about the game of golf has taken an interesting turn for the better. With the stars appearing to now be in alignment I've begun having a few wins on the golf front, a major one being that Alex now loves the game of golf.

It's been about almost two years since the purchase of Alex's very first set of clubs. He was about to turn 7 when we decided to we wander into our local golf shop and buy Alex a set. After weighing up our options we opted to buy the Tour Edge Bazooka Junior Max 4 x 1 set which is advertised for kids from 5 - 8 years of age. He had a few swings at the shop and it seemed fine at the time.

Fast forward to the present and despite playing some remarkable shots on the odd occasion, Alex had yet to really show any interest in the sport. He seemed to continually struggle with the game and to be honest, I had begun to think that it was just his attitude and a lack of desire to work at a game to get better at it.

So when some free lessons for juniors were advertised at the local golf club where son number 1 plays, I leapt at the chance to put him into a more structured environment to learn how to play golf. The fact that apparently I was the only one interested in taking up the free lessons offer from PGA golf pro Gordon Cooper, a guy who's been helping kids learn to play golf for over 50 years, is a story for another time. However, let's just say that my boys have been effectively getting private lessons over the last five weeks.

Despite having the lessons Alex's interest in golf still didn't really initially change too much. I could see that during the course of the lesson, the natural swing that I've always observed was still very much present. However, despite being two years older he still struggled to swing the golf clubs that had been purchased for him two years ago. Surely he couldn't be that weak, could he?

During the third week of the free lessons I grabbed one of Alex's clubs to use to pick up some balls with. After a few chips it dawned on me that his clubs had a really heavy head on them - at least for a set of kids clubs. I mean, they almost had the weight of a full sized adult's club head, but just placed on a really short and flexible shaft. After watching Alex struggle with a few more swings, I decided to try an experiment.

Taking a club from Jack's bag I compared the weight of Alex's older brother's clubs to his. Despite being longer and advertised for kids that were from 8-12 years of age, there was a noticeable difference in the weight of the two. Jack's clubs were significantly lighter. I promptly asked Alex to try using Jack's clubs, and the transformation was instantaneous. Alex now had in his hands a club that he could control. This led to an immediate ability to hit the ball a lot more consistently, and without tiring him out.

Not only did his ball striking improve, but so did his attitude towards the game. That afternoon he was down at our local park, golf club in hand to get some more practice in. The following week we were having a round of nine, preparing him to join the local junior competition held every Saturday morning. It's been something that he's been reluctant to join for a while now. However with golf clubs that he can now swing and control which has led to his new found ability to hit the ball, he's taken to it with unprecedented enthusiasm.

The moral of this story is that not all kids clubs are equal - or perhaps that should be not all kids are equal. Despite being the right size for him, the Bazooka JMax set he's been using for the last two years has obviously been way too heavy for him to use. This made it much more difficult for him to swing and control, making it impossible for him to hit the ball consistently. Not being able to hit the ball consistently impacted his confidence and led to his reluctance to take up the game.

Simply by changing the clubs to something he could handle, despite them being longer Alex is now able to strike the ball well, giving him the confidence he needs to play and the enjoyment from the game that we all get. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that your average golf shop really specialises in fitting young children. So if you're ever in a shop looking for golf clubs for your children, don't just pay attention to the size of the shaft. Be mindful of the weight of the clubs and make sure you purchase a set that your kids are going to be able to swing comfortably as well. It will make a world of difference to them.

Playing Through Injuries

Around three months ago I managed to strain my left wrist pruning. Yes, pruning. I was clipping some very tall, thick hedges and somehow managed to something within the wrist.

If you've ever had a wrist injury, you'll know how debilitating it can be to your golf game. However, I didn't think it was serious enough to stop playing, particularly as at the time, I had felt like that my swing was on the mend. The healing progress was slow, and I needed some aids to help the process, such as a wrist brace for golf and an ergonomic keyboard at the office. Despite a few painful shots during a round of golf though, my wrist continued to heal and the quality of my ball striking continue to improve.

That is, until my charming daughter (aka Demon Child) decided to see how far back my wrist would bend while injured. That was, in a word, excruciating. However, determined to continue on my golf improvement journey, I didn't stop playing golf. I even convinced myself that it was okay, particularly after I checked in with a phsyiotherapist who advised that I should strap it to prevent further injury. In hindsight, I guess she realised that I wasn't going to stop and only suggested it to minimise further damage.

Unfortunately, despite striking some good shots through the course of a round, my short game began to deteriorate badly, particularly with all of my wedges which were my "Go To" clubs. You see, while my wrist wasn't getting any worse, it wasn't really getting any better either. And the pain during a round had become so bad that I began to change my swing to find a way to hit the ball while minimising the pain.

What I had to do finally hit home during a round with my father. I'd played with a friend of mine the day before and my wrist was already sore from that round. The front 9 was disastrous, my score being 9 shots over my handicap. I was so angry with myself that during the 9th I hit the ball as hard as I could, eventually making my wrist numb.

Interestingly, that was a turning point in my round. Once it was numb, I found that I could play the game that I wanted to play, grabbing par on the 10th. A few pars and bogies followed suit, along with a birdie on the third most difficult hole on the course. However, by the time I hit the 17th, the pain in my wrist had started to flare up again. I lost the ability to control the lag in my swing and I began hitting the ball fat. I managed to scrape a bogey on the 17th before falling to a double bogey on the 18th. Despite the lousy finish, the back nine was 4 shots under my handicap.

Despite a lousy overall score, the few holes that I did play well made me realise how much better I could play without feeling the pain in my wrist. It also made me realise that persisting to play with the wrist problem was going to eventually destroy my game.

I've ended up taking some time off from my golf game, the result being that my wrist now feels a lot better than it has for a few months. Admittedly, it's not quite 100% yet, but it's definitely a big improvement on where I have been.

The experience has also taught me a valuable lesson - I'm not 18 anymore.

Actually, I already knew that. But I don't have the healing power that comes with youth. I do need to stop and take time to recover from injuries otherwise ultimately, my game will suffer.

I Think, Therefore I Am

Despite having a lot of water amongst the other natural hazards on my home course, I'm beginning to overcome worrying about them and focusing on the shots that I want to hit. On particular holes, the par 3s being a good example, I'm primarily concerned about which direction I want the ball to curve when landing on the green. It's been a while since I've put a ball into the water on these holes, purely because of what I'm thinking about when I take them on.

There are other holes, however, that I continue to struggle with. The 5th is a great example. A 395 meter (432 yards) par 4 with water that runs up the left side for almost 300 meters, while on the right the water extends almost 230 meters up the fairway. You can imagine the landing area is reasonably tight. To make matters worse however, a series of 4 bunkers guard the entrance to the green, making it difficult to run the ball up with a fairway wood. Miss the green on the remaining sides and your ball will run into thick trees that makes pitching back on without hitting tree trunks and branches a challenge.

Without fail, I always approach this hole with the following thought process:

• Where am I missing the ball today?
• Which side did I miss last time?
• Am I driving well enough to clear the water completely on the left?
• Which way is the wind likely to push my ball?

You get the picture. I'm not focusing on where I want to land the ball. I'm worrying about where my misses are likely to end up. I know where I want my ball to land, but I'm thinking about what I need to avoid to stay safe.

What happens next? I will steer the ball well away from the side I'm concerned about, usually to the point often to the point where I'll put the ball into the water on the opposite side of my concern on the day. It's happened the last three times I've played that particular hole.

I could cite a number of other holes where a similar thought process leads me to over compensate and find some other sort of trouble. The moral of the story is that you really need to be mindful of what you're focusing on prior to hitting your shot. What you want to hit needs to be at the forefront of your mind. Anything that might go wrong should be a secondary thought, not your main concern.

The Art of Negotiation

My 4 year old daughter, Jasmine, and I have some interesting conversations. One of the more recent ones was about the fact that she really didn't enjoy coming out to the golf course with me because she felt like she didn't have anything to do. Well, I told her that she had to learn to enjoy it because she couldn't stay at home with her brothers, given that she won't listen to them.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, she convinced me that if she was going to come out she should be playing so as a compromise I offered to buy her a golf club so she could have a hit. She seemed to be happy with that so we left the negotiation there.

A few days later I received an SMS from Kerry telling me that she was getting Jasmine a portable DVD player. We'd previously discussed this so that Jasmine could watch a movie while we were having a round but had never acted on it, price being the main concern. Anyway, the deed was done but I never did ask Kerry why she relented, but after finding this lovely photo of Jasmine negotiating recently for a hand bag, I figured that she'd just conned her mum into it.