Today’s Stableford round was held in reasonably pleasant conditions. It was a little overcast with a light breeze at the start and it cleared as the wind built.

My new Driver ( Cleveland XL) arrived last night, so it was the first game using it. Verdict: I like it.

I hit 85 OTS ( 41/44) 38 points. 8 pars, 7 bogeys and 3 doubles.

The doubles: two poor FW wood strikes ( I was trying to hit it too hard) and one 3 putt from a sitter! I was mildly peeved!
I hit 7/14 fairways, 6/18 GIR, 3 up and downs, average approach distance 119m , 34 putts.

Distance off the tee was improved using a 10.5 degree Driver. The launch angle was plenty high enough.
I mucked up one drive though poor technique and had to chip back into play, one I just didn’t hit hard enough to reach a dog leg and the other was a B grade bounce off the fairway into the rough, then army gold ensued.

Oh and the batteries on my cart died during the game too.

Two steps
1) More reliable Tee shots.
2) better putting outcomes

one step
1) poor strike on two FW wood cost me shots
2) iron contact wasn’t great.

Today’s Stableford round started poorly. I made an error in club selection on hole one and the 9 iron shot failed to stick on the green, so I had to chip back on with a LW and made bogey. Hole two ; my tee shot turned over instead of fading. I had to punch out with a hook shape, but it didn’t quite clear the tees on the opposite side. Taking my medicine, I chipped out and made a double bogey. Hole three started out really well. I hit the tee shot 231M , then a 4W shot 171 m. My approach shot had to be low, so I hit an 8 i that went 4 m above the hole. I thought just dribble it down the hill and a 2 putt for par, The dribble was short, the putt was wide and went though. the return putt rolled up to the hole and stopped short. 4 putts! After that I hit a series fo pars and bogey to score 43 OTS for the front 9.

The southerly change came though on the back 9 and I was having trouble keeping the tee shots form going right side. The wind blew my approach shot into the right side bunker on #12. My first escaped shot was too cute and just missed the edge of the green and rolled back, my second one I bladed into the bunker wall and the third went a little too far. Double bogey result. I messed up the tee shot on 13, hitting a tree right side and had to play army golf to score a bogey. 14 was going fine until my approach shot went a little ling and rolled into the base of a tree, Bogey recovery was good outcome all things considered.. I left my tee shot out right on 15 narrowly avoiding OOB. Bogey. Ditto 16 I eft the ball out right, practically OOB again. but hit two good fairways shots to get a double bogey outcome. I made par on 17 and bogey on 18. My putting improved. 46 OTS.

OTS 89. 34 points. crap putting stats ( missed a few short ones) and struggled to hit fairways today. I wasn’t closing the Driver face in time. Maybe it was a good game to make me not miss the Driver. The new one is arriving soon.

Two steps
1) I grafted to get points when my shots were off target.
2) fairway woods worked well

One step back
Driver was wayward and putting was just off a tad. I rolled the ball over the edge of the hole about 5 times. Close, but no cigar!

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Can break 80

I had an idea after the last round. My 7W blasted a few shots up into the 170 m range, which is much the same as the 17 degree 5W . I had put the standard 42.5 inch shaft back in the 5W to get some more control on shot shape. I had been over drawing it with with the 44 inch shaft. What if I adjust the loft to standard ( 18.5) ? I tried it at 18.5 with both shafts and got better shot shape control with both shafts and 10 m extra with the longer shaft ( into a moderate wind so I didn’t measure the distances)
Next game tomorrow will be a test to see if I can use it .

Commish wrote:

Sparkling Merlot,. is there actually a oenologist out there who actually wastes there time making that?? Brings back memories of ‘Cold Duck’..

Gee you must be old to remember that stuff. It had more fruit in it than the 1999 bottle if my memory serves me correctly. The ” old red” near its demise was more how the 1999 bottle tasted.
I tell a lie, I fished the bottle out of the recycle bin and it was a 1999 Balnaves ( Coonawarra ) Sparkling Cabernet, not that it makes much difference.

We did a comparison with Tony’s 10.5 regular Driver and my Nike Vapor Speed with a shorter A flex shaft set at 12.5 degrees.

in current course surface conditions he is gaining a lot of distance through roll. So the low trajectory shot with the 10.5 is paying dividends. We measured the swing speed with the two drivers and he was several MPH higher with the lighter 10.5 , but getting good trajectory with the 12.5 Nike. Distance was much the same with both Drivers, but getting there is different ways.

It was obvious that he needs a light 12 degree Driver, so an order has been placed for a Cleveland XL launcher light ( 40 gm shaft) , which should give him the best of both worlds.

I think I have found the answer . I found that I can buy a new Nike adaptor for very little money. Perhaps the better way is to remove the old tip and fit a new one, rather than dink around with removing broken screrws.

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Madam

It must be summer! I had a pleasant bike ride around town in the sunshine and light Northerly wind. We have been waiting for such a day for months. The plan is to start ” Project T’ That is, work on documenting Tony’s club distances and see if we can work on a better Driver for him. Tony has a slow rhythmic swing and is using the same Driver that he has owned for 15 years. Being 72 now, he has lost a lot of distance off the tee. So far he has improved a lot with using a A flex 5-7 wood rather than his old 3 wood. He has also replaced his longer irons 5-7 with Cleveland Launcher (A flex graphite) , but still uses his older 8-SW with steel shafts.

Today we will play around with shaft flex and loft on the Driver to see what he can achieve.. It should be interesting.

I have been watching Steve Johnston’s You Tube channel. I was keen to learn how to pitch short shots with spin and also any tips on putting he had. Later today I went out for a quick hit The course was full of drunks playing golf as part of their Xmas breakup events!
I worked on my Driver shots and the pitching/ putting ideas from Johnston. The tips seemed to work.

I sold my yacht last weekend. With the proceeds I bought an new Driver. It is a Cleveland Launcher XL 12 degree. Maybe I will keep the ball in play better?