Four Seasons In One Day

This weekend has seen visits from weather from all around the year, including snow, blazing sunshine, hail, winds, and heavy rain at various points.

Due to its unpredictable nature, I decided not to play the course today, but to practice instead, giving me a quick escape route to the clubhouse should it be required.

As I’m expecting a new set of irons this week, I concentrated on hitting my 2 new wedges, and my new 3 iron. It’s difficult to tell how far I’ll hit them between April and September, as it’s currently 15 degrees Celsius (27F) colder than it will be then, but I measured my sand wedge at 79 yards, my gap wedge at 90 yards, and my 3 iron at 185 yards. Due to the saturated ground, those are about the carry distances too as the ball simply isn’t running. The 3 iron (I don’t know whether to call it a 3-iron, Fli-Hi or driving iron, it’s not a conventional 3 iron as it has a much thicker sole, but I think I’ll stick with that name for the time being) goes high and straight, which is a big change from my old 3 iron which didn’t go very high, and as a consequence I often hooked it.

The wedges have been a new lease of life for me. I now have a gap wedge for the first time, which fills a big gap (excuse the pun), as previously I didn’t have a club for shots between 70 and 110 yards. This may sound a bit straightforward, but the new wedges actually go where I’m aiming and the distance I’m trying to hit it. Maybe this is because Titleist Vokeys are some kind of super wedge, or more likely my old wedges were holding me back, due to them being 11 years old, not fitted correctly for me, with virtually no grooves left, and completely worn grips. I’ve never been in the position of having the right clubs for me in my bag, 4 months ago the entire contents of my golf bag cost £200, next week the contents will have cost £885. Money isn’t everything, but you get what you pay for, and having the right equipment will take shots off of anyone’s game.

With this in mind, and remembering that it’s been my putting letting me down over the last year, I went and chatted to the pro for 15 minutes about putting. Having done a few checks, it’s become blindingly obvious that my putter is more of a hindrance than a help. It is 36 inches long, whereas I should be fitted for a 33.5 inch putter, and the lie angle is completely wrong, meaning I often have the toe of the putter in the air when I hit the ball. The weights within the putter are not set correctly either, and although it was cutting edge when it was made, that was over 20 years ago, and time and technology has moved on considerably since then. So it looks like I could be shelling out £100 for a new putter as well. I’m not one of these people who has a bad round and decides to change their equipment, in fact I don’t get it when people go through 6 putters and 8 wedges in the course of a year. Once I get the right gear, fitted for my game, I’ll stick to it; the problem at the moment is that I have totally the wrong equipment to start with. It will be hard to say goodbye to my original Ping Zing, as it’s the only putter I’ve used for the last 14 years, but it is time to move on.

When I’ll get to use this new equipment is another story, looking at the current weather forecast it certainly won’t be within the next 5 days.................