Golf Blog

A couple of weeks ago I played my first round of golf in 2008 duing a quick trip to La Quinta, CA. I managed to hit the range a few days prior during a break in the snow/cold, and my swing was in better shape than I could have reasonably expected. I shot a front nine 38 (two birdies, one when I was on a par 5 in two, and a 15 foot chip in from the fringe on a par 3) before getting tired on the back and fading into the 40’s.

This weekend I’m in Arizona for a little spring training baseball and golf, and I haven’t touched my clubs since returning from CA. I never even took them out of my travel bag.

So it was no particular surprise to me that I played poorly today, however what was a surprise was how well I played early in the round.

It seems that the more I loosen up, the worse I swing. I think my swing gets longer and longer as the round goes on - I manage to keep my good range habits with me for a time, then fade.

Today’s issue was letting my arms get behind my body - my tempo was off. In the round in CA, I was able to keep hitting fairways all day, even thought I stopped being able to score on the back nine. Today I was just spraying the ball into the desert and racking up big numbers.

I find the way that my rust has manifested itself in these last two rounds very interesting. So many things to think about and work on - golf is such a great game.

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Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today, it’s called golf.

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I’m not sure how we ended up at Puakea Golf Course, perhaps at the recommendation of the concierge service. It’s a newer course with very slow greens and little trouble in the rough. There are mounds on either sides of many of the fairways that reminded me of Pete Dye designed courses. The course had a 1-3 club wind for most of the afternoon.

I was hitting the ball well off the tee on the front nine (shot 37 and left a few shots on the course), so I can’t speak too much to the trouble on the front nine. There was water in places, but it didn’t come into play too much. The par 3s on the front were both fun, with one being a significantly elevated tee shot and the other into the teeth of a 2 club wind. Putts had to be struck very firmly to get them to the hole, and some of the greens were a little inconsistent in their speed - they were playable though, good putts would go in.

I ran into a bit more trouble on the back, but recovery shots were definitely possible. You could generally get the ball near the green from a bad tee shot, and an up and down was a good possibility. I was around most of the par 5s in two, and some of the par 4s played just as long or longer than the par 5s due to the prevailing wind (number 9 is a good example - a good drive and a really good 4 iron to get on the green).

This ended up being a very fun course to play and the course staff was very friendly and helpful. I’d play this again, and try to go low.

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In the summer of 2005 and 2006 I really struggled with a hook off the tee¹. Over the last year, I’ve reversed that and have been playing a straight ball or fade for most of this summer. I’ve made the change primarily with ball position - a little closer to me and further up in my stance.

In the last two weeks, things fell apart a little bit. I starting cutting my shoulder turn too short, standing too close to the ball and stopped releasing my hands aggressively and ended up playing a weak fade that ended up a good club or two short. My round on Saturday was dreadful, shooting 100 (admittedly on an unforgiving course) for the first time in a long while.

Today I moved the ball a little further away (though I kept the ball position forward) and made sure to release my hands through the swing. It wasn’t all perfect - adjusting back produced a few foul balls as well. However I turned in a solid 81 with a couple of strokes wasted on balls I hit OB².

Trying to improve my swing is a good thing, but it’s important not to go too far in either direction. I’m never going to be a tour player - as much as I’m playing right now (1.5 times a week with no range time), sticking with what works is probably the best recipe for success. I’ll be much more confident for my next round - maybe I’ll get a round in the 70s this season after all.

1. Mainly due to ball position too far back and a tendency to hang back on my right side when trying to protect against overswinging. [back]
2. A frustrating one trying to get home in 2 on the 17th hole when I overdid it and hooked my 3-wood just OB left. I ended up with a 7 instead of an easy 5 on the hole. [back]

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I’ve traveled for a couple of years with a soft-sided travel case and been lucky not to have had any broken clubs or issues. However I’m starting to take golf trips more frequently and last year a friend of mine had clubs broken on back to back trips with a soft case, so I decided I should probably switch to a hard case.

I thought this would be a fairly simple thing - go to the store, buy a case, done. It ended up being a lot more shopping than I’d expected - maybe my exploration will be useful to others.

Hybrid Cases

This is what I originally wanted, having seen my buddy’s SKB case, however I didn’t know exactly what he had and couldn’t find one locally.

What I did find were a bunch of cases that had flimsy (at best) connections between the top section that covered the clubheads and the main body of the case. A couple of nylon straps connected via staples and holding the top on with velcro isn’t my idea of a secure closure.

After checking 5 local stores, I temporarily abandoned my search for a hybrid case and moved on to looking at…

Sectional Cases

I’d read the review of the Telebag and thought that would be a good option, however it didn’t have a way of locking in the fully open position¹ and the straps holding the bottom to the body of the case seemed a little flimsy. In reading reviews, folks were indeed complaining of the straps failing.

Bag Boy makes a 3 piece sectional case that I looked at next. However even the smaller of the two versions² was larger than the coffin-style hard cases when it was put together. That got me looking at standard…

Hard Cases

I looked at a number of standard coffin-style hard cases and eventually bought the Datrek Blue Whale because it was the only one I found that had a TSA approved locking mechanism. After I purchased it, I looked on the Datrek web site and saw the smaller Tomato version. I called around and finally found one locally at a new Golf Galaxy store.

The Tomato was a really great coffin-style case. It fit my Nike stand bag quite nicely and snugly, and had the same TSA approved locking mechanism that the Blue Whale did.

However, the Golf Galaxy also had a nice hybrid case as well. Which brings us to our…

Conclusion

Though it was a good $70 more than the Tomato, I finally bought the Callaway Hybrid Golf Bag. It’s much smaller than a coffin-style hard case and it has a strong plastic body.

The top is connected with 2 metal clasp mechanisms that are very cleverly designed. Even if they get “released” in transit, the top won’t come off. It’s very well done.

The only issue I had was trying to fit all my clubs inside the head of the case. It was a pretty tight fit, and took a long time. I had to take off headcovers, etc. and I could just barely get it all in. However, this hassle was due to my own impatience. When I looked further into one of the pockets, I discovered that Callaway included a nice big sock that was just what the doctor ordered. You hold all the clubs together, slide the sock over them, and it’s a piece of cake to get the lid on. The sock holds them all in place under the hood. I was even able to keep all my headcovers on.

The only gripe I have about the case is there isn’t a good loop to attach your towel or accessory bag to. Next time I will attach a carabiner to the top dividers and hook my towel, etc. to that.

I’ve only taken one trip with the Callaway bag so far, but it performed admirably. Highly recommended.

1. I considered solving this with a 46″ dowel to keep it fully extended. [back]
2. They have both a cart bag and a stand bag version. [back]

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