Goddess status - it's official!

Good news: I did post the lowest score in that medal competition (Division 2). MOH is worried he will be blackballed (?) as he set the handicap rules.
Bad news: following my success in the above-mentioned competition, the Handicap Secretary has reduced me by two strokes. No prizes for guessing who the Handicap Secretary is.
Now I’m playing off 25 (ouch!) those clubs had better be good.

Custom fitting not as scary as expected

It’s no good. A true goddess of golf needs decent irons, and those Callaway X20s have been calling to me for too long, so today I took myself to one of the local pro shops for another look. MOH was with me and he had to agree they looked good even in my inexpert hands, but observed that the angle of the head at set-up wasn’t quite right, and, before I knew it, I was in a custom fitting session.
Scary or what? I thought you had to have a low handicap for any of the scientific stuff to make a difference, and I was convinced I’d make a complete fool of myself. In fact I did duff several shots in my ‘warm up period’, and MOH took a diplomatic walk, saving himself the embarrassment of being married to the first ever golfer whose swing/impact/launch speed would fail to even register on those electronic sensors.
Luckily it didn’t go too badly. The first good thing was that the fitting took place in a covered area of the driving range, not in an indoor centre. (It’s easier to get into your swing when you can see where the ball ends up. The technical name for this is feedback.) And before long I was managing some pretty decent shots with only the odd rubbish one. The equipment was also unobtrusive, and until the Pro started explaining the analysis (please don’t ask!) I wasn’t really aware anything was being measured.
What did it prove? Apparently I have a shallow angle of attack, a good launch trajectory, and a reasonable amount of back-spin. Most importantly, the best club for me is a Callaway X20 with some fairly small adjustments. Result!
Since these were the clubs I’ve been fancying anyway, you might think this was a bit of a waste of time, but apart from any difference those small adjustments might make (and every little helps!) I came out thinking I really had made the right choice. I was also greatly cheered to find the price before fitting wasn’t any higher than other local suppliers, and only marginally more than I had found on the wonderful worldwide web. I might have got free fitting elsewhere, but I felt the £25 I paid for the hour was reasonable, and the Pro also gave me a few constructive tips on my swing and made some recommendations about balls (of which more later.)
Conclusion: Custom fitting isn’t scary or expensive and it might actually help.
My gorgeous new clubs will arrive next week. Stand by for a report!

More Golf Chicks and the Perfect Swing

How nice of Patricia the Golf Girl to pay us a visit. From her picture she’s clearly in the chick category and brings a breath of fresh (young) air to this particular blogspot. She’s just off to Paris where I hope she enjoys her golf. She has also alerted me to an interesting survey by Lexus on what people would give in exchange for the perfect golf swing, e.g. ‘Four out of ten golfers (43%) would readily give up sex for a month in order to have the perfect golf swing!’ Umm, okay, but that’s still less than half of the (surveyed) golfing population. Even fewer, I’m happy to say, would prefer a perfect swing to a perfect marriage.
Anyway, what is a perfect swing? Haven’t we all had at least one perfect strike, presumably delivered by a perfect swing? I think what these people mean is a consistently perfect swing, which in view of the make-up of the human body (not to mention that bigger mystery, the human brain) seems unlikely ever to occur to any of us mere mortals. And how much fun would that be? Certainly watching the big boys would be no fun at all if they never made a mistake. Talking of whom, that course at Oakmont looks like making mortals of them all, though at least the Brits are holding on so far. Thanks to Golf in London for recommending this site for live action, and hang on in here, Justin!

And finally … an apology is in order. Despite my previous gripes about EGU and ELGA I’ve just read that 50% more clubs are offering free taster sessions than a year ago. Good. The clubs in question are listed on Get into golf.

Golf Gorse

Possibly my last words on the subject of golf on Anglesey (at least until our next visit!)
This time we played not only the pleasantly parkland Henllys Hall but also Baron Hill and Bull Bay Golf clubs, where, as you can see from the picture, heathland is the name of the game. Baron Hill (Beaumaris) is only 9 holes and looks innocuous until you realise how close that gorse is to the fairway. The greens were also devilishly quick with some nasty turns. Bull Bay is the full monty and has some pretty challenging holes, especially in the middle section with cliff-like escarpments that need a considerable degree of self-belief. The energy expended was such that we went straight for a substantial sandwich in the club-house and progressed swiftly to a cream tea in the pretty sea-side village of Moelfre. (Calories? It was worth it!)
All in all that Anglesey Golf Pass was well worth the money – we still have two of our five vouchers left to use later in the season. More news later this week after a trip to the dreaming spires of gorse-free Oxford. Meanwhile check out the Golf Observer. Good round-up of news with links to features by well-known golf writers whom I'll obviously be joining soon at Oakmont (in my dreams).

Goddess or what?

Yes, I’d like to call myself a golf chick, but to my mind the female of the species falls into two classes:
a) the golf chick, identifiable by long brown legs and a pony tail tucked through the back of her cap.

b) the grande dame of golf, characterised by long brown shorts and a noticeably big bottom.
In the past it has struck me that the pony tail and the big bottom may each contribute in some way to the balance of a good swing, and that as someone who possesses neither I may be forever debarred from any golf hall of fame. However, yesterday changed all that. 93 is not my best ever round, but it’s definitely one of my better ones. Not only that, I was playing in a club medal where through lack of a ladies section I competed with men and received an extra 3 shots on my handicap to compensate for the difference in SSI. I won’t bore you with the maths, but I ended up with a net score of 63. My male partners were looking pretty sick, and if my handicap is cut I shall take the pain like a man (?)
The moral of the story is …. if you have neither a pony tail nor a big bum, never fear, you can still be a goddess of golf.

The picture shows the goddess on another good day. (Sorry about the shoes, they have long since been consigned to the dustbin of bad golf decisions!)

Ladies! (Or should I say chicks?)

If you’re still fretting over whether to cal yourself a lady or a woman golfer, why not cast caution to the wind and go for golf chick? The original golf chick is Kristen Williams, a US golf writer and blogger. She’s clearly a golf addict and her blog is worth a look. She also tells us that this is women’s golf week in the States, a promotional event with special offers and activities for women. Sounds like a good idea to me, and a quick visit to the English Golf Union site reveals that in this country ‘85% of golf clubs have membership vacancies for female members’ and ‘70% of golf clubs are actively seeking …adult female members.’

So what are the EGU doing to address this? Frankly, not a lot that I can see. There’s a leaflet for clubs to download and they are urged to make an action plan. As a result one club offers special introductory packages for women - costing £100. Great, what if they don’t like it? At that price I doubt they’ll bother to find out.
I took up golf as the direct result of a free trial lesson a few years ago after which we immediately signed up for six more lessons. (Golf is that addictive!) The free trial may even have been sponsored by the EGU. What I’m saying is that these things obviously do get more people into the game, so let’s ditch the action plan and have some action.

Golf and the Weatherman

Spare a thought for Richard Angwin who is worked too hard by the BBC to come blogging here, but has kindly allowed me to use pictures from his site. Thanks, Richard and since (unless I’m sadly mistaken) this one is not of Weston-super-Mare, I’m glad to see you get away from time to time. I’m still hoping you might contribute to the world of golf by doing some research into the exact definition of a one, two or three club wind and have posted the idea to your weather forum.
For this weekend Richard predicts a scorcher. A brave man indeed.!