B_R_A_D_Y

My Golf Forever order just arrived today. With 3 months till season starts, I am going to be in better shape this year than I was last. I have to take a video-physical-screening to determine what exercises to do. I’ll report back after I’ve done it a few times.

I originally wanted to be a club pro when I was 20, back in the late 70s. Here r the top incidents I experienced. 1: Right before the start of the first tournament I worked as an assistant pro, a farmer’s cow got thru the fence at the back of the course. Pro handed me a shotgun, said it was loaded with rock salt, and told me to go shoot the damn thing in the ass, before it destroyed a green. All I could think of the entire time was the scene from Animal House where the horse has a heart attack. The cow lived. 2. I had to wake up / run off vagrants sleeping on the golf course. 3. When I was 17, first golf job, the owner took me out to teach me how to ranger. After a while he pulled into a bunch of trees behind a tee & we just sat there watching. When the next group came by he asked them for a beer out of their cooler! He drank the beer, then closed his eyes & fell asleep. Later, when I told the pro, he said, “I better never catch u doing that.” 4. At that same public course, Pro was giving his weekly lesson to a female member. We didn’t have a range, but we did have an area where staff could go to shag balls. I happened to see him drive back from that lesson, but instead of the woman sitting beside him in the cart, she was on his lap steering. And instead of him driving to the pro shop they drove back to the cart shed. I was 17. It was none of my business. Later that day I mentioned what I saw to the assistant pro & he broke out laughing. He said that had he seen them driving back, he would have loved to have gone back there. Seems while the pro was “giving” her a lesson, the zipper in his pants got stuck in the zipper in her skirt & they couldn’t get separated. I still have no idea why she rode back on his lap … I can imagine … but it seems to me that it would have been easier for one of them to remove their pants or skirt. Now that I think abt it … is this the moment I decided that I wanted to be a club pro?

For me, competitive should be separated into tournament v skins games, then comes casual. I play better at skins than tournaments, and casual is too experimental.

That’s an issue I have too. Everyone looks at me like I’m squirrelly cuz I chip from the apron … I can’t putt from the apron. I thought it was me. However, in a recent 3-man low ball, my team ganged up on me because I was not gonna putt a ball less than 2’ off the green. I finally said, “fine, if u don’t care whether we lose the hole or not, I’ll do it.” I made the putt for a birdie, and we won by 1. Hey I practice those chips … I’ve made 6 apron-chip-ins this year. But no, I don’t like putting from off the green with this putter … it’s always short. Go figure.

What are the strangest things you’ve seen or done while working at a golf course? I originally wanted to be a club pro when I was 20, back in the late 70s. Here r the top incidents I experienced. 1: Right before the start of the first tournament I worked as an assistant pro, a farmer’s cow got thru the fence at the back of the course. Pro handed me a shotgun, said it was loaded with rock salt, and told me to go shoot the damn thing in the ass, before it destroyed a green. All I could think of the entire time was the scene from Animal House where the horse has a heart attack. The cow lived. 2. I had to wake up / run off vagrants sleeping on the golf course. 3. When I was 17, first golf job, the owner took me out to teach me how to ranger. After a while he pulled into a bunch of trees behind a tee & we just sat there watching. When the next group came by he asked them for a beer out of their cooler! He drank the beer, then closed his eyes & fell asleep. Later, when I told the pro, he said, “I better never catch u doing that.” 4. At that same public course, Pro was giving his weekly lesson to a female member. We didn’t have a range, but we did have an area where staff could go to shag balls. I happened to see him drive back from that lesson, but instead of the woman sitting beside him in the cart, she was on his lap steering. And instead of him driving to the pro shop they drove back to the cart shed. I was 17. It was none of my business. Later that day I mentioned what I saw to the assistant pro & he broke out laughing. He said that had he seen them driving back, he would have loved to have gone back there. Seems while the pro was “giving” her a lesson, the zipper in his pants got stuck in the zipper in her skirt & they couldn’t get separated. I still have no idea why she rode back on his lap … I can imagine … but it seems to me that it would have been easier for one of them to remove their pants or skirt. Now that I think abt it … is this the moment I decided that I wanted to be a club pro?

I think I’ve had a ball last 18-22 holes 4-5x out of 60+ rounds this year. We’re surrounded by forest, and have multiple ravines, creeks & ponds. But I don’t really lose a lot of balls until fall / winter. Leaf Rule can get me 2x a round and xtall rough can get me 1-2x more. So I can easily lose 4 balls per round on shots that normally would be findable / playable. They stop mowing in late October and even tho u can see where ur ball landed in the rough, when ya get there it might be so deep ya won’t see the ball unless it’s right under ur nose … it takes 4 of us in Nov to find balls in the rough, and we still don’t find them all … so playing by myself is a recipe to lose balls. Next year in October, I’m switching to Kirkland as my fall / winter ball. The ball pocket in my bag was full in Sept & I made the comment to my buddies that it was time to move balls over to my shag bag. But then by mid Oct it was only 1/2 full & by the end of the month I tossed in a dozen “losable” balls I bought off one of our resident “ball farmers”. I only play a new ball in tournaments, which is once a month. I will play a scuffed ball in any of the 3 skins games I play per week … and I’m usually winning at least 1 skin a round … gross or net. We play gross beats net in the big Sat morning game. That said, 2 bad holes with a scuffed ball & I’ll toss it in the pond myself.

I thought I was developing arthritis in my trail hand. Every shot was excruciating. Turns out I have trigger finger. Anyway, I switched to large grips to reduce pain, and it made a difference … reduced the pain but did not eliminate it. So I thought about going even larger with JumboMax. But then I worried about the loss of investment, over $200 if I didn’t like them. Ultimately I decided to put the JumboMax ultralite on my “S” driver shaft, but left my “R” shaft with an oversized Golf Pride grip. The reaction from others in both cases, first going from standard size grips to oversized and then again going from oversized to jumbo, EVERYONE said I wouldn’t be able to square the face & would hate them. I seriously doubt that any of them had ever tried, because I never experienced that issue. I felt like the first round I played with the JumboMax, I flipped the driver more … BUT I had been talked into playing the gold tees in a group of 75 yr olds, and I was over swinging, trying to drive the green every time. For me … I now switch shafts depending on how my back feels … whether I can swing hard with the stiff, or if I’m feeling a bit weaker, swing slower with the reg … oddly, the difference in grip sizes doesn’t take any adjustment for me. Whether that ultimately is because I’m accustomed to them now, I do not know. It’s not an issue. I would however, still love to try the JumboMax on my entire set. BUT like I said before, if I don’t like them, that will be like throwing away $400 buying 2 new sets of grips. … … … I’ve tried blowing grips off, but can’t get it to work. The point to all of this? I like an oversized grip.

Listen to this podcast about conscious v non-conscious thoughts during the swing … works for the putter swing as well. Sounds dumb, but I’ve had great success with driver by singing in my head, during my backswing & transition. Not for tempo, but for a non-conscious swing … singing is my way of clearing my thoughts. Works cuz I always have a song stuck in my head … why fight it … use it. I recently began using it for my putting stroke as well. My read has sucked lately, but pace & distance is better.

Heard a very interesting podcast a while back that impressed me, about the mental side of golf. They made the point that you don't need to think how to walk, you simply do it subconsciously. The golf swing should be exactly the same, and until you can do it, you won't play the best that you can. Check it out. It will make you think. It's GOLF SMARTER, episode #854.

That's a bit expensive, but exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks a bunch.

Is there a flip-up cap? I get tired of opening it every hole on a hot day.

I don’t want anything free. I’m expressing a real issue that causes real injuries. You can’t compare a serious injury causing root with hard pan. Why is there a rule that you don’t have to play a ball off a road or cart path? I don’t roll the ball in the rough when I’m out of sight of other players. I don’t want anything I haven’t earned. I don’t play golf against anyone … I play against myself. You may as well have argued, “if amateurs don’t want bad lies, then they should keep the ball in the fairway.”

Absolutely … It was all my fault. This was intended as a lesson in forgetfulness. I saw a plugged ball and forgot I was in a hazard. I was so happy to be out of the rain, I forgot about recording my penalty. I’m only 65. I’m worried about how bad will my memory might be in 5 years. The local rule I want changed is relief from tree roots. Local emergency room Doc says he sees too many golfers every year with wrist injuries caused by hitting roots. This could be a career ending injury for me.

On the tee box for the club championship yesterday … I was playing for senior, net score … the pro filled us in on local rules that were in effect. Lots of rain creating very wet conditions allowed for lift & clean in the fairway. Plugged balls were even being allowed to be lifted & dropped in both rough and bunkers. So then as fate would have it, on that first hole, my drive plugged in the opposite bank of a creek, marked by yellow stakes. Fresh off that rules talk, I automatically popped my ball out of it’s hole, and played it from within the hazard, without a second thought, and sank a 30 footer for bogey. I marked a 5, without a penalty … with the group’s mistaken approval, and we played on. I did however, text the pro back in the club house, to get his opinion. But it was too distracting to continue texting the narrative while playing, so I told him I would explain it in person. And we played on. A few holes later, a player in our group realized and pointed out that what I had actually done, was to improve my lie within a hazard. I agreed, but was uncertain whether the penalty was 1 or 2 strokes. Since I had already told the pro that I was looking for him, I left the card uncorrected. After a 30 min wait on the 15th tee, pouring rain finally drove us into the clubhouse, where I found the pro and brought up the issue. The pro thought it was a 2 stroke penalty, but said he would double check. In the mean time however, he informed us that we needed to go back out into the pouring rain and finish our round. While we had been stuck behind slow play all day, the group ahead of us had finished their round in the rain, and with another hour of rain predicted, we needed to finish, too. So with the final decision still pending in my mind, I once again did not correct the card. We finished in miserable conditions … by this time there was standing water on greens, tees, bunkers and fairways … I finished par, bogey, birdie, double, for a net one over. Not a bad place to be with another day to go. The pro was waiting for us, and offered to tally the card while I got my wet gear out of the cart. The entire issue of my penalty was not on my mind, and the pro did not know that I had not corrected the card yet. Excited to know the tally and where I stood in the rankings, my penalty issues were the furthest thing from my mind … so I left contented that I was in contention. It did not occur to me until much later that night that I never did correct the card … I turned in an incorrect low score on the first hole. So I reluctantly texted the pro at home, and informed him that my actions, or lack thereof, had caused my disqualification. I actually had originally considered dropping back across the creek, before I convinced myself to play out of the hazard. I wish I had gone with that first impulse. I’m writing this as the final round of the tournament concludes, so the pain is still fresh. But I am prepared to hear everyone’s opinions. Fire when ready.

I currently play Cobra RadSpeed OL and while I love them, I really miss playing a blade. Several times a round, while I set the club behind the ball, I think wow, the head looks chunky … it has a thick top line. I don’t want my first thought when setting up to be about the club head. I love the look and feel and sound of a forged blade. An added benefit of the new Forged Tec irons is that they are more forgiving than a stock blade. I didn’t just change to RadSpeed OL for the length, I also went with it because of the forgiving design. But if I could get back to blades with some added forgiveness, I’d be thrilled. I’ve only been playing the RadSpeed OL irons for 6 months (I bought them used) and my handicap has already gone from 22 to 16. I’m hoping these blades could get me back to <10. Brady Peery, Marietta, Ohio Cobra RadSpeed OL 16 I post here and have been a reviewer, so I have no problem writing about or answering questions for these clubs.