The golf gods are conspiring

I've got the local pennant finals this Sunday. Semis in the morning and the (hopefully) final in the afternoon. BUT the golf gods seem to conspiring against me. I've had a bad week. First off we're working out of town at the moment and aren't home till about 8 so its dark by then so no practice. I managed to put neat little gouge in my left thumb from the bottom knuckle to the nail so that should make holding the club interesting. And to top it off I just remembered that after my round last week the shaft in my driver snapped when I was putting them back in my car, shut the boot lid on it.. Stupid I know so that means I'll be heading in with another of my drivers.. GRRRRRRRR I loved that one.

Screw it i'm staying in bed all day tomorrow !!!!!!!!!

Japan Issue Clubs

Not many people seem to know that Japan is the world epi-centre for golf technology. They are premier worlds clubmakers and what club designs are hot in the world now were out in Japan probably about 2 years ago (exclude square cos that ain't gonna last)

Their are many manufacturer's that the average everyday golfer have never heard off. The stuff is great buy I'm warning you now, be prepared to pay. This stuff isn't cheap. Be careful because are sometimes 2 different versions with only 1 of them meeting the COR rule.

If you want too know more head over to www.tourspecgolf.com and look in the pro-shop. These guys are based in Japan and are one of the top sources for Japanese golf equipment.


Here's a few pic's to get you started

Tigers Handicap

A friend of mine just sent this to me. Amazing!

Consider this...

If Tiger Woods played you, how many strokes would he be giving up to
make a fair match? The answer may shock you.

You may consider yourself a fine player with your 3 handicap. Or
perhaps you frequently play to your 15 handicap. You may even think that
Tiger Woods could spot you a stroke per hole and you'd have a close
match.

Turns out a stroke per hole would be about right if you were about a 3
handicap. And Tiger would still probably win.

The handicaps of our favorite PGA Tour pros remain a mystery. Sure, we
know they're in the "+" realm (which, oddly enough, means better than
scratch, but how far?

Calculations
PGA Tour courses don't have established ratings. Pros often play from
tees used only in PGA Tour events, the rough is grown extra long and
thick, and greens are sped and firmed up. Each of those changes has a
dramatic effect on the course rating and slope, making it difficult to
ascertain the true nature of a pro's handicap index.

Normally we apply a 0.96 multiplier to a person's average differential
in calculating handicaps. This is to help figure in the
"potential" of a player. A golfer with an un-adjusted handicap index of
5 becomes a 4.8 index after the 0.96 multiplier is applied. It would
make little sense, however, to take a plus-5 handicap to +4.8, so we
must instead divide by 0.96. That would make a +5 golfer a +5.2 golfer,
again figuring in the "potential."

At the Top: Tiger Woods
What does it take to be the top golfer in the world?
Here are the shocking figures:

Used | Date | Score | CR/Slope | Diff. | Tournament
> > * | 01/28/07 | 66 | 78.1/143 | 15.3 | Buick Invitational
> > * | 01/27/07 | 69 | 78.1/143 | 11.5 | Buick Invitational
> > | 01/26/07 | 72 | 78.1/143 | 7.7 | Buick Invitational
> > | 01/27/07 | 66 | 78.1/143 | 8.3 | Buick Invitational
> > * | 09/04/06 | 63 | 74.8/143 | 14.9 | Deutsche Bank
> > * | 09/03/06 | 67 | 74.8/143 | 9.9 | Deutsche Bank
> > | 09/02/06 | 72 | 74.8/143 | 3.5 | Deutsche Bank
> > * | 09/01/06 | 66 | 74.8/143 | 11.1 | Deutsche Bank
> > | 08/27/06 | 68 | 75.1/128 | 8.0 | WGC - Bridgestone Inv.
> > | 08/26/06 | 71 | 75.1/128 | 4.6 | WGC - Bridgestone Inv.
> > * | 08/25/06 | 64 | 75.1/128 | 12.6 | WGC - Bridgestone Inv.
> > | 08/24/06 | 67 | 75.1/128 | 9.2 | WGC - Bridgestone Inv.
> > * | 08/20/06 | 68 | 78.1/151 | 13.5 | PGA Championship
> > * | 08/19/06 | 65 | 78.1/151 | 17.5 | PGA Championship
> > * | 08/18/06 | 68 | 78.1/151 | 13.5 | PGA Championship
> > * | 08/17/06 | 69 | 78.1/151 | 12.2 | PGA Championship
> > | 08/06/06 | 66 | 74.3/133 | 9.8 | Buick Open
> > | 08/05/06 | 66 | 74.3/133 | 9.8 | Buick Open
> > | 08/04/06 | 66 | 74.3/133 | 9.8 | Buick Open
> > | 08/03/06 | 66 | 74.3/133 | 9.8 | Buick Open

Average Differential: 10.6
Best 10 Average Differential: 13.2
Handicap Index: +13.75
Now, take a deep breath and read that again. +13.75. Tiger's WORST ten
differentials average out to +8.05.

Something like 10% of golfers ever reach single digit handicaps.
Tiger's not only done that (while still in the womb, no doubt), but he's
blown through the single digits on the OTHER side of scratch and is in
heretofore unexplored territory at +13.75. That may be the single best
handicap index ever!

Pick a winner

Byron Nelson won 11 tournaments in a row in 1945, a record that may never be matched. Which of the following records do you think is the most impressive?

• Nelson's 11-straight victories
• Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs
• UCLA's run of 10 NCAA basketball titles in 12 years
• Wayne Gretzky's 2,856 career points

Raise your Geek Flag High

Ladies and gentleman I have discovered the holy grail. It is the bomb!!! Damn I hate that saying, shoot me now people.. Ok back on topic.

Anyhow the grail is of course a new driver. Of course it is... this is me your reading about. Sure I just got a new Burner and I'm killing it...... but theres always that feeling that there could be something better out there.... Behold they mother of ALL driver and i bet 99% of you have never heard of it...

The Geek Golf Dot Com This.. It's a beauty and is THE up and comer in the driver market. They are a component company that is gaining a bigger name all the time. The designer is Steve Alamo who formerly worked for Bang golf among other golf industry names before striking out on his own.

I mated my 10.5' (yes I went up in loft) with a Graman UL780 Limey shaft. This is a killer combo and is the longest driver I've ever hit. I've been in places that I've never been to at my home course, the best part is that these places actually involve the fairway of the hole I'm playing..

Try one for yourself...

Favourite

Its official I have a new favourite pro golfer. Yep thats right Boo Weekley. I love this guy.

He's soo laid back he's barely awake. And to top it off he is one of the premier ball strikers on the PGA Tour. Big call I know but this guy is good. He lead the Nationwide Tour in GIR's last year with a massive 74.something%

He has always admitted putting he his weakness, as shown when 3 jacked at the Honda to lose the playoff . 3 footers still give him the shakes. Well I say your not real golfer unless your a little apprehensive over a 3 footer.... Anyway you don't have to worry about that if you chip in on the last 2 holes to hold out Ernie Els do you?

http://feed.insnews.org/v-cgi/feeds.cgi?feedid=144&story_id=2849429

Golf Course Facts

• Approximate number of golf courses in the world: 31,857.
• Proportion of humans who are golfers: 0.94 percent.
• Countries with the most courses per capita (minimum 500,000 population): Scotland (9,379 people per course), New Zealand (10,374), Australia (11,063), Republic of Ireland (14,127), Northern Ireland (14,353), Canada (15,480), Wales (18,321), United States (18,514), Sweden (21,295), England (27,725).
• Countries with the highest density of courses (minimum 500,000 population): Singapore (one course every 10 square miles), England (27), Northern Ireland (40), Wales (50), Scotland (56), Japan (59), Netherlands (75), Mauritius (87), Republic of Ireland (95), Denmark (117).
• Most populous countries where we could find no evidence of golf: Ukraine (population 47,732,079), Sudan (39,148,162), Yemen (20,024,867), Mali (11,956,788), Belarus (10,310,520).
• Most northerly course: Sondie Arctic Desert G. Cse., Kangerlussuaq, Greenland.
• Most southerly: Ushuaia G.C., Argentina.
• Most easterly: Tonga G.C., Nukualofa, Tonga.
• Most westerly: Faleata C.C., Apia, Samoa.
• Ratio of courses in the U.S. to courses in the African continent: 20 to 1.
• Amount of earth's land mass devoted to golf courses: 0.014 percent.

Kiwi hits MySpace

As per normal I'm slow to take up another installment of web technology. Hell I'm still mastering the whole tieing shoelaces thing

Here we go http://www.myspace.com/3underkiwi Go there and you should find me

Keep an eye out

Keep an eye out for my fellow and more regular blogger Luke Swilor (Swilors road to tour) . This man has some serious game and just last weekend won himself a Canadian PGA Tour Card. This is a massive achievement in my eyes and I'm sure many others (among the whole 2.5 people that read this).

If you want want to keep an eye out for Luke check out www.cantour.com

Oh well Nike will give him a new one

Man it must be good having a rep just giving you new clubs when you need them. I think I do my fair share of keeping my local pro shop in the red. Heres a great pic of Tiger's break at the Masters

New Cleveland offerings

And these here are the new CGRed from Cleveland golf. The good news is that they aren't made from the CMM material the last models were.

Bright colors Thermoplastic (TPU) insert for vibration damping (feel) MCT - Next generation Micro-Cavity Technology displaces weight for lower CG (stability) Hosel markings for custom fitting These replace the CG2s and CG4 Tours Then we have to CGGold irons, same basic principle but a little more forgiving/ These replace the CG4's. Personally I think they are both hideous but meh what would i know

By the way

Congrats to Zach Johnsone for winning the 2007 Masters.

I've been shopping.

I decided it was time for a little bag update. Sure it was damn near midnight and I'd had a few rums. After buying the Burner the other I decided to fit out the rest of my bag.

I decided to go the component route again and get a set of Purefit MB's to replace my aging CG2's. The 3 wood and Hybrid stays the same. I've picked up a Tad Moore TM2 putter. Which shock horror is std length. Well 33 inches anyway. Thats a big drop for me from my belly putter. And to top it all off I picked up a set (ok 2 sets) of Adam Pugilelli wedges from www.gppgolf.com. They were a steal.

Don't know when they'll all be here. Might be a while for the irons. I don't think the distributor down here has anymore in stock. They're getting Femco White X-Stiff shafts +1 inch... Lovely....I love getting golf parcels....Hmmmm now that gets me think, I need a sweet looking bag to put them in.




## Patrica I anwsered your question for you

The new Burner

Well I finally hit the new TaylorMade Burner today.. WOW TaylorMade bought out a new driver now theres a surprise... Not.

Anyway back on topic I quite liked it. Nice shape. The graphics are sweet man, damn I like that look. My forgivings being that it sat wayyyy closed. I had to open it up a little to get it to fly right and that is definitely not a feeling that makes you all that comfortable with a driver. The shaft also felt a little light for liking (50 gram) but I did like the extra length it was. But then again I order all my clubs plus an inch anyway.

The reason I'm in the market for a new driver is I cracked my beloved HiBore, I was not impressed. I had my J33R in the bag for a while but sold that so now just have a piece of crap Titty 905T I found in the garage that I don't remember buying. Oh well time to go shopping again

NZ PGA starts tomorrow.

Well NZ's only link to the US Tours begins down here tomorrow. It's part of the Nationwide Tour which swings down here every year for a stop and one in Australia as well. I have been up to see it once but was pretty damn impressed with the talent on display. Not going this year tho, got this work that gets in the way.. (It does it for about 50 hours a week just to annoy me)

The have tricked the rough up a little I hear, that should be interesting. Clearwater Resort is a great course and if the wind gets up the scores will follow. If it stays calm I expect them to tear the course to bits. But then again its in Christchurch and I don't think I've ever been there when it hasn't blown for more than 3 days so I don't like there chances

My M/P picks for Day 1

Ok I'm going to try and throw a few picks out there for the first rounds. Might just do what I see to be an upset. I'm to lazy to do them lol

Katayama will take out Baddeley
Clarke will thrash Garcia. (i assume this is Darren)
Edfors will beat Monty
Micheel will show Scott the door to the airport

Really slight chance....... Rollins beats VJ in sudden death

So whats that 5 matchs, knowing my track record in picking sports I'll be lucky to get 1, no way more than 2.

Dr Pepper.

Ok so I'm 24 years and only just had my first Dr Pepper today. Sad huh, well its not the easiest thing to get down. First impressions were that it wasn't bad. But then I just decided it was well fairly average. Thats just me. It's got nothing over Coke. And Coke in turn has nothing over Beer...

Can you tell I'm bored ........

Nice... very nice

Wow now this is impressive........ Read on

12 February 2007 Wallace shoots back to back albatrosses

Auckland’s Ben Wallace achieved an amazing feat earlier this month when he shot back to back albatrosses on the fourth hole at Auckland Golf Club inside the space of a week.
The talented Titleist Academy player scored his first albatross off the back tees during a tournament at the course on Saturday 3 February.
He was then out playing with Australian professional Peter Fowler and his coach on the following Tuesday when he potted another albatross on the par 5 hole after Fowler challenged him to see if he could do it again.
Fowler said it was an amazing feat as he had only seen one albatross in his entire career, which spans more than 25 years. Fowler has also just qualified for July's British Open.
Wallace's back to back albatrosses are the talk of Auckland Golf Club and the club made a special presentation to Wallace in recognition of his achievement.

(courtesy of the NZGA website)

3 is a bad number

Not all the time but this weekend it was just well.. a fugly number. Sure scoreing a 3 on a hole is pretty much always a good thing... Just not if your only counting the number of shots taken on 1 green as well all know.

I was up in Te Anau in the weekend playing in a 36 hole tournament on the Saturday and the 1st round of pennants on the Sunday. Well I finished up 4th in some fairly average conditions (summer time my ass) with an ok I suppose 79 in the morning and a level par 72 in the afternoon. That 79 I actually hit the ball better than in the afternoon round but I had 6 putts in the morning. I don't think I've ever had 6 3 putts in a round since about the 4th round I ever played. Wasn't good. I was not impressed. I had just put a new std putter in the bag too. Needless to say it got pulled at lunch and the belly put back in..

Today (Sunday) It was the 1st round of the pennants series. This involves the 7 bigger clubs in my province playing in 6 man matchplay match's. My team is the defending champions having gone undefeated in the round robin and cleaning up in semi's and final. This year we started off with a 3 each Halve. Not great but not bad. It actually came down to my match, it was the only one that went the distance. The other team were leading 3-2 when I was all square with 3 to go. I was actually 2 up with 5 to go back snapped to consecutive drives on 2 holes OB. 16 I flushed rescue down the middle. Wedge to 12 feet, miss the putt. He missed from 25 Halve.. #17 He lays up with 3 wood. I take driver and stripe it to about 35 yards from the green. He's just short with the approach. I semi-skull mine out the back. His chip was awful and I 2 putt for the win... Sweet 1 up 1 to go. I can't and don't wanna lose the hole. We need my win to halve the team match. #18 is 456 par 4, dogleg right. I smash one but block it a little right but gets great bounce to centre f/w way down. He's straight and perfect. He stiffs 6 iron to 3 feet.... Gee no pressure.. I hit wedge 20 feet past the pin that just misses the pin on the fly. I hole my putt after it sits on the lip for a second. In the process nearly giving me a heart attack. But it falls and his putt is pointless. He needed to win the hole.

Pity it was the only putt I holed all weekend, but then again it was when it was perfect timing.

BTW I 3 jacked once Sat Afternoon for a total of 7 in 2 rounds.. None Sunday SWEEETTTTTT

Draper collects 1st win

Australian Tour professional Scott Draper collected his first professional golf win. Draper is also a former World ATP touring tennis pro. He reached a career high ranking of No42 in singles and won the Australian Open Mixed doubles in 2005, playing the Australian Golf Open the nest week.

He recently turned down an offer to coach Leyton Hewiit to concentrate on his career as a touring golfer.

Draper finished at -20 the card over the four round, playing great golf with only a solitary bogey over the 4 days. He now heads to South Australia to attempt to qualify for the Nationwide co-sanctioned Jacobs Creek Open

It has to be a world first for golf/tennis player to win professionally in both sports professional ranks, espically only over a 2 year period