Thursday, January 27, 2011

Southern Ports Tournament preparations on target..

Thursday 27/1/11 Almost into the last 30 days before the first round of the Southern Ports Tournament. Preparations are still on track even with the injury disruption from the 9th of January, finally got into the Bowen Therapist on Tuesday and repaired the remaining damage still lingering. With a follow up next Friday to complete the treatment my physical condition will be tuned and in sync with my golf form again. Whilst recuperating the training was still maintained, increasing short game practise and physical training to accommodate the injury restriction.




The same as last season physical training for me is not too strenuous or complicated. Sticking with the low impact conditioning routines with a Chest Expander and set of Hand Grips has been especially effective again. I am not after building up strength of bulk these days, what I want is to develop stamina through excercise to avoid technique errors through tiredness. In this instance while carrying the back injury still during the 18 holes on Sunday my stamina did falter, due to not having my drinks bottle and ignoring the need for water in the heat. My pyhsical strength and condition was fine and the next day I put in a good practise session without any problem. After the Bowen treatment on Tuesday I managed a comfortable 9 holes and yesterday played 9 holes returning 6 pars, 2x bogies and 1x double bogie for a 40 off the stick.



Back to using the Cobra Driver and the lessons gained from causing the injury and only using the regular flex 3 Wood since off the tee delivered improved accuracy and distance with the return. I have also returned to using a set of irons with a firm flex instead of stiff and this was effective and less strenuous. I am still exploring this direction as an added equipment option and will have a Regular flex Driver to use in the near future. I do not spend a lot on golf equipment, Ebay is a particular golfing boon for me.

My decision was to look at getting a measured and matched set when reaching 15hcp. Currently the figure is 17 and I am most likely going to put off the purchase of the new set after I reach 12 hcp.



At the minute I have 3 iron sets, Wilson 1200 blades, Presto cavity backs and Ping Karsten look alike all 3 have been used in competition and have specific purposes in my golfing. The blades are specifically used to tune my game up, being a little too short for me I use them to test my technique in playing shots. I cannot hit my full distances with them without disastrous errors happening if I deviate from hitting the ball correctly. Cost of these delivered off Ebay $35, I do not agree 100% with the statement that only very good golfers can use blades. There was a time when this was all that was available and hackers had to use blades too so it is one of my ‘back to the future’ experiments which delivers good results for some facets of my golf. The Ping Karsten look alike irons are approx 25 years old are reshafted to suit me and again cost $35 with a bag included off Ebay. These were a particular set I looked for as they are the same as the set I used in the 1980’s, in 2009 I purchased a set of Shark cavity backs ($185) which were good until I reached 20hcp and the O/S clubhead and game improvement facets began to be a detriment to my game development. The Shark Stiff shafts are on the Karsten irons and the club heads were sold on Ebay. The Presto irons cost $99 and were bought just for the shafts yet I found that they were a good iron to use and I alternate between these and the “Karsten” copies in competition depending on the conditions.



It is a comment of non golfers that the game is too expensive to play, I disagree when comparing it to the cost of playing football (any code) and even being an active spectator. If your sports involvement is as a passive spectator and watching on tv and not going to games then golf is expensive. I see an annual membership cheaper than a gym membership and playing golf much more fun to do as excercise. Not to forget the thrill of competition. Thankyou for your time and attention, “Hit ‘em Straight all” Geoff