Regular Flex or Stiff Flex Driver...

Friday 28/1/11 Had a day off the course and enjoyed catching up with some book work and did nothing more than a little pitching practise with the net. Did consider heading to the practise fairway and hitting a few long irons, chose to hold that over until tomorrow and instead headed to the pro shop and tried out some new drivers.




Still happy with the Cobra S9.1 (stiff Flex) it works well enough, this was a moment taken to try out some regular flex drivers after my experience with the using the #3 Metal while recovering from the back injury. Got a good swing rythym happening and hit 25 balls, alternating with 5 balls with the Cobra (9.5) then 5 with a Rippa 10.5 Square Head driver. The two felt totally different hitting the ball and the regular flex club did feel “softer” in my hands. The Rippa drives mostly faded in the begining. Then I settled down and hit 5 of the best I could with each.



One ball from each club was the best possible booming straight drive I could work for in a game. The Rippa still felt gentler and even more responsive to working shots with it. The Cobra was it’s usual effective steady self as I have became used to over 12 months.The solid hits with it were brutal in comparison to the Rippa.



Tomorrow I am going to go and have another solid try out with the Rippa and see if I can get the fade out of the shots. Distance wise it was the same with either club, as the back injuries are always going to occur from time to time I am convinced that getting a regular flex driver in my collection of clubs is a must.



Not in any rush to choose and get the club yet but it is going to be the next purchase to give me the selection of clubs that will best suit my game requirements.



Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

Queensland Floods scam email...

I delete the Nigerian scam emails but this one is the UGLY Australian email and don't get conned by the rhetoric. Here comes the nonsence from the right wing isolationist sector of Australia. Yes the morons who want the borders fenced, the internet censored and return to the days of black and white tv. The same people who parade around on Australia day wearing flags as caped and with beer pouring out their ears in celebration of the national public holiday. Then the rest of the year forget all about being Australian until the next day to have a party on.
"If the Government took 10% from each of these there would be enough for the flood victims. How does this work ? THE TOP EIGHT COUNTRIES THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GAVE YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO IN 2010-2011


Indonesia $458,700.00 million


Papua New Guinea $457,200,00 million


Solomon Islands $225,700.00 million


Afghanistan $123,100.00 million


Vietnam $119,800.00 million


Philippines $118,100.00 million


East Timor $102,700.00 million


Cambodia $64,200.00 million


TOTAL = $ 1,669,000,000.00 - given away in 52 weeks


..but wait there’s more.


Australia provides approximately 150,000 tonnes of food aid every year—about $65 million—to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Chad
In 2005 John Howard committed Australia to double Australian aid to about $4 billion a year by 2010 because under his Prime Ministership we were in SURPLUS.


In 2010-2011 the Australian Government plans to spend almost $4.4 billion on development assistance.


In 2008 the Australian community contributed $812.19million to non-government organisations.
And now Gillard will give $500,000,000.00 for Indonesia’s Islamic schools


which are largely moderate in outlook but there have been pockets of radicalism that have produced terrorists in Indonesia, most notably the cleric Abu Bakar Bashir’s school in Ngruki, central Java, where some of the Bali bombers studied.


When insurers, such as Allianz and CGU, provide cover for storm damage but exclude flood from their home and contents policies.
And now Gillard is planning to impose a levy on all Australians to help pay for flood relief!!

YES THIS A BLOODY INSULT TO THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE WHO RIGHT NOW NEED IT THE MOST SO IT IS ABOUT TIME THE GOVERNMENT STARTED LOOKING AFTER THEIR OWN BACK YARD AND FORGET THE REST FOR A LONG TIME.
THIS IS BULL SHIT"
Yes it is Bullshit, of the worst kind. This worked very well for Hitler and the Nazi's so don't get duped by it today.

Thankyou for your time and attention, Geoff

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

Camilo Villegas improved my game...

Monday 24/1/11 Got myself around the course yesterday for the first 18 hole round since injuring myself 2 weeks ago. 91 off the stick and 34 Stableford point was the result, with a wipe on the last hole a par 4 with 7 strokes. The new putter a Wilson 100 with a longer 37 inch shaft has been a major benefit to my game. Not at all disapointed with the result was flagging rapidly on the last two holes and simply ran out of energy. again my own fault, no prizes for guessing who forgot to take his water bottle with him on a hot day and was stupid enough to not have a drink while playing. Getting a drink did cross my mind during the round but one of my other faults when golfing interfered, I get so single minded I consciously don’t break out of the routine of playing to my detriment.




Made one particular change to my game since the injury, stopped using the Cobra Driver to enforce some much needed discipline on the tee. Used the No 3 Shark Metal off the tee and also on the fairway to good effect considering it has only recently been put back in the bag. Quite a confidence boost to be able to hit this club so well either straight or with a slight draw. This was one of my weaknesses when beginning, consistently slicing shots with most clubs, with disastrous results from the Driver/Fairway metals. In 2010 I watched an interview with Camilo Villegas and he was asked what his favourite golf club was? "I'd better love all 14. I eventually have to hit them all, and if I dislike one, I'll just get over the ball with a bad attitude, and the outcome won’t be great." I have adopted his reply and to good effect in my own game since then. Making a specific effort to have no preference and this has developed a greater confidence and wider spectrum of shots to choose from in a round.



The other point that has been raised from using the #3 Metal has been whether I should continue using Stiff shafts on my clubs. The #3 is a regular flex and with the effects of the back injury caused by playing too much and having one too many ‘Blood Rushes’ to the brain with a tee shot. I used it to enforce taking easy technically correct swings and not falling in to the “belt the cover off” fault. Being a little tentative top start the rythym soon came into my game again and an improved consistency and accuracy with the #3 metal off the tee and fairway.



I have since been to the pro shop and taken out a selection of regular flex irons for some comparison testing and there is a definite appeal to changing to regular flex irons. The first thing though is to get the driver choice sorted and I am going to stick with my irons as is while experimenting with Regular flex Drivers for a couple of weeks and see what eventuates. As regular readers from my 2010 post would recall I played with irons in 2009 choosing accuraccy over distance with great success in my first season of golfing again. That is still an underlying focus for my game development, yes I can hit 220 - 250m drives now. I would rather hit the fairways though and if using a regular flex driver shaft increases the % of this that is the deciding factor. Thankyou for your time and attention all, Hit ‘em Straight. Geoff