Junior Golf Clubs are for the Kids

“Proper Fitting Junior Golf Clubs will make a Huge Difference for your Child”

So you think you might have the next Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam on your hands! Well having a set of Junior Golf Clubs properly fitted for them will not only help them learn, they will gain confidence and enjoy the game even more. Even if your son or daughter is just beginning, having just one Junior Golf Club that is correctly fitted will be an enormous help for them. The problem with buying Junior Golf Clubs off the rack or using your old ones that are cut down is they may be too heavy, with not enough loft, or too long with not enough flex. These are things that need to be looked at when you are looking to equip your child.

My year in Review

Although I fell short of the goals I set for myself this season I have to say it was a good year anyway. My playing partners were awesome for the most part, really only a couple of incidents all season and that’s pretty good seeing as how we played 56 rounds of golf together! They are a great bunch of guys.

I started the year at an 8 handicap and finished up at a 7. This is not bad but its 2 strokes away from the goal I set of 5. But when I look at it, at one point during the year my cap was up to an 11 until things came around. We joked about it being spring training, but it sure lasted a long time.

Greens in reg. Was not good this season, I finished the year at 49%. It’s about 6% lower than last season. This was definitely a sore spot that needs to be improved on if I’m going to get my cap down lower.

Putts per green were respectable at 32.5 but I had too many 3 putts early in the year. I changed to a new Odyssey SRT 2 ball in June and started to putt much better. At one point near the end of the season I didn’t have a 3 putt for 5 rounds.

Scrambling was another sore spot, I was only 35% in up and downs. This is definitely an area that needs work next season.

Driving accuracy was respectable at 53% but should be better. On Oct. 5^Th I purchase a new Titleist 907 D2 driver and I just love it and wish I had it at the start of the year, but who can justify $600.00 for 1 club. I found it at the end of the season when they were getting rid of this year’s stock, what a good buy. $320.00. Over my last 5 rounds using it I was 64% in fairways hit. Next season should be awesome.

Diving distance has never been a problem for me I averaged 283 yards with my R7 quad. After purchasing the Titleist driver I was averaging 295 yards. Another thing to look forward to next season and just in case you want to know how I know my driving distance it’s because I have been using a golf GPS system for the past 3 years. If you don’t have one you’re at a disadvantage.

Sand saves this season were a real surprise, at the being of the year it was pretty much the same old routine. I would maybe save 1 out of 5. Then I got a new 60* Cleveland CG12 with only 4* bounce. After I started using it out of the sand I started getting it up and down almost every time. I finished the year with a save percentage of 68. This was the real bright spot for my season.

I only played in 1 tournament this year which is not what I had planned but it just worked out that way. It was our men’s amateur. I ended up being in the first flight playing against guys with caps from scratch to 8. I was at an 8 at the time; I didn’t have much of a chance at the low gross but did manage a low net prize. I won 6^th low net; there were 6 low gross and 6 low net prizes for each flight. I played really well with the exception of 3 holes over the 2 day event. I shot 81 on both days which was only 1 shot over my cap (respectable). I had trouble on #1, 2, 3, on those 3 holes I was 11 over par in 2 days. They just killed me, and yes it was all in my head. My mental game was out of whack for sure.

Well that about raps it up for me. I can’t wait until next season. I have purchased a membership at a place called Urban Golf links. They have an indoor practise range equipped with video camera and laser launch monitors, it’s so cool. They have 6 stalls set up like this. I plan on getting a head start on next season.

How was your season?

Golf GPS Systems

How far would you go in your pursuit to improve your game? What if I told you about the enormous benefit the Golf Gps System has made for us amateur golfers? You wouldn’t want to get left behind by your competition would you? Word is going around about how valuable these systems can be. It’s like having the same yardage book that Tiger Woods carries around a golf course! About the only thing it can’t do for you is carry your golf bag.

You may have had some experience with them in the past. Some higher end courses have them installed right in their golf carts. I’m sure at the time you thought “what a great idea”. Now think about how valuable it would be to have one you can carry around the course with you! Are you getting the picture yet?

OK then here are a few of the kinds of things you can do with a Golf gps system.

· Well first off here is the obvious one, it gives you the yardage to the green (front, center and back) from the spot your ball comes to rest off the tee. This is not just from the fairway either; it’s from any spot your ball stops.

· The unit that I have even gives me the shape of the green from whatever direction I’m approaching it from.

· Some units can track multiple targets per hole. The new Sky caddie SG4 can track up to 40 targets per hole. (When professionally mapped). It will tell you how far it is to a fairway bunker and how far to carry it. It will give you the yardage to the corner of a dog-leg so that you don’t over shoot the fairway.

a) Here is an example; #17 at my home course is a 420 yard par 4 with a sharp dog-leg to the left. Playing conservatively by not using a driver will leave you an uphill approach shot of 200+ yards. Because of the GPS unit I know that to cut the corner over the trees, it’s a 230 yard carry which usually leaves me in the middle of the fairway with a wedge in my hands on my approach.

That my friends is a significant advantage!

· Are you still guessing at how far you can hit each of your clubs? Well the golf GPS system will help you do away with the guess work. All you have to do is mark the spot where your ball is, hit your shot then mark the spot where your ball came to rest, and the unit gives you the distance you hit the ball. If you keep track, after 3 or 4 rounds you will have a very good idea of just how far you hit each club, no matter what kind of swing you put on the ball. What I mean by that is was it a good swing or a bad swing, a half, ¾, or a full swing.

· I have been using the golf GPS to track my driving distance over the past 3 seasons now. I have a very good Idea of how far I hit my driver. (283yds. avg.) This season I demoed a new driver and found that I was driving the ball an extra 13 yards with it. That was enough information for me to justify purchasing the new driver.

Are you getting the picture yet? Can you see how valuable a Golf GPS System would be to have in your bag? It will help you shave strokes off your scores. They help you speed up your play because you don’t have to pace off the yardage. If you are reading this article you can use a Golf GPS.

Now is the time to take complete control of your game, don’t get left behind by your playing partners. Run don’t walk to get this unbelievably valuable piece of golf equipment.

Author

Shelby Martowski

The Golfaholic

Mental Training and Your Life

For those of you that are knee deep in snow, you can do a lot to improve your mental game for golf during the off season by applying the principles of "The Mental Keys to Improve Your Golf " to your life. Even if you live where the weather is warm and sunny, you can work on improving your mental game everyday by applying my book to your life.

The same negative emotions that upset your chemistry while playing golf are present in your daily life. The only difference is that during a round of golf the feedback is immediate and easy to see because it affects your performance and score. The negative emotions in your life may take days, weeks, months or even years to catch up with you in one way or another. As a result, you pay little attention to the negative emotions in your daily life and allow them to continue to exist.

If you have a strong desire to be in control of your emotions on the golf course in order to lower your score, make it a habit to reflect on the Daily Affirmation in my book several times a day every day. When you do, follow Shakespeare's advice in Hamlet, "To Thine Own Self Be True." Without being true to yourself, the Daily Affirmation of "I am always truthful, positive and helping others" will only be eight hollow words without meaning to you. Empty words will not increase your self-awareness of the negative emotions that are on your tape.

However, if you are true to yourself and make it a habit to reflect on the Daily Affirmation throughout the day, you will become very aware whenever you attach negative emotions to the facts in your life. Once your awareness of what is on your tape increases, then you can start to reprogram your tape and stop attaching negative emotions to the facts you encounter in your daily life.

Your tape wants to do its job which is to have you repeat or make similar responses to what you have done in the past. If you have fear or get angry in your daily life, you will have fear and get angry on the golf course. Your fear and anger will cost you strokes when you play golf.

However, if you take the time to mentally train yourself to reduce the fear and anger you may experience in your daily life, it will become easy to do it while you are playing golf. Once you reduce or eliminate the negative emotions from recurring on your tape, you will be amazed at how well you can play golf and how much happier and productive your life off the golf course will become.

If you are knee deep in snow, you have plenty of time to reread "The Mental Keys" several times and work on reducing or eliminating the negative emotions from your tape in your daily life. If you do, your mental game will be much improved when your golf season begins.

The same holds true for you if you are blessed with good weather. If you desire to keep improving your mental game, make the time to reread "The Mental Keys" and apply the Daily Affirmation to your life.