The 14 clubs rule is troubling me

Posted on by Alexander Rose

I am a person that is sticking to rules, no matter what. This includes golf rules I adhere to.

There is one rule however that I question from time to time. Not really questioning the existence per se, but I struggle with it somehow. I am speaking of rule 4.1b(1): „A player must not start a round with more than 14 clubs, or have more than 14 clubs during the round.“

It sounds easy and easy to follow but there is more to it, at least from my perspective. In case you would like to know the origins of this rule, you should read this Golfdigest article.

Several years I struggled with my woods. As a tendency I excelled with irons, including 3- and 2-iron. The 2-iron was my absolute go-to driving iron which I used in almost every situation. And I had no real pressure, I worked my way down to a 12 handicap with just irons in my bag.

In the meantime I managed to progress with my woods fortunately. And I totally digged the importance of a good, long and straight tee shot with a (hybrid) wood. With that in mind, I bought myself a set of woods: driver, 3-wood, 5-wood — and I even thought about a 7-wood.

On the lower end of the club spectrum I kept it simple with 52- and 56-degree wedges, but as I started to use a chipper, all this obviously adds up.

Doing the math:

Continue reading The 14 clubs rule is troubling me

Another thing to learn from the pros: Repair pitch marks on the green

Posted on by Alexander Rose

It might become a new series on the blog; there are indeed so many things to learn from professional golfers. So, in this inaugural post on things to learn from pros: be the heck thankful to the sport, the course and treat both with dignity — start by repairing your pitch marks.

We all know what I’m talking about. You get to a course, looking forward to some great hours playing your beloved sport. Then on hole whatever, there’s a deep pitch mark in your putting line. Either you see it beforehand and repair it for yourself because the guy/gal who did this wasn’t aware or too lazy. The other possibility would be you don’t realize there is mark, you putt and miss because of that bloody ditch in the ground that nobody repaired in the first place.

Both alternatives are annoying and at the same time avoidable. Just make it your damn rule whenever you step on a green, first—before you think about putt lines, speed and turf condition—repair your pitch mark. If you can’t find yours or if you haven’t left one, please repair the one that another idiot left earlier. The players behind you will thank you for that, because only a flat, non-dimpled green is a joy to putt on.

It goes without saying that you don’t start your round of golf without putting the necessary tool in your pocket. That’s a start at least. You just have to remember it use it eventually.

If you do need some tutoring on how to actually repair marks, this guide should help you. Two and a half minutes well invested.

Now go out, play and take care of the course. You’re not a green keeper, but quite literally you are one—for the sake of joy for all of us. Thank you.

Yes, I bought a chipper and I don’t regret it

Posted on by Alexander Rose

I know what you are thinking right now. And you may have a point, but hear me out. It won’t disappoint you.

When I lived in England, I unfortunately haven’t had much time to play golf. But when I did with locals, in 100% of the occasions, there was at least one player in the group using a chipper without hesitation.

Back home in Germany I never encountered anybody using this sort of club and honestly never had one in my hand myself. This changed a couple of weeks ago when I decided to give this thing a try. All the English people can’t be so wrong about it — when it’s helpful and useful, then it’s a reason to put in the bag.

So what I did, I purchased the top level chipper online as no local golf shop had one to show, nor to buy. Hence online I went and screened the very narrow offer of chippers out there. And this is how it went.

Continue reading Yes, I bought a chipper and I don’t regret it

Late 2020 season progress

Posted on by Alexander Rose

Yesterday I went to the range with my clubs in the hunt for some answers to what’s wrong with my long game currently. As it turns out, there’s isn’t so much wrong after all.

I put my 9-year old driver, fairway wood and hybrid back in the bag, and truth be told, the balls were pretty much flying as desired. Yes, it was range only from artificial turf but the overall performance was very, very positive. Which is why I believe I neither have a club or swing problem, but more a shaft problem in my new metalwood clubs. A problem that needs some fixing in the off-season clearly.

So in the meantime my old woods are performing nicely and I also had one completely new club in the bag which I teased here very recently. No, it’s not a putter and yes, there will be more information about it very soon. But so far, I’m really happy with the purchase and the outcome in the first practice session.

So happy indeed that I enrolled for two competitions in October to get these two areas to real tournament-pressure numbers. We’ll see. #Project9 and #Break80 are back on the agenda. Not for 2020, but definitely for 2021.

My dilemma with my metal woods explained

Posted on by Alexander Rose

Open and frank, my game with driver, woods and hybrids is very, very poor. Up to a point where I whiffed, shanked or topped balls. Pathetic, I know. I was better once, had lessons when it got worse, but it all was pretty obvious: irons yay, woods nay.

In the past years I made peace with my woods and as a consequence ignored them in my basement, literally leaving the long sticks at home when I left for a competition. I felt confident with my long irons, put a 2- and 3-iron in the bag and found the fairway very, very consistently.

While this was great for confidence, and shot shaping, and pace of play, it left me at a stage where with handicap 12 I figured it would be really difficult to drastically improve if I would’t be in a position to jack up my GIR rate and just be a little longer. Putting the ball in the fairway is nice, but it’s not ideal to attack the flag with another 200 meters to go.

Usually my 2-iron gets me to 180 meters effortlessly. Sometimes less, sometimes up to 200, depending on weather and turf condition. And I do appreciate that consistency, it’s just that in order to get to a single handicap, I’m urgently in need to improve with my woods and hybrids. I just need to be able to take out the driver to aim for an area of the hole that is more than 230 meters away. That was out of the question so far…

Continue reading My dilemma with my metal woods explained

Preparing the next generation; youth golf clubs

Posted on by Alexander Rose

Some people might find it weird, some others will understand it, and again others might have done exactly what I’m trying to achieve: I bought my little 3-year old daughter her first own golf set.

She didn’t ask for it (she’s currently more asking for a horse actually) and she never expressed much interest in playing golf at all. Yes, she used my clubs from time to time when daddy practiced chipping in the backyard, and yes, she was quite keen to play when we hit the range the other day, but in every case I was more or less the trigger.

Sure, I never forced her to hold a club but as said, she never actively asked to play the game at all.

As a keen golfer with a clear picture that this is THE perfect family sport, I’m however interested to get her interested, too. What I will do for the rest of this and definitely next season is to take her with me to some range sessions for her to see what daddy is doing there and that other people are doing pretty much the same.

She knows what playing golf is, that you have some clubs with which you swing and that you try to get that little white ball in a small hole in the ground. Mommy is doing some fancy fitness stuff and daddy hits white balls around a field…

Continue reading Preparing the next generation; youth golf clubs

It’s time for a new GPS watch

Posted on by Alexander Rose

I was and still am a big fan of my Garmin S2 GPS watch. It accompanied me on uncounted rounds of golf, always worked perfectly (in contrast to the golf shot afterwards) and definitely does the trick. Still it was time for something new.

As said, I really like my S2, there is nothing I would have liked differently when I bought it. It had everything I asked for, and frankly, all the other gimmicks with expensive color GPS watches, it just doesn’t give you any additional benefit—in my opinion.

As it ages though, it’s the second wrist band already and buying it in white hasn’t been the greatest idea in the first place. Then the battery seems to fade, and I’m lucky if I make it through 18 holes before the battery dies. The capacity is just not there anymore. And it’s a bit bulky and clumsy. Apart from these downsides it’s a brilliant watch, no question about it.

But it was time for something new. I went for even a cheaper version of golf GPS watch and bought the Garmin S10, a sleek black GPS watch with a monochrome watch face, battery for 12 hours of GPS golf mode or months in watch mode only. And it’s lightweight and black.

Ticks every boxes, what do you think?

Continue reading It’s time for a new GPS watch

GPS or laser rangefinder – that is the question

Posted on by Alexander Rose

Decades ago, life was easy. Golf life, too. There were distance poles on the side of the fairway, indicating 100, 150 and 200 meters or yards. It was measured towards the front of the green and you would add a good portion to the green center or the flag, whatever you were aiming for.

In between poles you would either roughly estimate or pace out manually. These measures were of course very rough but fine for most golfers nonetheless for hundred years.

Then modern technology hit the golf course as well. Nowadays it’s common to ask for exact distances, and when I say “exactly”, I mean exactly. A margin of three meters doesn’t seem to be OK anymore – you need exact figures.

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I couldn’t resist myself either, as you can imagine, so in the end I use both a laser and a GPS device. But let me explain what I think of both devices and what I believe these are targeted at. Because not every style of player would be equally happy with both devices.

Generally I truly appreciate the technology that made its way to golf as well. I also believe that, correctly used, it can drastically improve your game. But it does require some thought process and less ego—yes, I’m talking to you, middle aged male golfer.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we:

Continue reading GPS or laser rangefinder – that is the question

New clubs deserve new balls, gloves and a bag

Posted on by Alexander Rose

As you might have read here, I’m the proud owner of a new awesome set of irons. I ordered my dream clubs, the Titleist CB, they were custom made to my exact configuration and finally delivered to my doorstep last week.

I have one round already in the books with them and they feel and perform just fantastic. Enough reason to treat myself with some other golf goods to really kick off the progress in the 2019 season. It’s just fair to accompany new clubs with new balls, a new glove and put them in a new bag.

Balls

For years I played NIKE PD Soft and really liked them. I had access to various Titleist products as well and used VICE in different versions, too. Both are good balls even though I have to say I don’t seriously recognize a huge difference between brands if you stay in one category, meaning comparing soft with soft with soft.

I really like the VICE Pro, especially its soft outer shell which supposedly creates more spin around the green, which I appreciate. In other characteristics I reckon this ball is pretty comparable to the Titleist ProV, but with a much smaller price tag. Buying ProVs is somewhat unnecessary not being a single handicapper I think. Staying in the Titleist brand and preferring softer feel, it was a no-brainer to go test the new Titleist Tour Soft ball. So far a very good ball indeed.

Since the latest MyGolfSpy ball test which created quite some stir in the industry, everyone knows from an independent source that soft balls are actually slow balls, meaning distance will suffer once you change from a hard ball to a soft ball. Doesn’t sound like rocket science, does it. However distance has never been a problem for me, I’m not after the next 20 meters, what I’m after is consistent ball flight and distance and a soft touch within 80 meters around the hole.

Glove

Not for the first time I ordered some new FootJoy CabrettaSof gloves, a hand-made Cabretta leather product which I love. It just feels more natural to me compared to the overly technical synthetic gloves I clearly used and tested as well. Feel is everything and I do believe I will stick with this model for a while – it’s just that you can’t buy it in every golf or pro shop.

Bag

Coming to the bag. I already own some Titleist bags; the latest two additions are currently in constant rotation, depending on reason I’m heading to the course. For training I prefer a light-weight carry bag as I don’t use a trolley on the range. For a round of golf I use a tidy 14-way cart bag with bigger pockets. This ends up in packing and un-packing golf sticks on a weekly basis, which is annoying to say the least.

Now I bought a Titleist hybrid bag. As the name suggests, it’s a hybrid between carry and cart bag. You are able to carry it, it stands properly just like any other carry bag, but it offers both more storage room and a 14-way divider at the top. I guess this is what I waited for so long from Titleist. No more early morning re-packing in the garage. Yay!

Apparel

That’s it as far as equipment goes. I couldn’t resist the other day to buy another FootJoy Chill Out Pullover with club logo on the chest. I really like FootJoy products, next to all the NIKE polos, trousers and shorts I have in my golf drawers. “Play good, look good!” If you don’t play well, don’t be bothered to spend too much on looking good and invest in some training sessions instead.

And before you ask, no it’s not yet Christmas time.