Weekend Golfers

This site is dedicated to the Weekend Golfers. Those of us that are unable to get to the course during the week because we have other more boring things to do…like going to work.

But once the weekend comes we can’t wait to get to the golf Course. We know we’ll be good this week, we’ve already played the round out in our heads during the week. This time we’re good to go.

Maybe this sounds familiar when you stand on the first tee

‘All I need to do is hit the fairway, if I can just get my first tee shot away down the middle about 250, I can get on the green in regulation, a couple of putts and I get a par, 18 of those and I par the course, happy days’….sounds easy doesn’t it, but as easy as it sounds it seldom works out that way does it.

We’re all about playing hard and going for it, attack, attack, attack!

If you only get to play at the weekend…why would you lay up? OK so we know you’re gonna make a mess of a lot of them but hey you only need to get one shot right and you’ll be thinking about it all week and you won’t be able to wait to get back on the course to do it again the following week.

This is the essence of the weekend golfers. We hope you enjoy your stay and we’d love to hear all about your golfing feats, both triumphs and failures.

I was lucky enough to play golf at Monte Rei Golf and Country Club, which is in Portugal.

'This was more than a round of golf, it was a golfing experience'

From the moment I arrived, I was treated like a professional golfer. My bag was taken from me and sent down to the range to await my arrival for warm up...and the practice facilities...I could have stayed there all day.

I went into the Country Club for a well presented, very tasty breakfast to set myself up for the day. With beautiful surrounds and very friendly staff which got my stay off to a great start.

I was driven, by golf cart, to the practice facilities to get ready for my tee off. The Green Keeper told me with great pride that every green 'ran at the same pace' and I am delighted to be able to back up his claims...they were exceptional and quick too, which we like.

After smoking a drive off the first tee, I left myself a 140 metre 7-iron, which sat 3-feet from the flag begging to be a first hole birdie...which it duly became....what a great start to a great day!

After flattering on the first nine, I ran out of steam and finished 5 over for my round. The whole day will always stick in my mind. The views around the course were awesome and the course was in tip top condition.

At the end of my round I was greeted by one of the owners of the complex who thanked me for coming to play his course and he presented me with a personalised bag tag, which is still on my golf bag today.

If you ever get the opportunity to play Monte Rei...you will be absolutely blown away. It is everything that you could want or hope for in a golf course. I look forward to returning again in the future.

In the game of golf, golf balls are struck by clubs with the objective of putting the ball in a hole in as few strokes (shots) as possible.  At the beginning of each hole, a ball may be placed upon a tee to steady the ball and help the golfer achieve more loft on his shot.  Off of the tee box, a player must strike the ball as it lies on the ground.  Once a golfer reaches the green, he may choose to utilize a putter, a club with a flat club face, to roll the ball towards the hole.

In the beginning of golf, in early 1800’s, golf balls were covered with leather and stuffed with goose feathers.  By the mid-1800’s, a harder ball was developed using gutta-percha packing material, commonly found in tree milk.  Through time, the bramble ball was developed, with a hard dimpled cover.  At the turn of the century a rubber ball was developed by the B.F. Goodrich Company, with hard rubber core wound by rubber threads and covered by a synthetic material.

Today, there are primarily two types of golf balls used in the game: the balata ball and the surlyn ball.  Regardless of the type of ball used, the United States Golf Association (USGA) has regulated conformity among all balls to be played.  The USGA ruled that all balls must be round, no larger than 1.68” in diameter, and may not be heavier than 1.62 oz.

The balata ball is also known as a three-piece ball.  It contains a hard rubber core, is wound by rubber bands and has a cover made of a synthetic material called balata.  Balata is essentially a soft cover that many advanced golfers believe make it easier for them to shape their shots.  The drawback to this softer cover is that it is not very resistant to nicks and cuts throughout repeated use.

The two-piece ball contains a larger rubber core, and a thick cover of a synthetic material called surlyn.  Although this harder cover may make it more difficult to shape shots, and it may create more bounce, it is more durable than the balata ball.  It is also thought that it is more difficult to achieve a desired backspin on the ball with a two-piece ball.

The major manufacturers of golf balls are Titleist, Dunlop, MaxFli, Top Flight, Pinnacle and Precept.  Golf balls are generally packaged in boxes of three called sleeves.  Retailers will typically sell boxes of multiple sleeves of balls, usually in quantities of 15-18.  A box of golf balls normally retails between $20 and $50, depending on the maker and brand.

Most casual golfers keep their golf bag in the garage until they get the call from a friend to go play a round.  Their expectations on how well they will play or normally pretty low and they have decided that they are just going out to swing the sticks and enjoy the day.  Then when the round is over and their score is even worse than they had anticipated, they wonder why they didn’t perform better.  The answer is usually pretty simple – because they didn’t practice.

The best way to improve one’s golf game is to spend some time at golf driving ranges.  It doesn’t even have to be frequent visits or long practice sessions.  Just going out to the range and working on basic swing techniques should allow the golfer to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t.  Also, golfers should go to the driving range with the mindset that they are going there to practice and should take the session seriously.

There are so many golf driving ranges that have sprung up all over that it is hard not to find one in America within ten miles of your home.  Many are owned and operated by golf professionals and have instructors available on-site for private lessons.  It is also relatively inexpensive to go practice at the range, where a bucket of practice balls normally range in price between $2.00 and $5.00.  Most golf courses have golf driving ranges on site to allow a golfer to warm up and practice before playing a round on the course.

When you go to the range, it is recommended that you limber up with some exercises before swinging at balls.  Once you are loose, you should start by hitting some pitch shots and work your way up to the longer clubs.  Usually about ten shots per club will give an adequate amount of practice while accounting for the number of balls in the bucket.  Most golf driving ranges have yardage markers and flags scattered throughout the landing area, so it is a good idea to try to use them as targets when aligning your body and making your swing.

Many golf driving ranges also have a snack bar to grabs some food or a cool beverage.  Some ranges even have a pro shop where you can purchase golf equipment and accessories.  A good range will also have practice bunkers for sand shots and a pitch and putting green to work on those aspects of the game.

To play the game of golf, it is essential that one has the proper golf equipment.  Golf equipment can be a costly investment, as there are so many gimmicks and gadgets being sold to improve one’s game.  However, for the weekend duffer, nothing more is needed than the essentials: golf clubs, a bag to carry the clubs in and golf balls.

According to United States Golf Association rules, a golfer should carry no more than fourteen clubs in the bag.  The essential clubs needed are a driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges and a putter.  The golfer can mix and match the number of particular clubs to suit his game as long as he does not exceed fourteen clubs.  Golf is not an inexpensive game, as the average golfer will normally spend between $500 and $1,000 to purchase a complete set of clubs.

Golf bags are an essential part of golf equipment because it would be impractical, if not impossible, to haul fourteen clubs and golf balls around a golf course.  Bags can be made of fine leather but most golfers usually use some sort of lightweight nylon bag.  It is advised that a golfer choose his bag based on how he will primarily be getting around the course.  If he will primarily be riding on a golf cart, he may want to choose a larger bag that will accommodate more accessories, balls, towels, etc.  If he plans on walking, then a light bag with a comfortable shoulder strap is recommended.  Many of the light, nylon bags are being made with retractable legs that will allow the walking golfer to prop up his bag while on the course.

Golf balls are usually sold in boxes of three, called sleeves.  Many times it is most economical to purchase packages that include five or six sleeves.  The two main balls sold are balata and two-piece balls. Balata balls are made with a hard rubber core, wound with rubber bands, and covered with balata (a soft, plastic cover).  The two-piece ball is normally a large, hard rubber core, surrounded by a surlyn cover.  Surlyn is a hard plastic that is more resistant to nicks and cuts.  The balata is softer, but most advanced golfers feel they can shape the flight of the ball easier than with a two-piece ball.

There are other pieces of golf equipment that the beginning golfer may wish to obtain.  The first is a pair of golf shoes.  Golf shoes range in variety from wingtip, to tennis shoes, to sandals.  Most shoes made today come with soft rubber spikes, to assist the golfer in setting his feet into the ground.  Another recommended piece of equipment would be a golf glove.  After a day of swinging a club around 80 times, blisters can form on the grip hand if not protected by a glove.  Other pieces of golf equipment that should be considered are golf tees, ball markers, a club brush and an umbrella, for rainy days.

The General idea of putting is to roll the ball along the green into the hole using a smooth, unhurried putting motion that generates both distance and direction control.

The Putting technique can be broken down into several areas:

Aim
The putter-head is aimed towards the hole and when it is at a right angle to the target line the putter-head is said to be 'square to the target'

Grip
The Grip pressure should be light and even.

Posture & Stance -
Standing upright with feet together and the arms out in front of the chest with the club shaft parallel to the ground, bend forward from the hip.  Your back should remain fairly straight , but not tight.

As the club head reaches the floor, allow your knees to flex slighty.  To create balance and comfort take a small step with each foot to the side. 
The feet will be slightly narrower than shoulder width and your chin should be slightly raised from your chest.


Body Alignment
Your shoulders, hips, knees and feet should ideally be parallel to the target line.  This will encourage the correct shape of swing.

Ball Position
For a straight putt the ball should be placed in the middle of your stance.

Swing
The lower half of the body acts as a steady base.  Al the movement comes from the shoulders rocking the arms and putter back and forth.  The length of the swing should be roughly the same both back and forward.

The length of the swing together with a smooth repetitive speed should govern the distance the ball rolls.  The direction is mainly controlled by the position of the clubface at impact, as well as the direction the clubhead is travelling in.

Putting is all about repetition of the correct techniques and by concentrating on each of these areas we will be able to achieve a consistent putting stroke which in turn will help us take less putts during a round.

The Golfers mindset is an ever changing animal that rides along on the the roller coaster of emotions that is found in a typical round of golf.

The average golfer is usually only a couple of shots away from beating themselves up and the better the player the less forgiving they seem to be on themselves.

Have you ever noticed that when you get back into the club house after a round of golf, that the higher handicappers, or maybe even the new golfers, are recounting the 'awesome shot' that they made earlier in the day.  You can see the excitement and rapture on their faces. 

They feel like a professional golfer for that one moment; and if they could only just 'bottle' the feeling. 

On the other side of this example, the low handicapper has hit a shot they're not happy with and they dwell on it.  never mind the 70 or so other shots that we're hit with precision, it's the one bad one that ruffles the feathers.

I find that the better I get, the harder I am on myself when things don't go as I have planned.  I used to expect to hit 10 or more bad shots in a round and when the bad shot came I just accepted it and didn't worry about it because I knew it was going to happen.  But when I didn't hit 10 bad shots in a round it was cause for celebration.

Now that I don't expect to make so many poor shots, I am more hard on myself than when I was a less able golfer.

The little moral of this story is about setting realistic expectations and not dwelling on the past.  If I let the bad shot affect me, I'm more likely to hit another poor shot.  If I forget about it straight away, I will deal with it much better.

If only the 'awesome shots' could be bottled.

There are some unwritten rules of golfing etiquette that you need to adhere to when putting.  We'll have a look at some of them here.

Order of play is always a good one.  The golfer who's ball is furthest from the hole is always the first to play.  Except for a few occassions. 

When you have just played a long putt and you leave a tap in, it's quite acceptable for you to putt out before your playing partners do.

It's sometimes agreed for a player to 'putt out of turn' if their stance is going to interfere with the area the other players ball is in.  For example, if you putt first you may be standing on their line.  This is a no-no as often you will leave spike marks or other indents in the surface of the green.

Standing in line, whether in front or behind, of your playing partners putt.  This gives you an unfair advantage of seeing the putt and is also very distracting for the player making the putt.  You will find as you improve your putting your levels of concentration will increase as well.  It is an art in itself to ignore distractions while putting.

Repairing pitch marks on the green.  Often when you fly a ball into the green from a distance, the weight of the ball will leave a compression mark, known as a pitch mark on the surface of the green. 

You are responsible for the repair of your pitch mark.  If you don't repair the pitch mark, that part of the green will effectively die.  There is a tool called a pitch repairer that you should carry when you play golf and some courses will insist that you carry one.  You can buy these from all pro shops and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and prices.  I have about thirty different ones and like most golfers I have a favourite.

A good practice to get into is to repair your own pitch mark and any others you see on the green while you are waiting to play or after you've putted.  This will help to keep the greens in good order and will actually make life easier for you when you are putting.  It's so much easier to putt on a flat green without any bobbles caused by unfixed pitch marks.

Speed of play is another consideration.  Always be ready to play your next shot.  Get yourself ready to play your own putt, you can be reading the line of your putt while others are playing their shots. 

Slow play is a bit of a curse of modern golf and is something that you need to be aware of at all times and one of the main cause of this is golfers not being ready to  play their shots when it's their turn to play. 

Another cause of slow play when putting is not leaving your golf bag on the correct side of the green.  When you are walking up to the green have a quick thought about where the next tee is and place you bag on the side of the green nearest the next hole.  You can then make your putt, pick up your bag and walk straight to the next tee.  This will avoid you delaying the players waiting to play their approach shots into the green you are on.

The Golfers Fitness never really improves by playing the game.  It's not like football, Athletics, Swimming or cycling where it gets your heart racing and increases your blood flow.

Sure there may be times when your heart races, but it's usually more to do with hoping the ball won't land in the water, or that you do make the hole in one when the ball lands from your great tee shot.  It's a rush for sure but one of a much more sedentry nature.

Have you ever stopped to think what shape you are in when you play golf.  Can you walk up the hill from the last green to the next tee and not be out of breath or have your heart rate increase dramatically?  If you can well done.  If you're less fortunate and not able to, the bad news is that playing golf is not going to help get you fit for playing golf.

There are of course natural athletes that can manage the stresses and strains of the game, but for the masses who can't, we need to take a little extra exercise to help us play the game to our true potential.

There is a true saying in golf that you 'get out of the game what you put in to it'  that is usually aimed at how much practice you do but can equally be aimed at how much exercise you take to keep yourself in shape and in turn your game.

You don't have to suddenly start going to the gym everyday, or running marathons, but 30 minutes extra a day will certainly go along way to making your round of golf easier to manage.  The plus side is it's good for your health too.

Once you get fit, try to stay fit because it's much easier to stay fit than it is to get fit.

happy golfing.

The most common putting aid on the market are the indoor putting mats.  

These are usually about 6-feet long with one, sometimes two, cups cut into one end.  Often they are slightly uphill as this is usually to accommodate the hole.  These are useful putting aids to use but there are a few things that you need to consider when using a putting mat.

The biggest drawback to indoor putting mats is the limited variety of putt that you are able to practice.  The design of the mat is pretty straight forward, as we've already said it's usually about 6-foot long and straight.  So you get to practice straight putts from up to six foot - whilst those putts are important to practice, think about how many times on a course do you actually get six foot straight putts.

One real downside to using putting mats is there is the danger of you getting in the groove.  What we mean by this is you will invariably learn the pace and line of the putt and then switch onto auto pilot.  You will then forget about setting up properly, your putting grip, the putting stroke and the putting strike, especially if you are making putts all the time.  

You may have heard the saying that 'Practice Makes Perfect'  - well we disagree.  We believe that 'Practice Makes Permanent'.  If you keep coming up short in your putts - practicing the same thing will enable you to keep coming up short in your putts!

We like putting mats, we use them all the time but we like to add a little variety to them.  We also like to use putting mats for our chipping drills.  We place our putting mats on the floor and stand about 4-6 feet away from it and then play a chip shot onto the mat and aim to get the ball in the hole.  All the while we are trying to get the golf ball to release just like a putt would.  Once we get good at it we then place small objects between the ball and the putting mat, maybe a book, that we then have to chip over all the time still trying to get the ball in the hole.

In summary, we think putting mats as aids for putting training are a useful tool.  But we don't want you to only putt from 6-foot in a straight line and we've told you how we use our putting mats, so that should give you an insight to how we would recommend them.

Which is better for your game, Fairway Woods or Rescue Clubs?

Well it really depends on which type of ball striker you are.  Do you 'hit' or 'sweep' the golf ball?  and how will you know which you are.

Have you ever seen an aeroplane flying in the sky with lines of what looks like clouds coming from the wings, this is called the vapour trail.

Now imagine a vapour trail coming from the end of your golf club when you swing it.  Does it make a 'V' shape or a 'U' shape?  If it's like like a 'V' shape it means your angle of attack is steeper and you will 'hit' down on the ball.  If it's more like a 'U' shape then it means the angle of attack of your club head is more shallow and has a sweeping effect.

The Rescue Clubs are better suited to 'hitters' of the golf ball and the Fairway Woods are better suited to players who sweep the golf ball of the grass.  You can also tell by how much of a divot you take, if it's a big one then the chances are you are a hitter; conversely if you take little or no divots you are probably sweeping the ball of the surface of the grass.

The chances are you can use both clubs, but I suspect you will favour one over the other.  It doesn't matter which you are, it all about using what works best for you.

If you've never thought about it before, you now have a great excuse to go to the Pro Shop and try out a few.  You may surprise yourself and make the game easier for yourself.