20 ISSUE 367 TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK
Bargain golf balls, angry golfers and good
and bad rules fall under the spotlight
Your say...
TO THE POINTGary Player is
no stranger to
controversial
comments,
and reacted
to Ross Fisher
breaking the
course record
at St Andrews
by lamenting
the advances
in equipment
technology.
This opened up
a big debate in
TG Towers, as it
did on Twitter
as plenty of you
waded into the
discussion...Simon Daddow, TG
equipment editor
The equipment is
almost irrelevant as
a lot of restrictions
are imposed on
manufacturers
anyway. What
you cannot stop
is players getting
fitter, stronger and
better prepared.
That’s the real
reason why the
course record has
been broken or
matched in five of
the last six years.Jon Stewart
No wind. Perfect
scoring conditions.
Nothing to do with
today’s ball and
equipment in my
view. Records are
there to be broken.Kevin Connolly
The Old Course is a
very easy links to
play compared to
some of the links
we have in Ireland.
Too easy for the
modern day player
in my opinion.John Pierre
Is it only me that
is bored of seeing
pros shoot low
week in, week out?
Fairways need
narrowing and
rough allowed to
grow.LETTER OF THE MONTH
The perfect golf break
LETTER OF THE MONTH WINS
A putter from Ping’s 15-model
Sigma G range, worth from £y husband started
playing golf this year –
he’s dabbled before but
this year it has taken over. If he’s
been out playing in the morning,
he’ll come back and say ‘I’m not
going to talk about golf all day
but...’ for the rest of the
weekend. I get into bed and
instead of his face I see a golf
magazine. I get woken up at
6.30am every Saturday morning
because of an early tee time.
Once I got rather excited when
he asked me if I wanted to go
shopping, only to be taken to
American Golf for the
afternoon. I feel like I’ve lost my
husband... to golf. However, it
seems I’m not the only one. One
weekend he told me he was
going to a club with threefriends to play golf for the
whole day. Well us WAGs had
had enough. Turns out most
clubs have a spa... so us four
golfing widows planned our
own day out. Gym, spa and
lunch. Bliss! We even met the
guys for a drink afterwards as
well (they paid). We’re now
planning a trip to Portugal
under the guise of being good
wives and letting our other
halves play golf when really
we’re eyeing up the sunbeds
and cocktails. So, thank you
golf for my new found friends
and holiday. Now, if only my
husband would stop
complaining about his naff
putter, my life would be perfect!
SARA SHUKER,
STRATFORD-UPON-AVONUnexpected bonus
Having resumed playing golf after a
number of years away from it, I
soon realised that I was hopelessly
out of date with equipment and
technology.
I traded my old Ping Zing irons
for some shiny new Ping Gs and
my woods for TaylorMade
AeroBurners, including a mini
driver. I never could hit the biggest
stick in the bag. Things started to
improve after a few frustrating
rounds, but I still struggled to find
the right ball for my swing speed
and a pre-shot routine which
worked. Finally, I settled on Srixon
Soft Feel golf balls and then turned
my attention to my pre-shot
routine. I had tried focusing on the
clouds, trees and blades of grass
on my chosen line, but nothing
seemed to last for long.
It was while trawling eBay for a
bargain that I came across my
preferred Srixon balls with a
company’s logo stamped on them
at a reasonable price. I quickly
ordered a dozen before they sold
out. Once unpacked, I saw the logo
‘PCI’ emblazoned on all 12 and I
wondered if I could turn those
letters into a pre-shot routine
formula. After a bit of thought, I
settled on the following:PRACTICE Take a practice swing.
CONCENTRATE Concentrate on
my chosen line.
IMAGINE Visualise the shot I want.Determined to put this into
action, I teed every ball up and
aligned every putt with the logo
visible and in line with the target. I
then went through the routine as
above. Did it work? Well, having
struggled to break 90 since my
return to the course, I shot a very
respectable 83.
GRAHAM MERCER, EMAILM