Worcester–panorama shot

Taken with my new Windows Phone 7 Device

2011 Masters Champion: Charl Schwartzel

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Lost City Golf Club–28/02/2011

I was fortunate enough to be invited on holiday with family to Sun City, where they have 2 wonderful golf courses: Lost City Golf Club and Gary Player Country Club. I’d played Lost City before, and it would be the first time that I played Gary Player CC (topic of a separate post to follow).
The LCGC is situated in the beautiful highveld. It is a Gary Player Design – and after playing both Lost City and Gary Player, it’s definitely my favourite of the 2, even though my score was by far worse off. Every hole has something to offer in terms of challenge, views and spectacle, not the least of which is the 13th, complete with resident crocodiles.
But first a little of the driving range: quite a beautiful setting where one feels like you’re in the middle of the bush with some lush greens placed specifically for your practicing pleasure. Don’t be surprised to catch a few resident springbok (the animal, not the rugby player) grazing the local grass.


The weather in the highveld is ideally suited to golf: No wind, and thin air that makes your ball travel further (for me at least an extra club). It was quite a novelty having to hit a 7 iron 165m . Even from the driving range, there are spectacular views to be had:

The only sign of civilization is the towers of the Lost City Palace Hotel:

From the clubhouse, these are the view that greet you:

One of the most amazing views from a practice green that I have had the pleasure of seeing:

I’ve included an album of the pics I took while on course:

Lost City Golf Course VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Some highlights:
Hole 1: Should have taken 3 wood off the tee – landed in left bunker.

Hole 8: Awesome view Par 3 – hit bunker just short of the green.

Hole 9: Possibly the most challenging on the course. 425m Par 4 with water on left and bush on the right.

Hole 11: Keep left of the bunkers – it’s further than you think.

Hole 13: Keep clear of the crocs

Hole 18: Got to the green in 2 (on Par 5)

In short, if you’re visiting Sun City, and can only play one course, I’d definitely choose this one. It’s cheaper, more beautiful, you get to use a cart (no carts @ GPCC), and the halfway house meal is excellent as well as more than sufficient for the most famished golfer.

Boschenmeer–11/02/2011

Well I had a rare third week in a row of golf – this time at Paarl Golf Course. Once again it turned out to be a hot day, topping out at about 34 degrees, although it felt more like forty on the course.
Tip: When you expect to play on a hot day, leave a water bottle full of water (or energy drink) in the freezer over night. Mine melted completely just as I stepped onto the 18th – the ice providing a much needed cool drink throughout the day.

I’ve never really done too well at this course, but was optimistic following my performance at Worcester.
Paarl Golf course has 27 holes, and we got stuck with the Boschenmeer eighteen (10 – 27). The Boshenmeer nine (19 – 27) imo is a bit more difficult than the standard course, so keep this in mind if you’re given a choice of which eighteen to play.

The practice facilities are very good, with quite a few greens available for honing your putting and chipping game. There’s also a driving range available if you need to flex the longer irons before the game.

The front nine got off to a rough start with a snap hook – luckily I was just short of the water:

It was pretty much the same for the rest of the nine. My swing balance on the tee was atrocious, resulting in anything from a heavy draw to a hook.
Something amuzing – on three occasions 3 of our 4-ball tee shots landed a few meters apart.
On the first occasion – we all found a bunker: (my ball is hiding behind the lip on the left)

The second was a short part four – where a Driver, 3 hybrid and 5 iron all landed like so:

The third was a short par three (playing 100m), we all pulled left – my chip just lipped out:

If nothing else, the scenery is something to take in while walking the course:

The back nine went a bit better, and for the second week running I closed with a 39 – despite a horrid last hole which was only saved by a decent putt. There were a few missed opportunities, and a few good approaches:

… sadly the putt was missed .

The course is in great shape considering the amount of heat this region gets in the summer months. Play was rather slow on the day though, so be prepared to spend a fair amount of time waiting on the boxes.
The clubhouse food is great, and the service good, if a bit on the slow side.  If you haven’t played here before, it’s well worth the visit to play such a well conditioned course. I’ll be giving it a skip for a while until I’m more confident in my swing off the tee.

Here’s the album with all the pics from the day:

Paarl VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Worcester Golf Course–05/02/2011

It’s been a little over a year since I last visited Worcester (a Gary Player Course Design), but since it’s my home club this year, and I had a free round for joining, I thought I’d make the hour drive out from Cape Town and play there. Our tee time was 6:30, so it was a rather early morning – but rather that than have to play in the 33 degree heat that was forecast for the day. This was also the first game after I’d had a few of my clubs custom fit, so I was looking forward to not having to spend as much time in the fynbos as I usually do at Worcester. The drive up was very pleasant – the views are magnificent, and the huguenot tunnel is always a novelty.

Some pics before tee-off:

From the club-house:

Down the first hole:

Morning Sunrise:

I was quite eager to see how the new Driver setup was going to work out – needless to say I was a little disappointed to see the first drive blocked out about 30 meters right of the fairway past the local driving range. Luckily the distance was pretty good, and I had an easy SW into the green – PAR. So far so good, and with views like these – I had a feeling it was going to be a good day:

Now with the previous driver length, I had developed a swing specific to the driver, which, as it turned out, wasn’t working so well with the new shortened length. After 3 holes of the old swing not working out (and a double bogey on the 3rd), I decided to revert back to my traditional swing that I use for all my other clubs, and lo and behold – a 260m driver on the stroke 1 hole! (the first of a few for the day).
The view from the tee box was also something to behold:

 

from the fairway:

… and one of the better looking par 3’s I know of:

By the 8th hole Par 5, I was only 3 over par, and had landed in GIR, but some sadistic green keeper had put the pin on the edge of a down slope, hence affording me the time to practice my putting with a 4-putt double bogey! I managed to par 6 of the 9 holes and lost zero balls so far to the fynbos, so I was feeling pretty good about my club adjustments.

A word of warning to those who haven’t been to worcester golf course – be prepared to see a lot of this:

So the day had gone pretty good so far, and the icing on the cake that confirmed that changes I had made to the clubs, was a 260m drive and putt for Eagle on the final Par 5 hole – which sadly I missed, but was grateful for the opportunity – and ending with a birdy and closing 39 is never a bad thing .

Some more views from the back 9:

We finished the round about 10am, just in time to miss the intense mid-day sun. On the way out I ran into my dream car:

… and after a long morning in the sun, one of these went down pretty well:

                                         

Before I go, some pics an ex colleague took of the course in the winter time:

Winter VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Driver Custom Fitting

A colleague of mine returned from getting just about all his clubs custom fit. After doing a bit of reading up on the subject, I wondered why more golfers haven’t considered the option, especially when it comes to the Driver.

Background:
I’ve recently read a fair amount (and have come to realize through my own experience in trying to get a club selection together) about the fact that the marketing of clubs are starting to dominant a club’s manufacturing and design, as apposed to making the club practically easier to play with for the everyday hacker - which is most of us that buy the equipment.
Nothing illustrates this point more plainly than the tendencies of clubs to employ increasingly longer shafts. My old Spalding 5 iron is a good 2 inches shorter than my Taylormade Burner Tour 5 iron. The Marketing fobs would tell you that this gives you more club head speed, and thus your ball will travel further. This is true, IF you can manage to hit it as consistently as a club that is shorter, which face it, most of us mere mortals cannot. Not only are we conned into hitting more inconsistent shots (only to be kept motivated by the 1-in-10 that we actually middle), but are lead into the trap of creating a massive distance divide in the shorter end of the club spectrum.
So practically for me what used to be a 20m meter gap between my SW and PW (nicely filled with a GW), is now a 30m gap!
This necessitates another wedge to fill the gap, and dumping a long iron which I have less of a need for. The result being that I’m left with exactly the same club setup, just different number on the bottom of the club.

Now take this marketing foobar to arguably the most important club in the bag – the Driver. I say arguably, because  most people think it’s the putter – but I’m of the opinion that what use is the putter, if your driver doesn’t even give you the chance to get to the green! Put another way, given the choice, would you not rather have Tiger’s driving skill than his putting?

Interesting fact – the average length of a Driver on tour is 44,5 inches. Imagine my distress when seeing the average driver length that is sold on the shop floor – easily about an inch longer than what the pros use. A case in point is my current driver – the Callaway FT-i – touted as one of the most forgiving drivers yet (and the reason why it’s in my bag) – it’s shaft is 45,75 inches long! Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I’m going to have more difficulty hitting a club that’s a full 1.25 inches longer than the average length on tour. Here’s the kicker – according to some sources, that extra length doesn’t give you much more than a few yards in extra distance, even if you do manage to middle it.
Now my question is this: Would I rather hit it more consistently, or a few yards further. My answer is (as should anyone who take’s their golf seriously), is definitely consistency.
So I thought I’d go for a custom fitting for my Driver:

I took my Driver in to golfscience, a local company specialising in club fitting. The process started off with a series of measurements of my current Driver – Shaft stiffness, MOI, COR, Length, Face Angle, Grip Width etc. Interestingly even though the number stamped on my Driver is 10 degrees of loft, it turned out to be closer to 11,5 degrees from the centre of the face. Also, the further up the face, the more the angle of loft increases.
After all the measurements, I set about hitting some balls on the launch monitor. I was quite surprised to see my swing speed average out at about 105 mph – topping out at 116 mph when asked to “give it a whack”. What was rather insightful was the video feedback from the cameras directly behind me and across from me. Turns out my down swing is rather “inside the line”, resulting in my tendencies to hit hook and block shots. Also, from the video evidence, my release (one of the 4 factors used to determine the shaft bend profile) was rather late, resulting in quite a bit of bend on the shaft when beginning the down swing. If you haven’t had your golf swing recorded on video before, I highly recommend it. If you’re looking for a digicam to do the work, I recommend casio’s line of high-speed cameras. They can take high speed video (up to 1000 fps) without breaking the bank.
What was also interesting was the use of impact tape on the face of the Driver – turns out I hit the ball quite high on the face more often than not – resulting in high launch angles.
After my session in the net, we sat down and analysed the data and I was recommended the following:

1) The first and most obvious change, was to shorten the Driver down to a manageable 44,5 inches.
2) Get a smaller grip. Turns out my grip is way too thick for my rather small hands
3) The stock shaft is about a 90% fit for my swing, although because of my release, I could use a little more stiffness in the tip
4) The face launch angle is 1 degree to high – I would reach optimum distance with a 10 degree (true measurement) face.

In short, if would like to improve your game, go for a swing analysis at your qualified local custom fitter. If nothing else, you’ll gain a better understanding of your swing, and what to look out for when purchasing your next set of clubs.

Happy Golfing!

Strand Golf Course–29/01/2011

The last time I was on a golf course was about a month ago, probably the longest stretch in over a year. So when I ventured out to the Strand Golf Course as part of my company’s league competition, I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular in terms of my score for the day. I also hadn’t played the course before, so I expected there to be a few course management strokes I’d have to concede.

The weather was just over 30 degrees with a slight breeze. While I was glad that the famous blustery wind of the area had stayed away, the heat would provide it’s own challenge. I must say that I was quite impressed by Strand’s practice facilities, and the condition of the course, especially the heat that we’ve had of late.

                          

My fears were realized on the front 9 – where I took Driver about 3 times when I should have teed with the hybrid. The front 9 is rather tricky, with course management being more relevant than the more open back 9.

                    

My drives weren’t all that great over the front 9, but I did, however, manage to get 2 birdies in the first 4 holes. Thanks to them, I managed to grind out a 42, but due to a lost lay-up ball, and 2 easy missed putts, I only achieved 14 stableford points. Our league competition is based on 9-hole stableford points scores, so I was going to have to get my act together for the back 9.

                   

 

The back 9 went much better. My Driver came to the party, and I had a few great chips from off the green. On one par 5, I missed the green just left with my second, fluffed a chip short with the 3rd, fluffed a chip in the teeth long over the green for the 4th, and then promptly chipped it in the hole for par. What a wonderful game golf is . I was looking at about 21 points for the back 9, right up until my final approach, a bread-and-butter 100m SW shot which I usually put within a few meters of the hole. It wasn’t to be, as I promptly stabbed it into the water in front of the green, making what should have been an easy 5 into a 7. Still, 41 / 19 pts for the back 9 and 83 was all a good day’s work for this 11 handicapper.

                  

 

Overall it was a very pleasant experience. We never had to wait once for the players in front of us (and we were playing team medal for the club competition!), we started a few minutes early (despite being one of the last tee boxes for the day), the greens and course were in excellent condition, the facilities are more than adequate, and the interaction with the staff there (of what little I had) was very pleasant.

If you’re into golf and in the Strand area, I highly recommend a visit to the course.