So I’m browsing the internet the other night and I come across a web ad for GolfTec. I’ve been to GolfTec before, its was a neat experience. It was a free “session” I received from a customer of mine that offered it up to me for helping him put of a bind. My problem was I misinterpreted “session” for “lesson”. It was no lesson. I showed up and the rep hooked me up to everything and had me swing my 6i. (This was back with my Lynx irons) He showed me how their equipment works and the dropped the bomb on how much they charge for their services.
Needless to say I didn’t think that I would ever step foot back in a GolfTec. Then I saw that web ad and starting thinking. It was $100 for the club fitting and if you decided to purchase the club they fit for you through them, they will take $50 off the price of the club. I thought, what the heck, my Driver has been so poor and after the last trip to the range it’s not getting any better. I called, scheduled the appointment and will see what happens.
The session is scheduled for Sat the 26th hopefully this all goes well…
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
33" of pure joy.
Today I made an investment in my Golfing future. I went over to Golf Headquarters (a small little Mom & Pop shop that I LOVE going to) and picked up the TaylorMade Rosa Ghost putter I played around with back at Golfsmith.
I really was considering getting the Anser Redwood by Ping, but at $225 putter just isn’t in my golfing budget. Another thing that ticked my off was when I was looking at the Ping putter at Las Vegas Golf and Tennis I asked one of the clerks if they had any of the TaylorMade Corsa Ghost in stock. The guy game me a crazy look and said “Ummm yeah, those aren’t even out yet, why would you think that I would have one.” Well considering I could have bought one last week Ass Hole that’s why! I don’t plan on going back to that place anytime soon.
So I went from LVG&T to Golf Headquarters and there it sat. Pick me Pick me, I could hear it crying out. They even had multiple choices for shaft length. I joked around with the salesman and asked “How did you get these, they’re not even out yet?” He looked at me like I was odd and when I explained what had happened at LVG&T he just laughed.
I’m looking forward to the range tomorrow. Gotta play around with this new putter!
I really was considering getting the Anser Redwood by Ping, but at $225 putter just isn’t in my golfing budget. Another thing that ticked my off was when I was looking at the Ping putter at Las Vegas Golf and Tennis I asked one of the clerks if they had any of the TaylorMade Corsa Ghost in stock. The guy game me a crazy look and said “Ummm yeah, those aren’t even out yet, why would you think that I would have one.” Well considering I could have bought one last week Ass Hole that’s why! I don’t plan on going back to that place anytime soon.
So I went from LVG&T to Golf Headquarters and there it sat. Pick me Pick me, I could hear it crying out. They even had multiple choices for shaft length. I joked around with the salesman and asked “How did you get these, they’re not even out yet?” He looked at me like I was odd and when I explained what had happened at LVG&T he just laughed.
I’m looking forward to the range tomorrow. Gotta play around with this new putter!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Daddy, your funny.
While I was in Birmingham for our friends wedding I stumbled upon the Golfsmith Store there. It was about 8pm and we were headed to the rehearsal dinner. Off the side of the highway there it stood in all its bright red glory. I said to the wife, I have to go there before we leave!
Well the next day I loaded up my youngest daughter and took the drive down to the store. What a place. I’m not so fortunate to have a Golfsmith in Las Vegas. No idea why they won’t come here. We have SO many courses in such a small area, and there are only a handful of retail golf stores in this valley. I’m really shocked that Golfsmith hasn’t made it way here yet. Anyway, I got to the store right after it had opened and was the only person in the place. I walked around for a bit looking at all the different sections that they had. WOW. What a store. They have everything there.
The clubs are incredible; they go on for days it seems. But, the best thing about the store I found was the hitting area. As I walked by the eight indoor ranges I was in awe. The y had every club that you could think of just sitting there begging to be swung. I went and asked one of the employees “Do you have to schedule a session or is it open to hit anytime.” “Go ahead” he replied. So I asked “Are all the clubs back there available to hit?” “Anything that’s back there that’s marked demo, swing away.” Excuse me I thought. Did he just say what I thought he said? I looked at my phone to see what time it was. Ok, plenty of time. I wheeled my daughter up the ramp in her stroller to the indoor range and began to drool; right there in front of me was my choice of some of the best clubs on the market.
Ping, Callaway, Adams, Nike, TaylorMade, Cobra, Titleist you name it, it was there. After about ten minutes an employee came up and asked me how things were going. Considering every time I hit a ball my daughter erupted with laughter I thought things were going pretty good. “Have you been able to see your stats?” huh? What’s he talking about. “How do you do that?” He then showed me how to line of the ball so the computer could read it and then I could see the results on the monitor. HOLLY CRAP that was cool. I’ve never had my swing analyzed like that before. The slice was there, not as bad with some clubs, REALLY bad with others. The one thing that I was happy with was my club head speed was coming in just under 100mph, I was averaging 96mph. Hit 101mph once but I really loaded up for that one. The guy told me that I was right in the range for stiff shafts and that’s what I should be swinging. He did highly recommend getting fitted for a driver first before I make a purchase. I’m going to start to look into that.
The last area of the store that I stopped at (after picking out a new Under Armor hat) was the putting green. Again, more putters than I could imagine. What I wasn’t expecting to see was the new TaylorMade Corsa Ghost putter. I didn’t even know they were out yet. The employee working that section told me that they had just taken them out of the boxes as they were opening up! I hit about 15 putts with it, what a putter. I really wanted to buy it while I was there but shipping it back to Vegas was not something I wanted to do with a new putter.
I left with my hat, a love for Golfsmith and a happy baby who had an absolute blast laughing at me!
Well the next day I loaded up my youngest daughter and took the drive down to the store. What a place. I’m not so fortunate to have a Golfsmith in Las Vegas. No idea why they won’t come here. We have SO many courses in such a small area, and there are only a handful of retail golf stores in this valley. I’m really shocked that Golfsmith hasn’t made it way here yet. Anyway, I got to the store right after it had opened and was the only person in the place. I walked around for a bit looking at all the different sections that they had. WOW. What a store. They have everything there.
The clubs are incredible; they go on for days it seems. But, the best thing about the store I found was the hitting area. As I walked by the eight indoor ranges I was in awe. The y had every club that you could think of just sitting there begging to be swung. I went and asked one of the employees “Do you have to schedule a session or is it open to hit anytime.” “Go ahead” he replied. So I asked “Are all the clubs back there available to hit?” “Anything that’s back there that’s marked demo, swing away.” Excuse me I thought. Did he just say what I thought he said? I looked at my phone to see what time it was. Ok, plenty of time. I wheeled my daughter up the ramp in her stroller to the indoor range and began to drool; right there in front of me was my choice of some of the best clubs on the market.
Ping, Callaway, Adams, Nike, TaylorMade, Cobra, Titleist you name it, it was there. After about ten minutes an employee came up and asked me how things were going. Considering every time I hit a ball my daughter erupted with laughter I thought things were going pretty good. “Have you been able to see your stats?” huh? What’s he talking about. “How do you do that?” He then showed me how to line of the ball so the computer could read it and then I could see the results on the monitor. HOLLY CRAP that was cool. I’ve never had my swing analyzed like that before. The slice was there, not as bad with some clubs, REALLY bad with others. The one thing that I was happy with was my club head speed was coming in just under 100mph, I was averaging 96mph. Hit 101mph once but I really loaded up for that one. The guy told me that I was right in the range for stiff shafts and that’s what I should be swinging. He did highly recommend getting fitted for a driver first before I make a purchase. I’m going to start to look into that.
The last area of the store that I stopped at (after picking out a new Under Armor hat) was the putting green. Again, more putters than I could imagine. What I wasn’t expecting to see was the new TaylorMade Corsa Ghost putter. I didn’t even know they were out yet. The employee working that section told me that they had just taken them out of the boxes as they were opening up! I hit about 15 putts with it, what a putter. I really wanted to buy it while I was there but shipping it back to Vegas was not something I wanted to do with a new putter.
I left with my hat, a love for Golfsmith and a happy baby who had an absolute blast laughing at me!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sweet Home Alabama
What? You weren’t thinking it!
I have to give a little back story on this to get you to fully understand where I am coming from when I tell my tale of Silver Lakes.
I’m from Las Vegas, been here my whole life. Nothing much shocks me anymore. I’ve pretty much seen it all. Not that that’s a good thing, believe me there are some things that I wish I could get out of my head, but that’s Vegas for ya.
My wife is from a small, small, very small town in Northeast Alabama. I freaking love the place. Her family has been farming there for decades. Cotton and soy bean are their main crops, and they have a lot! That part of Alabama is so beautiful it’s almost surreal. That’s coming from a desert dweller. The farmland of Northern Alabama is stunning, the colors, the trees, THE TREES. Holly crap there is some big ass trees. There are weeds out here in Vegas that can be mistaken for trees if you are not from around here, so you’ll have to excuse me if I get excited about them. I could talk for days about all the things that I love about Alabama, but instead I’m just going to talk about one if them, Silver Lakes.
My tee time was set for 11:00am. I left the house about 9:30am. I wanted to get there early enough to hit the range and also I had not a clue to where I was going. Rural Alabama is no Vegas. I took me about forty minutes to get there and it was well worth it. To get to the course you have to drive through a small housing development (where I now want to move to!) with some of the most amazing looking homes you’ll find anywhere. I pulled up to the clubhouse, a great looking clubhouse it was and couldn’t wait to get started. Paid my green fees and headed out to the range.
I didn’t bring my clubs, traveling with three adults and two kids under the age of five sure makes it hard to toss in set of clubs and still have room in the car for you. So I decided to rent a set. I was a bit disappointed in the rental clubs. For such an amazing facility the rental clubs sucked. Old Big Bertha Callaway’s on graphite shafts. They came with a Driver, 3W, 3I, 5I, 7I, 9I, SW and a putter. Not your ideal set of clubs to be playing with, but it had to do.
On the range I encountered what would be my nemesis for the rest of the day, humidity. WOW! I have experienced humidity before, the wife and I honeymooned in Aruba back in 2005, but never have I played a round if golf in the stuff. Hats off to all you players in the South, I don’t know how you do it.
The first real difference I noticed between Vegas and Alabama was the ground. It was so soft. I normally don’t take a large divot, sometimes not even a divot at all, but out in Alabama, oh my God if you look at the ground it makes a divot. First thought NO FAT SHOTS, the ball won’t go ten feet if I hit a fat shot out here, and I might break a club!
I got to the first tee a bit early just to see what was going on. They set me up to play Heartbreaker and Mindbreaker. I noticed a sign off to the side of the #1 tee box that in layman’s terms said “If you suck bad, play these tees, if you suck, but not bad play these tees. If you don’t think you suck plays theses and if you know you're good play these. I ignored it and played what I thought would be challenging enough for me and would let me see most of the course. I think I chose correctly, if I would have played what they suggested by my handicap it would have taken about 400 to 450 yards off the course.
This is the one thing that I will never forget about Silver Lake, and I’m sure there are a lot of courses like this in the world, but this is the first one that I’ve played, is how when you are on one tee box, you can’t see the green on the prior hole and you can not see the tee box on the next hole. It’s like each hole is a separate course.
All in all I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to play there again. I ended up with a 105. Best round so far!
GREEN FEES = 8
CLUBHOUSE/PRO SHOP = 10
STAFF = 10
DRIVING RANGE = 8
PUTTING GREEN = N/A
GOLF CARTS = 8
OVERALL COURSE CONDITION = 9
FAIRWAYS = 9
GREENS = 10
BUNKERS = N/A
SNACK CART SERVICE = 10
BAR = 8
SCORE = 9.00
I have to give a little back story on this to get you to fully understand where I am coming from when I tell my tale of Silver Lakes.
I’m from Las Vegas, been here my whole life. Nothing much shocks me anymore. I’ve pretty much seen it all. Not that that’s a good thing, believe me there are some things that I wish I could get out of my head, but that’s Vegas for ya.
My wife is from a small, small, very small town in Northeast Alabama. I freaking love the place. Her family has been farming there for decades. Cotton and soy bean are their main crops, and they have a lot! That part of Alabama is so beautiful it’s almost surreal. That’s coming from a desert dweller. The farmland of Northern Alabama is stunning, the colors, the trees, THE TREES. Holly crap there is some big ass trees. There are weeds out here in Vegas that can be mistaken for trees if you are not from around here, so you’ll have to excuse me if I get excited about them. I could talk for days about all the things that I love about Alabama, but instead I’m just going to talk about one if them, Silver Lakes.
My tee time was set for 11:00am. I left the house about 9:30am. I wanted to get there early enough to hit the range and also I had not a clue to where I was going. Rural Alabama is no Vegas. I took me about forty minutes to get there and it was well worth it. To get to the course you have to drive through a small housing development (where I now want to move to!) with some of the most amazing looking homes you’ll find anywhere. I pulled up to the clubhouse, a great looking clubhouse it was and couldn’t wait to get started. Paid my green fees and headed out to the range.
I didn’t bring my clubs, traveling with three adults and two kids under the age of five sure makes it hard to toss in set of clubs and still have room in the car for you. So I decided to rent a set. I was a bit disappointed in the rental clubs. For such an amazing facility the rental clubs sucked. Old Big Bertha Callaway’s on graphite shafts. They came with a Driver, 3W, 3I, 5I, 7I, 9I, SW and a putter. Not your ideal set of clubs to be playing with, but it had to do.
On the range I encountered what would be my nemesis for the rest of the day, humidity. WOW! I have experienced humidity before, the wife and I honeymooned in Aruba back in 2005, but never have I played a round if golf in the stuff. Hats off to all you players in the South, I don’t know how you do it.
The first real difference I noticed between Vegas and Alabama was the ground. It was so soft. I normally don’t take a large divot, sometimes not even a divot at all, but out in Alabama, oh my God if you look at the ground it makes a divot. First thought NO FAT SHOTS, the ball won’t go ten feet if I hit a fat shot out here, and I might break a club!
 |
| Looking down the fairway from the tee box on #2 Heartbreaker |
 |
| The view from the tee box on #3 Heartbreaker |
The starter was fantastic. He chatted me up for a bit, I know it was just to allow the group ahead of me to get further along on the course. I was right about that. When we were done talking he kindly said “I hope you don’t mind me talking your ear off, I just wanted that group ahead of you to get a few holes ahead of you so you would enjoy the course.” I told him not at all and made my way to the first tee.
 |
| High atop the tee box at #7 Heartbreaker |
What a site that #1 tee was. The jitters came fast and furious, and I made a bad shot off the tee box, into the woods down the right side of the fairway. Of course the shot was unplayable and I took a penalty stroke. Its like the golf Gods (yes, there are golf Gods) said “HE SHALL BE PENALIZED JUST FOR SHOWING UP A BAD GOLFER” (say that in a Charleton Heston voice ok.) I hit my 3rd stroke across the fairway to the other side rough, not a pretty shot. The only good thing about that was no one was looking! HA 4th stroke was much better, it came to rest about 40 yards short of the very large mound that the green was placed upon. 5th stroke was a wedge that put me about 40 feet from the pin on the green. A healthy two putt and my first hole at Silver Lake was completed. Double bogey 7 with a penalty stroke, not a bad start, I’ve had worse that’s for sure. After that hole I decided just to relax and enjoy the round. This was scenery that I had never seen before let alone played golf in. I took a deep breath, chugged back some of the Red Bull I just got from the cart girl and proceeded to the next hole.
This is the one thing that I will never forget about Silver Lake, and I’m sure there are a lot of courses like this in the world, but this is the first one that I’ve played, is how when you are on one tee box, you can’t see the green on the prior hole and you can not see the tee box on the next hole. It’s like each hole is a separate course.
All in all I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to play there again. I ended up with a 105. Best round so far!
GREEN FEES = 8
CLUBHOUSE/PRO SHOP = 10
STAFF = 10
DRIVING RANGE = 8
PUTTING GREEN = N/A
GOLF CARTS = 8
OVERALL COURSE CONDITION = 9
FAIRWAYS = 9
GREENS = 10
BUNKERS = N/A
SNACK CART SERVICE = 10
BAR = 8
SCORE = 9.00
Friday, June 4, 2010
Its been a while...
I kinda abandoned my duties to this blog over the last few weeks. My life has been crazy busy. We just got back yesterday from that camping trip I talked about before and the week leading up to it took up most of my time. But, I’m back and ready to go so I’ll give a quick run down of what’s taken place in the last month. .
The most exciting news for me to tell is about where I’m playing my next round at. Silver Lakes Golf Club in Alabama! Man I’m excited. The wife is from Alabama and we try to make it back there as often as we can to see her relatives and friends. Her closest friend is getting married and she is a member of the wedding party. So I took it upon myself to find a course to play while were out there. The wedding is in Birmingham and her family lives about hour and a half north east of there. I looked all over and thought I had found a great course in Birmingham, but the wife let me know that while we were in Birmingham my main duties would be watching the girls while she was partaking in wedding event things and such. Bummer, so I started to look closer to where we were staying up North the first four days we were there. That’s when I found Silver Lakes. Its part of the Robert Trent Jones Trail, that’s pretty well known, well not known to me, but I’ve mentioned it to a couple of people that I know that play golf and all of them knew about it. So I got me a tee time booked, and I can’t wait!
The range has been about the same. No major development to speak of. I’ve been to Willow once and Callaway once since my last round at Aliante. Time just hasn’t been on my side. The camping trip took up a lot of my free time, and now we have a quick turn around to get repacked and head out to Alabama. So off I go to the Southeast, hopefully I have something good to write about when I get back!
The most exciting news for me to tell is about where I’m playing my next round at. Silver Lakes Golf Club in Alabama! Man I’m excited. The wife is from Alabama and we try to make it back there as often as we can to see her relatives and friends. Her closest friend is getting married and she is a member of the wedding party. So I took it upon myself to find a course to play while were out there. The wedding is in Birmingham and her family lives about hour and a half north east of there. I looked all over and thought I had found a great course in Birmingham, but the wife let me know that while we were in Birmingham my main duties would be watching the girls while she was partaking in wedding event things and such. Bummer, so I started to look closer to where we were staying up North the first four days we were there. That’s when I found Silver Lakes. Its part of the Robert Trent Jones Trail, that’s pretty well known, well not known to me, but I’ve mentioned it to a couple of people that I know that play golf and all of them knew about it. So I got me a tee time booked, and I can’t wait!
The range has been about the same. No major development to speak of. I’ve been to Willow once and Callaway once since my last round at Aliante. Time just hasn’t been on my side. The camping trip took up a lot of my free time, and now we have a quick turn around to get repacked and head out to Alabama. So off I go to the Southeast, hopefully I have something good to write about when I get back!
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