That crazy game called golf

Golf if a fickle sport. Several years ago I started taking the game more seriously and two years ago I was showing steady signs of improvement. Then last year struck and I reverted to my prior playing condition and spent the whole winter wondering why I even took golf up in the first place.

This year I decided that the reason for my regression was my clubs. I was playing with a 10 year old set that I paid less than a hundred dollars for and that included the bag. Basically, they were knock offs of knock offs. When my six iron finally broke in two I used it as an excuse to spend the money and finally buy new clubs.

Let me just say that I am amazed that golf clubs are so expensive. It truly is a rich man's sport. After looking all over town and on the internet I settled on a set of Calloway knock offs. The real clubs would have cost me about $1000 but I got similar ones for under $200 which I thought was a pretty good deal.

Last weekend I played my first full round with new clubs. My brother and I met up in Portland and braved the 100 degree weather. I didn't score very well but I hit the ball well with my irons and while Vince beat me it was only by a stroke. Afterwards I was convinced I had made a good purchase and that my game was going to benefit from these new clubs. That was Saturday.

On Monday I went out again with Vince and this time we took my stepdad. We played at the course near my parent's house and honestly I have never really like that course or shot well on it but it's convenient and so I play there often. My first shot I hit a real good 7 iron off the tee and lay up in front of the water. So far, so good. And then everything went to Hell. I chunked my pitching wedge, shot the next one over the green, then onto the green and finally three putted. A 7 on par 4 that is well under 300 hundreds yards. That hole just screwed me for the entire round. I was never able to recover and ended up shooting my worst round of golf this year. So much for my new clubs.

So Wednesday night at my golf league I was looking forward to redeeming myself but also nervous because I had lost so much confidence in my new clubs. In fact at one point I was tempted to send them back and ask for a refund because they didn't work. Thankfully I drew good partners this week and I played the best I've played all year. We shot the low round of the night and I think of the season. Granted we only used about a quarter of my shots but even my misses were playable. So now I am back to feeling good about my swing and my clubs.

It's funny but I don't think my clubs have impacted my game at all. I was inconsistent before my new clubs and I am still inconsistent. It really is all about the golfer and not so much about the clubs. Which sucks because there's not much I can really do change the golfer. But at least I didn't pay $1000 to figure that out.