Chip from a cart path? I'll take a drop, thanks

Tomorrow, after nearly five weeks without it, I get my 6-iron back. Yes there are major benefits to having custom-fitted shafts for golf clubs but, should an unfortunate accident befall one, it's not that simple to get it repaired, let alone cheap. Watching Phil Mickleson play a (quite remarkable) chip shot last night got me thinking about the perils associated with lauding (and attempting to recreate) this particular type of recovery shot.

How much? I nearly had a coronary

As previously mentioned on ibleedgolf.com, I have been lucky enough to play Loch Lomond GC, one of the holy grails of UK golfers. I gave a broad hint to the level of financial outlay involved and reading ‘The Money Game’, submitted by m’colleague Roland Paterson, got me thinking. I thought I would expand on this & provide more details of the day – what happened was an extreme example of a ‘Money Game’ and one which I will never forget. And neither will my wife.

At this rate, we'll be here until Monday...eh? Oh.

After the breathtakingly pedestrian conclusion to the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Monday, the still-active-yet-unaddressed issue of pace of play came to light again. The ensuing Twitter debate about how this problem can be sorted out has prompted me to repost a piece I wrote back in February 2012 presenting, I think, a workable solution to the problem.

What do Americans think of British golf? A reply from the Old Country

I have recently starting contributing articles for ibleedgolf.com (a bastion of golfing excellence) and a fellow contributor described what Americans think about golf in Britain. Someone would need to stand up for the mother ship - I am that man.

Now where did I put my mojo?

 As I have documented previously in this blog and, for those of you who follow me, on Twitter, my golf has been a bit ropey of late. To be perfectly honest, I've been less than happy with it since Easter although I've only truly acknowledged the scraping of the barrel over the last couple of months. Prior to that, I was writing off bad rounds as one of those things and the next one will be fine whereas, in reality, I was in significant danger of falling out of love with the game. To paraphrase Austin Powers, I'd lost my mojo.

 

Thankfully, it would appear that I have taken a bit of control and, if the evidence of my last two rounds are anything to go by, my mojo was actually at the bottom of my bag all along.

2012 golfing goals - how am I doing?

With only ten weeks or so left of 2012, I thought I would do a long-overdue update on my 2012 golfing goals. It's been a long time since the last update and a lot has changed since then, so it will be therapeutic to document what has happened and, realistically, what more I can do before 2013 arrives.

A lyrical genius

OK, that's probably pushing it a little bit, but I had a flash of inspiration today having read a tweet by @mattholbrook86

6 things we learnt about the Ryder Cup

Well, that wasn't very exciting now, was it? Having climbed down off the emotional rollercoaster that was watching the Europeans overcome a considerable final day deficit to win the Ryder Cup, I thought I'd offer up my thoughts as to what we can take away from it

That's enough Monty. Please give it a rest.

The waiting is nearly over. In less than two days, the 39th Ryder Cup kicks off at Medinah, Illinois as Europe attempt to continue to exert their stranglehold over their cross-pond opponents in the premier team event in the world of golf. Unfortunately, one person in particular appears to have forgotten that he's not actually involved...

Return to Part-Timerness

Having enjoyed the unprecedented frequency of seven rounds of golf over two weeks at the end of August, causing me to question the validity of calling myself a Part-Time Golfer, I am pleased to report a return to normality and the moniker can stay. The clubs have lain untouched in the shed for the best part of a month and will be dug out again this weekend.