Golf Club benefits and the reasons for becoming a Member

You may well be considering joining a golf club as a member - but are unsure of the benefits?

 

Belonging to a golf club provides many benefits for the golfer. The main part of being a member is the sense of identity gained by supporting both the Course membership base and the course itself. Your involvement  and golf activity will help the golf club flourish over time and you will improve your golf dramatically and reduce your golf handicap accordingly....

Best Golf balls and why you should always play the same brand

The idea of playing with a single brand of golf-ball may seem a bit excessive, however there are reasons and you will discover why choosing what ball to play with is an extremely important decision and I will explain why.

The golf ball has many variants but can be divided between professional and amateur. The amateur ball normally consists of 2 layers and a softer core, giving durability, lowering cost but sacrificing feel and responsiveness. The professional ball (80-mps + club head speed) has 3 layers and a more solid core – with a higher club head speed the ball can still reach incredible distances but has the advantage of being more responsive and softer around the green, especially with a lobbed or wedge club and generates more spin and precision.  

Nike 2014 Power Distance Long

I for example play with Titleist the Nike 2014 Power Distance Long golf ball, depending on what my American Golf shop can offer. To be honest I prefer this variation over the other Nike balls currently available. It's soft for me around the greens and I love putting with this ball. I will not mix up my balls; I only stick to one brand. The Nike Golf PD Long Power Distance is an excellent and affordable Golf Ball!

Now we have to be focused in golf and why I suggest you only use one brand of golf ball is as follows:

You will take away the chance of inconsistency in the game. There are already too many variations in the game, so why have balls that create another variation? Take for example 10 different balls and they will have varying degrees of different feel and technological innovations. If you use only one type of ball brand you will have produced the sought after keyword = consistency. Each ball will “FEEL” like the last.

Titleist Pro V1

I have used Pro V1 before and they handled well but were very fragile. These are Professional balls used the most in Major PGA Tours, but the Urethane Elastomer coating is so soft after a round the ball was in a poor condition. Now if you are a professional this is not a major concern for me the cost outweighs the advantages of this ball. I suggest the Titleist Pro V1 Golf Ball for it's superb softness and playability

 

For the amateur golfer I would recommend staying with one ball that you like the feel of, reduce a variation in your game and learn how the ball reacts over time. The idea of golf is to strive for consistency, so make your ball selection consistent too.

What does GIR Greens in Regulation mean on the Golf Course?

GIR or Greens in Regulation is quite simply reaching the putting surface and having two putts left to reach Par.

So for example:

• On a Par 3 hole, to get GIR, you must land your first shot on the putting surface. You then have 2 putts left to take to get the par on the hole.
• On a Par 5 hole you would need to get onto the green, in 3 shots, leaving you 2 putts for Par again.

Why is this important to me?

Well of course the professionals use this approach as a vital statistic. However for the non-professional golfer it can provide a great opportunity to apply a working strategy on how to get par and therefore reduce your handicap see Golf Course Management and Club Selection. 

If you are missing many GIR's on the golf course then you can apply some analysis into why this is happening. Does your short game make you miss GIR? Are your drives from the tee forcing you to have to make impossible shots to reach the green? Are you slicing or drawing from the tee going Out-of-Bounds or into hazards?

Analysis makes improvement in Golf

Once you understand what is going wrong in golf you can make efforts to improve a particular aspect of your game. I work from the principle of resolving the highest error area first. For me at the moment my short game 40-80 yard shots is making me miss many GIR's so this is the area I am currently working on fixing. 

So know you know what GIR means.