61 - Desperately Seeking Mizuno's...

Happy New Year Ladies and Germs! I hope you all had a good Christmas and Santa emptied his sack in a satisfactory manner for you. Right, that is enough of that. With the holiday season out of the way and my knackered ankle starting to heal thoughts have again turned to golf.

Not that long ago I decided I was going to buy a set of Mizuno ‘game improvement’ clubs, after a bit of thought I decided on MX-200’s as they were better than the entry model MX-100’s but were still within my budget. Once I decided on what I wanted I just had to choose where I bought them.

Looking online the clubs can be picked up for about £400 with the accompanying hybrid coming in at about £90. Not cheap but I suppose I’m getting good quality bats, incorporating the latest technologies that have only come onto the market in the last few months.

One of the reason’s I want new clubs is so I can have them fitted as I’ve read that getting them ‘made to measure’ helps get the most out of them. With that in mind I am a little reluctant to buy them from an online retailer so I went on a little field trip with Richie and Terry to the wilds of North Wales!

We went to Clays Golf Course as it is a National Fitting Centre for Mizuno and would be guaranteed to sort me out. Oh they can sort me out…for a price, and what a price. For the irons and the hybrid the cost was a whopping £630 but I did get offered a ‘free’ wedge, which was identical to the one I bought recently from eBay. No thank you. Can I get a free putter or driver instead? No chance.

We headed back to Merseyside but stopped off Carden Park Golf Club on the way. This place boasts a course designed by Jack Nicklaus (when he was between films) and a hotel that looks like the one in Dirty Dancing. It was stunning to be honest. I’ve put it on my list of courses to play once I advance up the golfing ladder to ‘just shite’ status.

After that we made one last stop at True Fit Golf near Fiddlers Ferry where I spoke to a nice chap called David. I explained to him what I wanted, explained to him about getting the clubs fitted and explained how expensive Clays were. He smiled and said he could do the same deal for £500. And that is how easy it is to save £130!

Like Clays, David offered me a free wedge identical to the one I recently bought. Unlike Clays, David was willing to give me money off something more useful to me like a putter and not just any putter. As a sweetener I can get a £150 Mizuno Bettinardi putter for £70, which is a bargain in my book. Oh and he can also do a deal on a driver and a bag which is nice.

I think I have found my guy, I’ll be visiting David in the VERY near future.