91 - Leap Of Faith...

Erm, I did it, I went out and bought a set of golf clubs but not the ones I’ve been drooling over for the last 12 months. Originally I had my heart set on the Mizuno MX-200’s which are widely regarded as being the best ‘game improver’ clubs on the market (the won best clubs in a recent round up in Today’s Golfer) but I’ve ended up with a set of super sexy MP-57 blades.

As I mentioned in a previous post I was looking around eBay for some new golfing paraphernalia and noticed that certain models of Mizuno club were significantly cheaper than the prices quoted on the online stores. One such model was the MP-57 which has a MRRP of £600 but was on offer for just £275 from a number of sellers. This intrigued me; I had to know what the catch was.

The catch is that although still listed on the official Mizuno website the MP-57’s are now no longer manufactured by the company.

The Japanese firm introduced the MP-52 which didn’t replace the 57 but fitted in as the entry level blade in the range effectively making the clubs I have bought obsolete. Maybe obsolete is not the right word, but with the arrival of the 52 there was no real need for the 57.

Before the 52 was developed the 57 was the most forgiving blade that Mizuno manufactured. It has a small cavity on the back and something called dual muscle technology which helps shift the weight to the bottom of the club to help promote clean, high flight shots. Like the majority of Mizuno clubs the 57’s are grain flow forged to deliver a buttery soft feel.

I’m really looking forward to trying the clubs out as I’ve read a lot of good things about them. Ideally I would have tried before I bought but because of the way they were bought it was impossible. People who write for magazines for a living who get to test every club available love them; users on forums I have read love them so I’m pretty sure I’ll love them too. I’ll let you all know how I get on.

65 - Hello, Hello, It's Good To Be Back...

As you may have noticed there has been a lack of activity on this blog for a while, the reason being that the closest I have been to playing golf recently is thrashing my mates on Tiger Woods 09 for the Playstation 3 (brilliant game by the way). A combination of a knackered ankle and lousy weather has been enough to keep me away from the wretched game…but now I’m back.

With my tendons/ligaments starting to feel like their old self again (after my drunken spill in Liverpool city centre just before Christmas) I’m going to start playing once more in the hope of being a bit better in time for the summer. The hope is to be hacking my way around grubby municipals at least once a week as I strive to become the first Open winner to come from Kirkby.

My plan is to get down to the driving range a couple of nights a week to ease myself back into the game, contact a Pro to arrange some proper lessons, develop a repeatable swing, get my arse down to the golf centre at Fiddlers Ferry and buy the Mizuno MX-200’s I’ve been drooling over for the last six months, join a golf society and then spend one morning a week swearing my head off as I send shot after shot into the rough.

Oh aye, that sounds like a decent plan, I’ll be amazed if it pans out that way though… I’m almost certainly going to join the same golf society that my mates Richie and Terry are in (I’m not actually sure of it’s name, something to do with Woolton or summat) and I might be able to rope in a couple of other new members in the shape of Lucky and Alan. Who knows, my brother might even turn up!

As ever I will keep you all up to date via this little corner of the Internet (that is on the verge of a make over incidentally) and I will fill the gaps with rubbish I have found on other sites or in Golf Whine Monthly. Hello, hello, it’s good to be back…

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.

53 - Counting The Cost...

Right, time to take stock and work out how much I’m gonna need to kit myself out ready for next years rise to Golfing Superstardom. As mentioned previously I’m now almost certainly getting the Mizuno MX-200’s and will no doubt match the rest of the kit to the bats.

A quick scan online shows that the clubs can be found for around £400 with regular steel shafts although in some places it is just 4-PW meaning I’d have to shell out for a hybrid too which is a long term plan that may need to be addressed sooner than I’d have liked.

The new hybrid from Mizuno is something called the Fli-Hi, which got rave reviews from Golf Whine Monthly and can be found for around £90. For the time being I’m sure ‘Dougie’ would be an adequate stand in but I want the new fella in my bag.

A new driver is definitely in order and there is a good chance I could touch lucky with this. The current Mizuno driver is the MX-560, which originally retailed at £300 but is now available at JJB Sport for £170. A quick look at Onlinegolf.co.uk shows that the bad boy can be had for just £80, which is an absolute bargain.

For a similar price I will pick up the award winning Mizuno Twister III bag. There are parts of the bag that can be detached when you don’t need them (namely the big pocket for your waterproofs) meaning that if I’m lucky enough to play somewhere where the sun actually shines I won’t have to break my back lugging it about.

Finally I want a new putter. I’m torn here, do I go for an Odyssey Klingon Warbird like Lucky’s (which is superb) or plump for a Mizuno Bettinardi which consistently receives praise in magazines and blogs? They cost about the same though so I’ll just decide closer the time and add the £120 to the running total.

So, adding it all up I reckon I’m gonna need about £770. Kinell. I already have a war chest in my account but it isn’t £770!!! There had better be some tremendous offers on in the January sales or I’m screwed…

52 - A Hundred Isn't THAT Much For Better Quality...

I haven’t been to the driving range as much as I have wanted to over the last couple of weeks due to a combination of the credit crunch and work commitments. What it means is that I’ve been able to drool over golf porn a lot recently, which is both a good and bad thing at the same time.

I’ve decided that I’m getting a set of Mizuno ‘game improvement’ clubs and until very recently I would happily tell you that it is a set of MX-100’s. Thing is, the more I read about the slightly more expensive MX-200’s the more my head is being turned.

What is the difference between the two sets I hear you cry? Well, apart from about £100, the fundamental difference is that the heads on the 100’s are cast and the 200’s are grain flow forged. Yeah, but what difference does that make I hear you sigh? It is all about feel boys and girls.

Casting the heads makes them cheaper to manufacture (meaning the MX-100’s are the entry level bats from Mizuno) but it also makes them have less ‘feel’. You know what it is like when you hit the ball with the heel of the club and you feel that ‘clunk’? That is similar to what it feels like using clubs with cast heads albeit not quite as bad.

Conversely, grain flow forged heads make hitting the ball sweetly feel like hitting the ball sweetly. They are softer and more rewarding when you hit the sweet spot which, seeing as they are still ‘game improvement’ clubs, is bigger than normal thanks to the weird Y-Tune insert built into the head.

Another difference is the size of the heads. Although both look pretty similar the 100’s are slightly bigger than the 200’s and slightly bigger than traditional clubs as far as I can see which is good initially but as I get better they will look like clowns clubs or summat. It is important how they look, just as Lucky who has spent a fortune on Nike clubs because he likes the yellow and black look!

So the 200’s have the same hazard dodging technology built into them, they are manufactured in a better way, they provide more feedback and they look better. The only problem is the price but I can justify buying them if I don’t buy the Mizuno long iron replacement club, the Fli-Hi, straight away and stick with Dougie Howson for a month or two. Sounds like a plan!