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Vets at Moe yesterday.
First few holes were ok but after that, my hip was giving me grief. Reflected in the scores, just 22 points.Stab at Warra today. Hip wasn’t quite as bothersome, 26 points, 35 putts.
Do you use anti- inflammatory drugs pre-game? e.g. Meloxicam.
It helps!
Can you schedule the surgery earlier? After 4 weeks the only discomfort I have is where the incision line is, the joint pain is gone and mobility is restored.I think we will head back to the country on Wednesday. I reckon I can sit for an hour or so on my cushion now, then stop every hour to stretch out; repeat. I can’t drive for 6 weeks it seems, but I am walking a kilometer three times daily now. I still look a bit like Poirot in my gait, but I think I can walk the course and chip and putt for a month or so. I have a ball retriever sorted so I can avoid bending my hip/ body past 90 degrees.
I’m due for one next year. Can’t drive for 6 weeks!!! That’s the only way I can get food.
I am at almost 3 weeks post- op and walking well enough to get to the stores. Up until now, I was only walking say 100 m then a rest and repeat. Last night I walked about a kilometre without resting. I no longer need pain killers.
OB you will need to stock up your food supply prior for the first two weeks post operative time, then do some online ordering. Do you have a friend who could collect the groceries? Some stores deliver to your door.
I hope to get out to the golf course today to check my batteries on the golf cart and maybe do some putting.
Hi XRman
good to hear you are recovering and hope you will be back on course very soon.Thanks CB80 ,
I have been out with Adriano while he is practising after work. The wet weather has hit us too, so that is on hold for now .Isn’t it weird that I am chipping close to the pin then drilling the putts when there is no pressure. I have been using my putting mat at home working on three footers at die, make and charge speeds. I am using the Wilson Midway 41 inch arm lock putter and Karen’s knock off “two ball” Dynacast putter. I got Noel next door to fit it with a Kotahi grip. I watched a video from the Manufacturer BJM on the palm up grip. I was surprised how much easier I found putting with various putters using this grip. It is difficult to not rock the shoulders properly.
I followed Adriano’s playing group on Saturday. He was at his erratic best; 2 way miss, pushing shots right and too wristy on the putting green. I was almost relieved when he asked for some help on Tuesday after work. We worked on his alignment ( too closed), his excessive in to out path and his putting grip. He has oodles of speed and can hit a fade Driver shot far enough to most of the course’s doglegs. So with a more open stance, work on the fade start line he began to hit practically every fairway off the tee. He was smiling, rather than cursing in Portuguese. He stopped pushing his iron shots and was putting so much better. He owes me three 6 packs now! According to his phone message he braved the elements on Wednesday and repeated the results.
Mrs.XR is in hospital today for an exploratory scoping, so not being able to drive I am house bound. It is pouring rain outside, so my daily walk will have to be timed between fronts. The weather radar at BOM is a handy tool. I think it will be good politics to stay at home this arvo, repaying the nursing care she gave me post -operation. I am able to walk without a stick now, at least for short distances, but I take it with me for stability. I can’t afford a fall for a while. I have to wait until the end of the month before I am cleared to drive. It has something to do with strength for an emergency braking situation. Over the years of enduro racing I had occasion to drive home with my right leg injured, so I can drive left footed only.
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I think we will head back to the country on Wednesday. I reckon I can sit for an hour or so on my cushion now, then stop every hour to stretch out; repeat. I can’t drive for 6 weeks it seems, but I am walking a kilometer three times daily now. I still look a bit like Poirot in my gait, but I think I can walk the course and chip and putt for a month or so. I have a ball retriever sorted so I can avoid bending my hip/ body past 90 degrees.
I’m due for one next year. Can’t drive for 6 weeks!!! That’s the only way I can get food.
I am at almost 3 weeks post- op and walking well enough to get to the stores. Up until now, I was only walking say 100 m then a rest and repeat. Last night I walked about a kilometre without resting. I no longer need pain killers.
OB you will need to stock up your food supply prior for the first two weeks post operative time, then do some online ordering. Do you have a friend who could collect the groceries? Some stores deliver to your door.
I hope to get out to the golf course today to check my batteries on the golf cart and maybe do some putting.
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I think we will head back to the country on Wednesday. I reckon I can sit for an hour or so on my cushion now, then stop every hour to stretch out; repeat. I can’t drive for 6 weeks it seems, but I am walking a kilometer three times daily now. I still look a bit like Poirot in my gait, but I think I can walk the course and chip and putt for a month or so. I have a ball retriever sorted so I can avoid bending my hip/ body past 90 degrees.
All my pre-op appointments are done. I am booked in on Wednesday for the procedure. It seems they do it with a spinal block and a light sedation. How civilized.!
Yesterday we played at Willunga, just 4 km from McLaren Vale. It was a pretty course with water and sand traps. It did rain while we were playing and the course was damp from the previous night’s downpour. My mini umbrella lasted one hole before it broke, so I had to return to the Pro shop for a new one. We had a cart , but managed to avoid most of the wet areas by looking to drive on the high side of the fairways and in the trees as much as was possible. I am playing with a half set of hybrid-irons ( Tour Edge Bazookas) which are an early version of this type of club. Thy are draw biased and would suit a slicer . I have to aim well right of target , but my miss was often 10 m left of target. Add to that is that I usually play with single length irons, so I occasionally forget to place the ball for/aft according to the club I am playing. I tended to thin my SW shots as a result! Ooops there goes another one etc.
We were both happy to par the 17th hole. Geoff is good off the tee and good at partial shots onto the green and not bad with the putter. We are both old hockey players and it shows.YouTube is a font of collective knowledge. I have been looking at videos on hip replacement surgery and what to do afterwards.
At least it looks as if I will be up and about way sooner than when I smashed my leg.1 user liked this post.
I played Par golf for the fist time on Saturday at Portland. I played with Adriano and his brother George form Brazil. Tony joined us and gave us a lesson in controlled golf. He chose a good time to play out of a 3 month slump.
Now I am in Adelaide. Geoff and I played the Executive course near the airport, possibly my last game prior to hip surgery. It will give my sore left shoulder a good rest.
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Back home in Portland. Soggy Portland. It was a shock to my system hitting a few shots on 5 holes. The cart was not a good option in the slush, but I needed to check it out. My son in law told me that the batteries were not working well and the drive was erratic. A flat rear tyre needed air. I tested the battery pack after unplugging the charger ( 50.2 V) and after 5 holes ( 49.2V) which indicates that the volt meter on the cart is defective. It read 1/4 after 5 holes.
It was nice to use my gamers again. The Cleveland XL is certainly more forgiving than the Cleveland HiBore Driver.
Mannum is a course I have not played. I will add it to my caravan/ golf / winery tour map for a future trip
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Not much golf was played in the last weeks of the trip.
Dubbo was a great course. $50 green fee.
Murray Downs near Swan Hill was a challenge ( $50 ) with lots of water and traps ( sand was not plentiful/ even making exit a bit of a lottery). we played the 9 holes at Tooleybuc a few times. it was fun. ( $25 fee)We went back to finish our round at Longreach. It was a little warmer and the flies even more friendly! The tee areas were oiled with the same substance that they had on the sand scrapes. It smelt a little ” fishy” , possibly recycled food oil. One tee are was soaked in the stuff and my sneakers will never be the same. It got to the point that a chipper would have been a weapon for long putts. In summary: Longreach= nope. A great little tourist destination for sure, but the golf course isn’t great, but the $5 fee is reasonable.
Today we found a great course at Springsure, just south of Emerald/ about 300 km inland from Rockhampton. Even though it has been fairly dry of late here, the fairways were well grassed for a country club. The greens were very good too. They had one sand trap and one water hazard. I found the latter. It was a 9 hole course, with different tee boxes for the second 9 holes. The mountain range adjacent to the course looked spectacular. I managed a few pars and one birdie ( chipped in from 20 m) . F0r a $10 fee it was great value.
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I did eventually contract Covid 19 after 3 days. With the help of anti viral drugs I was not particularly sick, but I struggled with a cough for a few weeks. We moved north to Katherine and toured the gorge. It was spectacular! We played the golf course there. It was fun with some challenging holes. I have to report that I am improving using the half set of clubs, making partial swings to manufacture distances required. I have resorted to using an arc swing with the face balanced mallet, rather than the straight back and through I was trying. My lag putts were so much better.
When we got to Darwin we played Palmerston course and the Darwin course. They were both very good courses. I got into the bunkers a few times in Palmerston. How easy are bunkers when they have consistent amounts of soft sand in them! I think I played Darwin much better, hitting quite few pars.
Next we travelled across to Mt Isa. We camped at the golf course. The 18 hole course was pretty good for a desert location. hey seem to have copious water to irrigate the course. The couch grass fairways and greens were not as good as in Darwin, but pretty good.
Today we played at Longreach. It is a scrapes course and needs a lot of water to get grass coverage. The scrapes were deep and soft, so a high ball would be retained. I found a firm putt at the hole worked mostly. The down side were the flies! Sticky little buggers!
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Next golf experience was at Coober Pedy, the opal capital of the world. Well they make the claim. It is a mining town ( junky) and is surrounded by holes, used to explore for opal strata of rocks. Many homes are wholly or partially underground to cope with the extremes of weath uper. The 18 hole course has scapes and no grass on the fairways. Think moonscape. You get a small square of Astroturf to place the ball. It was cold with a strong south wind blowing. We made 9 holes and gave up. It was an experience.
After we crossed the NT border, our next game was at Alice Springs. It was cold and still windy. The greens (? couch) were smooth and fast. 3 putting was common! Landing off the fairway meant hitting off sand. I scored around 100.
I went back yesterday and played with no wind and sunshine. My game was much better, but still missed putts. Green Fee of $60 was worth it, given the scenic setting with walls of rock nearby. They get the prize for rock faces walls on some traps. I hit a few pars, but 3 putted about 4 times. I think I will give up on my arm lock mallet!We are stuck here for another 7 days ( Covid isolation) but I am still not testing positive. I might go out to play again mid week if I am well.
We have been travelling north for 2 weeks now. Currently we are in isolation in Alice Springs, with 3 out of 4 in our party Covid positive. Not me. for now .
Here is a review of our first two golf experiences:
The first course I played on the trip north at was at Naracoorte in the South East of S.A.
I had played the course once before a few years ago, but didn’t recall much about it. I played with two locals and another visitor from Eurora. For interest we formed two teams and had a few dollars on a team match play scenario. My team mate was playing off 15 and I was playing off a 14 handicap. The other two were playing off 6 and 3. I didn’t play all that well, possibly because I was not feeling 100% yet, but not knowing the course didn’t help. The greens were fairly quick, but didn’t turn all that much. The grass variety on the greens was Kikuyu . I found it hard to read the greens, but I felt for the low handicap player who sent about 10 or so putts so close to the hole, but none of them fell in. I scored in the high 90’s and 24 points. It was some consolation that the 3 handicapper only scored 25 points. We had a good social game , my team won the match and I made $10, which I spent on the first round of beers.
From Naracoorte the next course we played was at Crystal Brook, about 200 km. north of Adelaide. I had passed this small country course many times when visiting my old Mum, when she was resident in the local aged care home. It is an 18 hole winter course with sand scrapes. What a gem of a course it is too! It runs along the Crystal brook/ stream, but the design uses elevated tee positions and greens, with towering red gums that line the fairways. On a few of the approaches to the elevated scrapes, the steep slope protected the scrape area. If you came up short the ball would either run back down hill 20 m or bounce off at a tangent. The scrapes were some of the best I have played. The ball could be hit at the scrape with a sand wedge and it retained the ball on the putting surface. I sunk a few putts after I worked out it needed a firm stroke to reach the hole. After a freezing night and morning, the afternoon warmth was welcome. Geoff and I paused the game at the 9th hole and went for lunch, then returned to finish the course. We had the course to ourselves. Not bad entertainment for $10 green fee.1 user liked this post.
Geoff you and I would make a great team. Your long game and mine inside 100 m would complement each other.
The only problem for me is with the change of weather making the verges soft and now my low trajectory shots are not rolling predictably. I have a sheet with my distances for 25/50/75/100 % power shots with each club ( I do it by feel, not the clock method) , so I can measure distance to the pin then look at the chart for a club that matches the number. If I want a high shot it would befrom the 75 or 100% power shot lines of the chart.
Your practice plan looks good, but I would add a variety of lies for the over the obstacle section. For me, I rarely get these shots in good lies. I have started to try to make sure I get over the obstacle, even if it means I have to chip or putt back to the pin. I hate not clearing the obstacle. Trying to get cute and hit the perfect shot is not working for me. Perhaps not committing to the shot is my issue.
Mrs XR is crook too now. We are heading north on Wednesday for 8 weeks, then in September I am booked in for hip surgery. So no Stawell for me this year. I am taking some golf clubs with me and looking forward to trying out golf courses on the way to Darwin.
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Having germy little grandkids around has its downside. I have been coughing ever since the Robe weekend and feeling lousy. Several Covid tests were all negative. Today I decided to enter the local competition. I dosed up on medication and played at 9 a.m.
I started out O.K. scoring a bogey on hole one. I left my tee shot out a bit wide and laid up from 180m out, for a wedge into the green. Hole 2 my tee shot with Driver went well to position. I had about 150 m out the green an decided on a fade with my 19 Hybrid, but my starting line was straight at the pin, leaving the ball pin high, but short sided with the bunker to cross. The lie was bit bare and I almost shanked the ball into the bunker. Oh dear! I made sure to get the ball out of the bunker and had a long putt back to the hole. I missed it by ” that much” for a double bogey result. Hole three was a text book down the middle birdie, followed by a par on 4 ( my nemesis hole). On the par 3 fifth I hit a hit a good 7W tee shot, finishing pin high, but just off the green. I chipped on with my 50 degree to about 2.5 m for the hole. The first putt narrowly missed, but the next putt was a sitter,. I missed it! The rot seemed to set in at this time. I hit a double bogey on the 6th and seventh holes, playing army golf. A late rally occurred on 8 & 9 with pars, giving a 45 OTS score.
I was having trouble with the cough, so I decided to retire to the warmth of my home. Now Mrs. XR is coughing! We are planning going north on the caravan in 2 weeks, so I am hoping we are well by then.
Two steps forward
1) The 200 m drive on the third was a thing of beauty. A draw right down the middle.
2) I hit two nice shots with a new ( to me ) 7 iron-hybrid Tour Edge E521 that I picked up for $25. It is 2 degrees flat and it looks as if the previous owner had lengthened the shaft 1 inch. I measured the length and placed a zip tie on the handle at 7 iron length, to guide the choke down position. I have the same club (E521 6 iron / 29 degree) and it is slightly too draw biased for my liking, though I can control it. The 2 degree flat option seems to take the draw bias out of the equation.One Step back
Hero shot attempts on 6&7 , when I didn’t hit good tee shots ( pulled them both) cost me more shots. I chip back into play in a better position would have been a better option, but I tried to make par. Typical gambler’s decision to make back my losses !1 user liked this post.
