It's COLD!

Not much practice going on this week. Temperatures here are frigid. Plus, I've had a serious fight with a head cold this week. Two days ago I spent about an hour on the practice green, but the wind chill was about 20 degrees and I don't think that helped my cold any. I was in bed all day yesterday, and today the wind chill is in the teens. Tonight the temp will dip into single digits, and the wind chill will be below zero...pretty unusual for Arkansas. There is an indoor facility in Memphis (about an hour away) with a large Southwest Green in it. I may go over tomorrow and spend the day putting. It's supposed to be back into the 40's and 50's on Saturday.

The new irons...

I've been wanting to try some actual blades again, and I recently found a set of Cleveland CG1 clubs at a used sporting goods store. I felt like they were overpriced, so I went onto Ebay and bought a set for about $150. I've been using them for about a week and a half, and just could never get things going with them. I was hitting a lot of shots left, and had experimented with moving the ball around in my stance to straighten it out. The shafts are a bit stiffer than what I had, but it shouldn't cause me to miss the ball to the left anyway.

I'm probably an idiot for switching to begin with...I've been practically knocking the flag down with my old ones, but I'm really not happy with the longer irons and feel like I need a switch.

Today was the last straw. I was 138 out, and with the breeze it was just a solid 9 iron to the pin. Everything felt great at address. I fully expected the shot to be within 6 feet of the hole. I made perfect contact, and looked up to see the ball flying 50 feet left of my line.

I went to the cart and called my father and had him meet me with my old sticks. I swapped them out and then thought...wait a second. I wonder... So I took the two 9 irons and held them together. Yep, my new clubs were over an inch longer than my old ones. It was almost a sense of relief...I'd done everything but break out the video camera to see what was going on with my swing. I have some new grips coming Monday. Guess now I'll trim them back an inch and then see what happens.

Happy New Year.

Happy 2009 out there. I'm really getting exciting about the spring. It's still a ways off, but it'll be here before I know it.

I played 5 rounds last wqeek and got some other practice in as well. It was a pretty good week. I put new irons in the bag this week, and so far I really like them. They're a bit heavier than what I was using and are a true blade, which feels really good in my hands.

I'm taking a couple days off to take my daughter to Texas to see her other grandparents. Actually, I'm there now and will be returning to Arkansas on Sunday. Back to work on Monday.