Well yesterday I decided it was time to treat myself to a new Driver (1 Wood). Of to GolfTown I went with the intention of getting myself one of 3 drivers I had picked out. My short list as I went into the store was the Nike Sumo from 2007, The Callaway X460 from 2007 and the Ping G5 from 2007. I get to the store and ask my favorite dealer ( yes I said dealer, golfing is my drug and GolfTown in my dealer ) to help me select the right driver for my swing.

We head through the isles of 2007 model drivers grabbing all kinds of them. I am choosing 2007 models as they retail for around $200 instead of paying over $400 for this years model. Well after a few minutes of feeling like a kid in a candy store we head over to the launch monitor with 6 drivers in hand:

Callaway Big Bertha
Callaway X460
Cleveland HiBore S Flex
Cleveland HiBore R Flex
Cobra Speed 460
Used Titleist 905R

There was no Nike Sumo or Ping G5 in stock so I didn’t bother looking at them.

At the launch monitor.
I begin to swing away with the drivers getting into my groove and getting my average swing speed etc. With an average swing speed of 85MPH topping at 95MPH I decided that the R flex shaft was more consistent and matched to my average swing speed. Most of the drivers were giving me a ball speed of approx 128-130MPH with 3500RPM of spin on the ball. I was now ready to put these drivers through their paces.

Callaway: Both the X460 and the Big Bertha felt much like my current Adams RPM Redline driver with a big 460cc head in the traditional round Volkswagen on the end of a stick feel. Swing speed stayed the same but the consistency of my drives and distances was weak at best. I felt like I was watering the lawn when I look at all the launch paths. These clubs really did not do anything for my striking, when I did feel a miss hit the ball flight was way off center. I was also finding that the launch angle on these clubs was inconsistent for my swing and level of skill ranging from 9″ to 16″ and not really having many consistent drives.

Down to 4

Cleveland: Ok so all my irons are Cleveland TA7, My Wedges are Cleveland reg.588, My fairway wood is Cleveland Launcher steel head 17″ so why not try the Cleveland Driver and my sales guy recommended it so lets try them out. The head on this club is very different and felt smaller than the big head drivers. The design is very aerodynamic and pleasing to the eye. My launch angle was consistently hitting 14″ with 3500-3800 spin and more often than not the ball was in the fairway. I tested both the R flex and S flex shafts but quickly put the S flex away it was not as consistent for my swing as the R. Well this is a shocker I never thought about the HiBore as being in my dwindling list of possible drivers, guess I am a little brain washed by the media for golf.

Cobra Speed: Great reviews, wonderful ad campaign  and promises of longer straighter drives, I figured this was going to be a winner. I pick up the driver and OMG this is the weirdest feeling thing I have ever held. The head on the club is massive and somewhat flattened in comparison to the Callaway’s. Resembling something like a B2 Bomber I take a few swings. Ugh I feel like I can’t control the club head its massive, the sound is a dull thud and I feel totally uncomfortable swinging this mammoth. When I look at the launch monitor it says it all. Terrible across the board, in the NO WAY list you go. Sorry Cobra this is just not the driver for me.

Down to 2

Titelist 905r: This is another of the fat headed drivers that I am a little uncomfortable with but I swing it away anyway to compare with the HiBore R Flex. What a nice club to swing the 905r is, under normal swinging speeds the club is very similar to the HiBore in feel but at impact it still feels much like the Callaway’s and for my swing it does impede the follow through a little. With that said though I could be happy with this club.

Still at 2

Conclusion:
As most purchases do it came down to price, I know the 905r is a “better” driver with a “better” name but a used 905r was over $200 and the Cleveland HiBore Brand new was $188.00 and honestly felt better in my hands. I Grabbed the HiBore and heading to the till. After getting home and unwrapping my new driver I was itching to try it out on the course. I had also just bought my daughter a new set of clubs  so she itching to play as well. Of to the little nine hole course up the road we go  it has  2  par 4’s that  use driver on so why not.  Each of these par 4’s are 265 one is straight and one is uphill. It was a windy day so once the players ahead where on the green I figured I could hit as I have never driven onto the green there before (hit the fringe a few times) I swing a nice smooth average swing, I feel a slight bump as the club head touches the ground slightly but a solid contact and the ball is off. Well half way through the ball flight I am contemplating yelling FORE its climbing and heading right for the green. It was windy and colder and the ground was wet so the ball ended up landing 10 yards short of the green. Chip and Putt for Birdy. Similar experience on the next hole. I love this new Cleveland HiBore thanks Golf Town.

Why Tiger Why? You could have had it so many times on Sunday. Tiger is the best player in the world hands down and even the best are not perfect. Maybe the years of pressure are getting to him now that he is a family man, maybe a small part of his mind is not focused on the game. I don’t know but in my opinion Tiger Woods putted himself OUT of contention in the Masters this week. On Sunday alone there was 4 short putts that he missed. With Trevor taking double bogey on the 16th and dropping to -8 that would have been enough to force a playoff. So Tiger as one of your fans I was a little disappointed that you didn’t win this week but on the other hand you are the best in the world and you have inspired so many. You have more pressure on you than any other athlete in the world. A bad day for you is finishing 2nd at the Masters for the second year in a row I would not beat yourself up over a few missed putts.

How Tiger Woods got me on the golf course.
I am a huge fan of Tiger Woods, what he has brought to golf is far more than he will ever take from the game. He opened the world’s eyes to a sport that was once saved for the rich and famous. With his style and unmatched performance in the game more and more of the younger generation tuned in to watch him play. By tuning in and seeing this magnificent game play out so many more people that never thought about playing golf would go out and try the game. A game so addictive that once you play and make a couple of good shots you are hooked.

I swore up and down I would never play golf, I however kept hearing about this Tiger Woods. People that didn’t golf would be telling me about him years ago. So I began to watch him play and it was exciting to watch (Who would have thought that golf was an exciting sport to watch?) The inevitable happened, one day I found myself out on a golf course whacking away at a little white ball with a strange looking metal stick. It was over for me right then and there, being out in the fresh air, walking through a HUGE beautiful field and swinging a club. It became my exercise, I don’t go to the gym I play golf. On the average round I walk 6+Km during a round and get loads of exercise.

I continued to play over the last 4 years and with some fantastic chip-ins a Hole in One and seeing my score lower and lower though managing my statistics I now proudly call my self a “GOLFER”. Thank you Tiger for opening the worlds eyes to the “Greatest Game on Earth”.

Well as I began using the Windows Vista SP1 update and putting it through its paces on my laptop. Some major concerns have come up which have now caused me to uninstall the service pack and wait till Microsoft gets it right before I install it again.

Problems:

I predominantly use Firefox as my browser but after installing SP1 Firefox began hanging when loading pages, especially during tabbed browsing sessions. I tried to recreate this problem in IE7 but I could not recreate the problem. The router and modem are working fine and tested well on other computers in the network. After uninstalling add-ons and trying an upgrade to Beta 5 of firefox I still found the same problems occurring. Therefore I concluded that this is a conflict between Firefox and SP1, where does the blame lie? I would put the blame on Microsoft myself considering that Firefox was working fine before the update.

When shutting down the laptop the system would hang at “Shutting Down” at one point I left the system to see how long it would hang but after 45mins I decided it was time to hit the power button. After fixing some registry entries the main one being this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control] On the right panel look for the “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” string and change it value to 5000 by right clicking the string and selecting Modify…

Default Value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=20000

Modified value WaitToKillServiceTimeout=5000

This sped up the shutdown time a little but it would still hang on some shutdowns. With these to issues I have had enough of SP1, a service pack is supposed to enhance the usability of a system not cripple regularly used programs. At this time I am going to wait until the update is available through windows update. [NOTE] On my x64 VIsta system in the office I have not seen these problems, all though on that machine the update came through windows update. The x64 system is also a desktop and built with newer components.

Thats it for now, I patiently await a REAL service pack from Microsoft for Vista.

Well I keep saying that the new method of raising our children, allowing them to experience EVERYTHING for themselves and not making them face consequences for their actions at a younger age is leading to out of control teenagers. Stories like this prove me right. This lazy method of parenting leads to socially corrupt little criminals like the girls in Florida beating a fellow student to near death for 30 mins after ambushing her.

Kids that are not raised with discipline, structure and consequence do not have the ability to understand right from wrong at the age where temptation and peer pressure is at it’s highest. The parents of these girls in Florida just don’t have a clue about raising kids. You let your kids do what they want so that you don’t have to do any work and when they go out and behave like criminals, you stand behind them and blame everyone except the people responsible YOU.

The parents of the kids that did the beating should be held partially responsible and made to pay the hospital and recovery expenses for the family of the poor girl that was beaten. You people make me sick, asking for protection from the angry public. The spoiled little miscreants you raised should be punished to the full extent of the law and you as parents should be investigated as to how you raised your children. One of the mothers of the CRIMINALS actually said the girl who got beaten “had it coming”. To you I respond ,when you get mugged and raped in an ally you sick twisted wretch I will sit back and say “YOU HAD IT COMING”.

Yes this is one of my most explicit and emotional posts because a man in Victoria was killed a couple of years ago by the same behavior. Yet when I am speaking sternly to my daughter so that she understands that her behavior in public is unacceptable I get evil eyes from other parents, who’s kids are running rampant in the store completely out of control. One afternoon my then pregnant wife was disciplining one of my daughters for having loud outbursts in public when some women in her SUV blocked her in and began to berate her about poor parenting. This woman then got back in her SUV where her pregnant teenage daughter was waiting. This is the kind of parenting that leads to events like what happened in Florida.

When is the world going to learn that kids need to be raised using love, discipline, consequence and YES the odd spanking when its required. I am in my 30’s and I was spanked as a child when I got out of hand, I had strict rules and discipline, suffering consequences for my actions. WOW I’m not in jail and nor are any of the friends that I had growing up raised the same way as me. None of them beat anyone to near death and all are contributing members in society. Well that says something for the NEW methodology of raising children. IT IS NOT WORKING!!!!

Well thats m y Rant on this topic. I hope other parents out there will see this and take a look into how you are raising your kids. Do you know what they are up to? Do you know their friends? Have you talked to their teachers about their behavior at school? If your kids are out of line then discipline is in order. I am not an advocate for beating your children and my kids have never and will never be beaten. A spanked bottom is not a way to hurt your child it is embarrassing and a bit of a shock. It does however instill the understanding that bad behavior comes with a negative consequence. Those lessons are ingrained into memory and sub conscious for later years when it is drawn upon during right or wrong situations where decision is required.

For more information on the beating follow this link:
http://www.local6.com/news/15843904/detail.html