What's in the Bag - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

What’s in the Bag

The 150th anniversary of the British Open golf championship took place this past week at famed St. Andrews in Scotland, the birthplace of golf. This blogpost commemorates the occasion by borrowing a page from Golf Digest.

If you are a golfer, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the regular Golf Digest article near the end of each month’s issue showing what’s in the bag of some famous professional golfer.

For example, this link from a recent issue shows what #1 ranked golfer and this year’s Masters winner, Scotty Scheffler, has in his bag. Scotty is a TaylorMade-sponsored golfer, which happens to be the same brand I use. However, he is compensated big bucks to play TaylorMade, plus he has access to the latest and greatest technologically-upgraded clubs for free. Meanwhile, I also use somewhat dated TaylorMade clubs, paying for them myself, which means the clubs are a prior generation technology or two. The good news is the golf equipment technology upgrades over the years have essentially offset my body’s aging process, to the extent thankfully that I can still drive and hit the ball about the same distance as years ago. Hopefully that trend continues, so I can accomplish two golf-related items on my bucket list, a hole-in-one and to shoot my age.

Of note, as shown on the golf card above, I did technically "shoot my age" once on a par 63 course in Florida, shooting a 69 coincidently on my 69th birthday! After witnessing a hole-in-one with a friend where I was the only one in the foursome who had never hit one, the group gave me the above photo framed to commemorate my non-event!

Ironically, while searching through my golf card file for the "shot my age" card, I found this $5 bill autographed by famous golf instructor and course designer, Rick Smith, whom I had the opportunity to play with back in 1997 at Hidden Brooke golf course in Napa Valley, CA. Our team beat his so I won the cash from him, which he graciously autographed - with comment!

My first set of golf clubs exactly like pictured above were Spalding's purchased in 1966 but included only the odd numbered irons, 3 5 7 9, a sand wedge, a putter, a persimmon driver and fairway wood; 8 clubs altogether versus 14 allowed. To this day, more than 50 years later, I still hit the odd numbered clubs in my bag better than the even numbered.

Check out this set of vintage hickory clubs and the terminology used by the Scottish who invented the game. Note the unique names of each club as opposed to numbered clubs.

Golf’s Evolution

Ok, that all being said, what’s in my bag today? Here’s goes:

• Driver - TM SIM2 Max - 220 yards - Regular stiffness shaft and 10.5 degree loft - regularly hit 12 out of 14 fairways with this club
• 3 Wood - TM Stealth HL- 16 degree - 200 yards and an occasional worm burner
• 5 Wood - TM SIM2 Max - 180 yards - my favorite club - great for getting out of the rough or if there is trouble ahead, as it always goes straight and true.
• 5 TM Stealth Rescue - demo club - got one on order - 165 yards
• 6 thru Gap Wedge TM M4 irons - True Temper regular stiffness shafts. 6 @ 150 yds, 7 at 140 yds, 8 @ 130 yds, 9 @ 120 yds, PW @ 105 yds, GW @ 95 yds.
• Sand wedge - Titleist Yokey 56 degree - 80 yds off grass, 15 yards from sand
• Lob wedge - C3i 59 degree (65 yards from rough and 10 yards from sand)
• Lob wedge - C3i 65 degrees (50 yards from rough & 5 yards from sand)
• Putter - Odyssey 2 ball

For the most part, all my clubs perform to my satisfaction, except for the 7 iron, which is the most inconsistent club in the bag, with its tendency to sporadically steer the ball right or left rather than straight. Notice how the club is to blame! It’s why I need two lob wedges to get up and down from the green-side rough and bunkers.

Regarding my preferred golf balls, I switched to Titleist Tour Soft recently because they seem to putt better than ProV’s that felt like hitting a stone, although losing about 5 yards on driving distance. Also the Tour Soft balls don’t seem to mar as readily and they're 40% lower cost. I’ve tried TaylorMade, Callaway, Srixon and even Vice balls but always migrate back to Titleist.

Here’s what else is in my bag:

• Maize & blue ball marker, divot tool and tees
• Bottle of ibuprofen
• Spray sun block
• Insect repellent
• Rain suit with, you guessed it, block M logo.
• No golf gloves but if I used one, it would look like the glove above.

All these Michigan logo’d items are needed to offset my brother’s OSU logo’d stuff when he visits for our annual member-guest golf event each summer, which is coming up next week.

However, my golf bag is not maize and blue, but chartreuse and gray, better to pick it out among a bunch of other bags at the various events I play. Bought it on sale last fall and used it all winter in Florida before realizing it was a ladies bag! In honor of the British Open, let’s just call it a ‘laddies” bag.

Here’s what in Open Champion Cameron Smiths bag. What’s in yours?

~~~~~~~~

Receive a weekly email whenever there is a new blog post. Just click here to send me an email request and your name will be added to the distribution.