Perhaps the most expensive accessory you'll ever buy are your golf clubs. But even after shelling out a pocket for them, most golfers don’t look after their clubs properly or don’t know how to do so.
Since you have invested time, money, and a lot of thought in purchasing your golf clubs, you should consider spending a little more effort in maintaining, storing, and using them properly.
First, consider the golf bag itself. Before you buy one, ensure that that the sides are toughened with some metal, like maybe steel. This helps protect your clubs in case the golf bag falls out of the cart or if it hits other objects.
To prevent theft of your clubs, see if you can buy a golf bag with a flap or a door on the top. The flap should come with a lock mechanism, for example, a number protected lock or even a simple lock-and-key will suffice.
Consider painting, embroidering, or embossing your name on the sides of your golf bag. Some people even take it a step further and imprint their contact details with their names.
In case the bag happens to get lost there is a fighting chance of recovering it again. See if you can get a professional to emboss your name and contact details on the handles of your clubs.
This won’t prevent theft, but at least you know you have a better chance at finding lost clubs again.
Other than hiring expensive tutors, golf pros use many other tricks in order to improve their game. Rigorous and regular practice is, of course, an obvious tactic.
However, most pros will also exploit their golf accessories in many which ways. If you do the same, it will help improve your game and reduce your handicap as well.
Many pros will attach golf weights to the ends of their clubs. Then they practice their slow swings with the additional weights. This offers 3 distinct benefits -
One, they can quickly develop the correct set of muscles due to the additional resistance.
Second, the extra weights add some zing to their regular training and helps in boosting motivation levels. This in turn, allows the pros to come to the greens and practice regularly, without fail.
And third, it allows them to use the lighter clubs with greater power and accuracy so that their long shots cover a respectable distance with unerring precision.
Pros will also invest a bit of money in another critical accessory - a putting green. This allows them to practice everyday, often, twice a day.
They also prefer using the same putter and same balls that they might use on the golfing green for better control. Pros also watch other pros putting and swinging.
So feel free to rent, buy, download, or borrow instructional DVDs or VHSs. If you watch other pros then it might help you develop better swings which might help shave a few critical points off your total score.
If you are faced with a double whammy of being a constant traveler as well as a golf aficionado, well, you have a problem at hand. And the only solution is to carry a full set of traveling accessories so that you remain in touch with your golf swing.
If you wish to retain your handicap while you travel, you will need some of the following:
- Foldable golf clubs suck, but they are still better than having no golf clubs at all. Arrange them logically in a golf bag so that you can find them when you need them. Take a few basic ones along with you, there is no need to take the full set with you.
- You get reinforced traveling golf bags for a slightly higher price tag. But since this is a one-time investment, go ahead and splurge a bit. The metal covered bags will keep your clubs safe while traveling. You know how the airlines and porters
handle your luggage!
- As with all your other traveling stuff, name and label each and every thing in your golf bag including the bag itself. If things get misplaced in transit then, this way, you at least have a ghost of chance to get your stuff back.
- As far as possible, use golf shippers like ShipGolf, who will deliver your whole set the very next morning
- Carry backup tees and balls in case you misplace your regular set.
This last bastion of male dominance has been forever shattered, ruptured and disfigured beyond all hopes of redemption. First the board room, and now the playground.
Ever since this all-man, macho sport was invaded by women; things have never been quite the same again.
So men are not really surprised that there have been multitudinous golf accessories designed exclusively to keep the fairer sex, well, fair.
Golf caps were never important golf accessories for the players from Mars. However, shade from the sun is critical for the Venus golfers.
So you have designer caps and custom tailor-made shades, all color coordinated down to the Nth hue. And this is just for caps.
You have the same mind-boggling variety in golf umbrellas, glares, sun-block and other things that make this sport so feminine these days.
If a lady’s delicate legs and pretty muscles tire themselves out driving a golf cart, well, you can see how a motorized caddy is almost a life-saving golf accessory now.
Tight-fisted housewives may not pay for a caddy and they will not expend extra energy in navigating and peddling a bulky golf cart.
So a motorized caddy with simple push-button on-off switches is suddenly the most important thing on the greens today.
And don’t faint with shock if you see pretty, pink customized golf carts puttering all over the course. And of course separate His and Hers washrooms, coordinated outfits for both golf partners, pink tees, and other excesses are almost common-place now.
Playing golf without accessories is a bit like eating bread without butter - possible, but really yucky!
Golf accessories can include the basic must-haves like balls and cases for your clubs to the high-end, nice-to-haves like handheld computers for keeping scores or tailor-made gloves.
As you may imagine, not only are these accessories terribly expensive but frills quickly become necessities in no time at all. So how can a golf addict buy these accessories at reasonable prices
Local golf club stores, as anyone will vouch, are quite expensive. So the alternative is to check out the local classifieds in the good old newspaper or online websites like Craigslist and eBay.
Keep track of flyers in your neighborhood supermarket and keep one ear cocked for gossip and word-of-mouth information. The moment you hear that someone is getting rid of their golf accessories, swoop in for a killing.
You can get great discounts and unbelievable prices when others are spring-cleaning or upgrading their golf accessories. You get good, durable equipment and accessories for a small fraction of the retail price or almost for free.
If you have a mentor who wishes to discard their collection of accessories or if you are friendly with a senior citizen who is no longer capable of playing golf, well, you have hit a gold-mine.
You can either purchase or borrow your choice of golf accessorize at little or no cost. Let camaraderie and networking also help you along so that when someone is moving home or is picking up a new sport you can ask them for their set of golf accessories.
Who says that all good things in life, especially a neat set of golf accessories, are necessarily expensive?