Maybe I've been around the internet too long. I saw that this was the last post on my phone and could see the text before opening the thread. I was really hoping someone posted some pics of some big goofy ass golf shoes and that this was the response. Look up 'what are those' original if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Im caddying in the NZ Open this week. Should be fun and cant wait to follow it from inside the ropes. Havent been allocated a bag as yet as theres still some qualifying to go.

www.nzopen.co.nz

Nice!

Very awesome. Would love a trip report. Do you normally caddie or do you just have experience with the course they are playing on.

Million dollar shot by Rickie.

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/fow...ole-one-030716

Not sure if euros post/lurk here, but snow still controlling Finland so next week gonna head to Malaga for 9 days. Five rounds booked, but still looking for one or two courses. Any recs would be wellcomed! Been there once before and ofc our organiser booked the same course that brutalized me the last time, La Cala Asia (playing all three there). But yep pretty sweet to get to golf and enjoy warmth. Then back here to 5 celsius and wet, ouch.

where is the best place to buy new or indistinguishable from new (for a 12 hdcp) pro v1xs? I feel like someone has left a good review of a place online for deeply discounted mint condition balls in the past, but can't remember the site or find it itt.

I use golfballsdirect.com

Every weekend they have a discount code. I think this week it's free shipping.

It doesn't really answer your question, but usually at the end of the season lots of stores put them on sale and then I back up the truck for the following season.

Lostgolfballs.com I use for mint ones. The 5A quality looks new. I think out of 150 I have gotten of 5A only 1 or 2 looked slightly used. Shipping is free over $100 so I never just buy a dozen. Also on a side not they have shag bags for a third of the price as anywhere else, got one for like 7 dollars because it had their name plastered on it.

Haven't used golfballdirect buy will check them out if they have free shipping this week.

Just emptied about 10 pounds of shag balls, excess tees, old gloves and other crap from my golf bag. Clubs are clean, grips scrubbed. Bag restocked with pristine gear (and maybe a half dozen of those previously abused balls). Towels washed. Cap and sunglasses out.

Can it be tomorrow now please.

Did you put new spikes in your shoes yet? (Or are you going spikeless?).

I wear True Linkswear, no spikes.

Thought id do a little TR for those that were interested of my week caddying at the NZ Open. I actually signed up to volunteer (marshal, scorer etc) there a while ago and am glad i lucked out on getting a carrying job instead as it must have been boring as anything doing one of those as well as having to do so in horrific conditions.

http://www.nzopen.co.nz/tournament.html

I flew down from Auckland to Queenstown on the monday and was staying with a load of fellow caddies close to the two courses that were used. Those down there for caddying ranged from 16yo to guys in their 50s, professional caddies and amateurs. Almost everyone was a low single figure player and just there for the craic and be inside the rope for the biggest tournament that NZ hosts. The banter was v good and the evenings were fun sat round having a few beers recounting the disasters or jaw dropping shots of the day.

The competition is split between two courses, Millbrook which is owned by a Japanese billionaire and The Hills which is owned by Sir Michael Hill who has made his fortune through jewellry. They are quite different courses but both were set up brilliantly. On the tuesday and wednesday i met up with my guy for a practice round at each course. The competition is a Pro Am as well as the proper competition. After the first 2 days the top 60 pros make the cut and top 40 pro am teams. I drew an amateur guy for the first two rounds who was playing off 14 for the week.

On the weds night we had a caddy meeting and Q and A with Steve Williams. I dont hold him in too high a regard but you cant doubt his caddying record. He didnt disappoint and was a stuck up bellend. Iasked him what Adam Scotts caddy thought of him taking over for the majors, "I dont give a fk really. Guy knows he's lucky just to have a job cos of me." Charming after back to back wins. Im in here somewhere



I didnt take too many pictures as i was trying to concentrate and its not really encouraged. But did get a couple during the practice rounds.


17th at The Hills



10th

Practice days were fun getting used to how the course was set up, learning the greens, trying to guess where the pins would be etc. Ill definitely be taking a bit more time at my home course to think my way around differently. Our pro was Kieran Muir who was a really nice guy, easy to talk to and always happy to give tips etc. He knew my guy from home and once he saw that i knew what i was doing pretty much left us to it.

Ill break up the posts so as not to bore you or myself.

Sweet, sounds like a good time and worth a trip report.

Are the pics showing for everyone?

Nevermind, figured it out

Since I have no idea what pictures you're talking about, I'm going to say no.

Nice TR though

Good TR. I had to use Google to figure out what a bellend was.

Me too. Using this when saying the real thing may be offensive from now on.

I get the practice prov1x's from my local good store. Brand new, 35$ (cdn), exact same ball

Last season a local course decided to by ProV1's for their driving range. This is a decent public course, but not fancy at all. They assumed a certain percentage would get stolen but that they could live with it, and put "stolen from Saddleback Golf Course" on the balls to try to deter people. Apparently a lot of people decided that was a good source of balls and such a huge number got stolen they had to get rid of them.

I would get 3 large buckets and go straight to my car.

I'm not playing a ball with a big red DR stripe on it, no matter how good it is.

When is the last time you saw a red stripe on a driving range ball? Mine was 1996.

Disclaimer: I’m currently a 6 handicap who believes he thinks a way better game of golf than he plays. 15 Months ago I didn’t have a handicap having lived on an island that didn’t have a golf course and consequently not playing much for the last 12 or so years. So i've worked hard at all aspects of the game with my coach to try and get to a decent competitive level.

I’ve done some caddying in the past for friends but not for a decent amount of time so you could say my experience was decent amateur events, mini pro tours etc. Most of my observations and comments come from this week inside the rope being able to compare pros and amateurs side by side and general things I see in my usual games.

I forgot to add a story about Williams is that if he thinks a caddy has done a poor job raking a bunker he looks up who hit the ball in there on Shot Tracker and goes after the caddy to chew him out which made me laugh. He also has his own special technique so that if someone returns the favour he can confirm or deny accountability. I’m sure if he could he would prefer to sign his work instead.

The Hills course in particular is covered in these amazing pieces of art. The horses here each cost 200$k and by the 18th there is an awesome one which has 120 wolves and a hunter. His house backs on to one of the holes and he has his own par 3 in the garden which is pretty cool. None of them intervene in play unless you thin one off the tee or try and play out of the lakes but they are an interesting part of the course.



They are hoping to make it the opening event of the Japanese tour next year and i think the purse this week was just over a million dollars. The amateurs paid 10$k to play this week and get treated really well, loads of free gear and stuff. The other amateur in the group ended up getting in by winning a chipping competition that the local clubs hosted. Which was pretty cool.



Birdies on the 18th @ Millbrook

They’ve just announced some changes to how the tournament will be run for the next few years. This gives an idea at the costs and other issues that go in to holding events like this and not having the pulling power of the bigger tours. I know they are trying really hard to get Danny Lee in the field next year and it wouldn’t be a surprise to me if they threw some serious wedge at him to appear.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=11604914

Both practice days were beautiful weather, glorious sun and just a small breeze. The courses were in great nick and the scenery was just incredible.

The first thing that I really noticed was that the courses themselves were not particularly tough. By this I mean that there aren’t a lot of silly carries or trick shots, it was set up fair and honest. The amateurs played one tee up from the pros and id say there were “only” 4 or so holes where there was a noticeable difference.

The key would be off the tee, if you put it in the right spots then you gave yourself every chance of scoring well. I know that this is becoming the more universal view now but Kieran made the valid point that the old adage of "Drive for show, Putt for dough" is basically redundant now and especially for amateurs the opposite is true.

If you don’t get off the tee well then you are already behind the 8 ball on the hole and playing catch up. It’s something I’ve noticed in my game improvement this year is better and more consistent driving, not necessarily taking a driver off every tee but the club that puts you in the position to set up best for your approach. It allows you so many more and better looks at getting your GIR stats up and therefore making more birdies and pars.

My player was hitting the ball ok but his course management was poor, as was his club selection. An observation I have each week whilst playing is that lots of amateurs are obsessed with how far they hit each club and then become stuck on that number.

For example, if they hit a 7i 150y, then all they think of when having that distance is hitting that club. In reality that’s obviously useful to have that number as a base but only gives you a piece of the picture and you need to use that number in conjunction with other information.

Most greens are at least 2 clubs in size and some this week were 3. I tried to coax my player in to thinking about a few other factors e.g Where is the trouble, Does the ball need to carry a certain number to get on a tier or carry a false front, what’s behind the hole and does it help the shot i.e a favourable slope? He hit a similar number to me so just by talking him through these kind of things instead of just grabbing the club he soon caught on and grew in confidence. It only takes a few seconds and especially at your home course is something you can think about when walking between shots so no time wasting.

Here is a copy of the yardage chart we were given this week so you can see what i mean.



The format for the week for the Pro/Am teams was a best Nett. The game plan would be to try and have 2 or more pars/nett birdies per 9 for the Amateur and then throw in whatever the pro did. To make the cut in previous years it would take -10 to -12 to make the top 40. We were joined by a few different pros as we played our practice rounds. One amusing one was the son of a horse trainer and obviously likes a gamble so we spent 2 holes listening to the races on his phone whilst he phoned in his bets. Over both practice rounds our group nearly had 2 holes in one. My guy lipped out on a par 3 where it just had too much juice to drop and then the pro stuck it to about 8 inches on a 300m par 4. We were drawn as the very last group off on day one so a tee time of 1.55 meant time to go out and see what the local pubs had to offer that evening.