need_my_wedge
Has Now Found His Wedgie
I`m over in Japan finishing off our vacation. Yesterday I got to meet up with an old friend of mine to go off and play golf for the day. He`d arranged to take me to Takarazuka Kogen Golf Club in Hyogo. Out early doors as I was meeting his friend at a station about an hour away at 07:00 to be picked up and transferred to the golf club. I had no idea who I was meeting or what he looked like, but I`m sure it wasn`t too difficult for him to spot the 6' 2" Englishman waiting outside the station...........
We were chatting away during the car ride, turns out my new friend went to school in Milton Keynes for 3 years, about 20 years ago...... he was a student of my friend, who used to be a teacher at the Japanese school in MK, hence the tie in. Anyways, about 30 mins to the Golf Club. Unfortunately, it was persisting down with rain in a bad way, unlike today - blazing sunshine and 20 degrees.......but never mind.
It turns out that my new friend is the president of a drugstore chain, similar to Boots here in Japan, and the day was on him. I was given a little gift of waterproofs, since I`d foolishly neglected to bring any from the UK.... a set of rental clubs - the irons were good Tourstage (Bridgestone) with newish grips, but the driver and fiarway woods were all circa 1960....... but not complaining.
After coffee, we all adjourned to the buggy being kitted out by our caddy san, and off to the first tee. The course was great, up in the mountains, lots of raised tees down over drops to fairway/ greens. The caddy san was immense......a little old girl who had your yardage down to the pin for every shot that each of us played. After every shot I`d turn around and she was there to take my club and clean it (as she was for every player), often ready with the next club depending how close to the green we were. Info around the greens was extremely detailed, and she had the line of every putt without having to step behind the ball to see it - she knew the course like the back of her hand, very impressive. If you were eying up your next shot, she`d be standing beside you with the right club, or she`d be there to clean your ball, dry you rgrips, she`d be over the OB fence retrieving wayward balls, I can`t give her enough credit or praise, she was truly a blessing on a wet nasty day (weather wise).
By the second hole, I was only using the 3 wood, the driver was too wayward, but my companions all offered me their clubs to use.......just use any one, it`s only friendly golf. My friend the teacher, now competes in long drive competitions here, and offered me his driver first............bloomin `eck, a "Flying Cat" driver, 6.5 degrees, with a 5X stiff shaft.........my power fade truly was a power fade.........I think my ball came down somewhere near Hiroshima.....
One of the others offered me his Taylormade R9, 10.5 regular shaft which I fortunately smashed right down the middle. Stuck with the Taylormades after that and had a good round with them. My companions all wiped out the Flying Cat lunacy as a try out shot due to the extreme configuration of the club...... Seems my friend has a number of these, going from Stiff, to XS, 2X, 3X, 4X up to 6X, he decided only the 5X today, taking a bit off for the rain. Whilst I`ll admit that he can certainly hammer the skin off the ball, accuracy was a little wild, and he did end up playing a lot of provisionals.......
As is the norm in Japan, you break for lunch after 9 holes. First we had to strip off our waterproofs, hats and gloves, which were all put into a hot air locker to dry out whilst we ate. Into the restaurant for lunch and beer.....not my preferred halfway routine....but when in Rome and such...... A really nice tonkatsu washed down with Asahi beer and then back to the buggies. Our gear extracted from the drying locker was all fresh and dry, off to start again.
A couple of silly games lined up on the back nine. One hole where we can only speak Japanese, any English word spoken was a 100yen fine (80p), each time you spoke an English word, the fine increased by a 100yen, so if you spoke 3 English words you were in the hole for 600yen etc. The pot would go to nearest the pin. Same game a couple of holes later, this time we could only speak English, the fines were the same and again teh pot to nearest the hole.
The rain was really hammering down on the back 9, we were teh only 4 ball out there, everyone else had gone in, but we were having such a fun time it didn`t seem to matter. By the time we were round to 16, there was a lot of standing water on the fairways, and you would have been swept away with the current if you stood in the drain.....
After we came off the 18th, it was in to get changed, but a dip in the Japanese hot baths was first. Suitably warmed up, our very wet gear was still in need of drying time so we went back into the restaurant for a coffee.
Suitably sorted, we ventured back to town for a trip to a local restaurant where we had an absolutely magnificent dinner and a shed load of beer to flush it down. Despite the rain it was an absolutely amazing day, Japanese hospitality is one of the best in the world.
A few pics from the day here
We were chatting away during the car ride, turns out my new friend went to school in Milton Keynes for 3 years, about 20 years ago...... he was a student of my friend, who used to be a teacher at the Japanese school in MK, hence the tie in. Anyways, about 30 mins to the Golf Club. Unfortunately, it was persisting down with rain in a bad way, unlike today - blazing sunshine and 20 degrees.......but never mind.
It turns out that my new friend is the president of a drugstore chain, similar to Boots here in Japan, and the day was on him. I was given a little gift of waterproofs, since I`d foolishly neglected to bring any from the UK.... a set of rental clubs - the irons were good Tourstage (Bridgestone) with newish grips, but the driver and fiarway woods were all circa 1960....... but not complaining.
After coffee, we all adjourned to the buggy being kitted out by our caddy san, and off to the first tee. The course was great, up in the mountains, lots of raised tees down over drops to fairway/ greens. The caddy san was immense......a little old girl who had your yardage down to the pin for every shot that each of us played. After every shot I`d turn around and she was there to take my club and clean it (as she was for every player), often ready with the next club depending how close to the green we were. Info around the greens was extremely detailed, and she had the line of every putt without having to step behind the ball to see it - she knew the course like the back of her hand, very impressive. If you were eying up your next shot, she`d be standing beside you with the right club, or she`d be there to clean your ball, dry you rgrips, she`d be over the OB fence retrieving wayward balls, I can`t give her enough credit or praise, she was truly a blessing on a wet nasty day (weather wise).
By the second hole, I was only using the 3 wood, the driver was too wayward, but my companions all offered me their clubs to use.......just use any one, it`s only friendly golf. My friend the teacher, now competes in long drive competitions here, and offered me his driver first............bloomin `eck, a "Flying Cat" driver, 6.5 degrees, with a 5X stiff shaft.........my power fade truly was a power fade.........I think my ball came down somewhere near Hiroshima.....
One of the others offered me his Taylormade R9, 10.5 regular shaft which I fortunately smashed right down the middle. Stuck with the Taylormades after that and had a good round with them. My companions all wiped out the Flying Cat lunacy as a try out shot due to the extreme configuration of the club...... Seems my friend has a number of these, going from Stiff, to XS, 2X, 3X, 4X up to 6X, he decided only the 5X today, taking a bit off for the rain. Whilst I`ll admit that he can certainly hammer the skin off the ball, accuracy was a little wild, and he did end up playing a lot of provisionals.......
As is the norm in Japan, you break for lunch after 9 holes. First we had to strip off our waterproofs, hats and gloves, which were all put into a hot air locker to dry out whilst we ate. Into the restaurant for lunch and beer.....not my preferred halfway routine....but when in Rome and such...... A really nice tonkatsu washed down with Asahi beer and then back to the buggies. Our gear extracted from the drying locker was all fresh and dry, off to start again.
A couple of silly games lined up on the back nine. One hole where we can only speak Japanese, any English word spoken was a 100yen fine (80p), each time you spoke an English word, the fine increased by a 100yen, so if you spoke 3 English words you were in the hole for 600yen etc. The pot would go to nearest the pin. Same game a couple of holes later, this time we could only speak English, the fines were the same and again teh pot to nearest the hole.
The rain was really hammering down on the back 9, we were teh only 4 ball out there, everyone else had gone in, but we were having such a fun time it didn`t seem to matter. By the time we were round to 16, there was a lot of standing water on the fairways, and you would have been swept away with the current if you stood in the drain.....
After we came off the 18th, it was in to get changed, but a dip in the Japanese hot baths was first. Suitably warmed up, our very wet gear was still in need of drying time so we went back into the restaurant for a coffee.
Suitably sorted, we ventured back to town for a trip to a local restaurant where we had an absolutely magnificent dinner and a shed load of beer to flush it down. Despite the rain it was an absolutely amazing day, Japanese hospitality is one of the best in the world.
A few pics from the day here
