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Dude, Where’s My Driver? – Part One
After more years service that I care to remember, I decided that my venerable old Cleveland driver should be retired. It’s so many generations behind the current crop of drivers that I almost expect to see it telling other clubs to get off its lawn before taking its teeth out and having a nice nap.
The trouble is, buying golf equipment can be a minefield. Your options are either to pony up a big wad of cash at your local shop, scour BST boards on reliable websites or use everybody’s favourite auction site and run the risk of being royally ripped off trying to get a bargain.
My local shop is pretty good but the prices are enough to take your breath away. Ebay is, unfortunately, a wretched hive of scum and villainy and buying from there means running an unacceptable chance of being ripped off. Golfers are easier prey than people who play other sports for various reasons but mainly because of the high turnover of new and used equipment and the generally higher than average discretionary income of a golfer. We are all looking for the next great thing that will cure our swing ills or give us that extra distance – and we are prepared to pay for it. We are, in the scammers parlance, easy marks for fakes and knockoffs.
Because of this when I decided to buy a new driver I knew what I wanted to do: I would dealt with someone I knew (or rather thought I knew) through online forums, avoiding eBay, I would make sure he wasn’t overseas and do all my research so that I knew exactly what I wanted.
A few months ago, in an idle PM with another golfwrx user, I casually mentioned that I was looking for a new Driver and would value some advice on how to go about buying one on BST. This person was one of the most active posters on this website. He said he was an ex-touring pro having played on tours just below the European Tour. He said he nearly made it once at Q-school, but that the number just slipped away from him at the end so he called it a day, gave it up and got his amateur status back. He offered advice to beginners and the sort of insights that only someone that has been on the other side of the ropes would know.
No need to go on BST he said, as luck would have it he could get me a great deal on a driver as one of his friends from his tour days ran a golf shop. He could offer me ‘mates rates’ and save me a packet and at the same time get me a top quality product that would be built to my specs. ‘Result!’, I thought. The only problem was that because I had specified a custom shaft, it would take 5 weeks to order and get built. Not a problem for me as while my current driver was not all I wanted it to be, it was still more than serviceable, and anyway I knew that the standard order time for this club was about a month. So I arranged a bank transfer into his account so he wouldn’t be out of pocket and waited for my new driver.
Five weeks later, having arranged to meet up for drinks at the end of the week so that he could give me the club I got a phone call from him telling me that the driver had arrived but there was a problem; it had the wrong custom shaft! Apologies and offers of money back while it was sorted out assuaged any suspicions I had. While it is uncommon to get a mis-specified club, I could imagine that happening easily enough, especially to a club in notoriously high demand where turn-around times are bound to be a concern, so the sense that something was not quite right could be easily dismissed as the paranoia that I would be scammed.
A couple of phone calls and PM conversations later, he got back to me saying that they would rush this one through and that it would take no longer than 4 weeks. Again not a problem I thought, I’m dealing with a good guy not some scam artist so I was happy to wait. This time, rather than meeting up for a drink so that I could get the club, we would play golf instead. This was going to be exciting for 2 reasons: firstly I would finally get my new club that I had waited 10 weeks for and secondly, he was a member of one of the most prestigious courses in the UK – one that had been the host of a Ryder cup – so I was as excited as a kid before Christmas for the chance to play at a venue that that.
Because the previous order had turned up with the wrong shaft, I thought that it would only make sense to check up when it was supposed to arrive. On the Monday five days before we were supposed to meet up and the day the driver was supposed to be delivered, I emailed him to find out about tee times and also whether he would mind checking that the driver had turned up with the correct shaft this time. As I would be travelling about 300 miles there and back, I wanted to sort out my travel arrangements and to make sure that there wasn’t going to be a repeat of last time.
Silence.
What the………This was when I began to doubt that all was well. This was a guy who normally posted online at least twice a day, why was he suddenly silent? He had logged on a couple of hours after I had sent my message so I knew that he had received it.
In the week previous, he had told me that he had been a bit tied up at work so it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that he was so busy at work that he literally couldn’t get back to me. And not everybody has a computer at home so maybe he was unable to reply there.
Still the days dragged on, and after multiple emails, PM’s, messages both SMS and left on his mobile phone answerphone he had still not got back to me. By Friday it was obvious that our golf was going to be a bust (which in itself was pretty rude and fairly disappointing but nothing to get my knickers in a twist about), so that just left the club. What was happening with that?
More silence.
He wasn’t answering his mobile phone but we had exchanged emails before, and he had emailed from his work account. This meant that I had could phone up his work. If he was still working there that would have been a great opportunity to ask him what was happening but unfortunately when I rang up I was politely informed that he was no longer employed there. When I say ‘politely informed’ I mean of course that they said he was fired and weren’t surprised that he wasn’t in contact with me for various reasons that they felt unable to go into.
Just great.
As the only contact details I had were his work email address and what could well be a work mobile phone number, this meant as far as getting in contact with him I was stuffed, and he appeared to have no inclination to contact me.
This left me with 4 options: go through the hassle of phoning everyone in the phonebook with his surname that lives in the same area, phone the club where we were supposed to be playing and where he was supposed to be a member, phone the police or just walk away. None of the options were palatable as all would involve a fair amount of hassle and/or embarrassment but there was no way I was going to stop now.
Read "Dude, Where’s my Driver? – Part Two" next week.
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Morning 9: Scheffler repeats at Players | Monday PIF meeting | McIlroy takes another shot at Norman
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Tour Rundown: Matching luggage for Scheffler
For those of us from another generation, the disruption of the golf world that we knew well is both exciting and unsettling. The two most potent disruptors are rival golf leagues, not unlike the turmoil seen in the NCAA, and the Anchorman-style gangs of golf reporters. Reconciled to a past era are the dominance of the U.S. PGA Tour and the monthly golf magazines. One element that will not change, at any time in the foreseeable future, however, is the sanctity of the grand slam and golf’s four male major championships. While the LPGA and the PGA Tour Champions have seen a light and added fifth and sixth power titles, the men’s game remains staunchly in the 20th century.
This last topic surges in pertinence each March, just before the playing of The Players Championship. Two camps stake tents and run banners up the poll. One cries out for elevation of the PC to major status, while the other digs a trench around its impregnable quadrilateral. My personal take is this: Every four years since 2016, golf is played at the Olympics. Is Olympic Gold the equivalent of a major title? Yes, it is. It comes around every 1,500 days and brings elite golfers together in competition at the most important athletic event and venue. In my mind, Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele earned major titles in Brazil and Japan, as did Inbee Park and Nelly Korda. As for the Players Championship, why not? The field is stronger by ranking than any major event, and the golf course demands every shot that golfers can create.
The Players Championship is so important to the U.S. PGA Tour that all other tours under its umbrella take the week off. No Korn Ferry, no Tour Champions. The LPGA and the DP World Tour follow suit, which shrinks the amount of watchable golf to two events. On that sour note, let’s run down this week’s play, beginning with the Players Championship and ending with the Asian Tour in Macau.
PGA Tour @ Players Championship: matching luggage for Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler is making a bid to be the player of his generation. From the previous one, a fair number have taken leave from traditional competition. The Johnsons, Koepkas, and Reeds from the 1980s no longer play the events that stand the test of time. The born-in-the-90s generation had its first great champion in Jordan Spieth until he took leave of the senses that brought him to golf’s pinnacle. Spieth’s descent ran opposite Scheffler’s rise.
Scottie Scheffler had won nothing on the PGA Tour until February 13th of 2022. He won on that day in Phoenix, then won three more times by the middle of April. One of those wins was the API at Bay Hill. Last week, Scheffler won for a second time at the Orlando course. Last March, Scheffler won his first Players Championship, by five shots over Tyrrell Hatton. On Sunday, Scheffler dived headfirst into a cauldron of fierce competition. Facing challenges from Olympic champion Schauffele, Open champion Brian Harmon, and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, Scheffler breathed. As the only man to reach 20 under par, he earned a second consecutive title at Sawgrass and reminded us that it has been two years since he won the Masters and that he is on a tear.
It all began at the fourth on Sunday for Scheffler. After pars at the opening three holes, Scheffler’s driving wedge from 92 yards landed 20 feet shy of the hole, took one large bounce, then spun left, trickling into the hole for eagle. He followed that incantation with another birdie, then two pars. The stretch from 8 to 12 was where the champion made a statement. His quartet of birdies over that run, brought him to 19-under par and let the pursuing pack know that even lower than the winning 17 under in 2023 would be necessary.
And the trio was game. Harman and Clark both dipped below 70, to reach 19 under at the final pole. Schauffele could not find a similar gear and closed with 70 — 69 would have earned him a playoff with Scheffler. It was the extra gear, the ability to go low when all things mattered, that eleveated the now two-time champion to the top of the podium. In five of his eight tour wins, Scheffler has posted a sub-70 round on day four, and four of those have been 67 or lower.
With elegant precision, Scheffler applied the final thrust at the par-5 16th. He played safely away from Pete’s Pond on the right, into the left greenside bunker at the back of the putting surface. His bunker shot was thing of exquisite accuracy, trickling to a planned stop about 20 inches from the hole. The birdie concluded matters and rang the sort of bell that Dye courses tend to display.
The greenside bunker is not a problem for the defending champ.
Scottie Scheffler’s birdie at 16 moves him back into a share of the lead @THEPLAYERS. pic.twitter.com/aEi7onLZPE
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 17, 2024
Asian Tour @ International Series Macau: Catlin earns playoff victory
There are two sorts of golfers that compete on the Asian Tour, which makes no secret of its alliance with the LIV. The first are the AT stalwarts, the ones who play as golfers have always played, with little guarantee and much pride. The others are the ones who compete on the LIV, eschewing both risk and pride for the guaranteed payday. Their deal costs them world ranking points, so they play in AT events, hoping to qualify for golf’s major events.
This week in Macau, one of those LIV golfers shot 60 on Sunday and did not win the tournament. Hard to believe, you say? Aye, but when another golfer shoots 59 in the third round, follows it up with a 65 on day four, then makes overtime birdie twice at the par-five closer, the razor’s edge of great golf is sharpened. Thus did it happen with American John Catlin and Spaniard David Puig.
It was Catlin who signed for 59, and it took a twisting, eagle putt at the last to enshrine the first-ever, sub-60 on the Asian Tour. It was Puig who closed the gap on Sunday with a 60 of his own, which featured a bogey at the lengthy fifth hole, but was followed by seven birdies and an eagle over the next 13 holes. Catlin had a six-feet putt for the regulation win, but missed. In extra time, Puig nearly holed for eagle at 18, then tapped in for birdie. Catlin’s second danced along the OOB perimeter, before ending on an access road. His drop and pitch left him another six feet to remain alive, and this time, he converted.
At the second go-round of the par-5 finisher, Puig found the green in two, but took three putts from nearly 50 feet. Catlin confronted another challenging pitch for his third, and once again, his wedge game won the day. He tapped in for birdie and the win.
5??9?? ? @JohnCatlin59 eagles the 18th to shoot the first 59 on the Asian Tour ?? #whereitsAT #ThisISEverything #InternationalSeries @intseriesgolf pic.twitter.com/RV9gYy1SIp
— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) March 16, 2024
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Morning 9: Rory, Xander, Clark share Players lead | Rory on controversial drop | AK misses Macau cut
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Pingback: Bag Chatter » My First Tour Club
Mike K.
Oct 15, 2007 at 9:05 pm
…Really, That sucks! I hope part two at least gets your money back.
I loathe doing any business on-line with private parties. Paranoia – maybe, but with all the scams out there it is more and more likely that you could become a mark.
I look forward to a decent resolution to your problem!