So this is God Only Loves Fools [aka GOLF], a blog designed to chronicle the progresses, setbacks, victories and frequently humiliating defeats my steady golf foursome experiences on the golf course every week. Save for the Valleywoods Cup and Pink Purse that you’ll read about later, I think you’ll find we’re very much like your average group of golf buddies. We get pissed when we send a ball into the water, we get happy when we clear it and plop it on the green, and we try to have as much fun as we can along the way without killing one another.
Here’s who we are:
Kevin Croucher. Croucher, married and the a father of a fine young lad, is a well-travelled golfer in his early forties who works as an office nerd for a logistics company. Clearly a wise man, he counts The Family Guy, Spaceballs and P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves series amongst life’s greatest works of art. He’s also the best golfer in our foursome, having played the game many years now. He can hit the ball a country mile past anyone else in the group, has a wonderfully accurate chip shot and putting stroke, and more than a solid knowledge about the game. His score hovers in and around an 85; when he’s really ‘on’ he plays plays very quietly ‘on’, and before you know it he’s flirting with a 79. When he’s really ‘off’, though, it’s an ugly kind of ‘off’, and it hurts to watch him hitting a 92 when I know it’s his equivalent of those times I’ll completely crap out and shoot a 107.
What’s In Kevin’s Bag:
Driver – Ashton X1 8.8deg loft with a X and a half Accuflex LD Graphite shaft
3 Wood – Taylor Made Supersteel 15 deg loft with a Rifle 6.0 steel shaft
5 Wood – Taylor Made V-Steel Fairway 18 deg loft. i’ll get back to you on the shaft
Hybrids – Ashton 22 deg loft with an Accuflex Hybrid X stiff shaft; PureFit 25 deg loft Escape with the same shaft as above
Irons [5-PW] – Ben Hogan Apex Edge plus with Hogan 3 steel shafts
Wedges – Cleveland Tour 900 52 deg loft; Taylor Made RAC 54 deg loft
Putter – Scotty Cameron Studio Design 1.5 with a 35″ shaft
***
Dennis Davis [on the left, when you click the link]. Dennis, also in his early forties, is the oldest player in the group and a self-employed landscaper and handyman with a growing business. Married and a father of three, Dennis is a native of Texas who marired a French-Canadian and settled here in Toronto. A closet fan of science fiction shows in whatever form they take, Den’s much deadlier with his 6 and 8 irons up close than he gets credit for. He’s one of those golfers who often has two parts of his game working and one part not; if his drives are great and his chipping doing well, you can rest assured he won’t be able to putt worth shit that day. On average, Dennis will hit around a score of 100, sometimes going as high as 102 on a bad day when his bad shoulder’s acting up and as low as 94 when he’s feeling right as rain. Denny’s goal is to break 90 before this year is out, and he’s working with some new tools this year to help him do that.
What’s In Den’s Bag:
Driver – Big Ti Bear forged Titantum 10 loft & 360cc
3Wood – Splding Tour super oversize 16 loft
5Wood – Golden Bear AccuForce ll Tour Steel
Hybrid – Pure Fit My Escape 15-ssuperstainless TS 21 loft
Irons [3-PW] – Golden Bear, AccuForce ll shafts
SW – Alien Sport Alien2 Pro Series I – A Pat Simmon Design
Putter – Pro Select No Doubt
***
Amir Rahmani. Amir’s single, in his early thirties, and holds some sort of high-falootin’ financial planning job he’s never been able to really explain. Probably one of the coolest geeks you’ll ever meet, Amir’s the kind of guy who would go to a Fan Expo convention and ask the guy in the Darth Vader outfit which of the buttons on his chest calls his mom to pick him up [precisely the kind of guy, in fact]. A fan of both pop culture and the latest technologies in almost every form they take, Amir’s got the longest set-up over the ball in the entire history of the game of golf [I clocked a mid-fairway iron shot this year at 50 seconds from the time he stepped up to the ball until the time he struck it] and more money than he knows what to do with. Subsequently, he owns every golf teaching aid ever made, as well as the world’s most neglected car. Amir generally hits somewhere between 85 and 95, and hits the ball so crisply sometimes that it’s scary-good. Explosive out of the sand!
What’s In Amir’s Bag:
Driver -
3 Wood -
5 Wood -
Hybrids -
Irons -
Wedges -
Putter -
***
Tim Wood. That’d be me. About the only distinction I have in the group is being the tallest player [I'm around 6'5"], and my clubs – a set of Spalding Executives I bought when I took the game up a few years ago – are far too short for me, which causes me to suck even more than I should. I’ve added a Nickent hybrid and a Knight hybrid to replace my 3 and 4 irons, and I love using them more than I should. My sand wedge cost me $5, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I’m married with a couple of stepkids, I manage a commercial building in dowtown Toronto, and I generally hit around the same scores that Dennis does. My best score ever was a 90.
What’s In Tim’s Bag:
Driver – John Daly Pro Model 10 degree 460cc with Precision Performance 76 graphite shaft [mid-firm]
3 Wood- Spalding Executive with medium-firm graphite shaft
5 Wood – Spalding Executive with shaft as above
Hybrids – 20 degree [3] Genex 3DX Ironwood with Aldila 75-R shaft; Knight TEC Plus [4] 22 degree with HM Platmum medium shaft
Irons – Spalding Executive [3-PW] with True Temper steel shafts
Wedges – Dynacraft Summit Sand Wedge with steel shaft; Cleveland tour Action 900 with True Temper steel shaft
Putter – Goliath Blue Boy Four mallet
So that’s us. I’ll use this thing to keep track of our scores and progress, as well as document the goings-ons of our weekly game. The other guys will probably chime in here from time to time, too.
But first… the Valleywoods Cup.
- BC
