Blog Archives

How to Play the Toughest Holes at Walkabout Golf Course, Mims, FL

3/31/2013

Walkabout Golf & Country Club in Mims, FL is a fairly low key place--seating for the dining room is in a screened outdoor area with comfortable seats. The price is reasonable for a round and golf cart.

The Walkabout Golf Course is currently in excellent shape with green lush fairways. The mid-nine restrooms come awfully early after the third hole and thirteenth hole. It makes the last six a bit pressured. That's the information. It has two great to play holes that bring fear to the heart of first timers. Here's just a bit of advice to prepare you for playing here.

One thing you should plan on this course is to play your club that goes straight, otherwise you will likely end up in one of the lakes or woods. Even then, you might end up in a trap. The women's tees make for a short but tough round.

From the sixteenth tee, it looks like all there is is one giant sand trap right in front of your nose. It's night quite true.

Driving to a point just left of the monster trap shown here (about 140 yards for women, 180 for men), will set you up for a easy second shot to the green. After your drive, you can actually see the flag from either side of this mound. You aren't entirely safe, there's lots of water on the left and the green is quite small. I used a seven-wood for another 120 yards, then a small chip to the green. Play it safe but don't get scared by this monster trap.

The eighteenth hole has a creek that you can't see from the tee box, so make sure you have loft on your drive because a low ball ( worm burner ) that bounces down the course will get caught. You have over 150 yards from the women's tee and over 180 yards from the men's tee before running into the river, seen just before the tree. The river is quite wide (thirty feet) so your next hit needs to go up two clubs to the green and over at least 80 yards. I drove (140 yards) then chipped closer to the river (30 yards) before using a seven wood to go another (100+ yards). I still needed to chip onto the green. Near the river is quite wide, but from the tee, you're quite narrow. Choose your straightest, longest drive, the move as close as you can to the river, you'll need it. The 150-yard distance marker is back 50 yards from the river's edge so a five wood (140 yards for me) might not make the river. It's best to plan ahead otherwise you'll pay extra strokes for losing your ball.

If you play Walkabout Golf & Country Club golf course, plan on a good challenging round, average food, and a friendly crowd.

0 Comments

For Golf Beginners: Start with Your Seven Wood and Seven Iron

3/5/2013

0 Comments

If you are a beginner golfer, try learning two clubs to start. For drives, begin with your seven wood. A seven wood will give you the most loft from the start. It is meant to be a fairway wood and because of its small head size, it will handle dips in the fairway much better than any other club. The seven wood for women will net you about 120 yards, +- 30 yards. When you're hitting from the tee, place your tee nearly level with the ground.

The reason for choosing one club is to help build your rhythm of hitting the ball. Each of the clubs vary as to where you place the ball in your stance. And the bigger the head on the club, the heavier it is to swing. The biggest problem most beginning golfers have is having strong enough wrists.

Do women's push ups in bed to help build your wrist strength, or alternatively against the wall. And swing the club fifty to one hundred times if you have the spot to do it. You don't need to have a ball or worry about where it will go to just take the swings.

The other club to start with is a seven iron, because it two is one of the easier, longer distance irons to hit due to loft. Many prefer to start with the eight iron. A seven iron will net you about 90-100 yards +-20 if you're a woman.

Many men have a really easy time hitting golf balls long distance when they start. Men are more likely to use their wrist muscles in other tasks--carrying loads, hammering, using a screw driver, raking, shoveling, etc. Gardening is an alternate way to build wrist strength.

Why not start with all the clubs? Consistency is swing, timing, placement.

This video from Peak Performance Golf on how to stop topping your fairway wood may be very helpful.

0 Comments

Judging Distance to the Green in Golf

3/3/2013

2 Comments

It may seem that golf is a very mysterious sport when you are a beginner. After you figure out how far your golf clubs drive a ball on average, the question will always be, how far do I have to hit to get the ball on the green. As this photograph shows, golfers are likely to find posts in the middle of the fairway. Typically, golf courses will place distance posts 200 yards, 150 yards, and 100 yards to the green. White distance posts typically mean there are 150 yards to go. Blue distance posts typically mean there is 200 yards to the green. Red distance posts typically mean that there is 100 yards to the green. But not all golf courses have these posts.

An alternate way of marking distances is by placing a red, white, or blue line distance marker on the golf cart path, sometimes with the distance spelled out. Since golf paths take heavy wear and tear, these may be in variable condition.

A golf path distance marker isn't as helpful as one in the middle of the fairway, because the width of the fairway varies and can add additional distance.

Another alternative to the mid course distance post is colored, mid course cement dots that acts as distance markers that indicate the same distances--blue 200 yards, white 150 yards and red 100 yards. Sometimes the distances may also be found on sprinkler heads.

But given that your ball doesn't lie exactly on the line of the distance marker, its still up to you to figure out how much more distance you have to travel. One way is to use an average step to equal one foot and ten steps to equal another 10 feet. A final indicator, given that all three others are missing, is to look for a tree planted at the edge of the fairway--often these are placed at the 100, 150, and 200 yard distances to make a more permanent indicator.

It all sounds like you need a calculator either in your head or on your golf bag in order to keep track and do the math. One final option is to use a Golf Range Finder, as shown in te video. My husband bought a Bushnell Range Finder--his decision was based on the fact that there was a single button pushed in order to get the answer. If you get one, be sure to keep extra batteries on hand.

2 Comments

Not Which Golf Ball, Which Golf Ball Color

3/2/2013

0 Comments

Golf ball selections is worthy of a video on the subject including a visit to Facebook to ask users what they use and why.

But for me, picking a golf ball starts with color. Here in this picture, you see what a yellow ball versus a white ball on a golf course in Florida. Florida is often quite bright, so what happens is white blurs into the green grass which also turns into a sheen of white.

Sometimes, early in the morning, you can't see either color. Sometimes, late in the afternoon when the sunset turns everything yellow, yellow balls disappear into the grass.

Really neon colors often blaze a little more in the dusk.

White balls also are a problem if the grass tends to have a lot of clover, Spanish moss, or daisies. Find a golf course in the Puget Sound in spring, you're likely to lose your white balls in the flowers.

So why use pink? Well, most women who want to make a statement for breast cancer will buy a ball with the remembrance flag.

My personal choice is yellow and I find my ball is easy to find most of the time, especially when playing in a foursome since the usual color of choice is white.

Many people mark their balls with their initials, with an arrow to line up their putts, or at least pay attention to the brand because you should always check that the ball you are hitting is your own. I was delighted to find that different brands are beginning to use different colors of yellow, so even if someone else is using a yellow ball, we could easily learn whose ball it was by the color.

0 Comments

How to Play the Toughest Holes at Walkabout Golf Course, Mims, FL

For Golf Beginners: Start with Your Seven Wood and Seven Iron

Judging Distance to the Green in Golf

Not Which Golf Ball, Which Golf Ball Color

Sheri Fresonke Harper

Archives

Categories

Questions or concerns: