When we played golf in Baden Baden, Germany at the Baden-Baden Golf Club, we ended up playing with rental golf clubs. The MacGregor golf clubs were much different from our usual golf clubs; I play with Kunnan Golf Clubs and Bob normally plays with Callaway Big Bertha golf clubs.

Is Renting Golf Clubs Worth it?

Yes and no. You do pay plenty to rent golf clubs, but to ship golf clubs via the airlines is usually at least $30 per bag and more like $50 per bag each way, while rental golf clubs cost from $20 per bag on up. If you play once, you've saved a bundle on shipping fees and saved annoyance hauling them to the airport and you don't take the risk of loss or damage of your golf clubs. Anytime we've planned to play golf several times on a vacation, we've deemed it well worth our time to ship them.

Here's a comparison of two golf bag covers we've used; in general they cost from $30 to $1000 depending on the quality.

The main difficulty I had playing with the rental golf clubs was due to a lack of golf glove; without a glove, the golf club reverberated in my hand and I had more slippage and less control. Also, the surprise with rental golf clubs is that most golfers keep their glove, tees, balls, hats, golf ball markers, golf repair tools, golf ball retriever, suntan lotion or sun block, lip gloss, golf shoes, golf range finder, etc. in their golf bag. Most rental golf bags don't provide any of this golf equipment. 

Yet, we did rent golf clubs and I am glad we did so. My golf score was off a little from my golf handicap, but we got to experience golf in a foreign country at a golf course we would never have visited. It's a rather fun experience to find golf culture pretty intact around the world.

Mini MacGregor Golf Club Review

From my husband's view, he liked the MacGregor golf clubs better than his Callaway golf clubs. I've wanted to get a set of Callaway golf clubs because they were heavier than my Kunnan golf clubs and a heavier club cuts through wet turf much easier. I haven't needed a heavier set since I moved to Orlando, Florida because the grass rarely gets as thick and heavy as it did in the Seattle area during the wetter months.

I was less happy with the MacGregor golf clubs since I found it more difficult to get any loft. They also exchange my favorite fairway drivers, the five wood and seven wood for hybrid clubs and these weren't as effective on the fairway. Hybrids are good for heavy turf so if we'd played earlier in Spring I might have like them better. The edges of the clubs seemed soft and the club head didn't launch the ball as well. I did keep pretty straight on my shots which is the reason I don't like many other brands. 


Choosing a Golf Club

When I chose the Kunnan golf clubs, the  manager at ProGolf Discount found me the correct size and told me the ladies clubs tend to have a lot of flex in them, especially with graphite handles which the MacGregor also used. I tried about six brands of golf clubs at the ProGolf discount driving range in the store. The Kunnan golf clubs gave me the cleanest hit and straightest drives. A club that is good for a straight hit saves a golfer a great deal of grief on the golf course.

Well, for me it was easy because I had a husband who made all the arrangements for staying at the Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe Resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic including all of our tee times online the internet (the link takes you to their webpage where you can arrange a room and a tee time). That was the first step.

The second step involved getting our golf clubs to the golf course. We took the resort train from the pick up stop at the end of our hotel building (the place is very large) but I think perhaps getting the golf cart first and picking the clubs up in the same spot would have been much easier.

The third step is checking in with the pro shop--lunch is available in the dining room right next door and since our first tee time was late in the afternoon, this mean lunch first was a great choice. The restaurant here has a dubious reputation for being really slow with some of the people we met, but for us it worked out fine. The restaurant didn't open until 12:30 so we had drinks first until they opened. Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe is an all inclusive so the beer (Presidente), Coca Cola light, hamburger, roast beef sandwich, and a dessert had we wanted it were provided without charge. The tee time cost us a charge for use of the golf cart. Had we played 5 times instead of three, the cost would have been less but as it was ended up at $40 per person. 

Afterwards, we were able to store our golf clubs at the Lakes Golf Course.

The fourth step is choosing the appropriate tee. My husband thought the blue tee distance was about his pace for his first game, the next two were played at the more typical white tee. The reason is on a couple of holes over the water, the distance can be pretty long. My husband had a much happier, less stressful time on the white tees. For women, the red tees play within a usual handicap.

Other hints about playing the course involve the challenges. One of the hallmarks  (see photo above) of the Lakes Course at Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe are the scenic golf shot lakes especially the number 9 and number 18 hole with their wood braced raised greens. 

Play it with the exact right club (the holes play long when faced with wind) with a high arching chip shot.

Another is the hidden greens (see photo to the left). Place your approach shot so that a high, arching chip shot that lands and stops is your best bet.

Another hint is to stay in the center of the course, choose the right distance club to stay out of the lake with any additional roll.

A last warning is to stay out of the sand traps. Many are hidden. You get over one sand trap only to fall in the smaller one hidden behind.

The Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe golf course is in excellent condition. We played after heavy rain and found you had to punch the ball hard to get it in the hole on the green and we also had to walk (most of the course was closed via cart path only rules due to soggy turf). Two days later, the greens were fast and driving on the course was allowed. Rain drizzled and was a relief from heat, the heavy rains came at night. Be prepared with sun protection.

Note: WiFi from the Barcelo Bravo Palace Deluxe resort isn't available on the golf course.

When I lost my old Android telephone that I was having a terrible time with since it kept freezing and I wasn't sure how to clean up apps and the like, I bought a new Galaxy 3 Notepad Android phone at the Verizon store. This time, I bought lots of extra memory so I would't have as many difficulties.

One of the first downloads I made was of the FREE Golfpad App for Android. Many of my friends on the Central Florida Golf Club had mentioned they used golf apps to track their score, figure their handicap, and get the distance to the flag.

Before I downloaded the FREE Golfpad App for Android onto my phone, I read through all the descriptions of all the apps. I liked this one best since it seemed to be really free i.e. no additional download costs to load the layout of golf courses.

So what do you get with your Free Golfpad App for Android:

This is the good list:

• you can add four people to a foursome and track their score, hole by hole adding in strokes, putts and penalties
• you can find the distance to the green from any location on any golf course using GPS
• you can enter the email addresses of any player and send them a summary of the play on the golf course
• you can find many of the local golf courses (using your current location) and use them when you play (as far as I know this gains you nothing but hole yardage and course yardage and which holes are par 5, 4 and 3.
• you can track the distance of each of your shots, and assign the club you used for the shot
• get a report with a summary of pars, bogeys, double and more, along with the average number of putts and other helpful statistics

This is the bad list:

• the first person you add, is the only person who can track their hits, shot by shot. In my case, I added my husband's first so he get's his tracked and I don't
• you get a few ads flashing at the bottom of your screen
• bumping on the cart path can give you false added strokes or penalties

Some other major points that I like:

• There is an easy add strokes, putts and penalties screen. Mistakes come off with an undo with ease
• The accuracy of the GPS was very close to my husband's golf range finder
• When I was done using it, taking pictures along the course and doing a few other computing tasks I still had adequate battery
• The download was quick and easy to install

Statistics fanatics can upgrade for a small cost to get more features and reports.

This photograph of a dogleg on a golf course highlights the main reason that doglegs are difficult to play. Doglegs often go around natural hazards like ponds. Doglegs make the short straight distance to the green much longer if you play it safe. Often really skilled golfers have long drives, so can go over and beyond a hazard with ease. Beginning golfers have a much harder game. Many times the tees require judgment about how far to hit the first shot, often cutting 50 to 100 yards off your normal golf drive. But playing it safe saves golf balls in the long run.

Here's how this golf video from Nikon Golf Course Management describes how to manage a dogleg.

The worst doglegs are the ones with forests; many golfers that try to go over or around a forest end up within the woods. For those beginning golfers so unlucky to end up in the trees, make your next shot safe by using a 4-iron or a 3-wood or pitching wedge if necessary to get a straight, low drive that makes it through the woods. 
Golf Tips:

• Make sure your golf partners are watching carefully because a golf ball ricocheted from a tree can be a real danger. 
  
• Make your shot safe--get back onto the fairway with as little risk as possible. It will save additional strokes and your golf handicap in the long run. 
  

We played the Country Club of Mount Dora  in Mt. Dora, Florida last week. My husband informed me I should play the gold tees in order to play a full 5300 yards since the red tees were much shorter to play. Women typically play the red tees since the handicap for most course play is set up using the red tees. A person's handicap will usually determine which tees a person will play from.

Championship courses will often have five tees: black (for the men pros), blue  (for the men with handicaps below 10), white (for most men), gold (for seniors  and women with handicaps below 10), red (for women). Every person can choose  which tees they play from--often choosing a longer course length can allow  players to use their longer clubs more often, but they should do it when the course isn't crowded. The gold tees were sometimes placed with the men's tees, sometimes on their own and sometimes with the women's tees at Mount Dora.

My first hint that Mount Dora was going to be tricky to play when I found this interesting sand trap with a staircase down to the sand. I thought, no problem, with all that wide open fairway, I won't be dumb enough to get into this trap. Turns out I was far too greedy for safety. When I drove for the green, it neared the flag, then tumbled into the bottom of this trap on the right.

This hole at Mount Dora Country Club was supposed to be an easy par 4, but after your first shot, your second ball had to carry over this narrow neck, avoid the sand traps and manage to stay on the green.

Luckily for my sanity, they saved this green until near the end of the course. Yes, easy golf can take you past the lake, over the creek, over all the little sand traps and land near the flag and stay. On a par 5 hole no less than a little challenge will make every golfer please to play the Country Club of Mount Dora.