I’ve got the golf bug, and I’ve got it bad. I think about golf constantly. Every morning when I wake up, I think about where I’d like to play or practice that day. I’m always thinking about golf stuffs that I’m sure that I need. I’m afraid that I’m getting out of control… ok, not really.

So a couple of months ago I finally got fitted. This is perhaps the most important thing that has ever happened to me in golf.

You see, I’ve been playing golf since I was a little kid. I used to go to the driving range at Willow Park in Castro Valley with my dad. I played almost every Sunday in high school with Dave. I played a little when I lived in SoCal, but it was very expensive and always crowded. But that’s not important. What’s important is that I’ve always had shitty clubs.

I’m a really tall person at 6’4″. Normal, generic clubs are not made for people as tall as I am. So when a guy my height tries to swing normal clubs the result is not good. I’ve always had to try to adjust my swing to my craptacular clubs, and never been very successful. I regularly skulled the ball or hit it too fat or swung the club off-balance or hit it off the toe. It was bad.

Anyway, after almost 30 years of playing with several different sets of generic mass-produced Costco special golf clubs I *finally* got fitted. I got some clubs that are the correct length, lie, angle, all that shit for me. The clubs I play with now are specially created for ol’ Tom Bissell.

My new golf clubs: Tour Edge Bazooka JMAX QL irons and iron-woods. Such amazing technology in these suckers. I love my new clubs. I fall asleep at night dreaming about them.

The club shafts are much longer. The angle of the club head as it is connected to the shaft is correct for my height and swing. I have super oversized grips for my gorilla hands. I love my new clubs!

My game has improved significantly. I can take the swings at the ball that I want to without having to adjust to bad/wrong clubs. I can swing naturally, and it feels great. I’m also much more confident in my game. Whereas before I tried to overanalyze everything in a vain attempt to adjust to swinging my old POS golf clubs and mindfuck myself into making bad shot, now I just step up to the ball, waggle, grip it and rip it, baby.

Oh yeah, and another thing. These new clubs are a good 15 yards longer than my old clubs. This has taken some getting used to. For example, if I needed to make a 200 yard shot with my old clubs I used my 3 iron. Now I have to use my 5 iron. Sometimes I forget that I need to adjust for my new distance, and choose a club 2 sizes too high, based on my old set, and I fly over the green.

I also picked up a 3 and 4 iron in hybrid. These are clubs that you swing like an iron, and get the accuracy of an iron, but you get the distance of a wood. Not only that, they are super easy to swing. Sometimes I think that it would be fun to have a full set of these hybrids and not just a 3 and 4.

So I’ve been playing a lot lately. I went to the range twice last week, I played on Saturday with Kev, and I played yesterday with Dave. Saturday we played Sky West in Hayward, and I’ll never play there again. Yesterday we played at Deer Ridge in Brentwood and I was blown away.

Sky West is a rather boring, flat course in terrible condition. It does not drain very well. The groundskeepers should be fired. You can’t tell where the fairway ends and the rough begins. Same with the greens. Sky West’s only redeeming quality is their clubhouse and hot bartenders. But, I’m afraid, that’s not enough to make me want to go back there and play again.

Deer Ridge is a gorgeous course in the foothills, just in the shadow of Mt. Diablo. The fairways were just about perfect. The greens were very fast, but in otherwise great condition. And it was cheap too. We played 18 with a cart on a holiday and it was only $37. Of all the courses I’ve played out by Dave’s house, Deer Ridge is my favorite.

I need more golf. I must play more golf. MORE GOLF!