Today is a momentous occasion in the world of golf media. It’s the 15 year anniversary, ahem, “blogiversary” of GolfBlogger.com, by my good friend John Retzer.
Golf Blogger is truly one of the original golf blogs, predating Hooked on Golf Blog by about six months. John has relentlessly written about every golf subject imaginable, from Tiger Woods to golf course reviews to golf equipment.
In the early days of this blog I looked up to Golf Blogger as one of the pioneers in an emerging space. Over a decade and a half Golf Blogger and HOG, John and myself, have built up a long term friendship. We often shared each others posts and linked to each other’s blogs in true original blog fashion. The blog mentality has always been that a rising tide raises all ships in the blogosphere. John and I have played many rounds of golf together, from Michigan to Bandon Dunes to Morocco. Below is a shot of us at Black Lake Golf Club in Michigan.
I’ve said dozens of times that the best part of running this golf blog hasn’t been all the “free golf equipment,” the endless hot golf babes (in yoga pants who shoot videos of themselves working out at the gym) that are attracted to golf bloggers, or all the millions of dollars the golf blogs make. Nope. The best part is the lifelong relationships and great friends I’ve made. John Retzer, the Golf Blogger, is one of the best.
Hats off to Golf Blogger, and 15 more years of great golf writing.
I’m hurting in numerous ways right now. First, spring has sprung here in northern Utah. The courses have just opened. I live on a course, and the parking lot has been packed, with the temps going from snow to the 50’s and 60’s. Second, ski season is still in full swing. The resorts in Utah have gotten hammered with a massive amount of snow, and I’m not skiing it. Third, I’m now exactly five weeks removed from my shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff, torn labrum, and torn bicep tendon.
I’m still in a sling. One more week to go. That’s extremely irritating, especially since I have to sleep in it. I’ve just barely started to be able to do some basic typing, but after a few minutes the bicep portion of the surgery really flares up and hurts like hell. I had a bicep tenodesis, where they cut an inch or two of the bicep tendon off, and screw the end into the bone. Yeah. Fun.
I’m attending rehab (a.k.a physical therapy) several times per week and doing daily exercises to strengthen and loosen up the shoulder. Earlier this week the therapist tried to introduce me to a new exercise, pulling my arm up with my other arm, via a pulley. Total fail.
The setup photo above looks like some kind of rig for sexual deviants. I wish it was. It’s the pulley chair. Three days ago they put me in it and asked me to reach up and grab the handle. I tried like hell, but couldn’t. So they lifted my arm up for me, which was a new experience in pain. I then tried to do the pulley action, using my left arm to lift my right arm up. After about two incredibly painful reps where I moved it maybe a quarter of an inch, the therapist stopped me. She said, “I can see your bicep twitching.” I wasn’t ready.
At today’s therapy session the therapist didn’t even bother with the S&M chair. That was a bit depressing, as I want to progress. But I know I can’t push it either. No point in going through this hell again.
So the goal for now is simple. Get to where I can do some reps in the S&M chair. Baby steps.
In 1999 Sun Mountain introduced the Speedcart, an ergonomic three wheeled folding golf push cart. I had the original In my gamer set up, and nearly 20 years later it’s still in terrific condition. I’m now on my third model of the Speedcart, the new GX model. The GX has all of the great features of the original Speedcart, and has dozens of terrific refinements and improvements. Let’s take a look.
She even looks great indoors!
Sun Mountain Speedcart GX
The three wheeled design features large, lightweight wheels which roll smooth and easy. Pushing the cart is nearly effortless. The large wheels navigate even the most gnarly of terrain, and when you play golf like I do you manage to find a lot of gnarly terrain.
Unit folds into a 37 x 16 x 13 package for storage and transportation. Folding is easy and takes two simple steps.
The golf bag is easily mounted onto the cart and secured via bungee cables which are simple to use. This is a very important feature. I’ve used many golf carts which have poorly designed straps which do not secure the bag properly, allowing it to rotate or slide. This causes the golf clubs to bunch up making them difficult to remove. With the Speedcart, golf clubs are easily accessible and visible to the user, without having to change positions from behind the handle. I will often pull my next club while still pushing a cart en route to my next shot.
The handle (photo above) is padded and features a comfortable position for the hands along with an adjustable height. The brake lever is on the right side of the handle and it’s easy to enable and disable. Just below the brake lever is a beverage holder.
A large storage tray in the handle easily stores small items like GPS’s, cell phones, car keys, snacks, and sundries. The lid of the storage tray serves as a scorecard and pencil holder. Just below the storage tray in the handle is a mesh head cover tray.
And umbrella holder screws onto the handle which positions the umbrella right over the user’s head. I use the umbrella in the summertime to keep the sun from beating me up too bad.
Colors
The car comes in eight available colors. Being a rock’n roll musician I chose the color “none more black.”
Optional Accessories
Optional accessories for the Speedcart include numerous additional storage bags/packs, coolers, sand bottles, cart covers, and even a folding seat. I’ve got my eyes on the folding seat.
Final Thoughts
I prefer to walk on the golf course and the Speedcart GX allows me to easily and enjoyably do so without aggravating my bad back. The Speedcart is very easy to operate while keeping my golf clubs and sundries all conveniently organized and stored.
With such well thought-out design there are no irritating issues which can put a damper on our golfer’s round, like the aforementioned club rotating and bag slipping. Pushing in steering the cart is a breeze. It’s quite fun and challenging to let the cart go downhill and see where it ends up. Hopefully not the lake. I’ve seen it happen.
It has now been 24 days since I underwent shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff, torn bicep tendon, and torn labrum. It has been three+ weeks of very little sleep, quite a bit of pain, and just plain going nuts not being able to do much including typing. I am dictating this post and hoping for no embarrassing typos from the speech to text converter. I’ve now gotten my stitches out and bandages off. Fortunately I’m off the OxyContin and hopefully my digestive system will resume normal operation soon, as a result, if you know what I mean.
17 more days in the sling
I had my first physical therapy session a couple of days ago. That was the first time in weeks I’ve had the opportunity to move my arm in any direction. There are a few directions which are extremely painful and difficult to move, like reaching forward. I can barely move my arm an inch or two forward at this point. There are a couple of other directions which are better.
I’m now past the halfway point in terms of wearing a sling, which in total is six weeks. I’m greatly looking forward to losing the sling. Having one arm not usable makes things like driving, eating, showering, getting dressed, tying your shoes, sleeping, very difficult. Yes, I have to sleep in the sling. Perhaps I’ll publish the full list of irritating things to do one-handed later. Once the sling is off I won’t necessarily be able to do a lot with my arm, however. But that will be a big deal in terms of steps in the process of getting better.
Right now August or Septembers look to be when I’ll be able to start attempting to make golf swings again. At that point I don’t expect to have much in terms of power or flexibility, so I’ll be keeping my expectations low. I should be able to putt long before that and perhaps chip and work on short game shortly after that. Putting has never been an issue but my short game has been pretty bad the last few years. Perhaps one positive which will come out of this is a better short game, but I fear my long game may be forever gone.
I’m going to miss playing competitive amateur golf this season. Even if that’s just the $2 Nassau against my Wednesday buddies. I will not renew my local golf Association membership because there’ll be no point in tracking handicap if I’m not playing. I really like to compete In tournaments but I don’t do that a lot of due to sandbaggers, or as I like to call them cheaters. Still I’ll miss that adrenaline rush and the challenge of trying to keep myself composed under pressure in tournament situations.
Though I won’t be able to do much club testing for a while I will still strive to produce many great golf reviews and product features I can. I can certainly still review golf travel, golf resorts, golf apparel, golf accessories and so on, without having to swing a club. Always good to go on golf satire and humor.
That’s the plan.
In for review from GPO (German Precision Optics) is their Flagmaster 1800 Golf Laser Rangefinder. This unit is possibly the smallest laser I’ve ever seen. It’s barely bigger than the palm of my hand. Love the size. It also boasts class 1 laser technology with a range of 1800 yards. With drivers getting longer and longer every product cycle, golfers need 1800 yards from their lasers!
We are currently in a permanent frost delay here in northern Utah. The courses are under a solid 6-8 inches of snow, With more falling now. When the frost delay is over And the snow melts, I’ll be putting this laser to the test. Stay tuned in late spring/summer. If the German engineering of this laser is as good as my car I expect great things.
In the box
Speaking of German engineering, how about this packaging?
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