Tee Up 2022 With These Golfing Essentials
The origins of golf are shrouded in the mists of time. It seems like as long as humans have been competitive, people have been hitting balls with sticks. Irrespective of whether you follow the big four annual tournaments religiously, or maintain a casual curiosity as to the action at the top flight of our sport, there are various ways you can heighten your participation. For example, placing a wager on the outcome of a match, player or league can be a great way to engage, and is an effective way to declare your support for a particular side. What’s more, most reputable bookmakers now offer free bets on most major competitions, including the PGA Tour, US Open, British Open and Masters, for new players, letting you commit without risk.
While a new year has dawned on us, the best golfing days are still months away as we find ourselves firmly in a state of winter dreaming for mud-less courses. This makes this moment a great time to stop, do some repairs, hit the gym in true new year’s fashion, and plan out our goals for this year’s season. Whether you’re a globe-trotting spectator, an armchair pundit, or a fairway fanatic, we’ve pulled together a great list of golfing essentials to set you up in fine style for the year to follow.
Get Your Head in the Game
A great way to get more involved in the experience is to enroll in a fantasy sports league, either online or along with friends, and let your insight into the game guide you to victory against your club-mates. To play fantasy sports well requires you to have a good understand of any particular players strengths and weaknesses, and an understanding of which courses play to their distinct advantages. Among the most popular destinations for setting up your own golf leagues online are Yahoo Fantasy Sports and FanDuel.
Tactical Travel
Traveling between the various courses in the international roster of the golf season can of course be pricey, but there are some tricks you can employ in order to minimize unexpected costs. For one, consider which courses / events you would most like to attend and prioritize organizing travel and acquiring tickets for those first. For example, if you happen to live in New York state for example, travel to any number of major events will be relatively straightforward and cost effective.
If you’re flying though, there is a rule of thumb as to when flights will be cheapest. This comes by way of CheapAir.com who, in a survey of over 900 million airfares, was able to deduce an average time window wherein ticket prices were lowest. This magic window is approximately 70 days before departure. While this is of course an inexact science, sticking to this rule will mean you’ll rarely be paying more than +5% of the lowest available price. Over the course of the season, this can certainly add up.
Refresh your Gear
Golfing gear can run the gamut from low-tech essentials to luxury affordances. While designer baseball caps and robotic golf caddies are certainly welcome to the player of means, there are some basics that every links-person in 2022 should be looking at in order to maximize their performance when they hit the green. Wire brushes, for example, are low-cost yet indispensable for maintaining your equipment and extending its lifespan.
It’s easy to forget to replace such trusty bits of kit periodically, but if yours has seen better days, consider replacing it with a fresh brush that is truly up to the job. Another piece of gear that is growing in popularity, even though purists may hold it in contempt, is a decent GPS tracker. Nowadays, it seems like everyone has some form of fitness tracker, but golf is one of the few games where the precise GPS data can directly impact your gameplay by giving you clear information as to course distances and boundaries.
