4-Club Wind

In golf terms 4-club wind means you better take a club four levels — or about 40 yards — longer than the one you'd normally select. If a 9 iron takes out out to 135 yards, go with a five. In windsurfing terms it means it's blowing 4.0 to 4.5. Oh well, never mind, can't always get the forecast right.


Legs and fitness feel good after what was a pretty arduous 650 feet of MTB climbing today.

POSTED No trespassing. 300 feet up above the golf
course and Hempstead Harbor.

I should have been windsurfing both days, but made other plans early Saturday, when I saw the forecasts looked weak.  In fact I figured the wind would be so puny, I would introduce Z-Dogg to SUPing on O-Bay.

But just as I was about to bolt, Chuck suggested golf, and I felt ready for that, too (I figure it had been around a year since my last 9-hole round; we were well overdue). So Z-Dogg got her walk but not her swim.

Meanwhile, down below, the previous day. A 4-club breeze
did little to stymie the new swing. Memo—clouds
like these mean wind at the surface.

A quick warm up at the range. The new grip is working well -- finally straight shots. ... I seem to have mostly eliminated the hard hook  — I open the club face slightly at address. And the second part of the equation is a very easy relaxed swing, i just drop down from the backswing with gravity and accelerate from there. Strangely it delivers as long, if not longer, of a ball flight as if it had tried to whack it with all my might. Today I pulled out a series of clubs and within two swings they were dialed. Didn't bother with the Driver. But when I pulled it on the course for fun, I topped the first, and nailed the second like a missile. Made the first four fairways, including a stellar low 5 wood to about 240 leap-frogging a linguine-like ribbon of fairway, water and other hazards, to within two putts of a made birdie. After something like that it doesn't matter how the rest of the round goes.

Z-dogg: collecting IOUs for swims and SUP sessions?
She hears rumors there are ducks on the bay. That's gotta
be good if you're a part-lab, no?

Next day, a hard MTB ride in the local dirt and hills. The wind and rain came up again, as a front came through, so I waited in my cycling gear for a couple of hours for the worst of it to pass. There was no way I was not going to get out there an burn some calories.

To once again avoid a miserable windy ride, I set a course of the highest hills in the neighborhood, including some trails in the trees. There, it did not matter whether the wind was blowing or not, as the steep 300 foot hills block just about every breeze. Legs felt tired from yesterday's golf, "remind me, why am I riding this hill again." OK they'll feel better later ... and sure enough they did. Changed up the hill route a little ... I look forward to doing this with a 15 lb lighter bike, but am using the MTB again today, while the roads are still in their potholed prime.