Ground Golf Equipment

 I finally decided that, if I wanted to get better at ground golf, I need my own equipment. We were told by members of our club that a store called Mr Max carried the equipment, so my wife I and walked to the store, about 15 minutes from home. When we got there, we found that they did not carry sports equipment. We also discovered that this store is actually Mr Max Select and that it only carries some of the things that are sold in their larger stores. When we got home, I went on the Internet and found that there was a regular full-sized Mr Max a little more than four kilometers from home. We decided that, when we had a free day and it was not raining, we would walk there. In the meantime we had to go to Hakata Station, so we checked while there and were told that there were no sporting goods shops nearby.

Finally we had a sunny day and because of a mix up in scheduling another group was using the grounds and we could not play ground golf. My wife and I decided to walk to Mr Max. It took almost an hour and the store had just opened for the day when we arrived. Inside we found a ground golf display in the sporting goods section of the large store. I had planned on buying only a club and a ball to minimize the costs. My wife promised to make a bag to cover the head. However, I found a boxed set containing a club, a ball, and a carrying case. I opened the box and checked out the club. It was different from all the others and, after trying a couple of swings, right there in the aisle, I decided I liked it. After the sales tax was added the final price was 15,080 yen (about US$125).

The picture above shows the equipment. I put my foot in the picture so you can get an estimate of the size. The small blue circle between the club and the bag is the ball. To clarify things, the long thin white object is part of the frame of a soccer goal which can be pushed on and off the ground.

This is a closeup of the head of the club. As you can see, it is different from a regular golf putter. It is designed to keep the ball on the ground so that there is less chance of the players being injured.

A couple of rainy days and then finally another nice day, so I took the clubs over to the ground where we play to try them out. I did not have the key to get out the holes so I just batted the ball back and forth between the markers that we have placed on the field to show the locations of each hole and its tee. I found that I was putting better already and that it appear that with a little practice my drives would get better.

The only problem is that because this is the rainy season we have not been able to play for a couple of weeks because of the condition of the field, standing puddles everywhere. Our next scheduled game is on Monday but, as has been the rule this year, the forecast is for more rain.