Early this year I did a launch monitor fitting for a new driver and ended up with a TaylorMade R11. My R11 (which has a Diamana Kai’li shaft in place of the stock Blur) has been very good for me. It is certainly more than just another driver with a fancy white paint job.

But as good as the R11 driver has been for me, it hasn’t been the biggest club surprise of the year. That would go to the R11 4 wood that I picked up a while back.

After two friends said good things about the R11 fairway woods and the 4 wood in general, I made an effort to hit the R11 at my club’s demo day at the end of May. I was pretty much immediately hooked on the club. Why? There are three main reasons.

1. It is a sweet looking stick

Don’t believe me, well here you go:

2. I like the smaller head

I have struggled to find a really good 3 wood for my game for the past several years. I liked hitting 3 woods off of the tee, but trying to hit them off of a good lie was something of a crapshoot. And I couldn’t even think about hitting it off of a below average lie or out of the rough.

I think part of that is because of the ever growing size of 3 wood heads. With each generation of club, manufacturers have made heads larger. The problem for me is that I would then kind of bounce the club into the ball — not exactly the ideal contact.

The R11 4 wood head is 135 cubic centimeters vs. 155 cc for the 3 wood and 175 cc for the titanium version of the 3 wood. There was a time 20 years ago when drivers were less than 200 cc. I like the smaller head of the 4 wood. I have more confidence with it and I don’t feel like I need a perfect lie to hit it. I no longer have great anxiety about hitting a fairway wood out of a decent lie in the rough.

3. The thing doesn’t want to go left

This might be the biggest reason why I like the club. While I don’t like to not release the club and hit a high right block, I loathe the low left shot. This club seems to hate the snap hook as much as I do. I pretty much goes high and straight. If anything, I find myself fading the ball a tiny bit. If I really swing hard, I can move it a tiny bit from right to left.

That makes this club so much more valuable for me. In the past, I rarely hit fairway woods on par 5s. I would do it if I had a chance to get it on the green. If I didn’t feel like I could get there in two, I would usually just hit a layup to a spot where I could hit a full pitching wedge or gap wedge into the green.

My thoughts where that that was a much smarter play than trying to hit a 3 wood, hooking into more trouble and then having to battle my tail off to make par.

I have hit the 4 wood quite a bit more than the 3 wood. Last night, for example, I hit it on my second shot on the sixth hole at my course. I had about 245 to the middle. I knew I probably couldn’t get there, but I could get close. I ended up in a greenside bunker in two. That was fine.

4. I do like the ability to change the loft

This club, as you can see by the picture above, is 17 degrees. The R11, however, lets you take the head off and adjust the loft. I actually have it at 16.5 degrees and have considered dropping it even further to 16 degrees.

I like that flexibility from the standpoint of being able to have standard gaps between my fairway wood and my hybrid. I am considering a hybrid switch as my current model wants to go left a little too much. What I do there will impact what I do with my 4 wood. I also think the ability to adjust the club is great for dealing with long par 3s on a course you play on a regular basis.Would a half degree more or less of loft make the club a better fit for a par 3? If so, it’s probably worth making that adjustment.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a new fairway wood, I would give the R11 serious consideration. It’s pretty forgiving, it feels very solid and wants to fly high and straight. I am a big believer that certain clubs are better for certain players, so I don’t believe one club is a must-buy for every player. But I will go as far as to say that the R11 fairway wood is a must-try or a must-consider.

How good is it? As good as the R11 driver is, I think the fairway wood might be better.

I previously blogged about how the Minnesota government shutdown was leaving the two golf courses at Giants Ridge closed.

The good news of the day is that with the Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton agreeing to a budget, the shutdown is ending and there will be golf played.

Minnesota Public Radio reports that the courses will repoen on Saturday.

This is good news for golfers, especially those who might want to escape the head and head to northern Minnesota.

What is unclear at this point is what kind of shape the courses are in. I have no idea how much staff was allowed to work during the shutdown. I can’t imagine the entire grounds crew worked, but hopefully enough people worked so that it would be a huge operation to get the courses up and running again.

If you go up there in the near future, I’d be very interested in knowing what kind of condition it is in.

I realize that the number of people who care about state amateur golf is really small, but I’ll be spending part of this week looking at scores online.

To be honest, I don’t really care about who wins the either the Minnesota or Wisconsin state amateurs that both started on Monday. I just find it very intriguing that both states are holding their top amateur events on golf courses that are considered “short” by modern standards.

The Minnesota state amateur is being held at the White Bear Yacht Club, an old-school Donald Ross design that is being played at 6,471 yards. The Wisconsin event is at Maple Bluff Country Club in Madison, a 6,402-yard course that is more than 100 years old.

I am admittedly a fan of classic golf courses. Some of it is because I don’t hit 300-yard drives and don’t hit 190-yard 7-irons. Some of it is because I grew up playing a short course where accuracy was more important than sheer power. And some of it is because I like the creativity that is required to get shots close to the hole on some of these classic courses.

One of the things I’m most interested in seeing is whether playing a sorter course allows other (and older) players will be in the mix because of the choice of venue.  The reality is that most of the time, significant state amateur tournaments are played on big golf courses that can be stretched to somewhere between 6,800 and 7,100 yards. What that means is that the kids with the college bags have a significant advantage. Length is often more important than shot-making.

It frequently seems that the young kids can really hit the ball a mile, but it seems that really knowing how to make shots sometimes takes more maturity. I’m going to be honest, I’m pulling for an older guy to win.

Early results at White Bear Yacht Club have Gophers golfer Don Constable leading by two after shooting a smooth 66 that featured five birdies and zero bogeys.  In Madison, a couple of young guys got to 4-under. My friend in the Wisconsin am had a really tough day, which is a bummer.

I would guess the low scores in both places have something to do with the recent weather. Lots of rain and high humidity means that greens are pretty soft and players can aggressively aim at pins without much consequence. All that moisture also means that it is difficult to get greens extremely fast. I’d like to see things dry out a little but, but the forecast isn’t really going to let that happen.

Regardless, I like that a couple of championships are being held on classic courses where strategy is more important than power.

This doesn’t do a whole lot for the theory that golf is an athletic endeavor.

I think the cigar remaining in his mouth through the entire routine is extremely impressive.

On a side note, saw Jimenez at the PGA in 2009 and he was hanging out with a young lovely about half of his age. Apparently she found the combination of ponytail, cigar and gut very appealing.

I have commented on here more than once about how many of the daily email deals through places such as Groupon or LivingSocial or Crowd Cut are for golf courses that, frankly, I wouldn’t want to play.

This morning, there were two golf related deals in my inbox. The first was for Rum River Hills and that one was immediately deleted. The second was for Big Fish in Hayward, Wis.

And I bought that one. Immediately.

For $29.50, you get 18 holes and a cart at the Pete Dye designed course (No. 17 is pictured above).This is a crazy good deal. Basically for the price it would cost you to play Hiawatha or Phalen, you can make the 2 hour drive to Hayward and tee it up on an awfully good golf course.  The regular weekend rate for 18 holes and cart is $60.

I think Big Fish is a very strong golf course with two distinct nines. The front is more wide open while the back is routed through trees with some nice elevation change. I’ve played the course twice and enjoyed it very much each time. I haven’t been up there since the summer of 2009, so this is a great excuse to make a return visit.

To put it in perspective, if Big Fish was in the Brainerd area, I think it would rank only behind The Classic and, perhaps, Deacon’s Lodge.

So click on the link above and put yourself into some quality golf at a very, very fair price. And as an added bonus, if this Minnesota government shutdown continues for much longer, you can also restock your supply of MillerCoors products while you\’re across the border.

I generally write way more about things that I really, really like, but here are a few golf related items that have grown on me of late. Maybe they are just things I like, maybe you will like them as well. Just throwing them out there.

The best ball mark repair tool I’ve ever used: I will admit to being one of those people who are a bit obsessed with fixing ball marks. I’m definitely a fix mine and a few others as well kind of guy. Now I have a new weapon for doing that.

What is this?: This is a Pitch Pro Golf tool. I’ve had the one above for quite a while and was thrilled to see that my club got them before this season. I know you might look at this and say, ‘How can a one-prong tool really do the job?’ My answer to that is simple: It does it way better than any of the two-prong tools you might have sitting in your bag. The beauty of it is that it is an idiot-proof.

With too many ball mark repair tools, golfers stick it into the ground, push down, forcing the middle of the ball mark up to the surface. That damages the root structure and often leaves a dirt mark on the green that takes weeks to recover. What I like about the tool above is that you push it into the ground and all you can do is push the edges to the center. That’s what you are supposed to do.

One caveat: These things work better on greens that are a little firm. They don’t work as well on big muddy, crater ball marks. These aren’t for clubs where the super likes to overwater the golf course.

The list of clubs using this thing is pretty interesting. There are certainly some big names. Has this plastic tool helped keep our greens smooth? I don’t know that I can say that, but this is a whole lot better than giving people tools that rip up the greens.

A towel I can’t lose: The folks at Club Glove have been crowing about how Rory McIlroy used their microfiber golf towel at the U.S. Open.

Well, I’ve been using the towel for more than a year.

While I like the microfiber material and that it really absorbs water, the main reason I like it is because of the slit in the middle of the towel. Why is that so great? I put my putter head through the slit and the towel hangs off my bag. It can’t go anywhere. It is less likely to end up being taken off of my bag by the kids in the bag room.

I know a towel isn’t that big of a deal, but as someone who likes one wet end of the towel to clean a muddy golf ball or dirty clubs and a dry end to wipe my hands and/or face, this is a winner.

A Monday morning read: I subscribe to GolfWorld magazine in addition to Golfweek. For a few months, they’ve been putting out an electronic edition that lands in the email box of subscribers each Monday — and every day during major weeks. It provides a very nice summary of the weekend and way, way, way more than I get from my local newspaper. It’s good stuff.

And a fitting blog: I just found a good blog over the weekend. The title? Golf Stuff We Like. Well, lets just say that I like many of the same things that these bloggers like.

I’m going to preface this by saying that this post isn’t about actual golf courses. I’m not talking watering practices or fertilizers or run off or chemicals. I don’t know nearly enough about that to put together even a kind-of-educated post.

Instead, I’m talking about things that shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Things like recycling, being a good neighbor and the like.

This post came after seeing a pair of blog posts in the past week on Twitter about Minnesota Valley Country Club  hiring a new chef. Generally I don’t really think much about food offerings at clubs and courses. I’m there first to play golf, second to play golf and third to play golf. Give me cold beer, a few good sandwiches and maybe a couple of good breakfast options and I’m good.

But considering some of where the buzz was coming from about MVCC hiring some guy named Scott Pampuch from Corner Table, it caught my attention. Noted Twin Cities food writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl blogged about the move here. I’m going to be honest, I am far from a foodie. But I know that Dara knows her stuff.

I found the following paragraph to be extremely interesting.

Pampuch told me he’s very excited about it because it’s a sustainable, green, friendly place which has been Audubon Certified because of their bird-helping practices. He’ll be shifting all their food, the clubhouse, banquets, and so forth, to his all-local, thoughtful, sustainable model. “I have 40 seats at Corner Table, and to grow, to really help farmers, I’m kind of maxed out,” Pampuch told me. “Between [Minnesota Valley Country Club’s] members, banquets, and events, I’ll be able to serve more local food there in a week than I can do here in a month.”

This is probably where I need to provide a little back story. Prior to taking my current corporate job, I worked as the communications guy for a small liberal arts college. It was a place that was/is ahead of the curve when it comes to urban environmentalism. The school buys wind power. They compost dang near everything possible anywhere food is served on campus. It’s the first place I saw corn-based to-go containers, utensils and cups. I wrote a good bit about the sustainability practices, pitched some stories about it, etc. I was interested enough to read some books such as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” I’m not one of these super hardcore “dark green” people, but I get the whole buy-local deal and generally look for things like grass-fed beef when I’m going to get a steak for the grill.

So now back to golf. I often play golf in the evenings and finish my round as things are being wrapped up for the night. When I got done playing tonight, I pulled my cart (it was hot and I was trying to get around quick, so don’t judge) into the cart garage area. In there was one of the bag room kids and she was dealing with the garbage. She had three huge clear plastic bags of garbage. What I saw in there bummed me out: Plastic bottles mixed in with used scorecards and styrofoam cups and food wrappers. All I could think was, ‘Why does this have to happen? Do we really need to put plastic bottles and cans into a landfill instead of recycling? Apparently the answer is yes.

I’m not going to judge too much because I don’t think there are enough golf courses that do enough in this area. Like many courses, my club has the two garbage cans attached to the ball washer on each tee. The one has a big hole and the other has a small, round one that says “Cans only.” You know the ones I’m talking about, they are the same Par Aide ones that you see everywhere.

The problem is that we have more plastic bottles than cans. There’s Gatorade and soda bottles. There are water bottles and some beer bottles. I would guess that my club sells more beverages in bottles than in cans. Just outside of our halfway house, there’s a blue recycling bin that is supposed to be for cans. Just the other day, I asked the staffer in the halfway house whether we could put plastic bottles in there as well. She said she didn’t know.

My other question both at my course and at others is whether garbage actually gets separated and whether the cans in the “cans only” side of the garbage actually get recycled. Maybe I’m too much of a cynic, but I sometimes wonder if it doesn’t all end up in the same place.

So far this golf season, I’ve played 14 different courses, I’ve seen one — Brackett’s Crossing CC in Lakeville — that really does the whole garbage vs. recycling well. Right now I wish that I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t. But near each tee, there is a garbage can and attached to the front of it was a smaller container that was clearly labeled for cans and bottles.

All right, that’s probably enough — and I didn’t even get to questions about where food comes from and whether it would be possible for a club/course to compost food waste (it certainly seems like it could be possible). I know it’s not really about golf, but it was a topic that makes me think.

And, frankly, it is something I should probably ask more about at my club.

So I’ve been on a bit of a golf shoe buying frenzy of late. Two pairs in less than a month. If you say that is excessive, well, I’m not going to argue with you.

Considering that I blogged about my quest to find some new golf shoes earlier this year, I figured it was time to update.

Pair No. 1: Nike Lunar Control

Initial thoughts: I had never had Nike golf shoes in the past, but had read many good things about this model. I have probably worn these for five walking rounds so far and the early reviews are very good. They are extremely comfortable. They are more comfortable than either my adidas Tour 360 3.0s or Powerband 3.0s. Plus they look very good with shorts.

Pair No. 2: True Linkswear Tours

Initial thoughts: Yes, I finally broke down and bought a pair of Trues. They were on the steps when I arrived home from work on Tuesday. I’ve heard too many good things about these things from several blog readers (you know who you are). My concerns are how these spikeless shoes will perform when it is wet. Prior to purchasing them, I stopped at Golfsmith on several occasions to try them on and walk around. They are very light, but they are going to take a little getting used to. The toe box is massive and it seems as if my heals sit lower than my toes. People say I will get used to both of those things. I ordered the shoes directly from True because I wanted to get a solid color pair instead of the saddles. I think the saddles — which was the only in-stock version at Golfsmith –  look a little goofy. And since I’ve always been told that dark colors can be slimming (and since I just bought some white shoes), I went with the all black.

I’m probably taking the Trues for an initial spin on Thursday after work. I will report back at some point in the very near future. They are certainly light and seem comfortable. If they end up being more comfortable than the Nikes, that will be an impressive feat and I will overlook the fact that they are a bit on the ugly side.

Course: Medinah Country Club No. 3

Location: Medinah, Ill.

Course stats: Back tees – 7,657 yards, par 72. We played it at 7,007 yards.

Website: www.medinahcc.org

Date played: May 24, 2011

Overview: Medinah Country Club, in Chicago’s western suburbs, will host the 2012 Ryder Cup matches. It has hosted a pair of PGA Championships that were won by Tiger Woods (1999, 2006). It hosted three U.S. Opens (1949, 1975 and the 1990 event in which Hale Irwin defeated Mike Donald).

It is ranked as the No. 23 course in the United States by Golf Digest. Golfweek rates it as the No. 63 Classic course in the United States.

Medinah is a cool place. There are three courses. A clubhouse (above) is massive and pretty cool — and I’m not generally a clubhouse guy. The club was originally a retreat for Shriners who lived in the city. There had been a ski jump at one point on the property and all of the old pictures on the walls are cool. The locker room/valet/etc., is a great and the service is very top notch and everything is done right. I’m not talking over the top and showy, just really cool. It was a great place to be a guest for a day and I would guess it is a wonderful place to be a member.

My host was great and couldn’t have been more welcoming. The members we saw/interacted with seemed pretty normal. It wasn’t a stuffy place where I didn’t feel comfortable.

Thoughts: Probably the worst thing I did was open my mouth one hole into the round. After a tee shot down the middle on the first hole, I hit the green and rolled in a quick birdie. My line: “This place is easy.” I followed that birdie up with a par on the second hole.

At that point, I should have probably turned around, taken my 1-under thru two, walked to the parking lot and called it a day. Because it got ugly after that. I blocked my tee shot way right on No. 3 and made a quick double. Over the final 16 holes, I made several double bogeys.

I struggled off of the tee and this is not a golf course where you want to do that. You need to hit the ball straight, you need to move it out there a little bit and you — more than anything — have to keep your ball out of the trees. If you hit the ball in the trees, you can probably find it, but you probably aren’t going to like it. A lot of the trees are hundreds of years old. If you wanted to hug them, you couldn’t get your hands to touch on the other side. And going over them isn’t an option at all.

In baseball, there are teams that play small ball — think the Ozzie Smith/Vince Coleman St. Louis Cardinals teams in the ’80s — and there are those that swing for the fences and play big. Medinah No. 3 is like those Oakland A’s teams with Canseco and McGuire hitting back-to-back.

I’m very admittedly a small-ball golfer. I want to hit it straight. I work hard to control my distances. And I want to get it up-and-down a few times a round. If I was a baseball pitcher, I’d be the crafty old guy who throws lots of off-speed pitches, tries to hit corners and is way more about control than power.

I think the hard part about Medinah for me was knowing that one loose swing at any point wasn’t going to be pretty. It just kind of hung around in the back of my mind and it didn’t work out all that well. It wasn’t if I was going to make a double, it was when I was going to make a double. On a lot of golf courses, you can make a mistake and maybe still make par or certainly escape with just a bogey. But not here.

There are people out there who knock Medinah and say it is boring because it is just hard hole after hard hole. While it is difficult, it isn’t boring. It’s just demanding. I compare it, in many ways, to Hazeltine National. While they are different golf courses from different times, they both require players to hit good shot after good shot. They are also courses that if you played there a couple of times, knew where to not hit it and played the right set of tees, it would positively impact your score.

And while three of the four par 3s play over the lake, don’t believe the hype that they are all the same hole. They are very different distances, the miss is in different places and the elevation change is different.

I think people will like the rebuilt 15th hole. We played it at 331 yards and even from the back tees it is 390. If I was a gambling guy, I’d bet that the tees will be up at least one of the days during the Ryder Cup, tempting players to hit driver at the green. In addition to the water, there are some neat chipping areas to the right and back of the green. It is an interesting hole that will force players to make choices during a pivotal time in a match.

In addition, don’t believe the hype that the greens are flat and putts are easy to make. The greens were recently rebuilt and there’s much more internal contouring and movement on putts. Now is there the same amount of slope here as there is on old classic courses with small greens? Of course not. That would make a hard course extremely difficult.

I’m not sure I can really give a great hole-by-hole breakdown because of the way I struggled. I was well into the 90s and this was probably my worst ball-striking round of the year. But I did take a bunch of photos. Hopefully they will give you a sense of the place.

Here is No. 2 (172 yards from the silver/7,007 tees). I missed it just off of the front right corner and got it up and down.

Here are two of No. 4 (432 holes)

Here are two of No. 5 (503, par 5).

This is 6 or 7. Not sure.

Here is No. 8 (177)

Here is the view of No. 10 (567) from the tee. There’s some good bunkering on this hole.

Here is No. 12 (463). One of the guys I played with described this as one of the stronger par 4s in the Chicago area. It’s very Medinah as it is long, there’s trouble and you need to get your ball to an elevated green.

Here is No. 13 from the 189 yard tee box. Not a lot of margin for error.

But here is No. 13 from the back tees. It’s 245 yards of pretty much all carry. After we hit it from 189, we went to the back. I hit my best driver of the day and ended up on the back edge of the green.

Here are two of No. 15. In the second photo, take note of all the room above/behind the green. You will see tons of corporate chalets, etc., there during the Ryder Cup. I would guess it will be a great place to watch some of the action.

This is No. 16, a beefy 434-yard par 4. The photo is taken from about the spot where Sergio Garcia hit the famous shot around a tree in the ’99 PGA and did the little jump-skip up the fairway. That tree, however, is no longer there.

Here is No. 17 (156)

And, finally, No. 18. There was talk at one point about moving the green further back (there is certainly room behind the green), but the massive flagpole goes so far down into the ground, that it became difficult.

Would I play here again: Absolutely. My day at Medinah was a wonderful experience. My host is a great guy — who happens to pound it a mile — and we had a great group. I would also love to make a better showing.

If you get a chance to play here, jump at the chance. I drove from Minneapolis, playing some golf along the way, simply to play here. It was well worth the effort and would do it again in a heartbeat. I may have been knocked down, but I wasn’t knocked out.