Banner Stands emblazoned with a company image, product or slogan can be found anywhere from the entrance to the course to the 18th Hole. In some tournaments you may find an image of a brand new car as a Hole-In-One can easily earn a golfer a new set of wheels.

Large banner stands have also been found in the US and UK studios where the presenters often analyse the day / weekend play. Titleist are just one of the major golf companies that use banner stands to advertise a new product, you can often see the latest golf driver pictured on a large banner stand in a golf shop near you.

I recently played a round in a tournament, which okay wasn’t going to trouble the winning score but an event occurred that i feel hard done by.

In the middle of the long 16th hole is a water hazard, which consists of a large pond. After hitting a good tee shot my ball ran on towards the water and nestled in the pond liner. Now the pond liner actually came out across the red post (hazard area) so technically my ball was in play but obviously un-playable.

After a chat with the other 3 members of my four ball it was decided (3 against 1 of course) that i could either take a drop (which would cost me a shot) or i had to play it. Now i took the drop because of how bad the lay was but surely with it being a man-made error it should of been a free drop?

The debate ran on well into the 19th hole discussion, where i had quite few other players in agreement with me that it should of been a free drop. Now i know my score can’t be changed or i cant play the round again but i was wondering where the rules actually stand on this matter?

Tiger Woods who is the World Number One golfer openly admits to spending a good 2 hours a day in the gym as a minimum. Yes since he burst on the scene back in 1997 Tiger has bulked up but has that helped him? The answer must be a yes!

A semi fit Tiger can and does hit the ball longer than most players on the tour.

Personally their is no change for good old fashioned meat i.e. John Daly the 18 stone will always be able to hit the ball a country mile but up until recently he didnt know what a gym looked like.

Personally i think there isnt as my game seems to go from strength to strength the more i play but is that just on the course?

Many professional golfers hit hundred of balls every single day so they know that whichever golf club they have in there hand they have full control of it and know matter how pressure is on the shots (some swings of club could be a difference between 1st and 4th, which in money terms in some tournaments is a couple hundred thousand).

The driving has been up and down (even considered leaving the driver out of my bag for my next round, which says it all).

Long Irons and 5 wood have been good and on several occasions made up for a poor tee shot.

Mid range irons have again been good with some accurate shots played into the green.

Wedge shots to the green have been up and down with some shots flying through the green and some coming up short.

By far the best part of my game has been my putting and some good long putts have been sunk, which I  hope continues.

It looks like a few trips to the driving range are in order though!!!!

Personally I am a fair weather golfer and play a lot more if the sun is shining or at the very least the rain is to a minimal (in fact the summer i knocked 6 shots of my handicap was a sunny one with me playing 3-4 times a week).

So far this summer i have played twice and i can’t see when the next game is going to be???

The majority of golf clubs in the local area have recognised this and are offering some very good golf deals with the most putting golf fee’s as low as £15 for any tee time after 3pm.

Every golfer who has the time and patience should try to hit a couple of hundred golf balls every 10 days (7 days would be better) if they want to improve their game and more importantly lower that handicap.

But what should we actually work on at the Driving Range?

The answer is simple is your whole game. Yes with every golfer there is strengths and weaknesses so what you should is work to these. If for example you get a hundred golf balls then tailor it so you are using 15-20 golf balls on the clubs you struggle to use and maybe 5-10 golf balls on the golf clubs you are comfier using, this way both aspects of your game should be strengthened.

A great example of this was when i was playing recently at my local course. I was playing an approach shot to the 16th green and with it being a summer’s day and the fairway’s short i tried to play a shot just short of the green in the hope it would run on to the green at the front where the flag was situated.

Unfortunately what it failed to tell me on the score card was their was residential fire sprinklers on the short cut before the green and unfortunately my ball found one of them took a hideous bounce over the back of the green.

Now if my ball would of landed in the sprinkler i would of been okay and got a free drop but with it hitting the size of a fifty pence piece i know had a 25yard chip back to the pin with what can only be described as a bad lie.

This bounce cost me three shots as i chipped back to the green, missed the 6ft putt and then holed out. The scorecard doesn’t have a box that says hit sprinkler and took a bogey it says Par 4 hole and it took 5 shots to make it. Never a good sign!

The problem is only some golf courses allow golf buggies on the course and the one’s that do don’t allow golf buggies in bad weather or when the course is having work done to it, so it very much restricts when you can use them.

A local golf course to me Mottram Hall Golf Club, which is part of De Vere Hotel Group and also hosted the Women’s British Open in the past has the new state of the art golf buggies with Vehicle Tracking System built it.

The GPS systems show you the full course on a clear LCD Monitor and allow you to hopefully plan a successful route from tee to green missing the water hazards, bunkers and out of bounds.

The system is also very accurate and up to date. It will give you distances to the pin and will show contours of the green so you can plan your approach shot.

Price of golf buggies vary from course to course with some of them starting at £15 and others charging up to £60 for use on a round.

But then again we shouldn’t be lazy and enjoy the walk round the golf course!!!!