I’m currently a 7.4 index and have ranged from a 6.x to 11.5 in the past 6 years. The index always spikes up when I get too busy to play or practice on a regular basis because of work, school, or travel. But when I do play, I get back down to about an 8 and when I have plenty of time, into the 7s. I’ve only had one hole-in-one, but that won me a trip to Las Vegas…and had to use the trip before I turned 21. Fun times.
The bag currently consists of an 8.5° R9 420cc driver, a 12° 3-wood and 19° 5-wood TaylorMade Supersteel bubble shaft, a 3-pw 660 Titeleist blades with an inch over and 3° flat stiff steel shaft, a custom 52° tungsten gap wedge, an old-school Wilson sand-wedge and two-ball putter. I play the Nike One Black ball at the moment, mainly because they’re $27 a dozen, and I don’t really need whatever marginal performance improvement the high-end $45 a dozen ball provides.
I’m currently in Northern California, but have played golf across the country. Some of the notable destinations are Torrey Pines (when it was only $80 to non-residents), Pinehurst (not No. 2 though) and some destinations in South Carolina. I’ve reviewed golf courses in the past, and they’re floating around somewhere in the cloud. I’ll see about tracking them down and updating them shortly.
As for the food part, I’ve found there’s plenty of places to get a bite to eat after finishing a round of golf. I’ll focus on finding good local eats. My food philosophy is simple, I like Mexican places that have tortilla chips ready and sauces that don’t hide the meat, Italian places that have their own bread guy and BBQ places that know how to smoke good meats. These won’t be diet foods, but after walking 5 miles, who cares?