Wednesday 16 December 2009

Wood vs Iron

And so I am a wee bit closer to understanding the age-old dilemma of a beginner golfer, when I came across this at http://answers.yahoo.com/

Wood Vs Iron??
I have a 3 wood which I hit 235, then jump to a 3 Iron which I hit (sometimes) 200, if I get a 5 wood or 7 wood, is that better for distance and control, should I replace my 3 Iron??


The best answer selected was:
That's a huge gap. From 235 to 200.
You can slow down that swing on the 3 wood to get a shorter distance but if you have space in your bag for a 5 wood then carry that! Going from 5 wood to 3 iron or hybrid is a good step down (maybe 1 1/2 club)
.....yada, yada, yada

No, I'm not taking up golf, just fascinated by its technicalities. Years ago hubby and I did try that totally meaningless activity of hitting a couple of hundred small, hard dimpled balls at a driving range. Until he got TENNIS elbow (hitting GOLF balls?). Me, I gave up much early on. If I'm not to sweat but still have to wear special shoes, I'd rather go bowling where I can see my scores being chalked up.

Anyway, in the hoo-haa of the recent Copenhagen fiasco,  I was looking up some information on the oxygen-generating potential of trees versus grass (just trying to do my little bit). And I found this article from Ask A Scientist :

... If you want to determine oxygen production differences, the answer is found in
the total amount of green surface area of a tree (all of the leaves)
versus a bush (all of the leaves and green stems) versus a patch of
grass (all of the blades).

So, if you are interested only in the efficiency of a plant to produce
oxygen, you should look at the individual plant and ask what proportion
of the plant is producing oxygen. The grass is producing oxygen in 100%
of its leaf blade while the bush and tree are producing much less (the
trunk and nongreen stems will produce no oxygen).

However, if you are interested in the total amount of oxygen produced in
each plant, I would guess that the area of leaves produced by a tree is
greater than the area of grass blades found in the shadow of the tree.

However, if you look at a tree, bush or grass in a forest, you can find
a tree with some bushes and grass underneath. So, if you calculate how
much oxygen is produced in a patch of land, it will be higher if a tree
is there with some bushes and grass than if there is only one tree, or
several bushes or a lawn of grass.


Jim Tokuhisa, Ph.D.



Which brought me to wonder just how many trees had been felled, how much oxygen now compromised in the making of one golf course. And in the vicinity of Taman Arboretum in the Kiara hills, there are 2 golf courses. Just a short distance away at Tropicana and Damansara Indah, there are another two! And who knows how many there are in total in the whole Klang Valley.

However golf courses can be very pretty and serene with their green, finely manicured lawns, the occasional shrubbery and thickets of trees, bodies of water and sand patches. And I guess they do contribute somewhat to the air quality in the Valley.  But I wish more of them had remained forested areas, with walking trails and picnic areas for city families to enjoy. There's a dearth of such places here - the area where I live, there's not even a decent-sized park or green-lung for residents to escape to. All around us is a  steel-reinforced concrete jungle. 

If  I were the chief city-planner or minister, I would legislate that every City/Town Council start an arboretum or two similar to the one at Kiara. Or for every golf course, 2 or 3 arboretums.

Just think about it, if we compare the two activities, golf and trekking:

Fees:
Golf - yes (downright expensive);
Trekking - free

Equipment:
Golf - heavy;
Trekking - light (water)

Footprint:
Golf - Carbon (buggy);
Trekking - Shoes

Targets:
Trekking - Self;
Golf - Holes!

Bonding:
Golf - Business Clients/Prospects, Buddies, Caddies;
Trekking - Buddies, Family, Pets, Girlfriends/Boyfriends, Nature!

Time:
Trekking - as we like;
Golf - as per handicap

Qi (chinese concept of life-force):
Trekking - Invigorating;
Golf - gotta work at it

Oxygen:
Trekking - there's more per sq foot;
Golf - less

Chiropractic Risk:
Trekking - Minimal;
Golf - high


For me, definitely trekking rather than golf, rather have trees than grass, rather wood than iron.

By the way, I'm so glad Malaysia's not mentioned in the statistics below. But I think that's only because we are too small to be significant. I wonder how KL compares with other cities in the region - who knows, maybe we are the worst.







































So what's the message?

Well, the message is let the big boys fight themselves green, but let's keep our little neck of the woods, mmmmm...... woody?



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14 comments:

mamasita said...

Awwh Zen..to think I thought you were going to write something juicy about the TW scandle..rupa2nya you nak bagi environmental alarm!! Macam short thesis..well done old girl! hahaha

Zendra-Maria said...

Hahaha, I baca balik pun jadi mengah. Tapi, apart from KayuNasiKandar, I'm all for wood - eg roast chicken tastes much better cooked on wood fire, a wooden kampung house has more charm than rumah batu, ubi kayu is delicious and filling, Woody Woodpecker is so cute, kayu jati makes very nice furniture, in short trees are the best, they have so many uses and the provide us with oxygen so we shouldn't lumber them indiscriminately!

As for tiger w, dia kan binatang buas, so..... hehe

DrSam said...

Neither my woods not the irons have been in action for almost a year now. Still no confident to whack hard those dimple balls. probably will MIA for a little bit longer from those 'crazy' circle (pagi petang siang malam 24/7)

Anyway and as expected those Copenhagen summit was just talk-cock only. Year in year out was the same. The main polluters (reigning now by China and the US) wanted to impose all sort of carbon emission regulations to others (carbon footprint, CDM, carbon sink bla...bla) but at the end of the day they keep suffocated us with more CO2.

At least we should be proud that Malaysia is at the top as a carbon sequestration country in the world - sooo green and sustainable (amid so much into industrialization still surplus with the oxygen. And the blissful rubber tree is the most efficient plant to sequestrate CO2 :) Plant more rubber tree folk!

Zendra-Maria said...

Doc, looks like our country is the sponge helping to sequestrate the planets carbon-dioxide emissions. How fortunate that we are living in Malaysia.

BTW, how long after I plant a rubber tree can I make my own rubber ball? Sounds like fun.

Tommy Yewfigure said...

Hi Woody Zen,

Next time no need to touch wood or knock on wood, just pat your own head would do fine..hehehe

No, me don’t understand why people rate golf so highly, kinda silly game if u ask me; having said that, I don’t mind mini golf at resort or fun park type, just having unadulterated fun with kids unlike those ‘entertaining’ clients sort of golf…tsk,tsk…blardy waste of time!

Zen, it’s really very frightening why a lot of ‘world leaders’ in the world are still in denial over this environmental/global warming issue. I meant as ‘older’ ppl like us, we can actually see/felt the climatic changes over the years, slowly but surely it’s getting more catastrophic, don’t u agree?

How can U sleep when ur bed is burning

Cheers,

Tommy
P/S – wave, wave, Capt (spat the dummy ka? :))

Zendra-Maria said...

Hey Tommy, waah OZ's the worst polluter per capita - you've got a share in it, old sport haahaa. You guys got to compensate Malaysia for having trees to sequestrate (new word this for me, tq drsam) all those emissions. Guess you've got to pay more taxes now...

Don't know about the climatic changes, think my bones aren't that old enough to detect any yet muahaha.. I'd know only when it snows here lah or when the the river beds are burning ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi Zendra,

good thinking!
i tried golf couple of years ago but i never liked it. Still prefer playing football and rugby. Maybe later, when im older then i'll give it another attempt. But cant deny, golf teaches us to be more focus. have a good one Zendra.

Zendra-Maria said...

Yo Fleece Master, look where extreme focusing took the old tiger hahaha somewhere to let it loose

My next entry Insya Allah will be an alternative activity that really needs one to be focussed, but it's not for everyone surely.

anneaziz said...

Good one Zendra!

I always thought the nicest thing about golf is the golf course. But when I read about the damage (yes, damage!) to the environment....
hmmmm? Seepage of fertiliser and herbicide gets into the public water source. A single course averages about a half ton of chemical pesticides a year! Isn't that scary?

I'm with you on trekking!

Capt's Longhouse said...

Tiger drives very well on the fairway but doesn’t fare very well on the driveway. Rock me.

Whats the difference between a golf ball and a caddy? Tiger can drive a golf ball.

It turns out that fixing Tiger’s game and fixing his marriage both require the same thing: better control over his putz. ??

Why was Tiger’s wife mad at him? She heard that he played a-round in Australia.

What will the headline be if they prove it is domestic violence? TIGER’S WIFE MAKES THE CUT

Given Tiger’s racial heritage can we call this a Black Thai affair?

Tiger just changed his nickname but still kept it in the cat family. Cheetah.

Elin Woods has a twin sister named Josephine. Know how to tell them apart? Elin is the one holding the bent 5 iron.

What do Tiger and the Beatles have in common? They both experienced a hit with Norwegian Wood.

First words spoken to the paramedics by Tiger: Who are you? And what are all these trees doing in my living room?

What does Tiger have in common with a baby seal? They’ve both been clubbed by a Norwegian.

Must be the Pirate in that Tiger kot ?. hahaha !!

Zendra-Maria said...

Gosh anneaziz, didn't know that stuff about herbicides/pesticides! I'm really2 anti golf now. All these golfers should go trekking instead, or take up lawn-bowling if they still can't get away from the green hahaha

Zendra-Maria said...

Capt, looks like there's an old tiger in the pirate!

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Aunty Zendra,
My Mama said in 1996 there were 22 golf courses in KL/Selangor alone! Fancy that! How many left today or has that number increase? Seems that some has become high-end property development like Tropicana and Valencia, to name a few. Sabah is another state with so many golf courses. Wonder why, eh?
Oh, we love charcoal chicken too. Yummmm.... purrr...meow!

Zendra-Maria said...

Meow Cat, used to be a time when Malaysia was in a bubble, that everyone who was anyone played golf. Not wanting to miss the action, the wives followed suit. Only aunty and uncle were the rare few who didn't see the point of it all, hahaha so not trendy.

Say how about your recipe for charcoal chicken. Thought cats only like pwetty little tweety birds :)