Golf is a great game to get into. The courses are often set in some of the most beautiful places in the world, and getting out there on a sunny day is a brilliant way to waste an afternoon. Sports are also a great way to meet people. But it can be daunting stepping onto the green for the first time. You’ll be surrounded by seasoned players that make it look easy, while you flounder around, struggling to get out of the woods. If you want to avoid embarrassment, you need to know what you’re talking about. Here are a few tips that you can use to convince them that you’re a pro.

Good Clubs

Choosing the wrong club is an immediate giveaway that you’re an amateur, so knowing your clubs is key. You don’t need to be an expert, but you need to know the different types and what they are used for.

The first club you’ll need is your wood. The wood, so called because the head used to be made from wood, is the largest club in your set. These days the head is made from metal, but the name has stuck. They’re usually hollow, and have the longest shafts, so the player can get the fastest swing. This is the club you’ll use to tee-off with, as it gets the most distance.

Next are the irons. They usually have a solid head, as opposed to the hollow one that you’ll find on your woods. The shape of the head is also different, as it is thinner towards the bottom, giving it an angled blade shape. The angle helps you to get more lift on the ball. You will be using these clubs for mid-range shots, and occasionally for teeing-off if the course is a shorter one.

Then we have the wedges. They can still be considered an iron, but they have their own specific purpose. The angle is much greater as they are specifically designed to chip the ball. There are a few different types including the sand wedge, pitching wedge and the lob wedge. As a beginner the sand wedge is the most important one for you. You are likely to end up in a bunker, but you can still look like a pro if you get it out on your first try. Working out what’s the best sand wedge for you can help you to avoid the humiliation of getting stuck in a bunker.

If you make it to the green, then you’ll need a putter. They are only used for the final portion of the game, guiding the ball into the hole.

Proper Attire

Looking the part is another good way to convince your fellow players that you are a pro. Golfing attire etiquette is very important on a lot of courses, so make sure that you get it right. You need to wear a collared shirt, most clubs won’t let you play without one. Jeans are also a big no-go. Instead, wear some pleated trousers, or shorts in the summer months, but make sure they extend to the knee. A good pair of golf shoes is also vital, not only as part of the dress code, but because it will improve your stance and make your swing better.
If you follow this advice, you can convince everybody that you’re a golfing pro.  

Porn Now Dominates 3 of 10 Largest Websites!

Reducing Men from Bulls to Oxen
By Stefan Aarnio

Let’s face it, when someone says porn, it gets our attention whether you’re into or not. Stefan Aarnio answers many questions here which you may or may not know the answers to. What say you?

The results are in and Pornography now dominates 3 of the Top 10 largest websites, according to SimilarWeb.com.

There is much debate on to what degree pornographic is harmless or harmful, as an author on manhood and masculinity, I can attest to the fact that pornography is not only harmful, but that it reduces a man from a bull to an ox.

As an author and public speaker, I’m often asked reoccurring questions by men and women about my books, the most recent one being “Hard Times Create Strong Men. In an attempt to share some of my knowledge and philosophy about pornography and its effect on manhood, here is a compilation of some of these questions:  

1. Some people say pornography is harmful; others say it’s harmless. Some experts even say viewing pornography together can help a marriage. What is the truth? 

Answer: Pornography is always harmful and something to be avoided. I titled chapter 21 of “Hard Times Create Strong Men” the “Mass Castration of Divine Natural Power” because porn reduces a man from a bull to an ox. It’s best pass on the porn and wait for the real thing, preferably in marriage.

     2. How expensive and how readily available is pornography today? 

Answer: Pornography is cheap, if not free, and abundant on any smart phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, is instant. There are no waiting times, available in high-definition quality video, and there is literally an unlimited amount of porn out there for free or nearly free, and a man could literally die masturbating himself to death trying to watch it all. Porn leads to living a life of mediocrity and that is no life at all.

    3. In “Hard Times Create Strong Men, you wrote about Napoleon Hill’s legendary book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ and his chapter on sexual transmutation. What exactly is sexual transmutation?

 Answer: Napoleon Hill interviewed 500 of the richest men in the world in the early 1900s and discovered that all of the richest men in the world at the time used a technique called sexual transmutation. Transmutation is when you deny yourself sexual release and transmute the desire for sex into money, results, and real power. Sexual energy—specifically male sexual energy—is one of the most powerful forces on the planet. It is man’s actionable energy, creative energy, which allows a man to create like a god, command like a king, and work like a slave to meet his goals and achieve his whims.

    4. Pornography and masturbation usually go hand in hand, no pun intended. Do you feel masturbation is a sin?

 Answer: To what degree it is sin, I’ll leave that up to God, but since the root meaning of sin is ‘missing the mark,’ I can say that masturbation is missing the target. You are the arrow and your wife is the target. Sin is counterproductive, off-target and a waste of energy that depletes your limited creative life force on stupid things such as: lust, gluttony, greed, pride, wrath, sloth, and envy. Sins zap your life of its energy and will bring you closer to death. Virtues bring you closer to life. Each day we make choices of embracing virtue or vice, to be strong or week, each leading to life or death.

    5. Strength is often measured by muscle and machismo but is there more to manhood than this?

 Answer: There’s far more to being a truly strong man than meets the eye. For starters a strong man is a moral man. To be strong, when you make a promise you need to keep it, and that especially goes for marriage vows. Historically, masculinity has been about power, while femininity has been about morality. When power and morality come together, you have a whole package. A man in his base state is primal like a wild beast, but when you add morality you get a well-rounded man.

    6.In your coaching sessions you teach the significance of the pleasure vs. virtue principle. Elaborate:

 Answer: A classic example is the case of Jeff Bezos, who had a choice, to either seek virtue or vice. He chose pleasure and chose to forget his marriage vows. Clearly it was a choice. No one had a gun to his head, forcing him to have an affair. The rest is history. Instead of being a strong man embracing the high road of virtue, he chose the lower, baser path.

    7. You like to quote Will Durant as saying: “A nation is born a stoic and dies an epicurean. You have said Jeff Bezos started out a stoic is headed on the road to epicureanism. Can you elaborate?

 Answer: Clearly, Jeff was a stoic in trailblazing online retailing to the point of reinventing shopping but over time got sloppy and lazy and while it still may appear to the world that the richest man in the world is on top of his game, I can assure you that with both men and nations there are cycles and his is a downward one. Such is the fate of man. The same principle applies to great countries that were born out of war and hard times. Those hard times gave way to stoic values like deferring pleasure and reason over emotions. But we now live in a time where pleasure and happiness are the considered the highest virtues, but epicurean values make men weak which leads from democracy to tyranny and later to a monarchy, as history teaches us. Look at the fall of Rome. Look at the fall of the founder of Amazon.com

    8. Where is your book, “Hard Times Creates Strong Men,” available?

Answer: They may visit StefanAarnio.com or HardTimesStrongMen.com to see many valuable resources as well as getting a copy of “Hard Times Creates Strong Men.”

My first Post

The Ultimate Father’s Day Gift Guide

Tired of the same boring crap? This Father’s Day we wanted to make things as easy as possible for you, so we created the Ultimate Father’s Day Gift Guide. We found the things we would want ourselves! Of course my faves are the sports items and tools, but the grooming stuff keeps me handsome , the clothes keep me sexy (well, my wife thinks so), and us guys like to chill with a beer and a cigar and enjoy the outdoors and even watch birds.

Garage Rant collaborated with five other cool kats to create ONE AWESOME gift guide for dads. This one is  approved by me and Mr. S!

Click on the rectangle in the lower right-hand corner of the gift guide for a FULL PAGE view.