The brandname doesn't matter, but the quality of the club or ball absolutely does, especially for the more skilled user (or aspiring to be more skilled!). The shots would have been the same with a Canon 300mm lens. With a consumer zoom, I would have taken different shots. Not necessarily better or worse, but different. If the golfer doesn't have her best clubs, she may try to keep the ball short of the water instead of trying to make it over in one shot. With her best club, she may take the risk for the better shot, and it also depends on what is on the line. For us, it depends on how many chances we'll have to get the shot.

So this comes to the issue of knowing the equipment you have. For you, this means things like
* "How fast can I zoom and focus?"
* "What ISO do I find acceptable?"
* "How slow a shutter speed can I use for acceptable shots?"

Thom Hogan had a column about testing his equipment, because his readers ask him what he thinks about each new thing that comes out. He said that, for the equipment he will use as a professional photographer, his testing is to figure out it's limits. If he understands the noise characteristics as the ISO goes from 800->1600->3200->6400, he can make the right decision for what ISO to use in the challenging situation. If he understands the softness of his lens wide open compared to closed down a stop or two, he can decide when he's got to "go for it" and when he should be safer. If he understands how well his AF can track movement, he can decide if he'll follow the action or prefocus at a point and wait. And if he understands the camera's shutter lag, both with focusing and when prefocused, he can time the shot right.

I'm pretty sure you will be able to take a picture of the seals like stableduck's, they'll pose for you all day. But look at what went into the whale shot:
* Settings: 210mm, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/5000, spot metering, aperture priority
* Knowing where the whale was, the focal length was selected to include land in the background, with a nice photobomb by the other boat.
* The lens was stopped down a half stop from maximum, though at 210mm the max is f/5.2 not f/5.6. Choosing f/6.3 takes it away from the edge.
* Aperture priority was used since the important thing was to be just away from maximum aperture. The best shutter speed would be up to the camera.
* I assume this was not Auto-ISO, because selecting 1/5000 and ISO 400 seems unusual for the camera. But stableduck knows the camera, and is okay with the noise at ISO 400, but in this bright sun, didn't want to push it to ISO 800 or higher. And that would push the shutter speed past the camera's limit anyway.
* Spot metering makes sure the whale is exposed right. The camera uses the focus point to determine what spot to meter on, so the whale would be in focus and properly exposed. If the light was such that the rest of the scene would be very dark or bright, that was acceptable to have the whale right.
* After all that, assuming it wasn't Auto-ISO, the camera made one decision, the shutter speed. I think this is a great shot because the whale is sharp and the water drops track the path of the flipper, giving us a sense of the motion. The fast shutter speed makes that work, but stableduck didn't start with that setting, Instead, knowing everything else going on, the camera was basically cornered into using a shutter speed in the 1/4000 - 1/8000 range.

Yes, there's a lot going on here, and a lot to decide. But you don't decide all of it as you're making the shot, you decide some things earlier and somethings at the last second:
* I decided to shoot aperture priority in 9th grade, so that's taken care of. :-)
* When you get the camera, play with the high ISO values to decide how much image quality you lose when, including higher noise and lower contrast.
* When you get the lens, play with it at and near maximum aperture at different focal lengths to see the benefits of closing down by 1/2, 1, and more stops.
* When you have a sense of your subject and the background, decide if spot metering would help, or if evaluative will be better. If you can't keep the spot on the subject, don't use it. Practice with spot metering at the beach to see the kinds of light situations where it makes a bigger difference, and when it's not enough to matter.
* When you're in the setting for the shots you'll want (in this case, out on the boat but no whales yet), look at the settings, even take a picture of the water, and see what the exposure is. Then make the f/stop and ISO decisions, knowing the shutter speed you would like to get and the IQ costs of maximum aperture and high ISO.
* When the whale is spotted, decide the composition you want, select the focus point you'll use, and set the focal length on the zoom.
* When the whale breaches, the only remaining task is to keep the focus point on the whale and time the shutter press.

Piece of cake! :-)