Vaseline and the driver!

[rembrandt]

Putting vaseline on the face of the driver does correct the slice and hook some but I can't see the value in it and the wasted effort you have to put up with, in my book. My driver has no grooves at all and I've noticed that more and more of the new clubs have no grooves at the sweet spot. I think that helps more than the greasy stuff!

[iacas]

I have occasionally taken practice swings to get a little water on my clubface or a little grass in the grooves when I want to play a running shot. That's within the rules, and not even by bending them. It's just taking advantage of them, the same way Tour pros are quick to look for casual water and/or animal droppings, burrowing animal holes, etc.

And the chap-stick method is what I've always heard as the "best" way to cheat. In high school we did this on the driving range one day - you can make some pretty ugly swings that don't slice or hook much - but it's cheating, so that's the only time I've ever done it legitimately.

[Guest]

http://www.travelandleisure.com/tlgo...f-the-hustlers

"On the first tee, Hamilton extracted an industrial-size tube of Vaseline from his bag and squirted a healthy dose on the fender above the left wheel of his cart. When applied to the club face, the Vaseline—known among hustlers as grease"—eliminates spin and makes it close to impossible to hit troublesome hooks and slices. Hamilton has been playing with grease so long now that he refuses to play without it. Among most golf gamblers, there is a widely accepted set of rules: You putt everything out and you play everything down. Other than that, anything goes. You can carry twenty-six clubs if you want, including some you built in your garage, and you can most certainly use grease."

[rembrandt]

http://www.travelandleisure.com/tlgo...f-the-hustlers

Welcome to the Sand Trap. Thats rather strongly put and for a first post very impressive. Sounds just like the guy at our course! My driver has NO grooves at all and I'm wondering if that has the same effect? I know I have a hard time slicing the ball with it.

[golfchief]

FYI- rule 4-2b foreign material must not be applied to the club face for the purpose of influencing the movement of the ball. penalty= Disqualification.

[supah]

I thought grooves helped the ball go straighter since you get a backspin, or am I way off?
How does a smooth club head help you hit straight? *Confused*

[iacas]

Welcome to the Sand Trap. Thats rather strongly put and for a first post very impressive. Sounds just like the guy at our course! My driver has NO grooves at all and I'm wondering if that has the same effect? I know I have a hard time slicing the ball with it.

I thought grooves helped the ball go straighter since you get a backspin, or am I way off?

Grooves are pointless on a driver. Aside from alignment (which is why a lot of drivers have no grooves over the sweet spot - to help alignment), they serve no purpose relating to spin, etc.

In fact, less grooves = more spin. Grooves are used to channel away debris. If you need that with your driver, uhh, take some lessons?

[supah]

Grooves are pointless on a driver. Aside from alignment (which is why a lot of drivers have no grooves over the sweet spot - to help alignment), they serve no purpose relating to spin, etc.

Ah, alright.

[Dr_Fu_Manchu]

I played with a guy this week who had something all over the face of his driver. I never said anything because I didn't know what it was, but after reading this thread, now I know what it was. He was killing his drives. They were all straight and long, even though he had a steep slicing swing.

I don't know where I fall on this. It's his game and his score, but how can you legitimately feel good about posting a score that you know isn't legal? He commented about how well he was playing, but I have to think he took at least 10 strokes off his score. I wouldn't feel good about this, even in a casual round and if I knew one of my playing partners was doing this on a regular basis, I don't know what I could play with him. It speaks volumes about his character and I don't know that I want to associate with someone like that.

BTW - This guy even had to audacity to try to tell me how I should swing my driver!

[MiniMoe]

Grease does help reduce side spin, but it also reduces backspin. What you get is a ball that goes pretty low, does not carry very far, but rolls two miles. The problem is if you push and pull the ball. If you push it, it will go straight right without any curvature at all, which is still in the junk. I have played with a guy that loves to grease his driver... he is an old school hustler and some habits die hard. We have this dogleg left with a little lake right at the dogleg, but it's only about 220 to carry from the middle of the back tees and way less than that from the regular tees. One day he hit this bullet that goes up and then just falls out of the sky and goes into the lake. Needless to say he was a little pissed. I wanted to tell him so bad that you need spin to get the ball into the air. The new equipment is designed to reduce spin anyway, why would you want to have no spin on a ball?

By the way, I love playing with him because I know if he has to cheat, he can't beat me, and that turns into money into my pocket. For Christmas I'm going to get him a years supply of chap stick.

[mc0388]

Rude behavior aside, I'd "grease" his seat when he isn't looking and let him see first hand what he forces others to deal with. Guy sounds like a knuclehead.

I would make fun of him to his face

[LBlack14]

Chapstick does the same thing and NO I don't use it.

[dhanson]

bump

watched the first episode of "Feherty" last night with Lee Trevino and this came up. interesting how commonplace this is amongst hustlers. it doesn't seem that this method would produce a very playable ball flight, unless you're playing a fairly straight course.

[ND Fan]

Unreal... Contact your golf committee or board of directors and have it stopped.  Not only is he cheating but he is costing the club money in cleaning up his mess.

I would charge him $20 for every time he dirties a cart.  That'll probably stop it, if it doesn't the $20 bucks covers the additional expense.

[kpaulhus]

Originally Posted by ND Fan

Unreal... Contact your golf committee or board of directors and have it stopped.  Not only is he cheating but he is costing the club money in cleaning up his mess.

I would charge him $20 for every time he dirties a cart.  That'll probably stop it, if it doesn't the $20 bucks covers the additional expense.

This thread is like 4 or 5 years old.

[inthehole]

Last night on Feherty, Travino said he used to vaseline up his towel & everybody thought he was just cleaning his driver, but he was lubing it up to reduce spin (in his amateur hustler days)

[clubchamp]

Chapstick on the driver and life savers under the ball were both huge when I was in high school. Although once one kid got caught and kicked off his team which cost them the match nobody did it anymore.

[jamo]

Holy thread resurrection! In one of Rick Reilly's books ( Who's Your Caddy ) he talks about playing with a guy that makes his money betting on golf, and this is one of the things he would do.