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Golfers/students watching me doing my technique practice at my indoor academy will often notice: I hit about one ball every 45-60 seconds. I rarely hit more than three balls without taking a small break (enough to walk out and collect them), glance at a text, and get back to it. I often practice with a 6I only (though I'll occasionally hit an 8, or a 4). I hit my 6I between 100 and 150 yards. Sometimes out to 160. I don't really care about contact. I've had practice sessions where half of my shots are shanks. It's fine. I monitor one or two launch monitor data points at a time. Right now, it's just path, even though I'm not really working on path (I just don't want it to get too out of whack). I never have a "breakthrough." * I work on the same thing for weeks or, more frequently, months. I have several things (besides the LM) that provide feedback. A PVC pipe at my feet. Mirrors. A HackMotion. Whatever. I am constantly monitoring the little things. Is my right foot square or turned out 5°? How's my grip? Distance from the ball? Etc. I record myself on video. To elaborate on each: Learning happens in the breaks between. When you can absorb. Process. Because why not? It keeps things simpler, and if I'm not bored by doing it, because of #6 and #7… so what? Plus, it's all stickered up for the QuadMAX. I know how far I hit my 6I (about 183). I don't need to constantly prove it, and practicing at full speed is not conducive to making changes. I'm not working on contact. If you interrupt me in the middle of a practice session and say "hit one good," I'll do that. I tend to hit it out of the toe side, so when I'm exaggerating something, I often move it a bit too far into the heel. I'm not making "golf swings" per se, I'm making a series of movements for the purpose of "playing around with" the piece I'm working on. More on this below. * More on this below. * If you're not practicing with feedback, you're just exercising. And probably not really doing that well, either. 😄 Great players do the ordinary things extraordinarily well. And consistently. I'm not great (PGA Tour), but I can do the ordinary things well. Feel ain't real. And sometimes, a mirror isn't quite enough, since you have to be looking at it while you "feel" and see what it produces. * I have this sign (and a few others) in my academy: I don't have breakthroughs. Improving at golf is, at this point, about putting in the work. About taking care of the details and doing what I need to do. I have a loosely defined plan (I may spend more or slightly less time than planned — I don't want to hard-code timelines in, though I'm also in no rush). Why am I posting this? Because I see posts by others where they "have a breakthrough" or they "think they've got it" or they "struck the ball phenomenally well" that session. Who cares? The point of technique practice is to change the technique. To improve it. It's not to flush it. That'll come… if you're working on the right things in the right way. Go slow. Play around in the "space" of your improvement. Give it time. Be patient and disciplined. Don't worry about results. Trust. Good practice is often boring practice. It's not exciting. It's about putting in the reps. P.S. This is complementary.

Some quick notes. Mine arrived yesterday, and on Monday I used a student's in his lesson with him. The touch interface is very responsive. Almost iPad-like. Not at all like crappy touch screens that lag or where you're not sure you hit the button. A lot of the smaller (negative) issues are software based, so I think they can iterate on them and improve them: I named myself "Erik J. Barzeski" and so my little user "circle" shows up as "EJ." First, stop assuming someone's initials. Second, when I choose "Edit Users" the only option to edit is… to remove the user. I can't edit my name or whether I'm a righty or a lefty. That's not "editing" a user. I created "Student Lefty" and "Student Righty" as guest profiles, and think they should add colors to the little circles. It could let you more quickly find the person you're looking for. Not much of an issue with three, but if you play with a group of ten friends here and there, it would help. There are four different ways to dismiss a screen, which I found funny. You can tap away from a panel, click an "X," click "save/cancel," or click "Done." They could have done Not all clickable areas appear to be tappable. "Power Save" and "Battery Save" are tappable (you can change the settings), but they just say "Power Save : ON" or something. The impact camera is more than what's offered by a lot of things (like even the QuadMAX), but at the same time, not all that useful. It's only about six (eight? ten?) frames and it's snot from a not great angle because you hit from so side-on. The hitting area with club data is pretty small. This won't work very well off of grass. And you'll want to move it around lest you wear out your Alignment is super easy. Lay a club down, rest two balls against it… aligned. I do wish it prompted you to align it when you turn it on, even if one of the options was "keep current alignment" if you haven't moved it since last using it (or it never moves in your sim or something). I don't have a subscription yet and may never get one. I don't plan to use Home Tee Hero for much. I may plug it in to GSPro at some point. I think you can connect to it via your WiFi network. As in… it joins your network, and so you can be online and connected to it wirelessly. I'm not sure what the USB-C port is for. The fiducials (club stickers) I have for the GCQuadMAX also work on the Garmin. You don't need to use their larger stickers. Heck, I used the tab from a GC fiducial on Monday and it worked fine. The storage/travel case is well done. It's solid, sturdy. But, oddly, there's no real good place to put the charger and cable. Maybe I can set it in against the back side beneath the handle? I could have used a little pocket for that. The weight is not anywhere near as substantial as it looks. Because the GCQuadMAX is denser, I think it may almost be just as heavy (I think officially it's 7.x pounds for the Quad and 9.x for the R50). Because the unit sits almost directly beside the golf ball, I don't think people are going to be as worried about shanks as they are with the GC units (GC3, GC4/MAX) or other "side-on" units. I do wonder about someone accidentally hitting it off the toe and into what seems to be plexiglass covering the cameras, though. The range UI is nice — you can split screen to show the impact video, the shot data, the range overview of ball flight… etc. I definitely don't love the shot tracer. In the overhead view, a dot appears where your ball would have landed. But… if you're hitting the same club, every dot is the same color (orange for a 7I). I think the last dot, the last shot, should be a different color. After you've hit five or ten shots, you don't even really know which dot is the new one. That's all I can think of for now, but I'll be updating this as I go.

I just returned from my yearly Thanksgiving visit ti Pinehurst, 14 rounds in 16 days. I guess golf won't aggravate my back issues. A nice surprise, some friends invited us to go to Nova Scotia with them next August, 5 rounds, including two at Cabot (Cliffs and Links). Walking has suffered with the back injury, I have 8 months to get back enough stamina to walk those courses. I know I can get a buggy with a doctors not, but I'd really prefer to be on foot.

I looked at the video for ten seconds and immediately thought of this. I am Vinz Clortho, Minion of Gozer. Buy my putter!

This video got into my youtube feed. And I watched it. But I'm confused why not spinning in "the revealer" is important to making putts. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but it seems to me, your hands are holding the putter. So, it isn't going to spin when you swing it. The ball isn't that heavy so as to overpower my hands when I don't hit it dead center. If the ball was so heavy as to overpower my hands when I don't hit it dead center, than certainly it would be heavy enough to overpower the lie-angle balance, right? Don't get me wrong. I like the demo. It's something they can show people and say "Look our putter is different." But the more I think about it the less I think this feature matters. I have an open mind, however. Let me know if there's really a benefit to this that I just don't understand.

Tiger’s walking at the PNC and people say he’s not limping.

@GolfLug, You don’t need no stinking lie angle, face-balanced putter. You just need me to bet you will make the putt, preferably in the pouring rain.

LOL No, but a lot of guys only have one son in law and DON'T like him.

Okay, as I mentioned I was planning on being near the PGA Superstore and I popped in with the sole purpose of rolling putts with the LAB putter. I walked in. The saleslady said "How can I help you?" I said "I want to putt with the LAB putter." I tried two models: The DF2.1 and the DF3. To me they felt about the same. The DF3 can pick up a ball, so that's cool. And would actually be the reason I'd pick it over the DF2.1. I did not like the forward leaning grip thing at all. Not even a little bit. The saleslady told me that a lot of folks don't like the "press grip". Then she said something interesting. She said words to the affect that the press grip also ruins the "lie Angle Balance" thing. She said kind of what Jim Harrington said. (I'm paraphrasing here) She said that "the revealer" works based on the axis of the shaft, but then they go and install the grip on a different axis, so, it wouldn't actually work if you put the putter in the revealer based on the axis of the grip, or something like that. She went on to say she thinks that's one of the reasons why they started offering grips which keep the same axis as the revealer. So, you can get them without the shaft leaning forward and with a more traditional grip. Anyway, if I were to get one, I'd definitely avoid the goofy "press grip". I tried a few of them and the one I liked best I'd describe as okay. I'm not really a feel player, but in my opinion, they don't feel good. With your eyes closed it was really difficult to feel how well you hit it. The saleslady suggested when I use it, I should look at the hole for short putts. I tried that and immediately decided that's a terrible idea. This is most definitely a putter where you need to look at the ball when you hit it. But does it work? ... I have no idea. I picked up a PING PLD and a Tour Edge Wingman just to compare it. I noticed no difference in my ability to hit my line or control the distance. I spent about 10 to 15 minutes with each putter, rolling balls down a line on the green, trying to sink short and long putts, lagging up to targets etc... (Granted I performed no scientific tests, just tried to roll a bunch of putts.) I did notice that both the PING and The Tour Edge "felt" way better. The Ping is $400, the Tour Edge is $129. The LAB is $450 to $500 for an off the shelf model and $620 for a custom built model. Here's what I learned, if I was going to go in and just get a putter off the shelf, I'd buy the Tour Edge Wingman. Hell, it's $129.00, it felt great off the face and I was able to hit equally as many putts with it as anything else. As a last note. I don't like that the custom model is $120 to $170 more. I feel like I'm getting totally screwed on that. I get it, if you were getting something that wasn't built from standard parts. But for that money you are just getting standard parts built to your spec. That feels like a very high adder. Makes me wonder if their plant could use my help in implementing some lean practices and one-piece-flow. Anyway, there's my review. Granted no science was used during this review, but overall I give the LAB putters a resounding "eh".

Ok, so going to get this posted, out in the world. I haven't posted as much because of work life balance being s*** right now. I have this project in NJ (sorry @billchao, but NJ is a giant pain in the a** 😉) that is just sapped all my motivation for most anything else. My bowling league started up, so that is taking more focus. I plan to start working out again, again NJ project, since I haven't worked out consistently in like 6 months. I also will start practicing golf again here soon. Time to get some indoor work done, and the golf course near me has a trackman you can rent out. So, I plan to hit some over the winter as well.

Ouch, @ChetlovesMer is catching strays over here 😜

Good news!

LPGA Updates Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility | News | LPGA | Ladies Professional Golf Association Accordingly, under the new policy, athletes who are assigned female at birth are eligible to compete on the LPGA Tour, Epson Tour, Ladies European Tour, and in all other elite LPGA competitions. Players assigned male at birth and who have gone through male puberty are not eligible to compete in the aforementioned events.

My guess is they are not correcting a current problem. Rather they are attempting to address a tough situation that could become a huge problem in the future. They are trying to be proactive rather than reactive. As to offending or not offending people @ChetlovesMer, I believe Michael Whan said they tried to draw the line where someone gained a competitive advantage. It was felt that people who had gone through male puberty had a physical advantage vs. those who had not (all other things being equal). The decision was driven by a desire to create as level a playing field as possible. There was no mention of choosing the least offensive process. I have not really given all this a great deal of thought. On the surface, the policy seems to be a reasonable attempt to create some certainty in a very fluid situation. I am sure the courts will have an opportunity to review this policy. This not going to be the last word on this issue. And my opinion is just that, one person’s opinion.

Strangely enough, she played at my club as a teenage boy, and was a very good player. Always seemed a bit of a "tortured soul", and I don't think transitioned until well after leaving here, much too late in life to fit within the new LPGA policy. I think too many people thing trans folks have made the changes simply to compete in a less competitive setting. This is a momentous change in someone's life, never taken lightly.

I've definitely hit a driver into dirt, grass, and muck.

I don't think you can snag lpga.golf without the actual LPGA having a reasonable claim to it. You can find a ton of articles of things like this, but basically: 5 Domain Name Battles of the Early Web At the dawn of the world wide web, early adopters were scooping up domain names like crazy. Which led to quite a few battles over everything from MTV.com You could buy it, though, and hope the LPGA will give you a thousand bucks for it, or tickets to an event, or something like that. It'd certainly be cheaper than suing you to get it back, even though they'd likely win. As for whether women and golfers can learn that ".golf" is a valid domain, I think that's up to you knowing your audience. My daughter has natalie.golf and I have erik.golf.

You can pre-order an R50 here for pretty rapid shipping (these are back-ordered almost everywhere): https://www.playbetter.com/products/garmin-approach-r50-golf-launch-monitor-simulator?ghref=2301%3A700794. This is an affiliate purchase, and I'm willing to kick back lifetime ad-free Supporter membership here on TST or a 90-minute GEARS session for the cost of a regular member lesson (about 1/3 the cost). Also, I'll record a video myself soon when I get an R50.

It has been a while but I will try and fill you in to the best of my ability. I could do a lot of activities after the surgery but just not many that involved the left hand for me since that is what was operated on in my case. It was about 6 weeks post-surgery before physical therapy recovered. If you have good flexibility and mobility in general hopefully that helps because I had some struggles with physical therapy and I think it was about 9 months after surgery before I tried to swing a golf club. I could be a bit off on this. I felt like I was close to 100% about a year after surgery. I will be forthcoming though in saying I never got full mobility of my wrist back but I also don't really work on it and should. The good news is I am back to playing golf at a greater ability than I was before the accident. I personally would be afraid to do heavy weightlifting after this surgery but your doctor obviously will let you know what you can do. Let me know if you went through with the surgery. Thank you @bkuehn1952 for tagging me to see this as he knows I don't log in all that often. Hope you are doing well!

Day 13: 12/23/2024 A lot more mirror work today. Using my same swing thought. Some slow motion, some full motion, some in between. Today I made sure I took every swing all the way to the finish.

I agree. I would have thought it would save them shipping costs. I will say, I don't really mind. I'm guessing the labor cost to remove the head and repack it is greater than the difference in shipping costs. I'm guessing Callaway has a deal with UPS because the shipping label they sent me only showed a cost of like 8 bucks and change. Feels like it would have costed me more to ship it. When the guy I spoke to told me they were sending me a complete driver and I could choose to keep my old shaft or keep the new one, I was actually kind of excited. It was like a little driver shaft lottery. ... I didn't win though. The shaft I got was almost the same as the one I had just the R version instead of the S version. Mine's a 60 gram Hzrdus Black. The other thing I kind of liked about it is that they shipped it the same day I talked to the guy. So it was fast. Lastly, I'm pretty sure the guy I talked to was in California, and the driver definitely shipped to me out of Texas. That's also where I sent it back to. So, overall, really I have no complaints.

They sent me the same head as I cracked. The Paradym 9 degree. But instead of just the head, they sent me a complete driver. The guy said because it's not the current model they don't have any heads sitting in inventory, but they do have complete drivers. So, they sent me a complete driver and a UPS label. Then when I got it, I had the choice to keep the compete driver, and send my driver back to them, or swap out the shafts to keep my old shaft and send the new shaft and old head back to them in the same box. Just affix the UPS label and drop it off. Which is what I did. All in all, the whole process took about 4 days. Which I thought was pretty good. So, now I have a brand new head (still in the plastic) on my old shaft and with my old white Pure DTC Midsize grip and still have the Shotscope tag in it. BTW - The new driver also came with a head cover. Which I sent back to them. But if I was hard up I probably could have kept the head cover and I doubt they would have said anything.

I forgot to update this post. I got the new Paradym Driver about 4 days after Callaway said they'd send it. It came with a similar, but not the same shaft I had on mine, so I swapped it out and sent the old head with the new shaft back to Callaway. I'm more than happy with Callaway's response time and willingness to replace the driver. Other than the crack, I really had no complaints about the Paradym. Although if it cracks again, I'll be outside the 2 year warranty period and then I'll be bummed.

I have been a big follower of this technology ever since I saw Positive Putters display at a golf show in the Revealer they invented and patented. That would have been around 2000. It made sense to me that staying target line balanced was a better way of balancing. Early models of these putters were often too flat for me and I struggled to hole more putts. I was fascinated by all of them - Positive Putters, the Railgun, the SeeMore blades and the Backstryke. I have tried the DF1, which was great for long putts, and currently use the DF3. I am still really good at long putts with the DF3 3, having made a 90’ putt and a 34’ putt in my last two rounds. My first round with the DF3 I only had 24 putts making almost 200’ of putts. I don’t quite use the putter the way they suggest- I don’t swing harder, and only a little longer, on longer putts. All my putts are at the same tempo, or strive to be. Therefore, I am swinging harder on longer putts. I do love putting with the DF 3 and I have become much better at putting through 50-60 mm gates at home, rarely hitting the sides.

Ah, yes, their super technologically accurate web cam fitting. Oy. I dislike liars, so I dislike LAB. It's a bonus that their science (and fittings) are very nearly junk.

The middle of the green never moves. Golfers keep aiming at flags, which they shouldn't do.

It is interesting that some supers have used hole locations to reduce pitch marks. If I ran/owned a course, I would be more concerned about pace of play. Missing greens and difficult lag putts slow things down.

Bummer. I supported their kick-starter back in the day. Not a huge amount, but it's always fun to see a company you support make it. I've only supported less than a half dozen kick-starters. Of all of them, Dr. Squatch and Grip-6 belts seems to be doing the best. NO, I do not have a white Grip-6 belt! .... I do have 4 other colors though. 👍😜👍

Eh. The forces and torques in even the most "toe hang" putter is incredibly small. Overcome simply by lifting the club off the ground, which is why the Revealer needs to be so well aligned and smooth. Plus all that's said in the thread about how the Revealer isn't even possibly genuine. I'm generally against shitty science.

Hmm... Somehow I missed or forgot about that thread. This is a pretty good read. Interesting indeed.

Hello everyone! I haven't been on a golf forum in many years...since the old 4gea days if I remember right. Love to talk swing mechanics and hope to meet up for some range time and golf with others if possible. Been in Houston for a year now but haven't managed my way out on the course anywhere. I hope to change that in 2025. Hit 'em hard everybody!

Welcome to TST!

Day 2: 12/11/2024 Today I spent another half hour or so in front of the mirror working on my PPJ. I still feel like an orangutan performing brain surgery with a hack saw. It's a big departure from the way I had been timing my moves in the past. Here's a quick video of my practicing.

I have a PING G LS Tec driver (all titanium) head from 2016 in the closet. It performs as well as anything, but the sound is ... what's the word... off-putting? Anyway, that titanium head will probably last until the next ice age.

I was hitting my friend’s TW today and will end up finally unboxing mine to use. I’ll put the Nikes aside. The Vapor Pro irons , the Vapor line in general have an odd cult following and the prices stay up there. I almost pushed the original grips off of them so as not to wear them out and regrip them for my own use. It’s crazy that they are worth more with the grips🙄.

Oh, sometimes I'm not too brite. 😜

The Beres drivers are even more expensive. My understanding is they sell the loin's share of these into Japan. The clubs perform well but the bigger component is that they are also something of a status symbol. The ironic part is how poorly the Beres Drivers and the like hold their value. You can pick up fairly recent models on the secondary market for under 200 bucks. Which must be heartbreaking for somebody who spent more than $5K on it when it was new. BTW - I love the banana duct taped to wall art piece story. I give all the props in the world to the person who came up with the idea.

I totally agree with you. I'm not sure if I've lost the forest in all the trees. I was trying to commend the way this was handled. I agree with the decision. I agree that people born male have an advantage. Having typed that, I think when trying to create a rule set on this type of thing it's a major mind-field. It needed to be addressed one way or another. It will need to be addressed by all women's sports at some time in the future. No matter how it's addressed there will be people who will be offended. I think they handled it the best way they could.

Here I am hitting a P-wedge. If you look closely at the top of the frame you can see some of the holes that folks have made. I will say most of those are created by folks hitting the crown of their drivers or fairway woods. This is my stock P-wedge shot. Here's the caddie-view on my stock P-wedge shot. @klineka Even my stock P-wedge misses the ceiling with the mat pulled back for filming. SW .... would be a different story. 🤣

We haven't had that "thing" in place for years.

Day 217 (5 Dec 24) - Thurs 9-hole round with my good friend. Weather is in the upper 50’s. - so the body was a little more limber. Played the next tees up with the TA 845s Silver Scots (3i-SW) along with TM R580 driver and 5w. Shot a very solid 39 (3 bogies that should have been pars). Solid round of better ball striking - man those 845s still have it…

I was responding to the discussion with Beastie where he was suggesting that scalpers should be banned. I would think that the PGA could set this up in such a fashion that you can't transfer tickets - if you find that you can't go, you could sell them back to the PGA for maybe like a $25 restocking fee or something like that. That would make the tickets much easier to get for people who actually want to go and they'd get the price that the PGA charged, rather than whatever additional profit the scalpers want to make. They're making money while providing no service whatsoever. I might also be inclined to suggest that the PGA perhaps should care some who buys their tickets. I don't know exactly what their mission statement is, but I would hope that access to the game for more people should be a part of it. I would also think that PGA pros should want the game to grow - more people playing the game equals more lessons. At $750+ there aren't going to be many 10 year olds who go and catch a bug for the game.

P7TWs all day IMO. Especially because they're already fit for you. And it sounds like you have an interest in buying/selling so using the Vapor Pros would only decrease their value.

Yes. I believe in using the same ball all of the time, including chipping and putting practice. I use the orange Callaway Supersoft. Only $25 per dozen, and sometimes on sale for $20.

A 5400 yd course is not that short for gents driving it 160 yards considering the approach shot lengths they are going to be faced with on Par 4s. Also, for the course you are referring to I estimate the Par 4s have to average longer than 260 yds, because the Par 5s are 800 yds or so, and if there are four Par 3s averaging 130 the total is 1320 yds. This leaves 4080 yds remaining for 12 Par 4s. That is an average of 340 per hole. Anyway, if there are super seniors driving it only 160ish and breaking 80 consistently, they must be elite/exceptional in other aspects of their games. I play a lot of golf with 65-75 yr old seniors on a 5400 yd course. They all drive it 180-200 or so, but many are slicers and poor iron players. None can break 80. I am 66 and drive it 200 yds. My average score is 76. On that course my average approach shot on Par 4s is 125 yds. The ten Par 4s average 313 yds. By that comparison the 160 yd driver of the ball would have 165 left when attempting GIR on those holes.

April 2025 - Pinehurst, playing Mid Pines and Southern Pines + 3 other courses. Probably Talamore, Mid-South, and one other. July 2025 - Bandon Dunes, just me and my dad.

I have not seen the beaver that decided to add another pond at Leslie Park Golf Course. It is likely he started this project and then decided to move on. There is no sign of a beaver lodge.

He could… if he's playing pretty short tees. I mean, they might have to be 5200 yards or so, but he could.

Let's talk about repairing ball marks on the putting green, and doing so properly. I see a lot of people do this improperly. Unfortunately, many of them are PGA Tour players, and they do it on television. They put their divot repair tool in the ground, pop up, and tap down. This is the wrong way to repair a ball mark. It damages or rips the roots and the grass does not heal in a short time, taking weeks to recover. We had an old topic on this, but it's old, and the videos and links in it are probably almost all outdated. So I wanted to revisit the topic anew. First, a video, an old one but a good one, from Lake View Country Club. Next, an image from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). Third, a PDF I built based on the old Lake View site: https://thesandtrap.com/media/misc/repairing_ball_marks.pdf. In short… Push, Don't Pop. Finally, a photo of a recent repair I made to an improperly repaired ball mark: I did this by: Coring out the dirt part. Just inserted the tool and twisted. Progressively working the edges of the nearby turf around the edges toward the center of the hole. Tamping it down. I took the photo before I tapped it down with a putter (which smoothed it out nicely), and which not only looks better, but which will heal much more quickly. The left photo, the "badly repaired" ball mark, may putt quite well, but the person who repaired that ball mark didn't do his job correctly. He popped. He didn't push.