Leaderboard

My grandfather played in this event 90 years ago at the same site at age 21. I was going through some memorabilia and wanted to share these gems. The first image shows the cover of the 25-cent program along with the pairings and starting time sheet with grandpa's name on it. It seems he was star struck and got the signatures of Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen as well as took some photos. The last image shows that he and his opponent carded 84's one day. Looks like he recorded number of putts as well as the putt length. He paid $5 for the entry to sectional qualifying rounds each in 1934 and 1935. Enjoy the tournament!

I've started a podcast with Jayson Nickol and Tyson Deskins. The website is here: The Spin Axis Podcast - Golf Coaches Discuss Instruction Modern Techniques and Technology | Hosted by Erik J. Barzeski, Jayson Nickol, and Tyson Deskins Episode 1 is here: 001: How Long Should a Golf Lesson Be? | The Spin Axis Podcast - Golf Coaches Discuss Instruction Modern Techniques and Technology We're going to keep all the episodes to less than 20 minutes, ideally around 18, so you can listen to them on the way to the course (or to work, if you must…). Please do a few things: Subscribe. There are links at the top of every page and on each episode page to various podcast apps/platforms. Listen! The podcasting world actually tracks listens now, so listen to the podcast. Provide feedback. I'd love to know what you like and, the way I'm wired, I'd love even more to know what you don't like. Share it here, as a whole or per episode… all feedback will help us shape future episodes to make them better.

I'm going to use the same image I used in this thread about good practice being boring practice to kick off a discussion specifically about the word in the title: discipline. That image is to the right here. ---> Whether it's Scottie Scheffler using his training grip every day, or Justin Thomas learning that he needs to re-find his "home base" (X link) for his putting, or Tiger taking a year working on something before he calls Butch (or Hank, or Sean, or Chris) to say "I've got it," or even a golfer on the course aiming away from a flagstick, discipline may be the single most important skill in golf. Top three for sure (don't hold me to that! 🤣). I don't always stay disciplined. I don't record video quite as often as I should… I don't go quite as slowly as I should. And yet… I do those things about 15-20x as often as most golfers. Discipline is making yourself practice something at home at least 15 minutes a day (even if that's five three-minute sessions). Discipline is making yourself see no evil, hear no evil when looking at social media swing tips and just focusing on your one priority piece. Discipline is doing it with nearly constant feedback — recording videos, training aids or "stations" — at the right (almost surely slower than you most can possibly imagine at first) speeds. (Here's a search on X showing a few of my practice stations. They're often pretty similar because… I'm almost always working on similar things.) A typical golfer thinks I'm nuts. I've said on my podcast and written it here on GolfWRX that sometimes, a great practice session includes 50% shanks. Discipline is often not caring where the ball is going. More and more society seems to be chasing instant gratification. Can't beat that game? Just buy a level-up. Want to get some "likes"? Post an (edited, quite often faked in some way) selfie or something from the beach (ignoring the screaming kids 20 feet away, the sand fleas biting your legs, the sunburn you'll get from forgetting to put sunscreen on the back of your calves, etc.) and your friends will like it by rote and you'll feel a smidgen better about yourself. Golf is not that. Golf is not instant gratification. Golf is WORK. Improvement at golf requires trust that the light will be at the end of the tunnel, because unless you're highly sensitive to seeing light in a small change (or a larger change at a slowspeed), the light at the end of the tunnel is often a LONG ways off. (This is one of the reasons why some people — I'm not saying anyone here — love the "work on your short game and putting" approach. It's one of the closest things to instant gratification that you'll find in golf, limited as the gains may be. They can see a few more balls going in the hole and see tangible relatively quick improvement. Again, though, it's often small improvement, and it doesn't necessarily stick.) Few things are more frustrating than giving a great lesson to a 20 handicapper, having them pause, using mirrors, recording every third swing and reviewing it with them, making them hit the ball only 50 yards or so, and leaving them with a very clear message about what and how to practice… only for them to text you the next day with "I went to the range, it went horribly, here's a video of my swing (at full speed, with no rehearsals), what am I doing wrong?" (This is particularly frustrating when you've helped someone for free and they seem to understand and believe everything, and then you see the same type of response and no evidence of them actually putting in the work.) Even super experienced golfers and lower index players often think (subconsciously at least) that they're going to "get better" from just taking a lesson and practicing for 40 minutes during that lesson. After all, most golfers start to hit it better at the end of the lesson than they were at the beginning. But… golf doesn't work that way. Not at full speed, not quickly. Being disciplined isn't much fun (getting better can be, but there are a lot of valleys between the small peaks). It means spending 15-60 minutes a day (or five days a week, or whatever) being focused on taking small steps. It means knowing that some days you may actually take a step back, but it won't be as far back as going two or three days without putting in the work. It means knowing that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. How disciplined are you? Could you spend ten minutes less scrolling Instagram or X and spend that on your golf game? While you're waiting for your popcorn, could you use the reflection in your patio door window to work on your golf swing? Can you go at the right speed, with a station set up, and record yourself frequently? Can you? Or, more importantly… Will you?

Had an outstanding weekend in our annual four-flights two-man two-day tournament - Schaubach Cup. Finished at the top of our flight, got into an alternate shot playoff and finished runners up! Our best finish in last 4 years! We shot a listless 68 (Shambles format) on day one and finished DFL. Pete had a rough day. But then played like mad men and shot shot 59 (best ball) on day two to finish first. Did not drop a single shot. A picture perfect ham-n-egg day. I don't think I have driven the ball better. Irons were mediocre, pitching and chipping decent but my putter of all clubs was my star. My putter of all clubs..! Made 4 spectacular bombs in the 25 to 40 feet range. Pete sang his own swan song. We tied two other teams but won basis of the tie breaking day two best score We played well in the three hole elimination playoff against the other three flight winners but lost to the bomber team who got on the green in two on the par 5 final hole for a tap in birdie while we missed the birdie putt from about 20 feet. All in all, the best weekend Pete and I've had in a few years! 😊

This topic aged like a carton of milk left in room temperature.

Its been almost 10 months since my back problems arose, and I'm still working on getting back to "normal". Between the 10 weeks of forced idleness, and the lingering nerve impingement, my strength and stamina is still not where it once was. I've played a fair amount of golf, with no apparent ill effects, but every round has been played while riding in a cart. Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I managed to walk the first 9 holes, before riding for the back 9. Sure, I'm tired, but I played reasonably well, my handicap is creeping down. All I need now is decent weather and a bit of practice!

I helped a very good female player out today, and we raised her 7I swing speed from 74.6 MPH to 83.8 MPH. Here's how we did it. The short version? This right here. The (slightly) longer version? Here we go: Essentially… the nut of it all is this: If you make a faster backswing that seeks to reach peak speed earlier, you must apply more force to STOP the club. That force is applied in the downswing direction. Thus, you put more force into the club in the downswing direction. I see a lot of slow, long, saggy backswings. This golfer had a LOOOONG backswing. It both took a long time, and the club traveled well past parallel (blue = before, yellow = after): What's interesting is the yellow backswing reached a peak grip speed that was nearly 30% higher: You'll also notice how much EARLIER the player reached the peak grip speed — just above belly button height (yellow) instead of shoulder height (blue). What's also interesting is… a backswing that used to take over 1.4 seconds… now took less than one second (0.994s). The end result? A nearly 10 MPH jump in clubhead speed, from below LPGA Tour average to 5 MPH above it. All from making a FASTER backswing, that reached peak speed EARLIER, requiring the player to apply more force in the downswing direction for longer, shortening the backswing (length AND time), leading to a massive jump in clubhead speed. I posted a Twitter thread about this. Please read it here.

The heckling in these tournaments has come to a point where it’s off-putting and makes me less likely to want to watch.

A little late to the party, but I wanted to follow up with a summary. I had an awesome time, and really enjoyed getting to see everyone again. The weather even cooperated...if you call 89 degrees on a course with no trees "cooperation". The team game was really fun, and competitive both days. Saturday, at Reserve Run, the winning team was the Red team, with @dennyjones, @StuM, @rwolfe, @ChetlovesMer, @DaveP043, and @billchao taking home the victory at 5 under par*. Sunday, at Cranberry Highlands, the Blue team took home the win with a score of 11 under par* - shout-out to me, @iacas, @Daniel Mc, @DrizZzY, @saevel25, @DaveP043, @NeilR, and @rwolfe for pulling out the split. Skins game was interesting. On Saturday, we had a total of 15 skins (7 gross, 8 net) - and Sunday there were only 3 total! Because I'm a dummy, I threw away the record of who won… but someone can chime in if they remember. 🙂 All together a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to next year already! Thank you to everyone who attended! I'll be adding photos in here shortly (need to convert some)...

Thank you @Hardspoon and @iacas for setting up the golf outings. I had a great time today! I had a great time golfing with @DaveP043, @dennyjones, and @billchao I look forward to the next one.

I like this one. Wyndham has two golf swings. With his driver he is pretty much elite from a force plate and 3D measurement perspective. With his irons, he doesn't use his legs correctly. Weight transfer from right heel to left toe instead of weight going to the back heel of the left leg. Soft left leg through impact. Way more upper body focused, and so much that his kinematic sequence was off with the irons. The torso was starting before the lower body. I think some good drills in the video. Hitting the ball with the right foot back to force him to post on the left leg sooner. Then you can start creeping the right foot back to the address position. I like the gym drills for practicing correct kinematic sequence. Just really focusing on the legs driving the arm movement. It is just good offseason work as well, and in season. You don't always need a club to work on something related to the golf swing. I still nitpick on them saying that you push off with the right foot. 😁

I take my hat off to Rory, WOWOW! That must have been WAY harder than winning it 8-10 years back. To struggle for a decade, and to finally achieve it, one of the great golf stories of the past 20-30 yrs. Boy and he tried to give it away! As for my prediction, obviously off off off. I truly think all the things l listed are real, but to a far less extent I was thinking. Maybe those were more true back in the 2016-2022 period. The pressure was huge, especially-obviously on the back 9. That blocked chip into the creek, that had to be all pressure. And I think the missed putt on 18 in regulation - that was crazy. It seemed like he didn’t take any time at all, that had to be insane pressure. But raising my hand, that pressure and those missed shots were nothing related to any of the factors I listed out! Just pure pressure, built up over 10 years, man o man. And watching the emotion, man that is touching, good for him, his family, for golf. And finally, to the guys I rubbed the wrong way, my bad, really not my style. You guys have been here for years, I’ve been here for 2 days. You’ve built a great site and a great community. Humble apologies, and if you don’t ban me I hope to come back and join up for some lively discussion. Peace!

Got my first hole in one yesterday, playing with son at Yocha Dehe (Cache Creek) in CA. 90% 9 iron, 140 yards, hole 16.

@iacas is a featured guest on the newest AMG video release talking about the top swing faults instructors see from using GEARS. The first one we caught on my first GEARS lesson. I still work on that. Worth a watch.

I've been teaching online longer than most, all at Evolvr.com. I've taught (mainly Mike Carroll, the Fit for Golf guy) on CoachNow. I've recently switched over to using Skillest, and would like to invite you to join me there. If you've ever been on Evolvr, you can visit there for a lower cost plan that's similar to what I've always offered on Evolvr. If you're new to working with me, please consider working on your game with me at Skillest. My page is here: https://skillest.com/@iacas. Thanks! I'll see you there.

Played in the Rhode Island CC Senior Member guest, my partner and I won the tournament. 2-day Stableford format, we ended with 104 points, won by 7. Points include 2 holes on each 9, where both players score count, can make up some points if you both play well on those holes. @DaveP043has played a similar format (I played with Dann from RICC).

I know the difference. I wrote farther. Autocorrect sucks. I didn’t proofread. I’m lazy. Deal with it.

First day of a trip to Bandon Dunes. We played Sheep Ranch today. A Coore/Crenshaw designed course. A par 34 on the front and 38 on the back. With 8 holes with either a green, tee box, or the hole runs along the edge of the bluffs at the pacific. It has amazing vistas. With wide fairways and intermixed gorse bushes. The defense of the course are its large, undulated greens and the daily winds from the north. Many times you need to take 3-4 clubs more, if you even barely cross the wind, your ball can be taken offline or come up half to a full club short. A fantastic layout. here are some photos.

In the old days, pre-2020, "playing to your handicap" meant a net score about equal to the Course Rating. that led to problems when people played against each other from different tees, people playing tees with a lower CR would generally shoot lower scores. Course Handicaps were adjusted for each competition to make it even, usually lowering the course handicap for the "forward tee" players. So now if you "play to your handicap", the (68.4-72) term means your score will be even par, no matter which tees you play from. No adjustment needed for people playing from different tees. Look at your example, the guy shoots 82 every time, his Course Handicap of 10 gives him an even par net score every time.

Day 3 down. Today was Pacific Dunes, #2 public course in the USA. I will have to say it lives up to the hype. A fantastic course and layout. Very difficult, where you need to be precise on most all the shots you hit. A thoughtful routing with regards to the two prevailing wind directions, from the north in the summer and from the south in the winter. In some regards, some of the holes I was glad to have the northerly winds, but other holes it made them absolute monsters. Especially the par 3's on the back nine, which all generally go into the wind, except for 14. Hole's 10, 11, 12 and 13 all into the wind. Hole 18, a fantastic par 5, is much easier with the wind. It demands a precise tee shot, and a precise 2nd shot to get in a good spot near the green in two. It would be very hard to hit the green in two. Into the winter southerly wind, it would be a beast of a par 5. Instead of 255 yards into the green, you would probably have 270 yards, and it I would be uphill, and the hole constricts as you get closer to the green. The front nine is mostly back and forth with the wind. Like 1-2-3 into, and 4-5 with. 7-9 really alternate back and forth. The back nine really is a stretch of holes, where holes 10 thru 13 are heading north, and 14 thru 18 are heading generally south. Except for 17. Overall, I would give it like a 9.25/10. Some photo's... The punchbowl green, where you have a putt putt course...

Finished Bandon Trail today. Man what a course. Big upgrade over Sheep Ranch. I am giving Sheep Ranch a 7/10. Mostly views, course was good, and fun. I am giving Bandon Trails 8.25/10. It's up there with Sand Valley in my opinion. Much more demanding of the course. With the wind it just gets brutal. The first two holes are fully exposed to the wind, since they sit on the western edge of the course, open to the pacific. Even though it is tree lined, the wind has a big impact as it rolls over the hills and dunes. You can be surrounded by trees and feel the 20 mph wind at the tee box or fairway. I recommend using the yardage book, as it contains the course layout with a compass rose showing the prevailing wind (almost always from the north in the summer). It's easier to judge which direction the wind is going. I played halfway decent. I hate when the shank gets loaded into the gun. Short game is on point, putting is good. I just need to make better swigs. My shot is definitely not built for wind. 😭 Here are some photos...

Our senior club’s 9th tournament in 2025. Shot a 79 (9.8 differential) at Paint Creek Golf & CC. My first time playing there. I gave away a few strokes but generally played well.

Just reporting in, I've gone a number of events with no unusual or interesting Rules issues. But there WERE some interesting happenings. A few weeks ago, a junior set a course record at a nearby club, posting a 59, 8 strokes clear of his nearest competitor. But even more fun, I saw a young lady make her first hole-in-one on about a 160-yard par 3. Since she couldn't quite see the putting surface, she didn't realize it was in until she got to the green, it was great to see her reaction.

Hold on a tick. Did John steal somebody's kid? 👍😁👍 BTW - I believe I mentioned to anyone who'd listen to me at breakfast that they should take the under on the Pacers/Thunder game 7. ... You are welcome for the free betting advice. That one's free, the next one I charge 20%.

I second this comment. Thanks to all who organized and who golfed. This is truly a great group

It was a lot of fun, thanks @Hardspoon and @iacas for putting this together. It was a lot of fun to play with old friends and new. Looking forward to the next one.

Went to the range yesterday and did some full swings. I didn’t feel any pain or tightness in the surgery area and wasn’t sore this morning. I should be able to start playing now.

Don't stop doing what you do well, but… yes, the pelvis stuff is still pretty big. Get your weight where it needs to be at setup. Do a lot of practice by a countertop.

I listened to it today and I’m very proud of this one. Normally when I do something I am only critical of the things that I could have or should have done better and on this one I really didn’t have a list at all. I’m very pleased with how this interview went and the information shared and the way it was shared and everything. #65 - Digging into the Data Between Pro’s & Amateur’s Swings — Fit For Golf Erik Barzeski, a highly renowned golf coach joins the show to discuss some of the key differences between pro... You can find it on Spotify or Apple podcasts or elsewhere of course but that link will also work. Please give a listen and let me know what you think. And trust me, if you have something critical, that’s good too. That’s generally actually what I want to hear about. 😜

I wanna know how I even came across Prime Tiger in the first place. Does time travel exist? Can I tell him about what happens to him a la Marty Doc in Back to the Future? I'll take the shot at $100m. If I fail, 72 holes with Prime Tiger on a sick course somewhere sounds worth $1m to me. "Dear Tiger, at 1:30am on the night I go back you will be shot by terrorists. Just kidding, but no seriously though, your body is an absolute mess by the time you're 40. You have severe back pain starting in 2014, a career ending car accident in 2021 at Riviera (dude, learn how to drive), and uhhh let's just say you might wanna pump the breaks on those "extracurricular activities" you enjoy so much (I know, bro). Also, remember what I told you about AimPoint and the ball flight laws. Your friend in time, Jetfan1983."

Thank you for sharing that. He was quite good wasn't he? I was curious, so took a look. He played 19 PGA Tour stroke play events in 2000. He was 263 under par (they did point that out at the end of the video). If you look at each event he played in and take the best score in each event for a player not called Tiger Woods, that combined field score was -259. So he beat the field - where the field resets every week - over the course of an entire season. That's mind blowing.

Update: we are officially booked for our Sunday round (6/22) at Cranberry Highlands golf course: Course Tour | Cranberry Township - Official Website Visit our gorgeous course and read descriptions about each hole. 11:10am | 11:20am | 11:30am | 11;40am tee times. Still working on the Saturday course.

Give this a listen.

GEARS Hybrid session today. My quick notes… (mostly for me, but feel free to ask any questions you've got): First… working on limiting the pelvis turn. Clearly, I can do this when I want to do it. 🙂 This is just before the end of the backswing. Pelvis sway is a bit too big, though. Worked on that a bit more… As I noted, though the thrust is good, the laterals were getting a bit too big so my axis tilt was thrown off a little bit. Axis tilt and hip turn doing okay here. Right elbow could be better, but not worried about it today. I only made nine swings (with some rehearsals). GEARS Hybrid lets you work through things really quickly. Ignoring the downswing (it's still January!), this backswing was pretty good. Really happy with this one. This shows an inch of movement early, then starting to re-center during the backswing. Even the right image is before P4. This shows my pelvis trace from above on swing 9: go right, hang out there, and then go left during the end of the backswing. VERY linear. I'm apparently pretty good at this. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

"Move to four days of competition reflects LIV Golf’s global momentum and evolution" This is incoherent. "to deliver more action and entertainment for fans" One-third more than 0 is still 0.

LIV ceases to exist. LIV Golf announces expanded 72-hole format for 2026 season as next phase of growth for the league continues Move to four days of competition reflects LIV Golf’s global momentum and evolution to deliver more action and entertainment for fans They are going to have to rename themselves LXXII.

Played 5 more single day tournaments over the past 6 weeks. Scores have only been good enough to occasionally finsh in a tie for 5th or 4th place in my flight. 77-82 gross scores with typically a 5 playing handicap. The old farts I play with are good. It is hard to stay sharp over the course of 5 hours and I have given up shots down the stretch. Only have a few events left. City of Livonia Championship over Labor Day and our club;s Tournament of Champions later in September. It would be nice to play well in both of those to finish out the season.

It’s nearly 20 years since I lived in the UK, but here is roughly how it works there: if there are no tee times and you just go play then you typically start on whichever side is the 2-ball or 4-ball side depending on how you’re playing. When you reach the turn, you have priority over people starting but you alternate so people can start - they only have to wait on one group. If you make the turn and the tee is reserved for whatever reason then you’re going home. During Covid a lot of clubs started requiring tee time bookings and then you would have to have a time reserved to go and if you were making the turn tough. If the course has opportunities to jump ahead then the rules were you could only skip to another hole if there was no one on either the hole you switch to or the hole before it. Given they had tee times and no two tee start you were much more like that than rounding the turn with priority. I’d say what you should have done was play behind the four guys and complain if they were being way slow. Then if you did go and start on 10, when you get to the turn explain to the group there that you were sent off the 10th and would it be okay if you slotted in and assure them you won’t hold them up. Then hope that they say yes. If they say no then you do the same with the next group. It sounds like you overrode your host and the pro, then barged onto the first tee when you got there and didn’t even acknowledge the people who were actually in the right place at the right time. Your host is now likely going to have to apologize to those people and the pro. That won’t be a fun discussion for them.

Just looking some stuff up now. Well, I see where the similarities are there, but the biggest issue is that a provisional was not played. So, the ball can not be assumed to be or taken as the provisional. The only other thing I noticed was, since it can not be identified it is considered a lost ball. So, I guess the ruling would be that both of their balls are considered lost, even though they are found, ironic. They would have to go back to the tee and replay under stroke and distance penalty.

Point taken. 🍺 As it happens, I have just done my last officiating job, 25+ years since I qualified. Really enjoyed it but I'll enjoy not having to get up at 5am even more. I am sure you will enjoy your time Dave and hopefully not have to award too many penalties. Good fortune. 👍

The definition basically tells you it's a judgment call (I made the words bold and red, but the bullet list also tells you this): Serious Breach In stroke play, when playing from a wrong place could give the player a significant advantage compared to the stroke to be made from the right place. In making this comparison to decide if there was a serious breach, the factors to be taken into account include: The difficulty of the stroke, The distance of the ball from the hole, The effect of obstacles on the line of play, and The conditions affecting the stroke. The concept of a serious breach does not apply in match play, because a player loses the hole if they play from a wrong place. Not that I know of. Bit of a judgment call. If there's a pond you have to carry and you drop on the near side instead of still needing to carry it, that's another example often given in rules schools. So there are examples that serve as the foundation for your judgment but it's your judgment really. He may have, depending on what kind of situation he was in. I've seen people in the middle of so many trees that in trying to punch out, the ball could go anywhere. Particularly if there's OB nearby, and hitting a single tree could kick you OB, in which case… you've got to try the shot again. You have a bullet list to consider. Yeah. It's a judgment call. They can't elaborate on every situation. You can't just say it's an "easier" shot, and you can't even define "significantly easier" either. How much easier of a shot does it have to be before you get to "significantly"?

@Hardspoon I second this. Anything would have had minor complaints about had nothing to do with you (starter at Cranberry Highlands, range being closed). I felt the outing was well organized, we had a clear game that was easy to understand and well explained, and the courses selected were great. Excellent work by you and @iacas who I’m sure helped. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to the next one.

@Hardspoon forgot a lot of s**t this year. First ever golf outing organized...grade...B-. Maybe a C+. Photos from Reserve Run: Group 1: @vasaribm @StuM @dennyjones @NeilR Group 3: @Hardspoon, @iacas, @billchao, @DaveP043 Group 2: Bill, @DinnerTime, @ChetlovesMer, @rwolfe, @hardspoonfinger

Worth a shot, I think, even if it just asks you to learn new things. I think the importance of that — making yourself take on a new challenge — is worth at least as much as the potential change to your scores.

In the first group from Sunday's round we have @vasaribm, @StuM, @NeilR, and @rwolfe. The second group featured @saevel25, @DaveP043, @dennyjones, and @billchao. The penultimate group has @Huffy, @OBlum, @DrizZzY, and @Daniel Mc. The last group has @Hardspoon, @iacas, @ChetlovesMer, and @DinnerTime. I guess @Hardspoon forgot to embed the first day's photos, so they're here:

If you're going to make claims, back them up with facts. Do you have any facts that support this claim that Rory does this when under pressure? Did the hyper aggression negatively affect his play when he won The Players this year making that 2 wins in 4 starts for him at that point? Can you provide some evidence directly showing how his hyper aggression has negatively affected his play? This isn't even accurate anymore, they called the divorce off. If you're going to criticize someone at least get your facts straight.

@billchao I love it. Don't worry, bother we all go through it. .... Of course, by that I meant that we all go through the process of questioning your decision-making skills.