Leaderboard

Pinehurst in Mid May. Playing Tot Hill, Mid Pines, Pine Needles, and Southern Pines.

I know one recent college grad who's trying the same thing. This guy was a Division III All-American, went on to play one year at Division I LSU, and is not working hard. He won the Gulf States Open, a pro event, and made it to the second stage of the Korn Ferry Tour School late in the fall. And didn't make the cut to get to the final stage. I won't talk about swing or play stuff, but I believe there are a couple of things that are essential. Obviously, talent, and drive, or work ethic. I can't tell you how to do it, but you HAVE to get through it. Golf is going to be your life, and it takes lots of work. Two more things that are really critical. You'll need the facility to be able to practice. My young friend stayed in Baton Rouge, as a past player on the team he can still use the LSU practice facilities. And money. Its unlikely you'll be able to work a full-time job and practice the way you will need to. You'll probably need backing, from a parent, from a consortium of friends or club members., something to support you. Good luck, its not an easy path, but anything is possible. Another young man from our area, Mike Brennan, just won for the first time on the "big" PGA Tour.

He was saying that it doesn't have an audience now… 🙂

I don't know what to tell you. You can't test wedges with range balls, and you have a LOT more info to gather before you can begin to really even test anything else, either.

Get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you don’t like practicing then give up now. You don’t have the passion to become a pro. Unless that mentality changes you won’t do well under stressful situations. Call the PGA Tour and ask. They probably have resources available.

I’d say don’t just switch brands look at the specs of your wedge first. A lower bounce or slightly stronger loft on a Betti or Vokey could fix the high launch without changing your feel. Testing a few in a fitting session is the safest way.

My advice: soak up all the advice you can, especially on training, equipment, and the mental game. Sharing your own experiences helps too. For turning pro, the key is patience and steady improvement small gains add up.

There are plenty of great people here. Thanks for joining. I believe somebody will come along soon and comment. Welcome

Just like the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2023, 2024, and 2025 topics, we're doing it again in 2026! Once again, I'd like to birdie every hole at Whispering Woods in 2026 (and maybe every numbered hole on other courses). I'd like you to join me on this quest. This year's spreadsheet is below: 2026 TST Birdie Challenge - Google Sheets Please click through, add your name, home course, and location, and when you make a score on the holes as you play them, update your line in the spreadsheet with your ringer score, basically. The idea is to score a birdie or better on each hole on the course this year. If you're above a certain handicap and would like to make it a par challenge, go for it! Just add that note to the Notes column. Please leave the formatting as is. And note that you only write down one score - if you birdie a hole three times, you aren't writing down -3. It's just your best individual score for each hole. We can all cheer each other on and see where this takes us! If you truly play a TON of different courses, then follow these two guidelines: If you just play a lot of golf, but still get 20 or 25 (or more) rounds in on one course, consider making that your home course and just doing the birdie challenge there. If you truly play only 20-40 rounds per year, and never more than a handful at the same course, consider trying to birdie holes numbered 1 to 18 across all of your courses. Or even doing it twice. Yeah, some hole #17s will be easier birdies than others, but that's why you might do it twice.

anymore?

Birdied last 2 holes today for 44/36 (Par 37 on front, 35 on back). Nearly Eagled #17--had a sidehill 30 ft putt, breaking right to left. Aimed about 8 ft above hole, ball broke and stopped about an inch from going in.

I have a couple of trips planned, although golf was a secondary component in each. In February we're going to visit some friends near Naples, so Mary Anne and I have added on a few days to stay and play at Streamsong. Then In March we're going to Hawaii (again), and will almost certainly get in a few rounds there.

My next golf trip will probably be a short one, but I’m really looking forward to it. I’m thinking of staying relatively close, picking a spot with a few solid courses and making a long weekend out of it. For me, the best golf trips are about good courses, relaxed vibes, and time away with friends.

First going to spain for a long weekend in March probably going to play La Quinta, Los Arqueros and Fina Cortesin, and first week in May will compete in the Crawsnest Tassie at Carnoustie golf links, that will be a full week of golf golf golf and more golf. Did play it last year for the first time and it is awesome.

@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.

Time-linked (9:23): They say that "none of their players externally rotate in the downswing." Specifically, Mike Granato says "none of those five players or any of the other Tour winners we have data on externally rotate their trail shoulders in the downswing. We've yet to find a single one who does." They go on to say it's "not something we recommend." So finally, how is Mike Granato defining "in the downswing"? None of the lines in the Kwon graph show the player going more external (absolute) than their most external (absolute) point in the backswing. None of the lines in the Kwon graph end the downswing (BI) more external (absolute) than at the top of the backswing (TB). This graph begs to differ: "Rotation" (internal or external) here is defined as: the internal or external rotation is the axial movement of the upper arm compared to the thorax plane. This is a shoulder movement. I tried to discuss this more in Golf Biomechanists, but a bigger discussion is occurring here: Golf Teaching Professionals | Facebook The purpose of the group is to host discussions about the golf teaching industry. In my mind there is no better way for someone to improve at the game than with excellent coaching, so I want to help... I'll post a few relevant or good quotes. Tyler Ferrell: "Here are graphs from a Golf Biodynamics system (Dr. Rob Neal) and a graph from AMM/TPI 3D. Both are of Grant Waite captured at different times. One is a 6 iron and one is a driver. Both systems show an external rotation of the trail shoulder during transition (keep in mind that they define top of swing differently, so the timing is different). The owners of both of these data sets claimed that these are typical patterns of the pros that they’ve collected. Not all externally rotate significantly, some flat line before moving into internal rotation, but only steeper arm motion golfers demonstrated internal rotation during the initial transition. … Here’s also a data set from Dr. Kwon’s database of 85 elite golfers, showing external rotation in transition as well." Tyler (cont.): "Collectively, we have 3 other systems showing external rotation in transition (with actual data) as opposed to just a verbal description assuring us that all golfers go into internal rotation. Perhaps when Mike said in the video that they haven’t measured everyone, what might be more accurate is stating that systems can measure things differently and maybe our data is different than some other systems." Tyler (cont.): "I’ve seen many wrist/forearm graphs and almost every tour golfer I’ve seen pronates in transition. Here’s a graph of Grant Waite and Henrik Stenson showing how the trail arm pronates (not supinates) during transition. This too is the normal pattern of the data that I’ve seen related to arm motion during transition. Because supination is relative to the elbow, and influenced by the shoulder movements, I typically saw golfers with supination having much steeper swings than those who had pronation. Dr. Rob Neal said his data showed the same pattern." Jon Sinclair: "I will have you look at Dr. Kwon’s Measurements. I have been there and studied in detail his care and techniques on measurements. His measurement on this is as good as it gets from all I have witnessed so far. Even AMM is showing motion that is matching his data so there is two systems saying elite players indeed do externally rotate their trail shoulder on the downswing. I should have added GBD as the 3rd system saying this. They state that no players they have measured externally rotates in the downswing. Since the Gears program is not reporting this how was it being measured?. It is possible they have written their own calculations. I do not know." Jon Sinclair (another comment): "Actually as it turns out GEARS does not report this in their software. If it is being measured it must be a calculation that AMG is doing on their own." Michael Neff (GEARS founder): "GEARS does NOT REPORT shoulder range of motion. The AMG boys are using thier own calculations on this specific segment. … 1. GEARS does not report shoulder rotation in our user interface BUT our clients can export data and get it. 2. We use Phil Cheetham’s algorithm for our thorax and pelvis stuff and it is GLOBAL. 3. Most tour players go external on the backswing and minimal if any on the downswing (depending on your reference frame). 4. It's plausible lowering kills external and the wrist can bend without external. 5. Measuring the shoulder is very hard because of the challenge with the scapula, muscle and facia. Especially when the elbow gets over the shoulder. 5. Most agree thay there is minimal external if any on the downswing and that teaching excessive external can really cause problem. Which is really the main story they are trying to say." Presented for discussion.