Parker0065

Looking good!!! The drill gives you room to swing your arms properly and holds your tush line from coming out closer to the ball on the down swing. Your on the right path! Good Luck with the changes!!!

Wow, a lot of "IGNORANCE" on this topic. Tiger most definitely brought golf to the main stream. Not because he was some kind of Gandi type figure for sure, but primarily because of mainstream liberal media. They found a non-white golfer that could actually play at a high level and exploded that niche. The rest of the industry jumped in and took advantage of that angle(purely to make money). Look, I honestly think it's a cool thing that the media could find a way to promote the game to the minorities, but the way they did it is a little suspect in my opinion. Along with that it brought a large number of people into the game that felt like they could act like a ass-hat and get away with it. But to grow the game you have to be "ever changing". So simply the "idea" that Tiger was way better than Jack or any of the old guys sells equipment and rounds. At the end of the day you have to look at numbers, because that's all we have. Tiger most wins? NO! Tiger most Majors? NO! So from a pure numbers game, Tiger is most definitely one of the greatest players to ever walk the face of the earth, no doubt! He is by far the greatest player in the current "Modern Media Era", (look at me, look at me) Millenial world. So if he's as great as so many proclaim, he should easily be able to blow by all and any records. Perhaps he will. I don't think the sun has set on Tigers career yet. Personally, I see/expect at least one more major and a couple regular events from him. Either way, it will be a fun watch to see how it plays out.

Hey Bud, just so you know, your front(left) knee is extremely "internally rotated" which is wicked bad, s far as promoting ROTATION in the golf swing. The truth is very few that swing a golf club really understand or practice enough rotation. Its all about cause and effect. If you do anything to hinder rotation, you "HAVE TO THROW YOUR ANGLES AWAY" through impact. And if and when you ever fix your lack of rotation you will likely hit it mostly fat(unless other compensations are made) Practice 3/4 shots with a alignment rod in your grip and rotate, rotate, rotate!!!!!!

My honest opinion based on actual experience is the better player you become the less par becomes relevant. But I think even higher handicaps could adopt that attitude and improve their focus and scores on the course. Making par irrelevant means putting a single minded purpose/focus on each individual shot as your task, not actually "trying" to make par on a certain hole to keep a round going. For most golfers "Par" is the Holy Grail and their Gold Standard to becoming a good consistent player. That just adds pressure to the task of stringing good solid golf shots together in a row. Your score is just the by-product of stringing those shots together over the course of a round. It's obviously a difficult task to separate score from hitting individual shots. If it was easy we would all be better players. I know for myself the more I put Par or Score on the back burner and just hit the ball, find it and hit it again, the lower I score! It's not that simple as find it and hit it but the point is the focus is on the task in front of you(your next shot) versus the result(your score)! That's nothing new, most of us that played the game for any amount of time has heard this but it definitely applies in shooting your best score your current ability allows. You can move up a tee box to make that task physically easier and likely score a little better, but mentally the challenge to make par or better is still there.

My personal opinion with what's wrong with the American handicap system starts with and is embedded in inaccurate Course Ratings! There's other things like how GB only counts Tournament scores. I like that but unfortunately American golf is not exactly set up the way they are so invoking that system would mean many would remain handicap-less or their handicap would be based on 1-2 rounds per year. But getting back to course ratings, I've always thought they were sketchy at best! My old home course is the classic example. The USGA puts a lot of emphasis on distance(as they should) but it gets lost on how a course actually plays. Looking at our Regional PGA Junior Tour tournament scores my former home course was near the top 2-3 out of 20ish in our area in difficulty, yet it was among the easiest in "Course Rating"! I like using the juniors scores because they play "actual stroke play tournament golf" not scrambles, shambles, or any other B.S. crap that inhabits American golf these days. And these are the kids that end up playing college golf so they would absolutely smoke the average golfer! The lowest winning score recorded over the past 12 years there has been Even Par, where the average winning score on most other tracks has ranged from -1 to -3 under par. Like I said, it has one of the easiest ratings in our area, and at 6500 yards, on paper you would think it would be a pushover, but it has a number of tight holes that take Driver out of your hands. It plays very much like Harbor Town in that respect but my personal opinion is because it is not a highly esteemed Country Club or designed by a recognized architect, the USGA gave it an easier course rating. It is an excellent course that is kept in immaculate condition or else it wouldn't be in their tournament rotation, the vast majority of their courses on the Tour are high end Country Clubs so you don't get in unless you are a quality course! A few years back I was out there when they were re-evaluating the ratings. It was two old guy's in their 70's-80's that couldn't hit the ball out of their shadow and they just drove the course, didn't even play it. I just thought "What a joke" having two old hackers making an evaluation!!!! The handicap system in general is OK but course ratings are total garbage in my opinion!

I don't reply much here to often anymore, just do some occasional grazing, but this topic definitely raised my attention. My son is at the end of his junior tournament playing career having played State and Regional Junior PGA events over the past 8 years from age 10 to 18. He qualified for the PGA State Championship this coming Spring and then it's a summer golf internship he has worked at the past couple years with his teaching pro and preparing for college golf in the fall. One of the best things I did was to make a decision to limit my involvement in my son's development. When he was 5 years old and showed a great interest in the game I handed him over to his current teaching pro that he's been with for the past 13 years and interns with in the summer. Many of my friends have asked over the years why I didn't teach him everything about the game on my own. There's two big reasons for this. 1) Although I can play a little bit and have hovered around +/- scratch since my junior golf days, I am not nor have I ever been, nor do I have the desire to be an instructor/teacher. Have I tried to help my son when it's just him and I on the range? Absolutely! But I don't know how many times over the years my son has gotten a little off track and we go to his instructor who fixes him in 5 minutes or less. Then his instructor looks at me and says gee I figured you would have told him that. Then I would always say, I did but you have a better way of explaining it and he just listens to you better, lol! 2) This is the big one! This is the one so many parents struggle with! Do Not under any circumstances become "EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO YOUR CHILD'S GOLF GAME"!!! Oh boy, everyone claims they never do that but after 8 years of junior tournament golf it happens a lot more than you would ever imagine. Now the truth is most parents handle themselves pretty well and limit the emotions in a somewhat reasonable fashion. Simple things like I would ask another parent how their son played that day and if it wasn't good there would always be that hint of disappointment in their voice but most didn't go crazy or jump on their kids about it. But there were those rare few cases that ended in sad train wrecks. One particular boy who's father happened to be a teaching pro(and taught his son) became a raging alcoholic by his senior year and hated golf. The kid showed signs of real promise from ages 10-15, but his teaching pro father just never gave him any space and it was golf 24/7. The kid was completely burned out and turned to heavy drinking/drugs by age 18. Another case involved a father and his daughter where he would throw tirades at her on the range, during practice rounds, and also in tournaments. He was eventually "BAND FOR LIFE" from the PGA Junior tour in our area for his tirades. Can you imagine that? Your so crazy that all you can do is drop your kid off in the parking lot and your not allowed to follow or walk the golf course because you've been band for life because of your actions towards your own child. The guy was a complete hot head psychopath and it's no surprise that his daughter completely gave up the game at age 16 after playing since she was 10. Unfortunately they were members at the same course as my son and I and we saw and could hear many of his antics even in casual rounds. He always wanted to play practice rounds with my son and I but I refused. I didn't want my son anywhere near that kind of behavior and who wants to play with a crazy person to begin with! Those were a couple sad extreme cases but I can't hammer home the point of not getting emotionally involved in your kids golf game enough! Wanting to be there to give constant advice or caddie for them is about the worst idea in the world. The hard truth is not every kid is going to excel in the game. Not every kid is going to play college golf or win junior tournaments. We as parents want so badly for our kids to be successful and we want to help any way we can. But sometimes the absolute best thing we can do is just give them a hug and tell them tomorrow is a new day! There are other better ways to be involved with your kids and still give them space to grow and learn on their own. For my son, I was more or less his sounding board and stats keeper "away from the golf course"!!!!! It sounds a little cheesy but the last few years in the off season my son and I would sit down in my home office and go over his stats and tournament scores and have a open two way discussion on what he thought he needed to improve for the next year. That's about as involved as I've let myself get because I'm just as guilty as any other human being in that if I allow myself to get too involved I will become emotionally attached. It's his golf game, not mine and I've tried hard to give him the space and even more important is give him the opportunity to TAKE OWNERSHIP OF HIS GOLF GAME!!!!! If your constantly giving your kid advice on the course(club selection/wind,,,) they are never going to learn how to play the game. Even more important is they are never going to build any real confidence in themselves or their game with the parent around giving their so called gold nuggets of advice all day long. OK I've ranted on long enough, and this was not directed at anyone in particular in this thread. You really want to get your kid involved in the game and excel as far as they can? Find a good junior instructor, have good 2 way communication about their game(away from the golf course), and finally just give them a hug and buy them some ice cream when they have a rough tournament round! It's simply all about staying positive, being there for them when they need you, and not becoming emotionally attached to their golf!!!! As far as the original OP not liking the AJGA rules. If your already in college many have "club teams" and every college team has open tryouts. The last thing you need is to play competitive golf against a bunch of high school kids. You just need to get better if you want to make the college team. It just goes back to what I said before about not everyone is going to get to play as you grow up and move to the next level! Also there are other USGA and Regional Amateur events you can try to qualify for so it's not like you've been completely locked out of any and all competitions. Sorry but your request is a complete Non-Issue!!!

I don't work as a pro by trade but turned pro a number of years ago and lets just say well past my playing prime but have really enjoyed being a sparring partner for my son and a couple of his buddies as they have matured into solid players. As far as Ms. Braman, not a surprising result for a 16 year old in her first pro event ever. My assessment of her game is based on how well she has played against equal competition in junior events, which has been pretty solid. Going up against more seasoned older Pro's was a great experience for her. If she plays in it again in 2016 I think she will do much better!

I had to work this year during the tournament and didn't get a chance to get out there. Bummer, it's a great tournament on one of my favorite courses in the Capitol area. My son and I played Capitol Hills yesterday in preparation for today's NENY Tour Championship at Glens Falls CC. They do not allow any practice rounds at Glens Falls and not that Capitol Hills is identical but with the big rolling hills and elevation changes I figured it would be about as close as we could get for a practice round. My son is setting 6th in points and needs a solid round to get into the State Junior PGA Championship, top 7 qualify! He played a decent round yesterday at Capitol from the blues, started off poorly with three sloppy bogey's in a row then he played the next 15 holes -1 under for a 73. Sadly I got off to a good start paring the first three holes and he thrashed me by 5 shots, I took my beating like a man lol! One cool thing I did hear about for this years Symetra event was one of the local junior girls, 16 year old Madison Braman received an exemption to play. I didn't look up the scores to see how she finished but she can flat out play. My son has been competing in the NENY Junior Tour for a number of years now so I've seen Madison play on occasion. Wouldn't be surprised to see her in the field again as a pro some day if that's the road she takes. Anyhow, really bummed I didn't get out there this year. Hopefully my work schedule will cooperate next year!

I've probably posted this before, oh well, but the idea that people playing from the wrong tees is OK if they simply keep up with the group ahead may be somewhat true on a busy course where congestion is already very high. The problem is when you put a single playing from the wrong tees with a twosome or threesome that are all playing from the correct tees, they are going to slow the group down as a whole. You guy's like math and science here and that's all it is, basic math. It's not a theory, I've lived it in real time on occasion. A few years back when my son was younger and his grandpa was still playing we as a threesome played from three different sets of tees. Grandpa was on the "Senior Tees", my son was on the "Regular Men's Tees" and I was on the "Championship Tees". When a single would join us most sensible people would fall in where they normally tee from and the round would always flow nicely at a 4:00 to 4:15 pace. On a rare occasion there would be a yahoo that would absolutely insist they would play the back tees with me. I honestly believe in these cases it was a little bit of testosterone and they weren't going to tee off with a 13 year old boy. In the times this played out the real problem was the individuals could not reach very many of the holes in regulation and it would disrupt the normal flow of a round. When a group, regardless of length or ability are all playing from the appropriate tee boxes there is a normal flow to the round simply because everyone can "potentially" reach each hole in regulation. When you add a individual to the group who is on the wrong tees and can't reach the holes in regulation you have slammed on the brakes for the group as a whole. In the case of said individuals that moved to the back tees with me the entire group would have to stop and wait for them to hit their approach(3rd shot) into a par4 from 60-80 yards short of the green before the group could finally all advance together to the green complex to chip/putt and finish the hole. This played out over and over adding significant time to the round. None of these players were slow in any way they just simply had to hit a lot more full/approach shots because of their ego. Thankfully this only happened a few times but each time our normal round time went substantially up from 4:00-4:15 to 4:40-4:50. If you want to play tees you shouldn't be on, get up at 5:00 am and go out alone so you don't waste other peoples time!!!

Positive Attitude!!!! Whether it's a warm up session before a round or a full practice session, if I'm hitting the ball like garbage I always walk away shrugging it off knowing it will be better next time or when I get on the course. Pretty much 100% of the time it is. I get it that you haven't been at it for +40 years like some of us have so we've had enough experiences to know and understand that it's more than OK to have a bad range session or be in a slump for a period of time. We're human beings, not robots, and this is one of the hardest games mankind came up with so is it really a shock to anyone that this game is not only hard to learn but hard to get good at and stay good at, just ask Tiger! Mvmac and others hit the nail on the head as far as what and how you are practicing. My opinion is there is both a physical and mental side to improving and if you don't keep a positive attitude and low to reasonable expectations as you improve you will likely struggle to make real improvements your entire golfing life!

Bingo! DVR is the magic box! I record absolutely everything nowadays from NBA playoffs to PGA Tour events. As soon as FOX started their yapping and little sidebar stories at the US Open I would simply fast forward to the action back on the course. Easier to plan your life around it as well. Go play golf on Sat/Sun afternoons then go home and watch the golf action in prime time. I would go absolutely nuts without my DVR at this point! Next to putting a man on the moon, the DVR is man's greatest accomplishment,,,lol!!!!

Yeah the whole thing was more comical than anything. I think in the spirit of this thread the point was he wasn't much of a "Real Golfer" so bringing snacks with him to feed his enormous size was probably not in his psyche and I could have likely given him 35 shots and the match would have went a couple more holes.

I had to chuckle because I ran into this a couple years back. My home course has a members matchplay event that runs through the summer. They setup the bracket then give everyone a set amount of time to get the match in against your opponent. The consensus among the members is due to work and other commitments most people can't take 3-4 days in a row to play a real match play event and it's separate from our medal play Club Championship.. On my first match that year I draw the worst member golfer at our course. I can't remember his handicap but it was in the 30's. They use a 80% rule with handicaps so I had to give him something like 25 strokes(at the time my son was around 12 years old and I didn't even come close to giving him that many strokes, lol)! So we set a date and off we go. I couldn't have lost this match if I tried, basically pars were easily winning holes and at the turn I'm 6 up and thinking OK this will be over soon and I can still get home and mow the lawn or something. On the 9th green the guy goes "Man I'm starving and I have to grab something at the turn". I'm thinking he's going to grab a hotdog and we'll be off. He disappears into the restaurant and he's in there longer than to just grab a dog. I go in and he's got the menu in hand and ordering a full blown 7 course meal. Now the guy was rather portly and I'm sure at his size he was likely starving after having to swing a golf club as many times as he did on the front 9, but a full blown sit down meal, are you kidding me, right in the middle of our match. I didn't go off on him for two reasons. #1 He was a nice guy who just happened to suck really bad at golf. #2 It was the first round of the US Open that day so I sat down and watched the play while he got fatter and fatter. Finally about 45 minutes later were off to the 10th tee and the match ended on hole #12. I still laugh about it, a big hefty guy that couldn't make it past 9 holes without a full blown sit down meal. And of course in the match I was walking carrying my own bag while he rode in a cart. Which was more than OK with me because if he ever tried to walk it I guarantee CPR would have been required and I wasn't doing mouth to mouth, lol!!!

Observation 1: Funny you brought this up. I was going through and throwing out some old Golf magazines the other day and came across a 2012 Davis Love article where he said he loaded into his back(right) heel on the back swing and his front(left) heel on the downswing. There was a little more to it than that but it was a pretty decent article for "magazine instruction" lol! Observation 2: As Tat14 said you may be swinging at it too hard but one thing I would be very observant of is "alignment"! Most tee boxes are built in some rectangular fashion and people tend to want to line up along the mow lines of the tee box. The problem is the tee box may not line up properly to where you "think" your aiming. Stand at the back of the tee box and see where in relation to the green it is really pointing. When you setup and aim properly you may feel like your pointing off in some weird direction because your not lined up with the mow line but trust it and hit the shot. It just sounds like an alignment problem unless your not taking enough club and swinging too hard. Another thing is if your trying to play a draw you should be teeing it up close to the left hand tee marker which will help you set up aiming more to the right allowing room for the ball to draw back to the target.

A bit of a misconception that draws go a lot farther than fades. The easy answer to this is simply "who" is hitting the shot? For many Ams that hit a weak glancing blow from OTT with open face you may perfect hitting the ball in the middle of the club face but because of the characteristics of that type of swing it will produce very short distance. So many people transition from there to trying to hit from the "inside" which without some swing changes and understanding normally leads to hanging back a little and dropping the back shoulder straight down to get that feeling of coming from the inside leading to flipping the hands through the ball. Some people can groove that move and hit a draw but usually a big sweeping ugly snap hook comes out when their under any kind of pressure. There's many other factors why a ball curves left or right other than how you move your back shoulder(grip, stance, path,,,,ect) but most good players on the downswing work that shoulder both down and out(as the left hip goes forward and opens) keeping it on plane to the ball. Flippy drawers/hookers tend to get that shoulder more down than out while weak slicers tend to get it more out than down creating OTT. If your getting a more solid feel and a lot more distance out of a draw versus fade I would check how your back shoulder is moving on the downswing. For people that really drop that back shoulder the proper move may first feel like OTT but if your shoulder moves properly on plane to the ball you will be in position to pound a power fade(and just as far as a draw). As I got older(and fatter) these past 20 years I started moving from a power fade to a draw. I don't tape my swing very often but what I found was happening as I was losing flexibility and gaining weight I was starting to swing more and more around my body making my back swing very flat and downswing too steep so I was starting to get in the habit of dropping the back shoulder and flip a little to get that draw. Last June I said enough was enough and started hitting the gym 5 days a week. I've lost 65 pounds to date(20 to go to hit my goal), and gained back a ton of flexibility putting my shoulder plane back on track. I'm swinging like it's 1995 again and as I turn 50 this year I'm hitting the ball as far as ever with a fade or draw(modern equipment aside). Point is for us aging swelter players, physical fitness and flexibility can play a big part in being able to get the body in a solid impact position regardless if your hitting a power fade or draw.

Please do not take this as a bashing or an attempt to crush your dreams in any way. It's just a real world example to give you a healthy dose of reality. My son is a junior this year and his team lost only one match the entire season. My son and three other seniors that are graduating this year range in handicaps from scratch to a 2. Their #1 player shot a three day total of -9 under par during tryouts(it's his home course) this past fall. Two of the three graduating seniors this year are signed to play D2 college golf. The #1 guy I think got a couple looks but no offers for D1. Their team was one of the better ones in our State and none of them are signed to play D1. My son with one more year may have a outside chance but he better light up the sky this coming season to have any chance. He is currently on pace to follow his team mates into D2. With all that said, if you love the game, find a good swing coach, and put in the work. You still have some time to develop into a fine player who could realistically reach a D2, or D3 level by the time you finish high school. I've watched some D3 college golf tournaments played at my home course and from what I've witnessed based on their scores if you can just come close to occasionally breaking 80 there's likely a D3 team you can get on. For D2 you need to be pretty much at scratch, and as Lihu stated more like a solid +3 to +4 to play D1. Follow your heart, work hard, and see what happens. You'll find this out as an adult but in life there are no guarantees.

Colin, Your right that the majority of courses in the Capitol District do max out at 6500-6700 yards. Likely because most of them are older more classic styled layouts that were built well before the clubs and ball became super juiced. In many cases I've found most of these courses to be great layouts from the back tees with a combination of short par4's inside 375, along with some tough +450 yard par4's sprinkled into the mix. But we do have some length in the Albany/Saratoga area if you look close enough: Saratoga State Park at 7145 yards from the black tees Eagle Crest at 6929 yards from the black tees Saratoga National is the longest I've found at 7241 yards The Sagamore - A classic Donald Ross is at 7173 from the back tees. In my opinion classic layouts from Devereux Emmet - Capitol Hills, and McGregor Links give players at all levels all they can handle from the back tees even though they are both under 7000 yards. Same with Glens Falls CC. Another classic Donald Ross that is a bit harder to get onto but is a very difficult test at 6500 yard par 71. Donald Ross greens man, you don't need length with those things. I've also played the Donald Ross Wilmington N.C. Muni. Another 6500 yard classic with tough green complexes. I think there's a lot of examples out there of well designed courses under 7000 yards that are very difficult tests. A good mix of short medium and long holes make for a more enjoyable round. Personally I enjoy playing where you have a number of +450 yard par4's then catch a drivable or short-ish par4 or two. Same with Par3's and par5's.

Headphones/MP3 Player! Greatest invention ever! My wintertime practice facility(Golf Dome) can get pretty busy and pretty loud. There's a large number of retirees there daily who like to group together and have extensive discussions on how "Hogan did it", along with the "self proclaimed golf guru's" who like to comb the range and coach their associates in great detail, of all their swing faults and how they should be fixing them. A lot of talking, not a lot of improvement going on among them but my headphones do a great job of negating all the noise and hysteria, lol! They're all mostly harmless, I'm just in a different place in life with family and career. I go there to get in a practice session and get out, I don't have time to just burn daylight. Maybe when I'm retired I can set around and talk about how "Tiger did it" lol! Summer time at my home course practice range things are much more quiet and open. Most summer days I can go out there mid-day and be by myself for hours. Even then I've gotten so use to wearing headphones and listening to tunes over the winter I still use them in the summer as well. I just like to put on my tunes, zone out and get my range work done. So for me busy, noisy, quiet, empty, it really doesn't matter. The only time I get a little nervous and cautious is at the Dome when someone will setup next to me with a couple kids(5-8 age range) and try to hit balls. The kids are all over the place and the Dad usually spends more time trying to keep them in check than he is hitting balls. I always take a second look before I setup and swing because I don't want to bury a 7-iron in their skull because their wandering around not paying attention. Luckily that scenario has only happened a couple times over the years. I've never said anything negative and always tried to be supportive. I think it's great to bring kids out and let them hit and get exposed to golf. It just works better if the parent brings one kid at a time until their old enough to be completely focused on whats going on.

When I think of Mental Game it has nothing to do with technique, ability, ball flight rules, course management,,,,,etc. It's about fading in and out of focus during the round and allowing my mind to escape from the pressure of the situation I may find myself in. It's like overfilling a balloon. If you keep adding more and more air eventually your going to pop it, just as staying overly focused about every little thing in your game, swing, course management, ball flight rules, while your playing for +4 hours eventually overfills your head and it pops(figuratively of course)! Sometimes it's just the pressure of the moment, a big tournament your trying to win for the first time, or to beat your buddy for the first time. Filling your head with thoughts of the "outcome" of a competition is just as bad as over filling it with technical data. I don't believe there is one simple answer as to how to have a better Mental Game because every single golfer is different and will respond in different ways to a given situation. For myself I have my best focus on the course when I allow my mind to wander away from golf after I've executed a shot. I will look at the trees, birds, plant life, horizon, anything that I find beautiful and interesting to take my mind away from the game even if it's only momentarily. My way of escaping the "pressure cooker" for a few minutes between shots fits me well but is not going to work for others. Some guy's are big blabbers and have to release their nervous energy by continuously yapping between shots, aka Lee Trevino. That's not my style, and would lead me into having problems coming back into focus as I approach my ball and prepare for the next shot, but for others that fit that mold it may be the answer to a better mental game and lower scores under pressure. When do I have my worst Mental Game or "focus" on the course? Playing casual rounds with higher handicaps that are not pushing me! It's not that I'm not trying, it's just my mind wanders(waiting for them to catch up) and has no real reason to come back, lol!

Personally I always strive to feel "Neutral" in the sense that neither hand is necessarily in control of the swing. If I ever felt like one hand or the other took over it slowed my swing down and I would become disconnected. For me the feeling of the hands working in unison connected to my bodies pivot has always produced the longest and most accurate shots!

That's exactly how it plays out in my area! There are basically three options in my area: Dick's - Um,,,,NO! Golf Galaxy - They have all the equipment and the ability to do a decent fitting but honestly the "big box" mentality really comes out in there. To them, everyone that walks through the door is a 20 handicap because,,,,,that's what they mostly sell to so they give everybody the usual treatment. Mom & Pop store that's been around since the 1950's - Bingo, every and all good players from scratch to 5 handicap that I personally know are fitted and buy their clubs from this store. The customer service is top notch and they go out of their way to get you into what you really need. Their prices are not the lowest by any stretch but it's just another example of you get what you pay for! My sons entire bag of Titleist clubs have come out of there. Pricey, yes, but fit to perfection!

Good Job RFK! You picked a hole that I birdied last time I was out there! Unlike #1 at Capitol Hills that is a very short but tough Par-5 that I enjoy, #12 is much longer at 554 yards from the back tees and this hole just does not fit my eye or my ball flight. I can cut the ball but I just don't do it unless I have no other option. On this hole from the back tees I don't worry about the bunkers, I don't think I could get there, at least I haven't hit them yet, maybe if it was down wind, and then maybe,lol? So I aim pretty much down the right hand tree line and try to draw it back towards the middle of the fairway. The trees aren't too tall and my last time out there I hit a solid drive that started over the left edge of the tree line on the right but didn't draw quite as much as I planned. It ended up in good position at the corner of the dogleg in the fairway just past that last tree nearest the fairway on the right. I can't remember the exact yardage and I had a look at the far left side of the green and decided to get home I would have to hit my 4-Wood with a bit of cut. I chickened out and took the next best option. I hit 3-Hybrid pretty much straight at the left side of the green knowing I would come up short but since the pin was on the right I would have a great angle. I must have been a little pumped because the 3-Hybrid only came up about 10 yards short of the green and I had a basic chip I got up and down for bird! #12 is a great hole at Capitol, It's just not one of my favorites as far as fitting my eye so I tend to play it a little more conservative with the expectation of still having a good chance to make birdie. You flip that hole around and make it a dogleg left and I'm loading up and going for it every time, lol!

Great choice of holes RFK and as I've told you before this may be my favorite course in the Capitol Area(Glens Falls CC is pretty fun as well and very hilly like Capitol Hills)! I've only played the hole from the back tees which isn't much of a difference here but every yard helps getting to a flatter spot down the fairway. The key to this hole is hitting a solid tee shot down the left side of the fairway. This will give you a nice kick forward and back to the middle of the fairway and if hit far enough will put you in one of the flatter areas. Which is kind of funny to say since there doesn't seem to hardly be any flat areas in that fairway, lol! From there your in solid position to go at it with long iron/hybrid/5-Wood. When my son and I played out there last year we both hit decent drives but I blocked mine a touch and ended up just ahead of the big tree in the fairway with a horrible hanging lie. My son hit a beauty down the left side of the fairway and got the kick ending up 20 yards ahead of me on a much better lie. Although I had a great angle to the green, and boy did I debate going for it in my mind, I laid up with a 6 iron past the fairway bunkers, pitched on and two putted for an easy par. Watching the Symetra Tour ladies last year play that hole they pretty much played it as a layup hole. Some of the girls didn't have the fire power to get there but some of them that did were usually slightly out of position and chose to lay up. It's kind of unfair for someone just looking at a picture of this hole because it's easy to think it's wide open with no real trouble. When you see all the slopes and angles in real life it's a completely different story! But that's the beauty of this hole. I'm sure most people stand on that tee thinking I got this easy in two. The tee shot looks so wide open you think you have tons of room. The problem is you do have a ton of room in general but to hit the correct drive and set yourself up for a legitimate shot at the green in two you have about a 10-15 yard patch of fairway on the left side you have to hit to get into the correct position. The one absolute key to this hole is you have to be past the fairway bunkers in two to set up a legitimate birdie attempt. If you lay up short of those bunkers you have a blind uphill approach with likely a hanging lie depending on what side your on. Get past those two bunkers and in the fairway and your basically playing a 75 yard par-3! RFK you should do #5 at Capitol Hills as well! From the back tees it's a drivable 285 yard par4 and I've always went for it with Driver every time. The funny thing is I've hit it into that left green side bunker every single time I've played that hole. I guess when you hit it in the exact same spot every time you get good at it because I've birdied that hole about 50% of the time from that bunker.

Got it! Thanks Crim!

OK guy's, First dumb question and I apologize if this was already mentioned but: If I don't put the guy's on my bench in play during the tournament do they still get dinged for a "start" of the 10 possible starts? Thanks!