gompers

I think it's a relatively recent change, but yes they do. I believe pretty much everything in those competitions has to be conforming now.

Well I'm sure they weren't happy about it, but there is no way the guy couldn't see me. They had been behind me for the last few holes, and he was only 150 out within clear sight of the slightly elevated green that all 6'1 of me was about 25 feet from the pin on. It's not like they were 200+ and trying to lay up or something. I could have understood that. Yeah it was a pretty crappy thing to do, but confronting them would probably have done no good either. How do you reason with guys who are deliberately hitting into you?

http://www.golfsmith.com/ and search for "valuables pouch". There's a few different ones there. maybe a bit different than what you're looking for though.

I don't mind mishits, hell I do it on an all-to-regular basis, but I don't know how you aren't going for the green from 150 out. I basically don't mind being hit into as long as I'm well out of range for most people (i.e. I'm 270-280 out for a tee shot, 200+ from a second or third). These guys were just jerks.

I've only been playing a year or so too, and I"m still getting the nuances of course etiquette down, but it does sound like the guy was a bit of an ass. I've found nothing ruins a round faster than dwelling on things you can't control. A few evenings ago I was playing 9 after work at my local muni course. It was pretty quiet, so I opted to go out and play by my own, though I could have joined up with a twosome in front of me. They were held up a little by a twosome in front of them, but we were on track for around 1:40 or so, so it was by no means slow. There was a group of 3 guys behind me with 3 carts containing 4 or 5 kids all under 8 years old. I was certainly keeping up, even though I was taking my time. I get onto the 8th green after going into a bunker, and I'm laying 4 on a par 4 (so it's not like I"m hacking away too badly at least on this hole). As I'm walking onto the green one of the guys behind me hits his shot from the other fairway from about 150 out (I know because I'm often there), and flies the green with the ball flying about 3 feet past my head just as I hear "fore". I was mad enough to spit. I hole out (2 putted), find his ball just off the cart path and ran over it with the cart, which gave me a bit of satisfaction. They then proceed to hit their next 3 shots into me on the par 5 9th. I ended up getting an 8 or 9 after having a very nice drive (which was a good 50 yards past their drives, and in the fairway, and I KNOW they knocked at least 4 balls into the drink between the 3 of them), and I came to realize I was far more upset with myself for letting it get to me on 9 than I was at the asshattery of these idiots. The moral of the story for me was that the only thing worse than having to deal with clueless jerks on the golf course is letting clueless jerks on the golf course ruin your round. As for your situation, I make sure I mark all my balls in 6 places so I can see the mark no matter how the ball is laying. I've found people are less willing to pick up an obviously marked ball, plus it leaves no doubt as to which one is yours. I put a red dot on the right of and a black dot on the left, as well as red and black dots on either side of the ball "type" (DT So/Lo, NXT Tour, Pro V etc) and on the blank side of the ball. That may be a bit much for most people, but if you're in the rough as much as I am, it comes in handy!

Hybrids really have taken the place of the "short" woods in many people's bags. I still know people that carry through an 11 wood, though. I have a 3/4 hybrid that I sometimes will swap with my 3/4 irons when I feel like trying to score well because I'm really more confident and consistent with them than I am with my 3/4 irons. I think it's a bit of a cop-out myself, though, so I try to play with my 3/4 irons as much as possible. I'm admittedly not as bent on lowering my score as I am on enjoying the game, and I'm MUCH prouder of a well-hit 3 or 4 iron than I am of a well-hit hybrid, even though it may cost me a stroke or two here or there. Now if I was playing for score or against someone, I might very well put those two hybrids back into the bag. In the end, it's whatever makes you happy. Try out a couple hybrids, and a 7 wood and see what you like the most.

I really like every ONCE in a while watching an incredibly tough course humble even the best players in the world, the way an average course humbles me. I don't want to see that every day, just like I don't want to watch the super bowl every day, but it's nice to know that even people who have "mastered" the game can be humbled by a sufficiently difficult course. What makes it even more fun, is that it's a major, so that you KNOW the best are going to be there. I can't wait, personally.

I don't think anyone is ready to crown him the next Zach Johnson, but he certainly has a lot of people rooting for him (if not trying to copy his swing!). He's got a certain John Daley appeal about him, though not anywhere near his talent. The Hooters tour is a long way from the big leagues, but if he can win 30k for playing golf for 4 days, I'm sure he'll be able to continue to work on his game. I'm certainly pulling for him.

I don't have a sky caddie, but I do use intelligolf on my palm, coupled with a bluetooth GPS. I also have a pinseeker w/slope and the course I play most often has the fancy GPS in the cart that points out yardage to different hazards, as well as the pin, depending on if they have updated it accurately in the clubhouse that day. Having used all three of those (at the same time), I find myself using the pinseeker for the vast majority of my ranging needs. I can routinely hit a limp flag from 300+ yards. I can usually hit my ball with it from 270 or so in (if I can see where it went), and it is the only thing of any use on the range. I still love intelligolf for scorekeeping, and keeping track of stats, but I seldom use the GPS feature. It does sometimes (rarely) come in handy, but being able to measure the distance to random, useful things (like the group in front of you .. though at the course with the GPS, it shows how far all the other carts are from yours, which is a really awesome feature, so long as everyone is riding) is something that GPS just can't match. Not to mention that most courses that I play don't have accurate GPS maps in either sky caddie or intelligolf. Sure I can make my own, but they still don't provide the same level of flexibility and (potentially) detail that the pinseeker does. The cart GPS is awesome for the most part, but I find myself barely ever looking at it when I've got the pinseeker out. As far as accuracy, the GPS on the cart and my bluetooth one are usually within a yard of each other in terms of distance to landmarks and the front/back/middle of the green, once they settle down. The rangefinder is always within a yard or two of those as well. I have noticed that the pin location can be a good 5 yards different on the rangefinder than it is on the GPS, and the rangefinder is always more accurate. Now I'm not good enough for most of this to make any difference at all to me, but until I started using a rangefinder, I only had very vague ideas of how far I hit my clubs. I'm now within a few yards on solid strikes (though I have far too many non-solid ones still). To be honest, I think that either system is a great aid to golf, but I personally find the rangefinder more useful overall, and in the long run, probably the better value.

It really isn't very dangerous, unless you are trying to light the oil on fire directly. If you think about what happens in an engine, hot metal is in constant contact with oil, and it seldom results in danger. Oil doesn't really explode, it just burns. As long as you are using a reasonably small oil container (coffee can or something), I wouldn't be concerned with this at all.

I got tired of going through tees, and after reading the review on here picked some up. I've managed to break a couple over the course of a few buckets of balls on the driving range and a dozen rounds, but on average I might either lose or break one once every three rounds. (Usually lose them). I don't buy the performance claims, but they work just as well as regular tees, and last forever. The only complaint I have is that sometimes it's a little tough to balance the ball on the prongs after a few beers on the front 9