itching4scratch

Good Point! That's what it seems like. I'd still rather be 270 in the fairway than 330 in the pine needles :)

Is that from the new Tiger Woods 2011 video game? I can't wait to play that course!!

Is it just me, or does everyone else shoot better on well maintained courses? Maybe it's just mental, but I always do a lot better on courses with plush fairways, soft sand, manicured greens, and level tee boxes. On several of my home courses, I usually have to look for a level spot to tee from, pick up my ball off the dirt on the fairway and put it on a patch of grass, which is usually crab grass or is about the height of what first cut rough should be, and if I'm hitting from the sand I have to test the sand in another spot (which is illegal) just to tell how hard it is. Then most of the greens have remnants of unrepaired ball marks on them. I believe I'm losing strokes because of it, and think that better courses = lower scores. I've played courses that I've never played before that were "immaculate" and I shot some of the best scores I've ever shot. Yet I continue to shoot in the high 80's and low 90's on my home courses, with the rare 100 on a bad day. Like I said, maybe it's mental. I'm sure people shoot par on these crappy courses.

Is 250yd carry enough to compete?

yeah those are all hard, but what about a 50yd shot from pine needles played low enough not to hit branches, while missing tree trunks and rolling onto the green within range for a par-saving putt? lol it's tough, I tell you.

I wouldn't change a thing then if you're hitting that long consistently. Have you ever gotten your swing speed tested?

I had the same problem and ended up not making great ball contact, so I started using a 3/4 backswing and hit it more flush. It might not go as far as a full swing would have hit the ball, but it goes a lot farther than a shank, lol.

I kinda do the same, I notice my grip is a little stronger on my driver. I think it has to do with the stiff shaft on my driver causes it to fade a little more, so I grip it stronger. My irons have a regular flex, and I don't grip them as strong. are your shafts different on your irons than on your driver?

NEOHMark you're probably right, I need to look closely at my swing, it's definitely a fade that goes left to right. It's okay with me now, but when I start to play more difficult tree-lined fairways, I don't want to aim too far left to compensate. WUTiger thanks for the info, I'll check out his website. I play Callawy Fusion irons from 2008, with graphite regular flex shafts, 3-pw, gw, sw, lw.

How should I adjust the lie angle on my clubs that I shortened? My ball flight seems to be a pronounced fade, and I would like more of a slight fade as my normal ball flight. I recently shortented my clubs by 1.5 inches. I originally wanted them cut 3 inches, but the golf pro said that would change the swing weight too much. I'm 5'9" and he said my 5-iron at standard length was already fit to me according to "the book", but my swing was bottoming out on the outside of my left foot. So when I gripped down about 3 inches on my clubs, my shots were hit more solidly, and the the swing was bottoming out in the "correct" position inside my left foot. I'm thinking I need to get my clubs bent more upright to straighten out the flight path a little (or maybe work on my swing path, although I don't feel I'm coming over the top). My question is how much should I get each club bent? I've heard of pros bending their 3,4,5 more upright than their 6,7,8..etc any suggestions?

Hello, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is August. People say I look like Tiger Woods, which is ironic becuase I often visualize myself competing with and against Tiger. I've been golfing for about 20 years, more seriously these last couple of years. My goal within the next year is to develop a low enough handicap to be able to play the qualifying tournament for the 2012 US Ametuer. From then, I would like to go pro. My current unofficial handicap is around 15, but I expect that to drop dramatically since I have recently customized my clubs to fit my swing. It has been my life long dream to play professionally, but I've never had anyone but myself to push me hard enough to acheive that dream. I've never had any formal instruction, and besides reading a few books, I'm self-taught. I certainly don't use that as an excuse, but I believe it has hindered my development as a great golfer. I've been reading The Sand Trap for a few months now, after I came across the site looking for reviews on some new clubs. I've found a wealth of information and love reading people's ideas and opinions on certain subjects. I look forward to posting a few of my own! I'm sure I will have a lot to say and a lot of questions to ask. I hope that I can help some of you with my own responses, and hope that I will receive a lot of help from all of you, my peers.