NEOHMark

Yes, I meant to thank you too, Zeph! I ordered three dozen yesterday because of your tip.

It really is, isn't it?.......Tho I really do CCW with one of several choices - an AMT .380 'backup (least fave) or a CZ .40P S&W; ACP (bulky, but a sure 'one shot stop' or - most often likely - a S&W; .38 sp + P 638 'Airweight' snub nose....my fave carry piece. I get a little concerned with going into the 'hood, but take the proper precautions. Most internet 'ghetto talkers' have never spent any time in the 'hood. I live it every time I check on one of my properties.

Hands HAVE to be fwd of the ball at impact and, if it's true chipping (as opposed to any type of flop shot), I think a putting stroke can be emulated more often than not. I dislike the conventional wisdom of 'soft hands' in the chipping game. I tend to apply a pretty strong grip pressure. It does two things, IMHO. One, it almost totally deactivates my wrists so that I literally can't flip at impact, and two, it helps me get through the ball - as opposed to striking 'at' the ball. It's especially useful in the longish second-cut of rough and in mushy conditions. Try experimenting with different grip pressure and see what kind of effect it has on your chips. You may like a completely lighter pressure than I do, but you never know until you try.... Also, if you haven't already tried it, you may find that chipping with a SW (and its corresponding large degree of bounce) can help keep the club sliding on, instead of digging into, the turf. You still need good technique and to keep the hands fwd, but you can definitely take advantage of the bounce on the SW to help boost your confidence in the shot.

I'm a slumlord with properties in 'the hood' - with a CCW permit and practicing drawing/shooting regularly with two ACPs (a .380 pocket mouse and a .40 'stopper'), plus a .38 sp+ S&W; revolver. Feel free to 'confront' me, if you're in the area. LOL - you claim a 10 hcp and it's obvious you're at least a 20. We don't even have to see you swing. Here's a hint - those with real hcps don't 'round' up or down to the nearest whole number.

Here's the thing that raises red flags in my mind, FWIW. Golf is the only game/sport I know of where the players police themselves - no refs, no umpires, no line judges. It exposes all sorts of character issues on the course, some of the highest being honesty and integrity. When someone cards a double and you clearly know it was much worse than that, how much respect do you have for their game, or even for them? So in this case, when you basically say 'F the course cuz I don't feel like paying the (incorrect) asking price', how can anyone trust you're even playing the game the right way? Are you lying about your handicap? Do you fluff your lies? Do you card a 6 when it was really an 8? Do you enforce the proper penalties and execute your shots properly when encountering a hazard? All those questions become 'in play' when you demonstrate a clear willingness to disregard not only the rules, but the law in order to get your desired outcome (even if it was just an isolated incident). Why would anyone believe you wouldn't do the same out on the course? FWIW, what you might have done (probably should have done) was pay the dickhead clerk his full fee and then complain articulately and politely to the course super when he was in - and ask for a refund of the difference. Hell, you might've even gotten a free round if you approached him in the right manner. What you could still do is take the proper green fee (the 22-and-under rate) to the course super, apologize for losing you cool, and offer it up to him. Integrity is far more precious than a few bucks discount, IMHO. It takes years to build and only seconds to tear it completely down.

When I buy a driver, I buy it a year old - still new but deeply discounted. I just bought an Adams Speedline Fast 10 (the 11 is now current) for $132 - brand-new. It almost seems like the OP is an argument that the drive isn't a high priority shot - the old 'drive for show, putt for dough' adage. I used to think too that until I hooked up with a league that does 'event nights' (see my other thread). We do one event that is a bit of a reverse scramble - we call it the 'Bramble'. Teams take the best team member drive and then the individual team members play their own ball from there on in to the conclusion of each hole. It really opened my eyes to how very important a good drive is. Individual scores on that night are WELL lower than average - most guys hitting 4-5 strokes better for a 9-hole round.

Ours does. We have four event nights in a 24-week season. The first is tonight....the annual 'two-clubber' event (three clubber actually - two clubs plus a mandatory putter). The two-clubber is probably my least favorite of the four, but it does force you to play different shots with the same club(s). I'm using a 5h and a PW tonight. Our four events are: The aforementioned 'Two Clubber': Individual competition, pretty much self-explanatory. Play a round with only two clubs plus putter, pre-selected at the start of the round. Handicapped event. The Florida Scramble (Hawaiian shirts mandatory): Team event - also called the 'Step-Aside Scramble'. Starts like a regular scramble with every team member hitting the first shot, but the player whose shot is chosen cannot play the next shot and has to sit out for that 1 shot. Whoever's shot is then chosen must sit out the next shot, and so on and so forth. It is a running "sit out" so if you sink the putt on the green, you sit out the next tee shot. Scratch event, though the teams are built by the league director so that the overall team hcps are as close as possible. The 'Red Ball Classic': 3-man Team event - where the onus is on one player per hole to come through for the team. Each team will receive a designated ball (called the Red Ball) and a team player will use only that ball on his designated hole. Team score for each hole will be that designated player’s net score for that hole. The possession of the Red Ball will be rotated hole-by-hole so that each player gets to use the Red Ball, unless it is lost before they get their chance. The rest of the team will play their own ball, for use in skins play, as usual until they take ownership of the Red Ball. For example, Player A gets the Red Ball on the 1st hole, then hands it off to player B on the 2nd, who hands it off to Player C on the 3rd hole. And so on. This rotation is kept until completion of play or loss of Red Ball. Team must finish with the Red Ball and produce it to the League Secretary upon completion of play or the entire team is eliminated from the competition. Handicapped event. The 'Bramble' (sometimes called a Reverse Scramble): Team event, can be played either 'best ball' or cumulative (we play cumulative net scores) - Each hole starts like a Scramble, where each team member hits their tee shot and the best shot is selected. Then from that selected spot, team members place or drop their own ball (with a foot or so) and each team member hits their own ball from that point on to the end of the hole. The team score on any hole is the sum of the net scores for the team members. Handicapped event. I think we do these event nights partially to fill in four weeks - as we do two 8-week halves to the season, with four seedings from each half playing against each other in two-week elimination rounds, then the finalists going head-to-head in a two-week, 18-hole combined round at the end....all match play at the end. But it's a nice way to break up the season a bit with some fun. Do many leagues do this sort of thing?

I thought the new and (supposedly) improved, restructured swing was supposed to help prevent things like this from happening again?

GPS rangefinders are only as accurate as the folks programming the course markers on the other end of the equation (I believe it's usually done via some web-based satellite mapper like Google Maps/Earth). Most of the time, I've found my GolfCard app to be very accurate, but there are a couple specific spots on a local course I've found to be inaccurate by about ten yds. I still carry a laser rangefinder in the bag, but hardly ever use it anymore because GolfCard on my Droid really has proven to be 99% reliable. Considering the tens of thousands of courses mapped out by the dozens of app writers, they've done a remarkably good job IMHO.

At a wild game night once at a local tavern, I ate bear and rabbit. Both were OK, but no something I'd go out of my way to have again.

Your handicap isn't really indicative of your average round, but your best rounds. If you are breaking 80 on your good days, then those are the scores that would count toward your hcp. USGA hcp is the average of your best ten scores out of your last twenty. The course and slope ratings are a way of normalizing hcps of different players from different courses for an equitable/somewhat accurate comparison.

That's it, in a nutshell (pun intended).

Unless you are hitting out of a sand trap - where you can still create monstrous spin without ever - technically - hitting the ball.

Any Adams and Ping Gs (any vintage - 5s, 10s, 15s) are usually very forgiving and easy-to-hit clubs IMHO. I have a complete set of Adams Tech V3s that are fantastic, but a 30 hcper might be better off looking at the over-sized models like the A7OS, I'd imagine.

Canton area resident here. We have some really nice local public courses - Chippewa (Doylestown), Legends (Massillon), The Sanctuary, The Quarry (HIGH end 'target golf' course).....and some really good, decent 'cheap golf' like Lyon's Den, Tam O' Shanter, Turkeyfoot Lakes and The Elms CC. Heck, Firestone's public nine is a ten minute ride from my house if you want to say you 'played Firestone' (not the north, south, or west courses - just a nice little nine-hole track they have for the public on the far north end of the property).....hahaha. If you are in the area, or passing through, drop me a PM and I'd be glad to host a round with you. I cover a sales territory and pretty much make my own schedule, so I'm usually available with a few days warning.

Bingo. If the league has a legitimate hcp process in place, there is no way any player can sandbag more than a couple of weeks. That said, there can be some variance between what a player claims as his overall hcp and what the league calculates. I'm currently playing to about 12 overall (entering all my practice rounds) while my league handicap is 14. A couple/three strokes difference between your overall claimed hcp and your league hcp is completely understandable, IMHO. Anything over 5 is probably either a vanity hcp or an attempt at sandbagging IMHO.

FWIW, Mickelson uses lead tape on the back and sole of his blade putter: http://blogs.golf.com/equipment/2010/04/phil-mickelson-odyssey-blade-putter-masters.html Regarding belly putters, I think speed and face alignment still are two huge variables that anchoring the butt of the club won't 'fix'. Yeah, it's probably easier to achieve a true pendulum swing arc with the bp, but I don't think it's any magic bullet to create the perfect putting stroke. I don't think I'd ever use one, but I don't necessarily think they should be banned. Edit - my bad, I think. Rereading the original post, I think you guys were talking about adding weight at the top of the shaft.....still, a cool pic of Phil's putter head.

Agree with almost all of this except the point about Schwartzel outlasting the other guys. I give him props for closing with 4 straight birdies. IMHO, that is a solid 'win'. That said, anyone can get hot the one week the Tour winners play at Augusta. There are plenty of largely irrelevant Masters Winners on the list of champions. Brewer, Mize, Goalby, etc. - all could personify what Schwartzel is.....or isn't. Too soon to tell.

Ha!! You are the second person to ask me. I got mine on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/6pk-Golf-Cooler-Free-Packs/dp/B0002E3KDI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid;=1302351239&sr;=8-6

*Stands and applauds*

I play fairly often at a local executive course - a true executive course. For comparison, here's what its score card looks like (all ydgs from the blues): 1 - 330 yd par 4 2 - 360 yd par 5 (extremely narrow with a pond that requires a 250 yd carry to clear) 3 - 350 yd par 4 4 - 330 yd par 4 5 - 298 yd par 4 6 - 150 yd par 3 7 - 190 yd par 3 8 - 185 yd par 3 9 - 345 yd par 4 Par 34 out, 2538 yds 10 - 360 yd par 4 11 - 215 yd par 3 12 - 500 yd par 5 (best hole on the course IMHO - with a large pond right in front of the green forcing a layup/go for it decision) 13 - 145 yd par 3 14 - 380 yd par 4 15 - 335 yd par 4 16 - 341 yd par 4 17 - 370 yd par 4 18 - 407 yd par 4 Par 35 in, 3053 yds Total par 69, 5591 yds This course is more indicative of a true 'executive' course IMHO. It's not long, but it does have challenging, undulating greens that roll true and fast, lots of terrain variation with plenty of uneven lies and elevated tees/greens, and several very well-placed water hazards that will punish a poor shot. Without knowing more about the OPer's course, I'd have to call it a par 3 course, strictly based on the yardages. I can't imagine not having even one 250+ yard hole on a course that calls 'par' in the 30s for nine holes.

Don't let it bug you - maybe that's just his version of 'ready golf' in his mind (foolish as it is to be standing at the target). I played yesterday with three riders - and I was the only walker. If I was safely on the other side of the fairway, it wasn't unusual for me to start walking slightly ahead them - by maybe 20-30 yds. I'd wait there for the guy away to hit, and then start walking to my next shot. Almost always, they'd beat me to to the spot on the hole where my ball was lying simply because they had the wheels. I wasn't pushing them by any stretch - by walking a bit ahead while they would prepare to hit and hit. It was more like me just trying to keep up.

None here either - Chrome v10.0.648.204 running on an OLD XP Pro OS.

Y'know, I got to thinking about this (I know, I know - a dangerous thing....). But I have T-mobile cellular, which means I have unlimited tethering available at no extra charge. Technologically, and theoretically speaking, I COULD tether my laptop through my cell phone and WATCH The Masters final round live as I'm tooling down the freeway at 70 MPH.

Congratulations! You'll always remember that experience.