NEOHMark

I just want to commend you for you honesty. My best ever VERIFIABLE drive was 276 - GPS verified. I gotta wonder how many of these gaudy internet claims of 'averaging' 275-300+ drives are verifiable? The frigging pros don't hit it any longer than that.

This one is easy. My first eagle. Par 5 - got to JUST off the green in two. Did my pre-shot routine like usual for the 30-ft (or so) chip and proceeded to launch the ball well stronger than I ever intended to and it slam-dunked into the hole! A close second would be the final hole of an outing when I drove my tee shot well right and had the ball about 2 ft above my feet on a steep mound. I aimed well right of the green/flag - like 10 yds right of the edge of the green - for my second shot (as the textbook says you should) and hit a a short iron (maybe an 8 IIRC?) to about 2 ft from the hole. A great birdie to finish.....

"How much have you improved, and why?" I just started posting scores to a hdcp 4 yrs ago. I think at the time I started doing that, I was around a 16. Joined a league three years ago and that helped tremendously. Being forced to play every week can probably help anyone. That said, it wasn't dramatic. Got down to fluctuating between 13.8 and about 15. In my first four 'real' rounds this year - all four being good enough to count toward my hdcp - I've squashed that down from a 14.7 to a 13.0, and I'm pretty giddy about the upcoming season. First, I bought new clubs - Adams V3s - which is probably about 20% of the improvement. But I really committed offseason to re-structuring my swing to a more 'conventional' swing and got on the email list of Paul Wilson (Swingmachinegolf). That's the other 80% of the improvement. His tips have been the "a-HA" moment going off in my head on several items. I don't think he teaches/preaches anything all that unusual or outside the norm from conventional thinking, but his explanations of how to execute them really clicked with me. Looking at my oldest nine scores in my current hdcp queue, only two of them are counting toward my hdcp right now and one is a chubby 16.9 index! The other is a 12.6, so I have PLENTY of opportunity to 'go low' and replace those two with some respectable numbers. I'm pretty pumped.

I say you got lucky - the rule appears to be in your favor: "A ball is out of bounds when all of it lies out of bounds. A player may stand out of bounds to play a ball lying within bounds." No mention about deflecting back in play, so where it lies seems to be all that matters in your instance IMHO.

My guess would be the air density affect from the temperature is almost negligible. I'd guess altitude would have more an affect on air density than the 60F deg temperature swing from ~100F to ~ 40F.

Being made in China doesn't necessarily mean the clubs are counterfeit, as several mfrs utilize Chinese mfg plants. However, that very fact increases the likelihood of counterfeiters stealing the technical property of those clubmaker that do utilize Chinese sourcing. They play much faster and looser with the drawings, tooling, etc. necessary to make very convincing replicas. Ask the seller for pictures of the ACTUAL clubs - close ups of the clubheads - and for the serial number of any club/set you are interested in. You can then use that info to verify with the mfr if the club(s) you are contemplating are genuine or not. JMHO

Hmmmm. I probably wouldn't play on crutches if I had some sort of temporary ailment - like a broken leg or something like that. But if I had a permanent disability that forced me to use crutches full time? Damned right I'd be out there, doing whatever it took to play.

You're very welcome. Obviously you're doing a lot of things right - being able to play to a 2! I'm jealous.

Just a thought - looking at the comparison's in Jetfan's post....your hips aren't turned nearly as much as the pros' hips are at impact. Your overall body position doesn't appear to be all that much different at impact than it does at setup. Can't say the same for any of the pros. In watching the view from behind on your YT, to my eyes it looks like your shoulders are starting the downswing rather than your hips. I believe you may be a bit afraid of starting with the hips and truly shifting your weight. You look like you're all arms (again, to my eyes anyway) almost throughout the swing. Your finish looks ok, but it belies the fact that most of the weight/turn has happened WAYY after impact. You're pretty flat-footed and weight-centered until well after impact IMHO.

Glad your boy is OK! Scary. My younger son got plowed-into by an older grandpa a couple years ago - fortunately everyone was fine, though it totalled my kid's Jeep. That phone call is NO fun to receive. Back to the subject matter ....last night I was able to get a 9-hole round in on a local 'executive course' (par 34/35). Played the front at 4-over/38. One bird, four pars, 3 bogeys and a double. I'm SO consistent

If you join a club that includes greens fees, then that takes all the 'pressure' off of any notion that you have to get a full 9-holes to make it worth your time and money. I have a season pass to a nearby pubic course and think nothing of going there on lunch and playing 4 or 5 holes on my lunch break. It'll help your game tremendously.

^^^ ||||||| +1

The only time I wear jeans while playing on a golf course is very early in the season and very late in the season. The reason? Mud. Here in NE OH, if you wanted to play last week you had to be willing to walk, and willing to walk in extremely wet and muddy conditions. If I'm going to muddy up a pair of pants, it's going to be my work-in-the-yard jeans. The oldest, grungiest pair I have. Leg bottoms frayed, and a nice quarter-sized hole starting to shine through the right knee. None of the courses minded. It's the green IN your pocket, this time of year, that outweighs the torn appearance outside your pockets. The rest of the season I'm usually in shorts. And always a proper golf shirt.

I believe anytime the score creeps into your head, in whatever context, you'll suffer. It's much better to just concentrate on the next shot. Make it your best, and make the smart decision. It serves no purpose to most amateurs to think, as they are standing in the middle of the woods from their errant tee shot, "Gee, I can be on in two and do no worse than par, if I can just bullseye it between those two trees, that are 5 ft apart 20 yds ahead, and keep it low enough to stay under the branches 10 yds ahead of that." Or the dreaded thought, "All I need to do is par these last two holes to break 'X'," enters your head. Invariably, my best rounds are ones where someone else kept the score card, and I truly didn't know what I had scored until the card was added up. It might have 'felt' like a certain score, but then finding out it was a couple/three strokes lower is always a welcomed surprise. Usually, those are rounds where I never gave much thought to any scoring - individual holes or overall score - just thoughts of the next shot, and never beyond that.

Thank you, for the response!

Good find in the rules. I thought that was probably the case, but I'd bet the vast majority of amateurs don't play it as a lost ball. I'd bet most assume it went in, and drop it based on their 'guess' as to where the point of entry is.

Har! Good points. I have one for you though - what if you don't actually see your ball go into a hazard (such as a blind shot over a hill into a pond/creek on the other side)? Lost ball? Or is it perfectly legal to judge the ball to have gone in the drink - even if no one in your playing group actually saw it go in?

I'm so sorry to hear of your boys' burnout on baseball. I umpire HS baseball and officiate a little bit of youth 'travel ball' in the summer. You see it all the time. You can just tell when a kid's heart isn't into it and is only there because a parent is pushing him.

Don't take me too seriously. I'm very much a tongue and cheek, sarcasm on/sarcasm off, sort of guy. But I would like to hear the Rules Committee's explanation of why, logically, such a discrepancy of the OB/lost ball penalty versus losing it in a hazard penalty exists. The ball is just as lost, and one could just as easily determine where the ball last went OB or where it's last discernible flight path was....to eliminate the distance portion of the penalty. Or, simply call all balls that can't be found 'lost' and make the penalty consistent. The 2-stroke penalty for the unintentional double hit really makes me scratch my head. If it were an intentional thing - like running up to a putt and redirect it by striking it a second time while the ball is still moving, I could see the reasoning for a more punitive penalty (rules like that exist in baseball and basketball - intentional versus unintentional sins). But the unintentional double hit seems to be a pretty innocuous transgression. Another one I thought was weird was years ago, when a pro got dinged for using a towel to protect his clothing while kneeling down to play a shot. IIRC, it was only because the ball was inside a hazard - he actually would've been ok doing the same thing had the ball been outside the hazard (again, if I'm recalling it correctly). Daffy. And wasn't there a time when Tiger had 3 or 4 bruiser-type fans move, legally, a freaking boulder from his shot path? Some official determined it to be a 'loose impediment' IIRC. Riiiight. I officiate HS baseball and basketball and, almost without exception, each rule has a logical explanation to it. I'm not so sure that's always the case in golf. JMHO

Quote:From story above Naturally, that prompted Poulter’s good friend Rory McIlroy, who’s not in the field this week, to respond. McIlroy tweeted: “I wear spikes… Problem!?!? If you got your swing speed over 100mph, you might need spikes too.” That's an awesome response, though I do agree that metal spikes should be gone for either everyone, or no one. I'm old enough to remember the metal spike days of 'regular' guys and the greens are much better these days because they are gone, IMHO.

No kidding - agree 100%. There are plenty of contradicting, and stupid, rules in golf. Hit a shot OB or lose it? Stoke AND distance penalty - you might as well call it a 2-stroke penalty. Hit the SAME shot on the SAME hole to the lateral hazard on the other side of the fairway? It's only a 1-stroke penalty. You gain the 200 yds or so that it took to launch the ball just as errantly, and just as lost into the hazard as it did to launch it OB or into the trees. Same with the infamous 'double' hit. A 2 stroke penalty - seriously? Puhleeze. What a game! That's why we .....

Why wouldn't a player who holed a chip/ace just reach in and remove the ball from the hole - with the flagstick intact? If you pull up hard enough on the stick to pop the ball out of the hole, you're more than likely to damage the edge/circumference of the hole as the ball squirts by it - thereby pissing off your fellow golfers playing in groups behind you.

IMHO, handicapping should already reflect any advantage a rider may have over a walker (if there is one - which I have my doubts). I walk (w/push cart) when I play practice rounds, mainly to get some exercise and enjoy the scenery and the sweet outdoors. But I ride in my weekly league. The reason doesn't involve health, fitness, or perceived advantages. I like to ride for the camaraderie I get with my riding partner (usually one of my two sons). Often, when you are walking, you end up walking a lonely path to your ball, unless you're all in the same general landing area. We'll watch walkers in front of us split off on four different paths to get to their balls - so it's like watching four singles playing. When we ride, my riding partner and I can talk and stay connected during the ride. Since golf is often the only time I get to see my sons during the week (both are grown and on their own), I love chatting with them on the ride to the next shot. Sometimes those discussions can get pretty heavy, since the cart gives us both the chance to be close enough to talk quietly and serves as a buffer from the other players in the group (they're often on the other side of the fairway). It's definitely cherished time for us. That said? I don't think there's a hoot of a difference in playing scores between walking and riding if you are in reasonable decent shape. The best player in our league walks and carries his bag. I don't believe for a minute he'd pick up even a stroke if he rode. I know I don't play any better, or worse, either way.

My boys? LOL, yes they still play. But I'm a little older (50) - and Mrs. NEOH and I had them when we were relatively young. They're now 26 and 22 . The boys and I play on the same league spring-through-fall, a league my oldest found through his work. They both hit it a country mile - WAYY longer than me - but they're both a little wild. For now, the old man still outscores them, but only by a stroke or two per 9. Not sure that I can hold them off another year - hahaha. It's been one of my greatest joys - to be able to do stuff with them now....beyond the younger parent/child years. They're both good guys (Mrs. NEOH had a lot to do with that too, BTW - she's a peach) and they both respect the hell out of the game. They play it down, fill their divots, fix their ball marks, respect the teachings of the league 'elders', and are genuinely enthusiastic about the game. I couldn't be prouder. Thanks for letting me crow about them a bit - haha. How about you - you have kids?

I'm kind of picky about what I hit, so I leave 90% of the stray balls right where they are as I walk by them. But to purposely go off and look for strays? Never. IMHO, the added delay would be inconsiderate to the groups behind me/my group.