Warik

I also live in Miami. Lucky for you I am a Miami golf course guru and have played almost every golf course within 20 miles. I'll list a few of them you might want to try out (and avoid!) Crandon - $30 with cart??? What time did you go? That is WAY underpriced. Last time I played was over a year ago and it was $75 around 2pm on a Sunday. GREAT golf course. Greynolds - Never played this one (hey, I said "almost") Biltmore - Played it before they renovated it. I don't know what has changed now, but when I played it definitely wasn't worth $140. I paid $70 w/cart. The layout, bunkers, and fairways were great. The greens totally, totally, totally blew. Now for the rest.................... Briar Bay - Short par 31 course. This is my practice course I play before work often. Four par 4s and the rest are par 3s. Fun course, great short game practice. Greens in great shape. $9 walking week day mornings. Couple of bucks more weekends. Calusa Country Club - $40-$45 w/GPS cart weekends. Water comes into play on a couple of holes (more if you have a nasty slice). Greens are in decent shape. Tee boxes are nasty and not very level. Miccosukee Golf & Country Club - $50-$60 w/GPS cart weekends. Great greens, fairways, rough, everything. Water on almost all the holes. I won't play this one again until I'm a little more consistent with my driving... can't wait because I love it. Palmetto Golf Course - Cheapest 18 hole golf course in the area. I hope you like 5 hour rounds. No joke. You will not get out of there in under 5. Abandon all hope ye who enter. Killian Greens - Bleh. Play Calusa instead. Costa Greens - *puke*. Not even if it was the last golf course on Earth. Doral Blue Monster - If you hit your ball into the rough just go ahead and hit 2-3 provisionals. I don't care if you saw it land. You won't find it. I played this course when they had a special running in June. It's over $200 normally. Course is in excellent, excellent shape. Several pro tournaments have been played here, but the rough is just ridiculous. You just can't find your ball. and my favorite... Doral Great White - The absolute best golf course I have ever played. It would be blasphemy for me to attempt to describe it. Best go to the source: http://www.shark.com/gngcd/doral/index.php . I cannot wait to play this course again. I don't care if it will cost me the same as 3 rounds somewhere else.

Joining a twosome on the first tee on a busy Sunday morning. 1 group behind us. We are playing from the whites, group behind us is going to be playing from the blues. First two guys tee off and put it down the middle on a dogleg left par 4. I miraculously blast it down the middle so far it ends up in the far rough. My friend swings as hard as he can, tops the ball, hits the hole map sign and pops the ball up back towards the blue tees. I, while laughing my butt off, turn and say "fore!!!" Poor guy. The rest of his round wasn't that much better.

First off let me say that I'm totally envious of your weather. I'm about to head out to play some 95 degree golf. Anyway, you probably should have left too, but I know how tough the game's addiction can be... especially when you're minutes away from teeing off. Were I your father-in-law, though, I would have come back after the offer for the free round just for the satisfying "HAH! I win!" feeling. Hopefully he'll come back to use one of the two free round coupons. I would never wear jeans to a golf course either. I'm always in golf shorts with a tucked in collared shirt. I have a buddy I play with infrequently who is notorious for showing up in denim shorts and a tshirt, so I always keep a spare pair of shorts and collared shirt in my trunk just in case he gets denied admittance (and I get to tell him told you so). P.S. Buy your wife flowers. Quick. You are so dead.

Golf4Life, it was Granada Golf Course in Coral Gables. Was $10 walking at that time. --- Yeah I was definitely shooting below my handicap yesterday. The eagle putt on the last hole was from the fringe and stopped 3 feet from the hole. It was a short par 5 though (only 431 yards) but hey, a par 5 is a par 5. =) Next time I'll try to politely move on. I finished on time but the round lost a lot of its enjoyment due to the slowness.

OK - I'm not the best golfer in the world, but today I learned I'm clearly not the worst. I had time to squeeze in 9 holes before dinner, so I went to a local regulation 9 hole course. Got to the first tee at about 5:15 PM. Though a par 36, it's fairly short and I expected to be out of there no later than 6:45 PM. I end up being grouped with a twosome that is about to tee off from the blue tees. Either they are good and this will be a pleasant round, or they suck more than I do and this will be a torture session. Guy 1 slices it 180yds into the right fairway, Guy 2 tops it to the whites. When he finishes hacking away, it's my turn. I put it down the middle a decent length. My second shot reaches the fringe, their 6th shots reach the green. The second, third, and fourth holes weren't much better. I felt like I was watching my 8-month-ago self play. My worst mishit was a 9-iron I pulled and hit past the green. I really felt like I could have shot low (for me) today, but I had to wait literally 10 minutes between shots for these guys to catch up to me. I could have probably walked up to my ball before they could have hit up to it. So there we are on the 5th tee and the ranger tells us to pick up the pace because we have to be off the course at sunset. I look at my watch and it's 6:30. An hour and 15 minutes to play 4 holes! There are two clear holes ahead, I'm bored out of my mind waiting for these guys, but I don't want to be a jerk and tell them I'm going to play ahead because they are too slow. Have you ever been faced with this situation? What did you do? I ended up sticking with them till the bitter end. Had to wait 15 minutes to putt for eagle with the flagstick in because I couldn't see the hole because it was too dark (missed and took birdie ). I would have loved to just gone ahead and avoided the wait and finish when there was still daylight, but just didn't know how to say it without seeming like a jerk. Seriously - there's no excuse for a 36 handicap wanting you to hurry the heck up.

I had a friend punish a boulder once... with his 3-wood. I hope his irons and sand wedge were not used for the same purpose.

100% agree. In fact, when I first heard "FedEx Cup points" and "PGA playoffs," the FIRST thing that popped into my mind was a big series of Match Play tournaments. When I realized it was actually a bunch of stroke play events thrown together with a huge field I was greatly disappointed. Actually, I haven't watched any of it... and it's not because I was too busy watching football this weekend (I don't watch football). I just can't be any less interested. I'll probably watch round 4 of the final event when Tiger wins and just hope it ends up being exciting.

I disagree. You can and should play from wherever you want. As you said before, playing from the reds/golds/whites will expose you to situations you wouldn't normally face playing way back, much like playing way back would expose hackers to situations they wouldn't normally face (like unreachable par 4s, lol). I don't, however, agree with you reporting your score as a new course record. The fact that you're asking suggests to me that you don't think it is. Would you be asking us if it's right for you to post the course record from the blues/blacks? If you were a 36 handicap, would you ask if it's right for you to post the course record from the blacks? Of course not. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but as a 2.9 handicap you SHOULD feel that you SHOULDN'T be playing so far up and breaking course records. Best option in my opinion. Play from wherever the heck you want - it's your time and your money, BUT respect the... I don't know... "spirit" of the tee positions/colors. Red tee course records SHOULD be set and held by women and children. Gold tee course records SHOULD be set by senior players. White, Blue, Black, and beyond course records SHOULD be set by the best players regardless of age and gender.

This could be my problem. I remember plenty of times asking my instructor about hand position, tension level, when do I do X, how should Y feel, etc... and got a lot of "don't worry about that yet" answers. I guess I am a pretty "mechanical student" - the only way I can stop worrying about something is if I know what it's supposed to be doing. Heck, the only things I DON'T ever worry about in my golf swing are grip and aim because they are the only two things I truly feel I understand. Yeah, you have a point for sure. Thanks everyone for your time and answers. I don't think I'll give up on this game quite yet. :)

I might pay more attention to a female instructor.

That's only because I couldn't remember the other 8 right now. =) You mean: "OPEN CLUBFACE??? I'LL SHOW YOU AN OPEN CLUBFACE!" and then I proceed to take a swing thinking about nothing but connecting with a square clubface, which results a handsy takeaway, reverse-pivot backswing, leading to an all-upper-body downswing that should create the most disastrous shot ever EXCEPT my right hand+arm make a conscious effort to roll over and square the club face through impact? Yeah. The result is my shot going dead straight because even though I'm mad and I do EVERYTHING wrong, I make a conscious effort to roll my right hand over and square the club face at impact; however, my last instructor said I shouldn't have any tension in my hands/arms. Yet the only thing that makes the ball go straight is a swing with more tension than the average human being is capable of having. What am I supposed to think after that? At least it's not from a lack of trying. I need to find an instructor with whom I click and who will start me off with the fundamentals instead of just trying to "fix" me. I guess it's time to start looking (again).

Wow... a lot of replies. Thanks a lot. I'll try to address all questions/responses in this reply. What's with this switching instructors? First instructor was 2 free lessons + 2 I paid for when I bought my iron set a few years ago. Took the lessons, practiced a lot, didn't improve. Second instructor was about a year later. I paid for a series of 4 lessons. Same deal as the previous. Third instructor was a gift certificate for a 6 week clinic with like 9 other students who were ALL women whose boyfriends were trying to get them to learn how to play. Needless to say I got the minority of the attention and it was just an opportunity to pound away (incorrectly) at unlimited range balls. Fourth instructor was a series of 6 lessons started about 3 months ago and taken 1 every 2 weeks. He helped me stop topping the ball. Now I just slice it or hit it fat. Hey, at least the distance has improved! I don't expect a quick fix BUT I suck too much to not show significant improvement after more than a month. It should be much easier to improve your handicap starting at 36 than starting from 10-15 - and I haven't. When you're over the ball, are you thinking about your mechanics trying to make the correct swing or are you picturing the shot you're about to make and being more target oriented? Hands forward. Elbows together. Stay connected. Don't sway. Turn left shoulder. Left shoulder under chin. Don't pull the club down. Loose hands. Right side through the ball. Don't flip your hands. Move your head back but keep your head down. Transfer your weight. No tension. Don't forget to relax and stay connected. Any one or more of those, depending on how bad my previous shot was. Just picturing my shot and aiming at the target almost guarantees a hard slice. I am not familiar with Florida, but I know Jim Mclean has a school out there and I highly recommend you try them. They are very good. Jim McLean headquarters is walking distance from my job. He has a 2 day golf school for $795 and a 3 day golf school for $995. After spending over $1,000 on lessons already I'm reluctant to put down so much money after so many bad experiences. However, there's a weird old man at my usual driving range who can't seem to NOT hit the ball straight who "will teach me to swing like a pro for $100 or I don't pay him anything." I can't imagine that making my swing any worse, right? Do you have any difficulties with swinging golf clubs? Any back pain, disabilities, have had any accidents? How old are you? No problems whatsoever. I'm 26, 5'10" 185lbs, very athletic build. Picture a shorter Tiger Woods. My inability to swing the golf club correctly is not due to physical limitations. Are you resisting to change? Not to my knowledge. I always try to do exactly what my instructor tells me. Not like what I was doing before was working, so how could a change make me any worse? Maybe his teaching style and my learning style are different? I don't know. P.S: How's your putting anyway? If my long game is OK I expect, at WORST, to lip-out everything within 6 feet or so. If I don't 1-putt, I expect my second to be nothing more than a guaranteed tap in. A 3-putt, if any, is an "OH MY GOD HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?" experience. If my long game is disastrous, I'm usually hitting my 6th or 7th shot at putting time, so I feel as though it doesn't really matter and end up being very nonchalant about aiming and a 2-putt with an occasional 3 becomes the norm. Excellent putting? Hardly. But it's good enough to break 90 if the rest of my game were at that level. I sometimes cringe watching ~15-20 handicap players with whom I end up playing chip and putt. ------------ I HAVE hit excellent shots before. Effortless-feeling, high, straight balls that that hit the green and stop dead leaving nothing but island-sized flying divots in their wake. I just don't remember how long enough to get to the range and hit 5 buckets with the same swing to remember. I have (at least I think I have) all of the grip, alignment, posture, etc... fundamentals down but I haven't gotten a good enough education in swing mechanics to really know what I'm doing/trying to do in the swing. I think my instructors just hear me say I've been playing for 3 years and still suck, see that I'm at least making contact with the ball and just try to fix me up. Maybe I need someone who will treat me as though I've never swung a golf club before?

I've been playing for about 3 years, have had close to $1,000 worth of lessons over the past 2 years with 4 different instructors. I still suck at golf. By "suck" I don't mean "oh man I can't break 80 I totally suck" - I mean I'm a 36 handicap who shoots in the 110s, has only broken 100 once (98), and has no idea where to turn to start playing this game respectably. I love the game but I can't play 9 holes without wanting to snap my clubs in two after each shot. It's not the short game either. No, I don't have a Tour-quality short game, but I have a good enough short game to be a 15-20 handicap. I simply have NO long game. Tee shots are sliced to kingdom come, fairway shots (if I ever end up in the fairway, that is) are either hit fat or sliced. Unless of course I try to hit a 3/5-wood off the deck... then they just end up getting topped. The point of my post isn't to whine about my game (ok, at least not the entire point) - I just don't know where to go from here and need some guidance. I just want to be able to play a round of golf without wishing I had just stayed home after the 4th hole. Do I need to buy a particular swing training aid? Do I need to forget about trying to learn to swing the golf club correctly and just start making compensations (i.e. introducing swing flaws) to correct my other swing flaws? Do I forget about my last instructor and go find another one and another one and another one? Do I need to drive up to the Leadbetter Academy and blow a paycheck on one of their mini-schools? Heck, do I need to fly to Vegas and see Butch? I feel like I'm so close to the "oh yeah... it all makes sense now" point where you suddenly realize what's been wrong the whole time and instantly drop 15 strokes and start having fun, but just can't get there. I don't mind spending the money to get better but I'm tired of continuing to pay instructors just to end up with the same embarrassing handicap month after month. Is there any hope? What do I do now?

Unlike David Jones' Club Caddy, you can also use this product to cook shish-ke-bob in the fairway while waiting for a slow group in front of you. = Seriously, though... how long realistically until a Club Caddy is available for purchase do you guys think? Screw the informercial... I'm ready to drive 41 miles each way to the nearest GolfSmith and pay up to $20 for this thing right now.

Can ANYONE hit the ball even REMOTELY CLOSE to straight in this game? The last TW game I played was '05 for the original Xbox (and last time I played it was 2 weeks ago) and I was incredibly awesome at the game. Heck I beat Tiger by like 4 or 5 holes. I CANNOT control the swing in this game. I shot a 10 on the first 3 holes because I couldn't keep the ball from going OB. Is there any way to reduce the sensitivity on this thing? It's borderline impossible.

Is there a gap between your left and right hand when you do it? My instructor had me trying that grip at some points throughout a few lessons to show me what proper release feels like and also to help me stop coming over the top (at least I imagine that is what it was for, since that was the main problem I had been having). You'll sacrifice distance but accuracy seems to improve. One thing that helped for me was taking a few practice swings with the split grip and then hitting with my normal grip.

I love that thing. In fact if this product is not available for purchase some time soon I'm just going to go out and make my own. Right now I have to put the club down on a tee and it's a pain to be bending over, placing the club, etc... Clipping and leaving it is so much easier. Great, great idea. Wow... I can't believe that. Unless he's already been selling that product and making a killing, $40,000 is nuts. I don't see how they can manage to spend that much money.

I broke 100 finally! Shot a 98 (6359yd - 68.0/115). Oddly enough, the typically GOOD part of my game (the putting) was totally off today. If I were playing my normal putting game I would likely have ended up in the low 90s or maybe even the 80s. I only 1-putted a single hole, 3-putted 3-4 of them and even 4-putted a par-3 that I hit in regulation. Picked up 3 pars and picked up a bogey on the par-5 on which I've never shot better than an 8. Going to putt until all of my practice balls disintegrate. Next stop: 95.

I like this show but I must say that a lot of the products that made it through really shouldn't be there. There were plenty that missed the cut that were much better. Hill Shot Golf Trainer - GREAT idea, but totally un-marketable to the individual consumer. Too big to transport. It would be sold exclusively to driving ranges or instructors. Z Factor Perfect Putting Machine - Cool product, but too fancy so it will be overpriced and no one will buy it. ProPlay GPS - See above. Clean & Drop - A wet towel will do 90% as good a job for 100% less money. Strike 'N Swipe - Good for advanced players who want to improve consistency in hitting the sweet spot. Useless for beginners whose main problem is a poor swingpath or open/closed clubface. GyroSwing - On the fence about this one. I'd have to play with it myself to really make a determination, but if it always stays on plane, won't it help me develop bad habits if I am taking it back on the wrong plane? Or is it supposed to be impossible to do so? ClubGlider Travel Bag - Great product for those courageous enough to trust their precious clubs to airport security & baggage handlers in a soft case. I'll lug around my hardshell case if you don't mind. The Power Stance - Yeah, good stance but lousy followthrough. Ever notice how nobody who demos it ever finishes with all their weight on their front foot and on the toe of their back foot? I'd be afraid to fall off the thing. Shaft Skinz - Are you kidding me? I can't believe he made it through the audition. Who would seriously buy this? Club Caddy - David Jones is my hero. This is the greatest product ever. If he somehow manages to lose this competition I will go to the ends of the Earth to track him down and ask him to make one just for me.

Tiger Woods. I think he purposely skipped the first event just so he can look even more dominating when he wins... like, "ha, I'm so good I don't even need to compete in all the events!"

I'm a ~36 handicapper and have been for a couple of years. I've never broken 100 on a regulation 18 hole golf course, and it is entirely due to my long game. I can confidently say that if you only saw me playing from 100 yards in, you'd guess I was about a 15 handicap. Off the tee you wouldn't believe I'm ONLY a 36 handicap. I've had half a dozen lessons and I immediately show improvement when practice/playing afterward, but after about a week or so all of my bad habits that I've made a permanent part of my repertoire take over and all the progress I've made is gone. I feel like I need someone standing next to me every second that I practice to tell me NO IDIOT NOT LIKE THAT until I do it right enough times to get my body to remember what needs to be done. I saw the Medicus infomercial on TGC and it seems like it does just that, but I've had bad experiences with training clubs before (bought the Whippy and couldn't hit the ball straight with it in 2 weeks after trying 100 different things), so I am very skeptical. It's in the low-to-mid $100 range and alleges it will teach you to swing the golf club perfectly. With lessons going for $60/hr, I find this hard to believe but I am so unbelievably desperate to figure out how to put balls within a square mile of where I am aiming at this point. Has ANYBODY out there used this training aid who thinks it would help me as a 36 handicapper? I just need to put these things in the fairway. I'd tee off with a 9-iron if I thought there was a chance I could hit this thing straight 9 out of 18 times, but there isn't. I know there's no such thing as a magic fix, but if figuring out how to swing this club without breaking it will yield me straight drives and iron shots then I'm willing to put in the work. I just don't want to waste time and money on something that will get me nowhere or make me play worse. What's the consensus on this gadget?

I will vote 0% as well simply out of spite. I've been playing longer than a year and still suck. I don't think I could live with the knowledge that someone else is scratch after only a year. =) Good luck, though.

Ever since reading Rotella's book I always, always, always go for the hole. The bigger the target, the bigger the margin of error you create for yourself. Aim small, miss small. I'm a very high handicapper, but 3-putting is no longer standard procedure for me thanks to this frame of mind. In short, always go for the cup.

My instructor has had me start doing that in order to help me fully transfer my weight to my right side on the backswing. If it helps you, keep doing it.

Not exactly. It's not against the rules to putt with the flag in, but there is a penalty for hitting the flagstick when you are putting. " 17-3. Ball Striking Flagstick or Attendant The player’s ball must not strike: a. The flagstick when it is being attended, removed or held up; b. The person attending or holding up the flagstick; or c. The flagstick in the hole, unattended, when the stroke has been made on the putting green. Exception: When the flagstick is attended, removed or held up without the player’s authority — see Rule 17-2. PENALTY FOR BREACH OF RULE 17-3: Match play — Loss of hole; Stroke play — Two strokes and the ball must be played as it lies." If you have a very long putt you probably won't make where you can't see the hole without the flagstick in and don't have anyone to tend it for you, then it's fine to putt with the flag in. If the ball hits the flagstick though it will cost you 2 strokes. This doesn't apply when you are off the green. Hit the pin all you want from there.