Mr. Writing Desk

That is very impressive! I started about 15.5, wandered upwards to 17.8 or so, got a couple lessons, and now I'm at 12.3. If the weather holds out for a couple more weeks I'm betting I'll break into the 11s, though I think single digits will have to wait for next year.

75 on a par 62/95 slope executive course. Not happy at all. A couple of really poor double bogies, and hooked one into the drink on a really short par 4 18th. I think the problems stemmed mostly from skipping lunch before playing, and just getting tired. I shot a marginal 35 on the front nine, and the back nine was torture. The worst part was when I chunked a easy 30 yard pitch shot on the 17th. Frustrated, I tried to slam my sand wedge back into my bag... and my thumb got in the way. My left thumbnail is kind of purple right now. The best part was that my putting was dead on. Sank a couple of 12 footers and lipped out on two from about 18 and 25 feet.

I almost feel silly for asking this question, but do you actually practice chipping and pitching at all? Or are you just trying to figure this out on the course? Five yards off the green with a pin 20 yards away really shouldn't be a difficult chip unless you're really in thick stuff. I'd probably use a 9 iron to chip it if the rough isn't bad. Or I could take a 60 degree wedge, open the face very slightly, and make a smooth stroke that is no longer than it takes to get the shaft parallel to the ground: I know that stroke gets me 28 yards with that club. Choking down a few inches on a 56 degree wedge and making the same stroke would get be about the same distance. I can't help but wonder if you're just swinging too hard because you don't yet have a feel for distance, or you're hitting the ball thin so it gets no upward trajectory and just kind of shoots off very low and fast. Looking at your handicap, I'd guess that that may be the more likely culprit rather than what ball you use. What is the trajectory like on these shots that rocket off on you?

This spring I got a new set of Ping G5 irons, which I love. I had them custom fit, 4 degrees upright and plus one inch length. A full swing on my pitching wedge gets me 125 yards. My next wedge is an off-the-rack Cleveland CG-11 56 degree, standard length and lie. A full swing gets me 83 yards. (I also have a matching 60 degree wedge, which I basically never use for full swings, only pitches, flops, and an occasional sand shot.) Now, obviously a 42 yard gap between wedges is unacceptable, even though I've gotten quite good at throttling down on the pitching wedge and do pretty well sticking a 1/2 wedge at 100 yards. So come next paycheck, I intend to invest in a gap wedge. But my dilemma is this: even with adding a gap wedge, which I intend to fit around the 100 mark, it still seems like an inordinately big gap between a 125 yard pitching wedge, 100+- yard gap wedge, and 83 yard sand wedge. The question I have is, should I be looking at not only getting a gap wedge, but also replacing my sand wedge with something stronger? Also, if my irons are +1 inch, should I look into getting a fitting session for custom clubs to close the gaps, too?

The worst 88 (69.7)/128) I've ever shot in my life. Aside from one chip in and one good drive, every single moment was just difficult. Even my pars felt like let-downs because I couldn't get in any kind of groove. I felt like I was going to break 100, but at the turn and after the 18th, I added up my score... and I had to add them up again because I swear I'd miscounted. That'll teach me for skipping the driving range last week.

I think this is excellent advice, even though it's a little hard to describe without pictures. I've had problems with my left wrist breaking down at the top, resulting in a constant fade, and also a rather ugly Furyk type loop at the beginning of my downswing in an effort to get the face back in a respectable position from being wide open at the top. Ringer , I'm wondering what you might think of this description. If one makes a karate chop type of position with one's hand, the thumb will be pressed against the knuckle at the base of the index finger -- this I believe is what you mean by a thumb position that leads to an open clubface. But if one makes an "ok" sign (with the index finger and the thumb, there will be roughly a 3/4 inch space between the thumb and that same knuckle. As you look at the ok sign, drawing line from the center of the thumbnail straight down the thumb to the wrist, and at the wrist, there's a tendon that runs toward the center of the inside of one's elbow. I feel like I get my left hand correctly placed on the club if I maintain that line from the tip of my thumb, down through the tendon at the wrist, all the way to the elbow. From there, I simply need to straighten my thumb a bit, line up all my fingers (in a slightly staggered position so that the tips of my fingers are pretty much parallel to the lifeline on my palm) and rotate them slightly away from the thumb in order to get my left hand in the right position to grip the club. Keeping that line at setup means I've set my thumb in the right position to keep my left wrist flat at the top (even with the wrist cock), and, even better, it keeps my fingers in a good position to keep the grip in my fingers, rather than choking it in my palm. I'd be curious if you think this "ok" hand sign helps illustrate the concept you're talking about, rather than over-rotating the thumb so that it would be closer to the ring finger during the grip. I just came up with this on my own and it seems to work for me. My left wrist is much flatter at the top now, and my swing has improved immensely.

Every time I start thinking about swingplanes, club path, position at the top, and all that, things go bad. I have a couple of swing keys that I use to get back on track (left wrist flat, balance on feet, feel the tension in the right knee at the top of the swing, light grip, and full shoulder turn in the followthrough), and if those aren't working, I go get a lesson. The idea of trying to figure out the plane of the club when I can't even look at what I'm really doing strikes me as absurd, so why think about which plane I'm using?

Yesterday was a great day -- shot 85 at Blue Mash, which is about a 71.8/128. I had two holes that were minor blow ups, and 5 three putts, but man, there was a lot to be psyched about. I got a new driver two weeks ago, and I was 7 for 7 in fairways when I hit it. My four missed fairways were all with long irons -- which I had been hitting very well, but hey, I'm not complaining. My best takeaway from the round was my first ever 300+ yard drive. It was on #12, a 478 yard par 5. Elevated tee, brisk wind at my back, and just crushed a nice, high, soft draw right down the middle of a firm fairway, leaving me 172 to a back pin according to my laser. One of the guys I played with lost his first drive into water on the right, then blasted one that was seriously 20+ yards past mine -- unbelievable. So I hit my six iron for my second, hit it fat and into a front bunker. The lie was clean, but I had a nasty sidehill stance and due to the ball being four inches from a lip, wouldn't be able to make any kind of followthrough. Took my sand wedge, blasted it, rolling it past the pin and onto the fringe. Two putts and par. Wow -- a 300 yard drive, didn't-think-I-could-do-it recovery from the sand, and a par. I see my handicap trend is now at 12.9, the lowest I've ever had. What a day!!

I got fit for a new driver last month and I could not imagine putting my good money towards an off-the-rack/eBay purchase that I could only guess at how it would perform. Turns out I had been using a driver with not enough loft, and looking at the launch monitor, I truly learned what a difference the right shaft makes. I'm going to look at getting either a new set of wedges or new fairway woods this fall, and you bet I'm going to go in for a fitting for them. Luckily I found a driving range with excellent staff that will do a fitting for $70, and $40 of that is credited to the club purchase. So, $30 to make sure I'm getting the right club for me? That is a bargain.

How do you think I felt when I had finished the round? I still have the detailed scorecard on my online handicap service: 9 of 14 fairways, 10 GIR, 28 putts (only one 3-putt). I consider it by moment in the sun after having played for more than 13 years and never once having come close to an ace or an eagle. My second best score was an 81 on a par 72 (69.0/110).

Last year I shot a 69 on a par 68 (66.2/92). It was remarkable how easy everything came - fairway, green, two putts, repeat as needed. I bogeyed three holes and birdied two. The two best shots of the day were difficult pitches (one a flop, actually) to save pars. I haven't come close to having such a consistent day yet, though I do manage to string together 3,4, or sometimes 5 holes of good golf... just not 18 in a row!

I average 34.3 putts per round. If I make every putt, that takes 16.3 strokes off of every round. Suddenly I'm a scratch golfer. I hit exactly one third of my greens. Looking at my stats, I can't figure out how many shots I waste getting to the green, but it certainly isn't 16 strokes per round, or three-quarters of a stroke per hole. This is an no-brainer for me: I'll take the putts.