jshots

Putting great is pretty great but i think i prefer when i am totally dialed in with my approaches. Iron shots just feel so good when you hit it well and stand there in your finish just watching the ball fly straight at the stick. Even better when you put a little shape on it and it does exactly what you commanded it to do. *goosebumps*

I learned the game from and have always played most with my Grandpa and my Dad whom are both good golfers so i guess those two... pretty cliche. A lot of aspects of my game I try to emulate Tiger Woods, because he was so big as I was learning the game. Throw in some Phil Mickelson for the short game. I went with a Phil Mickelson style putting for a while as ordered by my hs golf coach ughhhh. Still not sure why he insisted that I switched since I was good at putting anyways, but now i am back to more of standard putting style.

Those are certainly good ideas that I should be using a lot of the time and I don't. But the main holes i'm having trouble with are the number 1 and 2 handicaps on the course I play most. One of these has a fairway that slopes steeply from right to left with OB on the right which makes the fairway tiny, if you hit the center of the fairway you will end up close to the trees on the left because of the strong slope. At the same time as sloping from right to left it is bowed up in the middle and its a fairly long hole. If i don't land at the top of the bowed up part i land on an uphill slope leaving me about 180-200 yard second, and I find i can't get anything but driver up to the top of that slope. The number 2 handicap is similar in length with water on the left making it a thin fairway. Without a good drive I can easily be over 175 out which is certainly not an ideal approach but not horrible. I guess that my point is on these holes I am at least a stroke, really more like a half a stroke, out if I don't hit a solid and playable driver. I suppose that choice is better than trying to hit a solid driver and instead hitting it in the trees or OB since I have a chance to get up and down, and may even hit the green from 200 out.

Yea generally it is driving it OB or into water. Or even just into the trees. Sometimes it might be caused by 2 bad shots in a row. I am still trying to dial in my irons but it is certainly not my biggest problem and i hit them straight just don't have my distances worked out really well. It may be a good idea for me to hit irons which i'm more accurate with if i'm in competition but when i'm just trying to get better i feel like I might as well try to get better at driver.

Its a lot more fun of a show to watch when its all good looking women :\ I agree that the 1/2 stroke thing was BS. Also I hope they can improve their games, seemed like most of them missed the fairway in the 2nd challenge by a ton! The cash seems cool but if everything is based heavily off of the cash it seems to me like some people could just get so far behind and be in danger of getting cut week after week while others pull ahead.

I have played golf since I was very young and could shoot in the high 40s in 5th grade on 9 holes. At a slow steady pace up to high school I improved and got down to shooting in the mid 80s (started playing 18 holes too!). Then came the bad golf! In high school I had a 14 handicap, but consistently shot in the 90s and even 100s during tournaments. Once I even shot a 115 in a tournament. I guess I am not good with the nerves. I also kind of put golf behind other things in high school and put almost no effort to improve. But really, it was very very bad golf. After playing less than 10 total rounds in 08/09 after high school one random thursday in 2010 I turned on the tv to see the Masters was on and suddenly that drive I had to play in 7th grade was back. I played a bunch of round last summer until i had to stop due to injury... Hopefully i can avoid back problems this summer and get back on my quest to get my handicap into the single digits by the end of the summer.

I've broken 80 a total of 3 times now. Have yet to do so this year but i'm wondering... What did you do in order to start consistently shooting in the 70s? My current issue seems like its probably just consistency. I played a round this past week where i had 5 doubles on the front nine, but starting on number 9 i played the next 8 holes at 1 under par. Often times in 9 holes I will par or birdie 7-8/9 holes and then have a triple or quad on the others. I am capable of hitting every shot i need to on the golf course, just not every time i guess. Do any of you remember what it took to consistently break 70?

Sounds like a fun game on the range lol. Also in your swing... get a shirt that fits right and tuck it in! lol

my preshot routine... yell "****!" after hitting my last shot slam club on ground or throw club yell "fore!" yell more profanities get in cart and drive to ball take drink of beer analyze the shot find yardage decide on shot type (punch, flop, draw, fade, hard, soft) step behind ball and choose intermediate target step up to ball check alignment by looking down the line from ball to intermediate target and then making my feet parelell look down entire target line imagine shot, back to intermediate target, back to ball SWANG AWAy! rinse repeat -> shoot low score

A fade is caused by a ball that is spinning clockwise which can be caused by either of the above (for a righty). Whatever the path of your swing is at impact, a perpendicular clubface will cause the ball to go straight in that direction. SO if your swing path is straight down your target line at impact, but the face of the club is open, you will impart clockwise spin causing a fade or slice. In the other case, if your face is square to the target line at impact but your swing path is from outside to in, then relative to your swing path at impact the clubface is open which results in the same spin as the first case. One difference you may notice with this though is your ball will start left and then go right while in the other case your ball will start straight and then go right.

You made me want to do this. Will they fit me for free before I buy a new putter? I've been using a 2 ball putter for the last 7 years or so and I feel like I need a change. I feel like I have a good ability to aim putts, but this article makes me think maybe that i don't. Do you know of any tests you can do to test this on your own?

http://www.usga.org/news/2009/November/USGA-R-A-Joint-Statement-On-Electronic-Devices/ You may or may not have read that particular article but its almost certain you've heard talk about the rules regarding smartphones for gps distances. I personally think they need to release more information on the subject but I'm wondering what you all think. Its clear that the device can only measure distance and that a smartphone app can only be used when a local rule is in effect. Do these rules apply only to the application or the the entire phone. e.g. most new phones have compasses in them, does this effectively make all these new phones illegal even if the app is not using this feature? It would appear so. It specifically says in the statement referring to applications "the device must not have any other"non-conforming"features. This is the case even if these features are not being used" by definition device would refer to the entire phone, but in other areas they refer to just the application. It seems to me as though they have not well thought out the rule. Personally I wish that they would just come out with a new statement stating that the device must not be used during the round for anything other than distance measurements(even if it is capable of doing so) and non golf related things. Sure its hard to enforce such a thing, but so is every other rule in golf :) , and we all are supposed to be playing on our honors. To sum up: I think it makes no sense that such a device (with illegal capabilities) can be used to phone a wife or do anything non golf related, but can't give you gps distances. In both situations, phoning your wife, or using the gps only app, you have the same access to that information but one is illegal and one isn't. Like I said, its not well thought out. OH! one other thing, there is a paragraph that states that club selection recommendation is illegal in a device but that it is ok to access info from previous rounds that has been processed prior to the current round. So then if club selection recommendation in your app simply told you what club you hit on average for the distance you currently are from the pin (already processed information from previous rounds) would that be legal?

Get some confidence. Take two or 3 practice swings to get what you think is going to be the feel and replicate it on the actual shot. Commit to it. Personally when i hit a bad chip I can look back and its obvious that I wasn't confident and often decelerated into the ball. When i strike the ball fairly firmly I usually end up a lot closer than when I do not.

If I had 200 extra dollars I would certainly like to do one of those. Sounds like you had a good experience. I am a little sceptical on how its possible to get all that information as you play. I see that you could certainly study it to become second nature though. This sounds like it would be extremely fun to figure out on your own, it doesn't seem like the science is very complicated. Has anyone compared slope measuring capabilities of a cell phone device to that of a real slope measuring device?

One thing that has helped me with my putting is getting a routine that I stick to. It helps my confidence over the ball as well as my rythym throughout my putts and even the rest of my game. For example I do the same thing every time. In fact the way I think about it, I almost eliminate any chance of not being confident with my routine. You can do whatever you like but for example I will analyze my putt for however long I need, finishing by crouching behind the ball picking a spot to aim at. I step up to the ball and square my putter to my target, take 2 practice putts trying to imagine the right feel and picturing the ball track to the hole, I then step up to the ball make sure i'm aligned, one look down to the hole imagining my putts track to the hole, look back at the ball, adjust one last time, one more at my target, and then putt. It may sound like a lot but i really helps me get rid of any bad thoughts and actually only takes 15-20 seconds. If i ever feel like something is wrong during the process i step away and start over. As others say speed and direction are important, obviously, but those just take repetition I think. When i'm working on feel I will putt a ball, try to roll the next ball past that ball by just a few feet, and so on. Sometimes I will reverse the process and try to roll a ball short of my last putt making each put shorter. When i do this drill I finish by just putting a single ball at random lengths to actual targets. For direction I do a lot of just messing around. Placing a tee in the green and putting at it is great. Sometimes I will putt a ball with break and see If i can make each following putt slide just behind the previous putt with a little more distance creating a straight line which combines the two. Using these I've gotten fairly good at putting and rarely 3 putt, If only I could hit a straight drive! good luck to you!

Its only a matter of time... I'm sure that there are plenty that still fear Tiger and i'm confident he will start playing well again and everyone will fear him. Did you see the front nine on sunday? Yeah its only a matter of time until he can take it a full 18 holes.

Hi my name is DJ I joined the site just yesterday and I'm loving it. I'm a 13 handicap trying to get back into golf after an injury last summer. I don't have many friend to talk golf with and i've always wished that I had. I'm a big computer guy and am constantly surfing forums of different types on the web, and had never realized until a few days ago i could fulfill that want to talk golf on a forum. Anyways HI.

Yeah man fitness is so important. Last summer I started going crazy playing golf. I would play 3-5 times a week and practice on the days that i didn't play. About halfway through the summer, although my game was improving I noticed that I had back pain that had been there the whole time. For the first month of summer i just ignored it as i'm young and had always been able to just play through injuries in the past. After another month it hadn't gone away and i went to the doc who diagnosed me with herniated disc, which i attribute to heavy lifting an entire year prior to the pain. I had to stop playing and it was so hard because i had such a desire to play. I'm finally feeling like my back can take a full swing, a whole 8 months later :( so hopefully i'll be able to get back onto the track i was on last summer. But yeah long story short taking care of your body is important.

Yeah what exactly do you mean you are releasing your power? Do you let your wrists unhinge to early? In general do you just lose power? The idea to get power is simply to add all the motions you make on your rotation together. When you rotate down to the ball from your backswing, your body sort of unwinds, and each individual part is probably not moving all that fast. But when you add the unhinging of your wrists to the speed from the swinging from your arms and add that too the untwisting of the shoulders and add that to the un twisting at the hips and core. All of them together create power. If anyone of those parts are working on its own and not from the bottom up then you will lose power.

I definitely have an eagle curse. I've had driver distance to get on par 5s in 2 very often and even occasionally a short par 4 since my junior year of high school which was like 5 years ago and i have still yet to drop an eagle in my life.

Yeah I broke 80 the first time a few years ago and didn't play much the following years and got back up into the high 80s and even 90s. Its such an up and down game. In my opinion when you shoot well one round, it makes it that much harder to do it next time because of the added stress. Its so strange how hard it is to play under the pressure.