kurtwainwright

I dunno Gerald... I'll be listening in for the answer myself! I am having similar problems. At first I thought I was simply having alignment problems. So I slowed down my pre-shot routine and really concentrated on that one tiny blade of grass 8 inches in front of the ball as my psuedo aimpoint. So nope... it's not alignment. I'm definitely pushing it left, just like you described. Then I try to compensate for it by aiming 5 degrees right.. and yep.. you guessed it... that's when I hit it straight. *Sigh* Such a hard game! I'll shut up now and eavesdrop for the advice everyone gives you. Thanks.

At age 52, and not having played much in the past 10 years?? You need PGA Master Professional Don "The Swing Surgeon" Trahan. He teaches at Old South Golf Links in Bluffton, SC between Savannah and Hilton Head. PGA Tour player D.J. Trahan is his son.

I can beat that last post. I go to a nearby driving range in the colder months because it's one of the few who have indoor/heated hitting areas. The yardage markers are all jacked up. I don't know who put them out there, but apparently that person doesn't know a darn thing about golf. The hitting stalls all point toward the center of the range in a gradual U-shape. But the yardage markers are in straight lines. So I end up having to do TRIGONOMETRY to figure out my distances... and I'm usually off by at least 15 yards. It's times like those, I wish I had the ability to walk out on the range with my GPS to figure out exactly what those markers SHOULD say. Can anyone recommend a CHEAP, non-GPS, rangefinder that doesn't rely on a reflector surfaces (like the prisms inside some flag pins so the laser can "see" it easier)?

Sorry, none of those are it either. Maybe the product never "caught on" and it doesn't exist. I suppose I'll just make my own. Thanks for the feedback all.

No. That's not the product I saw. Forgive me if I'm wrong, because I've never held a TR3 SpeedStik in my life, but isn't it weighted??

I'm 37 years old... and picked up the game of golf at age 32. I never had the luxury of playing golf in my youth. I'm a firm believer that if I had, I'd be a better golfer today. As is.. my "in control" club head speed for the driver is somewhere in the lower 90 MPH range. My goal is to gradually bump up my club head speed over time, and eventually have a CHS in the lower 100 MPH range. I want to find a pre-round training aid that will help my body promote fast-twitch muscle fiber responses (muscle memory). I want to swing the driver FASTER, not HARDER. And psychologically, that is a very tough thing to get over because they have the same feeling. The Medicus weighted club is NOT what I need here. I don't want to stimulate my slow twitch muscles -- I have plenty of slow twitch muscle memory and don't need any more. All the Medicus will do is decrease my tempo, and the result will be slightly SLOWER club head speed, as well promote off-center mishits. I like to think I'm a strong guy... but I think I'm more of a slow twitch kind of dude. I need to change that. I vaguely recall seeing an infomercial about a training aid, like the one I just described, some time ago. The guy was talking about how the lightweight stick would help you to speed up your swing. Shoot, that had to be at least 2 years ago.. something I saw on The Golf Channel at 1AM or something. I can't for the life of me recall what the name of it was, or who was endorsing the darn thing. If you know what I'm talking about, please let me know what the name of the device is. Otherwise, I think what I might do is build my own training aid. Maybe put a grip on a cheap graphite shaft, and maybe put a hollow plastic head on the end of it so my eyes have some kind of indicator of what position the club face is in throughout all stages of my swing? Feel free to chime in here with more ideas. PS Before you guys start arguing about whether weighted golf clubs should be used as training aids or not, please re-visit an old thread in this forum from 2008. http://thesandtrap.com/forum/thread/14591/my-experience-with-a-weighted-club

I've been told by an experienced golf fitter that the best driver shaft selection for my physical body measurements, m swing and my 92 MPH CHS is a Matrix Ozik XCon 6 R-flex, cut to 44 inches. My current driver has a Matrix Ozik XCon 5.5 S-flex. Apparently the 5.5 is especially made for Taylormade to put in their r7 Limited drivers from 2008, because I can't find a shred of data on it. Looking at the specs for a stock length XCon 6 R-flex as follows: Weight 67.5 grams Torque 2.5 Launch High Spin Low Length 46 Tip OD 0.335 Tip PAR 3.5 The problem I'm having is this. The price of a retail Matrix Ozik XCon 6 is a hefty $300. I paid $299 for the entire club 2 years ago, so that's a non-starter. So before I go and make such a purchase, I'd like to know what you good people think. First some information... Looking at the specs for a stock length XCon 6 and XCon 5 S-flex here's the primary difference: XCon 5 Weight 59.5 XCon 5 Torque 4.0 XCon 6 Weight 69.5 XCon 6 Torque 2.5 Going with pure logic... I'd venture to say that an XCon 5.5 S-flex is probably somewhere between the two values, right? Interpolating, I get the following spec: Weight 64.5 grams Torque 3.25 If I cut my XCon 5.5 S-flex 46 inch stock shaft down to 44 inches, would that come close to equating to an XCon 6 R-flex?? The same club fitter said not to do this as it would upset the shaft's dynamics.... but I don't quite know what that means. He said I should just learn to choke down on the club. If I cut the 5.5, should I get it frequency tuned? Thoughts?

Well after watching it on The Golf Channel last night, I feel somewhat redeemed. I walked 36 holes, Bandon Dunes + Pacific Dunes, carrying my own bag. They wrre using caddies. So when this guy pulled off his socks after the first 36, and there was BLOOD, I literally laughed out loud! I had blisters, but no blood. What a wuss. hehe They did impose some gentleman's rules between him and his playing partner in order to finish before sunset. No practice swings were taken, and gimme putts from within 3 feet. Which was smart, because they would've never finished.

I can't hit my drives 264 yards. That is amazing. But I think Tiger's best iron shot was the 8-iron from 185 yards -- wasn't it in the 2008 US Open? -- from the adjacent fairway, over the trees, to a peninsula green.

22-ish handicap. But I am fairly "dialed in" with my 8-iron from 138 yards. I'd take that shot any day, over a 'tween shot from 70 yards.

Anyone else seen the promo's for this? If not, here's a short video clip... http://www.thegolfchannel.com/golf-i...?select2=14353 Having played Bandon Dunes, and Pacific Dunes (36 holes) in a single day, I know how difficult an endeavour this really is. I might have been able to squeeze out 48 holes, but 72?! For one thing, if he is planning to carry his own bag (like I did), he is in for a world of hurt. After 36 holes, my feet were SCREAMING! The walkways and steps, which are all over these courses, are made with railroad ties and salt treated lumber. Which, for me, did a number on the ball of my big toe like you wouldn't believe. By Day #3 at Bandon, I was only able to play 18 holes, and I was reduced to wearing running shoes. The cleats on my golf shoes were making matters even worse. Anyone else tried this? 36, 48, or even 72 holes in a single day?

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I do have a preshot putting routine... but sometimes I neglect it if I'm under time pressure. I'll have to stick to my routine, no matter what the putt is for. It will, however, be hard to resist the urge to take more time on a birdie, or maybe even an eagle, putt. While you say 'a putt is a putt is a putt' -- at my handicap level, having several birdies on my scorecard would give me all sorts of confidence... regardless of the 90 as a total score.

VERRRRRRY interesting!! Come to think of it, 70% of the holes on this particular course must have been cut by the same idiot. Most greens had a "volcano" around the cup, which changed the direction of the ball in motion by as much as 3 inches. I'm not sure what causes that, because I have personally never cut a new hole location in a green before. Thanks for the information.

I'm playing at a 22.5 handicap index. But I hope that index will be taking a drastic nose dive very soon. I just got done with a 10-round lesson package via GolfTEC and my latest golf score looks much better. On my last round of golf, I had 6 putts for birdie. Which, for me, is quite impressive. I didn't make any of those putts, unfortunately. (On four of them I 2-putted and saved par, on the other two I 3-putted for bogie) My concern is that while I want to sink more birdie putts, I don't wish to fall behind pace either. I dislike having the foursome of golfers behind us breathing down my neck -- which adds even more stress to an already stressful situation. So here is my question.... what do you do differently if you have a putt for birdie? Do you spend an extra amount of time examining and reading the green? Do you take extra practice strokes? How much extra time is warranted?

WOW! Looks like a sweet iPhone app. How did you set up the iPhone to take the down-the-line shot? Did you put it on a tripod? If so, how was it attached? Obviously, with a 20+ HP, I'm not about to analyze your swing... but keep practicing....

Thanks for the foreshadowing of what's to come. I'm hopeful the 10 lessons will help me like it helped you. Scoring in the 80's would be great.

Mike, Hello fellow-St Louisan. Where do you practice? I live out in the Westplex, as they call it. There is only one place out this way which has semi-indoor bays, and I don't think they are heated (Pheasant Run). Sure, it's gotten into the lower 50s a few days. But that's the high which peaks around 2 in the afternoon; mostly it's been downright cold... too cold for golf IMO. Having a place to go after work with lights and heated bays would be the ticket.

Right. I had a Driving Performance Assessment with GolfTEC last year and it helped me quite a bit. I was so impressed with their video swing analysis, and their web lesson technologies, that I decided to take all my lessons there instead of finding the pro at my local golf course. First lesson is already scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday... I'm just not positive yet on what I should have the coach work on.

I own the particular club you are inquiring about. However, I'm a poor specimen to judge the shaft since I'm a horrible driver to begin with. I will say this, before I picked up the r7 Limited, I owned an Adams Insight with R-flex, and I've noticed a considerable difference in the whippiness of the shaft on the downswing. My Adams R-flex always gave me the feeling that the club head was being whipped out in front of the shaft. Whether that was happening or not, I'm not sure. Overall, I'm happier with my r7 than I ever was with the Adams.

Yeah, they have indoor practice bays. But that's yet another fee, to use them. I'll ponder it. It's been 2 months since I picked up my clubs, so I'm anxious to get started, even if it's somewhat premature. I don't want to lose the progress I was making at the end of '09.

I would agree that during the season it would be best to get a lesson, and inbetween lessons, work on what you've learned. I am, however, in the MidWest. So working on it inbetween lessons is going to be tough. That's kind of why I want to plan out my first few lessons, until the weather forecast is more in my favor.

So for my Christmas present, I bought a 10-lesson package from GolfTEC. Each lesson is 30 minutes. If you had 10 lessons to plan, how would you suggest I use them? A lot of you guys are scratch, or better than scratch golfers and I value your opinions. More about me and how I play. I'm a high-handicapper, shooting in the high 90's. I only play 3 or 4 times a month if I'm lucky. I'd like to be in the low 90's or high 80's by the beginning of summer. Its tiring to play badly, and I'm sick of it. By far, the worst part of my game is driving. 1 out of 10 shots I'll really get a hold of the ball and it'll go 250+ yards. But most of my drives are 190-220 yds with a fade, fade/slice ball flight. Fairway metal play is horrible, and I rarely pull my 3W out of the bag unless I'm hitting it off the tee. My long iron play is decent, but has much in the way of improvement to go. Mid-irons and Wedges are strong, the best part of my game, easily. Putting... is a whole 'nother animal, and in my opinion can't really be taught.. just takes practice. I live in St. Louis. Unlike you folks who live in Florida and Southern California, it's winter here and the clubs have been in storage since Thanksgiving. So I'm anxious to get back in the saddle. It starts getting nice enough to play around here sometime in late March, so I'm trying to time my lessons accordingly. Here's how I'm going to approach my lessons (but I can be easily pursuaded). # Subject, When 1 Driving, Late January 2 Driving, Mid February 3 Long Irons, Late February 4 Driving Performance Session (75-minutes), Early March 5 Mid-Irons, Mid March 6 Wedges & Putting, Late March 7 On-Course Course Management, Early April 8 TBD 9 TBD 10 TBD

Hey that might just work! I went to GolfTEC earlier this summer and they told me that I sway my hips on my backswing, instead of rotating. You have the problem of swaying on your downswing, but it's the same principle. I don't have a 22" club, but I'll improvise somehow.

I'm a high handicapper and I use the Bridgestone e6+. I've tried other balls, including the ProV1 and V1x. But they have far too much side spin off the tee than I can contain. I played Bandon Dunes last year and only brought enough of my Bridgestones to last two rounds. Little did I know, but the entire resort sells nothing but Titleist logo balls. My scores went to crap after I was forced to buy the NXTs. Maybe it's mental, but that's what happened. So if you have a slice/fade or a hook/draw that you're not happy with, the e6+ might take some of that sidespin out of your game. Go get fitted.

Thanks for all the replies. And thanks for the tips. I'll take them all into consideration. To Kris. Yeah, it drives me nuts not to be able to see my ball flight off the tee 75% of the time. "Where'd it go??" And then wast 3 or 4 minutes walking around in the deep rough where you thought it may have ended up. I've lost many balls this way. Under the rules, I'm supposed to go back to the tee to hit a provisional. But I usually just pull one from my pocket and drop it in the rough where I thought it should have been. Especially if it's just a casual round with my buddies and no money involved. As far as pacing distance for putts, that's not necessarily where I go wrong. I can tell distance well enough. The depth perception issue comes in when I'm trying to read the breaks in my putting line. I'll read up on the Tom Watson trick of feeling it with his feet. Maybe that'll help me.