Mr.Buckethead

If you listen to the actual audio of Westwood you might find that his comments are not as harsh as they are when put into print. He is talking in a joking tone and making light of things. I think this is just an example of the press creating a controversy.

-Americans are just quick to pick out who the .....well, the word rhymes with pick ......is. -I could hear the roars from the front nine from my front porch. It really was a spine-tingling sound. Kinda disappointed that I couldn't hear the victory roars though. -With all the pounds Westwood makes you would think he would have better teeth.

I walked the course during 2 of the practice rounds. It was in amazing shape. Very proud of the US team, very proud of Louisville because people got to experience great hospitality, incredible weather, and an amazing victory. -My wife was ready to kill me after spending 20+ hours on golf in the last 3 days.

Miller was unbearable. He is to golf as Billy Packer is to college basketball. A standard but became an old crusty bastard. If you took a shot every time he said someone had an "easy putt" or "he should make this one" (when its 15 ft+), then you would be one drunk mofo today.

I agree with Iacas for the most part. However, if the US pulls this off I think that it could have something to do with the atmosphere that Azinger created within the team. Those guys went down to the Ryder Cup pep rally at 9 PM on Thursday to pump up the crowd, toss out some shirts, and just have fun. It was a spontaneous occurrence spurred on by Anthony Kim. The guys looked like they were having a blast on stage. For some reason, I just don't think you would have seen something like that with Tiger on the team.

Par: 72 Rating: 71.8 Slope: 131 Interesting #'s. Remember Day one: 79 Day two: 80. His index history was trending from an 8.9 in March 07 to an 11.1 when he played. Scores in June & July (84, 80, 79, 93, 90, 89, 94, 91, 77, 86, 91, 84, 88, 86, 89). I know some of those aren't used to calculate his handicap but he was tossing in 94's on a course with a slope of 116.

Those of you that keep saying a 79 is reasonable for a 13 must not understand statistics. Oh well. An update. After last night's GHIN revision, the bagger went from an 11.1 to a 10.1 and his handicap is now restricted. I think that means that it is not allowed to go higher than where it is now.

I can empathize with a lot people in this thread. I play by myself a lot during the summer time. I usually go out 3 times during the week and knock 18 out by myself in 2 hrs and 15 minutes. As previously mentioned, I play up to the people I am paired with or play down. I played in a tournament this weekend and had to ride with a jackace the first day that talked incessantly. He had a running commentary on everything. We weren't a good combo since I rarely talk at all when golfing. He frustrated the hell out of me. I had hoped to not be in the same foursome with him the next day but we ended up together again. I should have walked but thought it might be rude. Played horrible and just wanted the round to end. Now I know that if in the same situation I should just walk. The other problem I have encountered with playing alone is that getting 18 in in 2+ hours can bring problems of its own. When I play with my regular foursome I sometimes find myself mentally checking out around the 2 hour mark. Not a good thing when you are only on the 9th hole.

Iacas nailed it. Not sure why you all are arguing the point.

This guy has been playing for years. Mid-40's. He wasn't new to golf. For someone who said he hasn't played in a while because of a divorce, he played lights out. 4th flight winning score was 182 3rd flight winning score was 159 (the flight he won) 2nd flight winning score was 158 1st flight winning score was 147 Championship flight was 138 Not a statistician but those scores all seem to have a similar spread (11-9 strokes between flights) except for the third.

So the guy shot an 80 today. 79 & 80 in a two day flighted tournament. He won my flight in a walk and would have finished one stroke off first in the next flight. Based on the USGA chart Iacas posted, he had a 1 in 1,708 chance of shooting those two rounds in a row.

I will have to check the paper to see how the guy finished up in the tournament. The more I talked with him the more I think he just had one hell of a round. He could have just had the round of a lifetime. According to the graph Iacas posted, it is a 323-1 chance of shooting six strokes lower than your handicap in a tournament. Course is par 72, he is a 13. 85-79= -6....if I have my math right. Course rating 71.8, slope of 131. So, any 13 handicappers that want to bet whether they can shoot a 79 just let me know. I will take those odds every day.

He is a 13 course handicap. 11.1 index. I looked him up on GHIN. The last tournament he played in he posted a 76-91. Had he not double bogeyed 18, an easy par 5, he would have shot a 77. The more I think about it, the more I think he might have tanked the last hole to keep it from looking fishy. On the popeofslope charts, the guy had something like a 1 in 600 round.

I think I might have played with one today. He plays at a 13 handicap and dropped a 79 in the first day of a tournament on a course he said he has not played in a long time.

My 2 cents. Quit hunting for birdies. Hell, at your handicap, quit hunting for pars. Learn to treat bogey as a birdie. Every time you make a bogey, celebrate as if you just made a birdie. If you treat bogey like a real reward, you will start to make smarter decisions on the course and will not press as much. Once you start shooting in the 90's, begin to treat par like a birdie. When I keep this in mind, I play so much smarter and shoot so much lower scores. In fact, the first time I treated par like a birdie, I shot a 77. Every time I got a par, I gave myself a little fist pump and a smile. Next thing you know the pars start rolling in and the MAJOR mistakes/errors were avoided.

My brother-in-law ( a 2 handicap) switched from the HiBore XL to the XLS at the beginning of the year. After a few months, he switched back to the XL. He did not like it at all. I also play a Cleveland HiBore XL and love it. I hit his XLS a few times and didn't care for it either. Personally, I think the HiBore XL for $149 is one of the best driver deals out there right now.

I have been a little bit obsessed with Google Earth lately. I always used it to get yardage approximations but now I find myself logging in 3-4 times a day. I have a tournament coming up this weekend ( a flighted city tournament) and keep mapping out my shots for each hole. Anyone else addicted?

Lots of great advice in this thread. Thanks. I tried posting the question a few days ago in the other shaft thread but it did not show up for some reason. I don't need more distance on my driver. I would like a little lower ball flight though. At times it seems to balloon up at the end. I may look into getting a new shaft but I think I could groove my swing a little bit more before needing to tweak my game with a custom shaft.

I am toying with the idea of getting a custom shaft put on my driver and would like to know when it is a good idea to move away from the stock shaft. My swing is pretty consistent and doesn't look like it is going to drastically change any time in the future. So, should I wait until my handicap is in the single digits? How do I go about getting exactly what I want? What is the average cost?

I am not sure what Lexington has to offer by way of golf stores but most have a place in them that you can hit them. I recently purchased a Nike 15* hybrid and love it. I was skeptical because it was a Nike product but I have been really happy with it so far. 230-240 out of the fairway and 240-250 off the tee.

I go to Naples, FL about 3 weeks out of the year. My brother-in-law usually ship them via UPS as opposed to packing them on the plane. It runs about $100 round trip. Not pertinent to the OP's question but just another way to travel with them. Now for a trip overseas, I would check in on what you can rent. If you aren't happy, then bring your own clubs. I think I would like to play those courses with my own clubs just because I have an attachment to them.

Don't just settle for the Metro Parks courses. Vettiner has become the go to course of all the muni's. There are also some great public courses that are a bit pricey. Nevel Meade is a pretty nice course. You might want to look into a country club membership. There are quite a few affordable memberships available in town. The Tiger Woods story is that he hit the ball from the practice area. I had a friend bust one up onto I-64 just to see if he could do it. It scared the crap out of me because the thought of hitting a car going 70 mph was pretty bad. I think it is more urban legend because it would be a pretty stupid thing for Tiger to do.

In a President's Cup Match at my club. Down 3 with 7 to go. Beat my opponent on 17 to square the match. Go into 18 feeling good and ready to complete my comeback. 360 yard uphill par 4. No view of the green. Have to hit the ball over a hill. I hit driver and my opponent rattles crap in the cart on my takeaway. Duff it, goes a little over 100 yards, still at the bottom of the hill, no view of the green. Skycaddie says 230 to the front. Hit my new 15 degree Nike Hybrid as pure as can be. Wind up on the green, 20 feet away. Opponent has 130 in, hits it fat. Ends up bogeying and I par. He was pissed but that is karma. Don't rattle crap in someones backswing.

I play by the rules when playing in a match, for money, or in a tournament. When I am playing with my friends, we like to play fast and no one cares if we roll it a bit. We are all just out to get away from work and enjoy the game. I have wondered however how people feel about changes that are made to a course during a tournament. For example, a big stand of trees on a fairway is marked with a red spray painted line just for that event. Therefore it turns a bad shot into something not so bad. That line isn't there all the time. Also, in PGA events, players can hit into the bleachers and not be punished sometimes? That is definitely against the spirit of the rules. You can go by the letter of the law or the spirit of the law.

Left my home course 2 weeks ago on the 5th hole. The place is horribly run compared to last year. Tee times don't start until 8 am and I usually am the first one out (I teach so I am off in the summer). The course has been crawling the grounds crews every time I have been out this summer. It has started to resemble a WPA project from the 30's. They have guys cutting grass they just cut the day before. On that day, they crews were on all of the holes, none of the greens had been cut. It was ridiculous. When I asked when the grounds crew came to work, the pro shop guy told me 6 am. Hard to believe stuff isn't ready 2+ hours later. When I brought it up, he told me to play later and that the superintendent wishes they didn't even open the course up until 10am. Redneck country club.