sonicblue

I've had five knee operations on my right knee alone. My cartilage is like a head of shredded lettuce. It basically hurts ALL the time, and a misstep at the wrong time, at any time, will send a shooting rocket of pain straight through it and I'll nearly buckle. It makes crunching noises audible to other people, and really can't take ANY kind of impact activity of any sort (running, basketball, etc..., will lay me up for a day or two). And through all of that, all of the time, it is LESS painful for me to go up a set of stairs two at a time compared to one at a time. That's a fact. Can we all please stop making up reasons to like Tiger less, just because he couldn't keep it in his pants? It's like everything about him is now colored with that brush. Before, he didn't open up to the media, now he "snubs" them. Before he was quiet and focused and determined, now he's "withdrawn," "selfish" and "rude." Who cares.

Seriously, I WISH I had read this book ten years ago. I feel like Hogan really leaves it open for each person to decide how to adapt the concepts individually, and the concepts he lays out are so powerful. No, I don't think this book is for the person trying to get to scratch, but like he says, his fundamentals should be able to get a diligent student under 80. I'm only an 'occasionally break 80' person, and I'd like to get to 'consistently breaks 80.' And I know what keeps me from doing that, is lack of having a repeatable swing, plain and simple. I have the short game shots, I'm an above-average putter, my obstacle is a full swing that consistently plays sound, quality shots, that can avoid trouble, and find fairways and greens. What I would say someone should take away from this, isn't so much the ground-breaking ideas, but the fact that Hogan stresses the need for this fundamentals to applied every single shot. I think I used to believe that, one day, the golf swing would just become automatic, that I would just 'have the feel' and not have to be so 'techincal.' I suppose some lucky few do get to that point, but I don't believe most - and certainly not I - will. It reminds me of a little 'mantra' I thought of once: The golf swing should be like a surgical operation: the setup, as meticulous as the surgeon; the swing, as relaxed as the patient. I think that's mostly right, but 'relaxed' may not be the word that should be used. I think I'd replace it with 'as trusting,' but the more relevant point here is the first part. EVERY swing needs to be meticulous in its setup as regards the fundamentals.

The current rankings, I think, just further highlight how incredible Tiger's run there was. Any one of those guys in the top 10 right now are occasionally - if not somewhat frequently - irrelevant in a given tournament. Sure, they go on streaks - Kaymer looked flawless for a little while, Westwood was competing week after week for a bit, Mickelson torches the field two weeks ago.... Tiger was NEVER irrelevant. If he missed a cut, it was a national event. You'd see clips of Tiger wildly throwing a drive into the corporate tent, but yet he'd be on the first page of the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon. He battled week in, week out, on every type of course, in all weather conditions, not just for one year, or two...season after season. I thought Sunday was awesome, Schwartzel played out of his mind on the back, and though I would have loved to see Tiger hole two more putts and really put the screws to him, Charl can say he 'won' that tournament, not that he just outlasted other guys who fell back. However, I'm not crowning anyone the new/next great player. Even though Tiger didn't win, I think his competition-nerves got a good workout, and wake up, this week, and I wonder if we just may be about to enter another era of, it's Tiger around the top each week, and a rotating group of maybe 15-20 challengers. Maybe 1, 2 or 3 of those challengers appear with some regularity, but until they do it all year long, and then next year, and then the year after that, "Number 1" won't have much meaning, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to bump this - Since I was a very little kid, I've always had big hands. I could palm a basketball by the age of 12, and one friend would always (jokingly) mimic me when I made some hand gesture to exaggerate how long my fingers appeared. A while ago, I considered whether this was something I should consider in my golf grips, but was nervous to do anything extreme. With a swing that's very inconsistent, too, I always figured, fix the swing first before tweaking my equipment, lest I end up with equipment that's misaligned to a more sound swing. Recently, I have improved my swing a lot, but still struggled with a lot of hands entering the picture, where everything else would feel ok, but then just a massive *flip* or *stuck* would creep in. The more I thought about it, the more I decided now was the time to pursue a grip change. While I feel like, in the past, if I asked your average golf shop pro, 'do I need bigger grips because I have bigger hands,' I'd get a non-committal response. But, most run-of-the-mill fit charts I looked up online ( example ), would simply say, "if your glove size is *this* big, get grips *this* size, and wearing an XL glove, they recommended jumbo grips. This chart breaks it down more finely, and would imply midsize grips with two tape layers (FYI, my hands are just shy on 9" wrist-crease-to-middle-finger-tip, and my longest finger is about 3.5"). I decided, no guts, no glory, so I went all the way to jumbo (simple Golf Pride, Tour Velvet). The change has been significant and feels really good. The lack of activity I feel in my hands - really, the fingers, more accurately - feels right. I played Saturday and Sunday with them for the first times, and though some habits die hard and my hands may still try to do too much, they're less able to. A couple swings where I know I was too aggressive, instead of a snap hook, would just more of a really deep draw (still not good, but progress!). I feel more of the swing and contact in my shoulders and wrists, and the role of my hands has definitely been reduced. However, I don't feel like I'm holding a telephone pole on short shots, my hands are big enough that they still feel wrapped around the grip and still have some feel (I had a couple short bunker shots where a little more hinge and feel was required, and it felt ok). I think overall, going to the bigger grips has even highlighted, now that my hands are staying quiter, what else, and how to work on it. In short, hands and fingers are bad for the swing, so if yours are too active, a bigger grip may be just the ticket!

Played a GAP (golf assn. of Phila) match yesterday, an inter-club competition (among other things). I really started poorly, embarrassed by the 7-handicap I was toting among players I didn't know. Part of the quality of this shot isn't so much the shot itself, but the self-defeating thoughts I had to overcome. Coming off - IIRC - a couple leaky bogeys in a row, moderately long par-3. Playing about 170 yards, visually intimidiating, with ravine/drop-off/pond covering most of the in-between, huge bunkers guarding the enitre left side of the green, it's all carry, except when the pin is where it was, which was middle right (green is not very deep front-to-back, though). If you went at the rigth side, you could land it as much as twenty yards short, probably, and you could normally run it up on our quick greens, but it was really wet, and greens were recently punched, so greenside chip-and-runs weren't any fun yesterday. I've put a 6-iron over the green on a normal day (back bunker) before, and have hit it with 7-iron multiple times. The wind was coming at us some, swirling a little, hard to guage, but I know 5-iron is just way too much because the green is so shallow. I went with 6-iron and really had to calm myself down to trust the club, and my swing (which had been schizophrenic). I made probably the best swing all day, relaxed, struck it perfectly, a little draw that landed pin-high, about 4-5 feet. Hit a perfect slightly left-to-right breaking putt for birdie.

FedEx tracking shows it's waiting for me at home!

Got mine from Amazon for the putter. Ship tomorrow!

My Paypal dispute was put through and my account credited.

I'm not sure you'd find ANYONE that agrees with that. A prudent pace of play is expected just about anywhere. Paying your greens fees doesn't mean you've rented the course for the day; it only means you're entitled to your fair share of the course and the time to play it.

1. Swing issue #1: Find a consistent and flatter plane once and for all. 2. Swing issue #2: Gain width and shorten my swing. Currently, I tend to be too narrow, my arms go 'soft' and I just wrap the club around myself. Maintain width, short swing, consistent plane, bang. 3. Use #1 and #2 to gain confidence with my driver, especially. My swing issues to date were (obviously) most magnified with my driver. It forced me to hit a lot of layup/bailout shots that keep me from breaking through my next scoring plateau. I need to be able to have the confidence that I can hit my driver appreciably farther than my 3-wood and keep it in play every time. Those are my soft goals, sort of immeasurable/intangible. Though one may expect swing changes to improve score, often they don't right away (often, they make things worse......hi, Tiger!), but you can still consider them 'achieved.' The other kind are hard goals, which really IMO only come down to two things: your scores and your handicap. I think you HAVE to start ever year thinking of breaking your personal best, especially if you have a home course that you play consistently. This is my second year at a club and I love the course, I plan to play a lot. My personal best on any course is a 76, and last year I shot an 81 at my club, so I definitely think I can improve on that by >5 shots. My goal for my handicap is

I'm relatively happy I can still hit the ball after the winter layoff, but man, I've still got lots of work to do. I see the following issues: 1) Too narrow/too much slack in the left arm - I've got to get a wider arc and more consistent plane 2) My plane changes, usually starting too inside, then 'lifting up' at the top 3) I tend to stand up during the downswing. I can't tell if this is a ball position issue, or maybe because my plane is too upright, I've learned to lift up to avoid burying the club? I've uploaded a bunch of clips. Forgive the occasional shakiness, my not-quite-10-y/o son was the videographer. FYI, camera is a Kodak Playsport. And, yes, the grey is real... Worst swing of the day below; it was about a 60% PW, so I went completely back to bad (worse) habits and nearly conked myself in the back of head...

What, exactly, was judgmental about my post? All I did was state my opinions of why Tiger getting back to form would make for good golf and good competition, continued competition, and yes, how I 'don't see how' someone else could not want a person who has played this game as good as nearly anyone ever has, to show us more of it, inasmuchas they'd like ANY top player to reach their best form. It's not like I said, "yeah, and I hope Tiger pushes Rory McIlroy off the tour to a hot dog cart by year-end!!!!" I don't see the judgmental part. To boot, you call ME judgmental, and then proceed to use words like "whiny" as "weasley." Are those objective somehow?

I said I don't see how, I didn't demand that everyone agree with me. Alternatively, you could have formulated an intelligent response. Oh, well...

I don't see how anyone who truly loves the sport of golf couldn't root for Tiger to return to form. He is the only person I've ever had the privilege of watching, who seemingly could WILL himself into contention. I mean, the US Open at Torrey Pines on a busted knee, for crying out loud! Week in, week out, he would always find a way to make the clutch putt, stick the approach, chip in.... While in any given week, someone on the Tour is doing the same, to see one guy repeatedly do it - and isn't that what makes golf so hard, to be consistently good, let alone consistently good enough to beat an entire field? To say he will or won't....it's an exercise in futility. I believe because he psychologically knows what it's like to have been there (which is why Phil went from no majors for years, to getting a bunch after getting his first), and being in phenomenal physical condition, it's a tough argument to say, oh, he's done, he's too old. But that's just my opinion, I don't care if anyone agrees or not. Beyond that, to get into where his head is with the rest of his life, where his swing is, is it getting better, who's his teacher....it's all a bunch of worthless speculation. Tiger is a huge reason why so many of these young players are where they are now, because they wanted to chase him. If gets back near his elite level before, it's only going to keep pushing them. I would love to see Rory McIlroy play with Tiger in the last group of the Masters, and then Tiger and Fowler at the US Open, and have Tiger take them down with his best against their best, and then one day have Tiger's best be a little short, and have a young guy win, or any of a number of scenarios where really good golf is showcased by the game's best. To sit here and wish that Tiger's game never returns, and that he fades into obscurity, while the occasional 'hot kid' of the week manages a win, just seems unjust if you love the game.

Add me to the list. Ordered February 1st, no item, no status update, no nothing.

A pile of steaming propaganda to push an agenda. "Oh, look, with my feet 3' apart, my hips wiggly-wiggly all over. Spread them out another 1' and suddenly, I could stop a Chevy."

http://beastskills.com/ My right knee is long since shot, years of baseball catcher and football, and five surgeries. I can't do much cardio because of the impact. I started road biking last spring/summer and it's a great workout, great for the legs and easy on the knees, and gets the blood pumping. I've always lifted weights, and still try to, but I still needed something to really hit overall core strength and balance, and situps on a ball and the like just isn't fun. I stumbled onto this and I think I'm hooked on the idea. Not that this is some revolutionary set of skills, but to have them in one place, along with tutorials and descriptions, is a great resource. First up is a basic handstand. I've never done gymnastics, martial arts, anything that involved even cartwheels or such, let alone skills like these. I'm only one night of practice in - just practicing kicking up while next to a wall, getting the feel for supporting myself, and the balancing point. I've known my shoulder strength is subpar for a long time, but this really shows it. What I didn't realize, is how inflexible my wrists are. They were killing me at first, but they're already adapting. I'm not going to set my sights on the really advanced skills just yet, but I figure if I can even get a couple of these basics down, my overall shoulder and torso strength and balance will be vastly improved. I do also want to find some sort of yoga/stretching routine to go with this, throw in a handful of good range-of-motion weight exercises (I have a Soloflex) and get back on the bike as soon as weather permit, but I'm really excited about this. If nothing else, it's just cool to think I'll be able to do some of them!

I prefer to focus on the mental approach to something like this. One could say, "to shoot lower, hit more greens," but that won't tell you HOW to. One could tell you, "improve your ballstriking," but it's not like you can snap your fingers and do that. That generally comes with improving your swing mechanics and fundamentals, but that could be the answer to "how do you get to XXX handicap" in general. I'll share what I think got me to the point where, even when my swing is feeling off, I learned to contain my scores, so my bad scores have a pretty tight upper end, and when my swing is good, I found the ability to go sub-80. A single-digit handicapper: 1) Avoids trouble off the tee - he's not a bomber, necessarily, or a shaper of shots, or laser-like accurate. He is,however, able to know where the you're-dead spot is, and avoid it. He can pick the half of the driving area (not fairway, just the driving landing area) and put his ball there safely a lot of the time. 2) Does not attempt heroic shots - He doesn't magnify errors. Stuck behind a tree? Punch out to a good spot. 260 carry over water? Lay up. A 2 or 3 can pull off those kind of shots. A 7, 8, 9 takes his medicine and picks his spots to score. 3) Has a solid, all-around short game - While he may hole a chip here and there and stick a pitch to 6" occasionally, he's not deadly. However, stubbing a chip, blading a sand wedge, leaving it in the bunker....these are rarities. A straightforward chip-and-run, he'll get it close. Pitch over hazard short-side, he'll play it smart and just get a putt. Like before, no hero shots, just solid, no magnifying errors. 4) He's a good putter - Not universally lethal, not jaw-dropping, but he always seems to have good speed and rolls a solid putt. He will make a whole lot of 4-5 foot putts, that a 15-18 handicap will knock knees over. This probably sounds stupidly logical, but I think comparing these to a higher/lower handicap will show the difference. For example, a high handicapper will generally lose several shots to penalties off the tee. So I'm not saying a single-digit laces 280+ rockets (like a scratch likely does), just that they avoid trouble, by making a better mental plan and swinging more within themselves (which anyone, of any swing quality, can try to do). A low handicapper, 2-3 say, WILL be a deadly putter, very likely. A higher single-digit probably isn't, but their control is much better and they make the 3-foot comebacker, compared to the higher handicapper, who would routinely run a putt 6-feet by and be less than 50/50 to make the come-backer. That comes from trusting alignment and focusing on speed, again, which anyone can make part of their approach. In short, I think game and course management is something anyone can do to improve their scores, even with ballstriking and/or swing mechanics that aren't real great (I have some bad things in my swing that have haunted me, but I found that ratcheting everything down a notch means they show up, and hurt me, less). I once shot a 76, and was convinced it was because some swing changes I was trying to make had taken hold. I saw myself on video just a couple days later, and I looked exactly the same. The difference that day was my tempo, my shot and club selections, and my putting.

Quote: I thought about that, but you'd really need to get the curve perfect, as the heel of your putter would feel any hiccup or bump in the line. That's where I mostly thought, screw it, I'd buy the real thing, clamp that down, and either use it for a fence for my jigsaw, or better, rough cut with a bandsaw and then use a flush-cut router bit with a follow-bearing to run along the IDL itself. Then you'd get a perfect replica. Somehow that felt dishonest, though......one of these days, I hope my integrity actually gets me somewhere. ;-)

I saw one at a Dick's and really liked the idea, but the $80 price tag seemed way too steep. So I set about trying to make my own. Here's what I came up with: Materials: one 1/2" thick, 2x4 sheet of MDF, one section of primed MDF baseboard My first idea was to actually rout out a groove to put the baseboard in, but MDF is a real bitch on a router bit, and setting up a guide fence to do the curved part was going to be a challenge. The advantage would have been, pop the baseboard out, store the thing flat somewhere, pop back in when needed. Alas, I had to go the low-tech way and screw it in place. In order to assist with all things alignment-related, I first used a T-square, and covered the board in perpendicular grid lines. Next, via trial and error, decided how much of the guide would be straight, how much the bend should be, where ball would be placed, etc... I drilled four small holes from which the straight portion of the guide would be screwed in from the underside. One screw would be at the very front, another screw would be placed at the point at which I wanted the guide to start curving, and then two in the middle. For the curve, it was just a matter of placing a screw as a "post" at the necessary point. Some pictures: You can see my attempted router scar! The putting cup is the No Bogey cup. Here you can a spot marked where my putter starts. I place my putter just behind the line so I can check to see it's parallel to the line (square to the target). This also gives you a good idea of where the curve starts. My putter starts at the X, so a very short stroke would be square-to-square (FYI, the grid lines are about 2" apart). Any farther back, and it takes you inside slightly. Another view. This shot gives you a good idea of how much curve there is. The putter starts about 12" from the back edge, and at that point, the guide is about 1/2" off the target line. I should have just bought the real IDL and used it as a template, but in looking at some pictures, this looks pretty close, and doesn't feel too extreme. It does feel a little unusual, but I think that's because I definitely didn't have an IDL stroke, so it should feel a little odd, right? The curvature is easy enough to adjust by simply moving that post screw, if I decide I need to. Here's a pic of the real deal I found online that has a good view of the curvature. I think mine is a decent match. Lastly, not shown, I laid several strips of packing tape on the baseboard to make the putter head glide a bit more easily and prevent marking up my putter. How I use it: Right now, it has only one use: extremely short putts, and MDF rolls about a 15 on the stimp! I'm trying to decide if I can mock up some sort of "hill" so that I can strike it more firmly (it goes right through my putting cup with any speed). I could also put up some sort of backboard, or a PVC pipe with an endcap...various things. The bigger question is, do I now just cut away all the perimeter, leaving something that looks like the original, just a strip of board with a curved guide on it? I could bring that anywhere, but then I lose all of the alignment grid. Heck, now that I've done it once, maybe I cut this one to have as a portable device, and just make another to use in-home to just work on stroke-alignment? Regardless, I think what I have will definitely help my stroke during this lousy winter we're having. Cheers!

Ah, you're probably right, I forgot GHIN doesn't go real-time.

I know the math on the handicap, and I finally am logging scores in GHIN. I have a set of scores, and can't figure out why it's yielding the index it is. This is straight off GHIN as it's displaying my scores. Score - rating - slope - diff 89 - 69.9 - 128 - 16.9 88 - 70.7 - 130 - 15 84 - 68.8 - 120 - 14.3 79 - 68.3 - 118 - 10.2 82 - 71.4 - 132 - 9.1 82 - 71.4 - 132 - 9.1 81 - 70.4 - 135 - 8.9 82 - 72.9 - 135 - 7.6 77 - 69.9 - 128 - 6.3 With only 9 scores posted, it should be averaging my best three, which I sorted to the bottom here. 6.3+7.6+8.9 = 22.8 22.8 / 3 = 7.6 7.6 * 0.96 = 7.3 GHIN is telling me a 6.0, which says it's usually just one score. What am I missing?

When you 'get away with' a bad shot, it's called an O.J.

THE first thing you need is solid contact. While many clubs are forgiving relatively, there is nothing that will help consistent distance like hitting the sweet spot (or very close). Second thing, and very important, is LAG. You don't need Sergio-like wrist-cock, but you can't cast it out halfway down. Your right arm should still be slightly bent at impact, indicating that it is still in the process of delivering power to the ball. Of course, the great irony is, what helps you do this, is a distinct LACK of trying. Any over-attempt to hit hard will cause loss of balance, poor contact and - usually - the arms/wrists straightening out well before impact. Stay quiet, well-balanced, get your weight quietly, but assuredly, through the impact zone, followed by the clubhead solidly hitting the ball. That will get you probably 85-90% of the distance you're capable, while also keeping it on the short grass.

I'm on an 8-man team this Saturday. Formats are as follows: MORNING: One foursome plays a full scramble; team handicap is 5% of the group's total, must use each person's drive at least twice. The other foursome plays a 2x2 Select Tee Shot -> Alternate Shot; handicap is 20% of the higher + 30% of the lower. AFTERNOON: One team plays a 2x2 Better Ball, using 90% of handicaps. The other team plays a four man Stableford with 100% handicaps; net par is 1 point, then up to 3, 6 and 10 for net double eagle. Your team's score for the day is: Scramble + Select Tee/AS x 2 + Better Ball x 2 - Stableford team score. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Bad news, I have very few postable scores this year, so my course index is a 7.0. I'm playing the ST/AS (probably the hardest format) in the morning and the BB in the afternoon (with a guy with solid game, I think we can put up a real good score there).