sonicblue

Sorry for poor pic quality, cell phone was all I had This was a few weeks ago, just found this thread.... Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo, CA, the 13th hole, IIRC. We were playing from the tips, and you had to climb these massive natural steps to get back to the tee box. The view from the blue tee BACK to the tips (that's my friend up there)! Once there, you were looking down - oh - about 200 feet, easily. It was like you were teeing off the side of a cliff, and all carry, nothing but rocks and ravine in front of you. I hit a 7I, and it felt like time stood still watching it fly and then fall all the way down to the hole. But....oh....the result:

Here's what it does: Each line records the course, date, rating and slope. You enter your scores as a five digit number, namely: Par - Score - Putts - FH - GIR. An entry of "45210" would indicate: Par = 4 Score = 5 Putts = 2 FH = Yes (1 = yes, 0 = no) GIR = No (1 = yes, 0 = no) From there, the stats I have right now are: Score, GIR %, PPGIR, PPMGIR, Scrambling, Driving, # subpar, # bogies, # worse. For all these stats, I also have the cumulative number, bests in each category, and the stats you achieved in each during the best (lowest scoring) round. Lastly, it computes your USGA handicap (though I ignore the 5-round minimum) based on both the formula-# of rounds, and all rounds (just so you can see how the requirement of using "X # of best rounds" affects your index). It's an early draft but I wanted to post it anyway. Feel free to post comments, suggestions, critiques, etc.... I can do pretty much anything with a spreadsheet, so I can refine and add, but I also want to keep it pretty compact. It only has 40 rows right now in order to stay under forum file size limits. I have a sample round loaded in as an example of how to fill it out. Hope it's helpful.

Yeah, I'm a mad math guy. If anyone here ever needs a spreadsheet for something, I can make Excel do pretty much anything! I just designed a very rough one to start tracking my major stats (driving, scrambling, PPGIR, etc...).

Yesterday afternoon, 79 from the whites at www.bellavistagc.com . Thought it was a 78, then while putting together a new stats spreadsheet, realized I marked one wrong. Stats: PPGIR: 2.29 (ugh) PPMGIR: 1.45 Scrambling: 36.4% Driving: 46.2% My most important unreflected stat was that I didn't hit any drive OB (I've been tending to just flat yank 1-2 per round, killing my scores). My putting obviously needs work, but I made a lot of good close chips. A better iron here or there, a better 4-foot putt here and there, and I could have gone really low. I feel like my game may finally be coming together. My official index right now is 9.9 but that's only tracked on 11 rounds, so the index uses the best four. I've dropped a few really good rounds, but also some really poor ones. Using all of my rounds, I'm a 14.6 (very erratic this year!).

Yes, and we all know that the 170th guy on the Tour is generally about 30x better than the average golfer

I got ya' know, basically the interplay between how long your first putt generally is. When you hit a GIR, you tend to have a longer putt on average, than the person who misses the green and is then chipping/pitching on. Yeah, I shoulda gotten that long ago....

When I first met the guy who has become my best friend and regular golfing buddy, he was telling me how he had just played a round where he was bombing past the other guys. I kinda thought, 'yeah, probably not...' but when we got to the course, he's the real deal. It's nothing for him to hit it 280, will usually rip a 300-yd'er each round. His iron game comes and goes but it's generally good; his greenside game is mediocre, so he plays to around a 12-15.

Cleveland TA1 Gunmetal

Cleveland guy here. HiBore driver and 3-wood, both have great weight distribution and real pop off the clubface. Halo 3H is a solid competitor in the hybrid market. I play TA1 gunmetal irons - hard to hit, probably a bit "ahead" of my skill level, but ooooooh when you strike them pure.... Cleveland wedges have a unflappable reputation. They lack any real putter candidate, admittedly......

First: fraternity tattoo on right hip Second: panther on right shoulder blade (I know, pretty common now, but it wasn't when I got it) Third: right ankle band, a chain of infinity symbols (I'm a math guy) Fourth: roses with ribbon bearing my wife's name, left rib cage (that f'in hurt!) Fifth: design that combines various rune symbols for man, husband and warrior, to the right of my tailbone, just below waist level Been several years since my last. I want to get another one that reflects my role now as father of two children, something that alludes to the protection, support and strength I need to give them. No ideas yet.....

I used to be a REAL nut when it came to pressuring myself, beating myself up, etc.... I like to think I still have high expectations for myself, but golf doesn't allow you to beat yourself up. It just doesn't work (well, I suppose for the truly gifted, it may). I try to put pressure on myself to just hit good shots. I'm at the point where I should be capable of eliminating the truly bad shots, minimizing the poor shots and hitting a handful of very good shots. Beyond that, I realize I'm still at a point where my score can get unhinged every now and then, without my really falling apart. It's just the level I'm at. Right now, though, I couch it as, I expect myself to break 90 pretty much any time I play (unless I have no local knowledge of a course) and I'd like to at least threaten 80 if it's a familiar course.

Oh, my bad, that's only for PPGIR. Still, 30 PPR is tour quality.

Pink Razr? Um, are you a chick?

FWIW, my father - a long-time golfer who at one point was probably single-digit but is now wallowed around a 15-20 - adopted the S&T; swing. Now, let me say, that his "traditional" swing was riddled with problems that I would have loved to help him fix had he not lived 300 miles away (namely just overswinging, trying to regain distance in his older age). However, he opted to just try S&T; and not only is he feeling good about his game all of a sudden, he dropped his first ace as well. Sure, likely coincidence, but results are results......

This sounds so simple, you'll swear it won't work, but it does. It's actually a great total swing tuning, too. I used my vinyl kitchen floor (12x12" tile pattern), since it provides great alignment, for feet and clubface. Take your address position. I practice in pieces, and only at slow-motion speed: 1) takeaway to club parallel behind me 2) complete backswing to top 3) transition down (just the initial hip "bump" and start of shoulder uncoil) 4) impact position 5) completion Going from the transition position (hips slightly open, hands still around chest high, wrists fully hinged) to the impact position (hips fully open, wrists unhinged, hands slightly ahead of ball, clubface at ball and slightly delofted) is a huge, huge component of ball striking and distance. You need to accomplish this using the big muscles (torso, shoulders) to provide the speed through, while the small muscles (wrists, hands) move minimally but accurately and well-timed with the others. This drill lets you focus on those moves and feel where you should be at each stage. However, what I found to be the MOST useful part of this is #4. Though you do this in slow motion, you need to do it naturally, and it can be very revealing to see where your hands return the clubface. Moreover, you can learn an awful lot about how slight movements in the wrists can alter clubface alignment, not only left/right/square, but also lofted/delofted. I found that with consistent practice, just 5-10 minutes a day, quickly helped me learn what "square at impact" really felt like. On the course, I was able to just worry about using the big muscles through most of the swing, keeping my hands/arms more relaxed and then just making sure my hands hit "square" as they passed the ball. I haven't done this drill for a while (moved out of that house, no more kitchen floor with high ceilings ) and my game has suffered accordingly. I need to get back into it.......

Based on a quick search, I am the only actuary here!

I'm entirely self-taught (i.e., through just watching TV, reading books/mags, independent drills, etc...). I took one set of three lessons, helped for a bit, but ultimately I had to rethink it all in my own head. I consider myself a student of the swing, and believe everyone has to accomplish the same basic goals but via their own anatomy. I'll pass on the occasional tip to a partner but only if I actually know that person (I won't just start blabbing to some random single I hook up with, unless they actually ask). I've taught my wife from scratch, and she's never been an athlete of any kind, to the point where she can pop a 175-yd drive out there straight (we're working on chipping and putting!). My regular golfing buddy has a very unique, self-constructed swing that tends to get off-kilter a lot, and I can usually set him straight within a couple holes. All in all, I've considered advertising locally giving inexpensive, beginner golf lessons just to see if I could really teach.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/stats.htm Phil is leading with 1.725 putts/hole = 31.05 putts per round, one full stroke worse than you. To find the guy averaging one stroke worse than that, you have to go down to #46, Bob Heintz. Which means, when it comes to putting, you're making Phil Mickelson look like Bob Heintz. Are you sure that's now good putting??!!?!?

My quickest guess is that you were achieving better "de-lofting" before, and really making a downward strike on the ball. If your impact plane is now upward on the ball, it will significantly lower your "compression" factor on the ball. Thing is, with a driver, an upward strike is a good thing, so that may be why your driver is flying long, but your irons lack "oomph." HTH.