Stewie007

Why are you guys still feeding him material? Not worth the time or effort.

Yeah, I can see that now that you "mention" it.... But the context is kind of meshed together in a way that its hard to tell when the sarcasm ends and the criticism of the "sarcastically represented figure" begins.....

This coming from a guy who obviously thinks his smells like cherries... Oh, and for a 1 handicapper, you are awfully bad at hitting greens on Par 3s................. Suggests that you really are the shit.... except, you're the one that stinks.

At some point, when I finally get my consistency up with my driver I am going to go to a facility with one of those machines and take a bunch of swings... hehe.

In fact, I have to revise my prior statement... Distances on the course are better than on the range... Hadn't been to the range for a little bit and I forgot how beat up and sun baked the balls are... and they're also practice balls... Anyways, to the point of the quoting you... hehe... I've always had strong Popeye forearms, but lately my right forearm is having a bit of a tennis elbow like problem. It doesn't seem to affect the swing, and stretching makes it better. Do you do a significant stretch routine before playing? I had my best day on the range in ages today after doing plenty of stretches. Full forward stretch (knees bent for lower back rather than hamstrings). Back Bends, wrist and palm stretches, rotating stretches, arm raises, shoulder stretches, shoulder squeezes... The swing felt so natural and my 7 iron distances were quite unreal... I don't want to quote the distance, as it seemed a bit long. I'll save it for the course. :)

hehehe that's funny.... Although I doubt it, as the odds of someone putting it into the hole on demand are extremely small from even 130 yards, that insurance policy probably wasn't all that expensive. I know.... I'm being a buzz kill

With respect to your last parenthetical.... I never get much of a feeling of confidence or any real data on distances on a range. Its bloody pointless to me for anything other than whether or not I've got the shanks and how to fix it. The course is the only place where I can learn distances with any reliability. So that rings quite true. I'm collecting data thus far, and sooner or later I'll have some statistical averages, but it takes time on the course. I think my range distances would probably be a bit better than those on the course, so it does me little good even if I know.

A lot of noise can be distracting. It is why Women's tennis is so impossible to watch anymore. All the grunting and shrieking they do to throw off their competitors is getting worse and its annoying.

Arguing politics is like walking into a door expecting that at that very moment all of your atoms will perfectly align their electrons with the door so that you may pass straight on through. It is about that useless. And, by the way, the probability of walking through a door or wall is NOT zero....... Just really really really close.

One of my Great Uncles said, "You don't need expensive golf clubs to play well." Why? Because top of the line golf clubs in the hands of the normal golfer is no different than 8 year old golf clubs. Or, taken more properly, expensive golf clubs won't make you a better golfer than less expensive clubs..... It applies to all clubs. Get two golfers together who are equal in skill. One buys a 300 dollar driver, the other got a 3 generations old Driver for 100 bucks. Both of them drive the ball with generally equal average drives. But one of them wasted 200 dollars. Would you pay 30 bucks for the exact same meal as another guy spent 10 bucks on? You can say "These feel better" all you want, but there are past generation clubs all over the place that cost less than the latest and greatest. You seem to want to buy, so maybe not spend so much money thinking it will make improvements with your game. It wont.

I never put much weight in the results of those "machines." They seem to be geared to tell you that you're hitting it a lot farther than you really are. I remember hitting an obvious duff at GolfGalaxy yet the machine said I hit it 250. I know what would have REALLY happened. I also remember the guy who tried out a driver before me nailing it over 300 yards each time with the sales person saying "It would go 10 yards further in reality, outside." Seems to me the store's machines embellish a bit to make you want to buy a club.... hehehe Make you feel like it goes soooo much farther than your 2 year old club. hehehe

A lot of variability here. A lot of courses are offering deals to get people to come out, and I think we'll be seeing higher rates as things improve when golfers are out in more force and the courses are forced to capacity. Prices will increase to accommodate. It really depends on the amount of people that go to the course. A really popular, and quite good municipal course around here charges $45 at the minimum and $65 on peak weekends. Winter rates come down, but not by a lot. A lot of courses are offering deals to get people out, since golf courses still aren't seeing the numbers that they had before 2008-2009. I paid $34 for a really nice course that probably could get around $55, but its a little out of the way and the lower price attracts more people. Other courses in higher population areas can charge more, but still a lot of deals. There is one Gem that is always in great shape and is actually quite well designed that plays for $16 after 4PM on every day in the week (at least as long as 18 holes is possible after that time... Its a bloody steal! They get a lot of after work golfers out as a result. I bet they make more money than they otherwise would. Very aggressive rate stepping for later in the day. Their Weekend rates are $55. In the Charlotte area, deals are pretty easy to find at most places. Though, there are a few that charge high prices pretty consistently only dropping as low as $40 (like Verdict Ridge) because they are good enough to get that price.

You missed the point Sean.... You are assuming that I said anyone can swing really fast as if that is to say they're good.... I was saying that they can swing like a mad man in any direction they want, but it doesn't equate to good results. It wasn't a serious proposition to say they're swinging like a pro. You took it too literally.... But then, that's what happens when you single out a SINGLE line.

There are two things that happen here. When people say how far they can hit it, they like to add the farthest ever. Others are simply embellishing their distances, perhaps unknowingly; perhaps knowingly. Anyone can swing a golf club extremely fast, but it doesn't mean that you're going to hit it well.... I've taken joke swings that probably were pretty speedy.... then I line up to the ball and try to hit it and watch it go in all sorts of directions..... If I hit a ball so fast and it looks like it is orbiting my position, I cannot claim that the circumference of the orbit is the distance I drove the ball..... hehehe Most people don't track every single drive, and still many of the times they thought that it had to have gone a million miles, it actually went much less farther than they had hoped. No need to tell anyone about that, right? So when one goes especially far, it is exciting and it is remembered. All of that other "nonsense" is forgotten. So the average golfer goes dutifully home to report on his lengthy drive and will not update that until he hits one farther.... maybe never. I love it when I hit it that far, and I will admit that it makes me beat my chest over it for a little bit. However, you've gotta come back down to Earth and realize that your average is not that high. I believe people when they say they HAVE hit it 300 or 315 yards. If I can hit one 306 yards like I did today, and I did verify it by GPS from point to point, then I see no reason that someone else cannot. I, however, know that given my skill level and that of the average golfer around me, they are probably not hitting these blazers an average of that far. That would suggest that their drives either go REALLY far (up to 340 or more) to compensate for the under 260 ones, or they all would have to be very consistently around that average with a low Standard Deviation. That means the distribution curve would be VERY tight and mound shaped.... Usually they're quite skewed, especially for the average golfer. I know, then, that the probability of that well distributed curve for anyone who says they have a horrible swing and a very high handicap is very low. Embellishment and nothing more. So, no, you are not being cynical. You are being realistic. :) Anyone can hit a freak shot. Most 300+ duffers hit their drives under 250 average. Gotta count the worm burners that go 100 yards... that really hurts the average.... hehehe.

I thought that driving into less trouble would improve my game... Strangely, I finally acquire a new 460cc driver instead of the older smaller types and then my irons suffer. I was hitting them fine 5 weeks ago, but now... week after week I can't hit one to save my life... Short game is as always. I scored a 109. I hit 7/13 fairways, but a miserable 2 GIRs. Mostly 2 putts. Most of my good shots were off of the tee, with mediocre shots otherwise. Not completely terrible, but it could have been better. I bested my best drive from last week, so clearly driving is no longer something I need to work on. Bloody irons...... hehehe

A little tidbit from what I have learned lately. This seems to occur when you have a significant lack of confidence in your overall swing. Your body is telling you that it doesn't feel right. The absence of the ball relieves a bit of that worrisome feeling. (That is what it has been for me, still somewhat, but less so now). In other words, there is something flawed in your swing mechanics and your body and mind are giving you hints of that. If you were confident in your swing, there would be no reason for increased anxiety when the ball is addressed. Maybe a lesson or just some practice (more likely) to search for that balance. Or.... maybe you need to club up because you aren't confident in your distances? :) Swinging harder than you need to suggests that you're going for the farthest possible mean distance for that club and perhaps you should select one club up. Kind of shooting in the dark.

I'm going to go with trick question, b, in the hole. I probably would have used a 56 with a thick wind so I could take it a bit easier without having to overwork myself... :p

I play one round a week, sometimes two rounds. I don't lie about my scores. I try to work on my game and am registering improvement. So I resent the term "Weekend Golfer" as it is used to imply "Weekend Hack." hehehe I don't always play perfectly according to rules, but I don't advertise those scores either. All scores I would use to calculate a handicap would be scores considering the R.O.G. Last week on a non busy day I recorded and posted scores of 10 & 12.... hehehe I think its pretty clear that I don't bend the rules for the most part. Only if I have to, and I generally take a 2 stroke if I have to. :-p

I think the probability of an anonymous poster being completely honest is somewhere around 75%... We all know that there will be no need to prove it, so embellishments will be made. I personally haven't a clue how far I hit every club with reliability. I have an idea, but just getting into verifying by measurement through GPS... so i'll know soon enough.

D - 480 3w- 450 4i- 400 5i- 380 6i- 360 7i- 340 8i- 320 9i- 300 pw- 280 gap- 260 sw- 240 lw- 220 pt- 0-120

That's basically what I was getting at. When you cast, that's what you're doing. You're using upper body rotation for speed. There is nothing wrong with accuracy.... though. hehehehe :)

ER thats right, 747 hehe.

The problem is, you're confusing the feeling of speed in your upper body for club head speed. Odds are, like me, you have been making some mechanical errors resulting in errant drives. So you slow it down, but with the errors still present it reduces distance while gaining some accuracy through control. Odds are you've been using your upper body rotation to drive the club. You haven't the appropriate lag to multiply that rotational speed to get greater distances with accuracy. Lag increases your club head speed by means of your releasing it through the ball. Its a double pivot, basically. If you've done any complex mathematics or physics I am sure you would have covered something similar. Think about a pitcher. He rotates his arm around the shoulder, but to get that speed his hand is essentially rotating around the elbow. One rotational force is compounded by another and you have greater speed. You can get that club head speed by rotating faster, so its a little different. But your arms don't have the strength to really moderate those forces; you're using your muscles with too much intensity. Its the cocking of the wrist that is important. Pay attention to that in your take away. The proper swing plane will feel more natural, and you will swing through the ball and the follow through rotation will feel so natural and right.... and you won't BELIEVE how far it can go. :) I've probably said it a million times by now..... can't help it, because this finally dawned on me last weekend.... :p

Lessons for the beginner should be a personal requirement. You don't have to take a ton of them. Group lessons can save you some $$. Then, practice! I would be careful to avoid over immersing yourself in books and study of the golf swing. Many times it doesn't help much without someone to show you what it means. At least, not when your beginning. I found that last year I was studying golf swings trying to improve upon mine it got me nowhere. In fact, I probably regressed in countless attempts to do something that I didn't really understand very well. Heck, it wasn't until this past weekend that I finally discovered my error when using a new and lighter driver. (See Avatar). Darn thing wouldn't let me hit the ball well unless I swung it on the much desired plane.... Which I finally discovered how to do... And it didn't come out of a video.. I had a Golf Epiphany! :p This is why I stress PRACTICE!! :) Nothing replaces it besides a lesson to point you in the correct direction. :)