WorkerOfTheBall

Hi Bullitt, I play "TheRoad" about once per month as I live only 30 minutes away. The key to the course (IMO) is to understand (and commit) to your lines off the tee. Despite the perceived difficulty off the tee, the landing spots are very generous. Tobacco Road is a 2nd shot golf course and Mike Stranz (the designer) plays evil-mind-tricks with golfers. Prepare for Tobacco Road by honing your short game and distance control. 50% of the greens require extreme accuracy as landing zones are narrow while the other 50% requires extreme distance control as the landing zones are shallow. Determine your safe zones and play aggressively to them. You will do just fine. :) Best of luck, enjoy and have fun. It is by far my favorite course in the world! Worker

Hey Jeck, Viewing the videos you posted, I get the feeling your distance is pretty good. I like your speed and athleticism and feel you can be a very good ‘player’. I am going to recommend a few simple thoughts of what I’d like to see if I were helping you. ***Golfswing1.wmv*** Frame 0:00 – Alignment looks a bit left. Explanation: Think railroad tracks, especially if your intentional target is at the white vertical pole just behind your neck. Simply squaring up your alignment can do wonders for swing plane. Frame: 0:00 – Hands look fairly close to your legs. Explanation: I’d like to see at least a hands width of distance between your hands and thighs at address. The lack of room here will require a compensatory move later in the swing. Frame: 0:00 – Address weight distribution. Explanation: Your address appears to be a bit upright (difficult to tell for sure as I do not know your height). I would like to see a bit more spine tilt angle; this should offer a bit more lower body stability and support the rotation of the upper body. Frame: 0:05 – Club head being pulled inside quickly. Explanation: As others have commented, this is the path to coming over the top. A good position would be to have your clubhead along the lines of your hands when the club reaches parallel to the ground. This will prevent you from getting the club trapped behind you later at Frame 0:06. Frame: 0:06 Straight right knee. Explanation: Maintaining your right knee flex is vital! Your inconsistent ball striking can be the result of this knee losing the flex established at address (among other things). Frame: 0:06 (Impact) Coming out of shot – change in spine angle. Explanation: Take a look at address and compare your spine angle with this frame at impact. There was a noticeable move upward, partly due to lack of room established at address between the hands and thighs. The move of your bum inward stops the lower body rotation which causes a collapse of the arms just shortly after impact (Frame 0:04 golfswing2.wmv). A good thought to keep in mind is to think as though your belt buckle remains ahead of your hands on the downswing and that the hands never catch up. These are just some thoughts that came to mind and please read with a grain of salt. I firmly believe the biggest issues are with the setup and alignment and your first move away from the ball. Fairly easy steps to remedy. While I’m no instructor, I am a fairly good player. This would be items I would mention if asked for help. Keep working hard, you are definitely on your way. Cheers! WoTb

When looking at a player's performance it is easy to compare them to Tiger. I believe this to be unfair to the player in question (Mickelson) and to Tiger. Very simply put, Phil is no Tiger.....nor is anyone else for that matter. Phil on his own merit is a GREAT player, three majors and 30+ wins is simply phenomenal, give him credit there. As for competing week in and week out ....Phil is on par to his WGR of #2, he beat a loaded field (including Tiger) at the Deutsche Bank last year, not to mention winning the player's earlier in 07'. It is easy to compare but as Phil said himself last year, the “guy” (Tiger) is just in another league with all the wins and majors.

The following is strictly my opinion and your mileage may vary (YMMV)! This is one of the most important (swing related) items you can work on. I believe it to be so important it surpasses every other swing component and is "possibly" second only to tempo. Just how important is the movement of the lower body? If done incorrectly everything related to the full swing 'can' be more difficult; lack of space through the strike, over the top (OTT), chicken wing (left elbow) and inconsistent ball contact, in other words, "an action dominated by the shoulders". Thinking strictly about the hips leading the downswing (again, IMO) isn't the way to go. I believe the focus should be lower, starting with footwork and working your way up, the hips will react to what your feet and legs are doing. In regards to the backswing, the shoulders do lead the hips. The hips react to the turning of the shoulders (think X factor). Is it a 2 to 1 ratio? Not sure, but the hips on average rotate about half as much as the shoulders. As TarDawg stated, you should feel a "coil" or winding up sensation (torque if you will) during the backswing. The above mentioned pertains to a conventional swing theory and not the 'stack and tilt' (S&T;). What I like to focus on is getting the right hip over the right heel at the top, this ensures your weight gets off your front foot. It also keeps the right hip fairly level and prevents it from getting too high. From there, the move is to transfer the weight to the left foot (shoulders remain turned while the weight shifts from right to left). Once the majority of the weight has transfered to your front foot, the left hip should start clearing out (in other words, your weight has shifted to the left heel). The above post strictly refers to my opinion and should be taken with a shot of Tequila.

No matter how well you do something in life, there should be a level of professionalism in how you act and perform. I hear a lot of people (BB Mesquite contestants too) state how good of a player Anthony is. Personally, all I can do is go by what I've viewed on the show, and I was far from impressed. After all, if you can't perform when the pressure is on, then what's the point?

My thoughts are excellent backswing, its about as good as it can get for a new golfer. Great work! I do have some observations however.... (please note, these are simply my opinions, YMMV). Your transition looks to be a lunge (slide) left , this explains why the right leg loses its flex and raises the right hip. This also causes the loss of your spine angle established at address (and at the top). This "slide" will cause you to leave the club behind (in essence, playing "catch-up"). Another byproduct of being "late" is the high follow through, this can fixed by addressing things earlier in the swing. My recommendations: Maintain the (right) knee flex established at address. Think more body (core) rotation and less upper body slide on the way down. :) Keep it up!

Not sure how I can explain the importance of the above statement. Too much grip pressure can ruin a golf 'swing' (think Jim Flick here) ...."feel the weight of the club head", without this sensation swing path and release can both be affected. A drill you can try (with relaxed pressure) is feeling the shaft against your trigger finger on the downswing. The index finger position of your right hand should look and feel like a gun trigger finger (see photo). This drill is two-fold, it will allow you to maintain lag and prevent you from "over gripping" the club. Doug

Long irons are vital to my game, I rely on them the majority of the time off the tee on holes 400 yds or less ...in fact, I still carry my muscle back 2i (the chicken stick) and utilize it quite often doing a round. I can see the need for hybrids, but for me personally I do not like the ball flight. I am a high ball player by nature and hybrids really balloon on me. I will go the method of "game improvement" clubs one day but that's down the road. Doug

I have never hit a cast iron, to be honest I have no desire to. The size is a major turn off. This probably also explains why I don't have any hybrids either. D

Driver: No time for course management ....this club will allow me to open the course up. 2i: My chicken stick ...from high cuts to low draw stingers, it's my "fairway getter". 7i: Versatile ...can hit it 110 or 180 58*: From high flops to low spinners ...versatile club Putter: Need something for those tap ins.

Colt has to do what is best for him and his career, not what fans want. Playing the Masters as an "Am" maybe great for some but how does that better his career? I don't blame him for making the choice he did.

Hello guys, Most of you know about the laws of ball flight, but I feel it can be helpful to show some of the newer players why a ball does what it does once it leaves the club. This can be helpful when trying to diagnose problems with ball flight on the course or while practicing on the range. There are two issues that effect ball flight: 1. Path of swing through impact 2. Position of club face (e.g. closed, square or open). A straight shot is created by a square club face and a straight (down the line) swing path. A slice is attributed to an open club face and vice versa for a draw. I believe it is important to analyze your ball flight on each shot, this can be a barometer for how you play a specific day or even for parts of a round. In the chart below you can view the characteristics on how the ball 'performs' once struck. The 3 lines leaving the center shows 'path of swing' while the curvature (or lack of) determines the position of the club face. Hope this helps, Doug

I would think a more simpler (easier) way to feel this would be to take your normal setup, without moving hinge your wrist upwards to where the club head moves toward your head. Turn your shoulders and you will notice the club is perfectly set. This will also help in determining your plane as well. Cheers! Doug

I have a different PSR for my range work than I do "on course". I also have 2 different reasons for going to the range ....one being to warm up while the other is to work on swing mechanics. Using my full PSR on the range would entail 2 hour buckets. Doug

I vary my ball position depending on several factors .....the lie being the most important. I also alter the position depending on the shot shape I 'intend' to play. I rely on my long irons immensely, I must play them more forward than my mid to short irons. Doug

DiggityDog, My basis on saying he was flat (or under the plane) revolves around where the shaft and club head appeared to be on the way down. I will admit it is very difficult to comment accurately with so much upper body compression, but moreira85 did say ignore the head dropping which is hard to do. If you notice in the photos, the hips have done very little clearing, team that with the position of the shaft and it's a recipe for getting "stuck". Notice in photo 3 (left arrow) how low his right shoulder is? ....typically you won't see that with an 'over the top' (OTT) move, although it is hard to determine without seeing the backswing. The 2nd arrow shows just how far from the inside he is coming. I would prefer to have both forearms in line at this point. It will take an enormous amount of forearm and/or wrist rotation to square the face. Disclaimer: Please note that these are my opinions and are more than likely wrong! Doug

Moreira, Personally I feel you are too connected coming into 'impact', not to mention the difficulty you may experience squaring the club face. I fully understand what you are trying to accomplish (getting into the slot) but I feel your lower body needs to initiate the move from the top. Your club appears to also be a bit too flat ....causing a dramatic inside to out swing path through the strike. Just my $.02 Doug

Condition! As a lover of golf, the length of the course doesn't matter to me... you still need to execute the shots. I do not however want to spend my money on a course that isn't kept in great shape, what's the point? I was lucky to attend the Master's when Phil won and the first thing I noticed about Augusta National is "perfection". Grass that looks better than the carpet in your house, tee boxes that are symmetrically perfect and level, well defined fringes and fairways. Oh my! I'm getting excited thinking about it. Put a course in that great of shape near me and I'd be happy to play it everyday.

I started playing in 2001 and have progressed very well. I've always had the ability to analyze new ventures, break it down and concentrate on the fundamentals. In regards to golf I spent my first two or so years trying to develop some "perfect hoganesque" swing. While the swing looked great, I wasn't compressing the ball very well at all. I have since focused my efforts on short game, shot shaping and ball compression. This was the best thing I could have done! While I do video myself at times, I really focus on the strike and "playing the game" ...for me, it has helped tremendously. In my book, there is nothing greater than "smashing", trapping or compressing the ball solidly. Team that with a fundamental setup, grip and alignment and it makes the game very enjoyable!

Personally I don't believe this would work for me. I feel it would detach me from the environment ....I love the sounds and senses I have on the course ....I think music would interfere with that. Don't get me wrong ..I love music as much as anyone, but I don't think it would help my game. On another note, I could see how one could listen on a slow day on the course, (e.g. waiting for groups in front of you). But I would think one's tempo could be jeopardized.

Looking at the final tally for Thursday's play, one may think it was a 'walk in the park' today ...personally I felt the ROW shot themselves in the foot on almost every match. Sabatini into the water on 18th, Appleby's left to left 2nd shot also on 18, Ernie missing the short uphill putt (18th) makes me feel we dodged a bullet today. I liked the Phil/Woody pairing. Anyways ....way to go US!

With the ball position in #1 ...is he hitting a knockdown or a trap draw? :) Doug

Hello Thomas, I would like to offer my opinions to what you've asked. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) but you are about to begin a journey that will surely last a lifetime. Isn't that great? Looking at the Nickent Iron set I believe that would be a good set to start with. As for graphite vs. steel I am partial to steel for your age. I do believe it to be a matter of preference and only you can tell which one you like better. I recommend trying (demo) both shafts to determine what you are most comfortable with. Will this retailer custom fit you? Will they perform swing analysis if you purchase the set and what was his basis on recommending the equipment (shaft) he did? Do you trust the salesperson's judgment as being knowledgeable? The type of equipment is important no doubt, but being fitted properly (which includes shaft length, swing weight and lie and loft angles) is vital and shouldn't be overlooked. If you are in doubt of the type of clubs you may want, I suggest seeing if there are manufacturers offering 'demo days' in your area. Most manufacturers travel around the country allowing customers to try their products at driving ranges and golf courses. The same goes for drivers and fairway woods. Get the clubs in your hands if possible first before committing and determine what feels and looks good to you. Best of luck! Doug Listing of companies offering demo days and their web site links... http://golf.about.com/cs/clubmanufac...a/demodays.htm (bottom of page)

Steve, That 9th hole is a brute (#1 hdcp) and most golfers make double. There is NO bailout or safe shot into that green. The Par 5 you are speaking of must be the Par 5 13th (573yds) ...from 30 yds short, you can't see the green.

Iacas, What an excellent review on some popular courses in the NC sandhills. I believe for the most part you were very accurate with the reviews and agree with your overall sentiments. "The Pit" is a course everyone should play at least once. It is a different type of setup than your normal 'parkland' 18 and simply something you will never forget. This doesn't mean it is a great course ...but merely something a bit different. Mid-Pines is a more traditional setup. It is along the lines of the Pinehurst/Pine Needles layouts. Classic, no trickery (besides the reverse-bowl-greens) and right there in front of you! You definitely hit this review 'flush'. The course is VERY well maintained and I agree, can definitely be longer in length. Think Ross and you have a good idea of this design. Tobacco Road, the epitome of "love and hate"! I have played there more times than I can count ....guests either love the setup with all its trickery, blind shots and unusual views, or feel its a waste of money, time and agronomy efforts. Overall, a very short course with intimidating tee shots and unfair approach shots. I do feel after playing 'The Road' a few times one can start to appreciate the layout a bit more ..... Well done and very accurate reviews Iacas! Cheers! Doug