BlitzkriegBart

I have trouble swinging a short iron after swinging a wood. For instance, I usually start a range session with a P, 9 or 8. I'll warm up by taking half swings until I can comfortably make full swings. I'll usually jump around within my irons, from there. I hit 5 or 8 balls with each and choose another iron at random. I don't have too much trouble adjusting between my irons. After I've hit a few irons, I'll hit a wood. I don't have much trouble adjusting to that either. The problem comes in when I try to switch back to a short iron, after the wood. I almost always top the ball and it takes me a couple of swings to adjust. This problem usually follows me to the course. Obviously I don't have a couple of tries to get it right, while playing. What is the best solution to this? Towards the end of my sessions I usually hit balls like I'm playing a hole. I'll think "340 yard par four." I'll take a tee shot and then a short iron. Should more of my range session time be spent like this? Is it even helpful at all? I think the reason I'm having trouble is that the swing plain is more vertical for short irons. I'm not sure if I'm right about that. Thanks for the help!

I've seen the short game video. It helped me. I never understood how to hit a high lofted pitch shot, that lands softly and dies. After seeing that vid and practicing a lot I've become really good at it. I still come up short of the hole a lot, because I don't fully trust myself. I'm getting better about that though. It's way better than blading the ball over the green or watching it run fooooorrr evvvvvvv eerrrr. Besides I laugh every time he says "OK" with a really high pitched voice. Anybody else notice that and think it is funny sounding?

See ... I figured that there were more people out there like me. It took a while, though. I am going to start using ESC, though. It is standard for calculating handicaps and handicaps are the standard method for seeing how your game ranks among your peers. Besides it doesn't really take any effort to figure out. I don't want to enter in every hole separately to calculate my handicap, but if you use this page . It will tell you the limit per hole that you are allowed to count. That seems just as easy. Also, I decided that I would just make my own excel spreadsheet to calculate my handicap, instead of using a free site or paying for a different product. I'm a big fan of customization, and making your own is about as custom as it gets. It's pretty raw right now, but it works and is quick. Besides I can just use Logmein to dial into my computer and enter a round just as easily as logging onto a website.

Yeah ... I understand it now. I had the wrong idea of what it was actually supposed to represent, and how it was used. I looked at it like: "I want to get my handicap as low as possible." I was having a hard time reconciling the idea of counting all of your strokes (no mulligans), and using the ESC. From my (wrong) standpoint it seemed like cheating yourself, in the same way that taking mulligans and not counting penalties is cheating yourself. If you take mulligans to get your score down, when you're a crappy golfer, you won't see much improvement in your score as your skills improve. That is unless you want to always be a lying POS. I've played golf off and on, without really trying to improve my game. I would mostly just try to hit the ball as hard as I could and would ignore all aspects of the game, other than driving the ball. Most of the time I wouldn't even keep score. I was happy as long as I didn't lose too many balls and still had all my clubs at the end of the round. I started playing again at the end of this summer and have taken a completely different approach to the game. I'm practicing all aspects of the game and trying to improve. I understand the purpose of the ESC and Handicap better now. The handicap is meant to be what your current, potential score could be. The ESC facilitates that by keeping the blow up holes from inflating your handicap. It's pretty clever when you think about it.

Yeah ... I guess I am the only one that was like that. I just didn't understand what it was for or how to apply it. I never really thought of how it could be used to negate sandbagging, because I've never played in any tournaments.

That looks really indepth and slick.

This may be a stupid question: If you keep track of your handicap, do you apply the equitable stroke control to your score? I'm sure those of you that are serious enough to have an official handicap do, but I wonder about those that just keep it chart there progress. My guess is that a lot of golfers that don't have an official handicap don't bother figuring out what there adjusted score is, or how to calculate it. This is kind of how I am. I looked it up this morning and found out that it's really not that hard to figure out, but I hate doing manual calculations. So, I wrote this simple web page to do it for me. I figured there are more people out there, like me, so I'm sharing it. It's ugly, but it works. Also, does anyone know of any free websites that you can use to keep track of your handicap. A lot of them that I have seen want you to put in the score of each hole. I don't need it to be that precise. I'm using golflink.com right now, but they only offer a trial membership of a year, and I'm not going to pay for it. I'd rather have a site that I can log into than a program. That way I can record the scores from anywhere. If there is one, that will keep me from having to write my own.

I can't believe no one has mentioned " Who's your Caddy ". I haven't seen it yet , but according to IMDB it has Lil' Wayne playing himself. I love movies that feature rap stars that I've never heard of. There was a big dude farting in the preview. I'm sure there is more of that kind of comedy in the rest of the movie. It's got Jeffery Jones. He's done nothing that is so morally objectionable that it would be hard to watch him for 90+ minutes. Seriously, can anyone come up with a reason (besides being the lowest rated all time movie on IMDB) that we can't go ahead and call this one the winner?

It depends on the mood: Happy: Guinness Sad: Guinness Angry: Guinness Hungry: Guinness Hot: Guinness Want to drink a lot: Guinness Cold: Maybe some kind of Cream Stout or Guinness I like to try as many as I can, so when I go somewhere that has a lot of choices, I'll usually give a new one a try. Kentucky Ale is also a very good brew. It is made here in Lexington and is everything an Ale should be.

This is a good topic of discussion. I can see spending a lot of money on woods, hybrids and irons. The marketing of those seems to be geared toward telling you that last year's models are completely obsolete. Maybe they are. It's hard to tell ... for sure. So, I can see why we can get bitten by the new club bug. What I don't understand is paying hundreds of dollars for a putter. I'm not a great putter. Not bad, but not great. My flat stick probably only cost me $15 - $20, but I like the design. I don't think my putter is ever the reason I leave a 10 ft. putt 3 in. short. Maybe I'm wrong. (It happens all the time, especially sense getting married.) I just don't understand it.

Fair enough.

Michigan? How did that happen?

That could work. I have grand parents that live in Florence. Covington is dangerously close to Ohio. Are there a lot of Buckeyes fans up there?

There are a lot of them down here. My wife is from Southern Indiana (Evansville). That's practically like being from Western Kentucky, anyway. I haven't played any courses in the Louisville area. As far as Central Kentucky goes: Kearney Hills in Lexington is awesome. Easily the best city course I've ever played. Old Silo is in Mt. Sterling, about 30 minutes east of Lexington. It is usually ranked among the top courses in the state. I got to play there for $10 a few weeks ago, because I know a guy that works there. As far as the Evansville area: Quail Crossing is nice. I'm sure there are enough courses in the Louisville area to keep you busy, I just don't know about any of them.

Hi from Lexington, Ky! I've just started trying to become decent at the game a few months ago. I was out most of the summer because of a knee surgery, but have been bitten by the bug in the last few months. I usually shoot in the mid 90s, but broke 90 for the first time this month. My goal is to regularly shoot in the mid 80s. We will see.