parsnates

I used to wish I could putt like Tiger. Now he putts like me.

No offense taken and none meant. I was being a bit flippant with the kiil the members part. I also don't disagree with what you're saying about helping people out. My main point is that the Augusta example doesn't really apply here. Rice and Moore have more in common with the Augusta membership than they do with the common man or woman ( of any race). I don't think what Augusta does or does not do advances or retards our society. I think you could say that their becoming members does say that we have made some progress as a society inasmuch as a more diverse group of people can reach that station in life. That would put Augusta National on the trailing end and their action not really all that important in terms of actually effecting societal change.

Bad example. Not even Augusta National is allowed to kill its members for infractions of its rules. The private club thing only goes so far. Being a private club, just like a private citizen or business, as long as you don't break the law, you can do whatever you want as long as you're willing to accept the consequences. For example, if you don't like Chick-fil-a's religion or politics, don't buy their chicken. If their founder's beliefs wreck the business, so be it. As for Augusta, they have proven themselves willing to accept the consequences of their actions. As you recall, they eschewed all advertising one year rather than put their sponsors on the spot. As for this being some blow for equality, let's not get carried away.. It was just an exclusive group of uber rich and powerful letting in another subset of the same. I don't begrudge Condi or Darla their membership or Augusta National their exclusive club. I just don't think they are representative or exemplars of our society as a whole.

Original poster, Your indicriminate and inappropriate use of LOLs in your first post disqualified you as a serious thinker right off that bat. Your increasingly hysterical and disjointed replies just cemented the point.

While I'm no expert on the golf swing, the use of absolutes and predictions of doom are enough for me to dismiss this thread starter. When someone communicates in this manner, he or she becomes so invested in the belief, that they can no longer process information that is new to them or to consider a different viewpoint. Very limiting.

Glad to see you define it as stealing, since that's what it is. In my mind, there are no extenuating circumstances. Even the putter in the woods. You don't know that it was "rejected" by the owner, even if it is the more likely circumstance. Even if some moron threw it in a fit of rage, its not about him. Its about me not keeping something that's not mine. Rant aside, I've got to say my experience has been overwhelmingly the other way. The people I've encountered are more likely to sympathize with the poor schmuck who lost his club (most of us having been there ourselves) and are very interestedin trying to get the club back to its rightful owner.

Agreed. I can only imagine what other behaviors these guys can rationalize. My only hope is I come across one as brazen as Conroy is pretending to be (I hope). Then I could slap the piss out of him with a clear conscious

I had a sky caddie and found it slow and time consuming. Seemed I was always waiting for it to catch up and sometimes it was difficult to load up in the first place. I now I use the Garmin wrist watch version. My game is not good enough to tell you if it is accurate to the yard, but it does help me make a quick and easy club selection. Especially helpful when your eye is fooled into thinking you are 60 out and you're really 100. Very easy to use, very responsive, loads quickly, no subscription needed. Just a quick glance at my watch to see front, middle, back numbers. It doesn't have distances to other features such as bunkers, lakes, etc (sky caddie did). You can measure the distance your shot traveled and it does have an odometer feature if you want to know how far you've walked. Oh, and yeah, it tells you what time it is. It would be ideal to also have a laser range finder to supplement and tell me how far to the other side of the fairway when I'm hitting back out of the trees.

I had the original one several years ago. I buy the theory. My problem was that the marker could go into the hole on many different angles, so I never felt I was marking the ball consistently. Is the new one more precise in the placement of the marker?

I think what people can't accept is that if you are on the wrong side of the bunker you MISSED the green for the way the hole is set up that day. The fact that it landed on a very smooth tight surface is really incidental. Actually, it's somewhat of a break. It could have been in a creek or the heather, etc. Since you missed the green, why should you still get the "reward" of a potential one putt? The sense of entitlement over what is clearly a miss is curious. Chip off the green if you must - and hope the super doesn't catch you, but consider, some misses hurt more than others. Missing in the right spot is a big part of the game. If you miss in a spot where you have an easy chip, then par/birdie is still in play. If you miss in the wrong spot, then it's not. Just have to get over it and do better next time.

I would have to disagree that the penalty is excessive based on my experience as a high handicapper who played a hole like that every week. (It's not often that I get to claim expertise based on my 20ish index.) Looking at the Riviera photo, I would say I could get down in three putts if the bunker were between me and the pin. A bogey on a par three? - sign me up.

Well, being a high 'capper, I was just as well off putting as opposed to trying a cut lob off the thinnest of lies. I would probably tear a chunk out of the green and dump it in the bunker anyway or thin it over the green. (Also, if it's your club, you want to play it in a way that doesn't degrade the condition of your course.) What's interesting to me is the anger that's seems to be behind a lot of the posts. It's as if taking the divot out of the green is as much about punishing the architect/owner as it is about scoring. In my case, the hole was certainly playable and a ball on the wrong side of the bunker just pointed out that I was unable to control my shot enough to miss in the right spot. Annoying, but undeniable. My chances for bogey from the green on the wrong side of the bunker was pretty high, probably higher that when I missed the green and had to chip on. Quirky as it was, it really didn't impose an excessive penalty for what was, in reality, a missed shot.

I was lucky enough to get a round in at Ballybunion during a trip to Ireland. Weather started windy and wet but turned gorgeous during the round. Stunning golf course. There were eight of us and the scores were not very good - but nobody cared. Ireland is a wonderful place to visit even if golf is not part of the itinerary. The side trip to Ballybunion (we rented clubs) was a bonus add on to an already great trip.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I played a hole like this on a weekly basis. In real life, you learn to miss on the side of the bunker with the pin. You might not be on the putting surface, but you could get up and down for your par. Even we high handicappers could handle that. If you did wind up on the green on the wrong side, it almost always cost you only one putt to be in a position to putt at the hole. Not that unusual of a penalty for an errant shot. I guess if I only played the course once, I would have been as sour on it as many of you are. But having to deal with it regularly, you just do and it becomes an interesting challenge during your round. And, of course, it is in the middle of the green for everybody, so you are not being unfairly picked on.

When I lived in Omaha, I played at Shadow Ridge Country Club. The 13th is a par three with a bunker in the center of a large green. At first I thought it was gimmicky, but I really came to like the hole. It played different every time. Being a high handicapper, I was surprised how infrequently my buddies and I wound up in the bunker. There was a little room to miss for most pins. As other posters have said, we just thought of it as several, separate smaller greens It was relatively short so you could pick a club that allowed you to focus on a smooth swing and clean contact. .

Golf at Augusta is a good answer. When it happened, my first thought was that if he won the tournament, I'd offer to trade him for a button off his green jacket (which he could easily replace).

Thanks much for the detailed reply. I'm trying to find a couple of keys that I can stick with. I'm going to give this a try. I think my shoulder plane is inconsistent and feel like this may help with tha (and maintains my spine angle longer)

I love Feherty, but am really disappointed with how GC chops up the show.. They tease certain segments of the interview repeatedly making the show itself seem repetitive. It feels like they stretch a little content a long way. Many of the gags are silly and pointless and just take away from airing more of the interview subject. Just turn on the camera and let it roll.

No doubt about it, my swing is a target rich environment for improvement. The question I keep asking is, what things should I make happen, and what things should I let happen? Said another way, are there a couple of things that, if done right, will cause other things to fall into place? I keep working on specific positions, etc but just can't find a way to make it flow. It's why I love/hate the game.

I just ran across this training aid (http://www.swingnumber.com/) while googling "The Impact Zone". The maker, while not claiming any affiliation with Clampett, cited his work as the inspiration for this device. You place it six inches from your ball (hopefully you are not so outside-[SIZE=3][/SIZE] in as to hit it) At impact it flashes a random, single digit number. The idea is that as you train yourself to see and recognize the number, you will be looking at the ball through impact. They emphatically state that this is not the same as "keeping your head down". Their claim is that by doing this you will start taking your divot in front of the ball. Anybody familiar with this device? I'd be interested to hear if any of the instructors here have an opinion on whether it might be worthwhile. The cost is $34.95 so it is tempting.....

This tip may be the single most important advice I have ever gotten. After finding this thread the other day, I went to the range and tried it on a couple of buckets. The change was dramatic. While it doesn't solve all my problems, my range of misses was much, much narrower. It feels like a basic pattern from which I can work on other aspects of the swing. The next test will be my next range visit to see if the results carry over. I'm hopeful. Then I can't think about getting it onto the course.

Since I've never seen a golf tip that I didn't like, I don't have the courage to read TGM. At my level I feel it would be like trying to learn about the solar system by staring at the sun. There is, however, a great book by Scott Gummer called "Homer Kelley's The Golfing Machine (The Curious Quest That Solved Golf)". It takes you through Kelley's journey and beyond. If you're like me and have an insatiable thirst for golf history, theory, etc, etc, you'll find this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Has anybody else on this thread read it? (Btw, I've finally created an account and this is my first post.)