ScT1

I think the best possible outcome at this point would be for Tiger to disqualify himself.

That's really stretching the fudge factor on it.

That's dodging a bullet. He signed for an incorrect score and ought to be disqualified.

I thought maybe it would have happened by now in case they wanted to adjust the pairings. But since Bubba has probably already teed off, I guess that won't be happening. I suppose though the DQ remains a possibility up until the point Tiger begins his practice and warmup for the day -- they'd most certainly want to reach a decision before that.

Wow, I hadn't realized all this last night, and had only been thinking about the awful luck of hitting the stick like that and ending up with bogey. But having read through everything and seeing what Tiger said about it, he ought to be disqualified. Whether he actually will, is less certain, but I believe it's very likely he will be disqualified and the biggest story of this event (unless Fred Couples defies time and age and wins) will be Tiger Woods being disqualified.

Faldo isn't as good as I felt that Ken Venturi was, but he's way better than the guy he replaced, Lanny Wadkins. Now if they could just get rid of Jim Nantz. He's becoming more and more annoying, it seems like.

Playing most often as a walk-on single at a local muni, I've often played with new and different people. The vast majority I've enjoyed the holes I've played with them. There's really only been a few that got on my nerves, and the most prominent of those both have holes-in-one involved. The first one is a guy who plays semi-frequently at that muni, so I've ended up playing a few times with him, although every subsequent time has been with ever more dread. But the first time I ended up playing with him, I got to see a hole-in-one live for the first time. And it was Mr. Cuss-after-every-wayward-shot who got the hole-in-one. But for the 8 holes before his hole-in-one, it was one long litany of cursing, cursing at the ball, cursing at the course, cursing at the weather, cursing at the angle of the sun, cursing at how the tree branches moved in wind, cursing how there are such things as hills, cursing at those sandy areas called bunkers, cursing at his clubs, cursing at his putter, cursing at his golf cart. Did I mention the guy just didn't seem to be all that happy? But there at the 9th hole, the best hole on the course to see a hole-in-one shot, he hit a nice looking shot towards the left front corner of the green where the pin was, it hit just in front of the green, got a forward roll off the slope, and tracked on in for a hole-in-one. The other guy who was with us and me congratulated him and both of us felt a certain relief that we got a break from the usual stream of cursing. The next guy that I was glad to see the round end and hopefully never have to worry about pairing up with again was someone who just seemed to have no concept of courtesy or etiquette. Early on, I asked him if he would take the time to avoid stepping on the putting lines of the rest of us in the foursome. Nope, didn't take. It happened to me again on the 4th and 5th holes, and I didn't feel like harping on it. When we got the 6th hole, the first par-3 on the course, I remember looking at the flag. Slightly left of center, front-middle, a slight wind from the right, and I just got this incredible instinctive feeling -- "I've got this shot. It's a 5-iron, I just start it at the right edge of the bunker, let my fade die against that wind, and it'll be good." My mind went completely empty except for how much I felt I owned the shot at that moment. And when I made my swing, everything clicked. The ball took off right where I aimed it for and then began curling lightly back, and tracking for the hole. Unfortunately, the light in the afternoon there makes you most often lose the ball against the background, unless you have really young and sharp eyes, and we all lost it. I just said, "That felt right." It sure turned out to be right. It was my first and so far only hole-in-one. I remember thinking to myself I did it specifically so I wouldn't have that guy trample over my putting line, again. In some ways, I both look forward to, and dread my next encounter with a hole-in-one.

My guess is that it might be asking too much to bend a wedge 4 degrees. I've heard 2 degrees is about the limit. Also, seeing that you're a newbie golfer, I think you've got plenty to learn about hitting the wedges you have now consistently and solidly, before you start fiddling around with a more unusual and specialty sort of wedge.

I felt it's important to revisit this. I'm not going to argue with you that lifting won't increase flexibility, I think it can help, and it can especially help with individuals who are not only told what types of lifting to do, but how to do them . Which can be extremely important for all types of people, sometimes even well-conditioned athletes can have deficiencies in movement patterns and their amounts of flexibility. It's also important in view of how we had an older individual asking about this. If there's one damn certain thing about this world, it's that the older you get, the more you can lose flexibility and movement. I'm not old yet, I'm 42, but even when young I wasn't all that gumby-like and I've also had type 1 diabetes for over 27 years, and there is a good body of evidence about how diabetes tends to do cruddy sorts of things to the stuff that's involved in being limber -- the ligaments and tendons, and how the muscle fibers lay out. So speaking as someone who decided to get off his butt in late 2005, and began doing stuff like golfing, running, lifting, lifting itself wasn't enough. I've had to put time into working on getting more flexible. And I'm still working on it because I've got some compensatory movement patterns and I slacked off for about a year and half while my left shoulder was frozen up pretty good with adhesive capsulitis. Anyhow, I came across a good thread today at the Irongarm forums where someone asked about putting together a program for his father at the age of 62. There's a lot of quality advice in there and there's a pretty consistent theme among them all -- mobility is huge. Another place recently where I saw some talk about flexibility was on Joe DeFranco's site, The Stretching Roundtable . So I do take some issue with the assertion that any form of weightlifting will produce above average flexibility in a person. It is certainly not true in all individuals, and the older the individual we have, it may be even more likely there will already be compensatory factors that will interfere with a person achieving above average flexibility simply through some sort of weightlifting. I've also been unable to find anything about that study of novice weighlifters after 11 weeks having become more flexible, at least nothing detailed to say what the ages were of the participants and what exactly the program was and if it didn't include some sort flexibility and mobility work.

I think it's interesting there are some who don't think it wouldn't be interesting to maybe even play a round or two from tees more forward. Maybe it's a bit easier for me to go about doing it because I'm not a long-ball hitter, so for me it can make for a nice change of pace to play a round where I get some more short irons into greens. But I'm still surprised that a person might not think, "What would happen if I shortened the course? How different would it play from what I'm used to?" For me at least, a round of golf from almost any set of tees would be enjoyable, because I've really come to enjoy the idea of thinking my way around a course and trying to wring the most out of my game that I can. There's a challenge there from any set of tees at the course I most often play. The challenges may differ some, but there are still challenges and plenty of fun in all kinds of shots -- whether it's trying to hit a hybrid or wood into a green, or fiddling with one of those fussy half-wedges from 40 to 50 yards, or trying to run a chip across an undulating green. The expanse of shots in golf is huge and it seems like the more you can enjoy the challenges of all types, the more open the game becomes to you. The game doesn't have to be about playing the longest possible shot every time, or the shortest one, or about seeing how fast one can race around the course from the tips or from the most forward. The game can be about a series of shots that all play off one another, but that you have to hit each one as a separate act. For me, that's the beauty of the game -- the chance for me to walk around a course in about 3 hours if I'm on my own, or longer if the course is filled up. Playing each shot as each one comes up. I don't think this game is purely about distance. There's so much more to it than that.

The first thing I'll say is that I think it's great that you want to work on getting stronger and more flexibility. Being old doesn't mean that someone has to become weaker and more inflexible, and there is a good body of evidence that strength and flexibility programs can do a lot to slow down the aging process and improve quality of life. Along with golf probably too. I'm not going to make any specific recommendations because I don't know anything about your current condition. I'd say it might be a good idea to consult with a qualified physical trainer who could assess your current level of strength and flexibility and make good safe recommendations on how you could go about improving things. Generally these days it is thought that a good strengthening program will incorporate some sort of squatting and lunges to help strengthen the legs and overall body, upper body pushing motions like push ups, bench presses, overhead presses, and upper body body pulling motions like chin ups/pull ups, and barbell or dumbbell rows. Other quality exercises that can be done with dumbbells are swings and snatches, but you definitely might want to have someone qualified to show you how to do those and make sure that you do them safely. Working out should be done in a way that improves health and you don't want to do things with poor form and risk injury. The dumbbells themselves won't do much for your flexibility, but flexibility can be important to help with performing dumbbell exercises with good form. Yoga and tai chi programs can be very good to help teach basics of flexibility and balance. Mostly it involves developing a routine that works to hit nearly all the muscles and joints of the body, and then being diligent on putting in at least 10 minutes a day doing at least some portion of the full routine. Good luck and remember. You don't actually get stronger while you lift the weights, you get stronger when your body repairs itself afterward. So eat good too and get your sleep.

Ryder Cup? What Ryder Cup? Did they play that this year? I just can't remember or don't want to or something.

I think for me it's something of curiosity that will often motivate me. 7 years ago I got curious as to whether I might learn to swing a golf club and break 100. 6 years ago I got curious to see whether I could run a half-marathon so I did that. Then I got curious to see how many chin ups I could do, curious to see if someday I could do a single-arm chin up, curious to see if I could deadlift over twice my bodyweight. It's stuff like that, I find it interesting. I'm not any great athlete, but it's gotten me in better shape than most people around me my age. Hopefully I can stay curious.

It's still impressive that he punched a ball through the screen.

I'm glad I read this thread. Based on what I learned in it, I've very much changed how I aim my putts which will track on a path outside the hole. And I've also changed where my eyes look for a target. Prior to having read this thread, on longer putts that would need a path outside the hole, I would look at the hole, then ball, then hole, then ball, then hole, then ball and stroke. Now I've begun to select a target that's off the hole and look at that instead of the hole. I've never done well with distance control if I select a target in front of the ball, but based on yesterday and a round where I had 30 putts and no 3-putts, selecting a target that's off the hole but about the same distance let's me control line and distance better. Although I'm trying to figure out what I might want to do with longer and big breaking putts where it might be hard to select a target with about same distance as hole. Maybe if I calculate where I believe the apex of the putt to be, imagine what speed it ought to be traveling at that time, then select a target point with distance close to the apex point and use that? I'll definitely go the practice green and try that to see if it will work for me. But heck, this thread made me realize why I would often have trouble starting my ball on line on longer putts, plus have trouble with distance. When I would be looking at the hole on the long putts with breaks outside the hole, my brain would be struggling with conflicting info -- eyes are looking there, try to putt to there, wait! the ball is supposed to go out there, but my eyes are looking there, stroke would then flail and fail with the conflicts going on.

If there's one thing I've observed and learned about slow and erratic players in front of you, it's that they're, well, apt to move slowly and erratically or apt to stop when you don't think they would. I agree with those who've said it's the responsibility of the person hitting the golf ball to be utterly sure that the players in front of them have cleared out, that includes allowing for some margin of absolutely nutting a shot or drive that goes like a laser those PGA guys hit.

My feet tend to waggle when I waggle the club. I never ground the driver behind the ball and tee. It hovers. Once saw a crazy quirk in someone I joined up with for a round. During his backswing, he'd lift his left foot off the ground, then stomp it back down on the downswing. It freaked me out at first, but I realized he did that as his way to make sure he got his weight to the left side. He hit the ball pretty well overall and I don't think hit a ball fat the whole day on a full swing.

I've got a genuine old blade from my father's Spalding starter set. No fancy face plate or perimeter weighting. I putted with for quite a bit until I went through a real bad stretch where it seemed I couldn't align it correct for short putts, so I switched over the Odyssey 2-ball, which really does help me set the line properly. So mostly it's the mallet, but I'm not opposed to switching back and forth as the mood suits me.

For me, in the upper 30s with rain and a strong northeast wind. Those conditions pretty well stretched my enthusiasm for golf to a bad stretch, one which I still damp and chilled well into the next day. So now I pretty well keep to a rule of 40 or more and winds not too strong. The strength of wind I'll tolerate is dependent upon how much sun there is -- sun can do a lot to make it feel better. I could see me doing temps in the 20s if there was little to no wind and plenty of sun. Quote: Definitely not fun to land on a frozen green when you are not expecting it to be frozen. Was playing Vail GC last week with temps in the 50s and a 11:30 tee off time. The first 3 greens were fine and I killed a drive on 4 leaving a 75 yard lob wedge in that I hit well, landing just short of hole high- couldn`t understand why it rocketed off the back until I walked on the green, which was still in shadows, and found it to be frozen. I had that happen to me on a green last winter. Just had a 7-iron into the green, hit the shot and it felt perfect, looked perfect, until it hit the green and looked to bounce up as nearly high as it had been at the top of its arc, plus into the thick cabbage area 15 yards over the green. So, I went from what looked like it could have been a birdie putt to a lost ball with stroke and distance penalty.

Well, I haven't broken 80 yet, but I've had a mental turnaround these last few weeks that has got me feeling that it is inevitable and I had a round on Monday which helped me take a peek at the inevitability. I shot 80 Monday afternoon, after 43 on the front. Fired a best ever 9-holes of 37 on the back and it was the first time ever I got in the zone or whatever it's called. It was the first time in my life I ever got to playing one shot at a time. No matter the result, I pretty much shrugged my shoulders, accepted the result, and took on the next shot. Well, I gave a fist pump when I birdied 14 and when I made a tricky downhill 4-footer to save par at 16. But when my birdie putt at 18 came up 5-feet short, I shrugged my shoulders and then calmly sank the 5-footer for a closing par. The mental side all started turning for me a few weekends ago. I had gone out for 9-holes, and had kind of kicked it around some after a good start. I reached the par-3 9th hole already 9 over par, so it was almost with a bit of relief that I teed things up and settled in with using a 4-iron to shoot for the back pin. Now prior to that, I had begun to experience some really good success when I have this one personal swing thought in my head, "Back on my left hand goes down the target line." I cleared my thoughts and had only that thought, and made my swing. Beautiful shot, right at the flag, just a slight cut and it ended up about 8 feet away short and right of the pin. I said out loud to my playing partners, "Why can't I hit that shot every time?" When I first said it, it was a sense of inevitable defeatism -- that I can't. I can't hit that shot every time. But you know what? It kept kicking around in my head and I realized this -- I can make that shot. I know what a good swing feels like. I know how to do it. I've done it many times. Not as frequently as I would have liked, but I have done it. I realized that the big problem I had been having is that my head gets in the way of that good swing, I don't get set up with a purpose to the shot, I let some creeping doubt or fear get in, I fail to let go of those things and they interfere with what my mind and body know how to do. The truth of it is when many of us go out and play, there is no pressure at all except what we create in our own heads. I'm not out there playing for money. I'm not out there trying to saving anyone or anything. I'm not out there for personal glory or ego-stroking. I'm out there to move a small white ball around the course in the fewest strokes possible. There's no pressure in that. It's rather inconsequential and meaningless. I think for a lot of us who haven't broken 80 yet we already have the skills and know-how to do it. Then it just becomes a matter of getting the mind right in order to do it. Or just another small example of how the mind can get in the way is the way I broke 90. The day I broke 90, it wasn't with a dramatic shot or anything. What happened was after I chipped on to the green at 18, just about a foot and half away, nearly a tap-in, I thought I had just made the chip to pretty much give me an 89. You know what happened with that putt, that putt with all those thoughts of "I'm gonna break 90!" and "Don't miss that! Don't miss that!" I missed it. I jerked my putter left and the ball completely missed the hole. I then tapped in for what I thought was 90. Except I had miscalculated my scorecard. I had forgotten to deduct a stroke for the birdie I had made at 15. So while I walked off the green and towards the parking, I came to a stop as I began checking the math. And after checking two more times, the realization I had shot 89. I had done it in spite of that last mistake. A mistake born of my head, not of an inability to make a putt of a foot and a half.

Shot my best ever 80 on Monday afternoon. I also set a new low score for 9-holes with a 37 on the back-9. Thought there might be a chance I would use the same sort of pattern the first time I broke 90 back in 2006 when I shot a 47 on the front then shot 42 on the back.

If it is true that rounds in the UK are faster, I wonder if the fact that more people walk does have an effect. I really really believe that walking a course helps to teach many some fundamental lessons about how to move around the course economically. If you're walking, you learn to watch your ball, you learn how to approach and exit the green area, walking just helps to teach a person how to move around and not waste time. That doesn't mean that cart players can't learn or don't learn that, but for those who have only ever played carts, there are going to be some who have just never had to think about how to move economically. If I'm by myself and walking, and no one is in front of me, I can easily play three hours or less. If I'm in a cart, I can do that in 2 hours. So it would seem by all rights that carts ought to speed things up, but that advantage can be rubbed out by cart players who don't practice economical movements. It was funny. On Sunday I was playing behind a slow group of cart players. The fifth green is pretty close to the tee box of the 6th, a tough par-3 that things can back up on some. At the 5th green, I walked my bag to the back of the green, then went back to putt along with the other 2 cart players in my group. After we finished, I exited the green and then walked the 10 yards straight across to where I was level with the white tees, but down at the bottom of the slope and still a good 10 yards away and the threesome in front of us were waiting. One of the guys on the box looked at me with a sort of incredulity and said, "We're still waiting on the group in front of us." I said, "I'm just standing here, just walking and trying to move along in the shortest way possible, that's all." But I could just almost see that this guy had never thought about that idea out on the course. He never thought about moving with purpose and efficiency. He never had to, he and his buddies would just zip around in carts and never had to do any work about how to think on how to move quickly. Please not that the above does not condemn all cart players and does not automatically think that all walkers know how to move around the course either. I just think it's a general tendency I've noticed in the mindsets of some players, and I do earnestly believe that if more people walked golf courses, they would have a better understanding of how to move efficiently.

Thanks. I think you're really right about how I got out of my own way on the back. It was weird how excited yet calm I was the whole time. The swing and game became so simple -- just go through routine, focus on what shot I wanted to hit, then do it. I didn't do it every time, but I accepted that and just went to the next one, went through the routine and played the next. I hear you on that, the feeling of a grind, the lack of confidence. But maybe it will help if you also take some pleasure in shots you do hit good. Even at 100 - 105, you still must be hitting a few good ones. And when you do, try to replay them in your head, what it felt like. Because doing that is what I think got me to where I was yesterday. During the year while I've been struggling, it's also felt like I've been developing a better awareness of what's going on when I swing. It's now reached a point where almost every shot I can describe to you where the ball hit the clubface and what my body parts were doing during the swing. The problem I had during the year was finding a key that I could focus on to make the body parts do what they ought to do. Then a few weeks ago, I think I found it. A very simple thought that pulls the club through the hitting zone for me. I don't get it right every time, but yesterday I got it with the highest frequency yet. I realized later on that I think I played my first round ever where every hole I had a putt on the green for par. Not always in close, but still, every green I had a putt at the hole for par. Don't think I've ever done that before, always at least one hole or more that I wouldn't be putting until it was only a chance for bogey. I don't know. Now I'm probably all set up for a big letdown next time out on the course, but I don't feel scared by that. Because it feels like I learned something good and it paid off yesterday with the best back-9 I've had. Man, some of the tee shots were beautiful. 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, just all of them when I was hitting a driver I just reached down and picked up my tee. At the par-3s they were the tee shots that you just watch because they're beautiful looking. It's a great game. Even when it sucks, it's great, because you can still be learning while doing it.

All year long has been something of a struggle. Haven't practiced much, my swing has been erratic and I had almost been resigning myself to the guy who shoots low to mid 90s, occasional forays into the upper 80s and occasional horror days over 100. But then over the last couple of weeks, it seemed like I had finally found my own personal little swing key that gets me to make a good strike at the ball. If I have that in my head, I'm usually making good contact and seeing the ball fly pretty straight, maybe a slight fade, or sometimes a draw if I make my grip strong. I had no warm up and I didn't start out all that great today. Double bogey at the first, with a 3-putt. But I worked on getting the focus in place and was 4 over after 5 holes and got to join up with a couple other guys enjoying this beautiful fall weather. Went 3 over for the final holes of the front, for a total of 43, but was starting to strike the ball pretty solid, just a couple of minor mistakes costing me from saving pars. Then on the back, I go par, bogey, par, birdie and I'm feeling really good with the swing. It's not great but it's feeling good and I feel a confidence that I ought to strike the ball well. I also realize that if I shoot an even par back-9, that's 36 and I could break 80. Of course, I then muff a bit at 15, and walk off with a bogey after my par save just misses dropping in the cup. 16, I save par. I get to 17 and look at the shot. I think, aim center of green, use the strong grip and make it draw back towards the hole on the left. Beautiful looking shot, just like I envisioned it, it gets to the back of the green. Putt never was on line though, so I make par. Smash my drive over the hill at 18. I then hit the second shot solidly but pushed out to the right some, still not a bad place. Just a sand wedge for my 3rd into the par-5. I hit it good, but it took a weird hop left on the top of the hill with the green and I find it about 30 feet short and left of the flag. 2 putts. 80. Best back-9 ever with a 37. Never really felt any pressure and just felt so good with the swing today. I can't believe it some. All year has been such a struggle and now this one thought for me seems to work on making swing through the ball without flipping my hands. When I do that, the ball flies wonderfully. Also weird was this is the first time ever that I was chasing after breaking 80 like this. The prior times it's happened when I've shot 39s on the front and then nerves would get to me and I blew up to 43s on the back. This was almost relaxing, the suddenness of having a chance and having a swing that felt smooth and good. Walked off 18 with a sense of disbelief but at the same time fully believing it, because for the first time in a long while, I felt a connection between me and a good golf swing. Of course, now, an hour later, I wonder if it was just some freak occurrence, and I will be haunted for the rest of my golfing life by the memory of that beautiful fall afternoon when the swing was nearly magical. Who knows? I certainly don't. But I've got renewed hope again that I can break 80 some day. If only that birdie putt at the 2nd hole had gone another eighth of an inch.