LarryK

Yeah, but what about all those workouts in the gym he supposedly does? I thought that was supposed to increase your, uh, "stamina"?

Ditto the advice on the par 3 courses, but another good place to start is the "executive" length courses. Basically a par 3 course where they have tossed in a couple of par 4s and maybe even a par5. At least you get to pull the big stick for a couple of tries.

Mine is a very similar story to yours, only my victim was only about 20 yards in front of me in the rough. It never occurred to me that I was not going to get the ball in the air. I felt horrible. Especially when I saw a few drops of blood on the side of his head near his beak. Somehow though he apparently recovered and waddled off with the rest of the flock. It kind of shook me up for the next two or three holes.

Nawwww. Annie!

I do not have any knowledge about the GT3 irons specifically, but having worked in golf retail briefly a few years ago, I do know that Adams Golf offers great value. They are one of the most reasonably priced "name brands" out there. I personally bought an Adams Ovation 3-wood a few years ago after unsuccesfully trying several brands. Again, however, none of this means a thing if you don't hit the clubs well, but they are certainly worth putting on your list of possibilities. Any club can be appropriately lengthened or bent to the proper lie angle according to your club fitter's specifications (who will also determine whether you should be in either graphite or steel shaft, regular or stiff flex). Getting fitted before you buy the clubs is the most desirable. Then everything you need can be done at the factory thus preserving the manufacturer's warranty. This, of course, means you are ordering custom clubs rather than buying off the rack and while that is a bit more expensive, you were going to spend that money anyway, right? But I keep coming back to my central point which is that if you took a six or seven iron of four or five different manufacturers and hit a half bucket of balls, one or two models would stand out as just "feeling right". That's the model you want to buy -- even though it hasn't been fitted to you yet! Good luck!

....and it's not just the computer. If you feel that strongly about non-US made goods, you better check the labeling of everything you buy -- all appliances, electronics, clothes, food, furniture. One of the TV magazines did a feature on a family who tried to eliminate all Chinese imports from their lifestyle. They found it was almost impossible to do so.

I lean toward Golf Galaxy for two reasons: 1. If you are going to spend big bucks for new clubs, you absolutely should not be "forced" into a given brand for any reason. You should buy the clubs that feel best to you and that you hit well. 2. It is basically irrelevant that the Golf Galaxy pro has not been watching your swing for a month. He will fit you based on your height/reach, swing speed, ball speed and spin, and adjust lie angle based on where you make contact on the face of the club (toe vs. heel). Once you find the "just right" set of clubs and they fit properly, you can work with any instructor you want on swing mechanics. You would have to make some pretty major changes in your swing before the clubs no longer fit.

An pound of prevention is definitely called for here. A chip from greenside rough is, IMHO, exponentially more difficult the closer you are to the hole. I can think of few shots more difficult than sitting two or three inches down in the rough and only 10 or 15 yards from the flag. If you are going to miss the green make sure you miss on the far side so that you can at least take a relaxed half-swing at it. Trying to "baby it out" with a tentaive nudge when you are short-sided almost never works.

The ideal situation is for the group in front to extend that invitation, but it is certainly NOT a breech of etiquette for you to politely ask for the privilege -- especially if it is obvious that they have fallen behind with a full open hole in front of them. If not, if the next group in front of them is within a half a hole of the group you are "pushing", what is the point of playing through? You can't leap-frog everybody. And those groups who do try to bull through everyone are unspeakably rude.

Schlyer's got a good point about the steeper angle of attack, but the other thing you have to remember about any shot from the rough is that no two are alike....well, it's not quite that bad, but it's close. Some grass is thicker than others. Sometimes it is growing toward you. Sometimes it is growing in the direction of your shot. Sometimes your lie is deep in it. Somtimes you find the ball setting up. Such a variety of conditions require slightly different techniques and tend to produce varying results. This is one of those things that just requires some experience that you don't have yet. Give yourself a break and stay patient. You'll get there.

Had a guy take this approach with me when I was brand new (I grounded my club and took practice swings everywhere else, why not in a bunker?) and it was very much appreciated and has always stuck with me.

I'm guessing that the large left hand is the result of a bit of distortion that comes from an object being too close to a wide angle lens. But the line about "missing another cut" is priceless. LOL!

Not only are you not alone.......it only gets worse. I think one of the toughest things is to be a new golfer and have all that enthusiasm and not have your skills developed yet. Hopefully your friend/instructor will emphasize a smooth, fluid swing with soft grip pressure. I believe that getting the feel of the smoothness, fluidity and even tempo of the swing is far more important to a beginner than getting specific body parts into specific positions. The latter seems to introduce too much tension for newbies, and that's the last thing you want. Good move on laying off the driver for awhile. It's easier to learn a good swing with the shorter clubs.

Thanks, Cody! It was definitely one I'll never forget!

This is my main complaint with the rules of golf. The problem is not so much whether an individual rule is or is NOT "stupid", etc. (although as we've seen in this thread alone, much debate exists on this subject as well). The problem is that many of the rules, as written, are not intuitively obvious as to how they should be applied to even some common situations. Case in point, Jonathan Byrd. The rule he violated (13-4) says that a player shall not "test the condition of the hazard or any similar hazard". It says almost nothing about what actions may or may not constitute testing the condition of a hazard (other than preventing yourself from falling down. Okay, well, thanks for that ). It could have. But it doesn't. So the vagueness of the rule itself leaves us open to the apparent contradictions of logic that actually occur. Taking a stance away from the ball and making practice swings constitute an illegal "testing of conditions". Taking a stance over the ball and digging your feet into the sand so that (in addition to getting good traction) you can feel the relative resistance of the sand so that you may adjust your swing accordingly is perfectly fine. Does this remind anyone else, as it does me, of our legal system; where the actual legislative statutes frequently mean very little until a judge or two makes a ruling. Statute law and case law. Can't have one without the other. So it seems to be with the rules of golf. Meanwhile, I officiated ice hockey for over 11 years without a second guidebook detailing the "decisions on the rules of hockey." Never heard anyone even suggest such a thing. And before lecturing me on the immense complexity of hitting a ball forward along the ground with a stick, understand that all I am saying is that a much better job of writing the 174-page document could and should have substantially reduced the size and need for the 774-page document. That is ALL I am arguing here.

Played Heritage Eagle Bend (southeast of Denver) for the first time today. Tough course. An ugly 47 on the front nine. First par of the day on #11 was quickly offest by a double on 13. Smoked the downhill drive on #14. 274 yards right down the gut. Leaves me 182 in. I'm not accustomed to reaching par fives in two, but the downhill was definitely inviting me to go for it. Absolutely pured the #3 hybrid. Ball bounced once in front of the green, onto the dance floor and began tracking to the hole. My playing partners are cheering it on.......right.......into.......the........HOLE!!! My first ever DOUBLE EAGLE!!! . Truly a magic moment.

I think the question you have to ask yourself is "What is happening on those three or four holes that is causing me to alter (and screw up) my tempo?" For me, it is anything that is making me anxious. Anxiety is a direct threat to maintaining a controlled, reeeelaaaaxxxed tempo. Is the group behind obviously pushing us or has a marshall asked us to speed up? Bad lie? Long carry over a hazard? Playing extremely poorly and trying to adjust? Playing extremely well and on the verge of a personal best? Any number of things can mess with your head. I have almost always chased a target score before I teed it up for every round. The degree to which I enjoyed my round was totally dependent on how close I came to that target score. DUMB!!! Talk about creating my own anxiety... The last few times out, I have resolved that I will extract the enjoyment of the game from the physical action of ball striking itself. Before, this mindset was merely the means to an end (score). Now I am making it the whole point of being out there. My new philosophy has already yielded more fairways and greens in regulation per round and, yes, better scores. But, most importantly, it's just more fun. Every time I stand over the ball is a new chance to do something special. If I make a good swing but still get a bad bounce, I have at least done my part. If it's true what they say about great shots "bringing us back" in spite of our poor scores, I just figured, why not focus more on making great shots? A critical element of doing that, of course, is maintaining my proper tempo. Hope that helps.

What makes you think GC commentators won't speculate about rules violations? And who is to say they "interject" themselves? It may be as equally true that rules officials just happen to monitor network TV feeds on their own initiative. My beef is with the rank and file viewer who jumps on the internet to act as an amatuer ad hoc rules official. Actually, my beef is not so much with the couch potato snitch as it is with a "professional" sport that empowers and encourages the rabid voice of the fan by conducting rules reviews based upon it.

I didn't start until about 10 years ago -- and I'm 56 now. I was motivated by office politics. Everybody played and there were several "team building" events around golf outings at the company where I used to work. Got hooked on the few times I inexplicably hit decent shots. Which was particularly interesting since, growing up, I thought golf was about the dumbest thing one could do. Walking around all day in ugly clothes in insufferable summer heat. What was fun about that? Now I know. It just took me a lifetime to find out.

Very similar here in Denver. The mid-90s are surely over. I, too, love playing in slacks. As long as I don't draw the club back, I can at least look like a golfer! Still planning on moving back to Kentucky in November, CDrive, and seriously contemplating taking you up on your earlier invite to play Hot Springs -- if it's still good and the weather holds.

The tour pros absolutely do NOT have slow swing speeds! But because they have such WIDE arcs and full shoulder turns, smoother can sometimes look slower than those of us who jerk the club back away from the ball, and then jerk it back down from the top trying to generate all of our "speed" with our hands.

And there is no better place to sit and observe this than on the practice range at a PGA tour event. When the guys were here in Denver for the International I sat there for over an hour just in awe. Not even Bubba Watson swings hard. Everybody was silky smooth. And they just nail it. Flush.

Why does it always look to me like Woody Austin is going fishing?

So much of this shot depends on the lie (as you've discovered). The more buried the ball is in the grass, the more you have to play it as an explosion shot, opening the face and swinging under the ball. The more the ball is setting up, the more you can play it as a normal chip. It also depends a lot on how close you are to the hole and how much rough you need to carry to the green. Here is a third option I sometimes use on downhill lies where the ball is sitting down and I don't have a lot of rough to fly over. Play the ball well back in the stance and using nothing more than a wrist cock, raise the club (typically lob or sand wedge) straight up and come straight down on the back of the ball. Ball will squirt forward rather smartly. No back spin on this one. Distance is controlled primarily by how high you lift the club. Not a shot you will use often, but really helpful if you are not excited about trying that explosion shot to a short-sided pin.

Two stories. At the #1 par five on the Kennedy West Course here in Denver, I hit four mediocre shots to get just off the green about 30 feet from the pin. Should have been an easy up and down for the bogey save. Unfortunately, I blade the hell out of it, and the ball is a good four feet above the hole as it starts to whizz past. I'm now looking at double or maybe even a snowman. Fortunately, the ball squarely slams into the pin with a tooth rattling clang. Did I say square? It literally crawled straight down the flag stick into the hole. Any par, is a good par. Second story: Me and my partner hit our shots on the par 3 third at Aurora Hills. Rich is pretty much the beginner, but he scored a nice GIR on this one. As his ball rolled past the pin, we took our eyes off of it as it was slowing down. After the rest of the foursome hits, we notice we are one ball short on the green. Rich's had disappeared. Didn't seem likely that it had rolled through the green, but it was the only possible explanation. After kicking around the greenside rough for a few minutes, I finally walk over and check the alternate hole that had been cut that day and glance down. Yep. "Rich, I have some good new and some bad news. The good news is I found your ball. The bad news is you are one group too early."