Poatrivialis

April 1996 180 yards six iron on the 14th hole at a public course in Utah. Well struck ball started 15 feet right of the hole with a gentle draw. Landed about ten feet short of the hole, released, and rolled into the cup. I didn't have any particularly positive thoughts prior to the shot, just trying to make a solid swing and forget about the four putt on the previous hole. Shot an 11 over 82 that day. Too pissed off about the round to even consider framing the ball or scorecard as in those days I regularly shot in the mid-70s. Then that fall I tweaked my back loading a lawn mower into the back of a car and the subsequent swing compensations led to a dark period of very poor play from which I've yet to recover fully. Stupid back. Only one hole in one, but holed out for eagle on par fours about ten times, once from 230 yards.

Thanks miney and golf chief. I'm embarrassed to admit I've never known or thought to ask what "cadet" size meant. A medium glove in cadet size might be just the ticket. I'll try on some women's gloves and see how they fit. I suspect women's gloves would be too small because my fingers, while short, aren't thin, but I'll try a few on and see how they feel.

Thanks for your replies. My subjective assessment of grip pressure would be 3.5-4 on a 10 point scale. I really don't put a death grip on the club because I've learned my distance and accuracy are much better with light grip pressure. But I may be letting it get too loose at the top and then re-gripping as I start down, as Fried Egg suggested, allowing the grip to slide around and act like sandpaper on the glove. I have short fingers so I buy small gloves because I don't like any loose glove hanging off the ends of my fingers, but the small gloves do fit awfully tight. Maybe I'd be better served with a medium-sized glove. And you're right golfchief, I grip the club at the very end (thinking this will create a wider arc and more clubhead speed) with part of the left hand actually extending past the butt of the club. I'll move my hands down the club 1/2-1 inch. That may be the primary cause of the problem. Thanks again

I'm wearing holes in my golf gloves (Footjoy) on the fleshy part of my hand (left) about midway between the base of my pinky finger and the outside of my wrist. My gloves only remain usable for about two rounds before they split wide open. I can see signs of abrasion on a new glove after 15-20 swings. I'm always fighting a tendency to collapse my left arm just prior to impact, which allows my left wrist to collapse and produces duck hooks off the toe. I've recently been concentrating on maintaining a firm left arm through impact, keeping the left wrist flat or slightly bowed at impact. My shots have improved, but this glove thing is new, so I know I'm doing something wrong. I've never had this problem before and I know these gloves aren't defective because I've worn holes in the last six I've purchased. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong? I can't help but think my grip must be defective, allowing the club to twist in my left hand during the swing. Where should a golf glove show signs of wear or stress if the player is gripping the club properly? Thank you

We (my usual playing partner) were playing with a twosome the clubhouse sent us out with when a golfer on an adjacent fairway hit a slice toward our teebox. We were unaware of the danger we were in until I heard a sickening thud The ball had hit one member of the twosome we were playing with in the temple on the fly. We had a few words with other golfer about yelling "fore," but it was windy and we probably just didn't hear him. The player who was hit had a split about two inches long on his right temple and was bleeding. His friend took him to a doctor to get stitches and we never saw them again. A golf ball traveling at high velocity can be very dangerous.

I read "The Rub of the Green" by William Hallberg almost twenty years ago and then gave it to my roommate. Something about the cover art convinced me to buy it A work of fiction, but one any moderately cerebral golf enthusiast would enjoy IMHO. Kind of hard to find these days, but most large public libraries should have a copy. Publisher's description from worldcat.org: Hailed by bestselling author Walker Percy as "brilliant and highly original," this funny, touching, and very moving novel by the author of The Soul of Golf chronicles one man's glorious victories and bitter defeats in the most challenging sport of all: life. The son of a devoutly golf-hating dad, Ted Kendall comes to embrace the sport as a way to soothe his grief after his mother's death. Then his knack with a club lands him a scholarship to Ohio State--and soon he's driving and putting his way through the electrifying and glamorous world of the PGA tour. The grass is greener and life is good until a love triangle on the links goes bad, and Ted trades his bag of irons for the iron bars of a jail in the deeper than Deep South. With two years to kill alongside a motley crew of fellow misfit inmates, Ted turns once more to the gospel of golf--and finds his own odd brand of salvation.

Depends on how long it takes to find a cart path with an errant shot.

It might be easier to count the hours spent not golfing I spend eight hours per week (April-October), which translates to 36 holes per week. I'd play more, but the aggravation of spending four hours (or more) behind a foursome of 30-handicappers playing as deliberately as the final group at Augusta on Sunday sucks at least half the enjoyment out of the game. More if I'm playing poorly. There's just something about watching four guys who can't get out of a bunker in less than three shots plumb bob each putt outside a foot that drives me crazy. Maybe I should just become a "range-only" golfer.

What direction do your divots point relative to the target line? If your divots indicate an outside-in swing path I'd guess you're lifting the club too high on the backswing and coming back to the ball on too steep an angle.