BioGolfNebraska

Hi all. I recently got the footjoy M project spikeless shoes. I love them, but I may have made a mistake in getting white shoes. I have gotten them pretty muddy and they seem to be stained with brown spots. Any tips for getting the stains out without ruining the shoes? Thanks!

I shot 9 this morning before work, and had my best 9 ever in a regulation course going: 2 up through 6 holes, with 2 GIR pars and 2 up and down pars, 2 bogies. I ended up finishing bogie, bogie, triple triple, but still shot a 44. Probably my best yet, but if I would not have made a couple of bad mental errors at the end I would have easily broken 40! (Not bad for a 28 handicap). I had a tip from a scratch golfer that I played with to stand closer to the ball and swing more vertical, steep, and through the ball instead of around my back. This has really helped me keep my balance on my long clubs and my slice didn't return like expected (nice draw in most, hooked a couple). Also gained about 25 yards per club. My 9 iron was my 100 club, now it is an easy 125. Hitting 9 instead of 7 into a green makes golf much easier.

Not to throw in too much of an off-topic complaint, but there was 3 inches of snow on the ground on May 1st here in Nebraska. We have a tee time this Saturday, but the forecast is 40 degrees, 20 mph wind, 60% chance of rain. Weird weather this year.

You can get a Taylormade burner 2.0 3 hybrid (basically a 2 hybrid from anyone else) for $90 from rock bottom golf. Way better deal than the RBZ stage 2 for $180 at the same site. I have the burner 2.0 and it is very easy to hit and can make up a lot of distance for you fast.

I agree with this. I've been golfing 3 years now and I finally am feeling confident enough to hit a 3 wood. I have the A7OS set and the 4 and 5 hybrids will instantly put you at an advantage over your buddy if he is hitting 4 or 5 iron. The set is as easy to hit as anything. If I were you, I'd get that set and a nice 3 hybrid (don't even worry about a driver right away). If you are like me, and most beginners I have talked to, the 3 hybrid will probably give you more distance than a driver anyways (39 yards of slice takes a lot of distance off). I still hit my 3 wood longer than my driver most times because I have the confidence in it to swing faster and smoother (~230-250 yards on a good one). I wouldn't spent too much money on a putter right away, if you can find a cheap one that feels good. I think your money is better spent on a nice hybrid, which will be your best friend when you are in the rough or after you top or chunk a shot and have 200 yards to the green still. Those are my tips from a fellow beginner (I shoot from 90-105 depending on the difficulty of the course).

I have the a70s set. I love it. The 4 and 5 hybrids are so easy to hit it is ridiculous (although I find them almost impossible to fade/slice, but as long as you know it won't do it, you are fine). My buddies who play with 4 and 5 irons are always struggling on the long par 3s, but I hit solidly and catch the green with the high ball flights of these hybrids. I'm not too vain to play a 4 or 5 hybrid.

Hah, no offense taken (and no health issues here). i am now at the point where I can crank a 7 iron about 145 yards. However, I tend to swing much more slowly and put it at about 125-130 because I am not confident enough in my full power swing. If I go full swing i still am at the point where I can really duff it occasionally. I can hit my 4 hybrid at the range to almost 200 yards (with roll-out), but I still tend to play it as my 160 yard club on the course. I am very consistent with this 60% swing, but am slowly working it up to around 85% so I can play my short irons/mid irons from reasonble distances.

I have been getting my driver to behave itself lately, so I have been taking it out quite a bit more. My big slice has turned into a slight draw/straight hit with quite a bit more distance. I still am not getting the distance I would like, however (I'm 24, in reasonably good shape, and my driving distance is typically around 220-230, which the really nice ones going 250-260 with some rollout and perhaps some wind help). One thing I have noticed is while using plastic tees, and hitting my driver, my tee almost always ends up 5-10 yards behind me. Does this happen to anyone else? My best guess was that I bend the tee forward when I hit my drive, and that the recoil launches it backwards behind me. Any other guesses? Can I infer any strange swing problems because my tee flies backwards?

We have a public par 3 course here that is labeled a "junior golf course", holes range from about 90 yards to 175. During the off-season (like now), the proshop hours are from 9am to 4pm, but they have a sign that says it is okay to play the course if the shop isn't open as long as frost or weather would lend to course damage during your round. Before I knew the earlier hours during the off season, I went to try and get a quick 1 hour 9 holes in before going to work (got there at around 6:45am, just as it was getting light). There were several people starting to play the course around the time when I did. The local pro (even though it is a par3 junior course, it even has a PGA pro) showed up as people were finishing and greeted them pleasantly and asked about the course condition and such. I like the idea of having the course open for people to play even if the clubhouse isn't open to charge you. I just don't know how feasible it is on full courses.

If people knew exactly what they were doing wrong to limit their distance, don't you think they would change it as long as it didn't influence the accuracy?

I did the same thing recently! I have been slicing my driver for a while now (not so much other clubs, just the driver). In the past few months I have gotten it down to a big fade, and then in the past month I have converted it to only hitting slight draws. I can't hook it if I try, so really putting a big draw swing on the driver results in just a slight right to left and a LOT more distance and roll out. I don't know if this advice will help anyone, but here is what I did: 1. I only do about 3/4 of a backswing (not nearly to parallel), and try not to do too much movement on the arms on the backswing (kind of keeping the triangle on the backswing). 2. Swing behind my back way more than what feels normal (backswing goes behind my back, followthrough more around my back than above my shoulders) 3. Feel like I am squishing a bug on my left foot as I am swinging through. This has a pretty predictable driver hit. I don't hit it incredibly far (~220-250 yards, 270 if I really smash it), but I am hitting 80% of the fairways right now.

So I just played a round and used this club on some par 3s for the heck of it. My typical 7 iron hit (with my old a7os club) is ~120-125 yards. With this club, on 2 holes I hit the club a beautiful 140 yards with a slight draw right on the green (I expected to maybe hit a little further, so I decided what the heck on these 140 yard shots, coming up short is okay on them). I really like this club and shaft, but haven't gotten to hit it much. I like hitting it during a round because I am more confident of distances. I do not have a rangefinder, so it is hard for me to tell how far I am hitting clubs at a driving range. Anyways, this makes me want graphite shafts for all my clubs.. I feel like they are too stiff/heavy for me, maybe? This is definitely not going to happen, though. Unfortunately my 8 iron can only be hit 110, but my new 7 iron 130-140. The OS clubs launch a little too high, I think, which kills some distance for me. I guess I will see what I can do about trying to get some more yards out of my short irons- I would like to be able to hit an 8 iron about 120 and a 9 110 (about 10 yards longer than what I have now) in order to make some of these short par 3s and short approach shots with easier clubs.

Here is where we are different. I have holed about a dozen chips this season but have never made a 20 foot putt in my year and a half of golf. As far as the deep greenside rough: I'm going to try putting it back in my stance and opening up the face with a sand wedge to try and plop it up to allow me to swing a little harder at it without fear of it going to far. Truegolf- I agree about preferring a grassy lie with a sandwedge to a tight lie, but only when it isn't too buried. I'd rather have a tight fairway shot that I could chip with a little finess than a deep shot where I have to muscle it to even get it out.

Honestly, I've never come close to an eagle chance until the last few rounds so now that my drives are actually giving me opportunities it is so hard to turn down. I'm a little unsure how far my drives are going to go now that I am more comfortable with my driver, so these past few times I have outdrove the fairway a bit. My 3 wood only goes 220y at the very maximum, and I am very consistent with this club off the tee, so I'll probably just try using that on these par 4s. The par 5 is only 400 yards partly downhill, and my driver left me with less than 150 yards (a gentle 5 iron for me), so I will still go for it in this situation. The green on the par 5 is ridiculous, though, and it is very possible to putt into a bunker. For the shot you are talking about in the rough, what club do you typically use?

It may not be an extremely popular choice, but the mizuno driver in my signature (which was a hand-me-down from my father-in-law) is incredibly forgiving. I think you can get them on ebay for ~$100. My friend just got a brand new RBZ driver, and I hit both my mizuno and his RBZ for one hole and I drove my mizuno dead straight about 20 yards further and the RBZ had a little fade which took the distance off. As a high handicap, forgiveness probably equates to distance, as I lose A TON of distance if I hit a fade with my driver (fade = 180-220 yards, straight =230-250 yards, draw=250-270). I am also getting to be able to draw on demand with this driver, so it is "workable" if that is something you are interested in (I almost always try to hit a draw off the tee, now, because I couldn't hook it if I tried, and it almost eliminates the nasty fades/slices). I will say that about 30% of my draw attempts end up in dead straight shots, but that is because my natural swing leads to a fade and I'm sure it is not the driver's fault.