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.

Now that I have been driving further, and trying to drive some of the short par 4s around here (270 yards and less, with slight doglegs, bunkers, tough greens, tough greenside rough, etc.), it seems like I have this shot almost every round but blow it. My last couple rounds I was only 5-10 yards off the green in my first shot on a couple par 4s, and second on this one par 5, but carded bogies on all of them (bogies are great for me, but I feel like I'm giving strokes up- my differential the last few rounds has been ~20, though, so I think my handicap might start coming down as I accumulate rounds). How do you guys handle the shot from the thick rough 5-10 yards off the green to a short sided pin (or to any hole location, actually), in order to get the ball to a reasonable spot on the green?

I have had no intentions of reshafting a $20 club. I'm just curious if I should expect more distance, or if I should swing differently (more lightly?) with this new club with the graphite shaft. I probably shouldn't be playing stiff steel shafts, anyway, with my swing speed, but I was told they would be better for the long run as I keep playing and my swing improves (I'm 24 and have been playing for a little over a year). I very rarely hit my 7 iron currently unless we play one local course with a couple of short par 3s, because I am very rarely 120 yards out. If I could get near 130 or 140 with this 7 iron (but still have the accuracy of a 7 iron, and consistency), the club would be more useful. This is what I'm hoping for with the graphite shaft and the more traditional (relative to GI irons) style of this 7 iron. I guess we will see when it comes if I get any more yardage/accuracy with this club compared to the psuedohybrid-like 7 iron of the A7OS set.

So recently I have decided that I hate the 6 and 7 iron of my Adams idea A7OS set because they are trying to be a "hybrid" between hybrid and iron, resulting in an ackwardly chunky club that is longer than a typical 6 or 7 iron. I have replaced them with my old Tommy armour 845s 6 and 7 iron, but I would like to get something a little more modern and forgiving that fits with the set a little more smoothly. I love the 8,9, and PW of my A7OS set, so I decided to try out getting a NON-OS Adams Idea iron to replace the 6 and 7, thinking they should be similar to the OS 8,9,and PW. I just bought on ebay an Adams idea A3 7 iron (it hasn't arrived yet) for around $20 to give a try. My only concern is the shaft: it is a stiff graphite graffaloy prolaunch red, which I have red is designed for better players who want a low, penetrating ball flight. I'm pretty sure this is the stock shaft for this iron (at least the stock graphite shaft), but my question is: has anyone ever used these shafts on their irons? and will this shaft play very strange compared to my steel stiff shafts? Do you think the graphite shaft will create too big of a distance gap between my 8 iron (currently my ~110-115 club) and this new 7 iron? I do not know my swing speed, but I assume it is fairly low (at least with my irons). My 7 iron only goes about 125 yards, so I thought trying out the graphite might be good because I would like to be able to hit a 7 iron around 140 without having to muscle it (I can hit my T.A. 7 iron around 140 if I really put all my muscle into it, but this gives the chance for a big fat shot). I do hit my driver 250-270 yards with a little draw now that I am more confident in my full swing (this is a recent thing, as only a couple weeks ago my driver would only go ~200 yards with a fade).

The adams a7os comes with 7 and 6 "irons" that are really more like hybrids. I do not like them at all, they feel chunky and I never felt like I could control them very much. Granted, these clubs almost always threw the clubs in the general direction with a lower chance of a complete mishits, but I feel much more accurate with actual irons. I replaced the 7 and 6 "irons" from this set with my old tommy armour 845s silverscot 6 and 7 iron and i love them so much more. I also hit the TA 6/7 irons farther than my A7os irons despite the A7os having less loft. The A7OS hybrid/iron clubs just launch the ball way too high for a 6/7 iron.

That sounds good to me. You are right, it can be pretty windy from time to time, especially on the more open prairie courses. Strong left to right wind means I don't even consider my driver because it will be a nearly 90* slice.

haha, yah. I took a group lesson that wasn't really all that valuable, but I tend to go out a couple/few times a week. I have a couple buddies who started golfing at the same time as me and shoot around what I do (although one is a longer hitter and had a 2 month membership at Wilderness Ridge course in town with his dad, which is challenging enough to force him to learn quick, and tends to hit in the mid 90s pretty consistently). They are only able to get out once a week at the most, though. Otherwise, I play with parents, but they are lucky to break 120 and can be very very slow.

So I have seen a bunch of threads on here where people have announced they finally broke 100, so I decided to do the same. I have been playing for about a year and a couple months, and finally broke 100 with a 98 on a par 70 (5585 yards, 67.9/112). When you guys first broke 100,90,80, did it feel like you should have been much lower? The funny thing is, my game didn't start kicking in until about hole 12. I have also been trying out a new driver swing to try and hit a draw (my natural swing gives me a fade with my driver that can lead to a slice if I try to overpower it- I couldn't hook it to save my life, so I'm trying to only hit draws with my driver). I hit one nice draw with my driver that went about 260-270 yards, but a couple other holes I just hit a huge push that went out about 220, so I left the driver in the bag the rest of the round and took out my old 3 wood which pretty much goes straight every time I hit it (unless I try to hit it without a tee) By hole 11 on it was clear that my decision to only tee off with the 3 wood was a smart one, and I started hitting it pretty confidently 190-210yards in the middle of the fairway. 12-18 are pretty easy holes for me, so I thought if I didn't blow up on any holes, I'd be shooting in the low to mid 90s. On hole 18, a 355 par 4, I hit 3 wood off the tee about 200 yards. I had about 160 or so to the pin, so I knew a nice gentle 4 hybrid for me would get there (I know, I'm not a long hitter, but it is because I don't have enough confidence in my full power swing yet, so I do gentle swings in order to go straight- I can usually put an extra 15-20 yards on whatever club I am feeling very confident in that day). I was too excited to get my best round ever in, I guess, so I slightly topped the 4 hybrid leading to a slice. My ball was about 20 yards to the right of the green, and I needed to pitch it with my sandwedge because there was a bunker in between me and the green. I'm not quite famililar with my wedge yet because somebody stole my old, favorite one, and I was too jittery, so I bladed it into the trees. Long story short, I carded an 8 on that hole after unsuccessfully getting the ball out of the trees and onto the green. The 8 could have easily been a 9 or 10, though, because I had to hole a 12 foot putt to even get that. Anyways, I feel like after that round, breaking 100 after not playing all that well at all (in fact only getting 2 pars on the back 9 and no birdies), I should be breaking 100 consistently. I'm pretty excited, because I feel like my game is confident enough that I can play with people I don't know well without being completely embarrassed when 50% of my hits are duffs, even if the score isn't great. My next goal is to break 95, and to start playing for the low 90s by avoiding tripple bogies and DEFINITELY no more quadruples. If you have any tips based on the information here, please let me know! Here's the scorecard for the round: Distances: Hole 1: 485 Hole 2: 140 Hole 3: 375 Hole 4: 345 Hole 5: 340 Hole 6: 140 Hole 7: 475 Hole 8: 395 Hole 9: 145 Hole 10: 360 Hole 11: 475 Hole 12: 105 Hole 13: 320 Hole 14: 145 Hole 15: 475 Hole 16: 390 Hole 17: 120 Hole 18: 355 Total: 5585 The 3 puts from under 20 feet are pretty aggrivating. Also, you can see that I couldn't hit a fairway to save my life on the front 9, but started hitting almost every one on the back 9 after switching away from my driver. You might notice that I average better if I hit the left rough compared to the right rough, this is because when I hit the left rough it is my draw shot with my driver which usually goes over 240 yards, but if I hit a big fade it may only go 200 even. I still struggle hitting greens because I don't have the length. Unless I hit a long drive, I'm still hitting 3H as my second shot on almost every par 4. I feel pretty good about this club, though, and can usually get it within 30 yards of the green as long as I am less than 200 yards out.

I'm not sure the study off of the top of my head, but it was published in Psychological Science in 2010. They showed that golfers holed 37% more putts on average if they told them they were playing with a lucky ball. I'm sure that the golfers knew it wasn't actually lucky, but the subconscious power of positive thought is pretty powerful. Those 3 footers seem to slide right by the hole on a bad day.

I had been doing a lot of practicing with my 56* Cleveland 588 sand wedge (as per my thread in the instruction forum). I had even kept out all my other wedges (especially my 60* with too much bounce for me) and this was really improving my short game. I had some good up and downs last round. Unfortunately, I left my wedge on the front 9 last round and didn't notice until the turn. I went back to the last few holes (where I know I used it at least once in the past few holes) and it was nowhere to be found. Nobody turned it in and they said to call back the next day. After doing that, still nobody turned it in, so I decided I needed a new wedge. We have a used sporting goods store here that has a 7 day no questions asked 100% return policy for used items, so I decided I would keep buying wedges until they felt right. I first tried a Vokey SM 54* with 8* of bounce, but I just didn't like the feel of it (I can't hit very well with my vokey 60 either). The Vokey was $40. I thought maybe it had too little bounce, or perhaps to large of a sole (I think my old cleveland 588 had a very thin sole and I was used to gliding it under the ball; the vokey was hitting very thin for me). So then I traded it in for a 56* Tom Watson 56.13 for $29.99. This club had way too much bounce for me, and the sole felt too thick, too. I skulled a lot of hits with this and even lost 2 balls at the practice pitching green by shooting missiles across the street. I traded this in and there was a new club in for $29.99: an old Cleveland 588 56* BeCu. I got this club and it feels very similar to my old cleveland, and I hit very well with it at the practice pitching green. I'm not sure if there is anything special/different about the BeCu (other than dating the club, because they don't make it anymore I don't think). It is weird how much feel and certain characteristics matter for even a high handicap player's sand wedge. If anybody is having problems with their short game, I would very much suggest making sure that the wedge(s) you have are the ones that feel best for you. I'd like to hear any comments that people have about the copper Cleveland 588 56* and if people think I got it for a good price, and if they like the club (I'm certainly sticking with it because it does what I tell it to for the most part).

I love my adams a7os 5 hybrid. So easy to hit. A nice gentle swing from nearly any lie will go about the same distance (for me, my 5h is about 150y club). I sometimes bring my tommy armour 845s silverscot 5 iron, as well, because I feel like it is a little easier to shape if I absolutely need to try to do that. I can put a slight draw on the 5i, but if I try and hook the 5h it just goes straight (my natural shot is a fade).