jfrain2004

Obviously there is no hard in fast rule on this but that has been my observation ... "on average" higher handicap players tend to be slower. Things come to almost a total stand still when a high handicapper shoots the lowest score on a hole. From talking about the birdie he just got to writing it down the clock really starts ticking. I always maintain you should tee off immediately on reaching the next tee box if you have the honor and then mark your card when the next guy is teeing off.

that could explain it to some degree. When it was the 3 handicapper's shot the ball was in the air before you could say "who's up guys" while with the 20 guy, his practice routine of club selection, allignment, 3 full power practice swings didn't begin till it was his turn. No wonder the poor guy was hardly able to swing the club at the 18th after having taken roughly 60 x 4 full power swings over the course of the round. I can never understand why anyone takes a full power practice swing ??

I was playing with a few different guys at the wknd in a society outing with handicaps ranging from 3 up to 20, and I think I have figured out the formula that calculates how long on average it takes a person to take a shot. :) The shot routine seems to be proportional to a persons handicap, ie lower handicap then the quicket the person takes the shot. Any one agree?

I agree Lefty, When I want to callibrate my distances I don't go out 50 yrds from the pin and see what club/shot I need from that distance, instead from out the fairway I take 3/4 LW for example and move closer/further from the pin until I'm dropping them consistently within a few feet of it. Then and only then do I actually measure off the distance which might turn out to be 48 or 58 yrds. If you go out 50 yrds from the pin you end up with a forced shot to get it close to the pin and mis read your true 3/4 wedge distance. The key is to know EXACTLY what distance a natural unforced 3/4 wedge shot goes for you and practice that shot. Better still, hit a bucket of balls with a 3/4 swing and don't even look to see where any of them landed until you have the last one hit. That then is your true 3/4 shot distance for that club

knowing how far you hit a 1/2 ,3/4 pw lw gw is very important and this feel that a lot of people talk can and will abandon you 55 yrds from the pin on the 18th when you need to be up close for a 1 putt to win the captains prize I know cause it happened me last year. I used to be a pure feel but had no game when the pressure was on. So now I know with no wind my 3/4 lob wedge goes 45 yrds give or take 1 yrd and yes, I have it down to that kind of accuracy because when I practice that is the one shot I practice most of the time. So if i'm 55 from the pin I know that shot will leave me no more than 10 from the pin, gw, pw will give me an extra 5 or 6 yards each. What is the point in practicing all sorts of distances when if I ask you here and now what club & shot will send the ball 65 yards? I know for me that a 3/4 pw goes 60 so even that will leave me only 5 yrds from the hole, or I could say to myself slightly past 3/4 will give me the extra 5 yrds I need.

I'm playing with 9.5 Deg loft so that would take away some carry distance. However don't be fooled into thinking those launch monitors in Golf stores are completely accurate. In American Golf the dude there was telling me the new Taylormade was carrying over 280. He seemed surprised when I told him that from my GPS and physically stepping the distance that on the course I was only getting in or around 230 yrds with last years Burner but tried to tell me it was the new improved club. With that I went out to the car for my old club I proceeded to smack it over 280 ( further than the new model as I had a lower kick shaft on my own one ) That put an end to any new club purchasing. It is from simulators like this that guys contract Tigeritis. They're first experience with a club is on a simulator which with out question bloats results. Esp the ones in golf stores. PS, I had my swing speed verified by the club pro with a radar thingy

I saw a post here where we had a guy smack his 3 wood 270 yrds ( on average so for every shot less than 240 he was hitting one 300 yrdr ) LOL, I fear an infection of Tigeritis. Now i don't pretend to be a smoker with the driver but I had my swing timed at just over 105 so I'm not slow either but I can only muster up 230 carry ( and I'm hitting pretty much close to the sweet spot most of the time ) Also, I see 15+ handicappers talk of shaping the ball left and right, hitting high spinning 8 irons or low running jobs as required. In my case I just hit the ball towards the hole, and go up to it and hit it again till it drops in. Have I got too simplistic a view on this game? One more thing, any one ever get stuck behind a golfer on a par 5 who just smacked his drive 200 and lies 350 off the green and waits for the green to clear before taking their second shot because they somehow think they can hit a 3 wood over 300 even though they could only hit a teed up golf ball a merge 200.

That's the problem. "IT looks good" but what is it actually like to use in the real world? I saw this first featured on some tv show last evening and just googled it there now. Has any one in here every actually used one?

any one ever use this gadget? http://www.key-golf.com/products/21 Is it any good or just a waste of time/money?

It was my long/mid irons that I seem to struggle with most, anything that involved more than a 3/4 length swing seemed to result in unpredictable results. Towards end of game I found myself just hitting with half swings on every club just so I would actually hit the damm ball :(

Had a very bad round at the wknd and blamed it all on the soft ground conditions. However after calming down now I realize that not all of my bad shots were due to poor ground conditions and my technique must take some of the blame :( As I usually shoot under 80 I feel my "dry game" is in good order but why then when there is a bit of give under foot how can my game collapse, I was 95 I think. That's almost 1 shot more per hole than normal. The problem isn't rain or wet clubs as I have all the rain gear and find I can play just as well when it's raining as I always keep my clubs dry. But, when the ground is soft, fat shots start to appear among other nasties. Any one got any tips on how to handle these ground conditions?

I just purchased a 2007 used version of this driver to replace my HiBore. It hits the ball 15 - 20 yrds further with the stock shaft. Last year I replaced the gold stock shaft in the HiBore with a proLaunch Red shaft to get a lower flight and it gave me up to 20 yrds more distance. I now find the Burner is too high and there could be even more distance to be had with a shaft change. What I wanted to know is should I remove the Red ProLaunch from of my HiBore and try it in the Burner? SS is around 105mph

I prefer to play with my usual buddies but sometimes if I want to bag the free beer on Sat afternoon it requires that I sneak in some undercover time on my own. Hitting balls in a range is no substitute for standing on a tee looking out on a tight fairway. On my own I will play maybe 3 - 4 balls per hole if there is plenty of time and to keep focused I mark each hole but take the score of my WORST ball each time. Other times when playing 2 off the tee I play 2 ball worst ball, ie hit one down the middle and one into the rough then I will play my next two shots from the rough. That really tells you what level you are at. To practice chipping I'll circle the green with up to 20 balls and track my up and down average. I cannot see how it is possible to get the touch required by simply playing with 3 others on a Sat or hitting a bucket of balls in a driving range

Cheers, seems like I'll be sticking with this club then and watching the handi tumble :)

Just purchased a used 2007 TM burner and it really is SMOKING !!!! Very happy with distance and accuracy but I am surprised to read this club would not be the club of choice for some one who wants to shape the ball seeing as it has no movable weights and has a high MOI. Now, what I don't understand is what level must you be at where there is more to a tee shot than accuracy and distance. I play off 8 ( on a relatively long course, slope of 130 I think ) and have hit as low as 4 over this year on a few occasions and don't see where I could gain shots if I were able to draw or slice the ball. Were I to miss a few fairways then I would be shooting into the 80s without a doubt. I often wonder why double digit players talk about shaping a shot when if you hit the ball straight ALL the time with a bit of distance behind it then you are a single digit handicapper. When can I expect to be looking to upgrade my "new" club?

I had a morbid fear of fairway woods up to last week when I figured I had gone as far as I could without the use of the distance these clubs offered. I always figured better to be short and accurate with an iron than be long and in the trees or worse with a 5 or 3 wood. Previous experience with woods off the ground was fraught with fear of thining the ball, slicing or mising it completely. These clubs all had graphite shafts. A playing buddy insisted I try his new mizuno 5 wood ( with a steel shaft ) and I was hitting crisp shots one after the other. Before I go out and see what steel shafts are available for my previously retired 3 & 5 woods I want to make sure it's not a placebo effect I witnessed. I read that steel shafts on woods are better for players who can generate plenty of head speed and hence distance and also give more control over the ball. My driver speed is 108mph so I figure this would class me as a faster than average swinger. What is the science behind this and should I go for steel shafts and give these fwy woods another go?

I took a look at Tiger and Ernie els iron shots on youtube and noticed there is a huge difference between the times they both set their wrists on the back swing. Ernie has the club almost fully cocked before his left hand has passed his right leg where as Tiger does not start to set his till his left arm is parallel with the ground. I used to follow Tigers style but not find Ernies far earsier to emulate and am hitting the ball far more consistently. IMHO as I think Ernie is a better natural golfer it might be the swing for me rather than trying to imitate Tigers superior more manufactured style. What d'you think?

Any one vary their right elbow position at setup depending on the length of backswing you intend to make? Maybe it's a placebo effect but I noticed last evening that for full all out swings with an iron if I really tuck my right elbow in towards my left arm that it seems to give me more control and awareness of where the club is at the top of the backswing and hence better ball striking and more distance and more accuracy. For 1/2 swing at setup I let the right elbow bend out more towards my right side for a more smooth swing.

Nah, this app does not rely on 3g, it uses GPS only. When the other guys here have spent up on $300 of their hard earned cash on a PinSeeker I will just take the $270 I saved and buy myself a few lessons. LOL. I assume you have to hold this PinSeeker device up to your eyes ... ie more delays for the people behind you, my phone just sits on top of my buggy and I just read off my distance as I'm taking the club out of my bag. You see the thing I don't get about gadgets like the PinSeeker where you have to actually have to be able to see the pin in order to get a reading is that it's only when you go off the beaten path , bushes or something where you can't see the pin and you can't make a decent guess using fairwary markers, that you really need to get an accurate measurement. My $30 phone app never lets me down while ye PinSeeker guys are stuck there with $300 of useless equipment

Hey, forget about all these dedicated GPS or laser range finders. For $30 you can download an app from igolfscorer.com to your cell phone that will do everything for you except hit the damn ball. If your course isn't available then one walk round it and you can have it mapped. Check this out, you can track all your shots and record the club, power, direction you hit each shot, it's start and end point, tdistance to any number of points on the hole, to name but a few features. But the best bit is when you go to caddy mode for a hole and based on previous shots it will reccomend a club and power for you. It's worth 5-6 shots per round to me ( and no, I don't work for this company, I just have to reccomend a good product when I see it, and also have a laugh at people who spend upwards of $300 on something which is no where near as good )

Looking to move up market away from my tried and tested Wilson Ultra Distance balls I have been using for the past 2 yrs until I got my accuracy sorted. My swing speed is around 105mph with the driver and don't have too much trouble with slicing or hooking so what ball would be a good compromise as I would like a bit more spin around the green. Pro V1 is a bit too expensive , so too the Nike NTX tour ball. So basically what's a good decent spinning budget ball?

Last evening I tried a DIY method of determining distance to the pin from 100 yrds and closer. As I was working on getting my wedge distances consistent ( +/- 5 or 6 yrds ) I figured there must be a better way to measuring the distance to a pin and thus making use of my improved wedge distance control. So what about this, with my arm at full stretch in front of me I stack 1,2 or 3 fingers side by side and hold them up against the flag stick. With the stick = height of 1 finger = approx 100 yrds, 2 fingers = 65 yrds and 1 finger = 40 yrds. ( Bit like the bushnell scope thingy but this way is not bending any rules ) any one ever try something like this or am I just gone mad :) ?

I choked the leprechaun on my shoulder with 3 one putts on my first 4 holes and that was the end of him .. lol Also the knock on effect of getting more confidence with your putting is the pressure comes off your approach shots and you know that at least a par is in the bag if you can get the ball anywhere on the green and you don't have to be right up at the pin. ( Unless your on the tour or something )

I used the Line-Em-up little marker to put a big + on my ball. The hardest thing about using this line method is to tell the wee man on your shoulder to shut the f*** up when he tries to tell you the ball is aimed left as your standing over it. Take your time in getting the line right behind the ball. Quicker to line up a 1 putt correctly than to have to make a half ar$ed effort at lining up 2 or maybe even 3 putts on one green. Only concern yourself with getting the distance right. This is coming from a guy who was hitting 36+ putts per round. As a previous poster mentioned the + on the ball is also very useful for allignment on the teebox ( Let us know how you get on )

I had some other swing changes going on that might have helped me hit my career best at the wknd but I think a lot of my 1 putts were due to having a line on my ball. Hell, If I was putting any better I could have been arrested. I have to agree with some other posts that standing over the ball it appears to be aimed way left, but when you just ignore this illusion and trust your line up from behind then the ball just dives into the hole