Andrew Gibson

I almost always wear sun glasses when playing golf. I pretty much don't to anything outdoors without my sun glasses. I don't think I would survive in Florida with my shades... Quality sun glasses are a must IMO, and polarized lenses are worth the extra cost. No gas station sun glasses for me... Oakley and ray-ban all the way. I have found that quality lenses eliminate basically all distortion that may affect putting. If I do take my glasses off, they go on top of my hat,and rest on the bill, not across the back where I am sure they would fall off.

I lose spine angle, duck my head on the back swing, slide back only my right side, bring the club inside, get stuck, and hit a push (push slice sometimes with the driver) or a hook... I am working on maintaining my spine angle, it is helping my balance, posture, ball striking... I believe this flaw goes all the way back to when i started playing at 13 years old and trying to hit the ball farther by swinging harder.

Im 5'10" 180 last time I stepped on a scale and my best sets this year are squat 360x5 deadlift 375x5. I hit 6i 185, 7i 175, 8i 165. I am playing snake eyes 685x irons with Project x 6.0 shafts 1/2" short of standard... I switched this year from a set of macgregor forged PCB irons with true temper stiff shafts... they were a good 3/4" longer then my current shafts. the new irons have a bit weaker face angle. I think the new shafts being a bit stiffer made the difference because I gained about 10 yards on each club when I made the switch. i'm hitting 9 iron now from the 150 stake rather then 8 iron. As far as the vibration in the shaft I have never felt it on a pure shot, only when I lay the sod over it. A stiffer shaft may help you, but I would think you would see inconsistent ball flight if the shaft were too weak.

Its hard to say, do you also hit pushes? basically the cause of a draw is a closed club face, and or an in to out swing. If your hitting pushes your swing in to out and not closing the face, if you duck hooking it, your in to out and flipping it shut... if you hitting a push fade your swinging in to out and holding it wide open... of course many of these things could be caused by setup, stance... and on and on. I have a tendency to hit pushes and hooks with the driver, I get too inside and get stuck... been working on getting my hands in front of me and freeing up the swing... I like to hit a baby draw... this is what I work toward, but there are a lot of holes out there that require a fade... so knowing how to fade is important IMO. knowing how and executing are to different things, thus I am a 10 handicap.

I agree with the idea that you cannot get the same performance out of wood as you can with metal... wood is not nearly as consistent as metal. It has defects and a mind of its own... trust me, I'm a woodworker and Luthier... As far as making pros play woods that are less forgiving, many already play blades, which have not changed much at all in the last 50+ years... the shafts have but the heads have not... the sweet spot is the same size, and they don't have a problem hitting it. I think making the sweet spot smaller on woods would have a very slight changer in distance, but Bubba does not hit it 330 with miss hits.... same with COR. the ball is still gunna go. We as mortals would suffer because the endorsements and r&d; would drop off because the best are not actively engaged in driving the development... why would a company like taylormade work to develop newer tech if the average joe is not going to get to see the big names hitting it on TV... I guess it may be like cavity backs vs blades, but I don't think there would be near as much hype in the metal wood department. Tiger plays Nike clubs, but his irons are custom made blades, but if you buy some Nike irons, your still playing the same brand as Tiger. If Tiger chooses them, then they must have their heads on right in the R&D; department... I don't think this will translate in the wood department, because there is no advantage to playing the same brand as X because that club is designed to limit and not do anything specifically better for the player.

I carry a 3 and 5 wood, then a 3 and 4 hybrid... this gives me a gap of right around 10 yards between clubs. if you want to replace the 5 wood I would look into a 2 or 3 hybrid and find one that gaps well. For refrence I hit my 4h 210, 3h 220, 5 wood 230, and 3 wood 240 off the deck with a good lie... I dropped my 3 and 4 irons and have no regrets, any shots I lost for not haveing them I made up for with the hybrids forgivness, and I can still punch it out of the low trees and brinches with the 5 iron just as easily as with the 3 or 4.... maybe a little better.

Im 27 years old and live in florida... I had a pull cart when i was 14...

shot a 73 today. par 70 99/62.3... not exactly a hard course, but the greens stopped me from making a ton of Birdies... made a triple on 16 for no reason. played a course I haven't played in a few months yesterday and man that course has gone down hill. the greens were completely trashed, completely covered in big deep pitch marks... the trash cans at every tee box were overflowing with beer cans and stunk... I doubt the trash had been picked up all week... there was also trash blowing around on the course... I would have been really pissed if I had not gotten a deal on golf now. I think I shot an 88... again my driving is what really let me down...I really need to spend some time on the range and get the big dog in the fairway.

I dont mind a long par 3. I played one last week that was 190 to the pin and into a 20 mph headwind.. Ihit 4h and was on but a good 40 foot short... should have hit 3h but didnt want to be long as the hole was cut all the way back... this was from the black tees, and not the golds... it was playing 220 plus wind from the backs...it would have been at least a 5 wood from back there to get to the hole. If you know your going to be playing a course with a long par 3, I would think that would be the perfect time to take out a less used wedge and add a 5 wood or 2h... I don't think I would drop my 5 wood for a 60* wedge any time soon, I think I need to work on pitching/floping with my 56* before I throw in anything else.

I hit mine about 240 off tee and about 230 off the deck... obviously that is dependant on lie and situation. mine is a 19* and stiff shaft... I played a par 3 last week that I may have needed to take it on ... 191 to a back pin with a big wind coming in off the ocean... I took 4 hybrid and was a good club short... 3 hybrid should have gotten close, but I think it still would have been 5 yards short. 5 wood probably would have been just over the back.

My wife got me a Bushnell Tour V2 and it is wonderful...I'm learning how far I actually hit each club. I think she got it from golfsmith with 20% off and free shipping... I would say its worth it to get a good one... and definitely seems to be helping me get pin high a lot more often.

83 today on World Woods, Pine Barrens... 75.3/133 but it was not playing all the way back... the black and gold tees were playing together on all but a couple holes so tecnically i played the golds... 1 birdie and one double... everything else was bogies and pars... strugled with my aproatch shots, just could not get it close. lipped out a 30 footer on the first hole, then lipped out the 3 footer after the lip out 30... had the ball missed the hole completely I would have only had about 18" for par... a couple of the greens were way faster then the rest, and the bunckers were seriously washed out... but 83 first time out I am very happy with. The 83 gits my HC back down to 11, it was up to 12.2 ater my trip to Hilton Head... I guess I could have not recorder the scores, but I feel like I really know what im capable of shooting right now.

I live in Florida. I was torn between shorts all the time and depends on weather... I went with weather, because if its cold enough I'm going to wear pants, but if its that cold I might just wait a few days till it warms back up.

I have a couple of those cap cages that keep my hats from loosing their shape when I wash them. I have also started using scotch guard on my hats and it seems to be working very well, especially on my white hat.

Rock on. I try to avoid the trees if I can, but if I find myself in the trees I will pick up all I find while I am looking for my own. Usually on the days I am finding myself in the brush I end up coming home with more then I loose... unfortunately on the $10 a round tract I have only found 1 pro v... but I did it right and played it for 27 holes before I left it for someone else. On the other hand this week in Hilton head I found 3 proV1x's and 2 proV1's in 4 min of searching for my GamerV2... didn't find the Gamer but I think it was a fair trade...

If I had a nickle for every time someone asked me if I know tip toe through the tulips or tiny bubbles... I would have a lot of nickles. :P I actually chopped about 1/8" of my left index off about 8 weeks ago and it is still not back to 100% and therefore keeping me from playing a lot of uke... I also had to switch back to the interlock...

Beverage cart? I am the beverage Mule, and I carry as much water as possible... usually I have 4 bottles of water in the bag when I start... I need to start freezing a couple before I go so they stay cold... BTW I always walk and carry on my home course.

I don't know about show biz, but I have been lucky this summer. I am going to have a story about me and my woodworking in the Tampa bay times here in a week or so. and I have made a few more sales this year. Some of this stuff feels like luck to me, but I know if I had not spent the last 3 years getting out and joining ww clubs in the area, and taking part in the ukulele club locally I would not have gotten the spot in the paper. I think golf is the same... every once in a while I will get a bounce that is lucky, but I am just as likely to get a bad bounce, and usually the lucky one is to even things out after 3 or 4 bad ones. However when I am hitting the ball well and hitting irons on good lines and such, I am more likely to get a good bounce, catch a ridge and have my ball funneled to the hole, or have my tee shot catch a mound or ridge or down slope and give me a better angle or shorter shot to the green... golf is all relative. the better you hit it, the better you will score. I think of it this way, some days I will be a little off and every shot will hit the edge of the green and bounce out and into a bunker or rough, if I hit it a little better the next it will bounce in and toward the middle of the green.... The pro's play a game I am not familiar with.. I try to hit tee shots to one side or the other, and sometimes I try to shape a shot when necessary, but most of the time I shoot at the center of the green, or to the safe side of the pin... the pro's can go for it because they have put the work in, and in most situations know where the ball is going... this allows them to take a closer look at the course and know where those special bounces and stuff are, and hopefully take advantage... me I have to get lucky.

Played the Ocean Course Today on Hilton Head... Lovely course, definetely the easiest of the 3 I have played this week, but no pushe over either... 71.9/136 rating/slope I shot an 88 with an tripple on 14 and a quad on 18... the par 5's were rough on me today... It was a beautiful day.

So far this week, 8 hole at harbor town. hit a good drive up the right side,(in the fairway) but left me blocked out by a tree. water on the left, 166 to the pin in back. I hit a high fade (not my normal shot shape) just missed the edge of the tree. started over the water, drew back over the bunker and onto the left edge of the green, pin high, 12 feet... 2 put for par... 8 is the number 1 handicap hole... probably the 2 bast swings so far this week on a hole... I have hit some other good shots this week, but to pull off the fade on command with trouble left and tree right felt really good, almost like I know what I am doing.

Not that I am a great putter, I am not. I need to practice, I don't... But I put left hand low and have been for 10 years... it is second nature. lag control will come fairly quickly. I think left hand low helps eliminate wrist action in the stroke and as a result you have to learn to have a longer swing on those longer puts to get the ball to the hole... you know the whole pendulum thing. basically right now my grip has my index fingers pointing loosely down the grip, I'm focusing on lite grip pressure. I have even experimented with keeping the grip against my left wrist and forearm, but had no feel... Padraig Harrington puts left hand low.

95 at Harbor Town today... 6, 7, 7, 7 finish... Every bad hole today was caused by the tee shot... need to get more confident with the driver.

it needs 27 rear view mirrors.

92 today on Heron Point here on Hilton Head. missed a 4 footer for birdie on 18, and made quite a few 4 foot par testers on the back nine... way to many doubles and tripples. 7 pars including 5 on the back. course rating/slope is 72.5/134 absolutely beautiful day. Playing Harbor Town in the mouring... I am super excited, cant wait... hopefully I can carry my swing over from the back 9 today onto the course tomorrow... Ahhhh can't wait!